Monetising an e-Learning solution

I am currently researching e-Learning, and I'm hoping to launch a service similar to Khan Academy in the next year. It would offer learning tools for students all over the world. How should such a service be monetised (i.e. start to make a profit) over time? How feasible is it?

Monetization Learning

asked Dec 18 '11 at 23:49

Methuselah
105 points

Please read the site FAQ. Your question is too open-ended, the intention is for questions to be specific to a problem with reasonably limited scope. Ultimately, the answers to your two questions form a large part of your business plan. You may well find your question closed down. I would suggest researching this yourself first and posting your findings, then you might have a more specific question(s) and people answering see you've made the effort, rather than that looks a little like "Please write my business plan for me". – David Benson 12 years ago

1 Answer

There are 2 main ways to monetize an online product:

Advertising supported.
Pros: Easy to get started with products like AdSense (Google's platform). If/when your traffic gets a steady/high traffic (over a million impressions a month) you could try to sell ads at higher rate or get sponsorship deals.
Cons: It will probably not be enough to cover the cost of operations in the early years (sorry, yes it could take a few years to start making profit) unless traffic grows fast.
Subscription-based.
Pros: Users subscribing to service is pretty much proof that your product/service is something needed and users are willing to pay for. This model can help you cover expenses early on.
Cons: It's easier to grow a business by offering your product for free and getting feedback on the product first. Processing subscriptions will require at a minimum a PayPal or Google checkout and eventually you want to be able to accept credit cards, so that requires some development time.

answered Feb 16 '12 at 12:43

Webbie
2,835 points