I have to confess that I’ve always felt like tutor matching sites leech off the hard work that tutors actually do. Especially the services that take a cut of the hourly rate (Wyzant takes *cough* 40% from their “certified” tutors !) But when I read about hard work that you put into making your site work, I see that you are really trying to do something good while make a living for yourself :)

I think you are on the right track with charging a monthly service fee to tutors who post a listing on your site. Most tutors won’t bother with a site that charges anything more than a flat service fee. I mean, when you can meet students face to face and ask for cash at the end of the lesson, why would you go through the rigamarole of an online payment system? Also, since there are plenty of free advertising resources (craigslist, posting flyers) $5-$9 a month is probably the maximum anyone would pay for a listing. Just a tutor’s opinion.

At least I think you have a pretty stable model, something not easily abused by tutors, nor perceived as an abuse.

I don’t know how stable something like Wyzant’s model is. If I had a listing there, as soon as I met the student for the first time, I would make an agreement to cut out the middleman and tell the student pay me directly from then on. For example, if the student paid $40 through Wyz for the first lesson, I would only get $24. But if we made a deal to have lessons at $30 an hour, the student and I would both come out ahead. I bet most tutors who use Wyz actually do just that!

Anyway, sorry for the long comment! Thanks for sharing your insights and thought processes. I have really learned quite a bit about this aspect of tutoring businesses and how to run a website. Good luck with your projects!

I just read through this entire series. Great info in here, thanks for sharing. I will be following you from here on.

Just wondering, is 144 the total number of people who use your site or did u just use portion of the users for a sample size?

Wes

http://www.shirtjax.com/index.aspx.

it is an online marketplace for indie t-shirt designers and small labels to sell directly to a vibrant community

i welcome any feedback you have & i’m very stoked that you’ll take a look.

I’ve been reading your blog like the Bible and basically walking in your footsteps as I get shirtjax up and running.

Thanks for publishing your results and progress with your sites and good luck!