If you have any type of talent, skill, or special knowledge you can create a simple course on the largest marketplace for training videos known as Udemy and make some cash. This post will cover how to create a Udemy course including how to get started, the best topics to create a course about, and the tools you need to make your first course. I’m going to do a quick case study on what I did and how you can replicate my success with any niche.
What is Udemy?
Udemy is the largest marketplace for online training videos. You can sign up as instructor, upload your course, and start generating sales within a short amount of time. The site features training for just about any topic you can think of but focuses mainly on Web, Marketing, and IT related training.
How Can You Make Money With Udemy?
The method is simple…create a video course, upload it to Udemy, set your price and watch the dollars start rolling in. It’s not quite a simple as that, but the point is to just get started. Do some brainstorming and determine what things you have knowledge with and what you could create a course around. Another positive of Udemy is the amount of traffic the site receives and the potential audience of your material. It can be great way to extend your brand awareness and capture new people interested in what you are about.
Popular Udemy Topics for Inspiration
Hopefully you have a few ideas to create a course around….but if not here are some of the most popular recent course topics that have a lot of sales. Take a look at see if this gives you any ideas…
- Web Development
- Digital Marketing
- Computer Programming
- Music Production
- Photography
- Health and Fitness
- Arts and Crafts
- Office Productivity
- Interior Design
- Real Estate
There is probably a course for just about anything you can think of on Udemy. The categories with the most courses give you a good indication of what is making money. Just because there is competition doesn’t mean that you won’t be successful. You can browse all of the Udemy categories by visiting the main page and clicking on ‘categories’.
How to Create a Udemy Course That is Engaging
For people that are learning to do something new, having a step by step course is very helpful. You want to assume that the person that has signed up for your course knows nothing about the topic and that they are a complete newbie.
The first step in creating your Udemy course is to layout your coursework and the topics that you will cover. This is your ‘curriculum’ that students will follow to learn from. If you look at one of the courses I created below on how to build a WordPress site, you can see I created main categories in a logical order that breakup the material into shorter sections.
Example:
- Section 1: Getting Started
- Section 2: Research and Planning
- Section 3: Domains
- Section 4: Hosting
- Section 5: Installation and Configuration
- Section 6: Design
- Section 7: Building
- Section 8: Updating and Maintenance
- Section 9: Marketing
- Section 10: Ways to Make Money with Your Site
- Section 11: How to Move Forward
- Section 12: BONUS Topics
You always should have a starting section that is an introduction and welcome message and then describe how the course works and what they will be learning. From there you can break up the material into sections and make it bite-sized so your students don’t have to sit through long videos. My advice is to keep your videos in the 5-10 minute range so they can stop and start as they want…and also have the ability to go back and watch videos on topics they don’t fully understand. They will appreciate this very much…trust me! This is my #1 tip for an engaging course.
Other tips that make a Udemy course engaging include:
- Try to inject some humor and not be 100% serious
- Be real – if you don’t know a topic don’t try and fake it
- Site case studies as examples as proof that what you are teaching works AND that it is acheivable
- Make sure your video and audio are clear and easy to understand
- Be prompt and respond quickly when questions are asked by students
- Offer motivation and support both in your material and interaction directly
What Do you Need to Make Udemy Courses?
The only things you need are an outline of what you want to teach, a Udemy account, a way to create videos including the audio and video and time. I’ll quickly cover each of these things below…
- Outline of course – I gave you some ideas earlier in this article…you want to have this ready in notepad or a document that you can refer to and make notes on as you build your course. Just having a course outline is enough to get started, and often you will find that it will change and evolve as you get into creating videos.
- Udemy account – You can signup at Udemy.com. If you are a new instructor I highly recommend that you read this section on their site.
- Screen capture software (video) – Most people create over the shoulder screen shot type videos for anything computer related. This is the best way for people to learn in my opinion as they can see it just as they would if they were doing it themselves. You should screen capture software like Camtasia…or a cheaper option like Screencast-O-Matic. I’ve used both and honestly Screencast-O-Matic works just as well as expensive options for creating most videos. The other option on creating videos is to use a webcam or video camera to record yourself doing something. If you are teaching a topic that does not involve sitting at a computer this may be your only option. You can browse Amazon for good video cameras or use a webcam on your computer if you just want to record yourself talking.
- Microphone (audio) – You an either use the microphone on your computer or video camera or use something more professional. For screen capture video I highly recommend buying a Blue Yeti or Snowball microphone. You can view Amazon here to find the best deals on Blue Mics. I personally use a Snowball model but the Yeti is a good choice as well.
- Time – Do you have time to spare to create a course? If you are completely new you will need to dedicate a set amount of time each week to record and upload videos. It took me a few weeks to create the course I referenced above in my spare time and it ended having over 50 videos.
Does Creating a Udemy Course Sound Like Something You Will Do?
You can make some good money creating courses but it does take work. You need to have something that you are passionate about and that you consider yourself to be an expert at. This post on How to Create a Udemy Course was intended to give you an idea of what is involved and how to get started. I’d love to hear your feedback on what you think about creating a udemy course, or if you have already started as an instructor and your results have been.