The Udemy Affiliate Program

ulterios

Well-Known Member
I've seen a few affiliate advertisements around for the Udemy affiliate program and I was wondering if anyone has ever used and/or tried it.

It seems to have lots of earning potential and I have thought about giving it a try but I usually prefer to find out more information before I go trying out a new affiliate program.

If anyone has any experience or other good information about the Udemy affiliate program I would love to get your opinions and input.
 

Storm

Active Member
I've never heard of their program but it might be worth a good look at. Lots of people seem to check out the site and use it based on what I have seen around. I'll post if I find out more on it.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
I've never heard of their program but it might be worth a good look at. Lots of people seem to check out the site and use it based on what I have seen around. I'll post if I find out more on it.
It does seem like their is a lot of potential. I have seen that many people are talking about using their services on several of the forums that I am on. I think if you had the right audience for a website or blog or if you had the right mailing list then it might do quite well. ;)
 

ProfMike

Active Member
I am not going to voice too negative an opinion only because of the nature of my site. But I will say that I know quite a few of their instructors that are not at all happy with the way they are treated by Udemy and the way in which they are paid.

You may want to check out the instructor Facebook site and see what they think. The instructor group does have a Facebook group.
 

Dean

Well-Known Member
I am not going to voice too negative an opinion only because of the nature of my site. But I will say that I know quite a few of their instructors that are not at all happy with the way they are treated by Udemy and the way in which they are paid.

You may want to check out the instructor Facebook site and see what they think. The instructor group does have a Facebook group.
I don't think that anyone is going to have a problem with your opinion Mike just because of your site. I think that as long as the information is relevant then there shouldn't be a problem. You always provide good information and I think that everyone here respects you for that.

As to your comment, that doesn't seem like a good practice for Udemy since they are making money from the instructors. I would think that they would want to keep their instructors happy since they are the ones that are doing the services and bringing in money and clients for the site.

That's good to know though. If they are treating their instructors poorly and there are payment issues for the instructors then the affiliates are probably looking at being treated poorly also.

Thanks Mike, that's good to know!

Cheers, Dean.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
I am not going to voice too negative an opinion only because of the nature of my site. But I will say that I know quite a few of their instructors that are not at all happy with the way they are treated by Udemy and the way in which they are paid.

You may want to check out the instructor Facebook site and see what they think. The instructor group does have a Facebook group.
Don't worry about your opinions Mike, just because of your own website. I know that you always provide good honest information one way or the other and it's always welcomed.

Thanks for the information on the subject, I don't think it would probably be a good idea to market something where the instructors (the most vital part) are being treated improperly because the affiliates are probably not going to be treated much better if at all.

Thanks for the input Mike, it's appreciated as always. ;)
 

ProfMike

Active Member
No problem and I appreciate the comments. I was not going to chime in based on my website, but I do know a good size group of the instructors and they have all complained to me about their payment policies and the delays in being paid.

I was actually approached by Udemy to post some of my classes with them, but when I read through their rights of ownership clauses and the payment processes and then spoke with some of their instructors on what they thought, I changed my mind and decided to keep the courses to my own site. It would have been nice to have a bigger audience but in my mind integrity out weighs profit.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
No problem and I appreciate the comments. I was not going to chime in based on my website, but I do know a good size group of the instructors and they have all complained to me about their payment policies and the delays in being paid.

I was actually approached by Udemy to post some of my classes with them, but when I read through their rights of ownership clauses and the payment processes and then spoke with some of their instructors on what they thought, I changed my mind and decided to keep the courses to my own site. It would have been nice to have a bigger audience but in my mind integrity out weighs profit.
I don't consider you giving helpful information bad in any situation, even if the topic is in the same field as your site. You are a very respected member and I believe that nobody here would take your input as bad in any way.

Your contribution and input can help other members from making a mistake and working with a company/website that does not treat part of their extended staff (instructors) well and it can prevent them from having a headache in one way or another.

Your expertise in this field is what counts and helps provide good information and that's how it would be seen.

Now that we know a little about how Udemy treats some of their instructors that can help our members decide on if they would like to work with this company or not.

Thanks again for your input Mike, we appreciate you sharing what you know with all of us. ;)
 

ProfMike

Active Member
I appreciate the kind words.

I try to stay unbiased when I make opinions on a site that has similar content to my site. After all I have actually purchased quite a few of the Udemy courses for research in my college classes. I was hoping I could point my students in their direction for additional information on some of the topics we were covering.

I ended up not recommending those courses as the courses that I purchased were outdated and much of the information was actually incorrect. Of course, that is more an instructor issue than a Udemy issue.

A better quality control model could serve them well.....
 

Ben

Active Member
I will say that I know quite a few of their instructors that are not at all happy with the way they are treated by Udemy and the way in which they are paid.
Were they not getting paid the right amounts or udemy was cheating them out of money or something else?

I heard a while back from a guy I know that had some courses on there that they were not paying him the proper amounts of money and they were cheating him out of what he was supposed to be paid. That's why I asked you. He stopped using them and is using something else now but I can't remember where though.
 

ProfMike

Active Member
My understanding is that Udemy gave them very little control over the pricing of their courses. They would constantly have highly reduced prices on the courses and then run specials, although can you really call them specials when they are run constantly, on courses and sell them for a 90% or higher reduction.

For anyone that has written online training that can be very discouraging as it takes about 8 to 10 hours to write 1 hour of training. When you price your training you try to keep it competitive and still make profitable. As this is a very competitive market you have to price it accordingly. Then you see your classes being sold at a 90% or higher reduction, there is little to no profit in that model for the instructor. Of course Udemy likes it as it moves much more product, and they are in to quantity and not quality.

This significantly cut into the money they would draw on the sale of the courses, as most times the percentages would not change with the reductions in the price. There was a delay in the length of time it would take for an actual sale to be reflected in the accounts of the instructor, as Udemy would hold all sales for the 30 days that the guarantee was in effect and then wait for the following months payment window. If the sale was timed correctly this could result in a delay of almost 90 days from the time the course was sold until they actually received payment.

You can opt out of their cost reduction but many of the benefits of the Udemy marketing model are not available to you if you do.

I considered putting some of my courses on Udemy but after reading through their contract and speaking with the instructors that I know personally that have listed their training there I thought better of it. The payment schedule, the price control and the fact that you sacrifice the ownership of your training materials once it is on their site, there is no way I would do that. I could not effectively support my students if I were to do that.

On closing I will say, I have followed what they are doing for the last few years and they have seen a significant drop in their sales and site traffic. I think it has more to do with the quality and support of the training then anything else. It is difficult to get instructors to support their training and keep it up to date, when in my opinion, and many of the instructors opinions, they are being taken advantage of.

I think the affliate program is interesting. From what I have seen, this program and the pricing model will once again cut into the percentages that the instructors receive. Which in turn will start that circle again. Paying them even less for their work. I think Udemy has yet to realize that the quality of the content of the training, the quality of the instructors and the support those instructors give is what will make the site effective and profitable. They seem to be putting in place business models that undercut that effectiveness. In my opinion, eventually they will lose all of their good instructors.

Again strictly my opinion based on what I have seen, the instructors I know, and the support I have received.
 

Ben

Active Member
My understanding is that Udemy gave them very little control over the pricing of their courses. They would constantly have highly reduced prices on the courses and then run specials, although can you really call them specials when they are run constantly, on courses and sell them for a 90% or higher reduction.

For anyone that has written online training that can be very discouraging as it takes about 8 to 10 hours to write 1 hour of training. When you price your training you try to keep it competitive and still make profitable. As this is a very competitive market you have to price it accordingly. Then you see your classes being sold at a 90% or higher reduction, there is little to no profit in that model for the instructor. Of course Udemy likes it as it moves much more product, and they are in to quantity and not quality.

This significantly cut into the money they would draw on the sale of the courses, as most times the percentages would not change with the reductions in the price. There was a delay in the length of time it would take for an actual sale to be reflected in the accounts of the instructor, as Udemy would hold all sales for the 30 days that the guarantee was in effect and then wait for the following months payment window. If the sale was timed correctly this could result in a delay of almost 90 days from the time the course was sold until they actually received payment.

You can opt out of their cost reduction but many of the benefits of the Udemy marketing model are not available to you if you do.

I considered putting some of my courses on Udemy but after reading through their contract and speaking with the instructors that I know personally that have listed their training there I thought better of it. The payment schedule, the price control and the fact that you sacrifice the ownership of your training materials once it is on their site, there is no way I would do that. I could not effectively support my students if I were to do that.

On closing I will say, I have followed what they are doing for the last few years and they have seen a significant drop in their sales and site traffic. I think it has more to do with the quality and support of the training then anything else. It is difficult to get instructors to support their training and keep it up to date, when in my opinion, and many of the instructors opinions, they are being taken advantage of.

I think the affliate program is interesting. From what I have seen, this program and the pricing model will once again cut into the percentages that the instructors receive. Which in turn will start that circle again. Paying them even less for their work. I think Udemy has yet to realize that the quality of the content of the training, the quality of the instructors and the support those instructors give is what will make the site effective and profitable. They seem to be putting in place business models that undercut that effectiveness. In my opinion, eventually they will lose all of their good instructors.

Again strictly my opinion based on what I have seen, the instructors I know, and the support I have received.
That is just ridiculous. How do they justify lowering the prices that an instructor changes that low without letting them have the final word? That would be like if you had some things for sale on amazon and amazon themselves get to set the prices. How in the world are they getting away with that and not having all the instructors leaving them?
 

ProfMike

Active Member
It is part of their business model.

Like I said you can opt out of their pricing reductions but it does impact the marketing of your courses. That will also impact your sales. As an example, If someone is looking at a class on PowerPoint and they have 6 beginner classes on that topic 5 of the 6 are $10.00 and the other is $119.0o, why would you pay the $119.00. You could buy the other other 5 for less cost combined than the one.

You really have to read through their agreement to fully understand how they market. I did not like the way they treat the course material or their instructors which was one of the reasons I decided not to list my courses there.

Earlier this year they tried a new pricing model, where they had a limit as to how low they could reduce course prices. This was triggered by a group of the instructors pushing the negative impact of the low pricing. Obviously that did not sit well with their student member base as they have now returned to the original pricing model.

When you set a pricing precedent like that people will just wait until the prices are reduced. After all they were having these large reductions about every 30 days. There was no point in paying full price.

Obviously it has been pretty successful for Udemy, as they are doing pretty well. And some of the instructors do OK, I do not of any that are doing this as their sole income, you would have to move way too much product for that, but they do alright based on volume. The problem I really have is the lack of support for the classes and the fact that the classes I have seen are so outdated. There is no motivation to keep them updated and support them.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
It is part of their business model.

Like I said you can opt out of their pricing reductions but it does impact the marketing of your courses. That will also impact your sales. As an example, If someone is looking at a class on PowerPoint and they have 6 beginner classes on that topic 5 of the 6 are $10.00 and the other is $119.0o, why would you pay the $119.00. You could buy the other other 5 for less cost combined than the one.

You really have to read through their agreement to fully understand how they market. I did not like the way they treat the course material or their instructors which was one of the reasons I decided not to list my courses there.

Earlier this year they tried a new pricing model, where they had a limit as to how low they could reduce course prices. This was triggered by a group of the instructors pushing the negative impact of the low pricing. Obviously that did not sit well with their student member base as they have now returned to the original pricing model.

When you set a pricing precedent like that people will just wait until the prices are reduced. After all they were having these large reductions about every 30 days. There was no point in paying full price.

Obviously it has been pretty successful for Udemy, as they are doing pretty well. And some of the instructors do OK, I do not of any that are doing this as their sole income, you would have to move way too much product for that, but they do alright based on volume. The problem I really have is the lack of support for the classes and the fact that the classes I have seen are so outdated. There is no motivation to keep them updated and support them.
I don't think their policy on this is a good one. The instructors that are providing the courses and earning them money should be treated better and have more control over the prices.

If they keep treating their instructors like this then they are going to lose a lot of them that will find other ways to sell their services.

I know that Udemy gets a lot of traffic, clients and potential clients but if you drive away all the good instructors then the quality of the courses is bound to decrease and the buyers will not like the quality and go somewhere else.

Treating their instructors like this and not letting them have more control over their courses and pricing is just not a good business practice.

Just my $.02. ;)
 

ProfMike

Active Member
I agree and they have lost some good instructors based on the model. But will it impact their business in the short term probably not. The big training organizations come and go, I can think of quite a few of them that have closed up over the last few years, us little guys will be around for the long haul.

We can keep our stuff updated, support our users, respond to questions and best of all control the quality.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
The big training organizations come and go, I can think of quite a few of them that have closed up over the last few years
Well if they don't make some changes to the way they do business then they might be one of those that goes out of business.

This reminds me of the old saying "Don't bite the hand that feeds you!" because the instructors are the ones that are feeding them the products they sell. Treat them like they are currently doing and their supply of new, accurate and up-to-date materials will just wind up getting sold elsewhere and not on their site.
 

Ben

Active Member
It is part of their business model.

Like I said you can opt out of their pricing reductions but it does impact the marketing of your courses. That will also impact your sales. As an example, If someone is looking at a class on PowerPoint and they have 6 beginner classes on that topic 5 of the 6 are $10.00 and the other is $119.0o, why would you pay the $119.00. You could buy the other other 5 for less cost combined than the one.

You really have to read through their agreement to fully understand how they market. I did not like the way they treat the course material or their instructors which was one of the reasons I decided not to list my courses there.

Earlier this year they tried a new pricing model, where they had a limit as to how low they could reduce course prices. This was triggered by a group of the instructors pushing the negative impact of the low pricing. Obviously that did not sit well with their student member base as they have now returned to the original pricing model.

When you set a pricing precedent like that people will just wait until the prices are reduced. After all they were having these large reductions about every 30 days. There was no point in paying full price.

Obviously it has been pretty successful for Udemy, as they are doing pretty well. And some of the instructors do OK, I do not of any that are doing this as their sole income, you would have to move way too much product for that, but they do alright based on volume. The problem I really have is the lack of support for the classes and the fact that the classes I have seen are so outdated. There is no motivation to keep them updated and support them.
Well that's kind of a dumb business model. Why would you want to do things to your instructors and treat them like this? It's just going to make the instructors go to some other site for their courses that they want.

I think that their way of doing things will come back to haunt them one day. You are always supposed to treat those who make money for you well and show them that you appreciate them using your service.

This is just not good business.
 

ProfMike

Active Member
Your suppose to treat people well that work for you, that is very true. The question is.... how often do you see that happen. Most organizations, including some very successful ones, are very short sighted. They are in it for today don't worry too much about tomorrow.

I have seen that organizational shift in the 10 to 15 years and it is sad to see.
 
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