Utah Developer Scores $24,000 (and Counting) Hit With Swift Tutorials
I had 650 people sign-up in one day. I now have over $24,000 in revenue.
By Kenneth Lee Sands
When Rick Walter, a recent BYU grad working out of Provo’s Camp 4, heard the announcement about Swift at Apple’s WWDC 2014, he acted quickly.
“I dropped everything I was doing,” he told Beehive Startups in a recent interview, “and decided I would make tutorial videos teaching others the new programming language. I would wake up in the morning and make Swift videos, I would eat lunch and then make Swift videos, I would make Swift videos at night… it was pretty much Swift all day everyday.”
Realizing that Apple’s 500 page tome was the only resource for learning the new language, Walter spotted an opportunity. “To get some traction, I decided to post the (50!) videos I had made to Udemy and make the course free for one day only. I had 1,900 people sign-up during that promotion.” he explained.
Encouraged by the initial demand, Walter set the price for the full course at $200. Walter did well at this price, but it wasn’t until Udemy themselves arranged to feature his course in their email campaign that things really took off. “The email went out to 150,000 people in one day,” Walter told us, “I had 650 people sign-up in one day. I now have over $24,000 in revenue.” This is impressive, especially considering that Walter put the course together in a matter of a few days.
When asked where he learned to to code, Walter explained, “I went through BYU’s ISYS program and learned some foundational things, but I mostly learned online. I started with Stanford’s online class, and finally, after a long time, it all started to come together.”
During the interview, Walter expressed that he loves what’s going on at Beehive Startups and offered a (non-expiring) 50% off coupon for his course for our readers. However, Walter told us that everyone can take part in the Udemy-sponsored 85% off until June 19th at 11:59 p.m. using the coupon code SWIFT29. If you miss that date, you can still take part in the 50% off Beehive Startups discount using the following link.
When asked about his future plans, Walter told us that, “right now I’m doing consulting work to help pay the bills, but I’d love to build a company around this project.” With the success of the tutorials so far, Walter may very well be on his way.
Published 6/17/2014
