Where should we publish online course?
We are planning to publish courses related to photography and cinematography and the initial idea that came to our mind was publishing them on platforms such as udemy, skillshare etc... but at the same time we have sufficient knowledge of creating/managing our own website, SEO and digital marketing so is it better to create our own platform?
What do you suggest we should go for?
Hey Akash! I'm working on making a free guide for people like you! Want to do a 15 min call and we can chat? No strings or anything - I'm happy to volunteer my time. 😊
My answer - it all depends on your goals right now. Are you trying to earn income? Or share the education? What price range, what audience, and how long are your videos? Do you have 1 course, or a series of courses? Do you have access to any authentic niche communities, or are you cold-calling your ideal students?
I have been studying online education platforms since the early 2000's and in my opinion, Skillshare and Udemy are currently at the bottom of the list for most purposes. (For teachers that is, not students!)
Also do you currently have a Wordpress or Squarespace site, or is the course going to live on its own? (I believe Wix, Weebly etc have their own payment systems built in already for videos and memberships. But if you are posting here on Indiehackers my guess is you aren't using either of those!)
Hey @ki, thank you so much for detailed response being so generous in sharing your valuable inputs.
To begin with, we have better understanding of creating wordpress websites and for one of our previous businesses, we've handled e-commerce, blogging, payment gateway, chat support and ticket based support as well.
Now, talking about the course, the instructor I have partnered with has immense knowledge in his own niche. The course will definitely turn out to be a series of courses. The goal is to earn money by making the elite curriculum accessible and affordable. We have a good follower base on instagram from where we can generate initial base of students. We are yet unsure about the price and planning to go with the flow and see if we're hitting or missing. Our range is still wide as we are seeing the price range from $19 to $49. We are also looking at the opportunity of making our platform with a monthly access where we will have wide range of solutions for students and discussion boards.
The flip side of above idea as we assume is that we will have to create a solid marketing campaign as most of them will need to build the trust directly whereas your marketing campaign can work like a charm given the trust factor of udemy/skillshare.
Also, let me know when can we get on call and how? Would love to discuss the whole process
Hi @akashbr ! I am sooo so sorry, I became ill with toxic mold illness last year and we basically have been on the move since then! It took us about 4 months to heal our lungs, and another few months to get our minds "straight". I will PM you my email in case I can still help you in any way... (I just figured out how to get back into this account.) Wishing you the best!
You could split it up.
Create your own landing page, for SEO purposes etc. Then have your actual content on one of those platforms (teachable, udemy, etc.).
This is very sound advice. That way, you have complete control over inbound traffic and can promote the platforms on which the course seems to sell best. You can also do cross-promotions and affiliate things so much easier on your own page.
And if you add another platform at some point, you just link it from the page, and sales will start immediately.
Yes, sounds like a scalable plan. Initially, publishing courses where the market is already established and then with a substantial amount of follower base, we can also give them an option to redirect to our own platform when the users will already have gained the trust factor.
Thanks a lot!
That does sound like a great thing to build. Looking forward to seeing it in action!