This eBook will deliver eight Cheatsheets which will help you to create and sell your own Online Courses

• How to design your Online Course
• Your Course Blueprint Checklist
• How to select the right Topic for your Course
• How to evaluate your Competition on Udemy
• How to write AMAZING Course Descriptions
• My Online Courses Launch Checklist
• Udemy Course SEO Optimisation
• How to get more SALES for your Online Course

So this book is just for you!  

Do you want to achieve results like this?

​​

Then you need to start taking action today and you will discover how to do this in this eBook, which I have kept as simple as possible so that you can take action faster!

I hope this eBook is the stepping stone to your Online Courses Success!

Best regards
John

1. What is the clear single objective outcome of the course that the student will gain from taking the course
2. What are the benefits of the course?
3. Aim at creating a 90-120 minute course
4. Keep lectures at 3-6 minutes each
5. Sections should have ideally 4-8 lectures each – the course needs a clear flowing structure which is easy to follow
6. Brain storm every topic that you want to include in the course or that you think would be helpful to the student
7. Arrange these topics in a logical flow order or create a mind map
8. Arrange the subject matter into three levels
   1. Sections
   2. Lectures
   3. Lecture content
9. Go to Udemy and find similar courses to your own
   1. How are they organized?
   2. What sections and lectures are included?
   3. How can you improve your course based on what you have found here?

10) Go to Amazon.com

1. Find the top selling books on your subject
2. Use the view inside function to review the table of contents
3. See how the book is organize and what topics they have covered
4. Is there a “Dummies” book on your topic

11) Update your table of information 12)What additional material can you include?

a) Quizzes
b) Checklists
c) Cheat sheets

13) Prepare Section introductions and summaries
14) Prepare your course descriptions as you record your lectures
15) Focus on the keywords you want to rank for at the outset. These must be in

your title, sub title, lecture titles and lecture descriptions, as well as section titles and descriptions

16) Only prepare your final course summary once you have recorded your course 17)Then and only then create the course introduction
18) Then create the Course promo video

Optimising Your Medium Term Course Strategy on Udemy

The question is do you create one massive course or a series of smaller, related courses?

The crux of this issue is do you control the pricing. On Udemy, if you opt into the discounts and promotions, which you should, you surrender control of your course pricing.

I believe that on Udemy, having a single mamouth course as opposed to breaking the information up into more manageable slices is a flawed strategy.

One Massive Course

Pros

1. Establish your authority in the subject
2. Very competitive product

Cons

1. You can only sell the information once. If you sign up to the Udemy promotions and discounts this means you are likely to get 50% or 25% of a $10 to $19 sale
2. No cross selling opportunities
3. Limits rating and review numbers

Multiple Smaller Courses

Pros

1. Cross sell your courses between your students
2. Get multiple sales for the same information
3. Get multiple ratings and reviews
4. Promote one course for free or very low introductory price and then sell your other courses to those students
5. More sales, ratings, reviews and students will improve your standing with Udemy and in the Udemy market place, with their search algorithm

Cons

1. Possibly less authority than a major course

Strategy

1. Create your core course – 90min to 120 mins
2. Create clusters of niche courses around this subject
3. Alternatively create a beginners, intermediate and advanced course, then create additional niche courses addressing single subjects or projects which students can follow up with.

Key Features to Include in Your Course – to keep Students and Udemy both happy

o Make sure your topic is differentiated o Ensure your teaching is well structured o Vary your lecture Format
o Energetic instructor delivery
o Title and Sub Title – Keywords
o Course image 2014 x 1152
o Ensure your course is complete
o Lecture Formats

Mix up the formats to keep the course interesting o Structured Teaching

Enable students to see the learning path to accomplishing their goals

• Easier for the students to follow
• Create a “Course Road Map” lecture after the introduction which walks students through the structure of the course and the curriculum o Course Structure

• One Skill per section
• One concept per lecture
• Sections must add up to achieve course goals Keep sections as modular as possible o OutlineChecklist

• Have one practice activity/project per section – give the students a task or a project
• Quizzes – at least one per section (not always at the end)
• Provide PDFs of the slides used in the lectures if this is helpful, ie. Useful information on the slides or they can be used as a checklist
• Great Introductory lecture
• Use Previews – at least 5
• One Strong Quick Win Lecture in first four Lectures
• Introduce Yourself
• Student Introduction Lecture – Discussions
  • Introduce yourself – leave a comment in the chat bubble at the top RHS
  • Why have you joined
  • What are your objectives
  • Where are you from?
  • What do you currently do?
• Halfway; Discussion and Rating Lecture
• Section Intros and Outros
  • Explain what is going to be learned in the section
  • Summarise what has been covered

Summary and Wrap up lecture

• Congratulate on completion
• Summarise course content
• Stress here to help
• Ask for Rating and Review Promo Video

• Follow my scripting

Course Thumbnails to be consistent
• Use Standardised Intro Slide to each Lecture

Add Additional Resources to the Course where possible to help students

o Introductory lecture

• Make your course goals clear in the introductory lecture and make it a preview lecture
• Articulate the reasoning behind how the curriculum is designed
• Summarise practice activities and addresses who should take the course and what they will get out of it o Summary and Wrap Up Congratulate
  Review Course
  Questions and Engagement Rating and Review o BonusLecturestoinclude
  Please review this Course – appropriate review – come on camera

• New Bonus Lecture following Aug 2015 Guidelines Offers for Other Courses
• Create a sign up page with Bonus content and ask the students to go over to the landing page, sign up and offer some bonus content – grow your list. Easy link and the importance of capturing email addresses
• Bonus lectures in the course, expanding the curriculum to add interest
• Final Course check list at the end as a bonus o Promo Video

• Create an enaging but only 2 minute promo video – make its personal and not salesy
• Follow detailed Check list from Previous Module

What are you expert at?

1. Start here to evaluate your own skills based on your training and experience. Cast the net wide and consider everything in which you have any expertise. Remember the definition of an expert is someone who knows more than you do.
2. Work
3. Qualifications
4. Experience
5. Hobbies and Passions
6. 10 minute brainstorm of everything you think you are an expert at and write it down in a list on a single piece of paper – or in a mind map – or in a spreadsheet

Answer these Questions

1. Next I want you to be clear about YOUR EXPERTISE and POSITIONING – why YOU?
2. Why should I LISTEN?
3. Why should I listen to THIS?
4. Why should I listen to this NOW?
5. Why should I listen to YOU?
6. Write a one line answer to each question on a separate single piece of paper and come back and refine it over the next few days while you think about it.

Identifying Evergreen Topics for which there is always demand

1. Take a look at the list below: these are the major evergreen topics for which there is always demand for online courses. How many can you address?
   
   1. Leadership
   2. Investing
   3. Productivity
   4. Sales
   5. Motivation
   6. Spirituality
   7. Marketing
   8. Health
   9. Parenting
   10. Business
   11. Relationships
   12. Communication

What Problems do you solve for your Customers?Identify their PAIN

1. Successful courses on Udemy either solve a specific problem or address a particular pain. This also helps you to keep the scope of your courses focused so that you don’t create a mamouth course which lacks direction and is full of unnecessary material.
   1. What do they ask you to do?
   2. What do you know they need?
   3. What results do they want?
   4. 10 minutes, brainstorm all the problems you can solve for your customers. Create another list of these, independent of any of the thinking you have done so far.

What Results do your clients want that you can fulfil – NEEDS

1. Another class of successful course is those which provide a result which a customer wants. If he has a pain, he may not know the answer. Here he has a specific objective in mind but does not know how to get there. That is where you come in.
2. Think about things which your customers ask you to do?
3. 10 minutes, brainstorm all the results you can provide for your customers and yes, create another list of these

Review Udemy’s Categories and Sub Categories

Go into Udemy at Udemy.com. Browse through the course categories and sub categories. Take a look at those which you think have relevance to the topics you have already identified.

1. Take a look through some of the courses. Does this give you ideas for courses you may be able to create which have not yet occurred to you?
2. Go through and make a note of all the courses which you think you are qualified on the basis of your experience to create or contribute to
3. Create another list...

Now organize all your topics into groups of similar topics around Categories or sub Categories

Group your topics into logical groups. Do not necessarily use Udemy’s sub category classification although you might find these useful headings as you reorganize your topic ideas.

Cross Refer to Udemy

Which topics have the most potential? You are looking for where the market already exists rather than trying to create a new market yourself. This is also telling you something about the Udemy student audience, which although considerable at 7 million, does not cover every possible area of the market. Look at:

1. Existing Courses
2. Numbers of Students
3. Numbers of Reviews
4. Other courses = competition = market = Tick
5. No courses = Red Flag!

Create a prioritized List of Courses with draft working titles that you are going to plan to create

Finally you need to decide which courses are going to have the best potential for sales. You should create groups of related courses so that you can cross sell them to your student base. Once you have completed one group, you can start again on the next group. Cross selling is by far and away the best way to get more sales in Udemy which is why this hub and spoke course creation strategy is important.

1. Hub and Spoke Strategy – Main Course and Subsidiary/Niche Courses
2. Aim at 90 minutes to 2 hours for Main Course
3. Aim at 30 minutes to 60 minutes for subsidiary/niche courses

Udemy Categories and Sub Categories

1) Development

a) Web Development
b) Mobile Apps
c) Programming Languages
d) Game Development
e) Databases
f) Software Testing
g) Programming Engineering
h) Development Tools
i) E-Commerce

2) Business

a) Finance
b) Entrepreneurship
c) Communications
d) Management
e) Sales
f) Strategy
g) Operations
h) Prokject Management
i) Business Law
j) Data and Analytics
k) Home Business
l) Human Resources
m) Industry
n) Media
o) Real Estate
p) Other

3) IT&Software

a) IT Certification
b) Network and Security
c) Hardware
d) Operating Systems
e) Other
4) OfficeProductivity
a) Microsoft b) Apple
c) Google d) SAP
e) Intuit
f) Salesforce g) Oracle
h) Other

5) PersonalDevelopment

a) Personal Transformation
b) Productivity
c) Leadership
d) Personal Finance
e) Career Development
f) Parenting and Relationships
g) Happiness
h) Religion and Spirituality
i) Personal Brand Building
j) Creativity
k) Influence
l) Self Esteem
m) Stress Management
n) Memory and Study Skills
o) Motivation
p) Other

6) Design

a) Web Design
b) Graphic Design
c) Design Tools
d) User Experience
e) Game Design
f) 3D & Animation
g) Fashion
h) Architectural Design
i) Interior Design
j) Other

7) Marketing

a) Digital Marketing
b) Search Engine Optimizsation
c) Social Media Marketing
d) Branding
e) Marketing Fundementals
f) Analytics & Automation
g) Public Relations
h) Advertising
i) Video & Mobile Marketing
j) Content Marketing
k) Non-Digital Marketing
l) Growth Hacking
m) Affiliate Marketing
n) Product Marketing
o) Other

8) Lifestyle

a) Arts & Crafts
b) Food & Beverage
c) Beauty & Make-Up
d) Travel
e) Gaming
f) Home Improvement
g) Pet Care & Training
h) Other

9) Photography

a) Digital Photography
b) Photography Fundamentals
c) Portraits
d) Landscapes
e) Black & White
f) Photography Tools
g) Mobile Photography
h) Travel Photography
i) Commercial Photography
j) Wedding Photography
k) Wildlife Photography
l) Video Design
m) Other

10) Health & Fitness

a) Fitness
b) General Health
c) Sports
d) Nutrition
e) Yoga
f) Mental Health
g) Dieting
h) Self Defence
i) Safety & First Aid
j) Dance
k) Meditation
l) Other

11) Teacher Training

a) Instructional Design
b) Educational Development
c) Teaching Tools
d) Other

12) Music

a) Instruments

b) Production
c) Music Fundamentals
d) Vocal
e) Music Techniques
f) Music Software
g) Other

13) Academics

a) Social Science
b) Math & Science
c) Humanities

14) Language

a) English
b) Spanish
c) German
d) French
e) Japanese
f) Portugese
g) Chinese
h) Russian
i) Latin
j) Arabic
k) Hebrew
l) Italian
m) Other

15) Test Prep

a) Grad Entry Exam
b) International High School
c) College Entry Exam
d) Test Taking Skills
e) Other

If you want to create the best course on Udemy on your topic, here are some thoughts.

Firstly consider whether you would do better to have the best SERIES of courses on you topic on Udemy as the discounting by Udemy is so prevalent that you will often get the same price for a four hour course that you will for a two hour course. Consider perhaps doing a Part 1 and Part 2.

You need to create a spreadsheet to evaluate your competition so that you can work out what they are doing and work out how you can do it better. Here are the column headings you will need for your spreadsheet

• Title
• Subtitle
• Category
• Sub Category (look to see if there is a less competitive one)
• Organic Page ranking (use an incognito page)
• Course Description
• Number of Reviews (read them good and bad to identify what students think)
• % 5 Star Reviews
• Number of Students
• Price
• Primary and Secondary Keywords
• Review the Organic Ranking for their courses (open an incognito page and see where they rank in the sub category compared to your course)

• Primary and Secondary Keyword Search Ranking (open an incognito page and search for the primary and secondary keywords. Where do they rank compared to your course(s).)
• Main Course Section Topics
• Number of Sections

• Number of Lectures
• Content Time in Minutes
• Quizzes
• Additional Materials
• Bonus Materials
• Introductory Lecture?
• Number of Discussions on the Course Page (this is important to Udemy)

Lecture Topics

Create a list of every lecture topic by course and then go back and categorize them to work out what they are covering.

Do you think you need to include this topic in your course?

Learning Objectives

Do the same with:

• Learning Objectives,
• Who this Course is For,
• What Students will need to take this course.

Course Image

Your course image is very important. How can you make your’s standout. Take a look at my new design – perhaps this is a way to go?

I recommend that you look at how your competition have designed their course images.

What is the prevalent colour used in their images.

Can you find a contrasting colour which will make your image really “pop”?

Course Style

Take the opportunity to look at their preview lectures and see what you can learn from their delivery style?

How have your competitors delivered their courses?

What mix of lectures and activities do they utilize?

Promotional Video

Review their promo videos.

What can you learn and how can you improve yours?

Do you follow the AIDA Formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action?

Do you include a call to action at the end of your video?

Do you appear personally in your promo video so that students can identify with you?

The formula to fast copy writing, that will leave your Competitors fuming!

See what I did there?

The Course Description is your Key Sales Document to persuade Potential Students to purchase your course and is therefore critical to your Sales success.

Key Points to Address

• Social Proof: testimonials
• Benefits: Ask "so that..."
• Objections: 5 key objections
• Assurance: guarantees
• Deadlines: urgency sells

Instant Gratification: make it easy, multiple steps or complexity create friction to the sale

Sincerity - don't offer fluff, mislead or lie. Tell them the truth. It can help to admit a weakness or a fault. If so be fascinating about it.

Call To Action: Ask for the sale at the end!

Two types of readers: word by word and scanners, you need to appeal to both at the same time.

Be passionate and up beat in your writing - enthusiasms sells

Test and re-write. Keep A/B testing headlines, sub headers and copy. Ask your self, would I buy this product? Have I said everything to make the sale?

Work through the 13 Sentence structure for a first draft, then work through the remainder of this tutorial to improve the copy, content and appearance of your Course Description.

Structure

1. Outline 13 Sentence Description
2. News Update if relevant
3. Key Social Proof Statement
4. Urgency Statement
5. Assurance Statement
6. Overcome Objections
7. Assurance and Urgency Statement combined
8. Call to Action
9. Tags
10. What's in the Course Section
11. Course Requirements Section
12. Who Should Attend Section

Outline 13 Sentence Description

1st Sentence - Get Attention

Start with major social proof point that *** students are already taking the course and then add a line of ++++++++ across page.

"Attention all Struggling [your target audience]: Here is how to [address the problem YOUR specific audience is having]

+++++++++++++++++++ Put after each sentence across the whole page in bold, then at the end come back and take half out, unevenly.

2nd Sentence - identify the Problem they are having

"Do you struggle with ......? Have you been trying endlessly to....., but haven't had any luck? The big problem is that everyone has bad/no information"

1. Build the need for your product by identifying with your market
2. Let them know you understand their pain, you know how they feel, you have been in their shoes
3. This builds trust and gives them hope
4. What they are about to buy (and read) is meant for them
5. Close sentence by removing the blame from them - they have been misled or had the wrong information.

Sentence 3 - Reveal the Solution - Your product

"Well, I have been where you are now. This is why I created this brand new programme called [insert name]

sentence 4 - Present your credentials (if appropriate)

"I have been ..... for **** years and have done......"

Sentence 5 - Show the Benefits

"Imagine [what things will be like once they use your product]. This programme will help you......SO THAT.... You will finally have the answers you have been looking for. You won't feel [negative feeling], you won't feel overwhelmed"

Note: emphasis on emotion.

Create 3 to 5 bullet points which are the key features of your programme, product or service. Add SO THAT at the end of each, complete the sentences. Then go back and delete the features and the SO THATs.

Sentence 6 - Social Proof

• Case studies
• Testimonials
• Comments from previous students
• Emails
• Facebook comments
• Text messages
• Audio or video testimonials can be inserted here too.

If anyone else is saying your solution works, set it out here.

If they are not, don't worry, move on to the next sections. Do not make them up. Do solicit them if you can and add them later.

Sentence 7 - make your offer

Reveal your price and what they get for it.

Consider adding a "why" your price is what it is and "why" it is such good value.

Explain what they would normally pay for something as good as what you are about to give them, then give them a killer deal to sweeten the offer.

Sentence 8 - add bonuses

Not essential. If you can sweeten the deal, do it here in the form of a bonus.

An extra PDF, free download, free resource, video etc.

Sentence 9 - Give a guarantee

Add a money back guarantee. Minimum 30 days.

Remove ALL the risk for them.

Guarantee will help more people say yes than it will encourage people to refund.

Sentence 10 - inject scarcity

Must be credible and believable

Limited number of copies - but not for a digital product

Time limit

Price limit

Remove certain bonuses after a certain time.

You must give people a reason to take action NOW.

Sentence 11 - call to action

"Here is what you need to do Now!"

"Click the orange Add to Cart Button"

"Enter your Name and Credit Card information on the next page"

"After that you will be taken to the registration page where you will..."

Let them know exactly what the next steps are. Leave nothing out.

Sentence 12 - Give a Warning

Remind them if they continue on their current path they will end up right back where they are now.

They need your product to get there. Tell them.

Sentence 13 - Close with a Reminder

Remind them of the amazing benefits they are about to receive

Remind them how they will FEEL once they start seeing the benefits

Remind them of the great price, the great guarantee and the reason they should buy to day

Sign off and PS - Always add a PS repeating the Call to Action.

Drafting Tips

Use You form:

Is this for you?

You can...

Your....

"This Course reveals exactly how you..."

"You area shown..."

"As a student of this course you will even get..."

"Who else wants to massively....

And do it...

And do it...

And do it..."

Get the prospective student to picture themselves taking the course.

Tell a story about existing students taking the course

"Imagine you are..."

Create intrigue with a question?

Highlight three KEY benefits of taking the course

"You will learn...

1. Benefit
2. Benefit
3. Benefit

and much, much more!

Use phrases like

"The right way..."

"How to..."

" The Top Secret Way to..."

"How to vastly increase..."

"Why I...."

"A Secret to..."

Use "So that..." in your copy, expresses the benefits of what precedes it. Ask this question to derive benefits from features.

Use EMOTION - people buy for emotional reasons but justify on facts.

Activate your writing

Avoid: "is" "was" "are" "to be" " get"

Replace these where ever they occur in your text by more precise and active words

Urgency Statement

"This course will continue to grow and grow with new ideas, new lectures, new secrets...but the price will also grow too!

However, join today and you are "locked in" - you will get all the new lectures and materials at no extra cost, ever!"

Call to action combined with scarcity

"As with all my courses:

The initial low price will increase shortly - the course is currently $*** but the next increase will be to $****"

You have unlimited lifetime access at no extra cost, ever

All future additional lectures, bonuses etc. in this course are always free

There is an unconditional, never ask any questions full 30 day money- back-in-full guarantee

My help is always available to you if you get stuck or have a question"

This combines urgency with assurance and can be used separately at the end

Assurance Statement

"With my help and support at all stages, you can...."

"And one very important point.

You have a totally unconditional guarantee from.... Study the course. Test the waters. If you are in anyway unhappy (I can't imagine why, but nevertheless!) you will get a full 100% absolutely no conditions attached, refund. Cheerfully! You have 30 days to study and see the results and potential"

"That is our personal assurance of your success!"

"My help and support to students is very a very important part of my courses"

1. I don't have enough time
2. I don't have enough money
3. It won't work for me
4. I don't believe you
5. I don't need it

"You do not need to be..."

"You do not need expensive...."

"But ...... Is a nightmare, Yes?" Pose question eliciting positive response

"This course is NOT for you if you don't want to ...." Succeed? Inverted psychology

Call to Action

"Take this course today...." Plus key benefit

"Please don't get left behind"

"Click the "Take This Course" button top right (or wherever it is) NOW...every hour you delay is costing you money..."

Or happiness or time, whatever the key benefit of taking the course is

"Today you can start to...."

Category

Look to see which categories you competitors are using

Consider using a separate one - this may be a good idea in the minority of occasions, better to come up along side competing courses and look better!

What's in the Course Section

"Get more..."

"Make more..."

"No..." - over come objections

"Do this with no experience...cost...equipment - Everything you need is supplied for free"

"You can even get..."

"Increase..."

State the benefits of taking the course, not just a summary of lectures

Course Requirements Section

"A willingness to spend a little time learning the best way to..."

"A desire to follow simple videos and increase/improve your..." - state key benefit for the student

"A few minutes a day to..."

"No.... experience of any kind is required"

"Absolutely NO experience is required. The course shows you exactly how to..."

"Only an internet connected computer..."

"There is nothing to buy or pay for - every thing is included for free"

"A note book and pen!"

Who Should Attend Section

"Anyone who...and is considering..." State benefit

"Anyone with a..."

"Anyone, any age, anywhere in the world"

"Anyone who loves..." Aim at someone's passion

"Anyone wishing to be successful at....you will still learn to " - key benefit

"Yes, anyone at all"

"People of any age or ability"

"People from any country"

Key benefits are better job, better life, more money, more happiness, more success, personal

recognition.

Key Phrases to Use

"You can start today..." - ease of you, covers objection or fear that student could not succeed

"Simple insider secrets..." - intrigue and suggests information is scarce and valuable

"You can be anywhere in the world..." - appeal to a broader audience

"You can be a part of that success - don't, please, get left behind"

"Who else wants to massively..."

"You are failing at... By missing the number 1 secret...and yet you probably don't know you are failing" - suggests that instructor has expertise not the student

"Yet over **% of....fail.

They fail to....

They fail to....

They fail to....

They fail to....

Unless you do....100% correctly, you will be failing too!" Note use of bold and italics, repetition to make an impact

"How do you do ..... Quickly, cheaply, above all effectively - and preferably for free?"

"It's the only distinguishing feature...."

"If you want more....

If you want more....

If you want more....

Then this course is for you"

"It doesn't matter of you are....you must.....before anything else happens! And I show you how to do.... and it only takes minutes."

"Real Opportunities like this....are exceptionally rare!"

"How do you get started?...."

• free

• free gift

• limited time

• right now

• surprise

• hot

• first time offered

• not sold in stores

• good only until [DATE]

• Don’t miss out

• I’ll look for your order

• Try it at our risk

Consider the connotations of the words you use: workshop sounds like hard word, seminar doesn't

Read sounds hard, look over doesn't

Write sounds hard, jot down doesn't

Think about the Psychological implications of the words and phrases you use

Powerful Action Words

Magic Words - Short List

Announcing, astonishing, exciting, exclusive, fantastic, fascinating, first, free, guaranteed, incredible, initial, improved, love, limited offer, powerful phenomenal, revealing, revolutionary, special, super, time sensitive, unique, urgent, wonderful, you, breakthrough, introducing, new, how-to.

Fear, Positive, Lust, Anger, Greed, Trust

Fear Words

Agony

Apocalypse

Armageddon

Assault

Backlash

Beating

Beware

Blinded

Blood

Bloodbath

Bloodcurdling

Bloody

Bomb

Buffoon

Bumbling

Cadaver

Catastrophe

Caution

Collapse

Corpse

Crazy

Cripple

Crisis

Danger

Deadly

Death

Destroy

Devastating

Disastrous

Drowning

Dumb

Embarrass

Fail

Feeble

Fired

Fool/Fooled

Frantic

Frightening

Gambling

Gullible

Hack

Hazardous

Hoax

Holocaust

Horrific

Hurricane

Insidious

Invasion

IRS

Jail

Jeopardy

Lawsuit

Looming

Lunatic

Lurking

Meltdown

Mired

Mistake

Murder

Nightmare

Painful

Pale

Panic

Peril

Piranha

Pitfall

Plague

Played

Plummet

Plunge

Poison

Pummel

Poor

Prison

Pus

Reckoning

Refugee

Revenge

Risky

Scary

Scream

Searing

Shatter

Shellacking

Silly

Slaughter

Slave

Smash

Strangle

Stupid

Suck

Tailspin

Tank

Targeted

Teetering

Terror

Terrorist

Toxic

Trap

Vaporize

Victim

Volatile

Vulnerable

Warning

Worried

Positive Words

Amazing

Audacity

Backbone

Belief

Blissful

Bravery

Breathtaking

Cheer

Conquer

Courage

Daring

Defiance

Delight

Devoted

Excited

Eye-opening

Faith

Fearless

Fulfill

Grateful

Grit

Guts

Happy

Heart

Hero

Hope

Jaw-dropping

Jubilant

Magic

Mind-blowingMiracle

Pluck

Sensational

Spectacular

Spine

Spirit

Staggering

Stunning

Surprising

Triumph

Upliftin

Victory

Wonderful

Wondrous

Lascivious Words:

Brazen

Crave

Depraved

Dirty

Exposed

Forbidden

Hypnotic

Lascivious

Lick

Lonely

Lust

Naked

Naughty

Provocative

Scandalous

Sensual

Sex

Shameless

Sinful

Sleazy

Sleeping

Spank

Steamy

Sweaty

Tantalizing

Tawdry

Thrilling

Uncensored

Wanton

Whip

Anger Words

Abuse

Arrogant

Ass kicking

Backstabbing

Beat down

Bullshit

Bully

Coward

Crooked

Crush

Disgusting

Evil

Force-fed

Foul

Hate

Know it all

Lies

Loathsome

Loser

Lying

Maul

Money-grubbing

Nazi

No Good

Obnoxious

Payback

Pound

Preposterous

Punish

Revolting

Ruthless

Sick and Tired

Smug

Sniveling

Snob

Snooty

Snotty

Stuck up

Underhanded

Greed Words

Bargain

Best

Billion

Bonanza

Cash

Cheap

Discount

Dollar

Double

Explode

Extra

Feast

Fortune

Free

Freebie

Frenzy

Frugal

Gift

Greatest

Inexpensive

Jackpot

Luxurious

Marked down

Massive

Money

Nest egg

Pay zero

Prize

Profit

Quadruple

Reduced

Rich

Savings

Six-figure

Skyrocket

Soaring

Surge

Treasure

Triple

Whopping

Trust Words

Anonymous

Authentic

Backed

Best-selling

Cancel Anytime

Certified

Endorsed

Guaranteed

Ironclad

Lifetime

Moneyback

No Obligation

No Questions Asked

No Risk

No Strings Attached

Official

Privacy

Protected

Proven

Recession-proof

Refund

Research

Results

Secure

Tested

Try before You Buy

Verify

Unconditional

Intrigue Words

Backdoor

Banned

Behind the Scenes

Black Market

Blacklisted

Bootleg

Censored

Concealed

Confessions

Confidential

Controversial

Covert

Cover-up

Forbidden

Forgotten

Hidden

Illegal

Insider

Lost

Off-limits

Outlawed

Private

Secrets

Smuggled

Strange

Unauthorized

Withheld

Top Tip

Use specific numbers they have added credibility

Copy Appearance

Keep your reader reading with the structure of your copy

Questions, unfinished sentences, involving statements, sub headers, bullet points, quizzes,

Short sentences

Short paragraphs

Use italics

Use bold

Use bold and italics

Use ++++++++++ across the page to break up the text! make it bold if necessary

As an initial test put a row of +++++++ between each of the 12 sections as you write and then go back and take half of them out at the end, unevenly

Make the copy easily scannable

Use strong header statements to command attention

"IMPORTANT 1:"

"IMPORTANT 2:"

"IMPORTANT 3:"

"UPDATE"

"NEW! Now includes..."

"NOTE 1:"

"NOTE 2"

"SEE HOW I GET:"

"ANYONE CAN DO THIS!"

BONUS 1

Use the free lecture in the course as a further hook to draw students in

"The ****** video in this course can be seen by everyone and shows ......" Then state a benefit from this video

Sub Headers and Why They Matter

Most visitors decide within 10 to 20 seconds whether to stay on your page

Sub Header - under the headline, really important tool to keep visitors on your page

Headlines: hook, shock, entertain, engage, create intrigue

Sub Headers - Mistakes

Not a label

Avoid a Spoiler - tells readers what is coming next

Cryptic - more confusing than compelling

Curiosity

Surprise

Personality

Emotion

Power Words for Titles and Sub Headers

Improve

Trust

Immediately

Discover

Profit

Learn

Know

Understand

Powerful

Best

Win

Hot Special

More

Bonus

Exclusive

Extra

You

Free

Health

Guarantee

New

Proven

Safety

Money

Now

Today

Results

Protect

Help

Easy

Amazing

Latest

Extraordinary

How to

Worst

Ultimate

Hot

First

Big

Anniversary

Premiere

Basic

Complete

Save

Plus!

Create

Key Tip

Use the Google keyword tool to find popular phrases related to your topic

Use Google Analytics to find which search terms visitors are using to search for your site

As a preliminary to this, I strongly recommend you review my Topic Selection Checklist. If you have created a course which does not:

• Solve a problem
• Relieve a pain
• Provide a new skill: or
• Provide the student with a result that they wanted but did not know how to get

Your course may NOT sell well.

Hitting the Review button in Udemy or publishing your course on a platform or a market place is to complete the easy bit. You now have to have a Launch promotion and marketing strategy. This falls into three parts

• Pre-Launch
• Launch
• Immediate Post Launch

This does not include the longer term promotion strategies that you need to consider.

You will only be able to move forward with a course link once Udemy come back to you with their comments on your course. If they come back with issues, you will still have a draft link you can share.

Ensure you have done everything to make your course listing as good as possible.

Pre-Launch Marketing

• Building expectation in your educational announcements of your other courses
• Choosing the right course URL
  • Make sure you have your keywords in your URL before you hit publish.
• Blogging
  • Create a blog post about your up coming course and if possible create a landing page which you can collect email addresses in advance of publishing your course
• Ensure that you have Google Analytics set up on your Udemy course so that you can see where your traffic is coming from
• Sharing in your Facebook Groups – let people know that your new course is coming
  • Find relevant Facebook groups, join them. Don’t spam them with an announcement but drop hints when commenting, that you have a course on this coming up.
• Asking advice in Studio about your course – Test Video, Promo Video. This increases awareness of your course in the studio before it comes out.
• Preparing and warming up your reviewers – cultivate your inner circle
  • Build up good will by reviewing their courses and getting some good will in the bank
  • How to ask for a review – you should ask for “an appropriate review”
  • How not to ask for a review – you should not ask for a “Five Star Review” or even a “positive review”. Udemy is tightening its guidelines on this and you do not want to fall foul of their new rules.
• Engage with instructors you don’t know and sign up for their free courses. Leave them a positive review. Contact them, tell them how great their course was and tell them you have left them a Five Star Review. When you publish your course, you can go back to them, offer them your course and ask them to consider leaving a rating and review.
• Creating an off Udemy landing page – collecting emails, Lead magnets and free offers, first to know, plus off udemy bonuses, add to your mailing list, create scarcity, learning from Jeff Walker Launch
• Be clear in your launch pricing strategy
  • Where to offer free: Udemy Studio Review Document, Facebook Groups, Best Black Hat Forum
  • Pricing through launch – Launch at min $97 so that any Udemy promotions make your course look like an attractive deal
  • Incentives to buy soon (Outside of Udemy) – offer an extra bonus (checklist, extra content, ebook, recorded webinar) for a limited time to get them to sign up
  • When not to offer for free – think hard about this. Certainly not after the initial launch period, other than on a strictly limited basis.

Launch Marketing

• Setting up launch offers
• Using Free for social proof, early on
  • This makes your course look appealing to new students
  • Helps you in the Udemy market place
  • A paying student, even $1, gets you more credit from Udemy than a free student
• Offering bonuses
  • In Udemy you cannot do this
  • You can include a lecture offering an off Udemy bonus on your website and remove the lecture after the launch period providing you make it clear this is what you are doing
• Updates
  • Frequent updates keep your course moving forward
  • Consider launching with a section or two up your sleeve and publish these a month or two after launch
• Using reviews in your marketing and course summary
  • Include these in your off Udemy marketing and quote a couple in your course description
• Previews and Audio content to spread buzz
  • Post your promo video on Youtube, share it on other video sites too: Vimeo
  • Take the MP3 sound track from one or two courses, mix into an audio promo and publish on Youtube, Soundcloud and other Audio sites
  • If you know any podcasters, try to get on their show to talk about your courses

Post Launch Marketing

• The importance of organic ranking in Udemy
• Drafting your personal Biography
  • Keyword Rich
  • Talk about the sort of courses you are creating
  • Quote some five star reviews
• How should you price your course?
  • Min $97 or $197. Really long and complex courses $297.
  • The Udemy pricing structure
    • Keeping above $19
    • 97% from your own coupons
    • 50% Udemy organic or promo sales
    • 25% from Affiliate sales
• How to choose the right category for your course
  • Choose the right category
    • Look at the sub categories. Normally you should be able to select one of several. Where are your competitors? Choose a category with fewer courses overall in it – less competition. More chance of ranking on the first page organically
    • If you want to move category, you need to email support@udemy.com and ask them to do it for you. Better to get it right first time.
  • Crack the Udemy category algorithm
    • See comment above
  • Optimise course ranking
    • <1,000 students, quickly
    • At least 10 5 Star Ratings and Reviews, then aim to get 30
    • High student engagement
• Getting your first 1,000 students
  • Free coupon distribution to Facebook Groups, Udemy Studio Review Document and Best Black Hat Forum
• Getting your first 10 5 Star Reviews
  • Approach a personal list of friends and Udemy instructors
  • “I have just launched my new course on Udemy entitiled “*********”. Explain a benefit of the course. I would really appreciate it if you could enroll in the course and leave an appropriate rating and review for the course. Here is the link which includes a free coupon. I appreciate you may not have time to go through the whole thing, but if you could complete at least 50% of the course, it would make all the difference .
  • Please let me know if I can be of any help next time you publish a course on Udemy. Best regards....
• The importance of ratings and reviews
  • Critical to potential new students for whom this represents real social proof
  • Critical in the Udemy algorithm
  • Very helpful with off Udemy marketing
  • Can quote in your course descriptions and personal descriptions
• How to Stand Out in Udemy and get more Clicks

Checking your Organic ranking on Udemy – logout and open a new Udemy page. Go to your sub category and see where your course appears – which page?

Algorithmic Factors

The algorithm is a mathematical formula

There are aspects you can influence directly e.g keywords

Other aspects you can influence indirectly e.g course quality

The level of engagement you have with your course is also counted

• Answer discussions

• Post educational announcements

• Message students

• Post new lectures and content

Unlike Google, it is not thought that the Udmey search algorithm changes very frequently.

Keywords

When considering keywords, ask yourself what students are searching for. A solution to a pain or problem will be high on the list. Think about your student avatar and what their needs and wants are. Your title needs to speak to them in their terms.

Choose keywords that sell.

When you search for a keyword in Udemy, you can see how many results come back for that search. This is your competition. If you are not ranking highly for a very competitive keyword, can you rank higher for a less competitive one.

If there are very few results, consider moving into a more competitive space. This suggests that there is little demand for this keyword.

1. Identify your primary and secondary keywords
   1. Primary keywords in title, if possible twice
   2. The biggest mistake you can make is not having keywords in your course titles and particularly having your primary keyword at the start of your course title.
   3. Secondary keywords in sub title. Include one in title if it makes sense
   4. To find best keywords use Udemy search - put in single main keyword and see what options come up in the drop down menu - select from these to choose your secondary keywords. The order these come in must be significant. Chose secondaries which are higher up the list
   5. If you must have a two word primary keyword, repeat the operation.
   6. Check what other secondary keywords are suggested by Udemy if you search for these.
   7. Now create your title and sub title. Include a primary benefit in your title and at least three benefits, using secondary keywords in your subtitle.
   8. See if you can combine keywords to create word combinations which are keyword rich.
   9. Calculate the ratio of keywords to non keywords in your title and subtitles. This is how the algorithm will calculate it.
   10. Shorter titles giving you high ratios for your primary keyword are good - this is also called keyword density. Use all the characters available to you in your subtitles but also apply some copywriting expertise to this - communicate benefits and not features.
   11. There is no such thing as the long tail in Udemy search so don't go after long multi word keywords. Keep them to one or two words only.
   12. Equally, Udemy will not rank your course if it does not meet a minimum criteria. I would state that the absence of a keyword in your title or sub title but its presence in your course description may be enough for your course not to rank at all in the results for that keyword.
   13. Don't be afraid to experiment with your course titles and change them from time to time.
   14. If you are following my strategy of hub and spoke, building clusters of courses around key topics can you start to dominate a keyword category? If you can when a prospective student searches for your course keyword, they will see that you are the go to expert in that topic through your domination of the search results.
   15. How can you expand your secondary keywords to reach more students? Do your broaden the reach horizontally or vertically. Do your targeted keyword get more specific or more general?
   16. Beware of keyword equivalence: this is where Udemy will attach search results for one keyword when a second one is the term used in the search. Check when you are searching for your primary and secondary keywords to see if strange results are coming up. These are easy to identify. You will see a title which does not contain your search keyword at all. Identify the keywords which are appearing. You may consider adopting one or two of these as secondary keywords.
   17. Don't' let any other characters or symbols touch your keywords. Make sure that there is a space between them.

How to Create the Perfect Course Title

1. Total length is not important
2. Primary keyword at the front
3. One or two word keyword, there is no long tail in Udemy
4. Try to create combinations of words which cover several secondary keywords
5. Ensure you have a high ratio of keyword terms to other words
6. Communicate the solution to a problem
7. Include a benefit in the title if you can
8. Check listings of other courses for different word combinations

How to Create the Perfect Sub Title

1. Use all the characters
2. Include primary keyword again
3. Include secondary keywords
4. Explain at least three benefits of the course
5. As high a keyword to non keyword ratio pas possible. This can be lower than in your title.
   1. Start your first paragraph with your primary keyword and end it with the same. You should ensure that your primary keyword appears frequently in your course description
   2. This can be as long as you like.
   3. Make it readable and scannable by using bullets, bold, italics and short paragraphs. Apply the AIDA formula - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
   4. The same goes for your course goals, section and lecture titles and lecture descriptions.

Course Description

Choosing your URLS

Course Sales

1. Udemy measures your conversion rate
2. Consider what steps you can take to improve this
3. Drive traffic to your Udemy courses from outside Udemy
4. Increase organic sales with full price links as well as discounted links
5. Optimize your course description as a sales page with a call to action to enroll in the course
6. Improve your promo video and make some lectures available free on preview.
7. Take every opportunity to have a call to action to drive traffic to your courses
8. Always have a PS asking for a rating and a review
9. Download your sales CSV from your revenue page and take a look at the free and paid sales for your courses on a month by month basis.
   1. Can you see any trends?
   2. Do sales meet your expectations based on your marketing efforts that month?

Course Pricing

1. Udemy wants to sell courses and make money
2. Free courses will always be out ranked by paid courses, everything else being equal.
3. You cannot promote your others courses to students in free courses. So free should be a limited time option only.
4. Low priced courses will be out ranked by more expensive courses. Most people buy at $10-$19 so make your course look like it is great value. Start your pricing at $97.

Course Analytics

1. Numbers of reviews in the last three months are important. Work hard to keep those reviews coming steadily
2. No of recent students
   1. Paid students are rated more highly than free students. Can you offer $1 promotions?
   2. Need to keep students flowing into your course steadily, use free and paid promotions. Don't forget to cross sell between your courses
3. Minutes Viewed
   1. You can see how your minutes viewed compares with other courses in your sub category. If you are below average. Take a look at the analysis of which lectures are being watched. Do you need to improve some of them?
   2. Some suggestions that 60 minutes is a critical threshold
4. Student Ratings in Past three months
   1. See how you compare to your competitors. What do you have to do to improve your ratings
   2. Take a look at the comments coming back from students and act on them. Then make an announcement that you have done so.
5. Udemy looks at how many of your students are active. Consider sending an educational announcement to students who have not yet started your cours encouraging them to do so.
6. Unsubscribe and Refund rate will impact your SEO ranking.
7. Student satisfaction report
   1. This is taken by Udemy while students are taking the course. You want 9/10s. Below this Udemy ask for reasons which can appear in your analytics. If they do, show you are taking action on them.

Course Quality Actions

1. Student engagement is the key to course quality assessment
2. Keep your courses alive, updated and active.
3. Modify and add to your content
4. Include close captions?
5. If you publish a discussion and no body responds to it, come back post an answer to it within 3 days as Udemy will penalise you for unanswered discussions outside of this time limit.
6. If you have an old discussion post with no responses, delete it and repost it.

Competitive Analysis

1. Consider in enrolling in some of your competitors courses. You can do this by offering them a course swap or by purchasing their course in a $10 Udemy promotion. On the basis of keep your friends close but your enemies closer, this is a good strategy.
2. Take a look at the top three to five courses who rank against you for your chosen keywords. Create a spreadsheet and keep a measure at least once a month. Those will give you objective criteria for improvement.
   1. What keywords and secondary keywords are they targeting?
   2. Title keyword density score
   3. Numbers of students
   4. Numbers of reviews
   5. Activity in the course
   6. Ratings and reviews
   7. Keyword density in descriptions
   8. Secondary keyword in subtitles
   9. Review course content for courses who directly compete with you. What can you add to your course to improve its content?
   10. Do a detailed analysis of their course description. How effective is it as a sales page? How can you improve yours to compete with them. I always send people to take a look at Alun Hill's course descriptions of you want an excellent example.
   11. Keep an eye out for your competitors educational and promotional announcements which you will see if you are enrolled in their courses.
   12. Read their reviews, particularly the bad ones. What can you learn from them?
   13. When did they last add new material to their course?
   14. What is the length of their course, how many lectures does it have? What mix of content and bonus material do they offer. It is difficult for you to mathematically evaluate some of these factors but you can take note of them and use them as guidance to improve your own courses.
3. Now work out what you have to do to improve

Organic Ranking vs Search Term Ranking

1. You should monitor regularly your organic ranking and keep a dated note of this in a spreadsheet.
   1. Open an incognito page in Chrome. Go to your courses sub category and simply see which page and position it appears in. This is a measure of your courses organic ranking.
   2. Carry out competitor analysis on the top ranking courses to see what you have to do to improve.
2. Search Based Ranking for Primary and Secondary Keywords
   1. This is how you will appear to students searching for courses like yours. Keep a track in your spreadsheet of how you rank for several secondary keywords and work and test to improve your position.

Examples of Keywords and Secondary Keywords

1. Affiliate
2. Copywriting
   1. Copywriting 101
   2. Copywriting course
   3. Copywriting secrets
   4. Copywriting clients
   5. Copywriting basics
   6. Copywriting business
   7. Copywriting white paper
3. Startup (can be also written Start Up, Startups, Start Ups)
   1. Startup capital
   2. Startup founder
   3. Startup checklist
   4. Startup financing
   5. Startup accounting
   6. Startup fundraising
   7. Startup pitching

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