Skillshare is the most comparable online course marketplace to Udemy.  Both platforms market your online course to the masses and pay instructors a course revenue share monthly. That’s about all the similarities in the Udemy vs. Skillshare comparison, really.  They are pretty different platforms.

So, let’s say you are a new instructor and trying to decide which is best to start with. Or, perhaps you are already creating courses on one platform and considering hopping to the other.  What would the impact be on your online course business and the way you go about it?  

Udemy vs. Skillshare – 5 Key Differences

A comparison of Udemy vs. Skillshare’s features for instructors is pretty straightforward.  In this article, we’ve outlined the 5 biggest differences between the two platforms that matter to online course instructors (not to students).

Instructor Payout

At the end of the day, teaching online is about making money, right? Well, actually, teaching on Skillshare may not necessarily be “all about the money”.   The mission of the Skillshare platform is to provide affordable and accessible education to all.  The company asks of its instructors to “give back”.  You might translate that into “don’t expect a get rich scheme”. 

So let’s just cut to the chase and compare Udemy vs. Skillshare payouts.  Udemy has a fairly transparent, widely known, consistent instructor payout formula, based on its “pay per class” sales model: 

• 50% of revenue for organic course purchases
• 97% of revenue for courses purchased through direct instructor link
• ~ 25% of revenue for affiliates sales

How much can Udemy instructors make?  You’ve no doubt read and heard stories about the earnings potential on Udemy, particularly for instructors in the tech field.   We at Teachinguide even attempted to estimate what top Udemy instructors could make earlier this year.  At the top instructor echelon course income can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.  

It’s fair to say that if you are a serious and very good instructor on Udemy and you put in the work, you have a shot at earning a decent living, or at minimum some decent passive income, selling online courses.  A large part of this is due to Udemy’s huge audience of some 25 million students and its growing global reach and brand recognition which drives a ton of traffic to the platform.  The platform also has a very extensive affiliate network that instructors can leverage to boost sales.

Skillshare, however, has a very different instructor payout scheme. As we said before, the fact that the platform’s mission is to make education accessible to anyone by providing affordability should give you a hint about the relative potential payout of Skillshare vs. Udemy.  The website reads “Why Teach on Skillshare? It’s a great way to earn money, build your online following, and give back. Top teachers make $100,000+ a year.”  We’re not scoffing at earning $100,000 a year, that’s great money. But top Udemy instructors have added another three zeros to that number.

So what is Skillshare’s payout scheme?  Skillshare is a subscription-based website, and the subscription fee is relatively low at about $12 per month for access to all “Premium” courses. For that amount, students can watch as many course videos for as many minutes as they like that month.

Once an instructor’s course has been watched for 30 minutes he/she becomes eligible to earn a payout. Thereafter, instructors are paid based on Skillshare’s algorithm that calculates payouts based on how many paying students enrolled in your courses versus all other courses, a variable percent of the subscription revenue for the overall Skillshare platform that month (30%-50%), and the number of minutes watched for your courses. The focus of the Skillshare platform payout is different in that it is a community-based platform with a pool of funds that fluctuates each month to be divided up. 

Estimates that we have seen roughly work out to between $3-$5 per hour of course watched per student. So for a 3 hour course, you might make $10-$15 per student.  Instructors can also earn $10 per student referred using their personal referral link.  Finally, instructors can earn a $50 gift card each time they refer another teacher to the platform who creates a course within 30 days.

Skillshare’s payout scheme seems a little more complicated on the surface than Udemy’s. But if you think about it, with all of Udemy’s course discounting, the free coupon campaigns to get enrollments, affiliate marketing, etc. you never quite know what you’ll earn from Udemy either.

Course and Instructor Competition

Clearly on Udemy with its 100,000+ courses, as an online instructor you are likely to be competing with hundreds of other courses in your chosen topic area.  So as an instructor, you have to think a lot about marketing and promoting your course, optimizing for Udemy search rankings, and getting great reviews quickly to convince a student to take your course instead of the many alternatives.  That said if you manage to find a decent niche for an up and coming topic (increasingly rare) or do what it takes to develop a student following (virtuous circle!), you’ll do fine.

Versus Udemy, Skillshare is what we might call “less cutthroat” when it comes to competition with “only” 29,000 courses.  With less competition on Skillshare, instructors who publish a lot of courses and develop a student following can do quite well.  In addition, since students have paid for a monthly subscription that allows unlimited access to courses, you have a better chance of students enrolling in your course because they don’t have to pay anything extra to take it. But you still have to get them to watch minutes of your course to earn money. So marketing and promotion is still a necessary evil despite the lesser competition.

Also on Skillshare, a lot of the courses are more “crafty”, along the lines of art or calligraphy. So if you are in a creative field, you may face stiff competition.

Community and Support

Community is, as Skillshare describes it, “the pulse of Skillshare”.  It has an active community of students who share their projects with each other and provide feedback to each other.  The bond within the teacher-student community is much stronger on Skillshare due to the hands-on nature and interactivity of course projects.

For new teachers, Skillshare promotes a 30-Day Teaching Challenge which gives prospective teachers milestones, reminders, tools and encouragement to design and upload a course within 30 days. It also has a great online video course for new instructors that teaches you how to get going, as well as a Teacher Handbook. The platform also helps teachers develop a following by notifying students each time their instructor publishes a new course. The whole “new instructor” thing just seems a little less “scary” on Skillshare.

Udemy does have Facebook groups, instructor conferences and its Studio U instructor forum with about 20,000 instructors on it.  The platform is so popular, you are bound to find help somewhere if you look for it (like on Teachinguide!).  That said, there isn’t much of an instructor-student community and virtually no student community.  There’s no place to get feedback on work or projects either. Finally, the customer/instructor support on Udemy has met with mixed reviews as well.

Restrictions and Eligibility

Both platforms have restrictions concerning minimal course content and parameters. However, Skillshare does not require its prior approval before instructors can upload their courses to the platform. It relies heavily on the community aspect of the platform to ensure there are no “cheaters” when it comes to quality, adhering to course requirements, etc.

Udemy requires background checks and course quality approval before you can upload your courses.

Skillshare has topic restrictions.  Prohibited topics include those focusing on passive income strategies, courses about teaching on other learning platforms, topics related to romance and relationships, and courses on how to resell existing products/services.  When we did a search for  “passive income” on Udemy, there were 883 search results. “Drop shipping” turned up 1,100 course results. In this sense, Udemy is much more accommodating when it comes to defining what “learning” is. This is one reason it boasts so many more courses (and users) than Skillshare.

Types of Courses and Course Content

Did you know that many Udemy courses like this one about Tableau 10 are also on Skillshare?  (Note that this course has 4,247 students enrolled on Udemy vs. 285 students on Skillshare)

Both platforms have a wide range of instructors in terms of experience and background.  One key difference between Udemy and Skillshare is that on Skillshare courses of less than 30 minutes are allowed, even encouraged.  Skillshare also encourages instructors to create learning in bite sized classes, for instance with about 10 minutes of instruction and then a project assignment.  There are courses as short as 12 minutes.  Some Udemy instructors will take their longer course and break it down into smaller Skillshare courses.

On that note, another key difference between Udemy and Skillshare course content concerns the nature of learning. All Skillshare courses have at least one project. The emphasis of instruction is on learning by doing and students are encouraged to upload their projects to share and get feedback. This means as an instructor, you must be willing to create courses and projects fairly frequently to teach your subject matter. 

Udemy, on the other hand, allows for simple talking head and PowerPoint instruction. Some instructors may prefer this more passive approach to teaching. Students may prefer it as well.  That said, Udemy allows instructors to incorporate quizzes into their courses which does help engage students somewhat.

Finally, when it comes to foreign language course instruction and content, Udemy wins hands down.  Skillshare is very English language centric.

Udemy vs. Skillshare – the Verdict

In the end, these comparisons don’t matter all that much to your opportunity to sell courses through an online marketplace. You can become an instructor on both platforms if you wish and repurpose the same content. There is no exclusivity. However, here are some key issues to consider when choosing one platform over the other:

• You will have to change the format somewhat to accommodate Udemy vs. Skillshare. If you don’t like creating projects or many many courses (to make more money), the you should avoid Skillshare and stick to Udemy’s talking heads powerpoint “mashup” format.
• If your goal is to make money a good deal of money online, it is probably better to start on Udemy. You have control over your course pricing and your payout is based on transparent, simple math so it is easier to set earnings goals and work towards them. Again, you just have to look at the top earners to see there is more potential on Udemy.
• If you want to dip your toe in the water and experiment with online teaching quite simply, perhaps by creating a very short module of less than 30 minutes, Skillshare is probably lower risk (and lower pay). Then you can migrate to Udemy once you are feeling more confident and ready to spread your wings.  Also if you don’t want to have to think a whole lot about promotion and marketing, Skillshare may be better given its lesser competition.
• If however, you are developing a course in any of the Skillshare restricted areas – which by our small search experiment eliminates several thousand instructors – or your primary language is not English then Udemy is for you and your students.

In the end, you might as well publish on both platforms and see which one works for you. You certainly won’t lose money!

Squarespace  offers one of the best website builder software platforms, that immediately stands out from the competition. The Squarespace platform doesn’t hit you with lengthy feature lists and densely packed comparison tables, for instance. Instead, it follows a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach, presenting a host of templates and design ideas to help you understand what’s possible. And this turns out to make a lot of sense, because Squarespace has some of the most gorgeous templates around. 

This doesn’t mean Squarespace is short on features. The service has plenty to boast about: intelligent SEO tools, comprehensive social media integration, performance boosting CDN support, image and video galleries, free fonts, interactive chart controls, a powerful blogging platform, professional web store, the list goes on…

Plans and pricing 

Squarespace offers four main plans and does not have a free option. Squarespace does include a 14 day free trial, but once that period ends, you’ll need to select a paid plan to continue using the product. Here’s an overview of all four plans, how much it costs, and what it includes. 

The Personal plan is $12.00 per month when you buy it annually. This plan comes with your own custom domain, an SSL Certificate, excellent SEO features, and up to two website contributors (who can help you build your site). This plan comes with Squarespace extensions that can help you manage and optimize your business. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU…CLOSE00:00 of 01:17Volume 0%PLAY SOUND

The Business plan costs $18.00 per month when you purchase the yearly plan. It comes with unlimited website contributors, complete customization with CSS and Javascript, advanced analytics and ecommerce capability. Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee on all ecommerce items sold on this plan only. 

The Basic Commerce plan is $26.00 per month and comes with a variety of advanced features – you can sell products on Instagram, access powerful ecommerce analytics, and your customers will be able to create their own accounts on your website. This plan works great for businesses looking to sell a large quantity of products but still don’t need all the features of the Advanced Commerce plan. 

The Advanced Commerce plan is $40.00 per month (when paid annually). It includes all the features in the Basic Commerce plan plus advanced shipping, customer discounts, and the ability to sell subscriptions. For businesses who want to take advantage of all the Squarespace ecommerce features, this plan has it all.  

Interface

Squarespace’s interface is not as easy to use as some website builders, but this is mostly due to how many features there are available. All templates can be previewed in full before making a decision. There’s no need to spend an age agonizing over this, though – unlike some website builders, if you decide you don’t like the template later, you’re free to switch to something else. Select your favorite design and Squarespace prompts you to create an account by entering your name and email address.

To add a widget to a page (or a ‘content block’, as Squarespace calls it), click on Edit (top left of the interface), then scroll over the page until insert sections are revealed (little grey bubbles with a long grey horizontal line attached to them). Click on one of those to see all the options Squarespace offers, including buttons, text, images, galleries, video, audio, forms, layout controls, and more.

Features

Squarespace’s various web service integrations give you more possibilities. A SoundCloud block enables users to navigate a complete playlist, for instance, while you can have Squarespace always display your latest content from Flickr, Instagram and other sites. Alternatively, you can set up the control to search for public images using a specific hashtag, perhaps finding all pictures relating to your company, wedding or any major event.

Put it all together and we suspect there’s more than enough media handling power for most users. And even if you need something more, an Embed Code block may allow integrations with other services, and the Squarespace Business plan provides Code Blocks to insert custom HTML and scripts.

The competition

There are many other website builders on the market – Wix, GoDaddy, and Webnode are just a few of the options. Unlike some of the competition, the blog editor doesn’t limit the controls you can use in a post. You’re able to add images, videos, maps, galleries, anything you can use within a regular web page. The main writing area keeps options to a minimum. Adding tags or categories, enabling or disabling comments for the post, saving it as a draft, publishing it immediately or scheduling publication for later, can all be done by clicking on the post’s title at the top of the page. 

Final thoughts

Squarespace‘s editor and creative layouts means it is an excellent web builder for those willing to learn how to use it. While it might be a little more time consuming compared to other web hosts around, it’s templates really stand out. This website builder has so many design options that you won’t be bored with updating your website. The ecommerce option also has tons of updated features helpful for creating a professional store. Squarespace is a great option for anyone who needs more than the basics for website building. 

You’re excited to make your first profitable online course.

But:

You’re debating between Teachable Vs Udemy.

Which is the best platform to create your course on for maximum profit and control?

That’s exactly what this fair comparison of the two online course creation platforms article is going to cover.

With a primary look at features which will affect your income and brand growth.

To mention:

These are my personal opinions from generating over $100,000+ in online course sales after using both platforms.

Let’s jump in:

Teachable Vs Udemy Features

Let’s start off with the features.

It’s important to know what each course creation platform gives you.

You want as much control as possible — so you can build your course the way you want it, and have full ownership over it.

As well as having the ability to communicate with your students, manage payments, and offer a great learning experience — to keep customers happy and your course reviews positive. 👍

Here we go:

Platform Comparison

Udemy — 

Udemy is an online learning and teaching marketplace. Imagine Amazon.com but for online courses.

The problem is that you are competing with lots of other people and don’t have much control over your listings.

Therefore you could spend weeks or months creating your product for it firstly to not meet their approvement criteria.

And worse your course could rank really low and not get any sales.

Teachable — 

Teachable let’s you create online courses with no limiations because they let you create your own website.

Therefore you have no competition because you will only be listing your courses.

It’s entrepreneurs go-to choice as it gives you full control over how you sell your course without an organization dictacting how it should be done.

‍

Course Creation Dashboard

Both Teachable and Udemy offer a dashboard that lets you:

• See your published and unpublished courses
• Create course content
• See revenue reports
• Manage comments
  

Udemy —

Udemy is simple and easy to use.

The only downside is that you are restricted to Udemy’s branding so you can’t customize the layout of your page.

You also need to meet specific criteria for your course to be published, which can get annoying.

Teachable — 

The dashboard is much larger, and contains more site options.

Teachable let’s you have full control over how you create your course.

You also get cool features such as Drip which lets you release content over time.

‍

Course Analytics

Both platforms offer enough insights for you to understand where you’re generating sales and let you intergrate with Google analytics for further information.

The biggest problem is that Udemy doesn’t let you install custom code snippets, such as a Facebook Pixel or Google Tag, which is vital for businesses tracking user behaviour to improve conversions.

Udemy — 

You can see your average rating, plus how much revenue the course has made.

It will also give you information on the traffic source that sales have come from which is really nice.

Teachable — 

You get full reports on revenue and where students where refered from (if using the Teachable Affiliate feature).

On teachable you also get the Reports feature that let’s you check students performance, such as which videos are popular and where students are dropping off so you can improve the lessons.

Overall, the informaiton Teachable provides you is a lot better than Udemy.

Plus you can integrate your Google Tag or Facebook Pixel to track and collect even more important information!

‍

Customer & Revenue Data Export

Udemy — 

Udemy doesn’t let you export any important data as they own it.

Teachable — 

You can see all your information about customers, even the IP they sign in with. 

Also you have full access to revenue data too which you can export for safekeeping or tax purposes.

‍

Customize Sales Page

Having control over how your sales page looks and functions is CRITICAL to converting visitors to customers.

When creating a sales page you want to be able to change the text, colors, layout, elements and so on to have a conversion optimized sales page.

Udemy — 

You are stuck with their sales page template. Which kinda sucks…

It doesn’t look bad, but it is the same as everyone else on Udemy and therefore it’s hard to stand out.

When you make a sales page with Udemy, you can only modify the text, sales video and categories you want to list your course in, as well as the cover image.

Teachable — 

Teachable gives you full control and customization of your courses sales page and how it looks. 

You can even import custom code to create your own design (I use Webflow to build my custom sales pages).

However, Teachable has a backend builder that lets you create a custom sales page without needing any code knowledge.

In addition, Teachable let’s you customize your checkout page by adding in reviews and guarentees:

And you can even customize your thank you page after someone makes a purchase. You can include upsells or a nice thank you note.

Teachable is constantly rolling out improvements, features and updates to make the process checkout as good as possible — so you don’t miss out on any sales.

‍

Custom Branding

Being able to create and promote your brand is important to build a relationship with others online.

There’s let’s see what each platform let’s you customize.

You may be noticing a theme already that Teachable alows you to customize more…and that’s the case here too.

Udemy — 

You are stuck with Udemy’s branding.

The problem is that when you use Udemy to create and sell a course, you are actually making it for them and not you.

They are selling the course branding as a ‘Udemy course’. It isn’t a ‘Your Name Course’ and that’s one of the problems with using Udemy if you want to build your brand.

Teachable — 

You can control how your site looks with your own logo, favicon, colors and fonts.

When you use teachable you have your own domain name and site branding — so the courses you sell are under your name and brand.

In addition, you can also modify the code of your website to change the look if you’re #tech enough 😉.

‍

Creating pages or a blog

Sometimes you will want to create extra pages if you’re hosting online courses.

These pages could be:

• Blog posts
• Free guides or articles
• Information pages such as Terms of Service or Privacy Policy
• Support and FAQ’s
• Affiliation sign ups
• And so on…

Udemy — 

On Udemy you are limited to only creating a course.

They will supply people with support, TOS, Policy and FAQ pages.

Teachable — 

You can create a course and pages such as a refunds policy/affiliate sign up and so on… 

You can also create blog posts on Teachable, which is a great way for new people to find you.

However, if you are going to make a blog I recommend doing it on a CMS platform such as Webflow (that’s how I built this site).

‍

Lesson Features

Both platforms let you add the same lesson features.

You can upload:

• Videos
• Text blocks
• Files
• And code

‍

Lesson comments

Both platforms have comments for each lesson in the course.

Teachable — 

On Teachable you can approve comments before they’re shown on the lessons.

This can be helpful to let you easily manage which comments you’ve seen and replied to.

And also stop any nasty comments being approved.

‍

Lesson Quizzes

Both platforms let you add quizes to lessons.

Adding quizes can be a great feature to increase interactivity from students…

…and test their knowledge to help them retain course information.

‍

Course Approval

Before you make your course public, you should review your course to make sure it’s as good as possible.

Udemy — 

Udemy’s staff has to approve your course before it goes live. 

It can be very annoying as they can get super picky about non-important factors that don’t effect peoples learning experience.

For example, they may say your lighting isn’t good enough, even though it’s clearly visible.

Or that your audio quality is not perfect…even though you have a fantastic audio setup.

The approval system can be very demotivating for first time course creators too…this is evident inside of the Udemy Creators facebook group where people are constantly frustrated and baffled why their courses won’t get approval.

Teachable — 

You can choose when you want your course to be public without approval from others.

Which is awesome because you don’t need someone else to tell you if your course is good enough or not.

As long as you try your very best to make the production quality as good as you can with your budget, people will enjoy it and you can improve it over time.

‍

Multiple Course Instructors

Both platforms let you have multiple instructors on your course, as well as revenue sharing options.

‍

Course Device Access

Both course platforms let students view your lessons on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

Therefore students can enjoy your content at any time in their busy lives.

‍

Course Completion Certificates

Both platforms let you offer certificates to students who complete your course.

Teachable — 

Teachable let’s you upload a custom designed certificate to give to students who complete your course.

‍

Course Pricing Options

Pricing your course is one of the most important decisions.

If you sell a course for $1,000 you only need to sell it 10 times to make $10,000.

If you sell a course for $10 you need to sell it 1000 times to make $10,000. And it’s a lot harder to find 1000 people to sell to than 10.

Udemy — 

Udemy limits you to pricing your course from being free or in the price range of $19.99-$199.99. 

But here’s the kicker:

Udemy has a Revenue Share Policy which takes 50% of any course sales they generate.

So let’s say you price your course at $100 and Udemy generates the sale, you only earn $50! And whats worse is that Udemy constantly has sales on which means you’ll find your course sells consistently at $19.99, so you only earn roughly $10 per sale! That’s a 90% loss from your pricing.

Teachable — 

You can price your course with no limitations on Teachable!

It could be $5.00 or $500,000!

There is no revenue share either. If you make the sale you keep 100% of the profit after standard credit card fees.

You can also choose to split profits if you have multiple instructors on your course.

Finally you can do different payment options and subscription plans, which is fantastic for converting users who can’t pay the full amount and want to do monthly payments instead.

International Payments / Currency

Both platforms accept international payments.

Udemy — 

They automatically show the price of the course in the visitors native currency too.

Teachable — 

You can choose to create payments in different currencies. 

If you price your course in only USD, you can still accept 130 different currencies in the payment gateways.

Facebook Pixel Intergration

Udemy — 

You cannot add a Facebook pixel.

Teachable — 

You can add a Facebook pixel using the custom code feature.

This is important if you want to create retargeting adverts to convert users who left your website but showed interest in purchasing your product.

‍

Coupons/Discounts

Using discounts strategically can be great to boost sales or reward loyal customers or followers.

Both platforms let you create your own discount codes, but theres a big different between them…

Udemy — 

You can create coupons and discounts.

The problem is that Udemy will often automatically apply discounts your courses.

Which is a bad thing because on Udemy people always wait for discounts to happen, meaning your course is devalued because no one believes they should pay full price for it.

It’s very common to see everyone price their course at $199 because they know Udemy will discount it and they want the discount to be the smallest loss possible.

Teachable  — 

You can create coupons, and choose when to offer the discount.

Moreover, you can limit how many times that discount can be used.

‍

Affiliate Program

Udemy  — 

Has its own affiliate program that you don’t have control over.

Teachable  — 

You can start your own affiliate program, control the commision, see reports and manage your affiliates inside your Dashboard.

‍

Custom Domain

Udemy  — 

On Udemy you don’t have control over adding a custom domain name.

Teachable  — 

You have the option to use your own custom domain name which helps you brand your website and build your business.

‍

Email Marketing

Being able to communicate with your customers and students is a feature you want to have.

This way you can let them know if:

• You released new content
• Launched a new product
• Want to share some free information with them to build trust and your relationship

Udemy — 

You have a built in messenger system, but you’re not aloud to promote your courses or link to anything.

Teachable — 

You get access to a basic email marketing tool that you can use to contact students and promote your courses with.

If you want to use a better email marketing tool I recommend ConvertKit — I use this tool to build my email list.

‍

Drip Content

Sometimes you want to release your course content over time and not let people have instant access to everything.

That’s when you need a Drip feature.

Udemy — 

Dripping content is not available on Udemy.

Teachable — 

You can release content to students on specific dates or after a certain amount of time.

‍

Third Party Integrations

Udemy — 

You can only integrate Google Analytics which is a very easy setup process.

Teachable — 

You can integrate Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel and thousands of other apps plus use Zapier to integrate even more apps. 

In addition, you can also connect your email marketing software such as ConvertKit to add students to a sequence to send them updates and other content automatically.

‍

Course Hosting

Thankfully both platforms include hosting so you don’t have to use an external service.

Udemy — 

Udemy hosts your course on their website for free.

Teachable — 

Teachable plans come with free hosting.

‍

SSL Certificate

An SSL is used to secure credit card transactions, data transfer and logins, and more recently is becoming the norm when securing browsing of social media sites. It’s the Padlock icon you see next to your browsers URL to let customers know the site is safe.

Udemy — 

Because your course is hosted on Udemy.com, you automatically get an SSL certificate.

Teachable — 

Teachable has an option for you to enable a SSL which is very easy and free.

‍

Teachable VS Udemy Pricing Plans

So we concluded that Teachable is the winner for features due to the flexability it gives you when creating a course.

But does it win on the price?

Udemy Pricing Plans

Udemy offers a completely free plan to be an instructor on their platform.

To sell on Udemy you will need to complete a Premium Instructor application. It’s fairly simple and you can learn more about it here: https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605368-Pricing-Your-Course

However, when you become a Premium Instructor you agree into a revenue share policy.

This means that what you price your course at, Udemy will take a 50% revenue share for any course sales they generate.

Which is just plain horrible because they’re taking 50% of your hard earned money.

So let’s look at Teachable instead:

Teachable Pricing Plans

Teachable also offers a free plan to test the platform.

You can see all their plans here: https://teachable.com/pricing

On the free plan you’ll be able to create and sell your online course.

However, you will be restricted to using a a teachable domain (your-course-site.teachable.com) and each course sale will have a transaction fee of $1 + 10% of the course price. Ouch!

So this leads us onto the paid plans which save you money.

Here me out:

You’re planning on making money selling courses right?

So spending $29 on the Teachable Basic Plan is not going to leave a dent in your pocket.

The Basic Plan it’s going to lower your transaction fee cost from the free plan’s $1 + 10% to the paid plans $0 + 5%.

And the Basic Plan lets you:

• Use a custom domain such as courses.aaronward.com
• Offer coupons
• Create an affiliate program
• Use their built in email marketing tool
• And much more…

What’s the best Teachable plan to make profit?

I personally use the Teachable Professional Plan.

Because:

The Professional Plan has 0% transaction fees when you use PayPal or Stripe as your payment gateway — custom payment gateways are very easy to set up.

If you use the Teachable Basic Plan it costs $29/month and charges a 5% transaction fee on all course sales…

Which means you lose 5% of your overall profit.

So let’s say for example that you do $5,000 in course sales this month.

If you used the:

Basic Plan — 

You would be charged $29 for the Basic Plan and an extra $250 in transaction fees (5% of $5,000). Meaning your overall profit would be $5,000 – ($29 + $250) = $4,421.

Professional Plan —

It would cost you an extra $50 to upgrade from the Basic Plan to the Professional Plan totaling $79/month. But you unlock 0% transaction fees—using the custom payment gateways PayPal and Stripe. Meaning your overall profit would be $5,000 – $79 = $4,921.

To conclude:

You save $200 by using the more expensive, 0% transaction fee, Professional Plan.

‍

Teachable Vs Udemy Marketing

To be successful at selling online:

You need to learn marketing techniques.

Let’s quickly discuss how both platforms let you utilize marketing strategies and tools to increase your income and help you build your brands audience.

Udemy Marketing

Udemy markets your course on it’s platform for you.

Most users make the mistake of making a course, and then leaving it to Udemy to make the sales for them.

While Udemy can promote your course in various ways:

1. If a user searches for a specific keyword such as “Facebook Advertising for Beginners” and you made a course with that keyword in your title, you’ll show up in the results.
2. Udemy also creates Facebook ads themselves to promote certain courses which they believe will sell well.
3. Udemy affiliates can promote your course too and will receive a revenue share.

You can’t expect to generate a ton of income, especially as each sale Udemy generates gets a 50% Revenue Share split.

But:

You can also market course to increase your income.

If you direct traffic to your course sales page URL, and make a sale…you will get 100% revenue and not have to split 50% to Udemy.

The only downside is, most sales only happen when a discount is applied. So your revenue is squished.

“The reality is that 90% of sales occur with a coupon code, and at a price less than $50.” – VP Content @ Udemy

This is because Udemy has a reputation of offering discounts; people only want to buy when they know they’re getting the best deal possible.

Teachable Marketing

With teachable you are responsible your own marketing.

This is extremely good because it gives you control and teaches you to:

• Learn about marketing, funnels and traffic generation
• Wordsmith your headlines and sales copy
• Discover who your target audience is
• Create marketing content
• Understand your demographic, learn where they hang out online and what their needs and wants are

The BIG problem with Udemy like we discussed is that they have a 50% Revenue Share.

And you have no idea what they’re saying about your course, who they’re targeting and so on…

Whereas with Teachable you earn 100% of the revenue and control all marketing material.

So you understand how and where sales are coming from. Plus you’ll feel more fulfilled when you make a sale because you made it happen!

“Learn to market your product. You’ll gain a deeper understanding your demographics needs and wants—while you generate a human connection and lead them towards your product.”

If you’re not sure how to start marketing. My blog and Youtube and courses can help you with getting started.

‍

Teachable VS Udemy Recap

If you want a platform which guarentees you success, use Teachable.

Here’s the issue with using Udemy.

It is very appealing that they sell your course for you… 

But when you sell on Udemy you are helping their brand grow — students don’t buy from you, they buy from Udemy. You’re just another instructor out of the thousands they have.

And the real kick in the balls is that you lose 50% of sales when using Udemy.

Not controlling the pricing of your course is insane!

It completely devalues your product and brand. 

People always expect discounts from Udemy and will be outraged once you move off the platform and you’re $15 course is suddenly the correct and well valued price of $127+.

Don’t be a victim of not having control over your business. 

It will kick you in the ass later down the line.

‍

Conclusion: You should use Teachable

When you use Teachable…

You are building your brand.

People have come to YOUR website, with YOUR branding and YOUR face behind the products.

You are building your businesses reputation, building up a customer base who love YOU, not another company.

Plus you have control when using Teachable:

• The pricing of your course
• When discounts are applied
• How the sales page looks
• The domain and website branding
• Your marketing funnel

If you are serious about creating a high quality, informative and share-worthy online course that people love…

Use Teachable.

You will make more money and build your brand successfully.

NEW FREE TRAINING

The 7 Secret Steps To Building a 6 Figure Online Course (From Scratch)

It’s your time to create a course.

If you want to explore Teachable, you can click the link below to start your free account

Click here to create a Free Teachable Account + Get Free Course Creation Training

Then let me know in the comments why you’ve decided to go with the online course platform you’re using.

Overview

The world of third-party game key reselling, also known as the “gray market”, is the modern wild-wild west. Fortunes are being made off of frauding, credit card stealing, and identity theft. However, CDkeys’ role in this is not nearly as insidious.

Hugely popular websites such as G2A and Kinguin have seen plenty of bad publicity as a result of their business practices. But, despite this, they are still making millions in profits. Controversies surrounding the legitimacy of these online stores have caused many gamers to stay away from third-party key resellers altogether. After all, what honest individual would want to support fraudulent activities?

This is where it’s time to introduce CDkeys.com into the story.

CDkeys has brought a breath of fresh air into the game key reselling industry. Unlike their competitors, they have been quietly serving their customers in the midst of all this chaos and controversy.

G2A has taken the direction of advertising itself to the gaming audience through multi-million dollar marketing campaigns involving hundreds of influencers.  They bring authoritative figures, such as Kripparrian and Trump, on their paychecks. And, through this, they advertise their services through shout-outs and sponsorings. This strategy has proven itself to be highly effective, as the name G2A rings a bell in almost every gamers mind.

CDkeys, however, has taken a different direction. Instead of sponsoring influencers, they have been focusing their efforts on securing low pricing and improving their services. 

Due to a lack of marketing efforts, little is known about the CDkeys platform. One quick look through Internet forums shows that plenty of questions remain about the legitimacy of CDkeys. It seems like the questions “is CDkeys legit?” and  “is CDkeys a scam?” get asked almost daily. And, until now, there has been no clear answer anywhere.

This is why we decided to create this comprehensive CDkeys review. Our aim is to shed some light on the sleeping giant in the third-party key reselling industry.

What Is CDkeys?

CDkeys.com is an online store where users can purchase game keys and gift cards. It is owned by Omnyex E-Commerce, a wholesaler of digital products headquartered in Dubai.

As their name would suggest  game cd keys are the main source of business. However, they also trade in various gift cards and top-ups. Many of CDkeys.com’s competing websites like Kinguin and G2A also sell various software keys, such as Windows keys and Antivirus keys. However, CDkeys is still almost entirely focused on their specific niche – video game cd keys. They don’t sell in-game currencies, virtual skins, Windows keys, or anything of the sort. CDkeys has its niche, and it’s sticking to it.

There could be many reasons for CDkeys’ unwillingness to enter the software key reselling industry. I would argue that the main reason is high competitiveness. The Windows key reselling industry is already flooded with suspiciously cheap offers. Mostly as a result of fraudulent and illegitimate key purchasing through credit card scams and theft. Let’s be honest, CDkeys’ regional reselling strategy would likely not suffice in such a market. Therefore, they decided to stick to their guns and stay with game key selling. And, it’s probably for the best.

If you do decide to purchase a third-party Windows key online, then take some precautions. I will not recommend any specific websites for Windows keys in this article, but there are plenty out there. The reason being I don’t trust any of them enough to give a genuine recommendation. In addition, it goes against Windows terms of service to purchase third-party keys. As a law journal, it would be against our principals to advertise illegal activity.

For now, though, let’s focus on the topic at hand – what is cdkeys and how was it born?

The History Of CDkeys

The domain has changed hands more than once since the early 2000s. However, the website didn’t really take its current form until 2013. The year 2013 appears to be somewhat of a break-through point in the serial number reselling industry. The reason why I claim this is because it was also the same exact year when the two other major players, G2A and Kinguin, really started taking off.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why the year 2013 turned out to have such significance. However, it’s more than likely that the growing authority of the Steam platform in the early 2010s had something to do with it. At the time, the Steam platform was already turning the video game industry upside down. 

No longer were physical copies of video games the norm. Instead, customers were choosing with increasing frequency to purchase their games online. With this, CD Keys was set to reap the benefits of this change in purchasing attitude. Having cemented themselves as a trustworthy game key reselling platform, they had met all requirements to become a key player in the industry.

Within a year of starting operations,  the selection of products on the website had already grown twofold. By the summer of 2014, they were not only trading in PC, PSN and Xbox Live platforms, but also in iTunes gift cards, Facebook gift cards and, of course, Steam gift cards. Since then, they have been slowly but surely expanding their product line. However, the main focus of cdkeys.com is, and likely always will be the same. That focus is, of course, game key reselling.

How Does CDkeys Work?

Buying a game key or gift card on the site is fairly simple:

1. Create an account on the platform
2. Choose the product of your choice and add it to your shopping cart
3. Pay for your product
4. Complete the phone verification
5. If everything was correct, then the key will arrive in your e-mail instantly
6. Enter the game key and install your game

The whole process (except the game installation) takes approximately 5 minutes to finish and it’s fully automated. It’s not necessary to communicate with customer support during any stage of the buying process.

Overall, I am very impressed with the CD Keys user experience as a whole. It’s very simple to use, straight-forward, and effective. However, the only aspect which seems strange to me is the phone verification. I understand it’s necessary to verify a purchase in order to avoid identity theft. However, why is required only AFTER you have paid for your product?

It might be nitpicking, but I think it should be standard practice all-round to verify important details before the payment process. Otherwise, if you run into problems with verification, you will have paid for the product, without having received the actual product you already paid for. The customer service may be quick and effective in most cases, but it’s still a situation none of us would like to be involved in.

It’s good that at least the phone verification takes a very short time. The automated system sends a verification code to your mobile, and once you type it into CDkeys.com, you’re all set to go.

Once you hit “download”, you will find the scanned version of your key. Type the key into Steam or another platform, and you’re all done. The whole process is incredibly simple similar to other cdkey websites, provided nothing goes wrong.

Where Do The Keys Come From?

When you create an account and purchase a key from CDkeys, then you are buying from the store itself, and not from another user. As it turns out, this is a very important detail. That is because, in the case of marketplaces such as G2A and Kinguin, you purchase keys from individual sellers and not a business entity. In the latter case, you always run the risk of purchasing a game key obtained through highly illegal methods from another user. Credit card fraud is a serious offense, and platforms such as G2A and Kinguin tend to serve as a nest for fraudulent activities. Even if they don’t directly partake in any illegal activity by themselves, it’s difficult to call them legit.

Each time you purchase a game key from websites such as G2A and Kinguin you run the risk of supporting illegal activity, either directly or indirectly.

Of course, you will never REALLY know where your purchased keys are coming from, even in the case of cdkeys.com. Purchasing a game key from a business entity and not an individual is considered trustworthy. However, even in this case, you are essentially placing your trust in the company. You are trusting them that the key was obtained through legitimate and lawful methods. 

In reality, however, it’s always possible that a stolen key made its way to the database of cdkeys, in one way or another. Unfortunately, this risk goes hand-in-hand with all third-party key resellers. CDkeys may be the most legit out of all of the key resellers, but there is always some risk. It should be mentioned, though, that the risk of having your key revoked is significantly lower than the risk on illegitimate sites such as G2A and Kinguin.

Why Is CDkeys So Cheap?

According to the site itself, their competitive price point is a result of thirty years of experience and a wide network of suppliers. They claim that they buy from all corners of the world and because of this, they can ensure the cheapest possible prices.

Now, this might all be well and true, but what does it really mean?

In reality, this means that CDkeys.com buys video games in bulk from cheap third-world countries. And, after that, they re-sell these same keys to customers in first-world countries at a higher price.

Before you grab your pitchforks, let me give you some quick food for thought.

Regional Reselling – Is It Legit?

It’s in the best interest of video game companies to adjust their prices for each country. Consumers in third-world countries would not be able to spend all of their savings to get their hands on a $60 copy of Call of Duty. They might, however, be willing to spend $30. Once a video game company has already finished the time-consuming and expensive process of developing of a game, it’s in their best interest to sell as many copies of the game as possible. Even if that means selling their products at a highly discounted price in some areas of the globe.

After all, it costs a video game company next to nothing to put their product on a disk and ship it out to stores. Obviously, a $60 profit is preferable, but a $30 profit is also something they cannot afford to lose. Every penny counts in the corporate world, especially when investors are involved. In fact, when it comes to public companies, maximizing profits is not only ethical, but it’s required by law. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that this same strategy of price-adjusting has been used by major corporations for hundreds of years.

The CDkeys Business Model

Regional price differences allow resellers such as CDkeys.com to make a profit. In fact, their whole business strategy is based on taking advantage of regional price differences and purchase points.

This strategy might make CDkeys.com not seem very legit and ethical at first sight, but in reality, they are one of the most ethical gray-market traders out there.

As I mentioned, it’s common practice in most major industries to reduce labor and manufacturing costs by taking advantage of regional price differences. CDkeys is no different in regards to this. In fact, they even openly acknowledge their reselling business model on their Frequently Asked Questions section.

CDkeys is undoubtedly taking advantage of regional price differences, but they are doing it in a transparent and honest way. In my opinion, such commitment to transparency is a welcome sight in the third-party key reselling industry. I wish all gray-market companies were as transparent as CDkeys. If this was the case, there would be no gray-market at all. Illegitimate online stores would be seen for what they are – black market stores. And, at the same time, legit stores would be seen for what they are – trustworthy and safe to purchase from.

This leads us to our main question, which deserves an entire section of its own. It’s a simple question in itself, but it’s surprisingly difficult to answer. The question is, of course – is cdkeys legit?

Is CDkeys Legit?

CDkeys.com is legit in every meaning of the word. Both from a “working as intended” and “legality” type of perspective.

In order to answer the question of whether or not cdkey is legit or not, we should first define “legit”. As a law journal, we would quickly define “legit” as “legal”. However, “legit” tends to also have a second meaning, which is “working as intended”. Therefore, we thought it would be best to consider whether cdkey’s legitimacy from two different standpoints. Firstly, I will consider cdkey’s legitimacy from a “working as intended” standpoint. And, after that, from a “legal” type of legitimacy standpoint.

Is CDkeys Safe?

In addition to being legit, the CDkeys.com platform is also amongst the safest in the gray-market area. Their keys are sold to you directly from the business entity itself, and not individual users. As I mentioned before, this does not guarantee 100% safety. However, it’s still considerably safer than open marketplaces. When you purchase a key or account from an individual user on an open marketplace, you have no information on where the key is coming from. You will never know whether it was obtained through legal or illegal methods. And, as such, your key could be revoked at any time.

It needs to be said, though, that there is still some risk involved, even on cdkeys.

The CDkeys terms and conditions clearly state that they “accept no refunds or returns”, and that they are “not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from lost or stolen programs or use without permission”. This means that you have no real guarantee or warranty for your purchase.

If you want a 100% safe and risk-free purchase, then your only real option is to purchase retail.

Whether or not purchasing from retail or from CDkeys is better, is up to you. You should decide whether the risk is worth it or not.

For me personally, I think taking the risk by buying from CDkeys is, in many cases, justified. After all, the price differences between retail and cdkeys.com can be astounding. Coupled with the fact that I have only had good experiences on the  platform, it’s an easy “yes” for me to go with them. There may be some risk involved, but I have yet to see any negative results from taking this risk.

The lack of refunds and returns on cdkeys.com is a non-problem for me as the keys sold by CDkeys tend to work without any issues. I have found cdkeys.com to be the most reliable and trustworthy out of all the gray-market online stores I have come across, and my overall experience with cdkeys.com has so far been stellar.  Fair warning, their customer service isn’t the worst, but it isn’t amazing.

I decided to take a look at various online reviews of CDkeys to get a more comprehensive overlook of its reputation and online reviews.

Conclusion – Is CDkeys Legit Or Scam?

Is CDkeys legit? Yes. No question about it. They are a reliable and trustworthy platform for finding cheap game keys. If you have no problems with going gray-market with your game purchases, you might as well go with cdkeys.com.

Do you remember the commercials Keanu Reeves filmed for the 2018 Super Bowl? Here’s a reminder:

With advertising like that, how could you possibly consider using any other site builder to create your coaching site? The man made famous for saying “Woah” and for being “The One” is telling you how easy it is to build a website with Squarespace.

But is the decision that simple?

In reality, the choice between site builders is more complicated than what a quirky piece of advertising and its spokesperson will tell you. To help you make the right choice, we’ve created the following breakdown between:

Squarespace vs. Wix vs. WordPress

These three are all viable options for coaches that want to design high-impact websites for their businesses. Keep reading to find out which one will serve you best.

Squarespace vs. Wix vs. WordPress: Which is best?

If we want to get technical about it, we could compare Wix vs. Squarespace vs. WordPress based on market share:

There’s just one problem: it accounts for everyone around the world that builds websites — DIY business owners, hobbyists, web designers, developers and agencies.

If you want to do a fair comparison between the platforms, focus on:

1. Ease of use
2. Design
3. Features
4. Scalability
5. Search engine optimisation
6. Customer support
7. Website management
8. Cost

Below, you’ll find an explanation of how the platforms fare in each of these areas.

Squarepace

Squarespace is a site builder platform that’s not only easy to use but also includes marketing and e-commerce features essential for coaches.

Ease of use – It’s not a difficult platform to master, but Squarespace does guide users through it the second they step foot inside which is a nice touch.

Design – Although you can’t build a website from-scratch and the number of templates is limited, what you get from Squarespace looks fantastic.

Features – Most of the templates are feature-rich, so if you are looking to create a basic website you shouldn’t have to do much. If you’re looking to add marketing features such as Mailchimp or Facebook Pixel integration then you will need to upgrade to the premium plan.

Scalability – There’s really not much you can do to scale your website in terms of design and content. Squarespace doesn’t have a directory of plugins and any add-ons you might need will need to be added via snippets of code. Because of this, Squarespace is best if you want a beautiful – but simple – website that tells people who you are and what you do.

Search engine optimisation – You can’t do much here except write search metadata for the home page. All other pages will auto-generate from your content, which isn’t ideal.

Customer support – You can go the DIY route with the knowledge base or video set. You can also register for a live webinar where they’ll explain the basics. Or you can get in contact with a rep through email (24/7) or live chat (Monday through Friday).

Website management – Squarespace handles the technical side of your website — hosting, domain and email.

Cost – Squarespace and Wix are mostly comparable in pricing. The only difference is that Squarespace doesn’t offer anything for free aside from a 14-day trial and they charge more for their domains names ($20 to $70 annually depending on domain extension).

Wix

Wix is a super affordable drag-and-drop page builder that, in all honesty, will do most of the work for you if you let it.

Ease of use – Takes no more than a couple minutes to sign up, choose a template and start customising the content of the pre-made website with the intuitive drag-and-drop builder.

Design – Use a ready-made template or let the Wix Artificial Intelligence tool build it for you. The designs look modern, but they also look like a template site with not much personality.

Features – If you want to include something as basic as a blog, appointment scheduler or e-commerce, you have to layer it on top of the site, which can hurt site performance. The same goes for apps that add forms, pop-ups and other marketing and lead generating essentials.

Scalability – Wix is a good option for building very simple portfolio or hobby sites. If you plan on doing anything more, don’t get started with Wix as it’s impossible to take your site with you when you leave.

Search engine optimisation – Wix doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to SEO, but they have been working on it. That said, they still really only allow for light optimisation, so ranking high in search results could be tricky.

Customer support – Wix provides a fairly robust Help Center. Non-VIP customers also have the option of ticketed support while VIP customers get priority phone support.

Website management – You don’t have to worry about the technical side of Wix. It handles hosting, security and can even help you register a domain.

Cost – Wix has a variety of plans on offer, however some of the cheaper ones include advertising on your site. Realistically, you’ll want to opt for a business plan for roughly $15 to $30 a month (not including the cost of a domain, approximately $15 annually).

WordPress

WordPress.org (as opposed to the very limited WordPress.com which is similar to Wix) is a powerful content management system that’s best for the serious business owner who wants their website to grow with their business.

Ease of use – WordPress is highly customisable and, while you can use the built-in WordPress editing tools, you have the option of installing some great webpage builders. That said, there is a lot going on inside the platform, which can make it overwhelming for new users.

Design – There’s no better option for designing a high-impact and professional-grade coaching website. You can choose from thousands of themes to give you a head start.

Features – Again, WordPress nails it with features. Out of the box WordPress comes with some basic features such as a blog, but WordPress also has thousands of high-quality free & paid plugins that enable you to do practically anything you want with your site.

Scalability – There are very few limits with WordPress — if you can dream it (and you know someone who can build it) then you can do it.

Search engine optimisation – SEO in a standard WordPress installation is basic, but it has some amazingly powerful plugins that will take your SEO efforts to the next level.

Customer support – WordPress.org does not provide support. If you need assistance, either visit a public forum (there are many), hire someone to take care of the issue, or sign up to a monthly maintanence plan.

Website management – WordPress is not a “hosted” site builder like the other tools, which means it’s up to you to get your own web hosting account and domain. While this does mean that you can shop around, the management piece falls on you. If you want to keep your site speedy and secure, you’ll have to learn how to do this or hire someone to help.

Cost – WordPress itself is free to use. However, expect to pay for hosting, domain and a few premium add-ons before all is said and done. WordPress hosting costs vary greatly – anywhere from $4 – $40 a month depending on features – but expect to pay $15 a month for a reliable, fast host. You can estimate the cost of your website here.

The verdict

Is there a clear winner? Let’s have a look:

Squarespace wins in terms of:

• Design
• Customer support
• Website management

If you’re still working on amassing customers and your budget is slim, Squarespace is a good DIY choice that won’t force you to compromise on quality of design.

Wix wins in terms of:

• Ease of use
• Website management
• Price

If you are looking to test the waters with a brand-new coaching business and will rely mainly on word-of-mouth, Wix could be a good choice. You’ll need to put in some time to learn the software but the learning curve should be small.

WordPress wins in terms of:

• Customisation
• Features
• Scalability

If you’re serious about building a business that allows you to make a real difference, WordPress will lay down a solid foundation for you to do that. You can add and remove features as you need them, without paying for things you don’t need.