4 ms·

Show HN: I made a site to find top YouTube courses, bypassing expensive courses

16 points by saikou 3y ago

I don't know about you but I have already personally paid for online courses at more than €600 to become a better freelancer and I ended up hearing from one of the biggest creators of French-speaking online courses that in reality all the information sold in the online courses are available on the Internet. It's just that it would take a long time to find them all whereas by buying an online course all the information is gathered for you and you don't have to search so yes this information are technically free but by paying for the online course you especially save time. So I wondered if it was possible to find something in between so that I could not waste time searching for information scattered all over the Internet and not have to pay huge prices for mediocre online courses.This is how EduHunt was born, a platform allowing you to find the educational content you are looking for on YouTube with search filters in addition to the usual YouTube. This is in order to find this information hidden in the YouTube algorithm and not have to pay a lot of money to have this information because most of the time this information is there, it's just that it is complicated to find it. Would love to get your feedback ;)

Festro 3y ago
If I am looking for free educational content I will not pay to look for it. I get that you're attacking the high price point of online courses with your far lower price point, but you're monetising something that doesn't need to be monetised. Your USP is paying to save time. Again, people looking for online courses are time-rich, not time-poor. So, this seems very ineffective. And you're using 'AI' as a buzzword with no explanation of what the AI is doing. It looks like a small LLM powering your searches, weaker than Google's SGE.
- rrr_oh_man 3y ago
  > people looking for <free> online courses are <cash-poor> FTFY
  - Festro 3y ago
    Ah good catch. Yes, that was my intended meaning.
- saikou 3y ago
  Hey, thank you for the feedback. I guess I failed to show the initial value of the product which is not directly give you access to courses but make easier your search for it. The idea is paying for the search but not for the content because the YouTube's content is obviously free. The AI just pull some queries for the search from the user's request to specify the search with some filters whose not on the normal YouTube search system like the region for example. Once again thank you for the feedback.
kburman 3y ago
Hey saikou, When I first saw EduHunt, I laughed, thinking maybe it's an April Fool's joke? But looks like you're serious. It feels a bit weird to pay for finding stuff on YouTube that's already free. I mean, saving time is cool and all, but this idea... I'm not sure it makes much sense. YouTube is all about free access, right?
- ssgodderidge 3y ago
  Agreed, this feels like it could be a helpful free directory - no “AI” needed. I’m guessing it’s paid to cover whatever LLM that is used? I respect the hustle, but personally, I’d just dump the recommendations on a directory site, or share the prompt you use on whatever LLM. Agreed that this idea doesn’t make a ton of sense. I feel a bit strange to pay for this.
- beardedwizard 3y ago
  Feels wrong to try to monetize someone else's content. I did not like what I saw at all when I looked at the service and would never use it. Offering this for free as a stepping stone to establish your credibility in the edu space, and another more significant product launch seems like the move here.
tomhallett 3y ago
Question: does the YouTube content found by your algorithm have the follow/like/subscribe promos in it? Sponsored content in the videos? Is there some sort of score/rating for the “youtube creator self promo” (# of seconds per video), which is not there on udemy? Note: I think it’s 100% fine that YouTube creators put this in their YouTube videos, but it’s why I prefer to pay for content on udemy/skillshare/others.
xandrius 3y ago
Hate to break it to you but there are so many better and free ways to get free courses online. If you provided this for free then it would be valuable, otherwise I'm sure people will keep finding their courses as they already do. Also coursera has tons of free and great content. And YouTube search is not that scandalous, especially if I really don't want to pay for something.
- saikou 3y ago
  Hey, thx for the feedback, yeah you're seem to be right, I guess I didn't targeted well.
leoff 3y ago
Interesting idea. Some feedback - The UI doesn't look very good everywhere (text on the landing page has low contrast, awkward elements placement in the tool) - Why are you restricting the product only for education? From your demo it seems like it could be used for anything? E.g finding animations, certain video styles Your real product seems to be a semantic search for Youtube - You should return a list of videos, instead of a single one. Allow people to choose the one they like most Otherwise, cool project, it's also not something I would pay for, but maybe some people would
- saikou 3y ago
  Hey, thank you for the feedback. For the UI part I think I have exagered by always thinking this a MVP so I shoudln't waste too many time on UI details or some stuff ( maybe working with UI library will be the solution ). The restriction for the education is just because of the fact that the main idea of the app is to help people finding educationnal content on YouTube and avoid buying online course when you can find it on YouTube so the target is the person who want to learn something online.
wsintra2022 3y ago
But your monetising free content. Makes you shady.

16 points by saikou 3y ago

Festro 3y ago

If I am looking for free educational content I will not pay to look for it. I get that you're attacking the high price point of online courses with your far lower price point, but you're monetising something that doesn't need to be monetised. Your USP is paying to save time. Again, people looking for online courses are time-rich, not time-poor. So, this seems very ineffective. And you're using 'AI' as a buzzword with no explanation of what the AI is doing. It looks like a small LLM powering your searches, weaker than Google's SGE.

rrr_oh_man 3y ago
> people looking for <free> online courses are <cash-poor> FTFY
- Festro 3y ago
  Ah good catch. Yes, that was my intended meaning.
saikou 3y ago
Hey, thank you for the feedback. I guess I failed to show the initial value of the product which is not directly give you access to courses but make easier your search for it. The idea is paying for the search but not for the content because the YouTube's content is obviously free. The AI just pull some queries for the search from the user's request to specify the search with some filters whose not on the normal YouTube search system like the region for example. Once again thank you for the feedback.

kburman 3y ago

Hey saikou, When I first saw EduHunt, I laughed, thinking maybe it's an April Fool's joke? But looks like you're serious. It feels a bit weird to pay for finding stuff on YouTube that's already free. I mean, saving time is cool and all, but this idea... I'm not sure it makes much sense. YouTube is all about free access, right?

ssgodderidge 3y ago
Agreed, this feels like it could be a helpful free directory - no “AI” needed. I’m guessing it’s paid to cover whatever LLM that is used? I respect the hustle, but personally, I’d just dump the recommendations on a directory site, or share the prompt you use on whatever LLM. Agreed that this idea doesn’t make a ton of sense. I feel a bit strange to pay for this.
beardedwizard 3y ago
Feels wrong to try to monetize someone else's content. I did not like what I saw at all when I looked at the service and would never use it. Offering this for free as a stepping stone to establish your credibility in the edu space, and another more significant product launch seems like the move here.

tomhallett 3y ago

Question: does the YouTube content found by your algorithm have the follow/like/subscribe promos in it? Sponsored content in the videos? Is there some sort of score/rating for the “youtube creator self promo” (# of seconds per video), which is not there on udemy? Note: I think it’s 100% fine that YouTube creators put this in their YouTube videos, but it’s why I prefer to pay for content on udemy/skillshare/others.

xandrius 3y ago

Hate to break it to you but there are so many better and free ways to get free courses online. If you provided this for free then it would be valuable, otherwise I'm sure people will keep finding their courses as they already do. Also coursera has tons of free and great content. And YouTube search is not that scandalous, especially if I really don't want to pay for something.

saikou 3y ago
Hey, thx for the feedback, yeah you're seem to be right, I guess I didn't targeted well.

leoff 3y ago

Interesting idea. Some feedback - The UI doesn't look very good everywhere (text on the landing page has low contrast, awkward elements placement in the tool) - Why are you restricting the product only for education? From your demo it seems like it could be used for anything? E.g finding animations, certain video styles Your real product seems to be a semantic search for Youtube - You should return a list of videos, instead of a single one. Allow people to choose the one they like most Otherwise, cool project, it's also not something I would pay for, but maybe some people would

saikou 3y ago
Hey, thank you for the feedback. For the UI part I think I have exagered by always thinking this a MVP so I shoudln't waste too many time on UI details or some stuff ( maybe working with UI library will be the solution ). The restriction for the education is just because of the fact that the main idea of the app is to help people finding educationnal content on YouTube and avoid buying online course when you can find it on YouTube so the target is the person who want to learn something online.

wsintra2022 3y ago

But your monetising free content. Makes you shady.