Teacher Tips: Boost Your Referrals with these Creative Tips & Tricks

One of the most personally rewarding parts of being a Skillshare teacher is introducing new students to your classes, and helping them discover or develop their creative skills. And we reward you for these referrals too — for each new student you bring to Skillshare, you earn a $10 referral bonus.

The way Skillshare tracks referrals are through referral links, which are different from your typical teacher profile or class links. Skillshare uses these referral links (which look like this: https://skl.sh/1AbC2DE — the numbers and letters at the end of your referral links will be unique to you, of course!) to track user traffic back to the platform and to confirm who referred them to the site. As a teacher on Skillshare, you will have a unique referral link for your channel — which links back to your profile page — as well as unique referral links for each class that you publish on the platform. For more on where to find these referral links, check out the tutorial below.

Wherever you promote your class — on social media, via email, on your blog, to friends and family — you can use any of your referral links and earn $10 every time someone signs up. People who click your link and sign up won't be charged anything for their first two weeks. Even if they opt to cancel their Skillshare Membership before being charged, you’ll still get your $10 bonus. 

Wondering how to up your referral game, bring more students to Skillshare, and have fun doing it? Check out these best practices and tips from fellow teachers, and our step-by-step tutorial! 

Best Practices for Referrals

Here are some general best practices for referring new students:

1. Share your referral link anywhere and everywhere. Our top referring teachers all share the same tip: make sure you’re sharing your referral link everywhere! Here are a few places for permanently parking your referral link so new students can sign up anytime: 

• Got a personal website? Post your referral link on your About page using your channel/profile referral link, or create a dedicated Classes section of your website where you can promote each of your Skillshare classes using their referral links. 
• Add your referral link to your bio or About pages on all your social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. 
• Connect your YouTube followers to your Skillshare classes by adding the referral link to your About page, as well as in video descriptions. 
• Add the link to the footer of your email newsletter or be sure to give a shout out to your Skillshare channel in each new letter to your subscribers. 
• Customize your email signature by adding your referral link. 
• If you’re selling merchandise on Etsy, add your referral link to your profile to help shoppers find more ways to engage with you. 

2. Make it timely. Brand new classes are more likely to trend on the platform and several Top Teachers report they get the most new signups right after they launch a class. Take advantage of this window by announcing new classes on your marketing channels with the referral link. 
3. Consider referrals a win-win opportunity for you and your future students. Remind your followers that there’s no initial charge for signing up through your referral link, and that it’ll provide a longer free trial than if they signed up on their own. Even if they opt to cancel their Skillshare Membership before being charged, you’ll still get your $10 bonus.
4. Set a personal goal for new referrals. Help to boost your new followers—and income goals—by setting a monthly goal for yourself, i.e., 25 new referrals per month. 
5. Track your results and see what patterns emerge. Head over to your Referrals page and scroll to the bottom to see how many new students have signed up using your referral link, as well as your total income. It can be helpful to see what class referral links have been more popular with new students, and can help you make decisions on how to boost marketing support for those trending classes. 

Creative Tips & Tricks for Referrals

1. Use a link-sharing tool like Linktree to share multiple class referral links in one place

Since Instagram only allows one link in your bio, some teachers who host several classes on Skillshare use a link-sharing tool like Linktree so new students can find all of their referral links in one place. For example, Skillshare teacher Stephanie Padgett has a separate link for each of her Skillshare classes on her Linktree page. Tip: If Linktree isn’t your thing, check out alternatives such as Campsite or Milkshake. Or if your website is hosted on Squarespace, check out their free Bio Sites option. 

2. Promote on Pinterest 

Pinterest is a great tool for sharing visual references, and it can also be a great way to boost traffic to your channel and classes. Top Teacher Esther Nariyoshi uses Pinterest to post video pins – which are prioritized on that platform – to advertise each of her classes. Right after launching a new class, Esther uploads short time lapses of her class footage to Pinterest, and adds in the referral link to invite viewers to check out the full class.

3. Leverage Your YouTube Channel

Many of our top referring teachers use a YouTube channel to complement their Skillshare classes and refer new students. Take Top Teacher Rich Armstrong for example: he snagged a lot of new students by posting a video to YouTube on his Skillshare class about Looom, with the class referral link, of course! You could draw in new students from YouTube by creating short tutorials, promo videos, or vlogs relating to your Skillshare classes as well. 

4. Run a Giveaway

Encourage your followers to sign up using your referral link by tossing in an extra incentive. For example, Top Teacher Gabrielle Brickey successfully garnered new referrals through Instagram with a time-sensitive bonus: if they joined her on Skillshare by a certain date, each new referral would get a free custom Photoshop or Procreate brush set via email. The strategy worked well: each follower who signed up sent Gabrielle a direct message in Instagram with the name they used to sign up for the class, and she followed up with their chosen brush set via email.  

Tutorial: How to Find & Use Your Referral Links

To snag your channel/profile referral link, visit your Referrals page on Skillshare. Copy the link from the box (look for the heading “Share Your Link”), and paste it wherever you need to. (Note that the numbers and letters at the end of your referral links will be unique to you, of course!)

For class referral links, there are three different places you can grab it to send it out to your followers: 

1. From Your Class Toolbar

From within your class on Skillshare, click the gear icon at the bottom left hand side of the page. 

In the left hand toolbar, you’ll find the referral link under the section titled “Class Referral Link.”  (Note that the numbers and letters at the end of your referral links will be unique to you, of course!) 

2. Using the Share Button

Click the “Share” button under the video queue for your class, and then click the gray link button. Copy the link and use it where needed. Tip: the Share button also provides a few quick shortcuts to share your referral link directly to Facebook or Twitter, or via email by manually entering or uploading your followers’ email addresses.

3. From within the Promote Section of the Class Creator

After you’ve submitted your class, click on the Promote tab — you’ll see the referral link at the bottom of the screen. 

Tutorial: Tracking Your Referrals

Visit your Referrals page and scroll down to see your Referral History. Any follower who has signed up for your class via one of your referral links will be tracked there!