Kate Anisimova
Educational platforms · 5 MIN · 20.09.2024
How to make and sell a course on Udemy
If you’ve come to this page, you probably have already set your mind on creating your course on Udemy. The good news is that it’s an easy place to start. The bad news is that it has limitations as with any other platform. In this article, we’ll break down the process of creating and publishing your course on Udemy.
Part one. Should I create a course on Udemy?
If it’s not the first article you’re reading trying to decide on Udemy, you’ve probably seen a lot of praise for the platform. But here’s the thing: Udemy is not for everyone. Like any platform, really. So, before you even start creating, it’s worth asking yourself the central question: why do you want to make your course?
If your goal is:
If your goal is:
- Create a single course and make a stable income out of it.
- Build your personal brand from scratch.
- Become a famous creator.
- Revolutionise education by creating something entirely new.
- Become a billionaire overnight.
Udemy is a competitive marketplace, so building a personal brand or a dedicated following may be tricky if you don’t have other mediums to promote your course. Your course could get lost among the hundreds of similar offerings, making it difficult to differentiate yourself.
Udemy has specific guidelines for course content, including quality requirements, video resolution, and course structure. You'll be fine if you plan to make a linear video course. But if you want some complex mechanics, like adaptive learning or gamification, Udemy might feel limiting.
Here are the most important guidelines to know before you start
- Udemy is a video course platform, so your course should have at least 30 minutes of video content in HD quality (at least, 720p).
- Longreads are fine as an additional source of information, but they won’t count in these 30 minutes.
- You need to have at least five separate lectures in your course.
- Audio should come from both channels and be clearly audible
Udemy is not perfect for highly specialised courses for a niche audience. The reason is – the Udemy search engine may not serve well if your course is hard to find. Later, we’ll talk a bit about how to choose your topic to get the most benefits out of the Udemy search.
Udemy regularly offers discounts on courses over which content creators have no influence. Even if you get consistent course enrolments, it wouldn’t necessarily mean getting a stable income.
How Udemy revenue share works
You’ll have to choose a price based on the ‘tier’ options Udemy offers. Based on your tier and current discounts, the price will fluctuate in a given range.
You’ll have to choose a price based on the ‘tier’ options Udemy offers. Based on your tier and current discounts, the price will fluctuate in a given range.
- If students use an instructor’s coupon or referral link to purchase their content, you'll receive 97% of the course revenue.
- Without the coupon, you’ll get 37% of revenue.
When to choose Udemy
- You want access to a large audience without additional marketing expensesUdemy has millions of active users globally, providing instant access to a large, diverse student base without needing to build your own audience from scratch.
- Your budget is lowUdemy allows you to create and publish courses with minimal upfront cost. You don't need to invest heavily in building your platform, handling payments, or making a marketing infrastructure.
- You’re creating your first courseUdemy’s platform is designed to be easy to use, even for beginners. It provides tools for course creation, content management, and student engagement, simplifying the technical side of course publishing.
- Your topic is broad yet specialisedUdemy is great for topics that appeal to a wide audience, such as programming, business, marketing, and personal development. These areas tend to attract a lot of students, and Udemy’s marketplace excels at promoting popular, widely-applicable skills.
- You want to build a credibilityUdemy’s review system and student engagement tools help you build credibility as an instructor. Positive reviews can significantly boost your visibility and reputation, making it easier to attract students for future courses.
Part two. How to find the niche for your Udemy course?
Creating a successful Udemy course starts with choosing the right niche. The idea is you need to stand out but not stand out too much so no one can find you. We hope it wasn’t too confusing. To simplify it even more:
- Too broad topics
- IT / Technical Support
- Digital Marketing
- Too niche topics
- Python Scripting for Raspberry Pi Weather Sensors
- Email Campaigns for Artisanal Bakeries in Northern France
- Potentially good topics
- Server Infrastructure
- Google Search Console
In other words, offer something specific, practical, and aligned with what students are actively searching for. The excellent news is that Udemy itself is ready to help you with this.
Explore Udemy categories
Udemy offers a lot of categories, each broken down into subcategories. For example, within the Development category, you’ll find subcategories like Web Development or Data Science. Inside each category, you’ll see popular topics.
Udemy regularly showcases trending and popular course topics. This can be a great way to identify subjects that are in high demand. Topics like Data Science, Digital Marketing, and Python Programming consistently perform well, but that doesn’t mean you need to compete directly.
Instead, focus on finding your niche within these broader subjects. For example, rather than just “Python Programming,” you could teach “Python for Financial Analysis” or “Python Automation for Beginners.”
Instead, focus on finding your niche within these broader subjects. For example, rather than just “Python Programming,” you could teach “Python for Financial Analysis” or “Python Automation for Beginners.”
Validate your course ideas with Udemy Marketplace Insights
Udemy’s Marketplace Insights tool is perfect for validating your course idea. To use it, create an instructor account and follow this link.
This is what the tool looks like.
Let’s say you want to create a course teaching CSS. To check the demand, type ‘CSS’ in the search bar.
As expected, there is a lot of competition in this area. To look for ideas on how to narrow it, scroll down to look at the related topics.
Let’s check the demand for ‘CSS Flexbox’. As you can see, the demand is high, and there are fewer courses available. It may be a good topic to start with.
Sometimes, you’ll see topics highlighted with stars.
As far as Udemy is concerned, these are the best ones. There is a high demand for them despite the low number of courses on the topic.
So, this is how ‘Market Insights’ can help you focus your Udemy course topic to correlate with the demand.
And now, last but not least.
And now, last but not least.
Stick to your strengths
It’s essential to focus on areas where you have expertise. Trending topics may present good market opportunities, but all of them would be worthless if you create your course on something you have little knowledge of and even less interest in.
Creating courses on platforms like Udemy requires balancing following the demand and making a good product. Because, after all, it’s your course and not the topic that resonates with students. This also builds your reputation over time, making it easier to expand into related niches later.
Creating courses on platforms like Udemy requires balancing following the demand and making a good product. Because, after all, it’s your course and not the topic that resonates with students. This also builds your reputation over time, making it easier to expand into related niches later.
Finding the right niche on Udemy involves a mix of research and understanding your strengths. By using tools like Marketplace Insights and exploring Udemy’s categories, you can find a topic that is specific, in demand, and perfectly suited to your skills. Focus on offering practical content in your chosen niche to ensure long-term success on the platform.
If you’re still unsure how to choose a topic or how to create your course, let us help you. Seturon is a team of passionate course developers. We help our clients through all the course production steps, from market research to assisting with publishing on the platform. Our created courses on Udemy reached 1.5k enrols in the first month.
If you need even more, we have our own LMS platform with many options for optimising and controlling your course revenue.
If you need even more, we have our own LMS platform with many options for optimising and controlling your course revenue.
- Kate AnisimovaLearning experience designerDesigned over 100 online courses, built four LX teams from scratch, and established educational standards for five companies. But who's counting?