My Rap Boot Camp Business

[Charnell]

Over 1,000 students at ~$100 pop aint bad.

You have to understand that odds are very few of those students paid full price for the course. You can give away free coupons which will contribute to your total number of students, and Udemy frequently has $10-$20 sales for any course that doesn't opt-out of the sales.

Keep that in mind when/if you create your course and put it on there. If you want social proof ("Oh wow, he has 1,000 students!"), give a free coupon to as many coupon and free Udemy coupon groups and websites as you can. Don't think of it as missing out on a full price sale, because generally speaking people that search and use free coupons wouldn't pay anyways.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AgainstAllOdds]

I appreciate you taking the time to leave your feedback. I'm already far enough in that I'm going to finish the course regardless.

Here's a white guy teaching a rap class on Udemy, and it looks like he's doing pretty well. Over 1,000 students at ~$100 pop aint bad. Ever heard of him? Me either. https://www.udemy.com/how-to-freestyle-rap/?dtcode=Um2Z7c63glod. I'm not saying this means I'll be successful, but to me it seems like good evidence against a big chunk of your points.

You do realize that the majority of signups on Udemy are free users, right? When the course first gets put online, a bunch of randoms sign up because it's free. Furthermore, anyone that knows anything about Udemy knows that getting social proof will help them sell down the line.

Of those 1,151 students, he'd be lucky if 151 of them paid.

Of that 151, he'd be lucky if 1 of them paid more than $10 (with a Udemy coupon code, which is where almost all sales come from).

So assuming he makes $5 per sale (after Udemy's cut), and 151 paid sign-ups, he's made a total of $755!

Now add to that that you're coming in and competing for that $755. Is that really money that you want to compete for?

 

[Donovon]

You do realize that the majority of signups on Udemy are free users, right? When the course first gets put online, a bunch of randoms sign up because it's free. Furthermore, anyone that knows anything about Udemy knows that getting social proof will help them sell down the line.

Of those 1,151 students, he'd be lucky if 151 of them paid.

Of that 151, he'd be lucky if 1 of them paid more than $10 (with a Udemy coupon code, which is where almost all sales come from).

So assuming he makes $5 per sale (after Udemy's cut), and 151 paid sign-ups, he's made a total of $755!

Now add to that that you're coming in and competing for that $755. Is that really money that you want to compete for?

I wasn't aware of that, I'm not very familiar with Udemy as I just sort of ran into it today as I was researching alternatives. Fair point. I'm far enough into production that I'm going to finish it, even if it has a low chance of making any money.

If I'm being completely honest, my state of mind is beat to shit. I've been trying to crack the code of how all this entrepreneurship stuff works for at least the past 4 years and I haven't made a dent. It feels like everything I create is met with a sea of negativity. I understand you're trying to be helpful, not negative. I take all the feedback I get and try to look for value instead of get frustrated but it's difficult. Every week I don't figure it out is another 40 hours donated to someone else.

So even if this is a complete failure and I make no money, I'll start giving it away for free and be happy knowing a few people benefited from it and I got some experience completing a project. Then I'll regroup and try again......

Appreciate the time and the thoughts.

 

[MKHB]

I wasn't aware of that, I'm not very familiar with Udemy as I just sort of ran into it today as I was researching alternatives. Fair point. I'm far enough into production that I'm going to finish it, even if it has a low chance of making any money.

If I'm being completely honest, my state of mind is beat to shit. I've been trying to crack the code of how all this entrepreneurship stuff works for at least the past 4 years and I haven't made a dent. It feels like everything I create is met with a sea of negativity. I understand you're trying to be helpful, not negative. I take all the feedback I get and try to look for value instead of get frustrated but it's difficult. Every week I don't figure it out is another 40 hours donated to someone else.

So even if this is a complete failure and I make no money, I'll start giving it away for free and be happy knowing a few people benefited from it and I got some experience completing a project. Then I'll regroup and try again......

Appreciate the time and the thoughts.

I am not a "Digital Native" so I cannot speak to some of the points made about the architecture of e-commerce and your efficacy in your approach; and
I am also not a psychographics expert, but I would guess that most popular figures in rap have achieved their success with considerable support from a
non-urban constituency, i.e., hip-hop sold to non-African american customers.

However, in the grand scheme of things it is irrelevant.

You have committed your time and effort to an enterprise that has actual sales- a monumental achievement.

Ultimately, will it work, I have no idea. If it doesn't work in it's present model, can you tweak or alter it or apply your initiative to some other endeavor and have it work....with out a doubt.

Keep plugging away.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MKHB]

I wasn't aware of that, I'm not very familiar with Udemy as I just sort of ran into it today as I was researching alternatives. Fair point. I'm far enough into production that I'm going to finish it, even if it has a low chance of making any money.

If I'm being completely honest, my state of mind is beat to shit. I've been trying to crack the code of how all this entrepreneurship stuff works for at least the past 4 years and I haven't made a dent. It feels like everything I create is met with a sea of negativity. I understand you're trying to be helpful, not negative. I take all the feedback I get and try to look for value instead of get frustrated but it's difficult. Every week I don't figure it out is another 40 hours donated to someone else.

Solid Progress!

 

[Donovon]

Alright boys and girls, it's been a while since I last updated this. At the moment, I'm making about $50/month from this course, which is chump change, but I'm actually extremely excited. It's the first time one of my projects has made enough money to actually purchase a tangible object larger than a candy bar and I've learned a lot. I've increased my Youtube channel views to around 12,500/month but I'm having a hard time getting conversions. I'm going to get a basic site launched to see if it helps (I learned building a site yourself isn't nearly as hard as I thought originally), but beyond that I think I'm going to put this on the back-burner for the most part. It's ruining my love of the art.

On to the important stuff.

Now that I've learned about how to get a course together and sell it, I really enjoy info products. I'm in love with the simplicity of distribution. There's another niche I'd like to move into, where I have a lot better credentials as well as access to a PH.D in the field to add credibility to my products. I did some research into this niche and the market is much larger, with relatively low competition. It's even a niche that fully accepts white people, for those that are concerned. I'll use the strategies I learned building my original Youtube channel to start building a new audience (as well as my PH.D friend has access to an audience he's happy to share) but this time I'm going to have my own website built as well. I need a platform that I control and is centralized for sales.

I think this thread has run its course so I won't be updating it again unless something crazy happens. Keep an eye out for the next one. Cheers and thanks for your support and opinions.

P.S. This took me way, way too long. I'm committing to about double the workload per week from now on or I'm never going to get anything to a sustainable level.

 

[StompingAcorns]

AAt the moment, I'm making about $50/month from this course, which is chump change, but I'm actually extremely excited.

Congratulations on that and your learning success! I appreciate the thread.

Did you land on any particular hardware and software for video filming? Did you rent a studio, or did you find a way to produce a professional area in which to film? I would appreciate any details you could share on producing quality video. I know nothing about video recorders or what it takes to produce professional quality sound and video.

Customer Profiles
Here is a thought, FWIW. For your next venture, perhaps a technique called "customer profiles" would be helpful. (I used to coach small business owners.) I would ask my clients, who are your customers, and they would reply - everyone. Well, the reality is that not everyone is your customer; and there are best customers, good customers, and bad customers.

First, you have to understand who not only wants your product/service, but would be willing to pay for it. Assuming that you have confirmed you have an interested, paying market (e.g., those who make up the $50/mo revenue you have achieved), here's how you profile your customers. You ask yourself, who is my best customer? Out of these people who are willing to pay for my product, what type of person will be my best customer? Who do I want to buy from me most of all, because of their impact to my business - not just in paying for my product, but in the influence or other aspects they bring to the relationship. What characteristics does she or he have - this could be demographics, interests, location, personal network, professional network, etc.? That is called your primary customer. Then you figure out who your second best customer is (your secondary customer). And do the same for your worst customers.

Bad customers are those customers who consume too much of your resources without benefiting your business. There is one Fortune 100 company I've seen that was actually a good customer to one business and a bad customer to a second business. For the first, it represented tremendous revenue opportunity, and the business had the resources to meet the extreme demands and price pressure of the Fortune 100 customer. In the second case, the company was too small to work with the demands and price pressure of the customer. They wound up spending a high percentage of their resources (marketing staff, senior management, IT development time, etc.) to meet all the demands, at a low profit margin; and they could not do sufficient volume with that customer to make it worthwhile.

It may sound like a strange exercise, but I promise you that it will give you a lot of insight into your market and where you should be focusing your efforts. I'd recommend you think through this with the business you have, even though you don't plan to build it, as a learning exercise. You can even cut out magazine pictures, give them a name, and list the relevant characteristics below it (for your primary and secondary customers). This serves as a focus point when you're developing new material or marketing. You make sure you meet the needs of the primary customer, then you add whatever is needed to meet the needs of the secondary customer without breaking what you did for the primary customer.

In a coffee shop, a primary customer might be an overweight female who works within a 5 block radius and makes at least $30k a year. She is addicted to coffee and sweets, buys a large coffee and a pastry every day, is in a hurry, so she gets through the line quickly and doesn't sit and take up space at the tables. Regular income for the shop with the least amount of resources to serve her. A secondary customer might be an unemployed professional who spends several hours in the shop each day, ordering multiple coffees and an occasional pastry. He is secondary because he requires more resources to serve - the shop space for him to sit each day. This is a simplistic example - just trying to illustrate how it works.

In your rap example - and I am completely making this up, as I have no idea who your customer base is -
Your primary customer might be male, 18-24, blue collar, urban area, listens to music over 10 hours a week, has been in at least one band, and makes at least $20k a year.
But is your primary customer the man, above, who is employed and living away from home; or is it a man still living at home and making only $15k because he has more time, has more disposable income, is more likely to be in one or more bands, and is more likely to pay for a course if he thinks it will help him rise to stardom or be successful on the local scene?
Note that I chose a man for my example because, in my experience, there are far more men in bands than women; and I am assuming a man who is in a band is more likely to buy your course than one who is not. However, it could be that the women are more motivated to pay for online learning in this area then the men are (I have no idea), so the woman may be your primary customer if that is the case.

I hope this helps. (Those of you with more extensive marketing backgrounds, feel free to chime in.)

By the way, for those of you working on usability design, this is a great technique to use when building your user interface - the web site, app, or social media sites. And I mean creating a one page flyer for each profile, complete with a picture and a name - in this case, we call it a User Profile. It can be a great communication tool to use with site developers, logo creators, designers, marketers, and other staff, to give them context and insight into who they're trying to appeal to. You'll find yourself talking about doing X for "Bob" and Y for "Mary". I've used it myself on projects, and it's very helpful.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Donovon]

Congratulations on that and your learning success! I appreciate the thread.

Did you land on any particular hardware and software for video filming? Did you rent a studio, or did you find a way to produce a professional area in which to film? I would appreciate any details you could share on producing quality video. I know nothing about video recorders or what it takes to produce professional quality sound and video.

There's a ton of useful information in that post. Thanks a lot! I'll definitely incorporate that exercise into my next venture, as well as retro-actively in this venture.

As far as video is concerned, I don't think mine are super high quality, I was balling on a budget. I shot in my home during day time when light could filter in plus had some extra lights. Then I bought a cheap lavalier wired mic (~$20) and used a canon vixia HF (~$200) that I already had. Then I edited through iMovie, nothing fancy at all.

The most important things I've found for shooting are to make sure you have a mic (internal camera mics almost always are terrible) and good lighting. Outside it's usually pretty easy if you're shooting during the day but inside you'll likely need something extra. A backdrop can also make all the difference if you're shooting indoors and want to make the production look a lot more professional.

Again though this was definitely a budget/amateur production haha and I'm certainly no expert. I only squeak by on the quality of my content.

 

[StompingAcorns]

I'm glad the post was of some help to you, @Donovon . Thanks so much for sharing your video equipment details!

 

[happybhoy]

I think that what you are trying to do has potential. Maybe not this business but the way you are trying to help people fulfill their dream.

Look up the story of Jamal Edwards and his site sb.tv. He is a young kid from the UK who got hold of a video camera and started filming his friends rapping/MCing.
He learned to edit to a good quality and soon had people requesting he made them a video. He also gave them exposure via youtube and his site SB.TV.
From there he became successful enough to get an MBE medal from the queen!

He started with no credentials, the credentials came when some of the guys he was making videos for became big because of his services.
If you find a way to help one of these "check out my mixtape Bruh" guys a success, who knows how far you can go.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[STiiiZY]

"Take this idea behind the barn ... and shoot it."
This does not mean you don't have a good idea, it's just not market ready at all.

For example, I will act like your customer.
1. Would I take classes from a person who has never made it big in the rap scene?
2. How will you give me marketing advice on my music when you don't even have one song with 1 million hits?
3. Who are you? What credit do you have to teach me?
4. Will this package include the actual things I need to make it big as a rapper? and if so.... what are they?

Now, let's take your idea and put it to compassion to an idea I had
-> Teach people how to be successful entrepreneurs <-
1. People will buy the course, but maybe only a few.... let alone none... why?

• I have not made big bank yet
• They don't know about any businesses I have started
• They rather learn from someone who has made it big (EX: Tai Lopez does this well)... 'Here in my garage with a Lambo and Ferrari, no shit I want to listen more..." compared to some dude on internet who claims to be a pro?

Back to your point and concept and how it might work without being a big shot rapper or someone finding Eminem to sponsor you.
1. Start a community of rappers who want to make it
2. Offer good service that will be helpful FREE at first
3. Then create a pro version section or something
............-> still that concept will work 90% better if you are Lil Wayne or Drake, because you have CREDIT....

Lets put it in another compression,
I want to be a doctor right... do I learn from a dude who claims to know his shit or a pHD doctor himself?
_________________________-
I know this comparison might sound crazy, but dude... at the end of the day.. TO SELL A COURSE, YOU NEED CREDIT, YOU NEED TO MAKE IT, BEFORE U MAKE IT BIG TEACHING OTHERS HOW TO MAKE IT... otherwise you spend $$$$$ and something back.... but not big
____________________________-

But still, if you don't believe me. That is cool, do what you want.

 

[StompingAcorns]

1. Would I take classes from a person who has never made it big in the rap scene?

Hey, Stiiizy, you and several others have expressed this thought in this thread and it puzzles me. In my humble opinion, it all depends on who his customer is and what problem he's trying to solve. If he is teaching the average person how to have fun with rap and learn the basics so that they can express themselves creatively, that is an entirely different thing from teaching a professional singer how to achieve rap stardom. In the first example, he can build credibility without being a rap star. In the second, he either has to have been a rap star OR have coached rap stars. Interestingly, the first path (teaching average people) could lead to the second (one of them becomes a rap star, catapulting his success as well).

@Donovon , kudos to you for listening to what your customers wanted, and good luck with your new venture idea. I would like to hear more about "It's ruining my love of the art." - how and why did that happen during this process? If you'd like to share. Please keep us posted on your new venture.

 

[Donovon]

Hey, Stiiizy, you and several others have expressed this thought in this thread and it puzzles me. In my humble opinion, it all depends on who his customer is and what problem he's trying to solve. If he is teaching the average person how to have fun with rap and learn the basics so that they can express themselves creatively, that is an entirely different thing from teaching a professional singer how to achieve rap stardom. In the first example, he can build credibility without being a rap star. In the second, he either has to have been a rap star OR have coached rap stars. Interestingly, the first path (teaching average people) could lead to the second (one of them becomes a rap star, catapulting his success as well).

@Donovon , kudos to you for listening to what your customers wanted, and good luck with your new venture idea. I would like to hear more about "It's ruining my love of the art." - how and why did that happen during this process? If you'd like to share. Please keep us posted on your new venture.

Hey, sorry it's taken me eons to write a response. You're right on target with what you've said to Stiizy, for some reason a lot of people are under the impression this course is targeted in a way that says 'IF YOU TAKE THIS YOU'RE GOING TO BE INCREDIBLY FAMOUS' which it just plain is not. It's aimed towards the average person who'd like to learn a new skill. On a side note, all my feedback and ratings so far have been incredibly positive.

Last month I made about $100, which again is peanuts but it's nice to see sales increasing. I thought it was important to just have reviews on my Udemy course, but the number of people who have already bought the course seems to be influencing my conversion rates as well (duh, that makes sense). My Youtube channel has also increased to about ~14,000 views/month which is driving a little traffic to the course so I may continue to make stray videos here and there to maintain things.

As for your question to me, I became so focused on building the course and teaching that anytime I wrote my own work I started to feel guilty. Should I be working on this when I could be building my teaching? Is this a piece of art that will resonate with my customers? Or will I lose them because of the way I'm covering a topic? I didn't start rapping to sell and market things, I started because I liked it as a way to express myself and blow off steam. I had never really cared if people liked my personal music, but I had to start thinking about it as I'm trying to sell a related product. The further I let it drift into marketing and sales, the less genuine the process felt. This could just be insecurity from creeping into a new arena, but it didn't feel especially good and I didn't ever really feel like working on my own projects.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.