AKA: Paid Online Trainings
Payments from individuals for an online course about the open-source software from the maintainer(s). Often one-time payments for one course, but ad revenue from video platforms such as youtube etc. is an alternative.
Requires:
Variants & Options:
| Characteristics | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Effort to set-up | Weeks | Creating a complete course is a lot of work |
| Effort to maintain | Medium | Updating the course or continuously creating short videos is time-consuming |
| Cost to set-up | None | Depends on quality: can include camera, greenscreen, etc. |
| Cost to maintain | None | Hosting the course might cost a little bit (but should be covered by income) |
| One-time Income | Low | Courses are relatively cheap for learners |
| Recurring Income | Medium | Up-to-date courses are popular with individuals and employers |
| Income Predictability | Low | Constant reminders to course might be necessary. Youtube might bring new customers |
| Full income Threshold | 500+ | clients per month; Youtube CPM is 1-5 USD; |
| Recipient | I/C | Depends on who contributes to the course(s) |
| Additional Work | Medium | Extra time to create and update course |
| Visibility | Medium | Easy to oversee. Youtube might increase reach |
| Necessity to pay | Low | Might increase with the complexity and wide-spread use of the software |
| Entry Threshold | Low | Credit card is sufficient |
| Scalability | Medium | Scales with the number of users (who want to learn) |
| Countervalue | 1xWork | Creation and update of course is time-consuming |
| Effort for marketing | Medium | Customers might find course via platform / google |
| Competitors | O | Everybody can create a online course to the OSS |
| Software types | Big SW | Better for big, complex and widely-used software |
NOTE: Potentially, “unofficial” online courses can also be issued by non-maintainers (i.e., just expert), which could increase the competition.