Creating a Course: Looking for Insights

[DennisDeveloperAi]

Hello fellow Udemy instructors!

I'm Dennis, originally a game developer with a passion for cutting-edge technology, especially AI. I'm currently in the process of creating a comprehensive course on ChatGPT - diving deep into its integration in businesses, its impact on communities, and the broader effects on individuals.

As of now, I'm about 60% through with the course, and I'm truly excited about the progress. Beyond courses, my ultimate aim is to host webinars and interactive sessions.

However, being new to this platform, I have a couple of questions I hope some of you can help with:

1. Without having a significant following, is it realistic to expect a good amount of traffic to my course?
2. When it comes to course presentation, do you believe it's beneficial to be on camera throughout the course, or is an introduction sufficient?

I'd truly appreciate any advice or insights you can offer.

Warm regards,

Dennis

[DavidV.]

Hi @DennisDeveloperAi 

Thanks for sharing your excitement! We thank you for your effort in creating your  course and I will be happy to answer your questions. 

I suggest you to check our marketplace insights-tool to learn more about your topic's demand.

Under your instructor dashboard, you’ll find a link to “Marketplace Insights,” and this contains a treasure trove of data that can help you decide which topic you want to teach is most likely to succeed. It not only gives you a picture of the current student demand for your topic, but it also gives you comprehensive information about the existing courses in that topic that you need to compete with. Unless your goal is only to share information and not to reach a large audience.

It is possible to have a good amount of traffic in your courses even you do not have a lot of following. There is multiple resources to generate a lot of traffic in your course. Instructors have the option to participate in the Udemy Deals Program. This allows Udemy to use marketing data to optimize your course's list price and offer your courses at a discount in different markets around the world.

Please note: A course’s inclusion in Udemy’s promotions, however, is not guaranteed. Courses are included in promotions based on a number of factors including course topic, enrollments, conversions, ratings, reviews, and student behavior such as wishlisting, to name a few. So not all courses will be included in every Udemy promotion.

After you publish your course we have a good amount of material about how you can start marketing your courses; please take a moment to watch some webinars we had with our most experienced instructors:

• Webinar Replay: Making the Most of your Instructor Experience w/Katie Bent
• Webinar Replay: Learning Principles for Udemy Instructors
• Webinar Replay: 5 Things Every Instructor Should Do After Publishing
• Webinar Replay: AMA with Chen Blatman, Director of SEO Marketing
• Webinar Replay - AMA Building a Team and Marketing Strategies with Jason & Tamera

Regarding your second question I believe it could be beneficial to be on camera throughout the course, since you can create a connection with the student is taking your course, but in case you feel better without the camera it will be okay just to do a introduction. 

If you have more questions, please let us know.

David V.

Community Moderator

[DennisDeveloperAi]

Hey David,

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll definitely dive into the Marketplace Insights tool to better understand my topic's demand. It's good to know there's a lot of data there to help guide my decisions.

I'm glad to hear that having a large following isn't the only way to drive traffic to a course. I'll look into the Udemy Deals Program and see how that could work for me. And thanks for the heads-up about the promotions and the criteria.

I'll be sure to check out those webinars. Sounds like they have some valuable insights from seasoned instructors.

Regarding being on camera, I get your point about building a connection. I'll give it a shot and see how it feels during the intro.

Thanks again for your help and guidance. Much appreciated.

Best, Dennis

[ArminSarajlic]

Hey Dennis, from my experience and from what I've seen with other (more successful) instructors, the growth of your Udemy success is really something exponential. Unless you create a world-class level course right away, you will most likely see very little impact at the start, and grow with baby steps, but eventually, if you are consistent, you should start making bigger and bigger leaps when it comes to everything (number of students, reviews, and revenue).

I also started with 0 following, and I think it went quite good. Don't be discouraged by it.

When it comes to recording yourself throughout the whole course, you need to keep in mind that this will significantly increase the amount of effort needed to create lessons, however I think it does add value for any kind of course to include this. It can be great for connecting better to your audience. At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide if including this will be worth your time.
Personally, when I was just starting out, I compromised and recorded the promo and introduction lessons including this, but for the rest of the course I skipped it.

[EmilyLMortl033]

This is definitely something everyone starting out should consider. Not to give up too easily but grow as you go!

[DennisDeveloperAi]

Hey Armin,

Thanks for the advice and sharing your experience. I appreciate the heads-up about the growth curve on Udemy. I'll definitely consider your points on video recording. It's good to know how you approached it at the start.

Cheers, Dennis

[Alexia]

@DennisDeveloperAi 

You have a hot topic and experience as a developer, so you’ve established yourself as an expert. People want to hear from experts and have confidence in this. 

1. Without having a significant following, is it realistic to expect a good amount of traffic to my course? Yes, Udemy is a good place to gain a following.
2. When it comes to course presentation, do you believe it's beneficial to be on camera throughout the course, or is an introduction sufficient? I have recordings of me speaking, I also have videos of the slide deck and students hear my voice. 

Another question to ask is who is your target audience? With your topic, I would ask about hands on application; so how interactive is the actual course? Just by taking the course, will I have practice and increased hard skills? That is what would sell me on your course and make it stand out for me.