Udemy Affiliate Program Review: Can You Make $1000 A Month?

Udemy could actually be a good way to make some cash by selling your knowledge online. It offers courses on different trending topics in different industries like business, technology, education, and more.

Udemy has created an opportunity for any creator in the world to sell their expertise and earn money. The website has packaged itself as the go-to for every type of online course out there.

The company is really strong and has been growing like crazy over the past couple of years. And I believe it’s going to grow continuously because of the great courses, well-integrated payment options, easy interface for both customers and creators, and exceptional support.

Udemy As A Company

We all know what Udemy is, right? Well, if you don’t, it’s a platform that helps creators sell online courses and people purchase those content pieces at affordable pricing.

• Udemy is an onlilne course provider
• Company founded back in 2009
• CEO: Gregg Coccari
• Headquarters: California, States
• Number Of Users: 40 million users

What Is The Udemy Affiliate Program?

The Udemy affiliate program is a marketing scheme that looks to find people capable of marketing the courses and bringing more buyers on board.

Marketers or affiliate marketers can join this marketing scheme/program and get paid for promoting the courses.

People can submit applications via this program and applications of potential marketers are screened to establish the ideal one to market the courses to their audience.

All approved affiliates are then given access to exclusive content for selecting the courses they would like to advertise/promote and earn money.

Affiliates also get access to a wide range helpful promotional material like coupon codes and banners for the affiliate to use in marketing.

For a person with a good following or running a website, being a Udemy affiliate is a great way to earn cash as you get 15% (or more) of every course purchased through your link within seven days of clicking.

For example, for a fashion blogger, there are Udemy courses in the niche to sell on the platform, and your job is to get the word out to bag more sales that later translate to money. Great, isn’t it?

Udemy Affiliate Program: Important Details For Marketers

Now, let’s have a look at some really important and useful details that affiliates and marketers need to know about the Udemy affiliate program.

Official Website: https://www.udemy.com

Affiliate Signup Page: https://www.udemy.com/affiliate

Commission Rates: 15% base commission

Cookie Duration: 7 days

Affiliate Network/Software: Rakuten LinkShare

Payment Threshold: $50

Auto Approval: No

How do You Become a Udemy Affiliate?

The first step to becoming a Udemy affiliate is filling out your application. After clicking the join button on their website, you are redirected to a web form to fill in your personal, website, company information, and other important information.

That web form is going to be of an affiliate network managed by Rakuten – LinkShare.

It takes 3 to 4 business days to have your application reviewed to join the program. I know that’s a bit too long but it has to be tolerated.

After being accepted into the affiliate program, you get access to Udemy’s exclusive content and courses that can be promoted for nifty commissions.

Here, you can explore numerous niches and settle on the ones you feel would work best for you. After establishing your niche of choice, you can then use different creative tools and your affiliate links to promote the classes.

Therefore, becoming a Udemy affiliate is not an uphill task and only needs you to; apply, discover and promote your lessons, monetize and start cutting yourself a cheque.

Exciting, isn’t it?

How Much Do You Expect to Make as a Udemy Affiliate?

There is no fixed figure to state and directly answer how much you can expect to make as a Udemy affiliate. The figures vary and fluctuate as the affiliates earn on a commission basis.

The rates at Udemy are considered competitive, and you should expect to earn 15-20% commission per online course sale.

With a good marketing strategy in place, the 15-20% can quickly add up, and $50 is the minimum threshold for an affiliate to earn. Udemy does make it easy for you to accumulate money as it has a 7-day referral or cookie window.

The 7-day cookie window means that your audience has seven days to purchase the course after clicking on the link. If seven days elapse before the sale is made, the affiliate misses out on their commission.

How To Make Money As A Udemy Affiliate?

Now, I’m going to share with you a reasonable process that can be implied for becoming a successful Udemy affiliate partner and a professional affiliate marketer in general:

Select A Profitable Niche You Are Passionate About

Marketing and building a following in a niche you are passionate about is the best way to become a profitable and successful Udemy affiliate partner.

Some affiliates simply set up websites to promote top lessons, which would vary from niche to niche, not focusing much on whether or not they resonate with what they are selling.

While this could be a quick way to make sales and earn a commission, it takes away the trust from the audience and it’s not going to be effective as well.

Marketing topics you are passionate about, on the other hand, make it easy for you to add value to your audience’s lives and have a trustworthy relationship with them.

Remember that you will be spending time writing or making videos about the niche you select, sometimes even taking courses in them. Therefore, it is only natural to select a topic you enjoy and are passionate about, or you’ll be in for some mental exhaustion.

Udemy provides a list of the courses in categories, for example, the most popular, highly rated, or best-selling courses. A software course could be the most popular, but it will pose some difficulties if you know nothing about the niche.

For a beauty blogger, however, promoting a course in the same industry would mean their skills becoming instrumental and beneficial to themselves.

Doing your homework about course sales in your niche of choice is therefore essential. Select a top-selling course in a niche you like, check out the reviews and course enrollments. Verify the legitimacy of the reviews and establish whether enrollment is paid or free.

Do your due diligence on the trustworthiness of the instructor before recommending them to people.

You could select a few courses and take them to have an idea of what you are about to promote. A full-blown review of the course is not mandatory, but promoting one that you can provide the required information about should be a priority.

Contrary to this, you may end up losing sales and your audience over time if you don’t promote what you know. Finally, beginners should select just one course to promote and slowly expand their portfolio as they go.

Build A Social Media And Blog Following

When you apply to become an affiliate, Udemy checks on your potential to run an effective promotion.

A website with 5000 visitors per month is more likely to have successful promotions and sales than one with 1000 visits. Increasing your website visibility means you can promote the courses to more people, hence closing more sales.

The internet has a lot of information on creating a successful blog or website. Consistency and great authentic content are vital in growing your following.

You could also explore marketing techniques like PPC ads and backlinking to bring traffic to your pages.

Like any other business, growing your following takes time and effort to generate income for you eventually. After putting in the work and growing your audience, you can monetize the website/page and earn affiliate revenue.

Optimize Your Website Landing Page For Conversions

Optimizing your website’s landing page for conversions is critical in inbound marketing. Making affiliate sales is all about conversion optimization.

A successful Udemy affiliat] must design a landing page that convinces your audience to click on the link.

Here’s how you that;

• Put an image or video that engages your readers and intrigues them to explore your website. Creating “stickiness” on the page will lead them to comb through your website and click on the links available.
• SEO optimization for your page also translates to conversions. When a user finds your website through a search, they become interested in your page and hence becoming more likely to convert.
• You could create a landing page for a specific target audience, such as a pay-per-click ad or email campaign. A different landing page for different traffic source!
• You can also offer a Udemy course coupon or ebook for personal information and use it to market to visitors later on.
• Take your time to properly optimize your page for conversions and have more users purchasing courses from your Udemy affiliate links.

Market Courses Close To Full Prices

It’s an open secret that courses on Udemy sell for as cheap as $10 and is usually the case throughout the year.

A 15% commission means you earn $1.5 on a $10 sale, keeping in mind, you have a 7-day window to convert your readers to a Udemy course sale.

Engaging and building a relationship with your readers is an advisable move to help in quickly bagging sales with courses that are not highly discounted on Udemy.

Once you have created a trustworthy relationship with your audience, leverage that relationship to promote full-price courses. If you sell $50 courses, that gives five times the commission, you would have gotten from a $10 course.

Therefore, you need to be on the ‘look out’ for the times when Udemy is not discounting course prices and taking your shot.

You might get lucky and sell a full-price course that earns you a commission you would have had to sell several $10 courses.

Build And Maintain Trust

If you want your readers to pay more than $10 for a course you recommend, trust will have to be established. There are several ways this trust can be achieved.

Understand that your name is at stake when you promote a specific course to your audience. Yep, that’s true!

If you recommend something they find unsatisfactory, your reputation will be harmed, which could translate to fewer sales and lower affiliate revenue for you in the upcoming times.

Build a personal relationship with your readers by offering several ways to contact you through social media, adding an “about me” section or personal video on your page. This way, they know you are doing a legitimate business and are serious with your work.

Showcase your knowledge and experience in what your promoting. It helps with building your reader’s trust. It shows that you believe in whatever you recommend to them.

Provide evidence of some of the Udemy courses you have taken yourself through screenshots and examples. (Go the extra mile and contact the instructor of the course you’re promoting if possible.

It may be a bit difficult to do that, but it would be a massive boost to your website to convert leads and establish trust.

Being authentic and having helpful information on your website is number one in building and maintaining trust with your audience.

Pros of the Udemy affiliate program

Now, it’s time to spot some good stuff about Udemy and its referral program:

1. Recognized Brand

Udemy is a household name and has done an excellent job at being the go-to for online courses. Anyone familiar with buying courses online will most likely know about Udemy, which means that you can trust the brand name to make your efforts easier.

2. Numerous Courses

On the Udemy affiliate program, there are thousands of courses at your disposal for you to promote. You are sure to find a course on whatever you want on Udemy. However, thorough research is required to help you choose the right courses, depending on your preference and long-term goals.

3. Promotional Material

As a Udemy affiliate, you are sure to have access to promotional material from Udemy that you can use like – resources for your readers and banners.

Cons of the Udemy Affiliate Program

Just like the good things, bad things need to be addressed as well. So, let’s go ahead and do that:

1. Approval Period

After sending your application to become a Udemy affiliate, it requires a bit of patience as it takes 3-4 days to get approved.

Udemy is different from other affiliate programs that give instant access. Find out from the Udemy affiliate page what you need to have your application approved as fast as possible.

2. Cookie Length

In my opinion, which could be familiar to most, the /-day cookie sounds like a con. Udemy decreased to this from a 30-day cookie length which is also the industry standard.

Despite seven days being enough time to convert customers, It obviously would be better to have it at a 30-day cookie length to give affiliates time to accumulate good revenue.

Is Udemy Affiliate Program Good?

Yes, the Udemy affiliate program works perfectly fine, provides a lot of functionality and interface to affiliates, and offers competitive commissions to people/affiliate partners.

How Much Do Udemy Affiliates Make?

According to the Udemy’s affiliate community and other sources online, Udemy affiliates are making anywhere from $300 to $1429 a month on average.

Of course, the revenue earned is going to be different for different affiliates because there are a lot of factors including – work, understanding, expertise, budget, and consistency.

How Much Does Udemy Pay Affiliates?

The Udemy affiliate program pays a fifteen percent (15%) commission per qualified sale but the commissions rates vary from one course to another.

Can You Make $1000 A Month As An Udemy Affiliate?

Well, if you have read this post full, you and me both know that it isn’t that hard to answer this question! The answer is, yes! You can definitely earn a thousand dollars per month with the Udemy affiliate marketing program but you will have to put in the work and make strategic decisions in order to do that.

Make sure to do the research properly and also, make sure to run sustainable profitable campaigns no matter what you do.

In Conclusion

Udemy is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to sell online courses. With a well-planned marketing strategy, authenticity and passion, you could end up creating an income as a Udemy affiliate.

Just like with any other job, ensure to put in the work to grow your audience. Following the tips discussed on becoming a successful Udemy affiliate, you could make yourself some money while doing something you love.

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