Udemy

[hallsofvallhalla]

Just wanted to throw out some warnings on Udemy. I am definitely not trying to sway anyone from using it, these are just my opinions and my results of using it and having a tutorial series up there that just earned $1,000.

First off why use it? Youtube and the internet has thousands of free tutorials. Why pay for something that is most of the time the same quality?
Second they are VERY pushy. As a "trainer" on there they constantly send me emails telling me to push push push to find more students. Then they brag constantly about the teachers that make 50k in sales. I have seen a few of those courses and it is a disgrace that they made so much off that crap. Some courses cost over $300!
Third other teachers with the same courses as you will actually log in under a alternate name and take your course then rate it really bad. Make nasty comments just to make their course better. I and other people I have talked to have witnessed this.
Fourth they run sales whenever they want on your courses. They have made my course 75% off! Without telling me.

All in all you are paying for mediocre courses that are free on youtube and other places. The company itself is a hardcore capitalist pusher of whatever they can do to get more people to pay. They do not care about the material in the courses or who is selling them. Only that they are making money. I will never use them again and will soon pull my course and put it completely free on YouTube.

[Xaos]

I looked at a Java course that had a free trial when I was learning Java, and realized it was basically a "Learn Java in 24 hours" book/app/tut. I then proceeded to never look at stuff through Udemy again, and def. didn't consider paying.

[tourmaline]

I ended up there once while trying to figure something out, and was actually quite annoyed by the rigmarole, and the obvious wanting to suck cash out of me.

thanks for you opinion! I'll now have it in my head to always avoid Udemy.

[Jackolantern]

I bought a Ruby on Rails course there once that was actually pretty good. There was a crapload of content not available really anywhere else for a pretty low price (I think around $30), but in general, I agree with you. I swear I have seen a course on there for $500 in the very lucrative mobile development topic that looked stitched together from YouTube tutorials.

[hallsofvallhalla]

Funny you say that but what prompted me to finally post this was a friend of mine just paid around $40 for a course that was just a Unity Youtube course.

[Klown]

Correct me if I'm wrong - but they can't monitor content quality if they let anyone sign up and post whatever subject matter they wish to sell as a tutorial. The company is just that - a money machine - so they would best be served to get as many teachers selling to as many students as they can - so their marketing reflects that.

Halls - you should try to reinvent the wheel - so to speak. Perhaps create a similar website setup - starting with your own tutorial series and create a company vision which would help prevent the bad elements on Udemy. Take all that's good and remove all that's bad.

I'm a fan of free - but I know a lot of people who make residual income by creating these courses and would be more than happy paying to watch a well thought out course. We pay for education in school - why not on the internet.

I'm a firm believer that in most cases - you get what you pay for. There are rare occasions you find quality free. You're one of those.

Just my 2 cents!

[Xaos]

I should make a mobile dev course. After you realize the difference between classes and activities and how to organize everything, you can figure most everything out pretty easily yourself.

[Jackolantern]

I'm a fan of free - but I know a lot of people who make residual income by creating these courses and would be more than happy paying to watch a well thought out course. We pay for education in school - why not on the internet.

I know Halls is a staunch supporter of resources being free, but there is some pros and cons both ways. If someone can make money off their tutorials/books/videos/whatever, that affords them more time and more resources to create more and better content. Of course as Udemy proves, that isn't always the case, and there will always be people out there to swindle others by charging for content that should be free, but there are also plenty of people out there who could go full-time on content creation and create 10x more content with more polished images/videos/etc. if they could consistently make money from it.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I would not be opposed to a site like that. Quality monitored tutorials for a decent price.

I have a meeting in 1 week with an investor for a app I and some friends are working on. Maybe after that I will think some more on it.

Thanks for the kind words too.