Heaptalk, Jakarta — The rapid growth of the internet allows people to learn various skills through online platforms, one of which is Udemy. While sharing educational content, creators on Udemy can earn ever-increasing income each month.
One of the educational content creators at Udemy, Widhi Muttaqien, created his first course in 2014. The number of Widhi’s students has now grown to more than 45,000 from only two students. In the first month, he earned Rp1.4 million then increased to Rp2.3 million in the second month, and to Rp3.4 million equals US$216.7 (US$=Rp15,685.8) in the third month. According to Widhi, his income has consistently increased to date.
Having a passion for teaching and developing software, Widhi has released twelve courses on Udemy on multiple technology topics, from computer graphics to Microsoft Excel. To introduce his courses, he takes advantage of Udemy’s seasonal promotions to attract more applicants to his courses.
“With the rising number of Udemy users and high web traffic, I do not have to constantly run the marketing and sales process for my courses. I only need to focus on making quality courses,” said Widhi. Critical reviews from students of the course regarding the audio or video quality are necessary to help him improve the quality of the courses he creates.
Another educational creator Jubilee Enterprise saw a great opportunity to reach more customers through Udemy since at that time video content had not been facilitated and accommodated properly. Jubilee diversified and expanded its market share into the audio video while maintaining its trademark by choosing IT topics as its specialty when Udemy was introduced in Indonesia.
Gregorius Agung from Jubilee Enterprise said, “Our first video course entitled Graphic Design for Beginners was produced and released in 2018, marking Jubilee Enterprise’s first milestone on the Udemy platform. We continue to expand and launch at least three courses per month across various categories.”
One of Jubilee’s marketing strategies is to diversify themes to accommodate students from various backgrounds and interests. Jubilee Enterprise actively promotes its courses while still harnessing traffic from Udemy’s marketing programs.
Currently, Jubilee Enterprise has released more than 100 video courses with the most popular topics being Python for the programming category and Photoshop for the graphic design category. Unlike other instructors who tend to specialize in one or two topics, Jubilee Enterprise chooses to be a generalist to reach a wider audience.
According to a SignalFire report, more than 50 million people worldwide consider themselves creators. These people are considered to be the drivers of the creator economy, and creator has become one of the fastest-growing professions to date. According to a recent study conducted by Adobe, more than 50% of creators’ main motivation is to express themselves, do something fun, and explore their passion or interest.
Instructors at Udemy are creators of educational content that focus on education and knowledge transfer. These content creators help their audience grow and develop by upskilling or boosting skills, reskilling or retraining, and increasing competence.
No longer relying on conventional education, the audiences happily consume educational content created and regularly updated by industry experts. Over time, the creator economy, especially in educational content, has grown to become a powerful force.
According to the Head of the Indonesia Market at Udemy Giri Suhardi, Indonesia’s creative economy has great untapped potential. Few people can make a living from their creativity. “As a platform that facilitates creators in education, Udemy aims to open new career paths for content creators in education. Udemy focuses on building relationships with instructors to help them reach more learners,” said Giri.
Widhi and Jubilee Enterprise are among the thousands of educational content creators who earn passive income and make a living from the courses they post on Udemy.
A structured marketing and promotion program accompanied by the implementation of SEO strategies by Udemy can benefit instructors as their courses will be easily found by the public. Furthermore, the courses can help students to achieve their professional careers, said Giri in his closing statement.
