How to Create Your Udemy Course

How To Create A Successful & Profitable Course on Udemy

1. Create an Outline of Your Course Content

1. Choose the right topic – You can either pick a topic which you are specialized in or you can check out the popular courses which are available on Udemy and choose a topic accordingly. In both the cases, you will find numerous available courses on Udemy. Watch, learn, analyze and, think what is that one thing which you can offer that will make your course better or different than all the other courses.

2. Identify your audience, determine the level of the course, whether the course is a beginner’s course or is an advanced course and, set goals for yourself and for your audience.

3. Pick a Captivating Title: it’s very crucial to have a course title which is catchy, short and descriptive. Optimize your title for keyword research, that will ensure that you will have a higher ranking in search results. Also, decide how will you break down all the lessons and pick a title for each section accordingly.

4. Decide the format for the Body of the Course: Set out a plan on how will you break down all the lessons and pick a title for each section accordingly. On Udemy, You can teach in 6 different formats: Text, video, presentations, Audio, document, and mashup. Mashup (Video and Presentation) is the most recommended of the formats.  

Recommendation:

Some Recommendations:

  1. Use 60% video for your course creation as it engages all the sensory senses and is the most engaging way of interaction.
  2. Keep the length of each lesson between 2 -10 minutes.
  3. Every lecture must have an introduction and conclusion which explains what this lecture is all about and what will they gain in the end.
  4. Build a rapport with the audience, and engage. You can always do a quiz ups between lectures to make it engrossing and interactive.

Once you are finished with the above steps, Upload a test video on Udemy explaining your course and its material to receive a feedback on your course. You can always incorporate the assessment in your final course outline.

2. Produce Your Content

To give your audience a spectacular and phenomenal feeling, it’s important that the quality of your lectures excellent and pleasing.

1. Video Recording and quality: Your video has to be in 720p HD to publish your course in Udemy. To record in 720p HD, you can use your smartphone (cross check on google search), camera, tablet or DSLR. Ensure that 720p format has a resolution of 1280×720 or an aspect ratio of 16:9. For screen recording and editing, I recommend you to use Camtasia. It’s simple and easy to use and anybody with a non-technical background can use it. Prepare a script and rehearse a few times before you press the record button.

Harsh Agrawal, uses Camtasia for all his recordings.

2. Audio Recording and Quality: For audio, use a quality microphone and make sure that the voice is clear, crisp, and the background is free of any noise.

3. Perfect Your Content

After you are done with the above steps, you have already completed 80% of your course. However, the rest 20% of your course i.e. the sales page of your course will be the major factor in deciding the success of your course. Without a good and effective landing page, it would be impossible for you to create a niche in the market and attract a potential audience.

The landing page constitutes four major portion

1. Course Image: The Course image is present on the top left-hand corner of your page. You can get an awesome landing page designed from Odesk or Fiverr at a very nominal rate.

2. Course Summary: This is the most important section which highlights what will a student learn if he proceeds with the course. Clearly define the objectives of the course in first few lines, focus on the problem that your course aims to solve, reason why your course is different than the already available courses, and keep it easy and simple to understand.

Bonus Tip: Try to use bullet points as much as possible as it is will make the summary easy to read and understand.

3. Author Profile: This is where you tell your potential readers about yourself. It’s recommended to have a detailed author profile as this can increase your CTR, and thus ensure better conversions. Explain why are you qualified to teach this course,  and mention your past related works and clients. This will help you in building an authority and gaining the trust of your readers. Here is one such author profile from Udemy

4. Promo Video: Udemy advises to keep the promo video precise (2-3 min) and simple. Highlight all the important aspects of your course, and don’t forget to include a call-to-action at the end of the video. I recommend you to make a promo video once you have finalized all other sections of your course.

Lastly, decide on the pricing of the course. Offer a value for money course. I will cover the pricing part in detail, in upcoming article in this series, as it’s the most vital part for the success of your course.

Once you submit the course, Your course will be evaluated by the Udemy team based on their Course Quality Checklist based on which they will send you recommendations and suggestions.

Congratulations! You are now an instructor on Udemy.