Selling premium Udemy courses are profitable?

26 replies
Hi Guys,


I have a project to start a premium video course in the MMO niche that should offer between 50-60 hours of pure content, so this will take 3-4 weeks to be live.


But before starting this project I have read a bit and I have the feeling that Udemy is very good for FREE courses, so this being a premium one do you believe it can provide an interesting revenue stream.


I know I can offer some free copies in the war room to get reviews, make a WSO with an huge discount that will sell some.


But regarding to the Udemy traffic do you believe it can convert well an offer in the $397 - $597 price range?


Thanks in advance,
Morg
#courses #premium #profitable #selling #udemy
  • Profile picture of the author Jolly Serath
    I am interested but price is little bit high
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    • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
      Well the price for Warriors would be much lowers while the WSO will be live. But my major concern will be about Udemy Traffic and conversion rate.
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      • Profile picture of the author agmccall
        Go to udemy, and find some similar courses. Then click on the course and you will see how many students and how much is being charged. That Should give you an idea if your pricing is in line and if you have a good chance of landing students

        al
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        • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
          Hi Al,


          that is not a good metric because I can found a course with an huge amount of students that got a free discount coupons (a common practice) just to increase the number of students.
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          • Profile picture of the author Dave Espino
            It totally depends on your course topic - some course topics are more popular than others on Udemy.

            But very few sales on Udemy are made at "full-price", (especially if your course is a high-priced course) unless you are a guru with a substantial following or a proven entity that people already know produces high-quality courses.

            I would recommend publishing a "starter" course on Udemy to gauge the interest level before going all in.

            Udemy is an amazing opportunity, but many people don't understand that it is a very different marketplace than we IMers are used to (JVZoo, Clickbank, Warrior Forum, etc) and has it's own way of doing things, which is different, so it takes some acclimating to how Udemy works but it can be awesome!

            Dave
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          • Profile picture of the author agmccall
            Originally Posted by morg2k2 View Post

            Hi Al,


            that is not a good metric because I can found a course with an huge amount of students that got a free discount coupons (a common practice) just to increase the number of students.
            If a course has over a thousand students you can be pretty sure that there are a lot of paying students. It would make absolutely no sense for someone to give a complete course for free. Although, if you view their profile then they might have other courses and the free one is a loss leader.

            al
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            "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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            • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
              Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

              If a course has over a thousand students you can be pretty sure that there are a lot of paying students. It would make absolutely no sense for someone to give a complete course for free. Although, if you view their profile then they might have other courses and the free one is a loss leader.

              al
              Al, there are tons of courses on Udemy with THOUSANDS of non-paying students. Giving away courses by the hundreds or even thousands is a well-known strategy among Udemy instructors.

              Don't assume >1000 students = paying customers.
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              • Profile picture of the author agmccall
                Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

                Al, there are tons of courses on Udemy with THOUSANDS of non-paying students. Giving away courses by the hundreds or even thousands is a well-known strategy among Udemy instructors.

                Don't assume >1000 students = paying customers.
                While this is true, I can not believe that the majority are for free. If they were then Udemy would have closed long ago. And like I said, they are probably loss leaders and if you look into the instructors other courses you can get an Idea from there. What would the purpose of doing nothing but free courses? I am sure you could include some links in your course to get students to your site, squeeze or landing page. But enough to make a 20-30 hour course worth your time

                al
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                "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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              • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
                Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

                Al, there are tons of courses on Udemy with THOUSANDS of non-paying students. Giving away courses by the hundreds or even thousands is a well-known strategy among Udemy instructors.

                Don't assume >1000 students = paying customers.
                I agree with you. In fact, I remember signing up for a list about a year after Udemy opened and there was a strategy in there about doing mostly free courses and then using the course to funnel people to your squeeze page and get them on your list. I have looked everywhere for the ebook and cannot find it on my machine. I have about 10 zip drives, but right now I'm not willing to spend the time it would take to scour all of those to find it.

                Anyhow, I'm not sure exactly how they did it, but I think it was done by putting a link to their squeeze page at the end of the course. I can say with complete honestly that I know nothing about Udemy as it exists right now, so I don't know if links to your websites are allowed now or not, or if you can add them in one of your videos or what.

                I also don't know if their policies have changed, as this was a couple of years ago now since I think Udemy has been around close to 3 years or maybe more?
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        • Profile picture of the author Slade556
          Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

          Go to udemy, and find some similar courses. Then click on the course and you will see how many students and how much is being charged. That Should give you an idea if your pricing is in line and if you have a good chance of landing students
          This is a good idea. You need to checkout what these guys' rates are, what you are (or plan on) asking for is a bit steep, IMO.
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          • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
            For what i have read inflating prices its a typical model in udemy so you can offer an huge discount.

            But i am thinking in an interesting mix that i believe to be awesome
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            • Profile picture of the author Antares330
              All the posts saying "1000 students to these HUGE $$$ Courses 0_0"

              I don't know if you guys know those are students they get from offering free coupons?
              Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some of those HUGE Coding courses have gotten huge amounts of legit students. but overall looking at student numbers doesn't do a lot...

              I recommend just checking the normal price of niche... If that means pricing at $400 go for it! but instead of saying "Give me $400 up front", cut it into say 4 parts...

              Name them something like this

              Beginners guide to XXX
              Advanced Guide to XXX
              Experts Guide to XXX

              If your first course is good, they will pay for your 2nd and 3rd...

              I recommend pricing your guides higher the higher level it is!

              one of the better parts of splitting the course is that you can give people high discounts to the first course, then hope they move onto a full price 2nd and 3rd courses!
              Hope this helps!
              Justin
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  • Profile picture of the author James McAllister
    I have a course up on Udemy with plans to put up a few more. I also sell an improved version of the course on my site as I make more per sale that way.

    I'll tell you though, 50-60 hours is WAY too long for a Udemy course, especially in the MMO market. That's not a bad thing though, as you can make way more money splitting up that course into 2-5 hour segments and having each course cover a specific topic. ESPECIALLY since you'll be able to use Udemy's announcement feature to cross-promote your other courses.

    As Dave said most sales will be less than full-price, and most will be made with coupons that Udemy provides. Many people are successful pricing their courses high, than offering a huge coupon that makes it seem like they're getting an incredible deal.
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  • Profile picture of the author RonBartling
    Personally I have purchased many "premium priced" courses on Udemy but only with a coupon that greatly discounts the price. That usually means I am paying between $9 and $19, not free, so the course seller should be making money if any volume is sold at the lower price.
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  • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
    Thanks guys.

    Probably i will split the course in 10-15 courses with 3-5 hours each and then offer the compilation of all the courses in one big and premium course

    Morg
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  • Profile picture of the author angry cowboy
    yaa udemy have a good traffic with a good conversion rate...working with udemy will really profitable...thanks....
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  • Profile picture of the author Samfakroon
    I will advice you to setup an small front end product, and some upsell and sell this as a high ticket if worth even at 997 and it will sell. And Make money online niche will surely not miss affiliates. Do a pdf sell for 7 - 9 and then a video series some 47 and so on. You will make much more in a very short time. Then you can do udemy. Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by James McAllister View Post

      I have a course up on Udemy with plans to put up a few more. I also sell an improved version of the course on my site as I make more per sale that way.

      I'll tell you though, 50-60 hours is WAY too long for a Udemy course, especially in the MMO market. That's not a bad thing though, as you can make way more money splitting up that course into 2-5 hour segments and having each course cover a specific topic. ESPECIALLY since you'll be able to use Udemy's announcement feature to cross-promote your other courses.

      As Dave said most sales will be less than full-price, and most will be made with coupons that Udemy provides. Many people are successful pricing their courses high, than offering a huge coupon that makes it seem like they're getting an incredible deal.
      Originally Posted by morg2k2 View Post

      Thanks guys.

      Probably i will split the course in 10-15 courses with 3-5 hours each and then offer the compilation of all the courses in one big and premium course

      Morg
      I agree with James that 50-60 hours is way to long.


      And I'd probably go even shorter than 3-5 hours for most courses. Try giving some away for free, and if they're good, funnel them to your pay-for courses.


      One thing to note though, Udemy seems to include how often and how well you interact with the people that take your courses in their ranking formula.
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      • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
        Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

        I agree with James that 50-60 hours is way to long.


        And I'd probably go even shorter than 3-5 hours for most courses. Try giving some away for free, and if they're good, funnel them to your pay-for courses.


        One thing to note though, Udemy seems to include how often and how well you interact with the people that take your courses in their ranking formula.

        Well the 50-60 hours its about many topics of a very huge Niche. So I have 2 possible approaches, talk about it without the an high detail level or going much further push it to the next level showing every micro details, that will make the difference, but to achieve that level of detail much more time will be required.


        Sincerely I prefer to produce something that people will like and will offer them an extreme value then giving what everybody are giving... broad information about a subject.


        But for what you were telling about it I think I will:


        a) Make a introductory course (free) where I will speak about the details of the full course.
        b) Each Topic will be handled as a single course, Probably few of them will be offered to start engaging and the remaining will be sold.
        c) Will make a compilation of the 15 courses in a big 50-60 hours Course that will sell at a premium price, maybe the $997 formula will work.
        d) will offer free or discounted review copies
        e) Cross sell in multiple platforms.


        Morg
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        • 50-60 hours looks like a tremendous course...or a very, very boring one.
          I depends of what topics you will be talking about on the modules of your course.

          What I'd do, it's to create a smaller course wih about 1 hour of content focusing on one topic.
          Offer a 100% discount coupon trough forums, FB groups, YT videos, etc. When you get some reviews, and some students subscribed to you, then ask for feedback and based on that create a new course with more content send a promotional discount to your students about this new course and you will have many people buying it fast, getting new students subscribed (kind of list-building), and more experience to produce future courses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eagle07
    If you are delivering great value, I would suggest you break it down to smaller courses or you may make a membership site and have it on clickbank. You can have a lot of affiliates (myself included) promoting your courses and do a lot of selling for you.

    Personally, I have seen udemy but I am just lazy to create another affiliate account with them and promote affiliate products from there. (this is just for me, but I think it can be true to other affiliate marketers too)
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  • Profile picture of the author MMMartin
    I see on Udemy that there are some courses that are very expensive and they have over 1000 reviews, I see other courses that are cheap with just a couple. It all depends on your niche and how you promote the course. There can be a lot of money there if done right.
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  • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
    Well i have read a lot about udemy marketing And will start offering the course free for 24-72 hours so i can engage 500-1000 students and after some social proof will switch to paid model.

    If i also want to sell it in a membership aite, what is the most reliable theme to do it? Optimize press or there is something better?
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Espino
      Originally Posted by morg2k2 View Post

      Well i have read a lot about udemy marketing And will start offering the course free for 24-72 hours so i can engage 500-1000 students and after some social proof will switch to paid model.

      If i also want to sell it in a membership aite, what is the most reliable theme to do it? Optimize press or there is something better?
      Hi morg2k2,

      I'm a Udemy instructor who is about to publish my 27th course. Udemy rocks, if you understand the way it's different than standard info-product sales.

      If you want to offer your course(s) on a site that is very similar to Udemy in professionalism, credibility and delivery, but want to offer it on your own or to your own audience, I just released a WSO that shows you a super-simple way to deliver your courses in a membership site.

      PM me if interested and I'll send you the link.

      Dave
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      Get your FREE UDEMY MINI-COURSE here:

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  • Profile picture of the author morg2k2
    Hi justin,
    Well i am thinking to offer some of the courses for a limited time, then when i hsve a decent amount of students and some reviews i will start to priciong it low until it reaches the full price tag, on the meanwhile i will do some discount campaigns for single courses or multiple courses, etc....

    Right now i am creating 1 course on a different niche for testing purposes and then will see how udemy will work In terms of traffic and revenue.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    I have not made on UDEMON one penny. Well, I have bought some course. Mostly, they were in the $50 range. Yeah, some were less and some were more. All so far have been very poor. Yeah, there is better stuff on you tube that is FREE and cost you zero money.

    Sadly, this service is not a winner. There is a lot less traffic than you tube and if the UDEMON expensive courses are poor... frankly, the free ones are even worse.

    Have not bought any of the $299 courses. However, I will tell you the following that might help you:

    • people flock to free courses
    • it takes a long time to create a good course
    • also it take a lot of hard work and talent to create good material
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