How To Earn A Living
Selling Knowledge
The world today• Very expensive education system in
the US: $18,943 - $42,419 /y in ’14-’15
• Education costs is outpacing household income
• Total student debt is growing fast
• Traditional education is becoming unaffordable
• This creates a new market for cheap educational content
The world today• High unemployment• Financial experts predict
the next recession is imminent
• Automation removes more jobs than it creates
• In 9 years 30% of all jobs will be done by robots/computers
• Lifelong learning needed to stay employed
The world todayIdeal market for low-cost online education
Why am I doing this?• I want to reach Financial
Independence (FI)• This is when passive
income covers all my expenses
• I would no longer need to work - all work is for fun only
• Requires 0.8M$ - 1.5M$
• Essentially an unconditional basic income
Active income• What I had from 1995-2015• I get paid for the hours I
work
• I receive (almost) nothing when I’m not working
• Income maxes out at 176 hr/m
• Impossible to reach FI(requires 15 yrs at $100/m)
Passive income• What I have from 2015-today
• Requires unpaid up-front investment
• Income starts when I publish
• Small time investment needed to keep going
• No upper limit on income• FI usually attainable in
2-5 years by scaling out
Online teaching• This is passive income
• It takes about 3-4 weeks to produce a course
• $250-$500 per month
• 15 minutes per week aftercare
• Course survives for 2-5 years• FI in 3 years (best case)
What to teach?• Deep knowledge
• Wide knowledge
• Reframing existing knowledge
• Making knowledge accessible
• Summarise knowledge
• Compact How To’s
The marketBlue ocean:
• Empty market
• No competitors
• No content or quality requirements - anything goes
• Untested market
Red ocean: <— I am in here
• Crowded market• Fierce competition
• Content and quality needs USP’s to be noticed
• Proven market
My USP’s• 20 years IT experience
• 5 years teaching experience
• Lots of interests: IT, Marketing, Finance, Self-development…
• Deep & wide knowledge
• Make complicated topics accessible to beginners
• I can monetise my knowledge!
My Udemy strategy
• I go for volume: 9 courses in 12 months
• Every course is about an aspect of C# programming
• Each topic will stay in fashion for years
• Each course explains a complex topic to beginners and experts
• There will always be C# developers interested in these topics
My recording studioMacbook Pro, a towel to cancel echo, Quicktime
Pro, Audacity, Keynote, iMovie
But this is much better
Studio Lighting, Blue Yeti microphone with pop filter, iPhone on a tripod
My production workflow
• I start by writing a full transcript in Evernote
• I record audio with Quicktime Pro and clean with Audacity
• I play back the audio and record the screen with Quicktime Pro
• I mix everything together in iMovie
• I export in 720p mp4
write transcrip
t
record audio
record screen
mix in iMovie
Why so elaborate?• I never appear on camera!• Reading from a transcript
removes all “uuhs” and “ahhs”
• Ideal if you do not have a recording studio
• Very easy to add subtitles or translate a course
• Very easy to turn transcripts into blog/social media posts
write transcrip
t
record audio
record screen
mix in iMovie
How profitable is online teaching?
My income
€2000-€4000 per month, but growth has stalled since 02-2016
Course income
€250-€300 per course per month, with big spikes in November and December
Cross-selling
Sell new courses to existing studentsGood strategy if overall topic stays the same
Student loyalty• 4 out of 5 are loyal
students
• 9% in all courses
• 68% in 3+ courses
• 82% in 2+ courses
• 18% in only 1 course
Course price
• I sell at €100
• Almost no one on Udemy pays full price
• Mostly $9 and $10 discounts
• Slow shift to $14 - $24
full price
Sales channels• Commission is 3% - 75%
depending on channel
• My best channels are instructor and organic
• 52.3% average commission
• Udemy is an expensive platform!
50%
97%
25%
25%
Sales commission
My target: keep it below 50%
So why Udemy?• Ideal when you’re starting
with no clients, reputation & list
• Huge market: 10M+ students
• They do hosting, sales and marketing for you
• You can do profitable cross-selling campaigns
Why not Udemy?• Very expensive:
commission can go up to 75%
• No control over marketing & sales campaigns
• No squeeze page
• You don’t own the student
• Big restrictions on e-mail marketing
and this month…• All prices are now $20-$50• Maximum allowed discount
is now 50%
• Organic sales and PPC has dropped significantly
• “Superstar” instructors are leaving the platform
• Unclear what the future revenue will be
What about Lynda?• 4M students• Students pay a $15-$30 flat
fee per month
• Instructors get revenue share per viewed lecture
• Lynda determines what topics you’re allowed to teach
• They broke off all contact with me without explanation
What about Teachable?
• 10K instructors, 40K courses
• Instructors pay $0-$300 per month
• Teachable does hosting and e-commerce
• Instructor responsible for all marketing and sales
• 0%-10% commission on credit card transactions
My business strategy• Use Udemy to build
reputation and experiment with topics
• Put courses on other non-Udemy platforms
• Allow 3rd parties to resell courses
• Advertise on social media, blogs and Youtube
• Collect e-mail addresses• Build a sales funnel
social media Youtube
blogs
free micro course
masterclass
reseller course
Udemy course
My business strategy• I use Edgar to automatically
post on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
• Edgar is $49 per month but totally worth it
• Posts refer to blog articles and free micro course
• Youtube channel videos refer to blog and micro-course
• Zero effort!
social media Youtube
blogs
free micro course
masterclass
reseller course
Udemy course
My business strategy• I host a Ghost blog on Digital
Ocean for $5 per month
• Each blog post is about a single course lecture
• Each blog post ends with an invite for the free micro-course
• Also a newsletter registration form for e-mail capture
social media Youtube
blogs
free micro course
masterclass
reseller course
Udemy course
My business strategy• I host free micro-courses on
Teachable on their free plan
• Each micro-course has 5 lectures from a popular Udemy course
• The course ends with a 50% discount for the masterclass
• E-mail capture at enrolment
• Zero effort & free hosting
social media Youtube
blogs
free micro course
masterclass
reseller course
Udemy course
My business strategy• I host paid masterclasses on
Teachable on their free plan
• Each masterclass is 2-3 Udemy courses combined
• I offer extra services
• E-mail capture at enrolment
• Zero effort & free hosting
social media Youtube
blogs
free micro course
masterclass
reseller course
Udemy course
My goals• Continue using Udemy to
test course topics• Automate everything as
much as I can• Build a mailing list• Start my own PPC
campaigns to boost sales• Get my monthly income to
a comfortable point• Reach FI in a few years
Thank you!Mark Farragher
http://www.bitesizedcsharp.com/https://csharp.teachable.com/
https://www.udemy.com/user/markfarragher/