As a teacher, you can earn additional revenue for each new subscribing member you bring to Skillshare.
In this article:
- How Skillshare Referrals Work
- How Your Referral Revenue is Calculated and Distributed
- Example Scenarios
- How to Find Your Referral Links
- Tracking Your Referral Earnings
- Resources
How Skillshare Referrals Work
Every new class you publish on Skillshare has a unique class referral link that you can share with your followers outside of Skillshare. Also, when you become a teacher on Skillshare you’re also automatically granted a general referral link, which gives you the benefit of being able to market all of your classes at once.
Wherever you promote classes or your Skillshare channel — on social media, via email, on your blog, or elsewhere — you’ll earn every time someone purchases a Skillshare subscription through your referral link and maintains that subscription.
Your teacher referral link will enable a user to purchase either an annual or monthly subscription, and the amount you earn varies depending on whether they purchase an annual or monthly subscription. Refer to the section How Your Referral Revenue is Calculated and Distributed in this article for specific information on how your referral revenue is calculated.
Additionally, where available, people who click your referral links and sign up for either a monthly or annual subscription get a free trial to try out Skillshare. Currently, the trial length for teacher referrals is 30 days.
All earned referral revenue is sent on or around the 16th of each month through Tipalti. For more on the timing of teacher payments, visit When and how do I receive payments from Skillshare?
Class and general referral links are unique to you and they look a little different than the regular URL for your class. Be sure you’re using the right one when marketing your class so you can earn! Here are two examples:
Class referral link: https://skl.sh/3QJdXQ8General referral link: https://www.skillshare.com/r/user/teachonskillshare
In terms of earning revenue from your referrals, it doesn’t matter what link you use — the payout is still the same regardless if you use a class or your general referral link.
How Your Referral Revenue is Calculated and Distributed
Your teacher referral link will enable a user to purchase either an annual or monthly subscription, and the amount you earn varies, depending on which subscription they purchase:
- If a new user purchases an annual subscription, you will receive 60% of the annual subscription fee paid by the user for that first year.
- If a new user purchases a monthly subscription, you will receive 60% of each subscription fee the user pays for the next 12 months.
Keep in mind:
- The cost of a Skillshare membership may vary by country.
- At present, students have a 14-day period in which they can cancel their membership and request a refund.
- The exact amount of your referral revenue is calculated based on the membership fees Skillshare receives from a user who becomes a paid subscriber via your referral link, net of refunds, and will not include amounts collected from the user for taxes, if any.
Skillshare calculates this payment by aggregating payments received in that month from first-time annual and monthly memberships, not including sales taxes, paid by students you referred (Membership Payments). Then, we subtract any refunds processed on those Membership Payments (Refunds).
Membership Payments - Refunds = Net Membership Payments
Your referral earnings for each month will be equal to 60% of your Net Membership Payments for that month.
60% of Net Membership Payments = Your Monthly Referral Earnings
Example Scenarios
Consider these hypothetical scenarios to understand how the model works and when you can expect to receive revenue from a referral as a teacher. For both examples, let’s assume a student signs up for an annual membership and the fee is $100* before taxes.
*Take note these are purely examples. The exact amount a student pays for an annual membership will vary.
Example 1
Example 1 illustrates when you can expect payment when a new user signs up for Skillshare using your referral link in the first half of the month:
- A student signs up for an annual membership using your referral link on April 9th and receives a free 30-day trial of Skillshare.
- After the free trial ends on May 9th, the student will be charged for a full year of membership, unless they decide to cancel before that point. Since the amount the student paid was $100* before taxes, your referral earnings will be a 60% share of the membership fee the student paid, or $60.
- Since there is currently a 14-day period after which a student can cancel their membership and request a refund, you will earn the referral payment on May 23rd, so long as the student isn’t refunded before that time.
- The $60 payment will be added to your May earnings, and sent to you on or around June 16th.
Example 2
Conversely, Example 2 illustrates the same scenario but describes what happens when a new user signs up through your referral link in the last half of the month:
- A student signs up for an annual membership using your referral link on April 20th, and will be charged $100* on May 20th, at the end of their 30-day trial.
- The student's 14-day period to cancel and request a refund would expire on June 3rd.
- In this scenario, the $60 payment would be added to your June earnings (even though the student paid in May) and sent to you on or around July 16th.
How to Find Your Referral Links
For step-by-step instructions on how to find either your class or general referral links, refer to the article Where can I find my referral links?.
Tracking Your Referral Earnings
Your Teacher Stats dashboard shows your total earned revenue since you started teaching on Skillshare. Your Referrals dashboard shows details on your referrals, in addition to your general referral link.
Visit Where can I find information on my class performance and earnings? for a detailed breakdown of the information displayed on this dashboard.