Keeping Calm and Following the Plan
Revenue is falling on Udemy. That is clear. I may create temporary boosts in revenue by releasing a new course every now and then, but then the downward trend and trajectory will continue. There are some other strategies that I can use and they will take some time to execute and to bear results. However, there is no guarantee that they will bear results even when they are fully implemented.
There is a part of me that wants to move on to something new, something that will have a more steady and robust recurring income. I think that making time to think about it every week, maybe once per week, is a good thing. But it has to be just thinking. I have done this before in the past where I "hit upon" some great idea (or so I think it is) and then spend large swaths of chaotic time building it out, and launching it. This is a very poor use of my time and energy and has only resulted in pain, frustration and disappointment. Thinking about it once per week poses little to no threat.
One of the hardest parts of any business is customer acquisition. And then it is in the consistency of taking care of those customers that you build those two major pillars: Trust and Authority. Those take time but are very powerful once you have them.
It has taken me a lot of time to build trust and authority with my Udemy audience and my PLCDojo audience. I wish that I had a more direct line to them but I do not. It's one of the mistakes I made but I did not know at the time. But yet trust and authority are there.
So why not move on to something else? Well I am sure that there is much more that I can do to serve my audience. I can do more. And there is a good chance that if I make my products better, that if I can possibly make them remarkable, then they would spread more. And that would mean more income.
I guess from a sales point of view, one would say that I am leaving money on the table and it is money that can come from people with whom I have trust and authority. So for now, I need to stay here and serve my audience better by "making better things" as Seth Godin says.