Our mission here at Teachable is to empower creators to transform their knowledge into income. Over the last five years, we’ve seen Teachable members turn their knowledge in card magic, watercoloring, hypnobirthing (and so many more!) into successful, profitable online courses.
Along the way, we’ve learned and shared our creator’s best practices in course validation and launch strategies, but time and time again, we still hear the same two questions:
Can I explore and see what other Teachable schools and courses look like?
How do I market my course? Can Teachable help?
To experiment with how we can both help new members get inspired and assist existing members with reaching new students, we’ve built Discover by Teachable—a platform featuring a curated collection of some of the best courses on Teachable. Discover is in a test phase or beta project. Let’s dig into what that means.
What does “test-phase” mean? What is BETA?
When you visit the Teachable homepage, you’ll notice there’s a BETA tag next to Discover by Teachable. This tag is used to indicate that we’re still in the testing phase. We want to share this new platform with you so you can try it out under real conditions and so we can see if we achieve our two core goals:
- Showcasing what Teachable schools look like
- Supporting our existing members by helping them market their courses
Depending on how you and future students use Discover, we may change the whole experience. The fact is we’re not sure yet just where Discover can go but we can’t wait to hear what you think.
How does Discover by Teachable work?
Discover is opt-in only. The courses you’ll see on Discover today are displayed in partnership with members.
There is a revenue share structure with Teachable Discover. Due to the promotional nature of Discover, Teachable will collect a 30% revenue share of sales made through the site. Members who opted into this first test were given a full breakdown of our revenue share structure before launch.
Finally, pricing is still 100% in your control. During this test phase, we will be offering new students a 20% discount off their first course purchase—a discount our members have agreed to (*August 2021 update, the 20% discount has expired). If any members change their pricing on their courses, that will also be reflected in Discover.
How is this different from other course marketplaces?
Our founder Ankur launched Teachable (then called Fedora) in response to frustrations he felt when he realized online marketplaces controlled and limited creators’ branding, student ownership, and pricing. Because he had the same experience many of our Teachable members have had with other platforms, those are things we will never do.
Discover by Teachable is our way of exploring how we can create a platform that is beneficial to our members and to future students. As a Teachable member, you will always be in control of your branding, students, course content, and pricing strategy. We won’t lock members in to using Discover or limit your other marketing and sales channels—in fact, we want you to treat it as an additional sales channel!
Everything you need to know
Can I opt-in to Discover by Teachable?
Because we are still in the middle of our test-phase, we will not be accepting any new courses in Discover by Teachable.
Can I opt-out of Discover by Teachable?
Yes! Any Teachable member who is currently opted-in to Discover can opt-out at any time.
How were the current courses selected? What defines “best”?
They were selected based on the quality of their courses, which is judged by the number of students they’ve had, testimonials from those students, and also the number of chargebacks. In curating Discover, we want to make sure the courses are high quality and will provide the transformation students are paying for.
Will Teachable take a cut from my sales?
Yes. In return for marketing the courses, Teachable will be taking 30% revenue share.
Will this affect my marketing & sales?
Nope. Your marketing and sales strategy are still yours, and you can continue running them. Whether or not you have a course on Discover by Teachable, there are no changes to your school or courses.
We’ll also never ask you to drive traffic to Discover. That’s on us!
Will you email my students?
We will not be emailing your students and marketing Discover by Teachable to them. However, if they find and opt-in to the Discover mailing list, they will receive marketing emails from Discover.
I see courses on my topic. How do we stand out from our competition?
By being you! In the course validation phase, we’ve always suggested doing a search on courses that are already available. While you may see competition, if you see courses that are similar that means there’s a market for what you’re offering. Focus on how you can make your course special for your audience, and work on differentiating yourself. Need help? You can find resources available to you on our blog and in TeachableU.
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We hope we’ve answered all your questions. Go check out Discover by Teachable and let us know what you think in the comments below! If you have additional questions, we’ll be answering them as well!
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