Can I earn Money by selling web design courses?

Emilio

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Hello guys, I want to know if it is possible to make money by creating and starting a web design courses like some sites that I saw on the forum or banner ads? If yes, then please someone tell me about the process? I'll be highly obliged to you!
 

Mike001

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Emilio,

Yes there is opportunity there. There is also a lot of competition and a pretty extensive outlay of cash to get started, mostly in software. The recording software and the hardware for the sound and video can be pricey. Depending upon what you are looking to do.

I have been doing it for about 10 years now. The reason that I started was to give my students, I teach at a University in my spare time, the opportunity to pick up areas of web development on their own that are not taught in the classroom. That has expanded to many different areas now as I usually update my videos, about once year if the material has changed.

The key is to stay current with the newer "Best Practices" and focus on quality not quantity. That is where my courses beat the hell out of the Udemy's, Lynda and Total Training courses that are out there. I spend about 20 hours a week responding to emails on questions on my classes from the purchasers. None of the big vendors come anywhere near that level of support. I can attest to that first hand.

I was a member of the Lynda network for over three years, took over a hundred of their classes and honestly never had good customer support from the instructors. The Lynda network responded well to question on their system, but as far as course questions on course content, the responses were really bad, when I received responses at all. Most of their instructors write and record the classes and then they are done. Also I had a big issue with the exercise files that they produce, many of them do not work.

Udemy, they have a lot of classes and some of them are pretty good, but again instructor response not very good and very delayed in responding to course questions. Once example was a question I submitted, and it was a relatively simple question, took 4 weeks to get a response and then the response was incorrect. Udemy can also get expensive, since each course is individually priced. Plus you have to stream the course from their website and the site has been known to have issues with bogging down with too many users. One of the other things that bothered me was the constant barrage of emails from that site. Once you enroll in a class you begin receiving emails, sometimes 5 to 10 per day on classes both from the Udemy Team and the instructors trying to push their other classes. I opted out many times nut it seemed to make no difference.

Total Training had some good courses, but again you are streaming from their site and they were kind of expensive on a per course fee. Now I understand that they have recently changed that model and gone to a subscription based model but I haven't used them under that new system so it would be unfair to comment on that new model.

Sorry for the length of this but I thought I would give you what I had gathered over the last few years.

You will never get rich running a training site, if you take it seriously and want you customers to succeed in their training, it takes a lot of time and effort. But if you enjoy training, and I really enjoy it, we are not in it to make money, just break even if we can. Sometimes event that can be a challenge.

I spend about 10 to 12 hours for every hour on content that I produce. For example, I just finished a 24+ hour course on BootStrap 3. That course took me about 6 months to develop. It covers all the important aspects of BootStrap 3 and how to successfully deploy a BootStrap website. The course was requested from my customers. Trying to keep it priced where most of them could afford it, I priced it at $25.00. It will take me years to break even on that course. But the customers love the course and I have received tremendous feedback on the content.

I hope this helps you out. If you have any specific questions, you can PM me, I will be glad to help you out if I can.
 

ulterios

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Yes you can earn money but as Mike pointed out above, there is lots of competition and it can get expensive if you aren't already setup to do it.

You have to figure in any needed expenses, your time, promotions including getting good advertising, plus lots of extra expenses that always seem to show their heads when you least expect it.

So, can you do it and make money at it? Yes, of course.

It will just depend on you, your abilities, your finances and your will to go out and find potential advertising locations and other means to find buyers.
 

Miguelito203

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Hello guys, I want to know if it is possible to make money by creating and starting a web design courses like some sites that I saw on the forum or banner ads? If yes, then please someone tell me about the process? I'll be highly obliged to you!
I had an opinion as soon as I read this but did a quick keyword search using the Google keyword planner tool (and thought of another issue). Firstly, those keywords (and related ones) don't get a lot of traffic -- in comparison to what I'm used to seeing in a really profitable market. Secondly, if you're going to do that, you really have to brand yourself. With all of the competitors in the space, you're really going to have to differentiate your program. It's going to be a bit of an uphill climb. I should also mention that this isn't really my space, but these are things that jumped out at me.

Joey
 

WebmasterPhil

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Might as well try selling your courses on Udemy. There's competition everywhere but at least Udemy has a large marketplace specifically for people who are willing to pay for courses. Another way is to build a list then pitch your courses to your subscribers.
 

Mike001

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The problem with Udemy is the percentage the instructors receive for their classes, which is very low, and the lack of support for the training from the instructors. Take a couple of their courses and you will see what I mean. I also have a real problem with the streaming of the classes. Sometimes it is nice to have the movies with you to watch on your iPad in a plane or wherever.

Udemy has been after me for years to move some of my training to their portal, I will not do it because I lose control of MY material. That material belongs to me, not Udemy and I am not going to surrender my right to the material to anyone especially an entity that takes the majority of the profits, leaves little for the instructors who have developed all the work. I may reach a much larger audience with them, that is probably true, but if I can't offer the same type of support to my users, I will sacrifice the additional sales, if there were going to be any.

If you offer good quality material, keep it up to date and focus on serving your users, you can do fine. You will never get rich, but you will do fine.
 

WebmasterPhil

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How much percentage do Udemy take? I'm not an instructor there but I have taken some courses at Udemy.

There's going to be some costs regardless of the methods or platform. Whether it's on your own website, or through some established marketplace, such as eBay, Amazon, etc, there's going to be some cost in some form or fashion.

I've sold stuff on eBay and they take an unreasonable slice of my profits, but it's an established marketplace with people ready to buy. I tried selling the same stuff on my own eCommerce website, and I've spent quite a bit of money on SEO and PPC. I didn't get the results I wanted nor the conversions this way.
 

ulterios

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ulterios
Udemy takes 50% for the most part in most their sales. There are some exceptions but most things and situations will fall into this category.

You are right in that there are going to be costs regardless, but 50% is a bit much for most people to be happy with. There are even some situations where Udemy gets 75%!

The other thing to think about, which is probably why a lot of people use their platform, is the fact that people are going there looking for something they sell/provide so there is a chance for many people to get lots of exposure without having to market or advertise.

Myself, i'd rather advertise in the right spots and get a bigger chunk of cash! ;)
 

GarryS

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Fantastic idea to earn money. I think yes you can earn. Because if you tutorials is good many users will come out for sure.
 

Rockk

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Might as well try reselling your training on Udemy. There's competition everywhere although at least Udemy contains a large spot specifically for people who are willing to pay to obtain courses. Another way is to develop a list therefore pitch the courses on your subscribers.
 
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