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What type of course should I create first (Udemy)

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

Sandy Dives

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So, I'm fairly new here on the forum, but have been in the fastlane community for quite some time now, and have decided that I want to try, at least once or twice, to create a really nice Udemy course. I have some questions, and maybe someone that has made a course on there have some tips.

FYI: I work as a fulltime professional software developer and tend to teach something I know from that field. / the study more efficient thing because I am self taught.

- Is it any reason to create a free course first? I kinda want to do it to provide value and hopefully build a small follower base.
- What is the best course, something niche, like a certain techonolgy / library in a certain programming language? or, a course on how to study more efficient (broad subject to reach more people)?
- I know Udemy markets courses and takes a big cut, what would be the best way to market / build a follower base on my own? Do I need to brand myself?
 
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Sandy Dives

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Get some expertise. Think of creating a course AFTER that.
I forgot to mention that I work as a fulltime professional software developer, so I have the expertise if that's what you mean.

Sorry if I was unclear, but that's why I either want to create a course on a library / technology I know how to use or a course more directed towards the majority on how to study efficiently or something as I am self taught.

I will update the post to include my expertise.
 

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- Is it any reason to create a free course first? I kinda want to do it to provide value and hopefully build a small follower base.
- What is the best course, something niche, like a certain techonolgy / library in a certain programming language? or, a course on how to study more efficient (broad subject to reach more people)?
- I know Udemy markets courses and takes a big cut, what would be the best way to market / build a follower base on my own? Do I need to brand myself?

Here's a channel and playlist that you might find very useful (credit goes to @Andy Black who shared it with me the other day).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YruQFDzgRqg&feature=youtu.be


 
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Sandy Dives

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Raoul Duke

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@MoreValue

Your wisdom is wanted. Don't let me down, Tommy Wiseau.
 
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Guest1413tpa

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Here's a channel and playlist that you might find very useful (credit goes to @Andy Black who shared it with me the other day).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YruQFDzgRqg&feature=youtu.be


Cool, this will help me too!
 
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D

Deleted78083

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List what you could teach, go to udemy and look at what is not there and in which language. Proceed with creating the course.

Disclaimer: creating a good course TAKES TIME, and even after you did it and give it for free, people will still complain about "how bad it is". That is something you need to take into account.
 

Lex DeVille

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So, I'm fairly new here on the forum, but have been in the fastlane community for quite some time now, and have decided that I want to try, at least once or twice, to create a really nice Udemy course. I have some questions, and maybe someone that has made a course on there have some tips.

FYI: I work as a fulltime professional software developer and tend to teach something I know from that field. / the study more efficient thing because I am self taught.

- Is it any reason to create a free course first? I kinda want to do it to provide value and hopefully build a small follower base.
- What is the best course, something niche, like a certain techonolgy / library in a certain programming language? or, a course on how to study more efficient (broad subject to reach more people)?
- I know Udemy markets courses and takes a big cut, what would be the best way to market / build a follower base on my own? Do I need to brand myself?

I have a full-time income from Udemy. Don't make a free course. Make the best course you can make in a month. Start building an email list asap. Don't launch until you have some people ready to buy or your course will crash and burn, never to be seen or heard from again.
 
G

Guest1413tpa

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I have a full-time income from Udemy. Don't make a free course. Make the best course you can make in a month. Start building an email list asap. Don't launch until you have some people ready to buy or your course will crash and burn, never to be seen or heard from again.
Not to hijack the thread, but what made you choose Udemy over self-hosting? Trying to wrap my head around all of this.
 
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Andy Black

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Sandy Dives

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I have a full-time income from Udemy. Don't make a free course. Make the best course you can make in a month. Start building an email list asap. Don't launch until you have some people ready to buy or your course will crash and burn, never to be seen or heard from again.

Awesome! Thank you for the answer! Do you have any tips / links on building an email list / leads? or getting people to "sign up" for the release of the course? I don't know how to do this and would gladly read / study some material on it if you have anything to recommend.
 

Sandy Dives

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Not to hijack the thread, but what made you choose Udemy over self-hosting? Trying to wrap my head around all of this.

I've done some research and though self-hosting is far more profitable as you get the whole sale for yourself, you need a big audience to sell your course to. I don't have thaat, and as far as I know Udemy offers to market your course for you, if it's good and people like it they'll show it to even more people and so on, all though, they take a pretty decent cut for doing this. So in my eyes, it's a good way to build a follower base while still getting paid for it when starting out. All though don't take my word for it as I haven't testet it yet.
 
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Guest1413tpa

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I've done some research and though self-hosting is far more profitable as you get the whole sale for yourself, you need a big audience to sell your course to. I don't have thaat, and as far as I know Udemy offers to market your course for you, if it's good and people like it they'll show it to even more people and so on, all though, they take a pretty decent cut for doing this. So in my eyes, it's a good way to build a follower base while still getting paid for it when starting out. All though don't take my word for it as I haven't testet it yet.
Totally fine, this provides some clarity :) I have seen that people host on Udemy and their own self-hosted platform from time to time.
 

Lex DeVille

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Not to hijack the thread, but what made you choose Udemy over self-hosting? Trying to wrap my head around all of this.

To show another way people can make passive income for practically nothing. All you need is a cell phone. Even if you don't bring people Udemy will bring you some sales. But if you do bring customers, then Udemy promotes you a lot more, especially if you get those people to add early reviews. I have an in-depth gold thread on this on the Inside forums that covers all of this.

Awesome! Thank you for the answer! Do you have any tips / links on building an email list / leads? or getting people to "sign up" for the release of the course? I don't know how to do this and would gladly read / study some material on it if you have anything to recommend.

There's a million ways to build an email list. You could help people on this forum as much as possible, then later create something to help more but require an email sign up to get it. Post about it in a marketplace ad, or even in the Saturday marketplace thread if you're low on cash.

YouTube works well if you have something people want like a free email training. Post videos and link back to an email opt-in in the description. People will come.

Facebook Groups are an option if you spend time being valuable by answering questions in the right groups (groups where the members would want more of what you offer). Get known in those groups and people will want to follow you.

Ultimately, it comes down to two things:

1. Be a person of value so people turn to you
2. Give those people an opportunity to get more from you

That works to get email sign-ups and later it works to get people to take paid courses.
 
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Sandy Dives

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To show another way people can make passive income for practically nothing. All you need is a cell phone. Even if you don't bring people Udemy will bring you some sales. But if you do bring customers, then Udemy promotes you a lot more, especially if you get those people to add early reviews. I have an in-depth gold thread on this on the Inside forums that covers all of this.



There's a million ways to build an email list. You could help people on this forum as much as possible, then later create something to help more but require an email sign up to get it. Post about it in a marketplace ad, or even in the Saturday marketplace thread if you're low on cash.

YouTube works well if you have something people want like a free email training. Post videos and link back to an email opt-in in the description. People will come.

Facebook Groups are an option if you spend time being valuable by answering questions in the right groups (groups where the members would want more of what you offer). Get known in those groups and people will want to follow you.

Ultimately, it comes down to two things:

1. Be a person of value so people turn to you
2. Give those people an opportunity to get more from you

That works to get email sign-ups and later it works to get people to take paid courses.

I can see how this would work as you help above is really really helpful, thank you! I will start helping people in the niche I'm looking to teach in right away.

I was thinking I would write a medium article on somethig similar to get some attention, do you have any experience from that?
 

Lex DeVille

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I can see how this would work as you help above is really really helpful, thank you! I will start helping people in the niche I'm looking to teach in right away.

I was thinking I would write a medium article on somethig similar to get some attention, do you have any experience from that?

I have experience wasting my time with that.
 

Andy Black

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If you want to stay in your expertise you could do something like course on "little understood method of very well know version control software * ".
Search for things in programming world that are still confusing and solve them.

Second idea is a bit away from core programming but programming background could give you advantage.
Its basically no-code niche. All those click to build system that popped out recently are good target.
Courses about these do exists so there is competition but i think its worth looking into.

* ok, you know this method and some people reading this know this method
but since the course is not mine, i won't put a link to it, cause i don't want to spoil his niche with blatant copycats. Hope that's ok with you.
 

Lex DeVille

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If I wanted to teach anything to do with coding I would teach one beginner level general coding course on one language. Then I would branch into teaching how to build specific things using that coding language. There's a lot of instructors aiming for the high-level introductory stuff. But there's also a market for people who want to know how to do very specific things.

For instance, most of my courses teach how to do specific things on Upwork. Upwork actually isn't a great niche for Udemy, but targeting specific things people need help with is what makes the courses valuable.

Here's some examples related to software development and programming:
- How do I build a menu app for a restaurant?
- How can I code count-down timers for landing pages?
- How do I set up a MySQL database?

Those are random things related to programming. But they're specific is the point.

Random High Level Course Ideas (saturated)
- How to make origami
- How do I become an accountant
- How do I build a gaming laptop
- How do I get started with wood work

Niche Course Ideas
- How to make origami ducks
- How to make origami owls
- How to make origami tigers

- how to use quickbooks
- how to do cost accounting
- how to use pivot tables for accounting
- how to create a budget for a restaurant

- how to build the perfect fortnight laptop
- how to build the best twitch streaming laptop
- how to build a gaming laptop that grows with your skills

- how to build your first wood table
- how to build your first wood desk
- how to build a wood-frame murphy bed

People search for these things. Sometimes they search Google. Sometimes they search YouTube. And sometimes they search Udemy.

Even better if the specific thing you teach can be sold by the end user once they make it. Things that make people money tend to do well on Udemy.
 
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Sandy Dives

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Go find people who are complaining about the problem you can help them with, and help them where they are. Facebook groups, forums, quora, whatever.
> HOT TOPIC - How to use forums (and Facebook groups)

I joined a couple groups on Facebook yesterday, a guy was asking a question on what he should learn etc, and all the people replying was one-liners without any context, so I wrote a detailed nice answer and he answered "Wow! Thank you so much" and added me as a friend.

Going to message him later and ask how the learning is going and say that I'll be happy to answer any quesitons.

Not only does it feel good to actually help people, but I see how this can be a good opportunity to make people actually believe and see what value you can provide, and get some early adopters and feedback on lets say a course.

Awesome!
 

Sandy Dives

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If I wanted to teach anything to do with coding I would teach one beginner level general coding course on one language. Then I would branch into teaching how to build specific things using that coding language. There's a lot of instructors aiming for the high-level introductory stuff. But there's also a market for people who want to know how to do very specific things.

For instance, most of my courses teach how to do specific things on Upwork. Upwork actually isn't a great niche for Udemy, but targeting specific things people need help with is what makes the courses valuable.

Here's some examples related to software development and programming:
- How do I build a menu app for a restaurant?
- How can I code count-down timers for landing pages?
- How do I set up a MySQL database?

Those are random things related to programming. But they're specific is the point.

Random High Level Course Ideas (saturated)
- How to make origami
- How do I become an accountant
- How do I build a gaming laptop
- How do I get started with wood work

Niche Course Ideas
- How to make origami ducks
- How to make origami owls
- How to make origami tigers

- how to use quickbooks
- how to do cost accounting
- how to use pivot tables for accounting
- how to create a budget for a restaurant

- how to build the perfect fortnight laptop
- how to build the best twitch streaming laptop
- how to build a gaming laptop that grows with your skills

- how to build your first wood table
- how to build your first wood desk
- how to build a wood-frame murphy bed

People search for these things. Sometimes they search Google. Sometimes they search YouTube. And sometimes they search Udemy.

Even better if the specific thing you teach can be sold by the end user once they make it. Things that make people money tend to do well on Udemy.

Thanks! Awesome!

So I've started "building reputation" on some forums already, trying to actually help people.

I'm trying to decide on these 2:

- A course on a coding language or a how to use something in the programming niche like you said

- A course on how to structure you self learning and getting the job as a self-taught dev

I'm thinking about the last one, what do you think?
 

Andy Black

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I joined a couple groups on Facebook yesterday, a guy was asking a question on what he should learn etc, and all the people replying was one-liners without any context, so I wrote a detailed nice answer and he answered "Wow! Thank you so much" and added me as a friend.

Going to message him later and ask how the learning is going and say that I'll be happy to answer any quesitons.

Not only does it feel good to actually help people, but I see how this can be a good opportunity to make people actually believe and see what value you can provide, and get some early adopters and feedback on lets say a course.

Awesome!
Great!

Did you listen to the first of these calls?
 
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Andy Black

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Kid

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getting the job as a self-taught dev
This has potential.

And thought cross my mind: in recent times there is strong push on turning people into programmers so they can get better job.

Maybe you could appeal to that market?
 

Sandy Dives

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This has potential.

And thought cross my mind: in recent times there is strong push on turning people into programmers so they can get better job.

Maybe you could appeal to that market?

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too.
 

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