Is teaching on Skillshare worth it anymore? (Important message to teachers)

Thank you Louise!!!! This is so helpful!

Exactly how I felt when I started off my journey with SkillShare. I knew something like this would happen, and I've always considered their revenue as a bonus. I never took it seriously, understanding it wouldn't be fruitful forever. They have very poor management that constantly implements unfair changes, leaving one vulnerable to severe setbacks at any time.

However, we must consider ourselves lucky not to have been banned for no reason, as many other creators have unfortunately faced.

Skillshare is a horrifying company. They discriminate against corporate employees and retaliate when they report. I used to work there.

I love your background music, where did you get it from?

Have to keep in mind that you are using "someone else's platform" means, you are a customer/employee of someone else's business, whose purpose is to make Them money.

I know, it's really annoying, but that is as simple as it is.
Don't even have to go so far to compare it with MLM, just compare it with any type of Agency that has employees. The agency was not founded "for the employees", it's the founders business and the employees who do the work are means to an end to be able to Scale.

Plus, keep in mind, referral systems is simply free/cheap marketing, it's like growth through word of mouth, without YOU having to advertise yourself

Good advice. Thanks.

Thanks for posting this. Is this still how they are doing things? Is there a better platform(s)?

It's like you work for them.

OUff ! This is on many levels an absolute NO-GO. WTF!? Wonder what made them think, that the teachers should be paid by the engagement of their students? 

Sounds like they have a new guy for new company-structures...
What a mistake. 
I thought starting teaching on skillshare ... but these are obviously not the circumstances I need to give good lessons...

Thank you so much for this honest feedback...

Id love to hear an update on this ... If anything has changed

Hello, thank you very much for your insight. Can I ask which microphone are you using ? thank you

Wow, this is exactly how I've been feeling for the last few months! Thanks for making this video. It's so sad - I was so excited to create courses on Skillshare, but as you said, it's not surprising that things aren't changing in favor of teachers.

Another SK teacher here. In a matter of 3 months my earnings went from 3000-1500 a month to 300 a month for the same number of minutes watched and students subscribed. I’m moving to another platform

I think the artists on skillshare should gather and create their own platform where everyone would be an actionary. This platform is not even "good", it is impossible to really search for courses with advanced search. It is just bullshit. And how come they can change the conditions after the artists signed a contract with them ? Hmm....

Do you have any interest in trying out a privatized content delivery platform for your students? Let me know as we have a solution that may be a good fit for you! This would likely eliminate the issues you're expressing regarding using Skillshare for your use case :)

They don't even care anymore

Glad that you just released a new class on skillshare!

👍

You are right Louise. Why did they not ask for input from the users and teachers? I remember how I felt creating content for Skillshare and it made me feel like I should not give them too much because it felt like I was being used and exploited. Feeling like that affects my work so I am trying to find other ways to teach online. I was one who had my account removed due to some false accusations. I've been with them since 2012 and it was really great back then but now it's really ugly.

I am a student in Skillshare and I feel there are more courses done by teachers from developing countries. Is it because of this reason the payment has reduced? I am guessing the low payment from Skillshare will be a huge amount for teachers from developing countries. So they are focussing on those teachers more than us. Anyways it’s sad to hear this.

When a company does this to consistent hardworking teachers then the teachers should leave. Plus when these types of websites are created for teachers then there should be a way (ie union type situation) which can help teachers to fight against the platform that feels they can change up the rules whenever they want knowing for well that teachers wont just leave instead work harder for less. Its not right! Well done for explaining this so clearly. I hope they change the rates so you can earn more again for your time and skills. :)

Thank you for this frank talk about selling on Skillshare. I've been wondering if I should do Skillshare. I have already joined Thinkific, so I'll continue in that direction. I already have an email list. I started with Teachable, but Thinkific has an app that works directly with my Shopify store.

I wasn't making much. But I was happy making 600-700 dollars per month for an one time uploaded course. It has reduced to $40-50 now

Great video. You mention at the end of your video about using Skillshare to build an email list. How? We don't have any sort of access to students' emails. We can't even answer reviews, only student projects.

BTW, as an English man I hate to hear "off of". Much better to use "from". Just saying :)

Excellent video, well done. Sound business advice.

I waited ages for a 40% off offer. The yearly charge is indeed annoying. A teacher I follow sent out a message about low engagement courses being deleted, which I had no idea was a thing. I use Patreon and Gumroad. Will check out Teachable for selling courses as I have bought a couple of courses from them in the past.

I absolutely agree with you, I also dislike this way of doing business. I did videos about my income on Skillshare in the the first two years and it shows the same changes. I will also not produce more content for them, and I am currently trying to remove a few of my classes - which seems to be a long-term project because we are not able to do it ourselves and their support is non-responsive… 😝

Anyone that is thinking of buying anything from skillshare needs to go and read the reviews from the Better Business Bureau’s website and decide if they want to participate in this fraud! (And this lady is probably part of it too).

Thanks for sharing what I could see was happening to the creatives.

Thank you for being transparent. I appreciate this video.

Yep, discouraged that's the word.

it's a joke now with their revenue split and harsh 'minutes' closure of classes needed

you never showed october's revenue. and you were comparing total money not just view revenue. you said its lower, but i didnt see how much lower. was it by half? or 40%? i don't count referrals since that's a different for of revenue on the platform.

Thanks for sharing, it was very useful! As a Udemy Instructor I was planning to put my courses on Skillshare but after watching your video and hearing such huge changes I don't have any inspiration for putting my courses on Skillshare. Can you suggest any other platforms that we can sell our courses like Udemy?

Thanks so much for sharing! Even though I'm a top teacher on Skillshare, the changes have hit me very hard too :( It makes me question a lot whether my work is valued properly. Actually, I do have an answer to that - it isn't :( I'm looking right now into self-hosting options, sigh...

The engagement thing is weird to me bc I was leaving a review on every class when I was on there and a pop up came up and discouraged me. Something about “take more classes first” or some weird thing. So I was engaging and they discouraged it. Then pay you based on engagement? That’s shady.

I've been a Skillshare teacher for 2 years now. I release 2 classes a month, one on digital art and one on traditional art. Don't think I've ever met another teacher that does 2 classes a month. As you can imagine my stats are a bit different than yours 😉 Yet... I've never been invited to any program by Skillshare. I've never seen a bonus. They never sent me anything special. They never incentivised with anything at all. I don't seem to be egilible for anything at all. All they have done is hassle me with rules that don't exist anywhere. Still I'm staying with them for now, even if they hassle and exclude me from all kinds of things. Thanks for sharing this. Change can be good, but it seems like Skillshare is making contraproductive changes and it definitely doesn't make teachers happy. I'm on Teachable too, but standalone is way harder to get students for, but I keep on going and trying.

Brilliant - love the sound of your voice, the style of your teaching and your candidness and transparency throughout this video....keep doing you lousie

Such a shame and I thank you so much for sharing the reality of what they have done. I have loved and shared Skillshare endlessly since first discovering of it - the gifts of teachers has been profound for my personal creative pursuits and life-changing. Now, I am so disheartened for teachers that are no longer paid adequately. I read a few comments below and to drop from 30,000 to barely 1/3 is absolutely inappropriate and ruins the entire platform.

Hi! Thank you for sharing.
Teacher here too. Feeling discouraged as well.
Question: any advice on paying the taxes on line in Europe for the earnings on Skillshare.
Ya, not sure it’s worth using Skillshare as much anymore…

Your honesty made me watch with ALMOST my full attention. Keep it up!

My earnings have been cut in half ^^' brutal. Luckily I've had a lot of original art sales the past couple of months, which gives me a little leeway of figuring out what the heck I'm going to do in the coming months.
It's frustrating.
Right now I'm thinking of just putting the classes on my website and focus on original art selling and commissions. But I don't have the time to think about it as I've got shows to work for.
As usual, as a creative I'll just have to adapt somehow ><

Sure, a business model will adjust and evolve at Skillshare over time, but you would think the model should IMPROVE an instructor's opportunities (without pressures). Very insightful video. So, what platform are using now?

are you worth paying for?

❤❤❤❤👍👍