Digital Marketer, AI Consultant, Published Author, ClickFunnels and Kit Specialist
In today’s digital landscape, visuals aren’t just important—they’re essential. Content creators across blogs, social media, marketing materials, and educational resources face the constant challenge of finding high-quality images that won’t break the bank.
The Revenue Road Starts It took me awhile to finish writing this post as July of 2016 marked my 2nd year on Udemy as an instructor now with 9 courses. The post I wrote back in September of 2014 on hitting my first $100 on Udemy continues to be popular. I thought that I would take the time to talk about my journey along the way and what I have been doing since then. I’ll break down my Udemy related revenue streams at the end of this post. I like many others starting on Udemy wondered what my next step was after publishing my first course which was about WordPress marketing. I started digging around and came across websites that allowed you to promote your course by submitting a coupon to the site. That gave me an idea and in October of 2014 I started the website Online Course Coupons which is a site to help instructors promote their courses. It was a place that instructors could get their courses promoted and I would take a small cut of the revenue as an affiliate of Udemy. I also compiled a list “Course Marketing Checklist” that remains popular to this day and is a list of other sites like mine and started the Facebook Group “The Online Course Promotion Group: Featuring Udemy, Skillshare and more!” where instructors can market their courses and learn about other marketing advice. The checklist became so popular with other instructor that I decided to turn it into 2 courses “Udemy Course Marketing: Increase Your Success” which is a starter course and “Udemy Marketing: Where to Promote Course Coupons”. Both courses offer instructors information on where to share their course coupons and how and have great reviews. “Udemy Live” Road Trip To San Francisco I took a road trip in late June to San Francisco from Idaho to attend Udemy Live and came back full of lifetime memories. I arrived into San Francisco on a Thursday evening a little earlier and picked up Dragoş Ștefănescu who came in from Romania. It was the first time meeting him in person but felt like we knew each other for years. We had a fun adventure getting lost on the streets of San Francisco on the way to pick up Jack Wilson at San Francisco International Airport and not knowing the GPS was set in biking mode. I had a great time sharing a room with friend and Udemy Fitness instructor Jack Wilson. Both Jack and I hung out the first night and stayed up late enjoying Idaho beer with popular TOGAF Udemy instructor Scott Duffy. If you are new to Udemy make sure you check out his Udemy SEO course and his course on protecting your own courses from piracy. Meeting new instructors like Ravinder Deol the “Bitcoin Expert” I think has helped me build relationships that go way beyond online course creation and Udemy. Plus I got to meet instructors I knew through Facebook and Skype for the first time in person. That included Brandon Hakin, Dave Espino, Diego Davila, Jeremy Deighan, Jasper Ribbers, Joe Parys, Laurel Papworth, Phil Ebiner “Video School Online” and several others. These are people that have a common goal in life and that is enjoying teaching others their passions so we can change the world and at the same time change our own lives. Keeping Focused On The Road Like a lot of Udemy instructors my revenue has dropped since Udemy’s price change back in April of this year. However I have been trying to remain positive by being creative by generating new revenue sources, creating new content while interviewing instructors and sharing their stories, answers instructor questions with “Ask Dennis“, grown my YouTube Channel to 660 subscribers, marketing my current courses and building my mailing list with ConvertKit. I had to completely shut down my website One Buck Courses which generated a lot of traffic and revenue as you would expect. I got the idea for the site after seeing several website that promoted Kindle books for a buck. I thought why not do the same with courses since we as instructors could discount down to one dollar. I already knew several instructors because I had also started a popular Facebook Group “The Online Course Promotion Group: Featuring Udemy, Skillshare and more!” with almost 4,000 members that allows instructors to promote their courses. That meant it was easy to build site that offered hundreds of courses for just a dollar. But I lost that revenue since after April the lowest price an instructor could discount their courses was $10. But still that’s not a bad price when you consider the value one gets from learning a new skill online. However it seemed like the bottom fell out and Udemy revenue came to what seemed like a halt. I have to fight off procrastination and even had to start a job which I quit because I couldn’t deal with people on the phone. But I have found a seasonal job to help cover the bills as I continue working on finding my path. I might not be rich at this point but I’m rich from the experiences I have experienced and the people I’ve met along the way. That is what I am most grateful for because we all work together to make our lives more rich. [convertkit form=4900669] The Revenue Streams I will admit that there are other instructors that have earned more revenue on Udemy than I have by far. But I’m in it for the long haul while others have already left looking for the next shiny object. Here is a little background of where my revenue related to Udemy comes from. There are a few places my revenue comes from and one of those is affiliate marketing through several websites, social media and email marketing. The biggest stream of revenue is the affiliate marketing through Online Course Coupons and Free Course Daily which I started after shutting down One Buck Courses due to Udemy’s price change.…
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This is a replay of the live broadcast with Dennis J. Smith and Matt Bernstein. Please click to view the courses of the Udemy Instructors featured in this Blab. Sponsored By:
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Dennis J. Smith, Teresa Greenway , and Matt Bernstein. Please click to view the courses of the Udemy Instructors featured in this Blab. Sponsored By:
NEW: Take My ConvertKit Course on Udemy The only course on ConvertKit on Udemy is available now and co-taught with my friend and top Udemy instructor Phil Ebiner. I hope you will enroll in the course and learn about ConvertKit and the success both Phil and I have had in growing our mailing list. I recommended ConvertKit to Phil earlier this year and asked him to teach this course with me. We have over 2,700 students taking the course since it launched early March 2016 and the reviews have been very favorable. Scroll down to ready my earlier post on why I switched to ConvertKit last year. Plus my offer to help you get ConvertKit setup when you make the switch too. Enroll Now Enroll In ConvertKit Course Read more on why I love ConvertKit… I have been using the MailChimp Forever Free plan for at least a few years now and have build a following of over 3000 subscribers. That means that my plan is no longer free and I just recieved a bill from MailChimp for $50. That’s not actually bad considering I have paid for using their service up until now. But my focus has shift and I want something that helps me grow my revenue. But it was time to explore different options because my business is growing. Updated: My Subscriber numbers jumped after launching my new book “Udemy Life” in April 2016 I had been recommending MailChimp to those who follow me on social media because it was free until my list passed 2,000 subscribers in 2015 and is now nearing 3,000 if you combine subscribers from all my list. Because I run several websites each one has a different list and lead magnet to entice signups. I made the switch and took part of my mailing list to ConvertKit in late November and have been seeing much better engagement results. Now I’m moving my Udemy Instructor mailing list off MailChimp and onto ConvertKit and will only keep my smaller list on MailChimp. The screen capture above is a graph of my subscribers on ConvertKit over the last 30 days. You can see that I am averaging about 5 new subscribers each day and on pace to add almost 2,000 new subscribers this year! Just imagine what ConvertKit can do for your business by adding new potential customers. Here are the main reasons why I moved by list to ConvertKit. Simple It’s really easy to get started with ConvertKit and create your first form, import a list from MailChimp or other email marketing sites and sending out your first message which is called “Broadcast” on ConvertKit. It is also very easy to create what they call “Courses” and automate your list by creating a sequence of messages spaced out over several days. ConvertKit already lays that sequence out for you. All you have to do is fill it in with your own information and then switch each message to “Published” and then save the changes. Plus you can drag and drop your messages and rearrange them to where they work best in the sequence. Subscriber Count Most probably don’t know it but MailChimp counts subscribers each time they show up in of your list. That means if you are like me and have several list it is possible to have the same person in more than one list. If “Joe Smith” is in 3 out of your 5 list that you maintain, he would be counted as 3 subscribers by MailChimp. That means you could possibly be hitting that 2,000 subscribers in the “Free Forever” plan a lot sooner than you might expect. But with ConvertKit if you have 5 list and “Joe Smith” subscribes to 4 out of 5 of those list, Joe would only be counted once. Potentially saving you a lot of money if you have a large list and switch from MailChimp to ConvertKit. Support Support is super easy and build right into ConvertKit. It typically takes a few hours to get a reply and sometimes can take up to a day. I recommend that you check it out and start building your own list in 2016. It has a 30-Day Return Policy and plans start off at just $29.99 for 1,000 subscribers. Right now I’m adding over 40 new subscribers about every 7 days between my lists. Remember if you aren’t satisfied you can always export your mailing list and move to another provider. But I don’t think you’ll get the same results as you will with ConvertKit. Start converting students to revenue by building your own mailing list with ConvertKit! Sign Up for ConvertKit Here! If you move to ConvertKit let me know and I’ll give you 45 minutes of my time on Skype to help you get started setting things up! Really, I want to help you earn more this year so don’t forget to contact me if you become an ConvertKit customer and if you enroll in my ConvertKit course on Udemy.
Are you the type that is always looking for new business ideas? How about generating more revenue online. Maybe you are like me and tired of working for someone else. Below are 5 Udemy courses you should consider taking that will help you with your success as an entrepreneur. Learn & Earn: Make Passive Income Selling eBooks & Courses Learn how to make passive income each month by selling courses on Udemy.com and eBooks with Amazon.com. The course has over 45 lectures and 5 hours of video that teach you how to create a blog, email marketing, creating information products and more. Take This Course How to Make $5,000 / Month for Life: 2-Hour Digital Products In this course you can learn how to create digital information product to earn passive income. Learn about naming product, pricing, launching product and more. Take This Course Fiverr Success; Fast and Easy Guide to Making Money on Fiverr Fiverr is a great place for any entrepreneur to locate affordable services to grow their business. I use it myself for things like logo design, video services and more. It also is a great way to promote your own services and make extra income. Awesome! If You Want To Make Some Cash Today, Get This Course! Take This Course Boost Your Productivity NOW: Advice From A Teen Entrepreneur Learn how to have better daily routines for a more productive day with advice from a teenage entreprenuer. This course will show you why you should wake up and start your day earlier, finding more time in your day and tips on boosting your overall productivity. Great Tips for Achieving Success! Whether you are a student, an employee or an entrepreneur this course is a must have to everyone. This will surely help you stay in focus and tick your to do lists in a more organised way. Take This Udemy Course How to Write, Design, Publish & Sell Ebooks Online for Free Take this course and get yourself self-published with your own book. I wrote my first best-selling book a few years ago and am currently working on my 2nd book. Writing a book makes you an instant authority of the subject matter you write about. When you write a book others see you as an expert and from that comes speaking gigs, consulting and more. Take This Course Sign-up for my Online Course Coupons Newsletter and be notified when Udemy or the instructor is discounting the above courses and for more Udemy course discounts each week. I Want To Save On Udemy Courses