What they DON'T tell you about Skillshare

After 4 years, I'm leaving Skillshare. Here's an honest Skillshare review from both a student and teacher perspective - on why you start (but don't stay) with Skillshare.

First, I'll show you how much Skillshare has paid me as a teacher on their platform for 4 years. How much do teachers earn from thousands of watch minutes and students taking their courses?

Next, we'll discuss why Skillshare is still a great place to start as a new course creator. And what The Lean Startup can teach you about using course marketplaces.

I also have a fun little story for you about Skillshare as an all-you-can-eat buffet of courses. And what that does to student gratitude (just look at all my 1-star reviews).

Lastly, I give my recommendations on how to progress through the phases of exploration and exploitation. And how Skillshare can accelerate your transition.

If you want to learn more about content creation for courses, check out the links below 👇
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Disclaimer
Part of my livelihood is based on affiliate links, which means that I get a small commission if you end up buying something through the links I share (no extra cost to you).

[dameanvil]

00:01 🤔 Skillshare may not promote courses from lesser-known creators, focusing more on celebrities.

00:27 📉 Skillshare offers low payment rates, about $0.05 per minute watched, which can be less than other platforms.

01:16 📊 After four years on Skillshare, the creator earned around $40 per month from their courses.

01:55 📚 "The Lean Startup" taught the creator the importance of rapid feedback and iteration for success.

02:48 👨‍🎓 Skillshare provided valuable market feedback through its large user base, aiding course improvements.

03:57 🏷️ Skillshare operates like an "all-you-can-eat buffet, " leading users to consume content without much engagement.

05:22 💸 Skillshare's low pay rate and lack of substantial earnings led the creator to leave the platform.

05:44 📉 The creator's summary highlights low student engagement, low earnings, and the use of Skillshare mainly for feedback.

06:42 🚀 New course creators should use Skillshare for initial feedback but consider moving to self-hosting for better earnings and control.

[akeemhimself]

I took a chance on it. Got a 50% off deal for the new year so it was worth a shot but I completely agree that some of the videos on YouTube are far more helpful with way more detail and usually a more engaging production for me. Some of the courses are 30 minutes long but in reality it's a 5 minute YouTube video. Now seeing how much you earn as a teacher I understand why

[thingsthatmakemego-ooh]

Thank you for this video. I dislike businesses that exploit individuals, so pleased you've done what works for you, and pleased I came across you before I signed up with skillshare. Thank you YouTube algorithm 😊

[DaveSoltura]

Love how honest you were with this. I already own self-hosted courses, but just haven't built the following. Skillshare seemed to be the shortcut, but you got me when you mentioned that course creators themselves have to be "big" already, I realized it wasn't for me.

Though, I'm considering creating tiers of "skillshare level" courses, that I otherwise would've made free anyway, and put it there. Then higher level courses could be self-hosted.

[sebastianshine]

subbed cause you seem very authentic and thoughtful

[Ukeloverdarsh]

The way you showed your learning from feedback is amazing. I think that’s how we must view life itself. 😃

[TomFroese]

Hey Rued, I enjoyed hearing your point of view. I'm a Top Teacher on Skillshare, but I don't have huge followings — or at least I didn't until I started teaching on Skillshare. I think you might be being a *bit* cynical. Since SK started the Staff Pick program, I have launched 7 classes, and all of them have become Staff Picks. I POUR my heart into my classes. I spend hundreds of hours into planning and writing my classes, and many more hours editing — or I spend thousands of dollars to have them produced by a professional video company. What I'm saying is that sometimes the problem isn't the platform's fault. I understand that pouring your heart into a class and not seeing returns for it (40$/month is not very motivating, I agree) is very discouraging. And moving to where you feel appreciated is probably a good idea. But I don't think Skillshare hides great classes by new teachers on account of their non-celebrity status. It's just not the case. What they want is classes by people who are good at what they do (they have expertise), who can teach, and whose skills are in current demand. I have not seen your classes, but I can see you are obviously a good communicator and I'd bet you could put together a great class. If you want some insider tips from a top teacher, let me know. ;)

[cook-music]

Increasing the difficulty will be good for some students, but bad for other in my experience. It's a tough balance, so I often do 101, 201, and 301 courses on a subject if the topic is dense enough. Great video, thanks for posting this.

[shahidhassanboni]

I was thinking to start as a teacher on skill share. and you completely changed my mind

[creativibes]

Make the iteration loop as fast as you can is a major KEY for any product! The 1st 100 subs will have an early bird access to my next product - stay tuned!

[starbird]

I have been exploring skillshare for a while now, and I am having trouble finding high quality content. Additionally the range of topics seem very limited. Seems like I need to cancel before the trial ends and I am charged.

[Uneducatedopinion]

Honestly all the information on new topics can easily be found on YouTube, also it gets updated faster

The only issue with YouTube is lack of moderation, if you don’t know about the topic you want to learn it’s difficult to know whether what you are watching is useful or useless

Few ways of overcoming that problem is to read the comments before the video starts and sort by newest and if they are mostly positive or engaging usually it’s a good sign

Also smaller creators make better videos compared to larger ones imo and also they don’t want to appeal to the lowest common denominator

[jonathanellis]

Skillshare student here. I've only completed one course. There were pros and cons. One of the pros is that there doesn't seem to be a fixation with holding attention. YT educational content tries to either provide the bullet points in a sub-five minute video, or they go into a slightly more detailed video at mere seconds over a ten minute limit, OR they go into a largely unedited stream of consciousness 80+ minute long disorganized mess. If you're lucky, you'll find a playlist of videos with no regard for the time limit.

Skill share seems to address this issue. The platform is geared for education, not entertainment like with YouTube.

That said, the single course I've watched so far was taught in a disorganized way by someone who knows less about the program than me... this was disheartening.

So in some ways, YouTube is better, and other ways, SkillShare is better.

I was hoping for the detailed layouts that skillshare delivers. I got that. I was also hoping for secret troves of hidden knowledge - or perhaps just instruction brought by successful professionals in their field. So far I haven't really gotten that.

I came here to better understand Skillshare; maybe figure out what I should know before I begin, what pitfalls and trends to avoid, etc. I did not find that. This video was nearly 95% teaching related and only about 5% learning related... and what was given was merely personal experience. I'm only bringing this up because you mentioned the feedback loop. One more thing: I still don't know what it means to self-host.

Phenomenal video, though I have no clue what you teach here.

[amitkumardart]

You are 100 percent correct bro. I published my first course, and due to no social followers, I course have zero student. If you have suggestion for me what to do please give your suggestion. I will be thankful.

[AcKali]

your video was astonishing nice edits and great if not excellent quality on the audio good job mate!

[drewprof]

True. I went through the same iteration and experienced the same results.

[hadenfirlej]

great video, clear, funny, to the point keep creating

[yoyosingh]

What I've learnt from this video.
Skillshare is the best course testing sandbox

[LoffysDomain]

Another great video. Thanks! I'm not sure, but _Gumroad_ has a similar system of not making your course searchable on their platform unless you live up to some criteria.

[artisfire]

They are also notorious for continuing to charge you after you cancel and refusing refunds. I cancelled 3 yrs ago, and just found out they've been charging me all that time, no notice, no receipts, just a sneaky credit card charge once a year. And I'm not the only one, I found hundreds of similar complaints of Skillshare fraud.