My sales

[ariyam66]

Hi

It would be great if someone can give me an explanation for the question. 

I had better sales in 2020 compared to 2021, even though I believe that I did more work in 2021 so I find it difficult to understand the reason.

Therefore my concern is how to get better than these two years. 

I hope that you understand my issue.

Regards

Vathani Ariyam

[LawrenceMMiller · Accepted solution]

@ariyam66 I will give you my advice, however, it is sensitive because the only feedback that is useful is absolutely honest feedback. Sometimes this is taken as insulting. I do not mean it to be insulting, but to be helpful. So, since you asked....

1. What is your expertise? You have produced 39 courses, most about only one hour in length, on very different topics. Some are on starting a business, some on bookkeeping, some on psychology/self-improvement. You are not expert on every subject and you cannot build a brand unless you clearly define your area of expertise and then focus on that area. 

2. Students buy and rate courses based on the value that they feel they are receiving. Why do you have a one hour course on cryptocurrency? For the exact same price today there is a 12.5 hour course by Steve Ballenger that is a best seller and is rated 4.6. Why would I choose your course instead? Looking at all your other topics it is obvious that you are NOT expert in this subject. 

3. Choose one subject that represents your true expertise (it is not cryptocurrency) and create a complete course of 4+ hours. Work hard at it!!!! Spend several months trying to make it the best course on that one subject, a subject in which you have demonstrable expertise.  

4. I can't look at many of your courses so I am looking at one and these comments are based on that one, the first one that appears on your page, Stay At home & Start a business. 

• Please look at the promo videos of best selling courses. The promo video is the #1 factor in selling your course. This promo video is 5 minutes, which is too long. Frankly, it is tiresome. You don't sound enthusiastic yourself. Why should I be? Redo it to no more than 3 minutes.
• Take just one super great promo video and study the elements that make it great. Look at Angela Yu's course on web development. It is 55.5 hours, has an average rating of 4.7 and has 160 thousand ratings! Obviously she is doing a great job. Watch her promo over and over again. STUDY it! What are the key elements that make it successful? She has only nine course, all on related subjects, and she has more than 1.1 million students. You don't have to have 38 courses to be successful!
  • First, she is on camera, talking directly to you and she is speaking in clear easily understood English.
  • Second, she is enthusiastic and personable. You immediately like her and want to spend more time with her. People buy on emotional attraction to an instructor. If you are not on camera, personable, and giving your credentials you are not giving students a reason to spend more time with you. 
  • She tells you clearly why this course will benefit YOU. She gives "proof" statements. 
  • She directly invites you to join her. She SMILES!
  • It is fast paced. Graphics move quickly. You are never bored. 
  • She gives her experience and credentials that convince you that she is expert in that topic. She has proven success teaching this subject. 
  • Do your best to replicated these elements for your comprehensive courses. 

I think that is enough. Good luck. 

[RandyMinder]

Hi @ariyam66 

I took a look at your course offerings and I see many of your course ratings are: 3.5, 4.0, 2.4, 3.0, 3.7, 4.0, 3.0, 3.5, 2.0 etc...

These ratings are really pretty bad and will absolutely impact your sales. To be successful on Udemy, your course ratings must be roughly 4.2 or higher. 

I have no idea what your courses were rated in 2020, but certainly in 2021 your course ratings are hindering your sales. You need to work to get your ratings above 4.0.

[ariyam66]

Hi 

Thanks for your reply.

I have been trying to improve a few of my courses for the last few months and continue to do that till I achieve something. But on the other hand, I think that my students might not expect that from me. So I am wondering is it worth for me to work hard and wait for a better result. What do you think about it? I like to hear from you.

Regards

Vathani

[RandyMinder]

Frankly, If I were you, I would unpublishing every course that is below 4.0 and recreate it so that you are confident students will rate it 4.0 or higher. I have done that on occasion. I've created around 30 courses. A few have been duds. I simply unpublish them. I don't want prospective students seeing I have a course rated well below 4.0.

There must be a reason why so many of your courses are rated so low. Look at your reviews and recreate the lowly rated courses.

[ariyam66]

Hi

Thanks for that.

I will try my level best to improve the lower-rated course first and then move on from there.

Regards

Vathani 

[RajGupta]

@ariyam66 Let me offer you some friendly competition.

Three of my courses are above 4 but one is 2.5 and on Statistics and Business Writing. In the next few months, I will be making major enhancements to the course to improve the rating. 

We are starting at similar points. Course rated at 2.5.

The first thing I will do is provide a word summary for each lecture video. Then I will make an educational announcement to students.

Choose one of your courses rated at 2.5 or similar. What is the first thing you will do?

[ariyam66]

Hi

Thanks for your contribution to my issues.

I got some advice from someone asking me to unpublish the courses which are below the rating of 4 so I have unpublished 2 of them. But I am preparing new lectures to add to one of the courses I unpublished with the hope to publish again. Do you think it is the right way to do it? 

How have you planned to increase the rating for one of your courses?

Regards

Vathani

[RajGupta]

@ariyam66 My course currently with the 2.5 rating is 8.5 hours. The negative reviews were probably grumpy students so @PrashantMunshi  does have a point and even if not most students have not rated the course..

I plan to add Lecture Plans for each Lecture.

I will also include a new section on more statistical analysis.

Later I will add some guest speakers.

Detailed posts of rating improvement and progress are insightful.

My advice to you would be to plan on a 10+ hour course on a topic you are an expert on. @LawrenceMMiller  is right about this.

[LawrenceMMiller]

I don't think it needs to be 10 hours, but at least a substantial course of 4-5+ hours. But, most important, of high quality. 

[ariyam66]

Hi RajGupta,

Thanks for your reply, I will try what you said in your message.

Regards

Vathani

[LawrenceMMiller]

Randy is right. You have been producing a lot of courses, rather than focusing on improving the quality of your courses. You cannot succeed on Udemy with bad ratings. 

[ariyam66]

Hi

Thanks for your help.

Is it possible for you to tell me how I can improve the ratings so That I will go back try to improve my courses?

Regards

Vathani

[LawrenceMMiller · Accepted solution]

@ariyam66 I will give you my advice, however, it is sensitive because the only feedback that is useful is absolutely honest feedback. Sometimes this is taken as insulting. I do not mean it to be insulting, but to be helpful. So, since you asked....

1. What is your expertise? You have produced 39 courses, most about only one hour in length, on very different topics. Some are on starting a business, some on bookkeeping, some on psychology/self-improvement. You are not expert on every subject and you cannot build a brand unless you clearly define your area of expertise and then focus on that area. 

2. Students buy and rate courses based on the value that they feel they are receiving. Why do you have a one hour course on cryptocurrency? For the exact same price today there is a 12.5 hour course by Steve Ballenger that is a best seller and is rated 4.6. Why would I choose your course instead? Looking at all your other topics it is obvious that you are NOT expert in this subject. 

3. Choose one subject that represents your true expertise (it is not cryptocurrency) and create a complete course of 4+ hours. Work hard at it!!!! Spend several months trying to make it the best course on that one subject, a subject in which you have demonstrable expertise.  

4. I can't look at many of your courses so I am looking at one and these comments are based on that one, the first one that appears on your page, Stay At home & Start a business. 

• Please look at the promo videos of best selling courses. The promo video is the #1 factor in selling your course. This promo video is 5 minutes, which is too long. Frankly, it is tiresome. You don't sound enthusiastic yourself. Why should I be? Redo it to no more than 3 minutes.
• Take just one super great promo video and study the elements that make it great. Look at Angela Yu's course on web development. It is 55.5 hours, has an average rating of 4.7 and has 160 thousand ratings! Obviously she is doing a great job. Watch her promo over and over again. STUDY it! What are the key elements that make it successful? She has only nine course, all on related subjects, and she has more than 1.1 million students. You don't have to have 38 courses to be successful!
  • First, she is on camera, talking directly to you and she is speaking in clear easily understood English.
  • Second, she is enthusiastic and personable. You immediately like her and want to spend more time with her. People buy on emotional attraction to an instructor. If you are not on camera, personable, and giving your credentials you are not giving students a reason to spend more time with you. 
  • She tells you clearly why this course will benefit YOU. She gives "proof" statements. 
  • She directly invites you to join her. She SMILES!
  • It is fast paced. Graphics move quickly. You are never bored. 
  • She gives her experience and credentials that convince you that she is expert in that topic. She has proven success teaching this subject. 
  • Do your best to replicated these elements for your comprehensive courses. 

I think that is enough. Good luck. 

[ariyam66]

Hi

Thanks very much for your reply.

I will not take that as an insult as I know I have to improve these courses to get more students. But fortunately, I have got more than 4000 students reading my free courses and that is a bit of inspiration for me, so I will try more.

Happy new year!

Regards

Vathani

[RandyMinder]

Hi @ariyam66 - Have you checked to see how many of those 4000 students who signed up for your free course(s) have actually started the course? I think you will find that very few have.

The problem is that when someone offers a free course, there are bots that automatically detect these free courses and sign up for them. These are not real people. I have no idea why this happens or why Udemy allows it to happen. 

This has happened to me. Early on I offered a free course and got almost 1000 "students". They were not real students. They were bot signups and none of those "students" ever actually started the course. This is one reason, among several, offering free courses is not a great idea.

[ariyam66]

Hi

Thanks for letting me know about it.

Anyway, I work on my paid courses and will make the improvements to see the impact after that.

I have never done any advertisements si far but planning to do that now.

Regards

Vathani Ariyam

[Salil Dhawan]

Vathani,

As everyone suggested before you run paid ads work on improving existing courses or creating a better course, promo video, landing page etc as in case you do not do that, your advertising money will also end up being wasted.

You already got great advice from Lawrence so I will refrain from giving more, just keep working hard, improve quality, and you will grow!

[ariyam66]

Hi

Thanks for your telling me about the paid adverts, I fully agree with you also I have never done any paid adverting for the courses and will not do that in the near future as well.

Regards

Vathani

[RemonaM]

Hi RandyMinder, I'm new here, just published a free course with the intention of getting some reviews then making it a paid course later. I had over 500 students overnight, (Wow I thought, but probably bots?) but after a couple of days only one has finished it (5 star review) and 2 others are working their way through. I have about 14 lectures in my course and just found out if I make it a paid course then I can also make a few lectures "free preview" and /or offer a discount (to free) if a review is supplied after. Is that correct? if so that seems a better way to go, what do you think? Thanks for your input.

[RandyMinder]

Yes, most of those sales were bots. There is almost no reason whatsoever to offer a course for free. 99% of the signups are bots. You cannot promote to actual students that do signup for a free course. And the course is limited to 2 hours. 

New instructors often offer courses for free in hopes of getting reviews (good reviews of course). But, from what I've heard, this often backfires. 

I would suggest you never offer a course for free.

I don't know what you mean by "...and/or offer a discount (to free) if a review is supplied after."

[RemonaM]

Hi Randy

Thanks for your input. Sorry didn't explain the last part very well. but am doing more research into coupons. Thanks for your assistance