My courses were about Blockchain Development. We were the first ones there.
It's a side hustle for me.
Like so many other publishers, I have one course that sells really great. I got about 15 courses now published, one sells great, one sells meh, the other ones don't sell at all.
I also have my courses on Packt. Interestingly, I have another course there that sells really great. It's a different one. No overlap. The one on udemy doesn't sell on Packt and vice versa.
I think its pure luck. It's a perpetual motion machine: Once a course sells, it gets recognized and pushed by their marketing team/algo, it gets more visibility and it sells better, which means, it gets recognized and pushed by their marketing team/algo, and sells better ... you get the idea.
Optimize for luck. Be first. Be in a niche. Or have an audience out of udemy you can drive there and drive sales, so it gets recognized by their marketing team/algo.
Which brings me to the second part: I have tried (and failed) to build my own audience. I am a bad marketer. Really bad. Saying marketing and sales are my weak points doesn't do justice at how bad I am at this. I am a builder. I love teaching. I don't love bragging. And marketing/sales for me its a shitshow of shill and brag culture. I can't. And udemy does that for me. They get their cut, I get my cut and I am fine with that. What I don't like is how restrictive they got with analytics, I really can't even guesstimate what is my target audience and cater to them better. But that's a completely different topic.
I got a family and a full time job now and only do this on the side.
Thought you might like the additional info.