Getting Started on Skillshare
Overview of Teaching and Revenue
After teaching on Skillshare for about two years, with more than 3,500 students, nine online courses, and about eight thousand dollars earned in the previous year, this guide is for beginners that want to teach on Skillshare but don’t know where to start. The basics of a course on Skillshare will be covered here, including some very hot topics, the gear needed to create a course, some quality guidelines that Skillshare asks for, and some mistakes made while creating those nine courses, as well as some tips on how to maximize revenue.
Popular Subjects and Hot Topics
The first thing is the topic. Skillshare in general is very open with the different topics that can be chosen for courses. The only niche that cannot be targeted is medical stuff and stuff about psychology, but anything else works. Some of the very hot topics that have a lot of engagement and a lot of students include hard topics like drawing, editing, photography, music, graphic design, and social media management. If any of those skills are available, there is huge demand for them on Skillshare. Once the topic for a course is chosen, it is time to create the course, which is constructed by different lessons. In general, a course consists of 4 to 15 videos, each 5 to 20 minutes long.
Structuring and Producing Your Course
Lesson Format and Essential Videos
It depends on the subject being taught. Skillshare also encourages teachers to create a separate introductory video for each course, which will serve as a commercial for the course — a video in which the class project is explained to students, which is one of the most important things to note when creating a course. Finally, a separate outro video in which students are thanked for completing the course is also recommended. There are many different ways to shoot lessons. The most common way is to talk to a camera, where a tripod is set up and the topic is elaborated upon.
Different Styles of Filming
Those are going to be the hardest videos to produce but they’re going to have the biggest engagement rates from students. When teaching on Skillshare, keeping the audience engaged is important because payment is based on the amount of watch time accumulated. An example of a course in which the instructor talks to a camera is a b-roll course on Skillshare which has gained more than 400 students. The next type of lessons that can be created are lessons in which slides from a PowerPoint presentation are read. These are way easier to produce and longer lessons can also be produced this way. The most important thing when creating a course with lessons that read from slides is to pick a niche and analyze it.
Success with First-Person Shooting
In a way in which people are not bored and a lot of information is still delivered in a short amount of time, another way to shoot lessons is by strapping a GoPro to the chest and actually showing in first person what is being done. This was done in a DJI drone masterclass for beginners course and it was an amazing way to skyrocket the amount of students that entered the course. This was a first successful course, and the fact that it wasn’t just shot at a desk elaborating on how to use a drone — but instead went out and shot it in first person — was a huge success. Finally, the last type of course that can be created is a course completely made out of screen recordings.
Screen Recording and Niche Selection
This is usually done in editing tutorials, which are absolutely booming and a very hot topic to tackle on Skillshare. In general, the advice for beginner teachers on Skillshare would be to pick a niche and start covering all of the topics around that niche. As an example, the niche of cinematography and videography has been picked, with every single thing that someone should know around videography being slowly covered. Courses on smartphone videography, content creation, GoPro for beginners, drone for beginners, how to shoot b-rolls, and how to shoot commercials in a bedroom are all separate and unique subjects that navigate around the niche of cinematography and videography.
Essential Gear and Software
Audio and Video Equipment
This can be very overwhelming, especially with the new guidelines of Skillshare in which a higher audio and image quality is required from teachers. In general, the four categories of gear pieces needed are a great audio source. A great video source, a great screen recording source, and a great video editing program. If lessons are to be self-edited, it is absolutely essential to invest in a great microphone because people will stay if video quality is bad. But they will absolutely leave if audio quality is bad. When it comes to the camera. Investing in a quality mirrorless or DSLR camera is recommended. Though a webcam could also do the job when taking first steps in this field.
Recommended Editing and Recording Tools
When it comes to editing software. Premiere Pro is suggested for PC users, and Final Cut Pro is suggested for Mac users. As it is the best editing software for Macs. For a reliable screen recording software, the Camtasia screen recorder is highly recommended. It is a bit pricey, but it is a one-time purchase. And consistent use of it will return the investment from Skillshare earnings. Finally, another recommended purchase is an Elgato capture card. Which turns a DSLR camera into a webcam so it can be connected with screen recording software and used as a webcam.
Lessons from Common Mistakes
Step 1: Managing Production Time and Expectations
The first huge mistake was spending an enormous amount of time on the first course in pursuit of perfection. Which took a huge amount of time. In addition, being a complete beginner on Skillshare meant the course looked very YouTube-like — it wasn’t really a course but just a series of YouTube videos. When the results came in, it was a bit discouraging. Two weeks of continuous shooting and editing resulted in about two Euros at the end of the month.
Step 2: The Critical Role of Audio Quality
The second huge mistake was not investing in a proper microphone setup from day one. The importance of good audio cannot be stressed enough — bad audio means losing money and pushing students away from courses. So investing in a great microphone setup from day one is essential. The third mistake was not backing up courses. Which is a huge mistake because if anything happens on Skillshare, all courses are lost. In addition, the opportunity to monetize those courses on different platforms is also lost. Courses need to be stored on a separate hard drive.
Step 3: Diversifying Platforms and Course Length
This leads into the fourth mistake. Which was being 100% committed to Skillshare for a long period of time without uploading courses anywhere else. This was a huge mistake because there are other amazing online course platforms. Such as Udemy, where courses can also be uploaded. By not uploading courses to Udemy while they are on Skillshare, money is being left on the table. Finally, the fifth mistake was creating courses that were too short. When starting out, courses were about 20 to 40 minutes, which just wasn’t enough for Skillshare.
Strategies to Increase Revenue
Step A: Optimizing Course Length and Tutorial Content
It was when the length of courses was increased that a huge difference in income. And overall student numbers was seen. Skillshare really wants to promote lengthy and quality courses to students. If lengthy courses are created and shot with great camera and audio quality. This is the recipe for success on Skillshare. The first thing done to increase revenue to more than eight thousand dollars during the past year on Skillshare was increasing the length of courses. Which is very important if more money on Skillshare is the goal.
Step B: Leveraging Detailed Screen Recorded Lectures
The second thing done was uploading more tutorial-based screen recorded lectures. One of the most profitable courses both on Skillshare and Udemy is a course teaching Final Cut Pro editing for beginners. This course is successful due to the fact that it is a screen recorded course covering every single aspect of the editing software across 4.5 hours, making it a very lengthy course. The third thing done to increase revenue on Skillshare was maintaining great communication with the Skillshare team and entering a closed community that Skillshare hosts with the most engaging teachers, called the Teach Corps.
Step C: Joining the Teach Corps Community
The Teach Corps community is a community in which the best teachers on Skillshare share rewards. Production funds, as well as early announcements from Skillshare. Once a year, Teach Corps teachers have the chance to apply for a production fund in which Skillshare provides funds to spend on equipment for courses. On top of that, Teach Corps teachers also get paid more in engagement promotions and awards that Skillshare offers. For beginners who decide to teach on Skillshare, maintaining great relationships with the people there is strongly recommended.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
A future piece on cross-platform course uploading to generate revenue from multiple platforms is planned for the future.