Case Study: 1/25/2016 How To Increase Student Engagement In Your Online Courses!

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another online teaching case study! In this weeks case study, we are going to be discussing student engagement and how it affects your online courses. This case study was actually inspired by student feedback on how to engage more students and to have them participate more in our online courses. 

I will be discussing three main areas to help you engage more of your students and show you specific examples from my own online courses! The three main areas we will be discussing in this post are: 

1) How To Get Your Students To Participate in Your Online Course Discussion Board and How To Generate Engaging Discussions Online! 

2) How To Have Your Students Consume More of Your Videos (average viewing time) 

3) How To Keep Students Coming Back For More and Re-Engaging Your Students Once They Have Finished Your Course. 

There are many different ways to answer these questions above. However, I will for times sakes stick the ones that have produced the best results for myself and many other online instructors. 

Let's Go ahead and start with our first topic: 

1) How To Get Your Students To Participate in Your Online Course Discussion Board and How To Generate Engaging Discussions Online! ​

In my own personal experience teaching online one of the best ways to have your students post on your discussion board is to have them introduce themselves to their classmates and write a short message telling everyone about themselves! We all love talk about ourselves and share who we are don't we? I know one of the main reasons I became a teacher is because I love sharing my life and personal experiences with others. I also really enjoy helping them get amazing results in their life! Teaching and sharing who we are with others is priceless! So I have implemented this strategy in many of my online courses and there have been many students who have participated!

Here is a excellent example from my Free Course on how to start building your confidence and self-esteem!

Below you will find pictures how I ask students to talk about themselves and introduce themselves to myself and their classmates! I Give (and talk) about who I am (showing an example) and then ask the students to do the same. Check out the screen shots below!

(Lecture #2 Titled: Please Introduce Yourself To Your Classmates and I!) 

Here is the text lecture for you to see exactly how I ask for students to participate! 

So, what are the results? I have students almost everyday post on my course discussion board! 

This screenshots (I cut out names and made the students anonymous for privacy reasons) will show you my student engagement! It is also very fun to see and hear from my students all across the world! 

Now there are many more discussion posts just like this, but for times sakes and to make this reading friendly I have just added one screenshot! I encourage you to try something like this out in one of your online courses today! 

2) How To Have Your Students Consume More of Your Videos (average viewing time) 

Lets now discuss how we can engage our students and have them view and consume more content in our videos! Video engagement (minutes watched ect.) is tracked online and can be found on Udemy and many other online platforms.

The key is to have above average minutes viewed in your online courses! Here is an example from my bestselling Evernote Course on Udemy

As you can see, I have above average ratings and above average minutes consumed per active student. These two things combined help lead to a top paid bestselling online video course! 

Here is another example from my bestselling Transform Your Confidence and Self-Esteem course! 

 As you can see I have above average ratings and minutes watched in this top paid bestselling course as well! 

So i'm sure you asking yourself "now Joe, how do we actually get our students to watch our courses and consume the minutes!" 

Great question and here is the best answer I can provide for you based on my own experience: 

Create A Really High Quality Course! 

​There are many different factors that go into this, but I will recommend using high end equipment to record your courses (you don't have to break the bank either, I started with  $50.00 microphone and a slow Mac Mini Computer!) and also having great content in your course... AKA some really useful information! This will help engage your students and keep them watching your courses longer! The two courses (Evernote and Self-Esteem) are my highest quality courses and their engagement results mirror their quality!

3) How To Keep Students Coming Back For More and Re-Engaging Your Students Once They Have Finished Your Course. 

What happens to your students once they finish your online course? Do they ever come back? How should we go about re-engaging those students? Great question. The single best way to re-engage the students who have finished your course is to add in FRESH NEW CONTENT to your course! You can do this by adding in additional videos/ esources/posts/articles/ ect. This is effective for a few reasons:

1) They get to learn more and have to come back to your course in order to do so. Students love learning more on a subject, especially when you keep things up to date!

2) They might want to / have to re-watch previous lectures to understand the new content which will re-engage them back in the course.

3) They will re-watch the course again as a refresher and re-engage themselves since they enjoyed the course the first time through!

A great way to let your students know about new content once you have uploaded it is to send out an educational announcement or email to your students!  Here is an example from my JavaScript Course! Many students were very thankful :)

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks case study! There are many more ways to engage your students and perhaps I will do a Part II next week with more examples, but this should give you some great ideas that have worked for myself and many other online instructors! 

Thank you for reading our blog post today! If you have any questions please feel free to post your comments below!

Also, you can check out all of my blog posts for FREE by going to:

http://joeparysacademy.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,

Joe Parys​

Case Study 1/18/2016: How To Get Started Teaching Online & What To Teach For Your Next Course!

In this weeks case study I will be addressing How To Get Started Teaching Online Video Courses & What To Teach For Your Next Course! 

When I first began teaching online I had zero experience! In fact the only videos I ever "created" were with my sisters on vacation being goofballs and just have fun! I had never "taught" anything in-front of a camera, recorded my voice, or edited screen capture videos before.

Knowing how intimidating online teaching can be for new instructors, I wanted to give you three helpful tips in getting started teaching online today! These tips are also going to be very helpful for intermediate and advanced instructors as well!

#1: Use High Quality Microphones and Video Equipment for All of Your Online Courses!

The quality of your course is actually more important than the course material itself! Numerous online research has show that higher quality videos and audio are more engaging and produce longer video viewing times than those of lessor quality.

If a student cannot understand what you are saying because you have a low quality microphone, or they cannot see your videos clearly because you are using low-resolution cameras and slower computers, they will most likely have a "poor" experience in your course! So, how can we avoid giving our students a poor experience and provide them with an excellent experience? Simple. Use high quality equipment! Now, before you all go shopping online and spending hundreds if not thousands on high quality video and audio equipment, I wanted to share with you what I use and have been using for the past 8 months! All of this equipment cost me a combined total of less than $500! So if you are on a budget, great news! And if you have a little more than $500 to spend, then excellent! You will be able to get even better quality. Here are the three essentials I use for creating my online video courses!

Microphone: RodeSmart LAV!

Video Camera: Cannon VIXIA HR50 Full HD Camcorder

Tripod: SUNPAK 5858D Tripod

If you have any questions about where/how to acquire similar equipment please post a comment below!

#2: Start Teaching A Topic You Have Mastered:

When I first started teaching online I began teaching on a subject I had mastered and had a lot of "PROOF" with. Years ago I set a goal for myself to acquire a big screen TV and surround sound system. That goal became a reality and I began teaching about my success story to my students in the high school classroom!

I even had a student reach his goal of buying a $10,000 dream car of his! What an incredible story!

This led me to teaching on goal setting first here online! Fortunately for me the course was a "mini" success and I had thousands of students enroll in my course overnight!

I suggest you teach something you have master first because teaching online takes time to master! It took me months to understand the editing software, the correct lighting, video camera, audio, ect. If I was trying to teach a subject I didn't know and was researching, it would have made the whole experience a lot more difficult and I most likely would have given up and quit! But since I was teaching a subject I was good at it made the first experience much less painful!

Recap: Teach Something You Are Really Good At and Have Mastered In Your Life!

#3: Choose a Subject Your Love!

I have a lot of students ask me about "what they should teach" or "will my course do well online" and to be 100% honest it is very difficult to say. There are just to many factors that go into creating amazing online video courses. However, if you teach something you really love, it wont feel like work, you will really enjoy the online teaching process, and your students will be able to feel the love and passion coming from your work! This love and passion will really help make the course the best it can be! Some of my bestselling courses are courses I truly loved to teach about! My Confidence and Self-Esteem courses are great examples! 

So to conclude, start with high quality equipment, teach something you have experience with and have mastered first in your own life, and if you don't have that experience, teach something you love!

Thank you for reading our blog post today! If you have any questions please feel free to post your comments below!

Also, you can check out all of my blog posts for FREE by going to:

http://joeparysacademy.blogspot.com/

Happy Selling!

Sincerely,

Joe Parys

Case Study 1/11/2016 How To Promote Your Courses On Udemy and Earn Thousands!

In this weeks case study I am going to discuss how you can begin to earn more from each of your ​Udemy courses by promoting directly on Udemy! The inspiration for this weeks blog post has come from student feedback and other instructors asking me how I am able to earn thousands each and every month promoting my courses and re-marketing them! Here is last months revenues promoting directly on Udemy! 

December 2015 Promotion Activity: 

So how was I able to drive in more than $3,000 in promotional sales last month? Let me give you 3 strategies that have worked very well for me and for many other instructors here on Udemy.

1) Picking A Price Point: How Much Should I Charge When Promoting My Courses On Udemy?  

​This question comes up all of the time in the Udemy studio and is often debated between many instructors. I would just like to say first that there is no "correct" or "one size fits all" answer to this question. However, through my own testing of many different price points ($9, $10, $12, $14, $15, $19, $29) I have discovered that $9.00 coupons seem to work the best when re-marketing and promoting to our existing students on Udemy. I believe this price point is currently working the best for the following reasons: 

• ​A majority of students who have already bought one or more of your courses most likely did so at the discounted $10.00 price point. Some may have paid $15.00 or $19.00 but Udemy's most popular price point has consistently been $10.00. Knowing this, it does not make much sense for a student who has enrolled for $10.00 to enroll in another one of your courses for $19.00 or $29.00 if they know and understand Udemy will eventually run another $10.00 flash sale promotion. Are there exceptions to this? Absolutely. This is just research based on my own personal experience. 
• $9.00 Coupons are a better deal! ​It's human nature to want to find the best deal isn't it? I know for me personally I am willing to spend the extra 5 minutes to save even a dollar or two if I can. Why? Because we all love getting a good deal! It's an ego thing really, its not much about saving the $1-2 dollars (even though it does add up!) :) So by offering $9.00 coupons you are offing the best "deal in town" (slightly better than Udemy's own $10.00 sales) which is more enticing and will most likely sell better.  
• WARNING: DO NOT DROP BELOW $9.00 COUPONS! ​I have not mentioned any coupons below the $9.00 price point because I believe you will be losing not only money, but also credibility with your courses. If you want to "give your courses away" I.E. at a $3.00 coupon or $5.00 or even $7.00 coupon, why not just give them away for free? I have given away thousands of FREE coupons and still believe in this strategy, but when it comes to marketing and promoting I just think anything below $9.00 is a losing strategy because once you drop to a certain point students will anticipate that price point again and delay buying your courses! Again, Just my personal opinion :)

2) How To Build A 63,000+ Student Email List To Cross Promote and Market To! 

​When it comes to getting more promotional sales on Udemy it always helps to have a lot of students to re-target! How do we effectively do this? I would encourage reads to go back and read my previous blog post because I discuss FREE coupons in more depth. However, the more "free students" you give coupons to, the more chances you have to sell them a new course! Also, if you have been very generous, many of these "free students" turn into paying students! A Win Win for everyone :)

Also, when you have more free students it build your credibility, you have a better chance of driving in more of your own sales, and then Udemy starts to promote and market your courses which drives in even more paid students to re-market to! This create a massive sales funnel and can really help you drive in more and more sales! 

3) Understand and Learn Marketing Psychology! 

When marketing anything in life it is very important to understand who you are marketing to and to target your audience. I have a variety of different courses on subjects such as web development, music, google analytics, goal setting, and even Evernote! Ask yourself, would it make a lot of sense to try and sell my "how to build a website course" to my music students? Or my music course to my "how to build a website" students? Most likely not. Why? Because web development students are most likely not interested in learning about music. Some of them might be, but more of them would be willing to buy my next shorter niche web development course. Use this knowledge and strategy to your advantage and carefully re-target your courses! 

Also, knowing and understanding marketing psychology is very important. I have a degree in psychology so I understand many of these principles, but I would highly recommend looking into marketing psychology strategies to boost your promotional sales here on Udemy! 

Thank you for reading our blog post today! If you have any questions please feel free to post your comments below! 

Also, you can check out all of my blog posts for FREE by going to:

http://joeparysacademy.blogspot.com/​​

Happy Selling!

Sincerely,

Joe Parys 

Case Study 1/7/2016 FREE Courses or Paid Courses? What Are The Benefits and Drawbacks

Case Study 1/7/2016 FREE Courses or Paid Courses? What Are The Benefits and Drawbacks

In this weeks case study I will be show you the results from my free course compared to my paid courses here on Udemy. Now, I must admit I only have 1 FREE course and this will be a smaller sample, however, I do think there is a lot of things we can learn and take away from this study.

1. Why create a free course on Udemy? Is there any upside?

When it comes to creating a free course on Udemy I am going to discuss three key upsides and three key downsides. These upsides and downsides are based upon my own experience so please take them with a grain of salt.

Upsides:

• Creating a free course allows students to sample your work firsthand and builds trust! This was a big eye opener for me when I first started online. I first gave my course on goal setting away for free to thousands of students! Fortunately many of those students really enjoyed the course and we willing then to pay a small premium to enroll in my next courses. This is the exact strategy I still use in my free course on confidence and self-esteem!
• Creating a free course does not necessarily need to take a lot of time energy and effort. Free courses (at least a lot of them I have seen) tend to be sample courses to an even bigger (paid course). Keeping this in mind, my free course is only 10 total lectures and it only took me a day to create!
• Free courses (when done correctly) build your credibility and boot your social proof! My free course is the #1 rated self-esteem course on Udemy and my larger paid course is a top paid course as well. This is because my engagement and completion of the course is very high! Many free students really enjoy participating in FREE courses! (this has just been my experience!)

Downsides:

• You cannot earn "direct" income from a free course. However, you can put coupons to other courses at the very last lecture of your free course to encourage students to continue their learning with you! This is exactly what I have done and while the earning are minimal, I have student who enroll in my "FREE" course enroll in my "PAID" courses each and every month!

(almost $70.00 last month from my free course!)

• You are not allowed to use promotional emails to FREE students in your FREE course. This is always a bit of a bummer, but I believe the main reason we are not allow to promote is to avoid spamming our free students.
• Engagement and motivation can be tough with free students because we sometimes do not value things we don't pay for! However, if you course is engaging and interactive, students who enroll for free can still be very engaging and wanting to learn!

So, should you create a free course? I say absolutely! The upsides in my opinion outweigh the downsides and you can truly create a win win situation.

Action step: Start brain storming how you can create a new free course today! And then put that energy into action! If you would like to see me create a free course on a specific subject, please post here in our discussion!

Sincerely,

Joe Parys

1/6/2015 Today I Have Been Featured As A Top Instructor For 2015 In Udemy's Blog!

Today I have been featured in Udemy's Top Instructor Blog Post For 2015! I am very thankful to be apart of an this amazing community and appreciate everyones support of our courses! 

Here is the full blog post link and my quote below! 

https://teach.udemy.com/udemy-community-year-in-review/#respond

“I have learned that nothing beats hard work and a solid strategy. After working with and on Udemy from January 2015, I learned that I would have to be willing to put in the consistent effort needed in order to be successful! This could be said for anything in life. Udemy has encouraged me to reach out and become more open to new ideas. I am now serving over 50,000+ unique students in 30 courses!” –Joe Parys

Case Study Week 4: 12/28/2015 The Power of Social Proof & Giving Your Courses Away For Free!

Case Study Week 4: 12/28/2015 The Power of Social Proof & Giving Your Courses Away For Free!

In this weeks case study I am going to be discussing the power of social proof and why giving your courses away for free is very powerful, especially if you are just starting out here on Udemy!

I decided to create this case study because I get a lot of students asking me about this topic in my own Udemy courses! I hope this helps everyone!

1) First, we must define what social proof is. wikipedia tells us that "Social Proof a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation." -dictionary.com

What this means is that people are more likely to choose what is "popular" than what is "unpopular". Let me give you an example. If you wanted to learn about how to teach online video courses and there was a course with 11,000+ students (like this one) and another course with only 100+ students in it, which one would you be more likely to choose? Most would chose this course because it is more popular, has more students, and is "bigger".

My bestselling courses all have in access of 5,000+ students! Here they are with their ratings and number of students!

2) So How was I able to have thousands of students enroll in my courses? Excellent question and here is my answer:

The Power of Giving Your Courses Away For Free:

When the course is first launched I give my existing students that chance to enroll for free for a limited time! This get students in the door, allows them to try it, and then shows me and Udemy if there is a big need for this subject. If there is a lot of free students enrolling, this tells me that there are a lot of students interested in learning about this subject.

I then begin to sell the course and Udemy itself will begin promoting the course if there is a lot of engagement (which comes from free and paid students). This strategy has worked very well for not only me, but for many other top instructors here on Udemy.

**Bonus**

Also, when you give you course away for free to start, it allows students to sample your work! If they really enjoy it, they will want to learn more from you and be willing to pay for your next course! This is the power of giving your courses away for free to start!

In conclusion, I hope you can see why it is so important to GIVE GIVE GIVE and why social proof as a strategy is very effective. If you have any questions please feel free to msg me or add on to this discussion!

Sincerely,

Joe Parys

Case Study Week 3: 12/23/2015 The Power of Co-Teaching and Building a True Business on Udemy

Case Study Week 3: 12/23/2015 The Power of Co-Teaching and Building a True Business on Udemy

When I first came to Udemy my idea was that I would have to build and create lots of courses myself in order to succeed. This however has not been the case. Why some of my own courses are bestsellers and earn me thousands ever month, a majority of my sales come through co-taught courses. Let me explain how I have learned to go about doing this from using this course!

1) Jerry discusses in many lectures in this course the power of co-teaching and working with hard working like minded people. However, just because you do this does not guarantee instant success. Let me give you an example.

When I first started co-teaching I worked with an instructor who had never worked with Udemy before. I had to be patient, very willing to help, and show this instructor how to be successful on Udemy. This took us many trial courses and much time before creating a bestseller. This instructor and I now have more than 6+ courses together!

2) When Co-teaching Always seek to create a win-win situation. You should be willing as the lead instructor to take full responsibility for the course and also reward your co-instructor for their efforts. Having a solid relationship with my co-instructors is the most important part of creating and having a successful course(s) on Udemy!

3) Be willing to view Udemy and your Courses as assets and more like a business. I went to school for teaching, but I have learned an incredible amount about business from teacher here on Udemy. The more you study business, how to create these assets, the value of your time and of a Udemy course, the better the results you will receive!

4) I now have more than 30 courses and 800+ reviews because I have learned how to create these courses with others, myself, and to treat Udemy like my own business :) I hope this helps and inspires you and if you have any questions please feel free to post at the bottom of this message!

Sincerely,

Joe Parys

Case Study Week 2: 12/14/2015: Which Courses Sell Best On Udemy and Why

Case Study Week 2 12/14/2015 : Which Courses Sell Best on Udemy and Why

In this case study this week I though it would be of tremendous value to write about which courses sell and tend to do best here on Udemy and why it is the case. Let me break this down a little for you.

In my own personal experience and in the experience of many other instructors here on Udemy, the courses that typically sell the best are the ones that:

1) Are Comprehensive Courses: Aka the 1 stop shop course, everything from A to Z, From Beginner To Advanced, and Complete Courses.

Why are these courses selling better and have more enrollments?

• There is more value in this course (most comprehensive courses I have are are least 7+ hours long and some ranging to 20+ hours in length). So ask yourself, if you could buy a course with 20+ hours or a course with only 2+ hours on the same topic, which would you buy at the same discounted price point? Probably the 20+ hours because you get more content!
• Udemy is constantly discounting our courses to $10, $15, $19, and some rare $24 coupons. Knowing this, customers will really have the same "price" for every course on Udemy that is part of these promotions. This is also why bigger courses tend to sell better.

2) Technical and Hot Topic Courses Sell Best On Udemy: By technical I mean web-development, ethical hacking, computer based courses, marketing, ect. tend to do the best. Also, hot topic courses (low quantity, high demand) also tend to do very well. Why is this?

• Technical courses are very in demand right now. It's really a matter of supply and demand, and right now being able to learn how to build your own website from scratch for only $10.00 is very valuable for a lot of people!
• Hot Topic courses again are very in demand and there are not many teachers teaching these! I myself have a hot topic web-development course on Bootstrap which is now my bestselling course, a combination of technical skills and a hot topic at the time.

As you can see, last month my top 4 courses are either comprehensive, technical, or a hot topic or a combination of the three!

1) Complete Bootstrap Course (7+ Hours) Technical and Comprehensive.

2) Transform Your Confidence (12+Hours) Comprehensive and High Quality

3) Learn To Read and Write Music - Technical (only 10% of the worlds population can read and write music!)

4) Complete PHP course - Technical and Comprehensive.

• So What can we learn from all of this?

If you want to be successful here on Udemy start expanding your mind and how you can exploit these strategies. If you don't have the specific skills, you can always work with someone who does!

Case Study Week 1: 12/7/2015 The Power of Learning From Others

Case Study Week 1: 12/7/2015 The Power of Learning From Others

Dear Udemy Students,

Many months ago I was one of the first students to enroll in this course and it immediately had a positive influence on me, my Udemy experience, and my revenues! In fact I wrote a genuine positive review of the course and began working with Jerry soon after enrolling.

Because I believe in giving and giving back to those who have helped me, I am going to share a little of my own experience using this course and how much of an impact it has had on me!

I am writing this post in response to one of Jerry's newest lectures on winning $100 and adding in helpful discussions!

_____

How this course has transformed my Udemy experience:

1) Co-Teaching. I was able to learn and then apply how to properly co-teach and which courses were selling better on Udemy. This is a very humbling experience but boy does it pay off! I now have over 30 courses here on Udemy with more than 1/2 of them being co-taught!

2) I have learned that nothing beats hard work, time, energy and effort, combined with a strategy: Nothing beats hard work and a solid strategy. After watching and re-watching many of the lectures in this course I learned that to get to the next level revenue, sales, students wise, I would have to be willing to put in the consistent effort needed. This could be said for anything in life. 

3) This course taught me how to work with Udemy and not against it. Many instructors I see are spending to much time worrying or writing in about negative things such as "bad reviews, not being able to have their courses promoted, the Udemy ranking system, ect ect" Jerry has taught me to overlook these things and if something "fails" you can always try again and create another course! If it wasnt for this message, I wouldn't have the courses I have today. My best-selling courses have come from many "failed" courses!

4) Last but not least, this course has encouraged me to reach out and become more open to new ideas. The ideas in this course are priceless. So much value, but only if you are willing to try them and not get discouraged!

__________

Thanks again so much to Jerry for creating this course, challenging us all to grow, and improve as teachers her on Udemy. I just exceeded my last goal and earned more than $11,000 during the month of November! My best month yet!

Here is a little quote that has keeps me going and is really great to live by. "The Best is Yet To Come" -Willie Jolly. I expect the best to come for us all, on Udemy and Beyond!

Sincerely,

Joe Parys