When I asked listeners last month who they’d like to hear on the show, Rob Cubbon is a name that came up from a couple different people.
It was actually a little weird, because it made me realize that even though I considered Rob a good “online friend,” we’d never actually spoken!
Rob’s been crushing it lately between is online teaching efforts and his Kindle publishing business, and as luck would have it, is a Side Hustle Show listener himself.
I’ve been following Rob’s blog for some time myself, and have been really impressed with his journey. In fact, it’s pretty inspiring and eye-opening to see some his quarterly income reports, with much of the money coming from Udemy. (His latest was over $5k!)
And a fun fact is that all of this stuff, all the digital product sales, is essentially a side hustle from his main gig as a freelance graphic designer.
In this episode, he joins me live from Chaing Mai, Thailand, where he’s living the digital nomad dream this fall.
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Learn:
- How Rob got started blogging, and how his blog generated freelance design clients.
- How to write blog posts that target “buying keywords” to attract qualified traffic.
- How Rob re-purposed his YouTube videos into a free course on Udemy. (Packaging and organizing creates higher perceived value.)
- How you can gently expose your free students to your website, your brand, and your email list.
- How he’s creating the courses, primarily with screencapture software. (I use Screencast-o-matic.com)
- How he prices his courses, and how he releases them.
- Why Rob has chosen to focus on Udemy rather than his own platform (and why that is changing).
- The other places you can syndicate your digital education products.
- How re-purposed content from your courses can fuel Kindle books, blog posts, Slideshare presentations, and more.
- Rob’s #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation.
Links:
- RobCubbon.com
- Tara’s Graphic Design Blog (inactive)
- Rob on Udemy
- Side Hustle Show 54 with Kimberly Palmer
- The Path to Passive Income on Udemy – Even If You’re Not an Expert
- My latest attempt at Udemy
- Skillfeed (out of business)
- Skillshare
- Alun Hill: YouTube Success Secrets (inactive)
- Recession-Proof Businesses
Your Turn
What do you think? Could you teach some in demand skill on Udemy? The results are pretty attractive!
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Not trying to be super critical here, but what exactly is passive about this?
Passive in that the income is not directly tied to hours of input — there’s leverage in creating products once and selling them many many times. But yes, definitely takes a time investment to build those products.
I agree with Nick, Patrick. Yes, there is a time investment in setting up a video course and writing a book but the income you receive from these products eventually exceeds how much you would have earned if you swapped those hours for dollars AND they build your brand and add authority so that you can earn more passive income from other products in the future.
Why not use Fiverr or Elance to outsource your video editing?
I do use a guy I know really well from oDesk to help me on the video editing, Andy. I wouldn’t use Fiverr. When I started out I did all the video editing and everything myself but I started outsourcing some of the product creation tasks as soon as I started making some regular cash from the video courses.
Hi Nick, thanks for having Rob on the podcast. I’m a huge fan (and friend) and I’m following Rob’s strategies for creating online courses. I put up 3 of my YouTube videos on Skillfeed and I’m already generating more income than I do from AdSense on my YouTube Channel. My first Udemy course is a free one and I’m heading over to Skillshare now….
Hey Ileane, glad to hear you’re doing well on Skillfeed. You can put as many of your YouTube videos on there as you want as “Skillsnacks” – and why not, you may as well get paid for your awesome content, what do you think? I know Skillshare will make us money but I’m not sure how much as I’m still waiting for my first check!
However, Udemy is the biggie. i would concentrate on that. You already have 1000+ students on your free course. This is huge! Later on (when you have nearer 10,000 students) you can add a few videos to that course, take some of the YT videos on that course off YT and make it a premium course. Then you will start making money from it and, more importantly, you will be able to promote to those 10,000 students a newer, premium course – this is when things start getting serious on udemy! :)
I love the idea of having Skillsnacks but I didn’t realize those could be paid classes. There is so much to learn about the Udemy platform – and I’m so glad I have you to teach me the ropes! I agree that I need to focus on Udemy. Thanks so much for the advice.
Sorry to confuse everyone, Ileane, Skillsnacks are only on Skillfeed where you can be paid for 5 minute long videos (or videos of any length at all) that are already on YouTube. As long as these videos are of sufficient quality and are helpful tutorials – as most of yours are.
Skillfeed will bring in a bit of passive revenue but, yes, Udemy has the potential to bring in more :)
Rob
Hi Nick and Rob, Another great show! some great tips!
Please could you explain more about how Udemy is limiting links back to your own site? Is it still permitted to promote your brand outside udemy. For example if you had resources relevant to your course on your own website can you share the link with students?
Hello Mr Explainer. You can promote your brand inside (and of course) outside Udemy. I have calls to action to my squeeze page and site throughout my Udemy courses and my videos are branded with my logo and site name. You can add links to video descriptions and PDF downloads. You just shouldn’t make it too obvious.
Rob
Thanks Rob! Yes i noticed your branding on your udemy videos matching up with your website. Very nice!
Awesome tips! I learn something new every time I read new post about passive income! so I keep looking for them. Way to teach by example!
That’s good, Tarence
Just finished listening to this podcast as I spent a good portion of my morning putting together my 1st Udemy course. I had no idea about Skillshare or skillfeed. I took a quick look & it seems a lot of it is technical. Even the “beauty” section is basically photoshop videos. I teach women how to DIY their own airbrush makeup, do you all think skillshare & skillfeed are worthwhile platforms for me?
Hey Kellie, Udemy is the big boy at the moment and I would definitely concentrate on that. Technical career and entrepreneurial skills definitely do better there but that’s not to say that a makeup course won’t do well. Skillfeed is produced by Shutterstock and definitely favors graphic and web design courses. Skillshare is maybe more general.
Thanks Rob, I am on the 10th section of my lecture so if nothing else, it will at least help me get my feet wet on teaching online. I will stick with Udemy for now. Thanks for the info!
I wish you great success, Kellie