My developer tried to convince me to self-host a few times but I simply did not like you the idea of one developer handling all the selling stuff on my blog. I prefer to go with companies like Amazon and Selz because even though it's off-site and I hand them a commission, they handle everything on the selling side, development, security, etc. Super post my friend.

Hi Nas,

I understand this concern and it’s great that you’re being proactive about potential issues.

From a cost perspective there isn’t really a whole lot of risk in this regard, I use Memberpress to gate off my courses currently but will be integrating it with Learndash here pretty soon. You’ll also need video hosting, I personally use Vimeo Pro. Learndash is about $150, and Vimeo Pro is about $200 / year.

Sales pages are set up with OptimizePress which is $100 / year.

Of course the much larger potential risk is the loss of revenue that Udemy is generating for you. This can depend a lot on how much you’re earning from Udemy now, what traffic sources are leading to sales, your course’s topic, and the size of your audience + their loyalty to you and your products specifically.

You’ll have to do all of your own marketing to your sales pages. Since publishing this article, I’ve increasingly felt that if you’re good at marketing, there’s far more money to be made self-hosting (especially if you utilize content marketing or PPC to drive traffic.)

I’m happy to answer any specific questions, just let me know. Thanks and wishing you the best!

What we are currently struggling with is this transition from udemy to own site and the cost comparison. Do you have a guide that can make this transition smoother with pitfalls what to avoid etc

Hey Taisa! Thanks for stopping by.

That sounds like a good plan. As time has gone on I’ve felt more and more like Udemy should be used for branding and visbility, to funnel people towards your site, and a more expensive back-end product. It’s just too difficult to make a sizeable amount of money on Udemy when you’ll likely be earning less than $10 per student.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

I would love to see that comparisson too. I am currently evaluating options too. Just found this looking for options.

I think I’ll go for Udemy with some small courses I had in mind while I take a decision about which platform I will be using, and get some visibility if I can.

Thanks for the article, and I will take a good look on the Memberpress guide and think about it!

Thanks, and again, great post.

Hey Gerfried! Thank you so much for stopping by and adding to this post.

I’ve had to learn that lesson the hard way unfortunately. I was drawn to Udemy for the exposure and the passive aspects of selling but the truth is we have no control whatsoever and this has been made very clear by the recent pricing changes.

“Marketplace instructors definitely need to be aware that they’re building the platform’s brand, not their own.”

Absolutely true. They are not our students, they are Udemy’s students. I have gotten a bit of business from students that originally found me on Udemy, but that is the exception and not the rule.

Fortunately I’m already bouncing back and revenue on my own site is about on-par with Udemy, with a lot more potential to grow as well. I’m very excited for what’s in store and I’m glad I made this decision!

Thank you for sending me the guide, I look forward to looking through it!

great article!

I’ve actually done a ton of research on course hosting platforms since the end of 2015, which has led me to publish a guide about them last week. I’ll PM you the link in case you’re interested.

Personally, I’m going to stick to self-hosting for bigger courses. Udemy’s behaviour is too corporate for my liking. On the other hand, I think marketplaces should be considered as a way to draw customers to your own site (even if they do try to make that difficult). Marketplace instructors definitely need to be aware that they’re building the platform’s brand, not their own.

Gerfried