If you’ve thought about buying or selling an online course at some point, Udemy has most likely hit your radar. In this article, I will describe to you about Udemy online course. It is by far the most popular place to buy courses online, and the quality is usually quite respectable. Also, as a consumer, you can check ratings and reviews to filter junk.
But the big question for you is whether or not it is a viable place to sell your own online courses. In this Udemy Review, we’ll talk about why Udemy is so popular and summarizes the features that make it so attractive.
What is Udemy?
There are several ways that today’s future educators can start selling their knowledge online. You can give your students lifetime access to your courses in a marketplace like Coursera or udacity or set up a website where you drip new skills to your clients week by week.
Course creation tools that are available on the web allow companies to take advantage of the tools to publish the course content that best suits their needs. Udemy is just one of those solutions that ensures that you can create a variety of courses without being a web developer.
Udemy is something called a Massively Open Online Course Website, or MOOC unlike Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi and similar tools, Udemy doesn’t ask users to create their website and the courses they want to sell from scratch. Instead, you design your course using a pre-approved template and sell it on a platform with other similar educators.
Anyone is free to create and promote course content on Udemy, and all included courses come with access to educational video sessions and “modules.” There are hundreds of thousands of courses on Udemy and they cover a wide range of topics, from how to use EDX to how to play the piano.
Building a great course with Udemy is all about providing a convenient learning experience for the particular course you are interested in selling. The builder provided with the system ensures that you can create your course content quickly and deliver a legitimate learning experience to a wide selection of students.
Because Udemy allows anyone to publish a course, it is very easy to set up a Udemy account and start generating income. Similar to Skillshare, your courses will be displayed alongside other learning opportunities for a wide existing audience. However, it is up to you to take your course and make sure customers use it. Remember to remind your clients that they can approach their lessons at their own pace.
The fact that Udemy allows anyone to teach is both positive and negative. For one thing, people can share their expertise on virtually any topic. On the other hand, you are not offering courses through an accredited institution. Lack of accreditation for a course can make it more difficult to convince your students that their lessons are worth it.
How does Udemy work for content creators?
At first glance, Udemy is a very simple and effective tool. This online learning site offers you the opportunity to provide information about the course through Android and iOS applications, as well as online. The vast community also means that you can generate great course reviews and gradually build your reputation. Using Udemy is pretty simple.
As mentioned above, anyone can teach a course on any subject, as long as it follows Udemy’s guidelines. You also don’t have to pay any fees to become an instructor, but you can offer a 30-day money-back guarantee to your students if you want to increase your chances of sales.
No approval is required to start creating a free course on Udemy, but if you want to design a premium course, you will need to adhere to quality guidelines, such as making sure your course has:
High definition video High-quality audio 5 lectures or more At least 30 minutes of video content Instructor participation Helpful supplementary resources
Educators creating paid courses will also need a Payoneer or PayPal account that they can link to Udemy to receive monthly fees.
Notably, Udemy focuses more on video than other online learning platforms. Your courses will need at least 30 minutes of video, so Udemy instructors will need to do that course material before starting. You must also offer at least five lectures.
Fortunately for content creators, uploading course material to the Udemy platform is fairly simple. You can upload materials in bulk via Dropbox, Google Drive, and other popular tools. One possible benefit of Udemy is that you retain the rights to your eLearning course when you publish it on the platform. If you want to list your good courses on your website and do your own digital marketing to get attention, you can too.
When you create a masterclass for Udemy, you simply give the company the right to use and advertise the course on their platform. You can review the Enterprise Content Collection Policy and Permissions Policy to learn more about how it works.
To help you make the most of your educational opportunity, Udemy also has a Marketplace Insights tool that can show you what kind of demand certain topics have, without excessive research from LinkedIn and Google. If you’re not sure what to create a course on, this might be a good place to start. Udemy can also help promote your course on your website and mobile app.
Udemy also has a bargain program so you can improve your chances of attracting customers by offering your course at a discount. To create a course with Udemy, all you have to do is follow a few simple steps, starting with creating your Udemy account, from there:
Choose your course topic – Choose the topic you want to create your course on. You can use the Marketplace Information Service for help. Define your audience: Decide who you want to try to reach with your courses and how you will connect with them.
Your Course Outline: To create an effective online course, you need to have a basic idea of how everything will be integrated. Start by planning what you will cover in each section of your course. Each section should cover a specific skill. Plan hands-on activities: Make sure you take advantage of all Udemy features, including the option to guide users through hands-on tests. Check your transactional options: Make sure you have the correct payment system set up to accept credit cards, coupon codes and more. Verify Audio and Video: Make sure you have the right systems in place to offer audio and video course tools for your clients’ personal development.
Price your course: choose a price that is appropriate for the amount of information you are sharing, without convincing clients that your lessons are a scam.
Udemy Online Course Review: Fundamentals
At first glance, it makes perfect sense to start selling on Udemy. The platform is already designed for you, you don’t have to worry about hosting or web designers. Students can discover their courses through Udemy, eliminating any marketing on their end.
That said, this kind of convenience comes at a cost. I am totally in favor of having your courses and other products in a market, but I also strongly believe that your main income should come through your own website. This way, you have full control over your brand and almost every penny of the sale price goes into your pocket.
However, that freedom also comes at a cost, as you need to complete your marketing and manage your site.
Remember that for any type of course solution, you will still have to take steps to ensure that you stand out on social media and make your course attractive in the subcategories that it aligns with.
So for this Udemy Review I’ll break down the pros and cons along with the types of business people who should include Udemy in their arsenals.
By the way, I have made a video version of the tutorial for you in case you want to hear my voice. 🙂
Table of Contents:
Udemy Online Course Review: The pros
Udemy has an active community and a beautiful search tool to show your course in front of millions of eyes. If you want to start generating passive income while building your audience, I say that Udemy works quite well. It’s also a great place to supplement income if you already have your website and followers.
The benefits of Udemy are plentiful, so let’s go over some of the tools, features, and pricing elements that make sense.
Community
Udemy has by far the largest selection of subjects and topics for people to search for and locate the right courses. The search module suggests specific classes, and the average customer should be able to find what they need when browsing the site.
Although a place like Lynda.com has higher quality courses, Udemy stands out for the quantity and the rating system.
Because of this, Udemy has an active community of people who chat on forums and go directly to the Udemy website when they need to download a course. It also helps that Udemy offers significant discounts throughout the year.
Additionally, users subscribe to the Udemy email newsletter and receive information about other courses that may be helpful to them. This is also a drawback since most brands are for Udemy and not all the traffic that goes to its class.
However, you can get other people’s course clients as well, making it an easy win for new course creators.
In general, the entire communication system is integrated into Udemy. Therefore, you do not need to create a forum or comment area for your courses. Also, you are not tasked with emailing or selling your session in any way.
All you have to do is upload your courses
Most of the time when I review online course platforms, it is necessary to go through all the cool features of Marketing, course building, analytics, and more. Even if all those features are packed into your platform, you still have to personalize the emails, design the website, and activate the marketing plans.
With Udemy, most of the work involves creating your courses and uploading them to the site. Udemy already has the course format set for you, so there are no design issues. You also don’t have to upload your logo or create an area for people to leave comments.
The infrastructure for starting and managing an online course is set up in advance. It makes sense for people to enjoy this setup because you can still make a lot of money without all the extra work.
Plus, you can still market your courses and earn close to 100% of the sales revenue, as long as the customer clicks on your unique sales link.
Sales come from two angles
Being part of a thriving community has some advantages. With an independent website, you are tasked with sending emails, creating announcements, and sending referral links to people who may be interested in your courses. That is also possible with Udemy.
Udemy gives you 97% of the revenue if you take the Udemy course link and convince someone to click and pay for the course. That is pretty good.
Udemy also has the marketing process and the community on its side. Since Udemy courses often appear in Google search results, you are more likely to get sales this way, all without having to work on your SEO.
Many people also go directly to the Udemy website when looking for classes. Although you only receive 50% of the revenue when a sale is made only through Udemy (and not through your unique sales link), it is still a sale that you might not have made if Udemy had not helped you.
Udemy offers a lifetime, offline and mobile access
Let’s say you are a photographer interested in learning about landscape photography and Adobe Lightroom.
You go through Udemy and pay for a course for both subjects.
Since you are practicing landscape photography, it makes sense that you are on the road and outside, sometimes with questionable internet access. Without worries! Most Udemy courses can be downloaded for offline use.
Also, our hypothetical photographer gets access to the course as long as Udemy exists.
Finally, mobile access makes it much easier for people to view courses and videos from phones and tablets. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the train, on a plane, or walking through the Grand Canyon, as all you need is a phone (no internet access) to view purchased courses.
Finding courses on Udemy is simple
Another point worth mentioning in this Udemy review is how easy it is for your customers to find your content. In a database with over 65,000 courses, it’s easy to get lost in the content. However, you need to be able to find the right audience you need.
For example, when you create your course, you will be able to target the specific class of students you want to attract, answering questions like:
What can students achieve by taking your course? Who should take this course? What tools and knowledge will your student need?
Udemy will then place your lessons on the correct “Categories” pages on their website.
For instructors and students alike, the Marketplace search tool is highly intuitive. You can enter keywords related to the course or search for a specific topic. Of course, making sure you’ve added a highly informative and keyword-rich description to your lesson is essential if you want to attract as many students as possible. There will already be a lot of competition on Udemy for most educators.
When students search for courses by category, they will also see “Featured Courses,” which are the most popular and highest-rated courses on the Udemy platform. The best way to ensure you finish in this section is to follow your course engagement and work on optimizing your description and content as often as possible.
The fact that content is so easy to navigate based on its ranking, popularity, topic, and more also means that you have more ways to track your competition. It’s a good idea to regularly review some of the top-rated and most popular courses in your industry, so you can find out what to do to improve your chances of success.
For example, is there information you can offer that is not available in other courses? Will adding more video content to your lessons make them more attractive? Could you consider hiring a visiting professor to give your campaign more thought leadership?
Customer support: get help from Udemy
Venturing into the world of online courses for the first time?
If the answer is “yes,” you will surely need support. After all, even if you have a teaching background, you probably haven’t spent a lot of time sharing your skills online.
The good news?
Udemy offers many ways to get the help you need.
On the website, you will find a FAQ section where you can learn more about how to become a premium instructor, update your course, and even earn more money through teaching. You can also refine your search for support by clicking on different segments in the Udemy knowledge base, including:
Course management Confidence and security Online quality standards Course construction Sales and promotion
Clicking on any of these options will take you to a variety of detailed articles and tutorials that you can use to answer most of your questions.
Announcement ⓘ
For additional guidance, Udemy has a global community of instructors. That you can take advantage of. Instructor Forums allow you to ask questions and receive feedback from other instructors like you, who have learned to use Udemy correctly over time.
StudioU is the official place to ask questions and introduce yourself as a new teacher. On the other hand, if you are a published instructor and just want to chat with others like you, you can visit the published instructor club.
If none of the “DIY” help options appeal to you, you can always submit a request for expert assistance from the Udemy team with a support ticket.
Udemy Review: The Cons
Most of Udemy’s downsides have to do with branding and control. In my opinion, the price is not that bad, as I would not have many of these sales if it were not for Udemy in the first place. However, I still believe that Udemy should serve as a complementary part of your sales plan.
Some course sellers make millions of dollars on Udemy. For those people, I’m saying it’s probably not a problem whether or not they need their own website. Udemy is obviously working for them and the need for complete branding and price control isn’t going to change much.
Those are the chosen few.
For most course sellers, Udemy should be paired with their website.
You have to compete with the big dogs
A rating system is helpful to the average consumer, but your course is hard to sell when you sit alongside a merchant with thousands of five-star reviews.
The Udemy community and marketing system can be helpful to newcomers, however most of the time you will find that the initial marketing is done by you and not by Udemy.
Think about it, unless you create a unique online course, you are being compared to others that already have reviews and thousands of students. No sane person would choose your 0-grade course over a more reputable one.
Udemy slashes prices like crazy
Pricing on Udemy It is set by the creator of the course. This is great for determining how much you can expect to earn, but Udemy also has regular site-wide sales.
For example, I recently saw Valentine’s Day sale that reduced the courses from $ 200 to around $ 10. And that’s not uncommon. Udemy has weekend sales and weekday sales, holiday sales, and non-holiday sales.
Therefore, you may find spikes in your subscribers during these times. The only problem is that instead of splitting a $ 200 sale with Udemy, you are now stuck with $ 5.
I’ve personally waited for prices to drop as I know Udemy has this in their marketing plan. They are more interested in bringing in waves of students as it puts people on their platform.
So those students who paid $ 10 for one course might be willing to spend about two hundred for a different one. Unfortunately, you could be the $ 10 course, and someone else could reap the benefits.
The brand is a problem
This one is pretty straightforward to tackle, as Udemy hardly has any tools to bookmark its own courses. Sure, you can insert your face into videos, but a logo with unique colors would be nice too. Also, emails and marketing efforts sent are flagged for Udemy, not your business.
Udemy takes a significant portion of your sale
We have already talked about this before as a kind of pro and kind of scam. But I don’t think a course creator should get only 50% of a sale, even if Udemy gets the upper hand for you.
How to Create an Online Course with Udemy?
If you are creating an online course with Udemy, then the first thing you need to know is how to use the service.
Now that you know the ins and outs of Udemy, you are ready to launch your course with confidence. To help you get out of this Udemy review on the right track, we’ll walk you through the basics to get started.
You need a great lesson plan with a ton of rich content that you can share with your audience. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Research your audience and find out what kinds of questions they are asking Take a look at some online course creation videos to help you create a lead magnet on a branded site where you can send people to your course Use lots of videos, images and other media to keep people involved Support your students with regular feedback.
Once you’re ready to start creating, visit the “Course Creation” section on the Udemy Support website. Here you will find everything you need to know about updating your class content, managing videos, and creating assignments for your course.
The main thing you will need to be comfortable with is the Course Administration Panel. This is your step-by-step solution for creating and publishing a course.
So how do you use this tool?
It is simpler than it seems.
The course administration dashboard guides you through your lesson plan strategy with tips and information on every page. You will have a list of things you need to do on the left side of your page, such as adding messages to the course or including assignments. As you complete each stage, those things will be marked. According to most Udemy reviews, it’s a simple process.
When you have published your course, you can also go back to the system and edit things if you need to. There are options for:
Change your target student Adapt course image, description, subtitle, title, promo video, background information, and instructor profiles Add sections, videos, lectures, and more to your resume Include new instructors in your course Adjust prices and add coupons. Manage your list of students
You can find out how to handle all of the above in the Udemy Course Organization
FAQ: Top Udemy Questions
Do I still have questions about Udemy?
Take a look at these FAQs for additional help
1. Are Udemy courses credited?
Usually? Not.
Unlike MOOC courses offered by colleges and universities, Udemy courses rarely award a certificate of competency to be recognized by an employer. Udemy is less about building your CV, and more about learning how to do things to improve your personal skills and your own self.
Udemy provides people around the world with a way to transfer knowledge to potential students around the world. It is not the place for academic credit.
2. Is Udemy better than Lynda?
That depends on who you ask. Lynda is a flexible learning platform for people looking for a wide range of courses, available at a fixed monthly price. However, Udemy allows customers to purchase lessons per day. This means that you pay only for the educational resources that you are going to use.
3. Does Udemy offer a certificate of completion?
Yes.
When a student successfully completes a Udemy course, she earns a certificate of completion that she can share with friends, family, and even potential employers. However, these certificates are not accredited by any educational body. It should be noted that in Brazil, certifications are not offered for free courses.
4. Does Udemy offer free courses?
And so much!
There are tons of free courses available on Udemy for advanced, intermediate, and beginner leaders. The only problem is that it is not very easy to search or filter the results of courses that are free. Users may need to spend some time scrolling through all the options in their chosen category before finding an offer for a free course.
Tutors and educators can also set coupons for the courses if they want to give their lessons to friends and family for free.
5. How much does Udemy cost?
It’s free to register as a student or instructor with Udemy. When you decide to buy a course, you will have to pay for that lesson endlessly, there is no monthly fee like there is with Lynda.
Udemy has a “global pricing tier matrix” that instructors can use to determine how much their lessons should cost depending on the type of education they offer and where their students live. Course prices are capped at $ 199.99 and Instructors can change the cost of their course at any time.
It is also possible to offer a free course if you wish. However, it can only be changed from free to paid once. If you switch back to free after switching to paid, your promotional options for the course will be permanently disabled.
6. Do Udemy courses expire?
Not.
There is no time limit on your course. As soon as you pay for a lesson, you will have unlimited access to the information you paid for.
7. How to buy a course on Udemy?
Easy!
Once a user finds a course they want to purchase on Udemy, they simply click the Buy button, and they will be taken to a checkout page. The Checkout page offers the option to pay by credit or debit card, as well as by bank transfers and purchases in the app store or Google Pay. PayPal acquisitions are also available.
8. Who should consider using Udemy as an online course sales tool?
I like Udemy for people who want to find a separate source of income to match their current online course website. The community will help rack up additional sales, while the quick-course building tools are already there for you.
If you have any questions about this Udemy Review, let us know in the comments below.
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