[Zanardi]

Update March 2nd, 2013:

I shot 19 of the 22 videos (I merged two topics into one video, because one of the topics was very short). Yep, three more videos to shoot and this phase is done.

One one hand, I am pleased at myself for being able to shoot almost all the videos in under two months. I never thought I can put this much work in this short amount of time. I guess I had discovered a new part of myself.

On the other hand, the burnout is really getting to me, so much that now I am thinking more of how to finish the remaining three videos quicker and take some rest. I wanted to finish them all before beginning of the second semester, March 6th, because after that date I'll have very little free time, at least in March (from March 6th until March 31st, I shall have only 4 free days). Tomorrow is a day off, so Saturday and Sunday remain my only free days.

I began including extra materials into the course. For each lecture I added also the presentation, in ppsx format, and a transcript of the lecture, in pdf format, for those who need to consult the written text. After I'll finish the remaining videos, I'll take a break from Udemy and focus on game and calisthenics. After the break, I'll think what else to include, to gain an edge and to make this course more valuable.

So far, I have 2.5 hours of videos. With the remaining three videos, I'll be around the three-hour mark.

I also included 6 quizzes, each one having 15 questions.

[evilhei]

Nice work man! I have planned a course for Udemy or my own web page for almost a year now but haven't shot any material yet. I know how hard it is to create quality content so respect! Hope you succeed with the course. P.S once you are finished, you can send me a PM and I can maybe finish your course and give you a good review to help you get started

[Zanardi]

Thank you very much for your words and offer! I'll need all the help that I can get, because I have no clue whatsoever about marketing, advertising and all that goes with it.

I will contact you.

[Zanardi]

Update March 4th, 2017:

Yesterday I hustled almost the entire day and managed to shoot the last three videos. Officially, the course can now be sent for review, but I won't do it yet. I still have to upload three more additional materials, 3 PDF files. After that, I'll take a break and see what the next steps will be.

I am a bit nervous about the impact that this course will have, because I never did this before and because there is another target audience. In the University, the students are, more or less, forced to take this course because of the curricula and their opinion doesn't matter much because they will still have to pass the exam in order to be able to advance to senior years (this course is taught to the 1st year students (*) ). I can ask them what do they think about this course (and sometimes I do), but I can never be 100% sure of now sincere their answers are, because they can always hide their true opinion so as they won't upset me and risk trouble down the road.

The students on Udemy have no pressure. They can always ask for a refund. Their opinion is, in theory, completely sincere.

Since I got so far, I cannot pull back, can I?

(03-02-2017 11:49 AM)Zanardi Wrote:  

Update March 2nd, 2013:

Here I noticed that I wrote the wrong year. Because I cannot edit my post anymore, I'd like to kindly ask a moderator to do it and to write the correct year.

---

(*) - 1st year students are called freshmen or sophomores?

[RagnarLothbrok]

Have you thought about starting a youtube channel where you publish some of the videos with a catchy title and then put a link to your udemy course into the video description? This shouldn't be much work since you already produced 22 videos. If this is against Udemy's TOS, just spend a couple of days to produce new videos exclusively for Youtube.

Another idea is to start your own blog that you will grow and use to get potential customers. Provide value on your blog by writing interesting posts, collect your readers' email addresses by giving them a free guide in return. Use Twitter and Youtube to drive traffic to your blog and vice versa

[Zanardi]

Update March 12th, 2017:

The course is officially complete. I uploaded the final resources.

I shall wait until April 1st, to see if some more ideas about extra-resources kick in. If they do, I shall put the ideas to practice.

On April 1st, I shall send the entire course for review. Until then, you can see the preview draft here

Meanwhile, I'll focus on game.

(03-08-2017 06:29 PM)RagnarLothbrok Wrote:  

Have you thought about starting a youtube channel where you publish some of the videos with a catchy title and then put a link to your udemy course into the video description? This shouldn't be much work since you already produced 22 videos. If this is against Udemy's TOS, just spend a couple of days to produce new videos exclusively for Youtube.

Another idea is to start your own blog that you will grow and use to get potential customers. Provide value on your blog by writing interesting posts, collect your readers' email addresses by giving them a free guide in return. Use Twitter and Youtube to drive traffic to your blog and vice versa

Both ideas came into my mind and, from these two, the Youtube videos seems more appealing to me at this moment. I shall ask the Udemy staff if it is allowed, to see what I can do next.

[Il Bersagliere]

(03-08-2017 06:29 PM)RagnarLothbrok Wrote:  

Have you thought about starting a youtube channel where you publish some of the videos with a catchy title and then put a link to your udemy course into the video description? This shouldn't be much work since you already produced 22 videos. If this is against Udemy's TOS, just spend a couple of days to produce new videos exclusively for Youtube.

Another idea is to start your own blog that you will grow and use to get potential customers. Provide value on your blog by writing interesting posts, collect your readers' email addresses by giving them a free guide in return. Use Twitter and Youtube to drive traffic to your blog and vice versa

Ragnar is right.

Get a blog. Set up an opt-in form so you can start building your audience.

Find platforms online that are relevant to your niche (i.e. programming) like a twitter page, blogs or an online forum. Be a positive contributor on a place like Quora. Stick your site in your signatures and profile and responses so you are getting backlinks and traffic. Be very creative with this. Perhaps start a YT channel.

This traffic will be directed to your blog, so you can build and compile your email list. All the while you are writing quality posts and producing content that will be ranked well by Google.

Once that happens, you can start marketing your products by shooting out periodic emails. You can offer incentives and stuff for people to buy or checkout your products.

It's like a funnel, capturing people's attention from the moment they see your brand/blog/site all the way to their investment by getting their email or selling them a product or your course. Very basic template on how that works.

[Zanardi]

(01-13-2017 03:59 AM)testos111 Wrote:  

I don't know how effective (and bothered) Udemy is in promoting their courses.

I asked on the Facebook Udemy Studio group and I am waiting for answers to see what happens.

Update March 19th, 2017: So far, I didn't came with any new ideas to add to the course. In conclusion, I am planning to send the course for review earlier. My time is still short now, so if it passes the Udemy review, right now I'll have to base on luck and Udemy's promotion. If not, I'll still have to make the changes sooner or later.

[Zanardi]

Update April 1st, 2017:

As no new ideas came to my mind, I submitted the course for review. Bummer! Because I am from Romania, I need to create another video in which I state that I am the original owner of all of the content used in my course.

Shall do it these days. Very likely in Easter break, between April 10th and 17th

[Zanardi]

Update April 28th, 2017:

After a few delays, I sent today the entire course for review. Can't wait for their review and to see the course launched.

[Zanardi]

Update May 3rd, 2017:

My course is officially live! I shall return with more details in a few days. Today I'll celebrate and starting tomorrow I'll work on the second part: marketing, promoting, hustling, etc.

[Zanardi]

Update May 9th, 2017:

After a brief chat with the Udemy staff, I decided to rename my course a bit. The course name is: Programming for Beginners: Thinking & Writing Great Programs. The set price is 50 euros.

These days I had studied the responses received from here and the Udemy documentation. The bad news are that I have no clue how to do marketing and promotion and that they won't do much in the direction of promoting and marketing their courses. The good news is that I have some pointers to begin with.

And so, I began with Youtube. I had created a new channel, which named it Bogdan's Udemy Courses (*), which will be dedicated to all the Udemy courses I'll put out in the future. The plan is to produce, on a regular basis (**), videos linked to my courses topics'. A few ideas that I have for these kinds of videos are:

1. Taking a concept and detailing it further
2. Presenting some examples of problems and how to solve them
3. Frequently seen mistakes in my students
4. (***)
   

Each video will have links to the appropriate course. Because I am at the beginning, I am thinking of creating some coupons with discounts. Right now, social proof and reviews are more important than the actual earnings.

Tinkering around the channel, I see that it needs a logo and a banner. I want these images to be the best they can, so I'll create an account on Fiverr and hire a freelancer to do these.
---

(*) - Can this name be improved? I don't have any idea of what "Improved" means, but watching what others did, the chosen name seems too... simple. Or I am overanalyzing.

(**) - Weekly, according to my plan

(***) - The list can be continued.

[garry]

Dude your course audio is waaaaaaaay too quiet. You gotta fix that before worrying about marketing.

[Burn]

(05-09-2017 10:24 AM)Zanardi Wrote:  

And so, I began with Youtube. I had created a new channel, which named it Bogdan's Udemy Courses (*), which will be dedicated to all the Udemy courses I'll put out in the future. The plan is to produce, on a regular basis (**), videos linked to my courses topics'. A few ideas that I have for these kinds of videos are:

I dont know how important channel names are, but i would try to add in information regarding what the channel is about instead of limiting yourself to udemy. Will your courses be related? Maybe "Bogdans Computer Science" or something. I see no reason to include "udemy" in the channel name, and who knows, maybe you start your own platform.
Instead put links to your udemy courses in the video descriptions.
"Want to learn more? Click here for a coupon code to my exhaustive programming course on udemy"

Been following your thread with interest since I was creating a udemy course as well before. My course idea was bad and I didnt finish it. It was a good experience though and i started to make money online later, mainly through SEO, which leads me to your youtube videos.

Do your keyword research before creating the video. I just googled "how to rank youtube videos" and found: this which seems to be a good start.

Unfortunately you cant get search volumes from google keyword planner anymore if you dont pay for advertising. I do pay for advertising and if you send me a list with keywords i can give you the search volumes.

When ranking on google, links are everything, i would be surprised if they didnt had a big impact on youtube videos as well. So when you have created your video do what you can to get links to it. I never did but you can probably buy some pretty cheaply.

Good luck and keep updating!

[Corollary]

Zanardi, one tip I have for YouTube: pitch your courses in your videos. Every single person who watches the video will hear your pitch, but not all of them will look at the description for links.

[Zanardi]

(05-10-2017 06:36 PM)garry Wrote:  

Dude your course audio is waaaaaaaay too quiet. You gotta fix that before worrying about marketing.

I got this notice from Udemy too, however they considered is loud enough for the videos to be approved. For the next course I need to get a better mike, it seems. I amplified the sound as much as I could with Audacity.

(05-10-2017 08:45 PM)Burn Wrote:  

I dont know how important channel names are, but i would try to add in information regarding what the channel is about instead of limiting yourself to udemy. Will your courses be related? Maybe "Bogdans Computer Science" or something.

[...]

Good luck and keep updating!

Some courses will be related, some won't. However, it's a good idea of renaming the channel. More, in the change log

Thank you for your advice and wishes. I shall keep you updated, guys. I am glad that I am not the only one writing in this thread.

(05-10-2017 09:17 PM)Corollary Wrote:  

Zanardi, one tip I have for YouTube: pitch your courses in your videos. Every single person who watches the video will hear your pitch, but not all of them will look at the description for links.

Good ideea. I saw this practice in other videos (included the so-hated RSD) and I shall implement it myself.

[***]

Update May 15th, 2017.

I decided to rename the channel into Bogdan's Computer Science Courses and I began tinkering with the details: a description update here, a created playlist there, etc. Now I need a logo and a banner, for which I shall stalk Fiverr in the near future.

I created some coupons, as advised here. Right now, the channel is empty, but it will be filled.

I changed the course logo. Udemy was kind enough to help me do that. They bought a few pictures from Shutterstock (pictures at my choice) and one of them became the course logo, which is now live. It didn't take them long.

I began tinkering with Adwords and Analytics. I got the tracking ID from Analytics, now I have to figure out in detail what Adwords does and if should I use it as well. At first sight, I am tempted to use paid publicity on Google because it's another channel with high exposure.

Right now I am in a position where I have all this info, from RVF, from Udemy and the Facebook group and I try to gather them up into something coherent, to conceive a plan that is coherent for me. My simplistic thinking, so far, is this:

1. Upload the video;
2. Put the keywords;
3. Wait.
   

Where the optimum keyword choice (the 2nd step) is the most difficult thing to do.

My common sense tells me it's too easy, otherwise everybody would be doing it. The uploading part is easy: all I have to do is to upload the first 30 seconds of each of my lectures. How to make these videos found is a little harder.

Oh yeah! I already earned my first money! Should I reinvest my earnings, or spend them all on beers?

[Zanardi]

Update May 19th, 2017:

I created, for each of my lectures, a Youtube version, consisting in the first thirty seconds of them. I need to shoot the pitch (10 seconds or so), to append it to each of the 22 videos. Next, I'll upload a video once at 1-2 weeks. This will mean that when winter comes, I'd have uploaded all the short versions.

These days I'll hire a freelancer from Fiverr to make the banner and the logo for the Youtube channel.

[Zanardi]

Update May 20th, 2017:

I uploaded my first video on my Youtube channel. It's a 30 seconds preview followed by a short pitch on registering to my course and to subscribe to my channel.

[Zanardi]

Update May 21st, 2017:

After the first week (*) in which I began measuring my course's analytics, I came to the beautiful conclusion that people came here, throughout the past week. No, they are not coming in waves, like the Huns, but I don't see any spider webs either. My course page was accessed 25 times so far, 2.52 pages/session, 2 minutes and 32 seconds average session duration and 84% bounce rate.

Is it good? Is it bad? I have no clue right now, but, since my expectations were low, I am glad for each of the 25 times my course was accessed.

My Youtube channel has only one video so far, which has six views and two comments (one of them is my reply).

The next week I'll be spending on how to make myself more known on Youtube and to tinker around again on this topic for info about this channel.

---

(*) - Today isn't finished yet so no data for today

[LouEvilSlugger]

What kind of optimization techniques do you teach? Linear programming?

My background is in operations research if you'd like someone to review your teaching material.

[RatInTheWoods]

Thanks for sharing your journey with this Zanardi, it's great to learn from you how to approach this.

Good luck with it too!

[Zanardi]

(05-24-2017 06:50 AM)LouEvilSlugger Wrote:  

What kind of optimization techniques do you teach? Linear programming?

My background is in operations research if you'd like someone to review your teaching material.

Hey!

Yes, I teach linear programming, but not only. I also teach regression, analytical methods, step-by-step minimum search methods (I don't know if there is a classical English name for this), etc.

I don't know yet when I will begin this course, as now I am trying to promote the existing one. When I shall reach this point, I shall PM you

(05-24-2017 07:30 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:  

Thanks for sharing your journey with this Zanardi, it's great to learn from you how to approach this.

Good luck with it too!

Thank you. I am a complete rookie with this, so I am doing this by reading alot and using some basic logic. I ain't doin' anything fancy yet.

Update May 26th, 2017:

I received from the Fiverr freelancer the Youtube logo and banner and I already uploaded them. I like them alot, so I gave a 5-star rating and tipped him 5 more dollars, those I received from Fiverr from placing my command.

So far I have 3 students registered and 5$ in earnings. However, I begin to see some patterns regarding my traffic and the students:

1. Right now, most of my traffic comes internally, from Udemy. Almost nothing from my Youtube channel. This is to be expected, as my promotion, so far, is close to 0;
2. The students that bought my course did it while it was on sale. Because they bought it directly, I only get half of the price. Well, I must remember not to spend my 5$ in one place;
3. The students that bought my course watched pieces of my videos and that is just about it. No ratings (yet), no engagement, no anything. I am quite expecting this, as men do not value something that comes cheap;
4. The good part, however, is that I am getting some traffic, albeit direct. My only question is this: I can grow, in time the traffic coming from my Youtube channel. What can it be done to grow the organic traffic?
   

On the other hand, it's good to feel (a little of) the power of the passive income. For how much I did (lack of time ), 5$ already feels like money for which I didn't work for

[RagnarLothbrok]

(05-26-2017 09:27 AM)Zanardi Wrote:  

(05-24-2017 06:50 AM)LouEvilSlugger Wrote:  

What kind of optimization techniques do you teach? Linear programming?

My background is in operations research if you'd like someone to review your teaching material.

Hey!

Yes, I teach linear programming, but not only. I also teach regression, analytical methods, step-by-step minimum search methods (I don't know if there is a classical English name for this), etc.

I don't know yet when I will begin this course, as now I am trying to promote the existing one. When I shall reach this point, I shall PM you

(05-24-2017 07:30 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:  

Thanks for sharing your journey with this Zanardi, it's great to learn from you how to approach this.

Good luck with it too!

Thank you. I am a complete rookie with this, so I am doing this by reading alot and using some basic logic. I ain't doin' anything fancy yet.

Update May 26th, 2017:

I received from the Fiverr freelancer the Youtube logo and banner and I already uploaded them. I like them alot, so I gave a 5-star rating and tipped him 5 more dollars, those I received from Fiverr from placing my command.

So far I have 3 students registered and 5$ in earnings. However, I begin to see some patterns regarding my traffic and the students:

1. Right now, most of my traffic comes internally, from Udemy. Almost nothing from my Youtube channel. This is to be expected, as my promotion, so far, is close to 0;
2. The students that bought my course did it while it was on sale. Because they bought it directly, I only get half of the price. Well, I must remember not to spend my 5$ in one place;
3. The students that bought my course watched pieces of my videos and that is just about it. No ratings (yet), no engagement, no anything. I am quite expecting this, as men do not value something that comes cheap;
4. The good part, however, is that I am getting some traffic, albeit direct. My only question is this: I can grow, in time the traffic coming from my Youtube channel. What can it be done to grow the organic traffic?
   

On the other hand, it's good to feel (a little of) the power of the passive income. For how much I did (lack of time ), 5$ already feels like money for which I didn't work for

Here's a tip: go find large Facebook groups related to your niche (which would be "learning how to program" I guess, but could also be some romanian computer science groups) and join them. Help answering some questions, provide value and then drop the link to your Youtube videos or Udemy courses when appropriate. Just be careful not to get kicked out of the group. Contact the admin first and ask if it is ok if you post links to your content.

I recently started blogging and used the same strategy to get almost 1,000 pageviews for my newest blogpost, 50 e-mail subscribers and affiliate sales worth 70 € in 2 days. Before that, I had less than 10 visitors per day and barely any subscribers. Engagement also changed a lot. Before I got the Facebook traffic, I had 0 comments on any of my blogposts even though I had some readers. Now I have 18 comments on my best post and a couple of comments on my other posts. If you find a Facebook group that fits your niche well, you have highly targeted traffic to your sites. Those people will be more likely to engage with your content or buy your Udemy courses

As long as you don't get organic traffic from Google or Youtube searches, you need to hustle to get traffic. That means posting links to your content in social media groups or forums with a big audience and constantly providing value.

[Zanardi]

(05-27-2017 03:36 AM)RagnarLothbrok Wrote:  

As long as you don't get organic traffic from Google or Youtube searches, you need to hustle to get traffic. That means posting links to your content in social media groups or forums with a big audience and constantly providing value.

Indeed. It is a conclusion I reached myself too. Until they find me, I need to stand out by providing value.

Update June 3rd, 2017:

I uploaded the second Youtube video. The first video had 13 views so far and most of the viewers stopped viewing after the first 30 seconds of the lecture ended and the short pitch began.

I also began making a list of sites related to my niche, on which I shall create an account and begin making myself known.

At first sight, it seems that it will take a small, but consistent amount of work (let's say about an hour per day). It's not for the short term anymore, it's for the long term.

[Zanardi]

Update, June 8th, 2016:

These days I stalked Quora in replying to questions there. Nothing fancy: give the answer and, at the end, giving as a starting point, my Youtube channel and my course. The results? In the days I had time to take care of my business, the course jumped from 5-6 views to around 30 views and my channel has already 4 subscribers! ( ) Not to mention Quora upvotes and followers (I don't know how important they are).

However, today I managed to erase almost everything. I answered a question, then clicked to every related question and gave an almost similar answer. Makes sense, right? Similar questions, similar answers. Not to Quora. All the answers containing my two links got deleted for spamming

Tomorrow I am back to square 1.

PS: of course, in the days I couldn't take care of my business, the course traffic went back to the average of 5-6 views. I was expecting that.