Over that time I've tried different hosting providers, and evaluated the services of others. Some of those providers are listed on this blog.
I don't intend this post to bash these services, and I might mention some by name. But I'm doing this because of the lessons I learned from it.
I started hosting with Udemy, as many people did, and still do.
- Free to start
- Had a simple payment percentage split
- Easy interface
- Allowed me to contact and promote to the students
- Could host free and paid courses
As a busy consultant, this seemed ideal. I could ignore:
- all the infrastructure requirements.
- Put my course live quickly and have people buy it.
- Create a free course as a lead generation and upsell the paid course or ebooks or consultancy without having to build an email list
Perfect.
Until.
The 'partnership' that I thought I was part of, changed its rules.
Now Udemy
- Free to start
- Easy interface
- Host free and paid courses - but can't promote paid courses to free students, and can't promote non-Udemy products to either,
I can't use it to promote. So all the traffic I've sent to Udemy and built up the student base for, I can't promote to for my consultancy, training, ebooks etc.
Oops. Costly Business Lesson learned.
But, as a consultant it takes time to move courses off the platform and on to new ones, so my inability to respond to changes of the hosting company has meant that I have continued to build their business, but not grow the future business prospects of mine.
But I've finally responded now and moved on to a white labelled hosting service called usefedora.
Full disclosure - if you use that link and sign up, you'll get $100 free credit with usefedora, and so will I. But I'd include the link to them anyway. Since my business depends on their services, I'm happy to promote it.Useedora is good for me because:
- I have an existing area of expertise that I'm known for
- I can market to my audience through my blogs, courses, ebooks etc. So I'm not dependent on anyone else driving traffic or promoting my course.
- I have access to the email details of the people who sign up to the course so I can contact them directly without interference from the course hosting company
For other people Usefedora would suck because Udemy is great when:
- You are not going to market your course
- You want to sell the course at a low price, and with numerous flash sales that knock it down to $10
- You basically want to sell lots of courses at low price
- You don't want to upsell to the students
- All your products will be Udemy courses - because that's all you can promote to Udemy students. Not ebooks, not webinars, not face to face training.
- You don't care if terms and conditions change, because you just want to dump a course on the market
And when I create my 'self help products', and 'knock up an ebook quickly for cash schemes', then I'l use Udemy, because:
- Udemy have trained their students to expect a discount market for courses, so you want to sell cheap and sell lots
- I won't have an existing contact base to market to, so the only way I'll get visibility for my product is through their "buy any of these courses for $10" promotions
- I won't upsell from it, because each product is niche and not part of a long term strategy
- I don't plan on supporting the students, the course is just for revenue
- The courses aren't part of my long term business plan, so they don't help me grow my business, they are just experimental sources of revenue
If you actually want to build your business, and make online training a part of that business, but not the whole focus then you need a hosting partner who:
- shares the customer email addresses so you can market to them
- takes a fair share of the course payment to cover hosting costs - because you need them to stay in business as much as they need you to stay in business, and they are less likely to change their terms and conditions
Keep in mind. Are you building your business? Are the people you are partnering with, helping you build your business? Or are they putting blocks in your way, that ultimately help them?
I host my courses with usefedora and I'm happy to pay a monthly fee, for a higher payment commission, because they give me the flexibility to contact my students and use my online courses as one part of my business, and I can use it to grow my business.
Other online hosting companies probably do this to.
So check...
Does your hosting company give you access to the customer emails? If not, do they have rules about what you can contact the students about, and how often?
If they do block you, or have rules, then there are providers who don't, and if you want to grow your business rather than theirs, then this will be important for you.
Do you have an audience to market to? If not, are you prepared to build one, and live with lower sales until you do?
If you are not prepared to build your business, and market your course. Then online training is not part of your business plan, and you should go for an online vendor that brings in the students, or will make your course visible to the students that other instructors have brought to the platform.
Do you want to spread your courses wide across multiple hosting companies, or use one or two because you want to focus your marketing and support energies?
I want to be very specific about where I spend my time, so I can't afford the time to jump between multiple vendors and multiple support systems. Hence why I need to choose between hosting companies, rather than using them all.
Ask yourself: Are you building your business? Or helping someone else build theirs?
I'm not trying to suggest that any course hosting vendor is 'bad'. But they may not be 'right' for your situation and your business. And be prepared to take action if they are not, or if they change so that they are not.
I've uploaded my courses to 5 different companies and software now, and cancelled them on 3 platforms before launch. You do need to experiment, but be very clear about what you need, and have the courage to change, if your needs are not being met.
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