The Course Pricing Model on Udemy: How To Use it for your benefit

     This post was updated to reflect Udemy's course pricing model in 2020. Enjoy!

One of the major concerns which Udemy instructors had was how the change would influence their revenue and the sales. Prior to the pricing change there were many courses available that were available by Udemy were available at a cost of a few hundred dollars (up to $300). As a result of the changes made, Udemy was forced to lower the prices of their courses by a maximum of $50 for each course. This isn't surprising since the majority of Udemy instructors were not happy with the pricing limitations, to which Udemy eventually responded by agreeing by establishing a minimum cost for courses of $199.99 dollars for every course sold on the site ( see their current pricing policies for course prices below).

Before we start, let's take an overview of Greg Smith's first response to the Udemy pricing change in year 2016. Even though Udemy is introducing more changes in their pricing system over the years but his suggestions for using Udemy's pricing model to benefit you is valid in the current.

What is the reason Udemy has modified its pricing

It's true that the vast majority of Udemy users never pay the entire amount for a course. This is what Gregory Boutte, the VP of Content for Udemy stated about the current pricing system:

"Today prices are inconsistent and difficult for students. Prices range from $9 to $300. However, the reality is that 90% of sales occur with coupons, but at a price under $50."

Since its inception, Udemy has been notorious for its sales that provide huge discounts on courses. You'll often see them advertise courses at up to 90% off for the database of their customers. In this way, they've taught clients to not purchase the course. Instead of spending the full cost the majority of customers will wait to receive an email from the company with a coupon prior to making purchase.

The data has been confirmed by top instructors active on Udemy and they agree with the conclusion that the huge discounting was an issue. John Colley, who is a professor of entrepreneurialism as well as business strategy, thinks the revised pricing policy will help to resolve this problem in the eyes of Udemy instructors.

"I believe that Udemy has shifted its positioning to the market in order to avoid this very heavy discounting strategy. This is going positively for educators."

Scott Duffy, Another major advocate of their pricing model believes that when the discount culture that is so prevalent goes off, instructors will be seeing more impulse purchases at full-priced rates.

"We need to start seeing more people visit the website to buy things. They are not looking for coupons or special offer or even marking courses, instead, they see something they're interested in and then buying the item immediately. This will require some amount of time to build."

Phil Ebiner (one of the most popular instructors at Udemy) The teacher of the course, who was able to set the price of some of his courses online for $300, told us that he does not often get natural sales for that amount. Therefore, he decided to try the new pricing method and drop his course prices to $25. The results showed a rise in natural sales through the course.

"By reducing the cost of courses by less than $50, and restricting it to only 7 choices between $20 and $50 instructors will have a more clear concept of how much the course should price their courses, just based on of the few options. Students will be more confident to purchase courses at any time they'd like and not just in sales. I'm eagerly awaiting the next price adjustments and think this is the most effective option to ensure the Udemy's growth (and the success of teachers)."

Why some instructors don't appreciate the price change

It's clear that having a reduced price for courses won't hurt sales for classes, even for instructors who aren't selling at full price regardless. There's also a smaller percentage of instructors that actually earn an entire profit from their classes (at $300).) They're the instructors who were not happy with changes in pricing.

James McAllister is an instructor in this category. McAllister teaches online courses for business and enterprise. Furthermore, the business is consistently profitable in the $197 range for his price. We spoke with him about this, and here's what We heard from him:

"The difficulty with the latest pricing strategy is that it totally ignores the Udemy instructor base that brings its own students onto their platform. Many of us have invested several months, or many years, gaining credibility among our audience and have been able to justify the higher cost - not just due to the fact that our students have been loyal to our company over time, however, we are also able to promote the value of our classes."

"Selling my course for fifty dollars or less, is reducing the content and people begin to question whether it is of any worth in the first place. It is important to note that contrary to many inexpensive or free financial classes on Udemy my course is not sending people to a more costly course. The information you will find in my course is an entire set of guidelines about how to trade all the way through. This is the reason I only created one course, and why I feel it's more useful over the multitude of other courses some instructors seem to churn out."

Simon has a very good argument as we've observed how pricing can have an essential role in the customer's perception of the worthiness of a particular course. Higher priced online courses generally appear to have more quality than those priced lower. This is the same logic that makes people invest hundreds of dollars on a genuine iPhone instead of a cheap knock-off.

"On Udemy, I was offering a six-week art-school-related education course, which required me to communicate directly with students as well as provide hands-on critiques of assignments. A student's salary of $225 ($50 plus Udemy's 50 percent cut) isn't even the minimum wage for my time."

Then what's the final term?

Clearly, there are positives and negatives to the new pricing method that's been implemented. Certain instructors believe that it can bring in greater organic sales. Others correctly point out that it will devalue more advanced training.

In addition Is Udemy's pricing program good or bad for Udemy teachers?

Well, it depends.

But if your goal is making your course visible to the people taking for the course, posting it on Udemy (or similar online marketplaces for course) does have some advantages.

How do you use Udemy's pricing structure for courses that will help you

If you're an instructor at Udemy and are a current instructor, a change to the pricing structure for courses isn't necessarily good thing. While you're not allowed to sell your courses at more than $199.99 USD does not necessarily mean there's no reason to publish courses through Udemy.

This is what we'll give you:

So, you can get exposure via their platform while offering all the valuable advice, information and assistance at a fair amount. Still, you earn a little of money too. In fact, if all you goal is to get your course noticed that you can offer, consider making your Udemy course for free. If the students who took the course are looking to take their learning up a notch, invite students to take a look at an expanded edition of the class an online platform you manage (just make sure you are in compliance with the Udemy's guidelines for usage).

Although you could earn profits selling your course through Udemy but that should not be your main goal. A better reason to have your online course listed on an online marketplace is an opportunity to reach out to a wide audience and to grow your brand. A marketplace for online courses is much more of a marketing channel for online course creators than other.

After you've got this exposure and have created a brand name, you're capable of bringing people to your customized website , where you'll market your high-end programs.

     If you wish to make your online course available for sale for the price of more than $50?

It's likely that you've been working for a long time to gain the knowledge and skills that allowed you to design your own class in the first place. If you've created enough quality for your course to justify charging more (a cost that the consumer would be prepared to be willing to), then you should certainly have the ability to set the price you want.

Select an online platform, for example, one which gives you complete control over the courses you teach including students, pricing, and instructors. There is no one who will restrict you to increase the cost of your course. It's possible to design an online course for $2,000 as Arel Moody, and offer it through a 6-month installment plan that costs 375 dollars per month.

The final line

The final word is that Udemy is a marketplace. Much like any online marketplace for courses, it's entirely in charge of their rules and limitations in addition to the cost of courses sold through their platform. It's the way they operate and they're able to alter the regulations if they feel that it is beneficial for their customers and instructors and their students.

Instructors have a choice. It's not necessary to be associated with Udemy even it's not your intention to. There is no arrangement with Udemy this means that you're allowed to market your course as well as with your own web site, with your own pricing.

The issue to ask is... do you make courses available through Udemy or through your own platform instead?

Our recommendation:you aren't required to select either one or the other.

Use Udemy to advertise your company and drive visitors to your brand-name website which will help you create a sustainable and lasting business that you're in charge of. With , you can create your very own website with a branded logo in under an hour!

What are your thoughts about Udemy's pricing structure?

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