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How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

leerob.io

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Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#11

Post by leerob »

ansq wrote: post #10
leerob wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's how I look at it. You're absolutely right you can learn everything on your own––but how long would it take? How much is your time worth? Is $100 for five hours of video worth the years of experience the author might have? For me, it is.

+1. You can easily turn 10 hours of connecting the dots into 2 hours with the right materials. Though in my experience, the courses on Udemy/Udacity and the like have been disappointing. I always get the feeling that they're trying to fill up time, and they tend to move really slowly. I've had more luck with books being very useful.

I have mixed feelings about Udemy. On one hand, it's a large platform with lots of interested customers. On the other, courses are often heavily discounted and priced very low. 50+ hours of content for $20? You have to treat your audience like they're both smart and busy. I don't have time for that. I'd rather pay $100 for 5 hours of good content.

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#12

Post by bdcravens »

BossingAround wrote: post #2

To me, it's counter-intuitive that people would pay $100 for a course on such a niche topic such as NextJS. My experience with these courses is that they provide all that's available for free (typically docs), but nicely packaged and with videos. And, especially if it is on a custom platform like this one, I'd be worried about them being kept up to date.

There's the obvious time savings, but to me there's additional value. Docs tend not to be learning focused, and you'll end up reading a lot that doesn't matter for your desired result. We get paid for business objectives, not framework knowledge. Additionally, there's so much docs don't cover, in terms of standard opinions and best practices (eg, "Where the f* should I put this file?!") that experienced practitioners can guide you.

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#13

Post by bdcravens »

leerob wrote: post #5
dagmx wrote: post #4

I had a similar experience with putting a course on udemy. Made about $4k in the first month and $400-500 per month after. Completely passive income with no advertising and just word of mouth

Very impressive, nice work. What was the course and would you recommend Udemy?

What made you choose your own site vs Udemy? I'm interested in my own courses, but I know that Udemy comes with a built in audience (with the understanding that the prices they charge are pretty much highway robbery for course creators)

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#15

Post by leerob »

bdcravens wrote: post #14

You say it took about 6 months, but what would you say that actual time outlay for the course creation itself was?

I had the idea in October and started creating in November. Made the first video, launched a pre-order, and worked on the content until January. The course went live in February.

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#16

Post by leerob »

bdcravens wrote: post #12
BossingAround wrote: post #2

To me, it's counter-intuitive that people would pay $100 for a course on such a niche topic such as NextJS. My experience with these courses is that they provide all that's available for free (typically docs), but nicely packaged and with videos. And, especially if it is on a custom platform like this one, I'd be worried about them being kept up to date.

There's the obvious time savings, but to me there's additional value. Docs tend not to be learning focused, and you'll end up reading a lot that doesn't matter for your desired result. We get paid for business objectives, not framework knowledge. Additionally, there's so much docs don't cover, in terms of standard opinions and best practices (eg, "Where the f * should I put this file?!") that experienced practitioner…

100% agreed. I always prefer a real-world approach like building an application from start to finish.

A great example of docs I found recently was RedwoodJS: https://redwoodjs.com/tutorial

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#17

Post by leerob »

bdcravens wrote: post #13
leerob wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very impressive, nice work. What was the course and would you recommend Udemy?

What made you choose your own site vs Udemy? I'm interested in my own courses, but I know that Udemy comes with a built in audience (with the understanding that the prices they charge are pretty much highway robbery for course creators)

You can't contact your customers via email through Udemy. My customers are my audience and having an email list is crucial. After I found Gumroad, it was a no-brainer to use their platform.

The course site is basically just a marketing page. There's information about the course, some blog posts, and the ability to pay. That's it.

The biggest advantage of Udemy is its audience. How much are you willing to sacrifice for using Udemy to gain an audience? I'd argue you should build the audience first, then sell the product.

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#18

Post by genofon »

It's a great project, I would only make a small correction... What the author* calls profit still includes all the time and effort you put in: building an audience, creating the course, building a reputation, marketing, etc.. Just to make people understand that it's a lot of hard work and taking that not consideration the ROI is much lower.

*small correction: you->the author

Re: How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online

#19

Post by leerob »

genofon wrote: post #18

It's a great project, I would only make a small correction... What the author* calls profit still includes all the time and effort you put in: building an audience, creating the course, building a reputation, marketing, etc.. Just to make people understand that it's a lot of hard work and taking that not consideration the ROI is much lower. *small correction: you->the author

That's a good point to call out. Building an audience and establishing credibility takes time and effort. You pay an upfront cost, but having an audience will pay dividends in the future.
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