Skillshare Affiliate Program (2024)
Skillshare is a popular online learning platform that operates on a subscription model. You purchase a subscription and can enroll in as many Skillshare courses as you want. This is the main difference from its main competitor Udemy where people buy individual courses.Â
Skillshare has an affiliate program, and you will learn everything about it in this review.Â
After reading this review, you will know whether becoming a Skillshare affiliate is worth it.Â
Skillshare Affiliate Program Overview
Commission: 40%
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Where to Join: Impact
Payment Options: PayPal, Electronic Funds Transfer
Skillshare Affiliate Program
The Skillshare affiliate program can be joined through the Impact affiliate network here.Â
You will need a website to join the program, as you can't have an Impact account without one.Â
However, you can promote Skillshare through various channels.Â
This is what Skillshares about the requirements for joining the Skillshare affiliate program :
Skillshare’s affiliate program is free to join for anybody that has at least one demonstrated channel and audience that is aligned with Skillshare’s brand. Channels include: blogs, Facebook groups, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter followers, or email newsletters. All affiliates must create an account through Impact and also have a free Skillshare account.
This is not an exhaustive list of channels. Surprisingly, they did not mention YouTube which is one of the most popular channels among Skillshare affiliates.Â
The cookie duration is 30 days.
Once you are accepted to the program, you will have access to banners of various sizes.Â
Since the program is hosted on Impact, you can easily generate deep links to any Skillshare pages.
Skillshare is a subscription website but people can browse their courses even without having an account so you don’t have to link to a homepage and instead link to a specific course.Â
Skillshare Affiliate Program Commission
The Skillshare affiliate program has a 40% commission.Â
Currently, Skillshare costs $13.75/month and only has an annual plan. In the past, they used to have a monthly plan, so it may change again.
The fact that Skillshare now has just an annual plan is a big plus for all Skillshare affiliates. The annual subscription costs $165, so you get $66 for each referral, which is a lot. Â
Skillshare has a 1-month free trial. If someone signs up for a free trial but doesn’t end up purchasing the subscription, you don’t earn anything.Â
On the one hand, free trials are great for affiliates as they increase conversions, but on the other hand, free trials that are too long lead to fewer sales.Â
A lot of people will want to enroll in a specific Skillshare course. One month is a long time, so they can go through the course during the free trial and then cancel their subscription.Â
I prefer when affiliate programs have just three or seven days of free trials.Â
Update: I was told that Skillshare has a 7-day free trial now, but I can still see 1 month on my end. Maybe the length of the free trial is based on location.Â
Can You Make $1,000 a Month as a Skillshare Affiliate?
The affiliate commission is high, so you don’t need to generate that many sales to reach the $1,000 benchmark.
Specifically, you would only need 16 sales.Â
If your content with affiliate links had a 1% conversion rate, you would only need 1,600 visitors to generate 16 sales.Â
You could get a higher than 1% conversion rate with very targeted traffic.Â
However, it would be more realistic to expect a below-average conversion rate, given the higher price tag of the subscription.
Nevertheless, even in pessimistic scenarios, you would not need excessive traffic.
If your conversation rate was just 0.1%, you would need 16,000 visitors, which is still very achievable.Â
How to Promote Skillshare
Usually, when an affiliate program seems too good, there is some catch.Â
Most of the time, the catch is high competition.Â
For example, this is the case for any hosting affiliate programs. The programs have very generous commissions, but the competition is so high that ranking for any good keywords is extremely difficult.Â
The Skillshare affiliate program does not have this problem.Â
Since Skillshare is an online learning platform with over 25,000 courses, you have a lot of products to promote.Â
You can create content around so many topics and then link to a Skillshare course for more in-depth information.Â
Surprisingly, I have not seen that many affiliates doing that.
Most Skillshare affiliates promote Skillshare as an online learning platform but don’t point to any particular courses.Â
I think this general approach is good if you have been given discounts from Skillshare. I follow this YouTuber who is in the self-improvement niche and has a 30% discount through his affiliate links. The general approach is fine with such a high discount, but 99.5% of Skillshare affiliates won't have any discount applied to their affiliate links. Â
 Like most affiliate programs, Skillshare provides discounts only to the top-performing affiliates.Â
Therefore, I would recommend linking to Skillshare courses that complement your content. Since there are so many courses on Skillshare, it should not be that difficult to find keywords with decent search volume and lower competition.Â
Even though Skillshare allows you to promote its courses through multiple channels, including social media, I would recommend focusing on promotion through a blog and YouTube content.
Summary: Pros & Cons
Below is a concise summary outlining the primary benefits and drawbacks of the Skillshare affiliate program.
Pros
- High commission
- 30-day cookie duration
- Among the top online learning platforms
- A lot of courses = lot of keywords you can target
Cons
- The range of course subjects is much smaller compared to Udemy
- The Skillshare subscription might be too expensive for many people
Should You Become a Skillshare Affiliate?
It is not surprising that there are so many Skillshare affiliates, as the affiliate program is really good.
It has a high commission and a standard 30-day cookie duration, but most importantly, it is not too competitive.
There are so many keywords you can target. No matter your niche, there will be a course on Skillshare that could complement your content.Â
Therefore, the Skillshare affiliate program is a great option, even for people starting with affiliate marketing.Â
