Managing an online learning platform can be a rewarding venture. After all, your e-learning business provides an avenue to learn new skills that can help users pursue higher education. Factors such as accessibility and flexibility of being able to take online courses, allow members to learn at their own pace. But how can you earn from this type of business? Find out below:

Donation Buttons

Education is a necessity, and because of e-learning platforms, almost anyone in the planet can now learn by simply having access to the internet. Wikipedia is a great example of providing accessible information, with site maintenance purely funded by donations.
Advantages
– Setting up donation buttons will allow donors to sponsor and contribute to your site to help you continue providing e-learning services.
Disadvantages
– Not a stable source of income.

Subscription Model

Another way to monetize your online certification platform is to implement a subscription model. Members will only be able to access full courses by subscribing to a certain recurring fee. Depending on how you distribute your content, subscribers are commonly charged monthly or yearly fees.

Premium Access

A type of subscription model that offers members access to exclusive content or special VIP access and perks to its subscribers. A one-time payment is usually implemented for Premium Access.

Corporate / Group Accounts

This type of subscription model offers multiple access to users under one entity (such as a company or a school). Some e-learning platforms offer batch discounts, depending on the number of members to be listed under this account.
Advantages
– A stable source of income.
Disadvantages
– Amount of subscribers will depend on the quality of your content. You will need to make sure that you are constantly providing updated courses (ex. updated tutorials whenever a new version of a software is released), and that you have industry experts/certified practitioners teaching the courses.

Pay-per-Course

With a pay-per-course model, you can entice members to pay for premium content (material submitted by industry experts) by offering free and advanced courses on your e-learning platform. This way, members still get to access content, and will only pay for the premium learning content if they need to. An example of an online learning platform that makes use of the pay-per-course model is iversity.
Advantages
– Customers get to have a personalized learning experience by having the power to choose which content to learn.
Disadvantages
– Not a stable source of income, depends on the quality and relevance of the offered course.
– As compared to subscription models, can be frustrating for members who need to pay multiple times to access several courses.

Online Advertising

You can also implement online advertising such as web banners or video ads to monetize your e-learning website. Educational content such as course videos and ebooks can also be integrated with advertising spots. Additional advertising can also be done by writing blog articles, with topics that can range from new courses, study tips, e-learning updates and FAQs on subscribing for an online course.
Advantages
– Easy implementation.
– Members don’t need to pay in order to complete course.
Disadvantages
– Can distract/turn-off members from taking the e-learning platform seriously.
– To start getting a stable and good profit, you need a lot of users visiting your website everyday.

Selling Additional Content

Support materials such as classroom tools/systems, course softwares, online learning tools, etc. can be sold for additional revenue. Moreover, you can partner with third-party suppliers (ex. SaaS businesses) to advertise and/or provide the additional content to be sold on the website.
Advantages
– Your website is now a one-stop learning site.
– Products can be bundled together for subscription promos/premier access benefits.
Disadvantages
– You need to find additional goods to sell, or find a partner that will allow you to sell their products on your platform.
– Retail services may not be your expertise.

Affiliate Marketing Programs

E-learning websites can also earn revenue by joining an affiliate program. Commission can be earned by setting up links that will redirect their traffic to partnered websites.
Advantages
– Pure monetization of traffic.
– No need to set up any payment gateways.
Disadvantages
– Users may leave your website in favor of the affiliate.
– You will need to find relevant partners.

Monetize with Paymentwall

E-learning services can monetize their services by offering multiple options for their members to pay. Paymentwall, an online payment platform, has integrated over 130 payment methods to allow online learning sites to offer their students convenient and flexible ways to pay. Also, Paymentwall has access to 180 countries in the world, giving e-learning sites an opportunity to expand globally.

Monetize your e-learning business with Paymentwall. Integrate a payment platform for your business today. Simply send us an email at bizdev@paymentwall.com to set started.