I have been teaching on Udemy since 2014 and it is very common for people to ask me how much can a Udemy instructor earns. So I decided to write a blog post on this topic and you will learn the following after reading this article:
- How the Udemy revenue model works.
- How much Udemy Instructors are earning (with screenshots).
I will do my best to keep this post updated moving forward so it will help to serve as a good reference for people considering this online business model.
So if you are keen to find out more, continue to read on!
There are mainly two revenue share models Udemy has.
The first share model is you will earn 97% of the course fee if someone signs up for your course using your referral or coupon code.
For example, this is my referral link for the course, “Affiliate Marketing Success Without Any Websites”. If someone clicks on that link and sign up for my course, I will earn 97% of that listed course fee.
In addition, I can also generate coupon codes (US$9.99 special promo) for my online course and when someone signs up for my course using my promo code, I will also earn 97% of US$9.99.
However, nowadays most of my enrolled learners did not come from the above method. Most of my enrolled learners come from Udemy or Udemy’s partners’ promotions. Thus, this falls under the second revenue share model below.
The second revenue share model happens when a person signs up for your course not using your referral link or coupon code. In such a case, you will earn 37% of the course fee.
For example, if you participate in Udemy’s deal marketing program (which I strongly recommend doing so), Udemy will promote your course to their database and other channels like FaceBook and Google. Udemy will also decide how much to sell your course for. It can be as low as US$9.99 so when someone signs up for your course via Udemy’s promotion, then you will earn 37% of US$9.99.
Sidenote: Many friends have expressed that Udemy’s 37% revenue share model is too little for Instructors, but for me, I find it reasonable. The reason is because I do not have to do any marketing to make this 37%. In the past, when I was running physical courses in Singapore, I have to invest in Google ads, Facebook ads to get leads and signups, which can be very expensive. Nowadays, I just focus on creating courses and supporting my learners by answering their questions.
The following is a snapshot of the enrollments that you will see as a Udemy Instructor:
Notice that out of all these enrollments, I have only one coming from my own promotion. And hence, that results in 97% of the revenue share. R$ stands for 1 Brazilian Real.
Udemy Business Program
Besides earning from enrollments for your Udemy course, you will also earn based on how much time your courses have been viewed (if your course is selected under the Udemy Business program).
For me, I am fortunate to have one course listed under the Udemy Business program.
Some Udemy instructors earn much more from the Udemy Business revenue but for me, it makes up 10 to 15% of my total Udemy revenue.
You can read more about the Udemy Business program here.
Managing Expectations
I just want to manage expectations here before we continue to share some real numbers from the Udemy Instructor group…
Most probably you won’t be making lots of money from Udemy because it is mainly a discounted course platform where learners only sign up when there are discounts. However, if you managed to teach a topic that is in high demand and your learners like you (by giving you lots of 5-star reviews), then you will be able to make a good living from your Udemy courses as your courses are featured as Best-Selling courses.
Based on my experience, a Best-Selling course can get 10 to 100 learners signing up on a single non-promotion day. If there is a promotion going on (like New Year sale, Black Friday, Mid-year sale), then the Best-Selling course can get up to 10 times the enrollment during promotion days. This is the reason why some Udemy Instructors can make 5-figure per month just based on their courses on Udemy.
Made $3 Million in Udemy (average $45,000/mth)
The following is a snapshot of a Udemy instructor who shared his/her earnings in our closed Udemy group (I have blurred the name of the instructor to keep his/her identity confidential):
This Udemy instructor earns $35,000 to $50,000 per month (on average) from Udemy and since his/her journey with Udemy (past 7 years), he/she has made $3 Million dollars.
If you are a Udemy Instructor, you will get access to this closed Udemy group and see other Instructors posting their earnings too.
I have seen Instructors posting their income ranging from a $xxx per month to $xx,xxx per month. The best thing about such posts is that these instructors are often very kind to share tips on how they achieve their results!
Just a while ago, a new Instructor also posted that he has just made US$1,000 after 3 months of joining Udemy.
Video on Instructor making $38,000 per month!
I have also recorded a video on some tips shared by another Udemy instructor who is earning $38,000 per month from Udemy. You can watch the video below:
Hope you find this post useful!
If you want to learn how to start selling courses on Udemy and be successful, do check out my eBook Udemy success here.
