
Ash HN: Should I use Udemy or Teachable to launch my first programming course? - biz84
https://gist.github.com/bizz84/43ad6cca0fe851ed7c3929b252b9eca3
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provlem
This blog post has some of good answer -
[http://codecanyon.usercv.com/blog/13/5-reasons-to-run-
udemy-...](http://codecanyon.usercv.com/blog/13/5-reasons-to-run-udemy-clone-
lms-along-with-selling-at-udemy)

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biz84
[Posted my question as a gist as there's a 2000 character limit on HN]. Here's
the summary:

\- I started publishing video tutorials and articles about Flutter around
April last year.

\- To date, I have ~3700 subscribers on YouTube, ~2200 followers on Medium and
~1500 on my mailing list. All growing steadily.

\- I researched all major platforms and shortlisted Udemy and Teachable. I
want my course to be paid upfront (don't like the subscription model used by
Pluralsight and Skillshare).

\- My audience would like to see my course on Udemy (presumably as they
already have an account there)

\- Top courses on Flutter are all on Udemy and have a lot of enrolled students
(15K for #1 course). These are made by established teachers that already have
a big audience and many courses on Udemy.

\- I'm confident my Flutter course can make it in the top 5 on Udemy

\- I'm familiar with Udemy's revenue split (97% with coupon codes, or 50%
without)

\- I'm familiar with Teachable's pricing model (5% commission on basic plan,
0% on professional plan) \- I'm aware of Udemy's lack of policing around
privacy (Google: "Why Udemy is Bad")

Benefits of Udemy:

\- Visibility & direct search traffic (people looking for Flutter will find my
course)

\- Many people already have an account with linked credit card (less friction)

Drawbacks of Udemy:

\- No control over pricing model. Very often courses sell for $10 to $15, and
I wouldn't be surprised to see even lower prices in the future. Given the 50%
commission, actual profit per sale is quite low.

Benefits of Teachable:

\- Self hosted. Can use a subdomain and more easily drive traffic from my
website/blog. This may be a smart move as I also move my Medium publication to
Ghost in the coming months.

\- Pricing control. I can charge more for my course and pay 5% commission or
less.

\- Advanced features (drip content etc.)

Drawbacks of Teachable:

\- No direct search traffic from the platform. I have to drive traffic
organically myself to my website and the course.

\- People will have to register an account and add a credit card (more
friction)

Closing thoughts

\- As a new player in the market, I feel that Udemy is the safer choice.
That's where everyone is, and it will most likely drive more traffic in the
short term due to direct search.

\- Teachable seems riskier. Short term I will lose on a good chunk of traffic.
It may be a better option once I'm more established and have more followers. A
few wise folks would say "publish on your own platform", but is it worth the
risk in my situation?

I spent a lot of time creating a high quality course. Currently have prepared
10 hours of content, with another ~10 planned. I want to open the course for
invitation only in the coming weeks and start receiving feedback and reviews.
And launch in the coming months.

What should I do - launch on Udemy or Teachable?

I would really appreciate some advice, I'm a bit torn on this one.

Many Thanks!

~~~
provlem
This blog post has some of good answer -
[http://codecanyon.usercv.com/blog/13/5-reasons-to-run-
udemy-...](http://codecanyon.usercv.com/blog/13/5-reasons-to-run-udemy-clone-
lms-along-with-selling-at-udemy)

