How much I’ve earned so far from Insight Timer
I saw the dollar amount and thought I was hallucinating
In May 2023 — just a few months ago as I’m writing this story — one of my clients told me about an audio-based app called Insight Timer.
Until then, I had never heard of Insight Timer.
Turns out, Insight Timer is pretty popular.
The app gets around 500,000 visitors daily, mostly people looking for meditations, contemplative/self-development talks, help for sleeping better, and so on.
Insight Timer offers both free audios, which anyone can listen to, and premium audios that are behind a $60 per year Insight Timer Member Plus subscription.
You can attend live events for free, as well.
All of the longer courses on the app are included in the Member Plus subscription.
Since I’ve been a coach since 2016 — and have done both life coaching and business coaching — I already have a ton of audio material I’ve created that would be suitable for the Insight Timer audience.
“Why not?” I thought. “I’ll give it a try.” I applied to be a teacher, was approved, and I was ready to go.
First, I uploaded a couple of free audios just to see what would happen.
I saw that they received a few listens, and my follower count started to go up a little: from 0 to maybe 20.
I added another free audio. Not much changed in terms of follower count, although it was going up slowly.
Here are my first 2 earnings statements, taken directly from the emails I received from Insight Timer:
Your accumulated earnings until the end of May 2023 is USD$2.29.
Your accumulated earnings until the end of June 2023 is USD$3.16.
Hmmm. Not much. I didn’t even meet the $10 payout threshold.
I then decided to upload a couple of courses to see what would happen, knowing they would be part of the paid subscription on Insight Timer.
Although I had already recorded them previously, I had to make some fairly substantial edits to both of the audio courses in order to meet Insight Timer’s requirements.
I remember thinking, “I hope this extra work is worth it!”
As I’m writing this story, here is what Insight Timer says about how it pays teachers:
“We share 50% of all subscription revenue with our teachers (after the app store has taken a 30% commission). 70% of the income we shared with teachers is allocated to courses.
We calculate teachers’ earnings based on two metrics only:
Total play count (75%)
Teacher engagement (25%)”
The one frustrating aspect of the app is that, unlike Udemy, for example, you have NO idea what your revenue is at any point in time.
There is supposed to be a revenue report inside the app, but every time I look, it still says I’m at $0.
I then received my next earnings statement. I was … disappointed.
Your accumulated earnings until the end of July 2023 is USD$3.39.
I decided to add a couple more free audios and do some free live events to try to boost my follower count.
Not only did I enjoy hosting the live events, but I had a lot of attendees: around 80 for the first one, 160 for the second, and about 100 for the third.
My follower count started to rise and was now up to 85.
Plus, I had received $13 in donations from the 3 events, total.
But I noticed something in my Insight Timer stats that looked promising.
One of the two courses I had uploaded, called 28 Days of Simplicity, was attracting a lot of students.
Not only that, but students were asking questions — which I was then answering.
As a teacher, you can reply to student questions via voice or text. I chose text because it was faster and I could consider my words carefully.
Still, though, I couldn’t see any statistics at all related to revenue. So on Sept. 8, 2023, I decided to press the Pause button on adding anything else to Insight Timer until I got my next revenue report.
I stopped hosting free events or working on any more courses for the app.
Important to note: I did keep answering student questions and responding to new reviews.
Then, on Sept. 22, 2023, I received the shock of all shocks from Insight Timer.
I had just woken up from a fitful night’s sleep. My husband had been away for more than 2 weeks and was due to return later that day, and our elderly cat, Starbuck, was restless all night long: climbing on my head, occasionally putting her claws into my neck.
There was a thunderstorm overnight, too, which woke Starbuck and me a few times.
As I usually do first thing, I picked up my phone to see what time it was.
6 am.
Good. I can go back to sleep for a while longer after I feed the cat.
After giving Starbuck her breakfast and seeing if it was still raining (it was), I decided to look at the news headlines for a few minutes just to make sure France — where I now live — didn’t turn into “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” while my cat and I were struggling to sleep.
And at 6:10 am, I saw an email notification.
The subject line: Insight Network Inc has sent you $511.72 USD.
What?! Was I reading that right?
I grabbed my glasses just to make sure I was seeing clearly.
I couldn’t believe it.
My stats on the app aren’t even that good!
I’ll share all my stats in a moment, but first, I want to mention something important.
I have only been talking in this post about revenue from Insight Timer. What’s been really amazing about Insight Timer is the audience.
The interactions I had during the live events were some of the best of my coaching career.
The comments and questions that people have posted on my courses have been thoughtful, caring and appreciative.
Same with the reviews. Even when someone hasn’t given me the full 5 out of 5 stars, they always say “thank you.”
For the atmosphere alone, I would recommend that you give Insight Timer a try.
I should add that I haven’t received any potential coaching inquiries via Insight Timer, but the app is strict about NOT referencing anything you have that’s outside the app. So I wasn’t expecting to get those types of inquiries, although who knows what might happen if people search for me online after attending a talk or listening to a course?
Some data are impossible to glean from the app, so this is the best I can do.
As of the date of this story, here are my stats on Insight Timer.
Followers: 96
Free audios I’ve uploaded: 5, with plays around 200, total
Free audio ratings: average of 4.97 out of 5
Free events I’ve hosted: 3, with a total attendance of around 350. These are not available on the app as replays; they are only available live. I can watch the recordings, myself, but cannot download them.
Courses I’ve uploaded (part of the app’s subscription): 2
Course 1: 28 Days of Simplicity (28 audios plus an intro), 665 students, 25 questions that I’ve answered. Impossible to see the total number of plays, but it’s averaging around 45–50 plays per day. Rating: 4.88 out of 5
Course 2: Take the Leap (21 audios plus an intro), 235 students, 1 question that I’ve answered, averaging 35–40 plays per day. Rating: 4.83 out of 5
First ever payout, for Aug of 2023: $511.72.
Is $511 a ton of money? Well, it just covered the cost of mine and my husband’s annual French visa renewal.
Merci.
I’m on a path that I’ve called “passive aggressive income.”
My energy so far has been focused on two platforms: Udemy and Insight Timer.
I know the potential of Udemy and will continue to add at least 3 courses per month to the platform. It’s so much fun, and I’ve found a way to make it even MORE fun. More on that in another story later on.
But until now, I didn’t know the potential of Insight Timer.
I’m planning to add two more courses to Insight Timer in the next couple of weeks, paying attention to the fact that my course called 28 Days of Simplicity has been far more popular than the other one.
Do you use Insight Timer or publish on the app? Or have you thought about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and comments.
Onward we go …
And if we see any zombies in our neighborhood, Starbuck and I will take care of them. Her claws are lethal.
Thank you for reading this story. I invite you to read this story about the biggest mistake I’ve made in my coaching business.
Free gift: Click here to grab a printable, 25-page full-color ebook called You Have Permission. Print the pages and have the quotes ready for times when you need inspiration and encouragement. Use the coupon code PERMISSION to get it for free.
I also invite you to check out my offerings on Udemy and Insight Timer.
My books are on Amazon worldwide. You can find me online at www.maryinparis.com. Merci! XO Mary, aka Mary in Paris