An Update to Your Teacher Stats Dashboard

At Skillshare, our amazing teachers are the backbone of our community. We are grateful for all you do to ensure a quality, engaging experience for students, and we always value your feedback.

Over the past several months, you’ve shared that more insight into upcoming teacher payments would be helpful to improve your Skillshare teaching experience. And today, we’re excited to announce a new feature to provide more visibility: month-to-date estimated earnings on the teacher stats dashboard.

The feature will be fully rolled out to our teaching community by the end of June, and our hope is that this new visibility can provide even greater clarity and support. This post will cover a few more FAQs in detail, and of course we’re always eager to hear from you at teach@skillshare.com. Thank you for continuing to share your feedback so we can improve the Skillshare experience for all.

What are month-to-date estimated earnings? 

Starting this June, estimated earnings will be displayed on your teacher stats dashboard to give you more insight into what to expect in your PayPal account on the 16th of each month. You’ll see two types of estimated earnings: estimated royalty earnings (for the minutes watched in your classes) and estimated referral earnings (for the students you refer to Skillshare through your referral links).

Where will estimated earnings be displayed?  

Month-to-date estimated royalty earnings and month-to-date estimated referral earnings will be displayed in the grey stats overview box near the top of your teacher stats dashboard. Here’s an example: 

When are estimated earnings available each month? 

In the first half of a given month (the 1st through the 15th), the dashboard will display your upcoming estimated earnings to be paid on the 16th of the month for the previous month’s activity.  

In the second half of a given month (the 16th through the last day of the month), the dashboard will  display your estimated month-to-date earnings based on the current month's activity.

How will estimated royalty earnings be calculated?

First, a quick refresher on how teacher royalty earnings work: Each month, Skillshare allocates 30% of membership revenue towards a royalty pool for teachers. The royalty pool is then distributed amongst teachers based on their percentage of the total minutes watched in their classes. For example, if your classes receive 5% of the minutes watched by members, you receive 5% of the royalty pool. 

Second, let’s talk about how estimated royalties (this new statistic) are a little bit different.

Your estimated royalty earnings are based on two main factors: 1) your share of the total minutes watched on the platform month-to-date, and 2) an estimated royalty pool amount based on estimated Skillshare membership revenue. 

It’s important to note that there is a level of variability in these calculations driven by three main factors.

• Your share of the total minutes on the platform is subject to change based on the performance of your classes alongside the performance of other teachers’ classes. For example, if you publish a new class that gains quick popularity on the platform, you could start accruing minutes watched at a faster rate than other teachers, increasing your share of the total minutes. Similarly, if other teachers accrue minutes watched in their classes at a faster rate than your own, that could decrease your share.
• Skillshare’s monthly membership revenue — and thereby, the amount of revenue in the royalty pool — is subject to change beyond our projections based on shifts in cancellation rates and refund rates. These shifts can be unexpected, particularly in this uncertain time.
• Our Trust & Safety team is regularly conducting fraud investigations that may occasionally result in changes to your minutes watched, and thereby, your share of total minutes (learn more about these fraud investigations here). 

As a result of this variability, you may find that your actual royalty earnings may sometimes fall outside of the estimated range, but we will do our very best to ensure these numbers are as accurate as possible. 

How will estimated referral earnings be calculated?

Estimated referrals are based on a simple formula: you receive $10 for every referral student who signs up for Membership through one of your referral links. Skillshare occasionally runs promotions that may increase your referral earnings. Those additions will not be reflected in your estimated referral earnings on your stats dashboard.  

When will I see this new feature on my stats dashboard? 

We plan to have estimated earnings rolled out to all teacher dashboards by the end of June. To ensure the feature is working as expected, we will be rolling it out in phases over the coming weeks. Some teachers will see the update as soon as this week.

What can I expect with May teacher payments (to be distributed on June 16th)? 

In April, we shared an update about the impact of COVID-19 on teacher payments, relating to the unprecedented growth of new members and minutes watched on the platform. In that post, we explained that we anticipated teacher earnings to increase in May and June as the new members who joined Skillshare in March with free trials began paying. This is indeed the dynamic we are now seeing — total teacher royalty earnings for May are estimated to grow by 8%, and we expect to see continued growth in June.

Have more feedback? 

We’re here to help. Email us at teach@skillshare.com, and our Teacher Support team will get back to you as soon as possible.