Last night I received communication from Skillshare stating that my course, WordPress Plugin Development For Beginners, will be removed from the platform on June 18. Skillshare have decided that programming content, among other categories, are no longer welcome on their platform. This is part of a larger purge of their course library, and you can read more about the changes here.

My course will remain available for a one time purchase on Gumroad, and for a limited time you’ll be able to get lifetime access for just $5 (normally $30).

If you know of a good platform for my course to live, I’d love to hear from you, leave a comment or get in touch.

Skillshare reached out to me in 2018, asking me to develop a course for their platform. My first course, WordPress Plugin Development For Beginners: Building Your First WordPress Plugin was released in mid 2019. It started slowly, before the COVID pandemic accelerated course participation, and for a 2 year period from mid-2020 to mid-2022 I was earning pretty consistent income. I had hoped to develop more courses for Skillshare although that never eventuated, in 2019 I had been working as a freelance contractor, and I returned to full time employment around the end of that year.

In 2022 however, Skillshare made dramatic changes to their royalty model, significantly reducing royalty payouts in favour of increased referral payments. They also changed their method of paying out royalties, which resulted in taxes being witheld to the US government. The change was best exemplified by February 2023, which my course had 450 minutes of watch time and I received just $3.37. The previous February, for comparison, had 451 minutes of watch time for $31.18 in royalties. I actually contacted them at the time concerned that there may have been an error such was the discrepency, and their response was insultingly dismissive and snarky. It was clear at that moment that creating more courses for them would not be worth the effort.

As the royalties quickly dried out, I wrestled with the question of taking the course down. Students were taking the course but I wasn’t receiving any reward for it, but it also didn’t require any effort to maintain. At this point I’ve only received royalties for one month since August 2024. Now that decision has been taken out of my hands, with numerous creators and courses being purged from the platform next week. Along with the purge, they’re also making it even harder for teachers to earn royalties. If their current system was in place when I started, I would have only earned royalties in 6 months, at most, out of the 7 years my course has been on the platform. The contempt for the teachers who Skillshare couldn’t exist without is obvious.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Skillshare close their doors completely in the near future. It seems the pandemic triggered influx of students has receeded and they’re running out of funds, either that or their owners are draining the business dry. There are few other explanations that would make sense to me at this point.

I’m grateful for the extra money I was able to make through Skillshare over the 7 years my course was hosted on the platform, and I’m more grateful that the decision of removing the course was taken out of my hands. But most of all, I’m grateful for the over 800 students who took the course. I know a number of people got a lot of value out of it, and I’m glad I could help you on your WordPress journey.

WordPress Plugin Development For Beginners: Building Your First WordPress Plugin is still available for a one time purchase, and for a limited time will be just $5.

Skillshare, by the numbers:

All prices mentioned in this article are USD.