I'm hesitant to comment here as I think I represent the evil establishment. I took 7 years of latin in high school & college. We did plenty of Vergil & Homer & Ovid. I have a PhD (biochem) & MBA. I teach the occassional class at a University. I'm a big fan of education in all of its forms. I'm also a major supporter of entrepreneurship, so certainly embrace the idea of starting your own business. $10 per month is certainly a miniscule amount to dedicate to a new business. There is a lot of good advice above on ways to monetize your site or deal with your boyfriend. I will only comment on your proposed educational materials.
In looking through your materials, I am a bit bewildered. When I have chosen my teachers, one thing that I personally always sought out was some expertise in the subject matter being taught (business experience for MBA, research for science, martial arts credentials, etc.). Your bio as currently outlined suggests that your boyfriend (a mathematician) has better reading comprehesion and analytic skills than you do, yet you are the one designing the classes. This does not inspire confidence. As you move to paid classes, this may kill your business if you do not line up more course facilitators with more impressive credentials-either scholastic or professional.
Since this is marketed as an alterative to a traditional BA, if people are going to pay for your classes, what do they get at the end? They won't be getting a degree so you need to provide them something else, ideally skills. So what skills will they have at the completion of each course? or the entire course of study? For example, in my MBA program I took a class called "lauching technology ventures" where I learned to write business plans for technology companies (marketing, pro-forma financials, how to write an executive summary, what financing options would be best, etc.) It was team taught by venture capitalists, PhDs in accounting, local entrepreneurs who lauched successful companies, etc. who between them had all of the necessary skills and expertise to teach this material. This was just one class of many where I knew from the class outline what tangible skills I should be able to expect by the end of the class. Many of my classes were available either in the classroom or on-line. How do you plan to differentiate your course offerings from accredited institutions with on-line self paced learning? Since my MBA was from a state school, the tuition was only about $900 per class (under grad classes were cheaper). Not much more than you plan to charge, but with the difference that I'd have another piece of paper at the end that continues to have some value in the working world.
Many Universities are now offering degree completion programs to the non-traditional students you plan to market your classes to. How will you compete with these accredited institutions who offer night and weekend classes to older working parents to finish their degrees? How are your planned classes different or better? How is your program different than say a book club where all the participants are reading books together and discussing what they learned (as you mentioned you planned to learn along with the other participants in your bio)? <-- note I'm not saying that this is not an effective way to learn only that I'd personally be hesitant to pay to join a book club where the facilitator had no more knowledge than I did on the subject.
In spite of my perhaps pointed comments & questions, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.
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