How I Turned an Idea into $7K by Teaching Online • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by dagmx » Sun, May 10, 2020, 2:42 AM UTC

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?

The course teaches Python for Autodesk Maya with a focus on teaching artists with no programming experience, how to make tools that will can be used in production.

Udemy is alright. The profit sharing rules cut you out of a lot unless you actively market, and they’re constantly on sale so you don’t make much per purchase. But it makes up for it in sheer volume. You also need to stand out amongst a lot of content because there’s a very low barrier for entry to meet the requirements to create a course.

Course link for the interested. https://www.udemy.com/course/python-for-maya/

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

#22

Post by BossingAround » Sun, May 10, 2020, 7:13 AM UTC

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 often go through these "amazing courses", everything makes sense, everything works, and then I'm unable to do anything other than what the course showed. So, I'm still forced to spend some hours outside of the course to really learn.

This 2-hour-course vs 10-hour-learning is a false dichotomy to me.

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

#23

Post by ansq » Sun, May 10, 2020, 7:48 AM UTC

BossingAround wrote: post #22

ansq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+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 often go through these "amazing courses", everything makes sense, everything works, and then I'm unable to do anything other than what the course showed. So, I'm still forced to spend some hours outside of the course to really learn. This 2-hour-course vs 10-hour-learning is a false dichotomy to me.

YMMV. I chose 'materials' instead of courses specifically since I've found books to be more useful.

A course, or any kind of structured learning, is just a foundation. I would still expect to spend hours outside of the course, but with a good background I can now search for more specific things than if I had started w/ a blank slate.

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

#24

Post by notechback » Sun, May 10, 2020, 7:56 AM UTC

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.

Another view might be that this means you are investing in the community behind it and some of the leading people who hopefully will help to ensure that the project lives on.

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

#25

Post by econcon » Sun, May 10, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

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 are always naysayers or people who simply do not believe your idea can potentially work.

I was there recently, some guys told me you can't make filament at home cheaper than what you can get from Amazon.

And then I made my own filament: https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-ho...

Now I am selling my filament on e-commerce websites under my own brand name and making good money, I'll clear $4000+ in sales this month alone.