3 Tips For Maximizing Your Time and Revenue Teaching on Skillshare

Teacher Helen Bradley shares her tips for teaching regularly and earning revenue on Skillshare.

Helen Bradley, freelance writer, videographer and photographer posted her first Skillshare class in February 2015. Recently Helen decided to invest more time into Skillshare, creating her first weekly series Illustrator for Lunch™, where her students can pick up a new Illustrator skill over their lunch break! Fast forward 12 months, and Helen has launched a second series Photoshop for Lunch™, teaches 4,000 students on Skillshare and is one of our highest earning teachers. So how does Helen see returns of over $100 an hour teaching?

“It takes me about 6-7 hours to make a single 20-40 minute course.”

Because Helen's classes are focused and specific, she is able to teach weekly, even with a 50-hour work week, allowing her to constantly engage her students and compound her revenue. Check out Helen’s 3 tips for maximizing your time teaching on Skillshare below:

1. Screencast Your Videos

For all of Helen’s classes, she uses a simple technique called screencasting, where she captures footage of her computer screen. Her pro tip for saving time?  “I have been making video training like this for many years. I use Camtasia and I record the screen and the sound at the same time. If I make a mistake I pause what I am doing, I say "Mistake" and then pick up the process from just before I made the mistake so I don't have to re-record everything. Saying 'mistake' makes it easier for me to pick up errors when I am editing so I can easily edit out the mistakes.”

(See more of our tips for easy DIY screencasting here.)

2. Practice Makes Perfect

"Even though I’ve been making videos for years, I always test my project by running through it before I begin at least once to check where there might be problems. I do this even if I know the process 'like the back of my hand' because there's always something I didn't think about which catches me unawares. By rehearsing, I save time later on."

3. Stay Organized to Save Time

“A big part of making multiple classes is being organized – having a plan and working to the plan. I have a folder structure for each of my two series of classes; Illustrator for Lunch™ and for Photoshop for Lunch™ and each course has its own folder where all its files are stored. Without an organized approach I would be toast! While I'm working on a course, I have Skillshare open in a browser so I can keep an eye on my messages. If someone posts a question or a project while I'm working, I'll know that and as soon as I've finished the current task I'll answer their question or review their project. That's crucial for me - teaching is as much interacting with existing students as it is creating new classes for them!”

Learn more about earning money teaching and get started at www.skillshare.com/teach.