Create passive income from Udemy, the world’s leading online learning platform.
Online learning continues to increase in popularity and Udemy Courses is one of the major platforms for such. And this is for a very valid reason. Whether to supplement one’s formal education or to compensate for the lack thereof, this form of learning is becoming less and less limited every week.
It is, therefore, no surprise that the platforms which offer exactly that have become a profitable business, with the potential to even become an educational authority on an institutional level in the future. As is the case with all the business centers on the Internet, Udemy too presents many opportunities to clever and ambitious folks like you.
Due to the broad spectrum of learning levels, from entry level to highly advanced, it is a great platform to get started if online courses are something you want and are able to create. It doesn’t matter much if you happen to be less than an expert in the chosen field, virtually anybody can set up an online course here.
The users are the ones who will judge if your course is adequate or not reflecting so in your income or feedback. Of course, this means that if you do, in fact, lack knowledge on an individual subject, you should take the time to research and get well-versed in the area before you go trying to teach others about it.
Unlike massive open online courses — better known as MOOC — that are primarily geared towards collegiate subjects, Udemy gives experts from all walks of life a platform in which to create their own courses that they can offer to the general public either for free or for a fee. Further, Udemy Online Courses gives people the necessary tools to create their own courses, market them and earn income from them.
Unfortunately, Udemy online courses aren’t credentialed for college credit as of now. It shouldn’t be a problem because Udemy’s market is people who want to take courses that are geared towards learning or improving on practical, job-related skills and not getting higher grades. Some Udemy online courses, are inclined towards earning credits for specific technical certifications.
As of the start of 2016, Udemy has reportedly served beyond 10 million people with over 40,000 courses. At such a rate, this platform will certainly find itself right at the top of this market very soon. This is why the time is ripe for you to get on board with this program and find a place for your passive income plans on Udemy.
Even if you are an actual expert on your topic, teaching often goes both ways, so in the process of providing these courses to others, you may very well become more proficient and expand your own knowledge at the same time! We’ll take a closer look at this potential and a few important things to note as you embark on this venture.
BEFORE YOU CREATE A COURSE ON UDEMY…
Don’t rush it. The very purpose of a course dictates that you be meticulous and thorough. Learning can sometimes be hard for many people, and it will be your job on Udemy to make sure that you deliver a comprehensive, well structured and highly effective course.
Hey, you may even reflect on your school days while you’re at it, and find that your teachers had it worse than you ever imagined! Before you even start creating your course for upload to Udemy, consider reflecting on the following.
Potential Income
While top Udemy instructors make a fortune by providing knowledge in Udemy online courses, not everyone earns a big income. It’s worth noting that some instructors only bring in $60 monthly but the elite ones are able to earn 6 figures annually. Don’t let this discourage you as this doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of competition for you in particular, nor does it mean that the top is occupied.
If anything, it simply goes to show how far you can go through this website. If a course creator isn’t pulling in a significant amount of income, this is probably because they either haven’t produced quality or have chosen to teach an unpopular or perhaps too popular skill.
However, those who are making 6 figures have probably worked very hard for their job and have become more organized and skilled than they would have been at the beginning. Obviously, at that level they are likely some kind of company or, at least, a team of instructors, so no need to compare yourself to these circles on Udemy, yet!
Either way, you shouldn’t feel too strongly about either of these extremes. With focus, creativity and due diligence, you can get to exactly where you want to be.
Time Frame
Making an online course will require a lot of investment from you, particularly in terms of time, and possibly resources. For some people, especially book authors, it takes as much time as writing a full-fledged book.
Obviously, it’s much easier if you already have a book or some other original material like blogs and workshops to begin with, on which you can base your course. You can probably create a course in one 2- to 3-hour sitting with such materials available. But if you’re practically starting from scratch, allot a lot of time for it and budget such time wisely.
As a matter of fact, it could potentially do wonders for your project. If you go back to school for a moment, you will remember that learning has always been more effective if it was fun and witty at the same time.
By employing a degree of creativity when building your course, you can even end up having a good time yourself! Enjoying your work always helps and will certainly entice you to work faster and be more time-efficient.
Skills
More than just technical competencies on the course you’ll be creating, you’ll also need enough video production skills for creating your video courses. While it’s certainly possible to use your smartphone’s camera to film yourself, there’s more to it than that. It requires post shooting edit, audio, and video setting skills. At least if you want a good video on Udemy.
Those are very technical things that you can probably learn over time, but if you want to create a good course at the soonest possible time, better concentrate on the material and just get professional help for the video shoot and edits.
This is yet another opportunity to employ the services of freelancers to help you on your project. There is an abundance of video editors and audio mixers working as freelancers online, and a lot of them are real experts. For this, refer to freelance websites we mentioned before, the likes of Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, etc.
You can divvy up the task and take on the writing, or some other aspect of the work, or you can delegate the whole thing to a professional. Relative to your budget, time, and skills, you’ll know best how to organize. If you do possess fair skills in video editing and effects, be confident because that personal touch only you can give may just be the factor that makes your course all that much more attractive and relatable.
HOW TO MAKE PASSIVE MONEY FROM UDEMY
It’s pretty simple to do this. Start with creating a good course or outline of the things you want to cover in your course. When done, don’t finalize it yet. Have someone else run through them, preferably someone who isn’t familiar with your course topic. That way, you get feedback on whether it’s clear, understandable, or too technical.
Someone who is interested in the topic of your course and knows little to nothing about it will always be the perfect tester. If they have learned a considerable amount from your course and found it very comprehensible and instructive, then congratulations because your course is a quality one!
Then, make a video of yourself going through the whole course and have other people view it first so you can get objective feedback on whether it’s clear and understandable. More than just the contents of the course, you’ll also have to present them in a way that your enrollees can understand.
After all, they expect to learn from your course and as such, you should give them their money’s worth. When you get enough good feedback about it, it’s time to shoot the final video for your course. Don’t scrimp on quality here. Invest in professional audio and video production if shooting and editing videos isn’t your skill and concentrate on what you do best — delivering your course.
You don’t want to end up half-doing two things. It’s better to commit fully to one part of the work and see it through to quality, and just leave the other part to a pro. Please remember that you can make your course available for free! This is certainly something to consider with small-time projects as you begin building your reputation.
Feedback is almost as important as the income itself. The relationship between positive feedback and increased revenue, is not a mere correlation, it is a guarantee. If you are not in a rush and can take your sweet time building up this business, then you might want to make your first course, or a couple thereof, free.
This way you minimize your risk of developing a bad reputation for being someone who seeks money for low-quality content. At this point, it’s pretty much assumed that you already have an account with Udemy.
If not, go ahead and register. For more information about it, go directly to their site and check out their requirements and policies.
Make Sure you read the Terms of Use Agreements whenever you set up an account anywhere on the Internet, but make sure you do the same here. After all, you are trying to make money on Udemy, so it helps to be well aware and informed about the ins and outs of the website.
When you already have an account, it’s time to upload your course. But it doesn’t end there, it’s best to promote it outside of Udemy too. Marketing your course within the site will be easy in Udemy’s case.
There are already personalized promotion programs in place, so you won’t have to get involved in those. This provides a lot of room for you to focus on outside promotion, to an even wider range of people.
You can promote it on social media and search engine optimization, among others. With social media in particular, you can either post it on your personal account asking your friends to “share” the post or use Facebook’s paid advertisements.
If you have an email list built up, you can promote it there, assuming that it’s consistent with the particular niche on which the list was built on. Imagine if your course was on a particular skill related to the niche your email list is built upon.
This would mean that on top of the other content or products you are marketing through that list, you can now promote your course, which may be teaching students to do that which you do within the niche your subscribers care about. How awesome would that
be?
And that’s it! You’re good to go!
We hope you found our blog post on creating and selling Udemy courses online informative and inspiring. Building and selling online courses can be a great way to share your knowledge and expertise while also generating income. By following the tips and strategies outlined in this article, you can create high-quality courses that resonate with your target audience and maximize your earning potential.
