Becoming a teacher on Skillshare is a great way to earn passive income. Not only does it require very little time upfront, but it’s passive income meaning you won’t have to do anything one you upload your class.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
I thought so too. But then one of my favorite YouTubers posted a video breaking down all of his different streams of income. Not only was he making money through YouTube advertising, but I was surprised to see just how much he was making with Skillshare.
Make Money Teaching On Skillshare
Ali Abdaal is a junior doctor from the U.K. Over the last three years, he has been posting YouTube videos covering a wide range of topics such as studying tips, days in the life of a junior doctor, productivity and self-improvement tips, and tech reviews. Over the course of this time, he has grown his subscriber count to 805,000 individuals.
The reason why I became fascinated by his videos is because it relates to topics that I find interesting and also because of how he edits his videos. It’s just the right amount of editing to make the video stand out, but not enough to over-do it and ruin the video.
Ali recognized this as well. He recognized that he has a unique style of editing and so he decided to create a Skillshare class on it. As he describes is, it “took one day to film the class back in September of 2019 and another day for a freelance editor to edit the class.
Now, he has six main sources of income that make up his $500,000 yearly earnings, but to much surprise, Skillshare is his largest source of income. All from 2 classes that each took him a day to film.
Here is how Ali breaks down his income streams.
- Junior Doctor: Average of $180 per day.
- YouTube Ads: $150 per day on average.
- Skillshare sign-up link: $10 for every person who signs up (P.S. if you want to sign up, I will include my affiliate link directly below ;)).
- Paperlike (a screen protector for an iPad): around $120 per day.
- Amazon Affiliate Program: $10-$15 per day.
- 6med (a test-prep software he created): $120
Now here’s where it gets interesting. From the one classes he posted on Skillshare back in September of 2019, he is making an average of $200 per day without doing any additional work. Skillshare is earning him more money than being a doctor… and it is strictly passive (which means he doesn’t have to do any additional work to keep getting paid).
How To Get Paid Teaching On Skillshare
Think of Skillshare like Netflix – users pay a fee of around $15 per month and have access to all of the thousands of courses on Skillshare covering topics from basically every niche.
If you are a teacher on Skillshare, you get paid based on your watch minutes. The more minutes premium users spend watching your courses, the more money you are going to make.
Ali’s course was a beginner’s class about editing on FinalCut Pro and uploading the video to YouTube. He didn’t do anything special. He just took the skills he had developed over the years of editing and made a class out of it – one that is now accruing about 3,000 daily minutes of watch time earning him $200 per day.
What’s crazy is that he isn’t even one of the top teachers on Skillshare. The top teachers on Skillshare are making anywhere from $100,000 to $800,000 per year. Just from teaching others various skills.
Tips To Make More Money On Skillshare
The first step to making money on Skillshare is to pick a topic that you are good at and create a course on it. Skillshare has a set guideline that you need to follow in order for your course that meets these requirements in order for your course to be eligible to make money.
All courses must be at least 10 minutes long, have an introduction that introduces the teacher, and what the course is about, a class project as Skillshare is an interaction-based platform, and it must have a recap showing what the student learned as a result of completing the course.
How can you make more money as a Skillshare teacher? First, create a good course. Choose a topic that you know well and one that is going to be of interest to many. You can create an amazing course, but if it is not on a topic that interests others, nobody is going to watch it.
Once you have chosen a topic, make sure the video and audio quality is as good as you can possibly make it – especially audio. Research has shown that people will watch a video even when the image quality may not be the best, but they are more likely to turn off the video is the audio quality isn’t clear.
Yes, it does make a difference.
Last, make the class as enjoyable as possible for the students and be yourself. We all know what it’s like to sit through a class with a boring teacher. Most of us wanted to rip our hair out as we watched the seconds pass by on the clock. So don’t be that teacher. Bring some energy and actually show the students that you are excited about the topic you are teaching. If you do, students will find your class and will watch it.
Realistic Expectations
Can you expect to make $200 per day from teaching on Skillshare? Honestly, it all depends on who you are, your style of teaching, and the topic you are teaching.
Skillshare says that teachers can expect to earn an average of $200 their first month. What makes Ali different than first-time teachers is the fact that he already had an audience of around 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, so anyone watching could have gone over to Skillshare and viewed his class.
Also, Ali says that his class was more than two hours long. This is far more than the 20-minute average, and it has to be as the topic he is teaching is more sophisticated than most.
Still, $200 for one month isn’t bad, so I decided to give it a shot. After a week of my course being on Skillshare, I have made a whopping $1. Oh baby, I’m taking my dollar and treating myself to a McDonalds ice cream cone.
In all seriousness, there are so many variables that go into teaching on Skillshare. Can it be a good way to make $200 a day of passive income? Absolutely! Ali and many other teachers are proof of that. But it also isn’t a “get rich quick” process. Ali and other teachers have been studying and mastering their crafts for years. That’s a lot of hours of practice that have gone without any pay.
What I’m trying to say is that it can be done, but it’s not as easy as some make it seem. We all have different skills and things that make us unique. And while there is a way you can make money from teaching those skills, I also wouldn’t go into it with money being your sole focus. Teach because you want to teach. Teach because you want to share your knowledge. Teach because you love bettering the lives of those around you. When you teach from passion, you stand a better chance of making more money as a teacher on Skillshare. Nothing is guaranteed, but there is a chance, and the only way you are going to know if you stand a chance is if you take action.
In Summary
- While you can earn $200 a day teaching on Skillshare, it’s not going to be easy.
- Better your chances by focusing on quality, teaching a topic that is popular, and being passionate about what you are teaching.
- Expect nothing and accept everything. Don’t expect to make $200, that way you won’t be disappointed if your first course doesn’t make that much.
- Keep trying and never give up. It’s not going to be easy, but it can be done.
Before You Go
Would I recommend teaching on Skillshare? 100%! We all have things that we are good at and knowledge we can pass along to others. The fact that you can get paid for sharing that knowledge is truly amazing. Whether it’s $1 or $200 or $2000, it’s better than nothing.
I strongly encourage you to share your gifts with the world and give Skillshare a try. Who knows, you may just become the next Ali Abdaal and make $200 a day without having to put in any extra work.
Michael Bonnell
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