YouTubers Sold Out To Skillshare. The Truth.

[@dougfoster445]

Pro tip, whenever u sign up for a free trial always always always cancel immediately afterwards. U keep the free trial and don’t risk ‘forgetting’ about it and then getting charged for membership.

[@bretton_woods]

Amazon Prime have offered me like 10 free trials...every 6 months I get another one, order whatever I want for a month but, as you say, cancel trial immediately after accepting so im not charged.

[@EJxSB]

not ALWAYS. Just allot of the time.

[@testoftimegaming5219]

they tried to keep my money i told them id sue them sent them the relevant uk laws that would bend them over a barrel they immediately refunded me lol

[@lunaballuna]

That's what I do every single time. Even tried skillshare, thought it sucked, canceled immediately, and had them delete my account, my email address, and any data left saved (which is a hit or miss with some companies).

[@manjimanj]

​@@testoftimegaming5219 i thought about that too, my country has strong customer rights so this would never be allowed, but idk this video is probably mostly about the US because i guess they don't have any law protecting the customer?

[@spicytuna62]

One of the things I've learned after being on KZbin for 15 years is that you _always_ look at the things KZbinrs plug with a great deal of scrutiny.

[@FruityHachi]

I don’t even pay attention to sponsored ads, just skip it

[@areascoda2912]

like better help

[@teabagtowers3823]

Or just skip it entirely same as that Masterworks bollocks.

[@somerandoasshatontheintern8337]

i skip most ads. especially raid lol if i start hearing an ad read i auto fast-forward. don't want to hear any of that sh*t.

[@slay3rgamingyt]

@@FruityHachi sponsorblock ftw

[@andyquach3896]

i really love how many of the prominent sponsorships are getting exposed for doing shady stuff.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Masters of branding and positioning but not much real substance

[@Alphamalecoachofficial]

Welcome to capitalism, it's the reason you are using YT for free...

[@OU81TWO]

It's all about the dollar bill y'all.

[@mr.savage7882]

@@LogicallyAnswered I tried Skillshare years ago, and I 100% agree. If you want substance and actual quality courses I would suggest Udemy or Domestika they seem to actually take their time there, other than that Skillshare is a joke...

[@asclepius.dionysus]

​​@@OU81TWO capitalism, baby. A blessing and a curse.

[@biggestfanof300]

I was under the impression that skillshare was specifically a compendium of curated courses, not just a video sharing platform. Goes to show the wonders of marketing.

[@Wasgehtdichdasan16]

No, it’s really bad. I thought exactly the same 🥲

[@loneranger4282]

I think we all thought the same thing

[@peterheinzo515]

thats masterclass. and its shit too i heard.

[@lunova6165]

P.S. Every major youtube in video sponsor is exactly like this too. BetterHelp doesn't have legal therapists, and their therapists aren't qualified. Hello Fresh charges high prices for very cheap produce, raycons are very mediocre headphones. Raid Shadow legends spends money on psychologists to teach them how to best manipulate people with gambling addictions to play their game, and have a way for children to bill the costs to their phone bill without their parents' permission. Kamikoto knives are just garbage, etc. The list goes on.

[@adrian333dev]

Never trust abduls

[@UpstateAlgaeLaboratory]

As a former creator for skillshare I was disappointed they kicked off any science or math courses. I used to teach college level courses in chemistry and math in an online level way. With email support for questions and the like. I had hundreds of students. I would make 800+ a month. Then they booted the courses because they stopped allowing academic like courses. They seem to not care much about real, pythy courses. Just superficial ones.

[@shugyosha7924]

What!! I had no idea they got rid of academic courses. I just assumed they would have them like Udemy does.

[@tahlia__nerds_out]

That’s ridiculous! I always have been a bit skeptical of Skillshare and didn’t see how their content was worth paying for when I had KZbin and The Great Courses available to me

[@Gummy_Pop.]

I need classes like this really bad cause I'm bad at it

[@sweetiepeach69]

Is Skillshare useful to know about, for example, an "X topic" then search about it on your own? I'm just interested on their catalogue lmao

[@AK-ro6uc]

Hi will you still do some courses like this...I would love to use them...don't mind paying for them

[@anderbans]

The fact Skillshare keeps 70% of the creator's revenue is absolutely insane...

[@DominicRighiniBrand]

But unfortunately so does the rest of the industry - you cannot argue that KZbin (who make billions from add revenue) or Udemy are any better.

[@EldeGaming]

@@DominicRighiniBrand I'm pretty sure KZbin only keeps 55% of ad revenue for partners

[@DominicRighiniBrand]

@@EldeGaming interesting to know … also unless you have many millions of minutes watched, add revenue is not a reliable way to remunerate teachers. Whereas on some of these teaching platforms you only needed a few thousand students to be actively making an income.

[@obmax]

i make a small amount of money of KZbin and KZbin takes 45% of money from ads but my 55% share i have to pay American tax even though im from Uk because of Biden so ill get about 40-45% of the money the ads make

[@DominicRighiniBrand]

@@obmax are you American? Because British citizens and non-US residence don't have to pay withholding tax.

[@mahadaalvi]

I would've died laughing if you would’ve somehow managed to get Skillshare to sponsor this video 😂

[@1daful]

I'd have to check into a hospital if that happened 😂

[@PakistanIcecream000]

I would have also died laughing if he ironically ended his own video with a SKillshare promotion.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

😂

[@Rudenbehr]

I literally was waiting for a skill share promo

[@Jonatello]

This aint jake tran

[@xcoder1122]

Rule of the thumb: The moment you see your top six favorite KZbin channel advertise for the very same sponsor, avoid that sponsor at all costs. None of the sponsors where I saw this happening in the past can hold up to their promises. And companies that must invest that much money into sponsoring cannot be good to begin with. And on top of that, if you become their customers, you pay for all this sponsoring.

[@k.chriscaldwell4141]

You are wise.

[@goat-eyes]

Christ... the world we live in. Not being a dope is thought of as wisdom.

[@nbtph9769]

Well there are exception too like NordVPN is actually pretty solid. The thing is that if you’re planing to use what they advertised, read some reviews first just like any other normal product.

[@motherurck7542]

Only KZbin sponsor that I've bought from, was Displate. I like it, but it cost way too much. Though, I'm guessing it's cheaper in the US instead of Canada.

[@xcoder1122]

Just to clarify one more thing: I'm not against sponsoring in general. I know many YT channels that have sponsorship and also have the very same set of sponsors for many years and there is nothing wrong with that. But when a new sponsor shows up out of nowhere and within a few months every second channel is sponsored by them, this raises a couple of red flags. Also keep in mind that by allowing one of those mass sponsors to sponsor your channel, you take smaller, maybe way more interesting and better topic related sponsors a chance to do the same. There's nothing wrong if a tools channel is getting sponsored by tool manufacturers or a computer channel by computer equipment manufactures; they can actually integrate the sponsored product into their videos or product tests, which makes the whole thing even more believable. But if your channel is about painting and your sponsor is a VPN service, this seems totally off to me. And especially those are known to throw money at everyone and everything to talk people into their service, when in fact 99% of the time you don't need a VPN service to begin with and the majority of their protection claims are nonsense, which I dare to say aloud as Internet security is what I do for a living; it's not like you wouldn't need any protection, but those services won't provide you with protection you need, despite often claiming the opposite.

[@EighmyLupin]

I love how people are actually shocked and surprised that influencers are being paid to sell you something and aren't just your friend telling about something they think is cool

[@WinslowCD]

If you think an influencer is trustworthy, you'd think the stuff they advertise isn't complete garbage. Especially with bigger creators who don't have to take every offer they get.

[@JustinDaniels]

@@WinslowCD This. Even as a small content creator, an ebike company wanted to sponsor a review for one of their upcoming ebikes on one of my channels (not the one I'm commenting from). I replied saying I'd be interested, but I would do an HONEST review. Never heard back after that...

[@calamorta]

@@WinslowCD The issue is considering creators influencers. You shouldn't be influenced by someone just because you enjoy their content, especially when you know they're getting paid. People shouldn't brainlessly buy stuff based on ads.

[@DocMario]

😂 literally bro what’s the news here

[@FatedGamer]

If it didn't work then they wouldn't pay for ads. Doesn't matter if you think it's stupid if enough people don't. Which is why I prefer to call out creators for abusing fans rather than just shrug and walk away. Any history creator who sponsored komiko knives for example are just kinda trash tier people to their fans.

[@lordtette]

The other problem with skillshare is that not everyone knows how to teach. When skillshare was being advertised heavily in the youtube art community, it was pushed as a way for artist to make extra money. I signed up because I wanted to learn art and quickly realised that the quality of videos wasn't there.

[@FruityHachi]

that’s because it’s like udemy, anyone can create a course

[@ramsyrama]

@@FruityHachi Like KZbin??

[@THE-X-Force]

The problem really is putting "artist" and "make money" in the same sentence.

[@ramsyrama]

@@THE-X-Force What's wrong with that

[@fraufuchs9555]

Same here. I was used to Lynda (now it's LinkedIn learning) for marketing and other business related content, I really enjoyed the platform. I thought Skillshare could offer something similar with art content, which was very limited on Lynda. But the content was very poor. I did find a good Photoshop course for beginners, but that was an exception. I only used Skillshare for the free month, I'd never pay for that website. Later I found creative live, it's more expensive but I like the content. They even have a calendar with live courses that you can watch for free. You can either watch lives for free, subscribe for a year or buy individual courses. Edit: yes, KZbin is free and it has a lot of good content. But some very important information/advice/lessons I could only find in payed courses / platforms or at least a very good book. Unfortunately not everything is available for free on KZbin.

[@thesphyrth]

In this sponsor-dependent era, it's a breath of fresh air when KZbinrs are fighting back.

[@SpikeTaunt]

KZbinrs aren't sponsor depended, most KZbinrs that accept sponsors are just greedy and that's it . A lot of them makes more than enough to live a good life off KZbin alone but they just want more money and the ones who don't make enough probably won't get any sponsors anyways

[@KevinNordstrom]

@@SpikeTaunt lol false...well mostly. You would need to be getting 100k views per video or more to make any kind of full-time living just on KZbin adsense alone without sponsors or affiliate marketing or any other sources of income online such as products and courses etc.. The average KZbinr and the vast majority of creators in the partner program only bring in a few hundred dollars per month (if that) on KZbin ad revinue alone. Good luck quitting your 9-5 on that. But I agree, any sponsored ad should be looked at and never based on the creators review. Do your own research is always a good piece of advice.

[@Clairavoya]

@@SpikeTaunt Wow, that has to be the most cynical and misinformed perspective I've ever seen 😂

[@Clairavoya]

@@KevinNordstrom This ^

[@randyx3976]

​@@SpikeTaunt u don't know nothing about KZbin do you

[@lordofgeese6437]

Dude you actually just saved my life in the funniest way. I was planning on learning digital art and decided to get Skillshare to teach me. I’m eating lunch right now and saw this video pop up in my recommended right before I went home to download it. It’s ironic but your video is what reminded me that “Hey, I could just use KZbin like a normal person!” Thanks for reminding me that the website I’m using rn existed as a teaching tool as well 😂

[@Kintaku]

I actually picked up Skillshare for that exact purpose a couple years ago. I don’t think it’s a terrible service, but it definitely isn’t as great as they make it out to be. KZbin is just as effective. Just gotta know how to search

[@BeidlPracker-vb8en]

I got something from Humble Bundle at Packthub; like 20 hrs of KZbin video for 15$; was Okay-ish, but KZbin still is better

[@alandoyle1077]

Sorry if this is off topic but why does that say that you have 2 replies

[@captain_noodles]

​@@alandoyle1077youtube removes the bots but i think the reply number still remains the same

[@Z3rgatul]

​@@alandoyle1077it shows 4 now I guess it may be not approved comments, or shadow banned accounts

[@-10]

I am mostly impressed by this company. They managed to squeeze into a very difficult market with a product that offers nothing new, inferior and for a higher price. And mainly achieving that by marketing it on a competitor that offers a superior solution right in the search bar above the advert itself. Pulling that off is pretty insane.

[@helper_bot]

they simply outsmarted people by being r-words and stealing money. but yeah, i guess they got away with it. its like MrBeast's Honey ads, but money instead of information

[@ROVA00]

Honestly I’ve gotten excellent courses in CAD drawing and arduino from the $20/ month Skillshare. Can you recommend a better and cheaper source for those subjects?

[@you_gullible_fucc]

Exactly!! KZbin is literally right here

[@you_gullible_fucc]

@@ROVA00 KZbin, literally just youtube. Or if you want something more specific, go to a youtuber that offers at least a little of that and check if they have patreon and offer lessons to patreon supporters.

[@Crustee0]

@@ROVA00 idk man, have you tried the very app you comment on? Not being rude, but based on my experience I know theres good arduino courses in youtube and its free and id expect its the same for cad

[@KM-ne1ft]

I would literally never pay for a site like skillshare when I can literally find anything I want to learn on youtube for free.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Facts

[@MrDingDongPong]

Or even better, chatgpt lol

[@kiarastaggs180]

@@LogicallyAnswered 📠

[@electricz3045]

"a site like skillshare" I assume you would include udemy in that. While on KZbin you find a few good videos, rhrere are a lot of greate courses in udemy for example I bought one about networking which was really good made and because it was the first course I bought, it only costed me $20. But on the skillshare part I agree, the way they handle the payments (trail thing etc.) Is just bad.

[@lilylove2888]

This. Everything is on KZbin

[@adamgreenhill110]

At this point, I've learned not to trust any sponsorship. But I thought SkillShare seemed good! Thank you for exposing the truth.

[@LAZER_US]

Why would you think that? It's like telling u to pay for the most boring, albeit most helpful part of the platform they're using to advertise themselves, KZbin. (Which is free, especially if you watch on PC w an AdBlock)

[@Samstercraft77]

i just use an extension to skip sponsors at this point bc at least half of them are scams lol

[@itchylol742]

@@Samstercraft77 Don't just tell us that and not say the name of the extension (Sponsorblock)

[@asawrld]

@@Samstercraft77 Yeah what @itchylol742 said 🥹

[@ryanlesner0000ninja]

Want to learn coding buy OVERPRICED SOFTWARE. I am waiting...

[@MathieuTechMoto]

Never give a credit card number for a ''Free trial'' , asking for a card is a BIG RED FLAG to begin with

[@sammaldonado5931]

Nah, sketchy or not, almost anything is like that today. Just use a virtual card and delete it after the trial expires, easy as that😂 I have done that countless times

[@Aphelia.]

​@@sammaldonado5931Wait, how do I do that?

[@mediocreman6323]

Rule of thumb: If something gets advertised through KZbin-sponsoring, stay away from it. Period.

[@DrumToTheBassWoop]

*this comment has been brought to you by masterworks*

[@paulcarmi8130]

This comment brought to you by raid shadow legends war thunder and the worst of all, raycon

[@mediocreman6323]

Nebula ist just awful, Curiosity Stream not so much but still scams you for money, Nord-VPN issomethin I as a computer systems engineer woulnd't use if they paid me for it,… and the list goes on. And on and on and on and on and on 😕

[@arthurvanrodds2772]

@@abdou.the.hereticNord VPN is way worse

[@LuigiL75]

EXACTLY. It's all poison.

[@saxa1165]

KZbin is an actual gold mine for developers/ programmers! And most of the creators and so passionate about what they do and go the extra mile to help theirs viewers! These KZbinrs are the reasons why I didn't quit college ❤️

[@Dave_of_Mordor]

Developers, programmers and artists. By artists I mean animators. There are very talented ones on KZbin

[@MrOiram46]

@@Dave_of_Mordor art career stuff in general actually

[@bretton_woods]

don't like the sound of KZbin Premium though....I just use Adblock. No KZbin ads, ...for free

[@nostalgia_junkie]

bot???

[@beardeddog8215]

Yes!!! I learn how to code houdini and 3d art on KZbin

[@artisseriechicken]

Years ago (back in 2015) Skillshare reached out to me about teaching a class when I was just starting out as a professional but I turned them down because I was worried it was "too good to be true". For years I beat myself up thinking I should have done it but this video is making me feel better about that decision.

[@MrMTM4u]

you made a big mistake. Go back and take that offer. in some years to come it will get you lots of good paying consumers.

[@Samusprimesauce]

Don't listen to this guy, you made a good decision keep your money and keep pushing!

[@michaelwatson9089]

@@Samusprimesauce keep your money? There was never a signup fee to become a teacher. I became a teacher a in 2016 because it was the only way for me, to earn affiliate commissions by using my teacher's link.

[@alittlebitofpeace]

​@@MrMTM4ulol

[@carochan86]

If they offer you a bigger cut sure go to skill share.

[@turolretar]

What’s bad is these learning platforms make it seem as though learning skills and getting knowledge is like getting goods and services - pay and you get it 100% guaranteed. Which is problematic because - 1. It couldn’t be further from the truth. 2. It somehow cheapens the whole process by not focusing on the subject, but rather on the feeling of being in a learning process. It’s kinda like having thoughts or fantasies about doing something feels better than actually doing the thing. Hate how they exploit it here.

[@tarman47]

Reminds me of college.

[@marcinmcula99]

Hey, you're the guy who made that Metallica guitar track. Cheers

[@lisavostrikov3301]

Well said.

[@Coastpsych_fi99]

This makes me happy that I almost always ignore sponsors and fast forward. I’m happy to support creators that I love and believe in their work through patreon.

[@Pherioxus]

If you watch KZbin on PC a lot then the Sponsorblock extension might be a godsend to you

[@BlazinBlz]

if you really wanna skip sponsors, might I recommend the browser extension "SponsorBlock for KZbin" in essence is skips sponsorship plugs for you, you never have to hear the words "Dark Fantasy RPG" or "The best skill sharing platform" or whatever other dribble these ad reads spew ever again

[@majkmajers2325]

Look up sponsor block, makes skipping the sponsor spots easier

[@ZaniReviews]

Smart

[@philippefutureboy7348]

I’d like to mention: Raycons are pretty good. Got two pairs myself and I am a satisfied customer. Other than that, completely agree with you!

[@cameronnaylor4046]

The worst part is, if you cancel the membership payment within those 2 weeks, it immediately cancels your "free trial". A trial is the risk-free opportunity to try a service, and by definition they are not offering this. This is false advertising.

[@Cyntaria]

They also don't notify you when the trial is ending and charged me a different price to what I agreed to. I just threw Australian consumer law at them when they refused to refund me and they caved so I got lucky

[@kassiep]

I noticed that with other places. If you cancell membership he free trial ended that moment aswel. Man everything he so money hungry nowdays

[@cameronnaylor4046]

@@Mwstmrlnd they give you a 0 second window between utilising the advertised trial period, and payment being taken, so by definition there is risk, as if you want to make the most out of the trial you don't have time to make a decision before payment is taken.

[@DLlama]

Think this is bad?? Nebula, BetterHelp, and TalkSpace are even worse!!

[@oatmeal710]

@user-uo4ro8jo4i it's a lawyer's job to look for those loopholes, it's a judge's job to close them. too bad the people paying the squads of lawyers are paying judges too

[@joiceraiana]

I always thought Skillshare was like a university or school of trade type of platform were they put the whole curse organized and produced by an actual professional paid to create that content. I'm so thankful I never got around sign it

[@namtellectjoonal7230]

same, I thought they at least vet the content on their platform

[@renoirrr]

fr that’s what they always make it sound like: a college or university level class put into video format over the course of multiple videos (“classes”) and so hundreds of hours. In that case the price kinda makes sense cause you’re paying for schooling. Skillshare is just worse KZbin at a higher price.

[@heyryanisonx3141]

That sounds more like The Great Courses / Wondrium

[@jwenting]

which is exactly what they want you to believe, and what the youtubers advertising them are telling you.

[@jwenting]

@@heyryanisonx3141 which is exactly like skillshare...

[@noahm]

Skillshare faced a lot of backlash maybe two years ago when they disabled browsing courses without having a paid/active membership. It was impossible to edit any of your account details (or even deletion) unless you had an active subscription. If you’re being forced to pay for something without even being able to look at the content or courses they provide, that’s an obvious sign to show their poor credibility.

[@crazyhussar]

I tried Skillshare just for the reasons you mentioned: it was the sponsor of a channel I like, used their link then tried out the website. Since I'm not American, I have a bit more rights against predatory business practices and also used a virtual debit so they couldn't even bill me, even if they tried to. I quickly realized that the site is just way worse than KZbin and didn't bother with it any longer. Then I read the horror stories and I was glad I dodged a bullet.

[@Ghettofinger]

There’s a lot of services in the US that let’s you use a virtual card, but their not common from a commercial bank and there isn’t any legislative regulations requiring it, but it’s not like it’s foreign in the US either.

[@side-fish]

Yes, I recommend a virtual card to force stop payment to a service.

[@blakebeaupain]

@@iridium8341 He said There’s a lot of services in the US that let’s you use a virtual card, but their not common from a commercial bank and there isn’t any legislative regulations requiring it, but it’s not like it’s foreign in the US either.

[@Mister_minati]

​@@blakebeaupain What?

[@maorismurfnz]

​@Benjamin Farrington What?

[@slavagame-qv5dy]

As someone who worked in Customer Service for a company with same misleading subscrption system, I recommend you to insist on a refund, mentionning you'll contact your lawyer and pursue the company in court. You can also say you'll expose this to websites and journals. Usually, the company wants to avoid dealing with that trouble and will refund you. But! It will take you at least 3-4 attemps insisting to get a refund

[@isaactraister317]

Additional advice. Depending on the company (I had a similar job) you may get a refund if you specifically threaten to contact any of the following: You states Attorney General, the US Attorney General (for non Americans, consider the equivalent to an AG), your bank, or the Better Business Bureau. At the company I worked at those automatically lead to a refund, although we had to pretend we were speaking to a supervisor first. If you really want to make them sweat, get your banker on the phone line for you. They will be willing to do that if they think there's a good chance the charges are fraudulent as the bank isn't willing to go to court over any of this either.

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

I too had a job answering phones for something like that. Such an awful experience. Constant calls from angry people who felt scammed. I was living in a rural area and it was the only job hiring

[@maxpro751]

Isn’t it legal? I mean, they gave a warning but the customer didn’t listen. That’s like signing a contract you didn’t read, it’s your fault.

[@slavagame-qv5dy]

@@maxpro751 the subscription is legal, yes. But in cases when the user was charged for a service he has no intention to use and mentions legal institutions, the company may prefer doing a refund, rather then dealing with troubles.

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

@@maxpro751 It's legal, sure. That doesn't stop people from calling totally angry, feeling misled, and taking it out on the customer service phone rep who had nothing to do with how the company promoted their offer. We also weren't allowed to be snarky and point out where it said their credit card was going to be charged. Even though it is on the consumer to know what they are signing up for, a company will have far better customer retention and people raving online about them if they don't try to pull "gotchas" like that.

[@TheNewTravel]

As a KZbinr, I am also reliant on sponsors to help pay the bills. But I think content like this is very valuable and a great way to inform viewers about the truth about sponsors. Because let's face it - as much as KZbinrs try to keep it real, we'll never say a sponsor sucks when they're paying us.

[@jayremi755]

No disrespect but that's pretty shitty. You're in a privileged position to have an audience and frankly, they deserve better. Only reason those sponsors pay you is because of your audience.

[@acatwithaids5398]

Good thing there are other youtubers who don't intend to use their audience as a paycheck so their fake job can pay the bills.

[@artdeco777]

@@acatwithaids5398 Any person or group who relies on their platform and audience will use it as a paycheck no matter how authentic it seems

[@acatwithaids5398]

@@artdeco777 one can monetize their platform without victimizing the audience members in the process.

[@ashharazim2223]

​@Thomas.Patrick.Pearl.very eccentric take

[@bustarock666]

Can't thank an honest youtuber like you enough for bringing this to all of our attention. I was about to sign up for an annual subscription so this video helped me a lot. Thank you.

[@DavidKen878]

So first you were going to sign up for because someone on KZbin said it was a great service. Then you decided not to because another person on KZbin told you it wasn't. Are you really that incapable of doing your own due diligence?

[@aboutcars8856]

@@DavidKen878 my man.

[@StONeROP_007]

​​@@DavidKen878You expect him to know everything?

[@DavidKen878]

@@StONeROP_007 Huh?

[@StormA7]

He's not honest. He lied multiple times in the video. His channel feeds off the slander of others.

[@theceohq]

1. ANY sponsored ad is always to be taken with a grain of salt, no matter how "credible" a creator is. At the end of the day the creators' rent depends on it. 2. Subscription services care about one thing and one thing only: getting you to sign up and put down a credit card. Period. After that they'll do their best to keep that monthly revenue coming, even if it means you have to step through fine-print hell.

[@jinxedpenguin]

Agreed - there are plenty of subscription services I like (if you're talking about education, I think O'Reilly is worth it for technical stuff since their books are like $40-60 a pop and their subscription is like $200-300 on Black Friday. It's expensive but you actually get value from it.) but I wouldn't touch most creator shilled things. The only thing I can really positively say I bought was Nebula but that's because it's so cheap. $20 a year and if I watch a handful of Nebula only videos it already made up for it. I'd never touch Skillshare, Pluralsite, or any of those video heavy services when KZbin exists (for learning). I did try Brilliant and really liked it but couldn't justify how much it costs. Not worth it when I can go to Khan Academy. If they'd lower their cost I'd probably consider it.

[@clone1eighty7]

PHAX

[@bluecollarbuddha948]

It's like a gym membership: they want you to pay the monthly/yearly fee and then actually NEVER use the service.

[@peachyjam9440]

Also the creators might just not do enough research or not find info about something or assume it's a good thing if their big creator friends recommend it, etc. Some good creators advertise things that aren't the best if they just know they aren't harmful and have some value and trust the viewers to make the right decision for themselves for example too

[@helper_bot]

the reason i would skip all sponsored segment by a "paid service". at the end of the day they will rip you off no matter what, because they have your bank account info. im actually curious though, could you apply a card that has 1$ or 0$ in balance and will automattically deny payments because it'd put you to debt?

[@zanthiablue5254]

One thing i will add is: If you want to pay the youtubers who make such high quality educational content, do it directly! Whether it is through patreon or a single donation. These people deserve fair pay and often the ad revenue doesnt get there on its own, particularly with niche and high effort videos. Edit: I thought this was obvious but I was talking about small creators that make things like coding tutorials or other useful educational content that is of the sort that skillshare claims to have. I am not advocating throwing money at youtubers you like willy nilly. I am well aware there are a lot of youtubers that are stupid rich already, but no one is getting rich off their

[@tylern6420]

There are also like a billion variants of KZbin donations

[@thewraith3366]

Alot of youtubers make insane money..,..majority of people I watch all bought new houses, cars etc....and no they dont have another job.....

[@erinsmith2713]

Why would I pay someone for a vid there alr gettin money

[@zanthiablue5254]

@@thewraith3366 I am talking about people that might be making the type of educational content discussed in this video. KZbin is not a platform that rewards high quality educational content, and even if it did the reach of someone teaching a programming language or craft technique isnt going to have massive widespread appeal. It also takes a lot of effort to effectively teach, particularly in a non interactive format. So the vast majority wont be getting paid what their work is worth from ad revenue.

[@zanthiablue5254]

@@erinsmith2713 For the vast majority of people that are youtubers and spend a significant amount of time and effort on their videos ad revenue will not net them even minimum wage considering the time spent on it. The numbers really vary but the numbers I have seen thrown around most is $3-5USD per 1000 views. (You will see $18usd per 1000 being thrown around but this is for ad views rather than video views, 3-5 is taking ad skips and ad blockers into conderation). Also some youtubers get demonitised or age restricted for talking about certain subjects even if it is educational which would lower that a lot. Obviously I wouldnt give extra money to someone that already makes gets millions of veiws a video, but thats not really who I am talking about.

[@IbilisSLZ]

Well\, considering all those VPNs, fake scottish titles, Filmora controversy and now this... I feel even justified treating all YT sponsors as plain scams. Thanks for informative video :D.

[@KorianHUN]

Almost all ads are. They prey on gullible people who don't know much about a subject. I mean in the 90s some food companies convinced most of the western world to exchange relatively healthy animal fat in their dies with processed sugar. Took people 20+ years to de-brainwash most of the population from that bullshit.

[@85therealdeal]

It's why I got the Sponsorblock extension.

[@subscheme]

@@85therealdeal how does that work lol

[@zombae.]

what happened w/ filmora i forgot

[@85therealdeal]

@@subscheme Users submit timings so that other users of the app get to skip the sponsor plug. You can submit your own timings on YT videos if others haven't. Honestly, I rate it as the 2nd most valuable browser extension after Ublock Origin.

[@kloassie]

Thanks for bringing this to the attention. When I was interested in SH I luckily was deterred by the insanely high subscription fee, but now I know that even if that were to change somehow, I still should avoid that platform like the plague

[@ashermathew8178]

Dude, same here.

[@yosojinuchiha9549]

I used Skillshare last year in November and was charged the annual fee a little over 2 weeks in the free trial as well. I freaked out since I had asked my mom but not my dad to use the credit card to sign up so I immediately contacted customer service and asked for a refund. Thankfully, everything went smoothly for me and I got the refund and the support agent wrote that he cancelled my subscription, but now I'm scared that they'll charge me again just like the girl in the video. Hopefully not, will let you guys know if something happens

[@sl9sl9]

Ask your parents to contact their credit card company and tell them the card is lost so could they please send a new one with a different number. Often (but not always) this is free. Otherwise I think there's a fair chance the card will be charged again next year, this is what sketchy companies sometimes do. Another option is to raise a chargeback (due to unauthorized payment) on the card if they charge it next year, but this is a time consuming process and involves filling out forms. Good luck.

[@fearless6947]

@@sl9sl9 well said. @Yosojin. Often it's free but if it's not, pay the credit card fee. It's piece of mind and you can move on with your life. Do what L2 said

[@tariik.h]

Obviously, you need to also cancel your subscription. Otherwise, you will get charged again.

[@gamezombieW]

+ they have huge database leaks

[@em84c]

​@@tariik.h she said she did cancel

[@fstalania11]

If skillshare is really used for education, they should be endorsed by teachers or professors and not youtubers.

[@guotyr2502]

Depends on the subject since some lessons straight up teach about filming or script writing on videos

[@shanesonn]

That's not how advertising works though. They're using KZbinrs for their audience reach.

[@LowSlungBadBitch]

Anyone can be a teacher though so that doesn't really work.

[@shutup1037]

@@LowSlungBadBitch yea, but not everyone can be good teacher

[@LowSlungBadBitch]

@@shutup1037 that's debatable.

[@PauliEvansBlack617]

I tried skillshare through the link of one of my favorite KZbinrs, to support them. Thankfully I didn’t have any issue canceling but what really struck me as strange was how short the content was. An “entire course” was only 10 to 15 minutes long because all the videos were around 2 minutes or even less. Also, I thought they were so few courses because they were curating who could post or they choose them themselves, it’s definitely worse than I thought.

[@dorcasmalahlela2805]

Exactly! And much of the stuff I could find on KZbin. I also used a free month promo, and I'm glad I didn't pay.

[@michaelwatson9089]

That depends on the teacher. My courses I taught were 30 mins to 1 hour.

[@abidtahmid773]

​@@michaelwatson9089 i have no idea how can you call something so short as 1 hour as a course, this is just dumbness

[@amelialoyselle2123]

Hard agreed. I looked at the site as a whole, trying to see if some of my favorite topics that I was interested in learning had good classes. Everything there were beginner's courses, introduction to this or that, and the like. Stuff I already knew. It just is not "the place to learn" like people are pushed to advertise them as.

[@khunt5336]

​​​​@@abidtahmid773 dumbness 💀🎉 naw but seriously, I think it partly depends on where you're from --- "course" means a series of lessons in some places, but I think it may mean anything upwards of a comprehensive lecture in others (btw i hope i didn't come off too rude, "dumbness" is just a funny way of expressing your sentiments, i don't mean to make fun of your English)

[@DarkH4X0]

It will never beat the number of youtubers sponsored by NordVPN

[@IceBlueLugia]

I mean they’re pretty reliable in general though

[@RipRLeeErmey]

​@@IceBlueLugia No they are not, any cybersecurity expert worth their salt will tell you Nord's VPN has the protection capacity of a perforated condom

[@february4206]

A few years back I nearly bought a Skillshare subscription when my dad just said, "Why don't you just KZbin it?" and I was like, "Oh. Right." Thanks dad.

[@tylern6420]

dad saves ena from financial debt

[@jewmail5395]

It’s amazing how much a father figure can do for u

[@senny-]

Dad of the decade

[@helper_bot]

@@senny- its either youtube, or the duct tape solution. that's the qualifier of best dads

[@m0L3ify]

I think this is what has always kept me from checking out Skillshare, although my extremely disappointing experience with MasterClass was also a factor. Years ago I spent $100 on a "master class" on composing by Hans Zimmer, and it turned out to just be a very expensive, glorified interview about his career where he just name drops most of the time, and then tells everyone that anyone can score a film with an iPad and Garage Band. Ok, great Hans. Thanks. Can I have my money back?

[@TonyCrenshawsLatte]

Despite several of my fav youtubers plugging Skillshare, I never checked it out for several reasons: 1. I learned long ago to "don't believe the hype." 2. If I'm to believe the hype, the hype should come from many varied sources. The fact that I never hear of Skillshare outside of youtuber sponsorship ads indicated to me that it may not be all that. (Glad that my instinct was right on this 😄) 3. I already pay for too many streaming services, and I don't need another one, even for "educational" purposes. 😅

[@TonyCrenshawsLatte]

@@FingerDawg Of course they don't give a flying fuck about me. I don't know them, they don't know me. I'm under no illusion they're personally looking out for me. Almost all the ads are people lying blatantly to my face. Why would it be any different when some youtubers, even my favorite ones, are reading the copy? I take what I like from them (information and/or entertainment they provide), and spit out what I don't like from them (them reading sponsorship copies). That's all there is to it.

[@amandamacabre]

@@TonyCrenshawsLatte same. If like a creator enough to want to give them money, I'll buy something they've personally done like merch or a brand collab (though I've found the latter to often be disappointing too 😂)

[@sagardeb9725]

Why are there 3 replies but 2 available to read

[@veronicadidato]

$168/Y? I wish. Since they started doing regional pricing, my subscription went from $96 to $1200 over the span of a year. When I emailed them about this, they just confirmed it and then tried to push me towards a "65% off Annual" promotion. Absolutely insane.

[@simonspethmann8086]

😱 What region are you in that they want to charge you over $1k? 🥲

[@TheLoveMiku]

omg!

[@veronicadidato]

@@simonspethmann8086 northern Europe

[@PeterCaptainObvious]

How is it so expensive for you? I'm living in northern Europe right now and it cost me 32 euros for a year..

[@simonspethmann8086]

@@PeterCaptainObvious What? How? o_O Are you in Latvia? Cuz they group that with Eastern Europe (= poor communists who live in hovels, according to the US)...

[@jayrose6312]

Thank you for cutting through the bull with such a forthcoming take on this seemingly first-rate platform! I wish there were more creators bold enough to call out these horrific practices and downright abuses!

[@foxman105]

I had a phone operator company send me a check after I cancelled my monthly contract officially and got mailed and called several times on my new provider. "For not paying contract." I sent them to hell after throwing the checks on a customer support desk and asking if they want legal ramifications. I never got a check from them again, nor did I have to pay the other fees for a service that didn't exist. Sometimes you have to be rough with these people... and I hate it.

[@MK8MasterJunjie]

Eharmony is trying to chase me for money and I refuse to let them intimidate me!

[@AdeleiTeillana]

Are you saying they sent you a check (money) and sent you bills? Or are you using the word "check" as if it were interchangeable with "bill"?

[@foxman105]

@@AdeleiTeillana They kept sending me requests for monthly payment for a service I did no longer have a contract for, nor had access to. And they called me a few times about my "debt".

[@AdeleiTeillana]

@@foxman105 OK, so they didn't send you any checks, they sent you bills. A check is a form of payment. If they sent you a check, you could take it to a bank and cash it (get the money from it).

[@foxman105]

@@AdeleiTeillana Alright. Thanks for clarification. I'm not a native speaker. Check and Bill are interchangeable in our language. I'll try to remember this.

[@FightSceneFilmSchool]

My personal experience: -Used a promo link from a KZbin video (30 days free). -Went to cancel after 28 days and they offered another free month. -Took the extra free month, went to cancel toward the end, was given ANOTHER free month. -Total of 90 days free, then canceled without issue. Personally, I did NOT get charged early at any point, nor after canceling. Usefulness: It had a big focus on Adobe, and I wanted to learn Premiere. KZbin has more content but it was nice to have videos laid out in the form of complete courses so that I didn't have to bounce around youtube hoping I wasn't missing any essentials. Now I'm great with Premiere and didn't pay a cent.🤷 Maybe mine is a rare experience, but it was a good one.

[@FightSceneFilmSchool]

*please note I've never had SkillShare as a sponsor.

[@b3ans4eva]

Pretty much my experience: 2 month trial, gave me a third month free, canceled afterwards.

[@YouluC]

It was the same for me too. You just have to make sure to remember when to cancel.

[@ANDREALEONE95]

Like Established Titles promo codes.

[@colorsmith5569]

I also have had a good experience. Learned graphic design and the teacher actually looks at the work you post and makes suggestions.

[@sanz1996_]

This channel is underrated for the amount of efforts put in research and video cinematography This channel feels like watching a mini cold fusion episode.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Really appreciate it SanziL!

[@sixstringedthing]

I signed up about a year ago to support a youtuber whose content I enjoy. Cancelled almost immediately once I realised how thin the content actually is. And here I'm learning about stuff like the 4-weeks-is-actually-2-weeks "free trial", the "one refund only" policy, and the insane revenue split. All huge red flags. Glad I made the choice to cancel when I did. One thing I've learned (from this and other sponsorship scam revelations) is that if you're seeing endorsements for a particular product or platform being blasted all over youtube across a wide variety of creators/genres, there's a very high chance that the business has questionable practices, a sub-par product, or is an outright scam. The "spend big and cast a wide net" approach is often an obvious clue.

[@k.chriscaldwell4141]

You are wise.

[@jackgreen05]

NordVPN, Eneba (and many other key games store but most Eneba), Skillshare, GVGMall...

[@TierTwoWorks]

I’ve always preferred Udemy to Skillshare because you pay per-course (there are many sales and specials throughout the year), get certificates you can use to advertise your training, and you can connect with the instructor directly if you’d like.

[@BichaelStevens]

Udemy certificates are as useful as my vocational school certificate

[@se_lym]

i was going to say the same thing. i have courses that i haven't been able to finish due to time constraints but since it's pay per-course i know i can resume them whenever i want which for me is the biggest advantage of udemy

[@Grendel_Zahid]

​@@BichaelStevens true lol

[@Jillberto]

The certificates you get from udemy are, sadly, pretty much useless. It simply says you participated, nothing more. But its still a good thing to do for yourself and you can include them into CV's, just dont do the mistake and look at them like real certificates because they're not and most of the time noone will take them serious.

[@Penultimate1785]

@@Jillberto Edx certificates can help with that

[@headwerkn]

My partner bought Skillshare for a while to learn sewing and making your own clothes, became pretty obviously early on that the quality of courses and videos on offer was no different than what was freely available on KZbin. If the content was vetted and consistently high quality then the argument could be made for its existence - finding the nuggets on KZbin often requires a lot of sifting through the chaff, so to speak - but it really isn’t. That alone makes it a nonstarter, really.

[@Kelson01]

"sifting through the chaff" -- KZbin made that harder when they removed the dislike button :(

[@TheThreatenedSwan]

Tbf literally no one wants that. If you remove the fluff, you're left with something no one feels motivated to do. All formal education is like this Also youtubers who make content for it have no incentive to dilute their brand and only present the bare bones information which could then be more easily copied

[@susrev88]

@@Kelson01there is browser extensions to see the like/dislike ration. i use it.

[@ElectroBlastLuigi]

Not only there are fake sponsorships that get KZbinrs hacked, but also actual companies doing shady stuff. I feel bad for these KZbinrs. This right here is why I'm so skeptical especially seeing said companies get pushed into viewers faces. I'm glad I never respond to spam emails back when we used to have private messages directly on KZbin.

[@Diet_sprite]

Don't feel bad for KZbinrs they don't care what sponsorship they get as long their getting bank they don't give a shit. Until the company gets called out then they give a shit to save face.

[@Clairavoya]

@@Diet_sprite A good amount do actually

[@Diet_sprite]

@@Clairavoya they don't care if they did they would have kept their distance from better help and lass pass cause their are vids of people critizing better help and lass pass got hacked from using outdated server some ordinary games talked about lass pass hacked plus nord vpn steals data from people and sells em. You can't put your Faith on a KZbinr, they don't care. Bottom line is that their in it for cash which is okay but they got to do some background checks before they do that.

[@Thefess]

Neroscinema, a call of duty content creator, got his account hacked recently by opening up a brand deal contract to only find out that his youtube account got hijacked and replaced with a fake Elon musk crypto scam. All he did was open a pdf file that he says it's usual standard to doing brand deals and nothing seemed out of the ordinary because he does it all the time.

[@_admiralfrost132_5]

I think the only youtube ad I’ve bought was catalina crunch and that was just for gluten free mint oreos now i can just go the hellish place of walmart

[@BrotoshiStakamoto]

ALWAYS use a prepaid visa when signing up for these offers. Sign up, take funds off the card and if you forget to cancel it's no problem. great vid 👍🏽😀

[@BungieStudios]

A lot of these online services will not accept prepaid VISA cards for subscriptions. I know because I used them all the time.

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

They can still send debt collectors to your house. Usually they don't bother, but they could.

[@BrotoshiStakamoto]

@@thewhitefalcon8539 I'm never home. 😂

[@GeeEee75]

Another option is to cancel right away, as in right after you sign up, as you will often still be able to use the free trial period, and you won't miss any deadline or forget to cancel. I always set a reminder in my phone's calendar of the date of renewal, at the same time as I subscribe, so I won't forget.

[@Chloe-dv9ns]

​@@GeeEee75when I cancel my prime, it usually means the cancel is effective that day :(. But I do exactly what you describe next: set a date a few days before it's expired and I set the most annoying reminder settings so I don't forget. Once audible got me for 5 whole months extra and I was appalled. Had to adapt this strat

[@sxlg_32]

This is a good example of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". The shady practices are just so disgusting. So many companies doing this lately.

[@NaudVanDalen]

It's a bad example of that. It doesn't even sound that good. $32 per month for content that's supposed to be somewhat better than KZbin would already not be that great value, yet alone it being worse quality.

[@doniramdoni3884]

​@@NaudVanDalen how It worse ?

[@0n1c420]

Someone said something about Magic Spoon sponsors. In the sponsors, they were told that the taste of their cereal is exceptional. But the reviews counter this, and they would rather buy Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Froot Loops.

[@kevlems]

They did that to me too lol, I got charged for the second year after canceling the first year before the 1 "free" month ended. I am so happy finally someone is talking about this.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Sorry to hear that man. Hopefully they'll change that policy.

[@andrewwafae]

That's probably why they don't accept prepaid cards..

[@asclepius.dionysus]

​@@andrewwafae prepaid card?

[@Bullminator]

You should probaly cancel your credit card and get a new one as they may bill you again ;P

[@andrewwafae]

@@asclepius.dionysus You can create disposable one-time cards with as little money in them as you'd like Basically you put like a few dollars for verification so that it doesn't get mistaken by banks for fake credit card info but less than the price of a monthly subscription so they can't charge you when the trial ends

[@MensesBloodbath]

I was pretty fortunate, I was aware of the 14 day thing when I tried the trial so I was able to cancel before getting charged, but only because I was warned by someone else. I experienced pretty much what you described, a mediocre and hard to use platform that had meager content that I could easily find on youtube. I was focused on using skillshare to try to improve my art for my 14 days, and watched videos from 3 or 4 creators who fit my needs, pickins were truly slim compared to youtube. In the end I feel like I wasted my time, they only really had beginners art courses where I needed something more advanced so I was only learning things I already knew. It definitely felt like a grift.

[@EEEEEEEE]

E

[@Bellbebell]

For me, I think the main angle that I’ve viewed skillshare through is that it was started by a couple of tech bros who worked on digital products. They don’t care about education; they just want to make the next platform that they can turn around and sell to the next investor. Skillshare is just their widget that they want to sell

[@kellylyons1038]

They wanted to replace youtube for educational videos, which is admirable since YT has many problems, but they didnt do it right.

[@thymeparzival]

Valid points. I had a Skillshare subscription for a year and hardly used it, because I tended to find better content on KZbin. That being said, I do appreciate the focused workspace and practical learning process of online course platforms. If KZbin added that, it would immediately put skillshare out of business. But part of the fun of youtube is going down random internet rabbit holes when you are supposed to be focusing on one thing. It's like jedi training for the ADHD mind.

[@addanametocontinue]

For $30/month, you're better off just procuring specific courses off Udemy or something. At least with that approach, you can learn at your own pace, since the course already paid for after the purchase.

[@stryhuns]

There's browser extension "Unhook" to turn off recommendations, feed, comments, likes and much more on youtube, to the point that the home screen is completely blank with just a search bar, and a video screen has your selected video with playback controls and nothing else The next step would be curated libraries of useful videos and automatic blacklist for everything else Good idea, I'll think of implementing it

[@thymeparzival]

@@stryhuns Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out.

[@commissarf1196]

By "part of the fun" you mean part of the inconvenient. Still, it's better than Skill Share I suppose.

[@mr.ambientsounds1291]

Yeah. I think there's benefits to a platform thats dedicated to learning but skillshare doesnt seem to be the best for that

[@dannyroy]

This is why you shouldn't promote a product unless A. You genuinely use and like it already B. You are qualified to recommend it (like KZbinrs with no experience in psychology/psychiatry recommending BetterHelp) Too many influencers accept a pay check and don't do a quick check, before telling thousands (sometimes millions) of people to give their money to it

[@Gaius_Julius_Caesar_Augustus]

Betterhelp is worse than skillshare tho. Check out videos on that

[@RCmaniac667]

Influencers (what a douch term) just making money. It is those millions of users who are must to think for themselves at least sometimes

[@Arlesmon]

Some do it as a neccesary evil, though i do agree that one should use it so that there's a bit more honesty in that.

[@mouhiazeck]

Oh gosh is betterhelp a scam too? I watch a psychology youtuber who was sponsored by betterhelp

[@kochathefat327]

@@mouhiazeck pretty sure it is a scam unfortunately...

[@Invalid-user13k]

This is astonishing of how much KZbin has to offer compared to others

[@Absorbant]

It's why no other video platforms have lived longer than a few months. KZbin will likely forever rule the online video market.

[@Herkan97]

@@Absorbant For the videos it allows, it's not ruling out PHub and such.

[@EricckkMoneyy7777NGLBruhh]

I just ended up hitting that Subscribe button, I like the topic you are covering! Great job man. I do hate it when I'm watching a YT vid then around the halfway point, I get hit with a Damn Skillshare commercial! I literally just fast-forward a minute or a minute and a half forward. 😂😅

[@adamloveland3198]

I have never used Skillshare, but every time I see it all I ask is this "Why?", the thing is that KZbin already has all the information needed when it comes to tutorials when it comes to tech, repair, cooking, sewing, cleaning, pets, basically you name it it'll be on KZbin and all you need for that is an internet connection.

[@AA-lz4wq]

Let those r.words spend their money however they want.

[@thebrowhodoesntlift9613]

IDK about Skillshare but platforms specialized for learning have they're market share, for example Udemy. The main perk is cutting through searches through clickbaits and overlapping content by getting a comprehensive course with an instructor to contact. This might not be relevant for casual viewer/hobbyist, but as a professional trying to not only learn but to master a new skill, this is can both yield better results and save time... And time is money. 🤷‍♂️

[@michaelwatson9089]

Easier to reach the teacher if you need help or stuck on a problem and most reply back to a comment that has an issue. KZbin some of them don't reply back and if you need help some of them would sell you a course to join their discord or Facebook group for the support.

[@draco_1876]

@@thebrowhodoesntlift9613 nah skillshare is just ass bro

[@DhirC35]

​@@AA-lz4wq cant even say r*t*rd because youtube started removing comments cuz of that like oh my gosh

[@AngelNightmarex]

Thank you so much for making this! I had similar issues with Skillshare and their customer service in the past and would constantly get annoyed by how many of my favorite KZbin channels where partnering with them.

[@Cola-42]

While I agree with what you said about Skillshare's quality, you should have compared it with sites like Udemy and not KZbin. Some people like organized classes. Also, creators work harder on paid classes, making them well organized and straight to the point and those sites help creators a lot. So, I do agree with the existence of specialized learning sites and not just KZbin.

[@omegaduck2955]

But with udemy u purchase the course individually. Not a monthly subscription

[@kiarastaggs180]

And Khan Academy. All of the courses on that site are completely free. I bet some of you in the comments have used it at one point. I know I have.

[@hineraable]

I think that it's a pretty reasonable comparison given that Skillshare's content quality isn't much better than KZbin's. I would argue is even worse.

[@DominicRighiniBrand]

@@omegaduck2955 this is something which has always been debated by Skillshare teachers. Different pricing models have advantages and disadvantages. I guess with Skillshare you can argue that it's an investment in the platform, and that you'll get the most out of it by watching multiple classes. I agree that it is an easier investment to buy one class on for Udemy, but then you are limited to solely that class. I don't really think there is any right or wrong here, just different ways of doing things. But imagine Netflix for example if you had to pay per-episode or tv series? Someone would make it work to their advantage, whilst others might get a worse deal. As a customer you need to be savvy!

[@DominicRighiniBrand]

@@kiarastaggs180 the problem with free is how do you fairly remunerate the teacher for both their time and the product?

[@newbiegamelover4767]

I've been teaching myself how to bake and decorate pastries, and while the Skillshare sponsorships have looked enticing, the fact that I have to pay for it has always been a turnoff for me, as I can find plenty of baking/decorating videos on KZbin completely free, and they've all done me just fine. I didn't need to pay to learn how to make a rose out of frosting. I didn't need to pay to learn how to make the best pie crust I've ever tasted from scratch. The only thing I need to pay for is the materials and ingredients to make the stuff. And judging from this video, it looks like Skillshare wouldn't have done me much good to begin with. I'm better off just buying a used cookbook!

[@silverstar501]

I actually did used Skillshare for like 2 years few years ago. I don't think there's as many youtubers' courses back then. The experience wasn't bad but definitely not living up to the expectation & its price. I did mainly illustration courses and some courses are great. It is quite amazing to see illustrators and artists process on how they do their work. I also like how some of them are project-based so it is quite clear what to do and how to complete something and see the work of other students. However i did find their courses very repetitive and some courses have very low quality. Also i remembered they brought up some even more premium classes which you need to pay extra to join. Not sure if this function still existed or not but I found that pretty annoying. I would say overall it is okay for beginners and people with zero knowledge to start learning but the content is definitely not deep enough for people to develop higher level skills

[@RoboRoby321]

I have had good experience on Udemy, I feel it's a better app, and it has a lot of content with instructors that have years of verifiable experience. I also enjoyed the forums it gave for the courses you entered

[@kikicheung5149]

Definitely. I watched quite a lot of art courses in skillshare before but I think they are really for beginners. I mean not bad, but I can watch youtube to get the same info for free.

[@goowhite]

Ur right, the bulk of the content is for designers, graphics, illustration. There are courses there that were top 10 university level. Something I would not have found KZbin but again how many people would signup for that.

[@goowhite]

Ur right, the bulk of the content is for designers, graphics, illustration. There are courses there that can compete with top 10 university level stuff. One course was about generating creative ideas. Some courses like that are not found on KZbin but again how many people would signup for that category.

[@Zfanesque]

Please don’t go to any creators who have been sponsored by SkillShare and harass them, there’s a pretty good chance they had no clue of the truth or just trying to make a living. Don’t shoot messenger, shoot the guy who sent the letter.

[@JohnDarkSoul69]

yeah unfortunately you can't make a living on youtube without sponsorships... that being said tho, whoever is still shilling skillshare after their exposé deserves to lose subscribers.

[@duckymomo7935]

Creators already spend hours laboring on their videos, they barely gave time to do research on every single sponsor they get This includes established titles, and other scams The creator has no idea they are scams (their research will probably turn up nothing as the misleading advertising also affects the creators too: it says so on their site and have no legal knowledge of what is false advertising and what’s legally binding + fine print)

[@mytradingjournal123]

If creators promoting something they don’t even use, how credible their content would be?

[@yusufcagowayne1990]

Sftu clown

[@MattSuguisAsFondAsEverrr]

send the headquarters a pipe boomboom

[@alexheusch3036]

I thought I just was dumb after accidentally paying the annual fee 3 times after 3 free trials, but now that starts to make sense... Never the less, some of the content is really highly produced (not saying that this isn't the case for many KZbin videos) and did help me learn some skills.. Also I think it helps that the content on skillsshare is exclusively for learning, so if you're on the platform you don't get distracted so fast from an interesting looking KZbin video, at least that's what I experience often when I am learning on KZbin.

[@rasheemthebestfirstone3274]

Everytime that happened to me I got my refund

[@alexheusch3036]

@@rasheemthebestfirstone3274 I just got it one time, like mentioned in the video, the second time I just went with it and used it, the third time I got a half refund, but could still use skillshare for that year, which is kinda nice.. but the strategy their using to convert those test users stays a bit questionable

[@lil_jong-un6668]

There's an extension to remove YT recommendations on the homepage so that you can focus on your work.

[@AA-lz4wq]

Yes, you're definitely dumb.

[@WickedlyChill]

Or create playlist to stay in a playlist bubble

[@fiercecrikey2106]

HEY! Good video, but the sound effects are way too loud compared to the monologue, especially that high pitch rapid ticking that is used throughout.

[@amey777]

Love it when big companies get exposed like this. Great work ❤

[@willo7734]

Your channel is a real public service. Thanks for bringing to light which sponsers we should avoid dealing with.

[@simonspethmann8086]

I specifically got on Skillshare to learn to paint flowers in watercolour from a teacher I admired. There are some really solid watercolour, drawing and also procreate classes on Skillshare. The problem is, you've got to already be at a certain level to be able to tell the good from the bad. And the classes really range from stellar to craptatious. The worst part is that even the curated recommendations are ... I'd have to use swearwords here. That being said, atm I'd recommend a class 101 subscription for art classes. The classes by Korean and Japanese creators are some of the best art classes on the internet.

[@ieroine]

Which ones in specific you’d recommend?

[@simonspethmann8086]

@@ieroine Skillshare classes? For painting flowers? I got started with Joly Poa's classes. Esther Peck, Nina Nyusikart and Anna Bucciarelli are good. Very different styles, so I'd look at the pictures first.

[@ketteu]

But u can ofcourse find any level teaching on art here on youtube even if u have to search a little

[@simonspethmann8086]

@@ketteu *hm* No. There are many great tutorials on KZbin and the fundamental techniques get used or mentioned across a wide range of subjects, so you could kind of somehow cobble together knowledge necessary to paint nice pictures, yes. But it's all so much easier, if you've got actually classes that also (and this is important) provide teacher feedback. (By feedback I don't mean the kind of comments you get in Instagram, if any.) For more advanced stuff it's even more difficult to find really good stuff on KZbin. Especially if you are interested in a certain style or subject. (Obviously you would have to look beyond Skillshare, as well. But it did have some of the styles and subjects I was interested in. Skillshare is pretty good at bridging the advanced beginner/intermediate gap.) The Procreate classes are also really good, if limited in scope. On KZbin there are "missing manual" videos and about two people who show how to paint their style... As for Clip Studio or painting in Photoshop... there's almost nothing on Skillshare that's useable. So it really depends on the subject, too ...

[@zekrom6537]

yes but why would you pay for skillshare when you can guaranteed find very good tutorials of it on youtube for FREE? literally you can search the styles you looking for and for sure you find something, or might as well pay for an irl teacher or apply somewhere to truly learn to pain if you wanna spend money why waste it on skillshare lol

[@votuhtx]

I had heard about it forever and always wondered if it was worth it, assuming it was based off of the amount of promotion. Glad you made this video

[@johnex2154]

I was under the same impression that skillshare was some high quality platform focused on maximum learning efficiency, so I got a yearly sub and after searching for hours across multiple topics I was left with what was more like tiktoks that didn't teach me much. KZbin is way better for learning, I've learnt coding, drawing, and how to play instruments free on yt

[@LindsayMarsh]

I have so much I want to share about skillshare as a teacher for the last 5 years. What I have to say, I do not want it to come back and get me removed from the platform so won't say too much. They have cut teacher pay 60% - 70% over the last few months alone. We are not paid our fair share. I actually make more selling a 10 dollar udemy course (with 2 dollar profit) than I would if the same students watched my full 20 hour course on skillshare. That used to not be the case and it was a viable platform to place my courses. Now, not so much. I am exploring other options and keeping my feelers out there for other opportunities. Like most online platforms they are laying off staff to stop the bleeding and that will only affect how much customer service and future content they can get to the platform.

[@TheCastleBravo]

Check out Gumroad.

[@LindsayMarsh]

@@TheCastleBravo I am on teachable now but heard gumroad is good too. I am also on Udemy and doing really well there. Udemy is beyond 7 figures now so going to keep milking that cow. Too bad skillshare milk is drying up. Sounds like their quality is too.

[@enzorocha2977]

Honestly, I thought this video was just going to be another empty rant or hit piece, with out-of-context/open-to-interpretation sourced quotations, but you brought RECEIPTS! A pleasant surprise and really, time well spent. Good job, LA; not going to bother with Skillshare anymore (was thinking of getting drawing/graphic art lessons before watching this) when there are more, better equivalent shows on YT.

[@jax775]

Wow, the people who got paid to advertise a product advertised a product, get this, while being paid! The horror!

[@leonaimene7283]

Whenever i come across a skill share sponsor i always thought to myself "there's no way they can offer you for money what youtube can't for free" and i was planning on trying it to check if I'm right or not. I'm glad i watched this

[@jessislistless]

Well, yes, they can. However, as many have already commented, every individual learns differently. The distractions on KZbin without a premium or an Adblock extension are far greater than on Skillshare. All you can do there is learn, and if you have a good teacher, everything is well broken down for your learning speed. There aren’t always step-by-step courses for what you need on KZbin, especially when it comes to art. IRL art courses are super expensive, but with skillshare, you have the option to dabble in a variety of art courses. If you use the free trial well and cancel immediately, the wealth of knowledge you get for free is exponential.

[@tubester358]

Of course they can, it's called a professional course, AKA full/in-depth course, whereas KZbin videos are usually either intros, quickstarts or something to cram which is super useful for both complete beginners and those with some experience. Originally I also thought Skill Share was supposed to be a more guided course with a community involved with each step through feedback etc as some course mentioned that, but overall they just didn't have a lot of value. At best it was a way to get a specific course from someone you know who creates high value content, then cancel after you're done. But for some, just the fact that it's all educational content gives added value compared to yt. There should probably be more sites like Nebula in that case.

[@paulbester1571]

Great video my guy. I got a one year subscription using a 50% off code i got from a youtuber recommending it. The blender classes i wanted were way less comprehensive than i expected and quality control was all over the place. After hearing of the rampant cancelation problems from a friend, i cut my losses and took precautions to make sure they could not renew after my cancelation. First thing, they tried to renew the subscription but my bank blocked the transaction. Queue a series of emails demanding payment for a service i canceled. My advice? Steer well clear of them at all costs.

[@stiiimes]

this is exactly how i felt about college. it cost thousands per year and nearly everything i actually learned from my classes i just found on youtube for free. in fact, i had more than a few courses where the professors just linked to youtube vids as lectures.

[@kizryuver]

🔸This is also what i felt about education system as a whole.(it d make up blogs worth of info if i sat to write down why i find it unsafe/irresponsible for students & teachers). 🔹But theres one thing that youtube still needs to compete with colleges & schools. 🔸Its The ability to verify the contents validity from the experts like schools books do so ppl learning from it can differentiate between the misinformation vs opinion vs facts. 🔹ability for it to organize content by the categories & subcategories better. & option for us to be able to have seperate spaces for educational content/edutainment/entertainment. 🔹& may be make a new app for ppl that want to take their videos into a seperate app that helps you focus on playlisted videos & that app has the option to turn off news feed or something. 🔹plus as @M.X .N below said: ability to test & certify people if there comes to be a day when KZbin starts an online university (that sounds funny but it isnt impossible).

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

I never thought about that. I graduated college just before KZbin launched and the internet didn’t have much content. The ability to access great information has skyrocketed and colleges haven’t kept pace in many ways

[@mx.n.3682]

The difference between college and KZbin is you'll come out with a degree that you can give to an employer. Unless you plan to freelance where your skills often matter more than credentials, depending on your area, no formal job will accept "I watched a full course on KZbin" over a college degree.

[@kizryuver]

@@mx.n.3682🔹 Or unless you plan to build a business... But there are some companies that do take people without degrees as long as you have skills (which you ll have to demonstrate) + experience & you may be given new employee training. 🔹Just that its limiting though as not all companies do that yet..& you'd need to be exceptional.. 🔹also theres a way that KZbin can atleast be more of an educational support than it already is as i mentioned in my comments above.especially since there is a KZbin certified course for learning about being a KZbinr.

[@BeautifulEarthJa]

Lol. What schools do yall have in theUSA? The idea that college is the same as watching it on KZbin is wild

[@ademenchuk]

Such a great video! Just take down that music a notch or speak a little louder. Great work, man!

[@fro334bro]

9:25 Wow in addition to not being worth the money, they have shady practices around letting people cancel their membership. I genuinely had no idea. Great informative video about a service I definitely was previously considering.

[@RB-yt6rx]

Every time you say skillshare i am pavlov'd into skipping forward! I honestly avoid brands who advertise too hard sometimes because of how much they have to spend to do that. Kind of a red flag when a group has multiple thousands to just toss around. I dont know how old the companies are but considering their need to make you learn about them it feels like they must be new or desperate. Im always wondering how the company is able to exist.

[@prot07ype87]

What does "pavlov'd" mean?

[@mallagallabumbum8209]

@@prot07ype87 It means that it is a conditioned reflex. It comes from the concept of classical conditioning / Pavlov's dog.

[@One.Zero.One101]

That's why reputable companies should be as mad at these shady companies as we are. They scare away people from advertisements and they develop a bad reputation of being scams and malware.

[@nope1918]

Raid: Shadow Legends is another one

[@ingridfong-daley5899]

YES!! Raid is the one that came to my mind first. @@nope1918

[@Spiney09]

This is the best add for KZbin I’ve ever seen. Edit: this video needs to be spread to the far corners of the web, skillshare needs to go the way of that other sponsorship that was scamming everyone.

[@saturn6563]

As for KZbin on KZbin, solos every other ad 😂

[@brytehagan9446]

Established titles?

[@Spiney09]

@@brytehagan9446 yeah, that one. Couldn’t remember the name, and I also didn’t want to put it cause I didn’t want to give ‘em any more publicity.

[@bivery7060]

Thank you for exposing this company's sleazy practices. Fortunately for me, I've become jaded with most of the advertising on these videos. Especially the ones where there's a seven second hack that takes an hour for them to disclose, and then it turns out to be just pills. I'm so disgusted with those type of ads.

[@Bujde69]

This was an impressive video, I was never tempted by skillshare but I had no idea just how shady their tactics are. Great job!

[@MVIVN]

I was suckered into subscribing to Skillshare and got caught out by an unexpected 1 year subscription like the people you described in the video, BUT I tried to keep an open mind and actually kept the subscription for a year so I could maybe try and learn some new skills as I was looking for a career change at the time. I ended up being pretty underwhelmed by the selection and quality of some of the courses I saw on there, and a lot of the courses were out of date and hadn't been updated in years! It's just not worth it. Udemy has its faults too, but at least a lot of the instructors on Udemy make an effort to constantly update their courses with new info all the time, which doesn't seem to be the case with Skillshare. I guess that's because on Udemy you are buying individual courses rather than subscribing to the whole platform which incentivises the people making courses to make sure their specific course is better than all the alternatives, whereas people on Skillshare don't have that pressure/incentive.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

So what're the faults of Udemy then?

[@MVIVN]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn In my opinion the main issue with Udemy is that (similar to Skillshare) anyone can create a course on there, even if they have no kind of formal accreditation to be teaching that subject/topic. Some of the courses can be a bit hit or miss, and the reviews are sometimes misleading in that regard (although courses with lots of reviews and lots of students are usually pretty solid). It's different from something like LinkedIn Learning where literally everyone who teaches a course on there has some kind of formal accreditation or industry certification to be teaching their subject -- Microsoft vets every instructor on there. LinkedIn Learning unfortunately also suffers from the same problem of some courses being out of date and never updated in some cases.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@MVIVN Thanks for the insights!

[@rehabmohammed539]

Is possible to know if its not too personal what the career shift was? I'm trying to switch careers as well and hoping I can get some courses to help me with that

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@imkingelijah]

My thing is, the problem isn’t really on KZbinrs for taking the skillshare ad, it’s more on the skillshare app it self which you pointed out in the video.Also there’s more responsibility on the person to determine if skill share is worth it and right for them.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Fair enough

[@quantuminfinity4260]

In general I believe KZbinrs should do more vetting of the services they endorse. There have been several examples as of late like established titles where with just a minute or two of research on something that’s paying them hundreds to thousands they could easy discover are quite shady in a number of ways.

[@olavisau]

Have you actually taken a look at SkillShare? They don't exactly make it easy to search for courses - try finding search on their home page, they know that the courses they offer are not broad and most are low quality. Then there is the next thing - a person that has never taken an online course will face difficulty evaluating the quality of the course. It is only possible to evaluate the quality of a course based on chapters and times if you already are a subject matter expert. A person with little experience on online courses will struggle to do so if they even find the search functionality through google. In addition to that - there is no excuse for bad customer support and pushing people to a 1 year subscription with such a poor product. I'll make one note though - a single in depth exceptional course can be worth 168$, so if a specific course that is useful to you is there - there is no harm in paying for monthly / yearly subscription. Though I would recommend just watching the course with a 1 month subscription and then unsubscribing, perhaps even using an additional layer that prevents charges after that.

[@matten_zero]

Nah YTers should actually look at the product they are endorsing first. It's a bad look on their reputation if they endorse bad stuff.

[@SidPil]

No, viewers trust the KZbinrs and it's wrong of them to falsely advertise especially when people like mkbhd straight up say that they only take on sponsorships of products that they actually use and if the product has value but then accepts a SkillShare sponsorship. SkillShare is worse no doubt about that but that doesn't mean you can't hold KZbinrs accountable especially when they claim that they aren't in it for the money.

[@averybirb]

I've never used Skillshare before but I always thought it was weird they were trying to charge so much for trying to learn something, when so many channels on youtube upload free educational stuff that can help you with what you are trying to learn. And if you wanted to support those educational channels they will most likely have a patreon page. It's just weird the things they try to sell on there. Especially when most of the videos by celebrities' on skillshare are not editted and so much useless information that doesn't relate to the thing that you are trying to learn

[@robertthomas3143]

I tried it.I wanted to learn a new hobby and I saw it come up on a lot of the YT videos I was watching. I actually found some recommendations that were pretty good so I decided to go for the full subscription. After only a month I ran out of interesting and informative classes. Many would just skim the surface of the subject and call it a day. Others were branded as "how to" but ended up just being the life story of the teacher. In the end I came to the same conclusion as you. I was better off with KZbin.

[@joshuayung5158]

This subscription model heavily mirrors my experience with cooks illustrated/cooks country/America's test kitchen. I am a professional chef and I enjoyed their recipes/science-based testing methodology and was even willing to pay for a few months of their subscription, but canceling after was an absolute nightmare. I heard they did the same to free trialers, but I had to get on the phone to ultimately cancel and they simply refused to allow me to speak to a live representative with a network of automated services. Christopher Kimball might play the goofy glasses food nerd but he ultimately is no Alton Brown.

[@iOSAcademy]

Appreciate the shoutout! Great sum up of skillshare. Couldn’t agree more

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Of course bro, thank you for putting out so much valuable content!

[@8koi245]

Tysm I long forgot the golden rule of "if there's much branding be aware, research extensively, however if a person recommends it and there's barely any branding that's way more secure"

[@BhanuChandrasekaran]

Skillshare costs like 65$ per year where I live. When I cancelled it just before the auto-renewal, they e-mailed me with a 65% off, so like 22$ for an year. Shows how much actual content they have got. They promote it for artists, but like there are brilliant tutorials right here on KZbin or I prefer Patreon where the artists actually earns.

[@nightingale4786]

i actually think a lot of youtubers are aware of how bad skillshare actually is because often times when they get sponsored, they shout out a specific course (either their own or one run by a fellow youtuber) in order to directly lead their viewers to that one course they vetted. furthermore, i would assume that skillshare commissions creators to make courses for them, which is why they have such a high monthly cost and why they can justify such a low profit split on residuals.

[@helper_bot]

i dont understand, the 70% cut feels like its never going to worth it

[@nightingale4786]

@@helper_bot well imagine getting paid 10k per of course episode you create for skillshare, you're looking at a 6 figure lump sum for only a 10 video course. so then, later on when you only get $15 dollars in residuals it doesn't seem that bad at all. (i'm pulling the numbers out of my ass ofc, idk how much they'd make but i feel like the instant large sum deal is probably why creators feel incentivized to make skillshare videos in the first place)

[@jasperjones6857]

Great to see this. I was really taken in, as good creators have been pushing this. I did think it was too expensive, but it's interesting to see that FREE KZbin videos are such a great way to learn coding. They once offered me a teaching spot, but my kid thought even that was a scam.

[@kenjimars]

PLEASE lower the volume of the ticker sound effect it’s way too loud and high pitched

[@irvinesunday1603]

I really appreciate this channel 💯! No ads, no product endorsements, no BS. Just straight talk! How do you even make bank bro?

[@tbxvividos]

Stories like this can be found about EVERY big KZbin sponsor. Every time I load up a video and start being told it's being sponsored by Magic Spoon and a creator I enjoy tells me how great the cereal tastes I remember all the reviews saying it's the worst tasting cereal in the world. Capitalism really is disgusting.

[@0n1c420]

There are so many problems with capitalism.

[@brendanthedreamer]

Personally I enjoy Magic Spoon lol

[@brytehagan9446]

@@brendanthedreamer damn they paying for KZbin comments now too

[@madensmith7014]

You sort of know that they're doing it for the ad. It's like customer service where smiles are more or less forced.

[@vincentdolente7053]

*actually its good for buisnesses* *pushes up glasses*

[@Deedeedoodad]

I remember signing up to an online art class by a youtuber and not being able to cancel my subscription and I watched a video on that here on KZbin and there were so many people that also couldn’t cancel 🤨 luckily my bank didn’t authorize automatic renewal. There just wasn’t a button to cancel or remove your bank information like the customer support said there was.

[@GC-ps9mn]

Huh that's weird. I just canceled my skillshare subscription and it wasn't hard at all. Just clicked cancel subscription.

[@Deedeedoodad]

@@GC-ps9mn I looked everywhere on the website like 15 times at least and the place where there’s supposed be a cancel subscription button is empty for me. I even tried on every single other device in my house

[@Spring_Forward_Fall_Back]

I went through the same thing trying to cancel Express VPN - no way to cancel except by emailing them (!), and then no cancellation receipt - no email or spam, no good ol' fashioned letter, nothing. So that company is on my nope list forever.

[@Herkan97]

@@Deedeedoodad Cancel button? Couldn't it be something you do by e-mailing them? That's a thing some companies do or did.

[@ohmyme13]

1:04 It bothers me that it says 1.7 avg rating, despite over 60% being 4+ stars. So I decided to calculate the avg myself: 5 stars - 50%, 4 stars - 13%, 3 stars - 3%, 2 stars - 2%, 1 star - 32%. (5 stars * 50%) + (4 stars * 13%) + (3 stars * 3%) + (2 stars * 2%) + (1 star * 32%) = 2.5 (stars) + 0.52 (stars) + 0.09 (stars) + 0.04 (stars) + 0.32 (stars) = 3.47 (stars) So, the weighted average of these ratings would be 3.47 stars.

[@MJ-98]

I at least thought that the classes on skillshare were taught by vetted professionals. Wow. I had a skillshare trial once and used it for one day. KZbin is literally superior, as you've said.

[@creamsiclecat]

I did have skillshare, and I did make use of it. I like the content of the classes I chose. But I found that I was moving back to youtube for more tutorials that were just as good at times. It was hard to keep it on knowing I could just use KZbin for 90% of tutorials. I didnt know about all of this other stuff tho. Thanks for making this video!

[@prathampekamwar8751]

The one thing I learnt is marketing is bad no matter who does it because nowadays it is just manipulation in disguise.

[@LogicallyAnswered]

Masters of persuasion and manipulation haha

[@Bulborb1]

Always has been.

[@KorianHUN]

Sadly either that or the even worse shit. Most people will fall for scams since public education pretty much failed.

[@CharDhue]

Always has been But now they're getting more good with Alot of talent pooping up everyday

[@raymondqiu8202]

what is you way of deciding what is good to buy then? im curious

[@okrajoe]

I like the promoters who imply a few Skillshare classes can teach you Quantum Mechanics or Graduate-Level Mathematics.