TL;DR: I migrated my self-hosted course to Udemy and made $942.59 from the launch.
Revenue from the launch
I launched a Udemy course on March 27th, 2014 and generated $942.59 in a span of 24 hours.
The course was originally self-hosted, using WordPress, but I decided to wind down the site and host it elsewhere. I watched Udemy grow as a driving force in the online education space and made the decision to move to their platform.
The course was for a niche market that wasn’t covered very well in day trading. Most trading courses try to sell you on a bulletproof system, but those systems are all but that. They rarely adapt to market conditions and are taught by a “guru” that has their followers piggyback on trades. This makes the stock move in the direction that was “expected” since so many people are following this “guru”!
Trader education should be based on risk management and toolsets, not a system that will “get you rich by following it”. But I digress…
The key to creating a successful educational course is to provide GREAT VALUE at a reasonable cost while eliminating risk for potential prospects.
Udemy offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of their courses. This eliminates potential risk for prospects because they can get their money back if they don’t feel like they were provided enough value.
Coupon codes were a huge factor in the success of the launch. Coupon codes allowed prospects to feel like they were getting a deal on the course, hence enticing them to make the purchase.
Along with being a great sales tool, the coupon codes provided me with data of where customers were coming from. This allowed me to focus on those distribution channels for continued growth.
Anyways, I launched my course on Udemy and this is what I did to make $942.59 in less than 24 hours.
Mailing List
I previously ran a trading/stock market blog that had a decent following. I had grown the email list to about ~1,000 subscribers before I shut the blog down.
The week before I shut it down, I had transferred the course from a WordPress site to Udemy. I emailed the list with a coupon code that was only active for 24 hours. The email stated that the site was shutting down and they can get the course at a discount… but they must act quick.
YouTube
I had a few YouTube videos from when I was running the blog and updated their descriptions with a coupon code. The descriptions stated they can purchase the course if they want to learn more about Tape Reading.
This was a great distribution channel since it provided value without any cost to the end user, gave a preview of what they would learn with the course, and allowed myself to be exposed to prospects that wouldn’t have come across the course otherwise.
Reviews
I gave FREE coupon codes to customers that had previously purchased the course. I asked them to provide honest feedback and leave an honest review on Udemy. Reviews give social proof to potential prospects which would influence their purchase decision.
Slideshare
I uploaded the presentation of the course to Slideshare and provided a coupon code for those that are interested. The presentation alone generated a lot of value, but if they wanted to view the video content they would have to purchase the course.
The core aspect of the course are the videos where I break down certain setups and techniques. You would not be able to gather that information with the presentation alone.
Scribd
NOTE: Scribd has since changed their platform. They used to host PDFs for public viewing.
Just like I uploaded the presentation to Slideshare, I did the same using Scribd but with the eBook that comes with the course. I also included a coupon code for all prospects that were interested.
Coupon Sites, Reddit, and Trader Forums
Seeding out the course to multiple forums and coupon sites provided a great return on time investment. I provided coupon codes to coupon sites like RetailMeNot. In my experience, prospects look for a discount on a course they’re looking to purchase or look for a free download of the course.
Besides seeding to coupon sites, I also provided FREE content on Reddit (trading-related subreddits) and trader forums. Along with the free content that provided value, I also gave them a coupon code to purchase the course at a discount.
Blackhat Sites and Forums
Blackhat sites tend to have great SEO rankings if they haven’t been blacklisted by Google. This should be turned into a distribution channel used to your advantage, especially if you can’t get them to take down your material.
I’m not a fan of Blackhat sites since they are essentially stealing from hard-working individuals by posting download links to their material. I tried offsetting this by commenting on threads related to my course, or others in the same category, with a substantial discount to the course if they purchased it.
Sure, there’s value in an illegally downloaded course, but having access to the educator of the course for any questions is an added bonus for paying for content.
Amazon
I updated the description for the eBook on Amazon with a coupon code to purchase the course at a discount.
The real value of the course is in its videos, but Amazon’s marketplace is a great distribution channel to upsell prospects that are looking for more information than what a book provides.
Social Media
Twitter was a great distribution channel because their search feature is top-notch. I tweeted a coupon code targeting specific keywords that prospects might search.
Along with Twitter, I posted coupon codes in targeted Facebook Groups.
The key to Facebook Groups was to provide them valuable and actionable content. I created a few posts with my YouTube videos and the first chapter of the course PDF. Each of the posts had a comment with a coupon code if they were interested in learning more. I also answered any questions that related to the topic at hand.
Manual Outreach
I emailed every prospect that had previously shown interest with a coupon code and told them it will only be active for the next 24 hours. This was huge because they had already shown interest in the course, but for whatever reason did not pull the trigger on purchasing.
Conclusion
Udemy Sales
The launch was successful in terms of return on time investment and continued success of the course months after. Migrating the course to Udemy from being self-hosted didn’t take much effort, mostly because I outsourced the task to a virtual assistant.
Overall, Udemy has been a great platform due to their marketplace, promotions/marketing efforts, and their search engine rankings (SEO). The organic traffic, both from their marketplace and from search engines, has been a huge part of the continued success of the course.
Their platform is top-notch and I look forward to creating more valuable courses in the future.
P.S.: Udemy wrote about my marketing efforts here, check it out!