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/