# How much money did my course make?



## Akarin (Jan 3, 2021)

*How much money did my course make?*

I've been asked this question bluntly multiple times already. After much pondering, I decided to be transparent and to give you a breakdown, with numbers. I understand that in these trying times, a lot of media composers are looking for different outlets to continue to earn a living so I will give you my experience with this.

First, the course itself. It's called Digital Composing Series: Strings and it is available here: digitalcomposing.com. The idea was to show how I approach building and testing a template, how I write a cue with it, how I build a mix template, and finally how I mix my cue with it. It was released two weeks ago.

For those who have been following my YouTube videos, you may be wondering why make a paid course when I release most of my content for free. See, music is only half of my professional life. The other half, I'm teaching programming. Mostly online. Building courses is something that I've been doing for quite some time (10+ years.) My YouTube videos are short-form quick tips and also quick looks at sample libraries. I do them in my off time, with a coffee in order to give a little bit back to the community that has brought me so much. For a while, I've been contemplating making series on bigger subjects and this is actually how my course started. Because I've decided to refuse some paid projects in order to continue writing/recording my course, at some point I had to consider at least trying to break even.

So... numbers. This close to 8 hour video course took me 7 months to produce. Not full time, of course, but between 2-5 hours per week. I estimate that I've spent about 100 hours on it. I take about 5 hours to write, mix and stem 3 minutes of music for media. 100 hours is roughly the time I estimate to write 2 albums. 

Once the course was recorded, I needed to host it on a platform that could take care of enrollments, payment gateway, video hosting and user management. I chose Teachable as I've already had some good past experiences with them. Teachable takes $99/mo if you pay for a year in advance and $119/mo if you pay monthly. I went with the yearly plan. So, $1188 as an initial investment. 

Marketing the course as in "let people know it exists" cost me too. First, I placed banners on the VI Control forum. I took the full enchilada plan for one month... banners everywhere for $379. 

I've placed some ads on Facebook. 2 picture ads and 1 video ad targeting people interested in certain keywords like "composing", "digital audio workstation", "film scores", "Hans Zimmer". $50/day for 15 days. That's $750.

For my 2.6k YouTube followers, I've also posted my 15 second video ad on my channel and added a link to my course in the description of several of my best performing videos. That basically cost me nothing, if you don't count the time it takes to build that audience (8 months.)

I've also created an affiliate link program giving 25% of the course price to affiliates. Teachable lets you do that, it's a free option. By the way, if you are interested in becoming an affiliate, PM me.

Excluding the time spent on creating the content (the highest cost), I had to pay $2.4k upfront, not knowing if I would cover the costs. I'm definitely not a gambler but this is a bet I was willing to take.

Finally came the hard task of setting a price. Looking at other online courses in the same space, as I'm not an established music tech instructor, I went with half of the average of the courses I considered. $69 (excl. tax.) ...but I also set a special intro price of $49 until Jan 20th which is still going on, no one has yet paid full price for the course. Aside from my YouTube channel, I have a free online platform for composers called Composing Tips. I've given its members a 10% off coupon code.

Today, I just broke the 150th enrolled learner mark on my course. Where do they come from?

- 11 from VI Control
- 12 from my Facebook ads
- 14 from my Composing Tips platform
- 67 clicked on the link in my YouTube video descriptions
- 46... ...I don't know!

With the special discounts and free courses I have given (friends, reviewers, etc), the cut that PayPal and Teachable take, I have made $6300 in two weeks. It covers the costs and leaves me with $3900 of profit. I have no idea how it will continue to sell and what will happen once the intro price period will be over, but if you want to, I will give you an update.


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## proxima (Jan 3, 2021)

Super interesting, thanks. I've gone through a lot of videos from Groove3, Thinkspace, Ask.Audio, etc and often wondered what the business end looked like.

My guess is that at some point soon sales will drop off, but I'd be really curious how long that takes. I'd also be interested to know what a "summer sale" or Black Friday sale would yield for a course that isn't new but will be new to some.


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## Bluemount Score (Jan 3, 2021)

Thanks for the insight! Not many are willing to share such information, though I find it rather interesting


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## Markrs (Jan 3, 2021)

Akarin said:


> *How much money did my course make?*
> 
> I've been asked this question bluntly multiple times already. After much pondering, I decided to be transparent and to give you a breakdown, with numbers. I understand that in these trying times, a lot of media composers are looking for different outlets to continue to earn a living so I will give you my experience with this.
> 
> ...


Thank you Nico, very honest and transparent in what it costs to create these type of courses. For me my interest in reading this is only curiosity as I am very much a purchaser of courses (including this one) not a creator.


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## SlHarder (Jan 3, 2021)

Nico

I hope that your results encourage you and other talented educators to continue offering online material. Obviously you've put a lot of love and sweat into this project, and that input can't be priced.

The quality and quantity of excellent educational projects seems to be growing. This bodes well for many of us who are hobbyists and avid learners. It is a good time to be "self educated".


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## proxima (Jan 3, 2021)

Akarin said:


> Marketing the course as in "let people know it exists" cost me too. First, I placed banners on the VI Control forum. I took the full enchilada plan for one month... banners everywhere for $379.
> 
> I've placed some ads on Facebook. 2 picture ads and 1 video ad targeting people interested in certain keywords like "composing", "digital audio workstation", "film scores", "Hans Zimmer". $50/day for 15 days. That's $750.
> [...]
> ...


While some of those people from ads may have eventually ended up in the 46 "I don't know" category, the direct numbers suggest that VI Control is a much better platform for advertising! It seems that FB may not even reach the break-even level (yet), unless it contributed a lot to the 46 uncategorized sales.

Also, I just purchased the course. Looking forward to working through it!


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## Akarin (Jan 3, 2021)

proxima said:


> While some of those people from ads may have eventually ended up in the 46 "I don't know" category, the direct numbers suggest that VI Control is a much better platform for advertising! It seems that FB may not even reach the break-even level (yet), unless it contributed a lot to the 46 uncategorized sales.
> 
> Also, I just purchased the course. Looking forward to working through it!



Thanks! Hope you will like it!

The problem with FB is that it is hard to target people specifically interested in VI, strings and templates 😊 The VI Control audience tends to be more receptive to it already.


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## AceAudioHQ (Jan 3, 2021)

Akarin said:


> The problem with FB is that it is hard to target people specifically interested in VI, strings and templates 😊 The VI Control audience tends to be more receptive to it already.


FB should be the best platform to market your stuff for the right people, you can filter people with anything from age and sex to specific likes etc.


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## Akarin (Jan 3, 2021)

AceAudioHQ said:


> FB should be the best platform to market your stuff for the right people, you can filter people with anything from age and sex to specific likes etc.



Yes, but you can only filter with existing categories. There's not much for DAW composers there. I've spent quite some time analyzing the keywords.


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## MartinH. (Jan 3, 2021)

Thanks for sharing! Quite interesting. 



Akarin said:


> I've placed some ads on Facebook. 2 picture ads and 1 video ad targeting people interested in certain keywords like "composing", "digital audio workstation", "film scores", "Hans Zimmer". $50/day for 15 days. That's $750.



I have some doubts about those keyword choices. E.g. Hans Zimmer, could that target the millions of people who like his music but don't even have a DAW? Or did you target it so that it only gets shown to people interested in ALL of your keywords?


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## Akarin (Jan 3, 2021)

MartinH. said:


> Thanks for sharing! Quite interesting.
> 
> 
> 
> I have some doubts about those keyword choices. E.g. Hans Zimmer, could that target the millions of people who like his music but don't even have a DAW? Or did you target it so that it only gets shown to people interested in ALL of your keywords?



You may be right about this! I've copied some keywords that I've found within some library vendors ads but they also don't have the same budget. I'll continue to revise this 😊


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## PaulieDC (Jan 3, 2021)

Akarin said:


> Today, I just broke the 150th enrolled learner mark on my course. Where do they come from?
> 
> - 11 from VI Control
> - 12 from my Facebook ads
> ...


_update: the section in my original reply that’s now in a smaller font is one that I shouldn’t have written... I’d delete it but the replies wouldn’t make sense. I explain my mistake a few replies down (in my reply to @Jdiggity1 ‘s comment). Our seasoned pros are the best asset of this site, my apologies._
========================
And I hope it keeps selling, fruit for your labor and investment! I’m one of the 11 from VI-C and I’m loving this course. I have several courses I have purchased, all good for different reasons. What sets yours apart is the DETAILED explanations of setting up the project and instruments. A lot of courses tell you “you can do this and you can do that”, and I pull my hair out, screaming back “but what SHOULD I do, what’s the best practice here?”. Your course is the first to explain WHY you are doing each step. That’s worth it’s weight in gold, especially if you are a Cubase user since that’s what you teach from. You know how many posts I’ve seen where a rookie asks how something should be set up, and the seasoned pros all say “well, it’s whatever you want it to be”. NEWSFLASH: we are rookies. We don’t know what we need yet. We need a STARTING POINT on ALL this stuff, LOL. So if there’s any top feature I can highlight on your course, it’s exactly that: you teach starting points, ones that we may not use in the future once we have a few compositions under our belt, but for now they are invaluable. So thank you! Personally I think the course is underpriced for all the intricate steps you are teaching.

Btw, someone in another thread asked how this course compares to others by Guy Michelmore, etc. To me it’s an integral part of a set of three: yours, Ben Botkin’s MIDI composing course and Guy’s Sampled Orchestration in a Weekend. I have all three, all three are great in their own right, excellent semester of composition school. Just my $.02... it’s all I have left after Black Friday purchases anyway. 😂


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## perfumefactory (Jan 3, 2021)

Many, many thanks for posting this, really. Given the current, and probable future, situation, it seems absolutely inevitable that many people on here will at least start thinking about the possibility of making some sort of "thing" ... informed by our practice as composers/musicians/samplists/audionerds/whatever ... be it doing a blog, working up a youtube channel, teaching a course, making a little homegrown sample library, whatever ... 
I'm guessing that for most people, it won't be about doing it because it seems to be the easiest way to make a living, more like : I think I can do this, I think I would like to do this, and _just maybe_ it can contribute to me getting by.
Anything that puts a little more real world information out there about that last bit, the seemingly often taboo question of : OK, but, reasonably, how much could I hope for, if ever ... ? is so very, very precious.
Thankyou again sir, and I wish you the very best of luck with all of your endeavours ... and a very happy new year ...


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## ScarletJerry (Jan 3, 2021)

Thanks for sharing this information. It helps to address some people who claim that a particular library is "overpriced," but these same individuals have no idea how much time, effort, and cash it takes to produce and market a commercial library.

Over the years, I've had ideas for writing books, and when I share the ideas with others, friends have said "You shouldn't say anything because someone else may steal your idea." Of course, they have no clue about the time and effort required to actually write and publish a book.

Unless you are involved in any kind of creative endeavor, you never know how much happens behind the scenes to bring a product to market. Thanks for sharing these details with us.

Scarlet Jerry


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## perfumefactory (Jan 3, 2021)

ScarletJerry said:


> Thanks for sharing this information. It helps to address some people who claim that a particular library is "overpriced," but these same individuals have no idea how much time, effort, and cash it takes to produce and market a commercial library.
> 
> Over the years, I've had ideas for writing books, and when I share the ideas with others, friends have said "You shouldn't say anything because someone else may steal your idea." Of course, they have no clue about the time and effort required to actually write and publish a book.
> 
> ...


(off topic) hey ! 1 minute after me ? I say endeavour/ you say endeavor / let's call the whole thing off /


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## Jdiggity1 (Jan 3, 2021)

PaulieDC said:


> You know how many posts I’ve seen where a rookie asks how something should be set up, and the seasoned pros all say “well, it’s whatever you want it to be”. NEWSFLASH: we are rookies. We don’t know what we need yet. We need a STARTING POINT on ALL this stuff, LOL.


I know exactly what you mean. But you do still need to be careful with this mindset.
The hankering for answers and shortcuts often leads to trusting other rookies, simply because of their easy-to-digest answers. Then the next couple of years are spent *unlearning *the "always highpass your samples" and "only use subtractive EQ, not additive" and the other "5 tips every composer needs to know!"
The advice from the "pros" will seem inconvenient, but do try to tuck it away into the back of your mind somewhere.


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## ScarletJerry (Jan 3, 2021)

perfumefactory said:


> (off topic) hey ! 1 minute after me ? I say endeavour/ you say endeavor / let's call the whole thing off /


I was writing the post at the same time as you. Great minds think alike!


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## emilio_n (Jan 3, 2021)

Congrats Nico for the course and thank to share all the info. Really interesting.
I wish you the best with this course. By the moment looks promising!

I thought to enrol and the only thing that stopped me by the moment is that I work with logic and I am not sure if I will be lost with the differences between Logic and Cubase. Anyway is a problem that I find in a lot of the courses that I want to join. I know most of the content is app agnostic, but I feel more comfortable if I can follow each step on the same platform.

I just tell this in case the info is useful. 

I think you will get more profit with time, with future sales and updates. Well done!


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## InLight-Tone (Jan 3, 2021)

"god", I LOVE TRANSPARENCY. Thank You!!!


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## PaulieDC (Jan 3, 2021)

Jdiggity1 said:


> I know exactly what you mean. But you do still need to be careful with this mindset.
> The hankering for answers and shortcuts often leads to trusting other rookies, simply because of their easy-to-digest answers. Then the next couple of years are spent *unlearning *the "always highpass your samples" and "only use subtractive EQ, not additive" and the other "5 tips every composer needs to know!"
> The advice from the "pros" will seem inconvenient, but do try to tuck it away into the back of your mind somewhere.


Well, I *don’t* take advice from other rookies, that’s why I spent $500+ on training! 

I realize I didn’t think my reply out better... the advice we get from the seasoned pros is the whole reason why we participate here. And I was actually referring to a single instance with a few replies... and in doing so I threw our extremely helpful composing pros under the bus. Definitely not my intention, andI want to retract that section above... just wanted to point out to Nico what I found so great about his course. I definitely needed a better analogy.


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## AceAudioHQ (Jan 4, 2021)

Akarin said:


> Yes, but you can only filter with existing categories. There's not much for DAW composers there. I've spent quite some time analyzing the keywords.


Yes but the whole thing is an art, not just putting some keywords in, a former colleague (who does it for a living) of mine once showed me a bit how he does it, thinking about things that narrow the audience to the specific group you want, first the basic stuff like age, gender, children, if they own a home, political views, income level, long tail keywords and then the important stuff like a million little things that you would think don’t matter. I know more about seo than most people but I can only do really basic stuff compared to his wizardry.


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## SimonViklund (Jan 12, 2021)

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!


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## easyrider (Jan 12, 2021)

Interesting and thanks for sharing.


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## SergeD (Jan 12, 2021)

The title could have been "How much work did my course take?"


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## Akarin (Jan 12, 2021)

SergeD said:


> The title could have been "How much work did my course take?"


Totally true! But people don't respond that well to dirty words like "work" :-p I love writing courses, and to me it's not really working.


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## AlainTH (Jan 18, 2021)

loving his work dosnt imply to be not paid for. Just: the price of this beginner course seem a bit high (82$ tax inc) but it is a good introduction to construct an orchestral template with personnal choices.


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## Akarin (Jan 18, 2021)

I'd say that roughly $8 per hour of course is fine 😊


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