How teachers/creators think about generating sustainable income?
Current conditions due to COVID-19 have forced a lot of us to think about generating a side income. As an engineer and curious mind myself, I have been thinking more about creators, teachers, and artists to empower them with the right set of tools. Traditionally most of them just think about selling online courses or some resources, but I believe building a community and keeping an active audience around you is the new moat and a key factor in generating a steady income. Students are looking for a learning experience and connect with other students who are on the same journey, not just 'buy' courses.
So I started thinking, if a teacher or a creator wants to generate a side income today and build a subscription-only community around them, what tools do they have available today? This thought took me on a journey to research current tools and I realized that you quickly end-up with a fragmented solution by piecing things together, such as Wordpress, Skillshare, YouTube, Stripe, Zoom, Slack, etc. There is no single platform that allows one to publish courses and resources, have a discussion board, host events, etc. all under one roof and allow them to sell it as a subscription-based community.
We are thinking of building such a platform. Trusting modern creators and teachers can find it valuable.
Please share your thoughts. What do you think? What are the things we should include?
Hi Naveen,
What an exciting vision you have! Creating a centralized platform that integrates various elements like course publishing, discussion boards, events hosting, and subscription management is indeed a game-changer.
As someone deeply immersed in the education space, I resonate with the idea that the future is not just about selling courses but fostering a community of learners. I think this is a great idea! Cheers!
There are already platforms that allow you to do this: for example Mighty Networks, Circle or Palapa.
Building something very similar :) I think this space is going to be very exciting.
The way I look at it - Teachable, Podia, Thinkific in combination with FB group / WA group do allow you to do this currently. But the right balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning is very difficult to arrive at for a teacher. Here is an example - https://thomgibson.thinkific.com/courses/how-to-teach-kids-about-money