Lessonface Fees and Formats

From the over half-a-million lessons Lessonface has hosted over the past ten years between over 30,000 students and 2,000 teachers, we observe that students enjoy learning in a mix of formats: private lessons, group classes, performances, self-paced courses, and handouts. They may explore multiple topics, and, as they advance in one pursuit, start exploring related matters. Likewise, advanced teachers of some subjects may be students of others. We are building our ecosystem to support individual learning paths in a way that aims to be respectful and productive for all members of the community, as befits our mission.

Fees by Format and Source of Student

Here is a summary of teacher earnings on Lessonface activities*, after Lessonface's Platform Fees are deducted. Existing Lessonface teachers can set or check their rates for each format following the links in the table. If you are not yet a Lessonface teacher, use the sign up button just below to get started.

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Payment Timing

Private Lesson and Group Class payouts are issued weekly on Fridays for activity completed by midnight on Thursday.

The new-in-2024 formats of Self-Paced Courses, Downloadables, and Community Share payouts will be calculated and issued within 15 days of the end of each month for successful activities that occurred in the month. We anticipate being able to speed up these payouts by end of 2024 as we continue to develop these new features.

Outreach Tools for Creating and Tracking Referral Links

Teachers can manage their referral links, create new ones, and view referral registration information via their Outreach page. Visit your Outreach page from the green left-hand menu, under Profile, or from the Outreach panel on your dashboard. Your primary referral link, which is the one shown on your dashboard, will lead students to your teaching profile.

Teachers can now create additional referral links for group classes, courses, and other Lessonface pages from their Outreach page, or by using the chain-link icon that now appears in the green left-hand menu on the pages that are optimal for sharing.

Here's how the referral system works: Users who register for Lessonface following your referral links are recorded as your referrals in our system, and you not only have a very low fee charged on the private lessons, group classes, and self-paced courses those students book with you -- with the Community Share, you also earn 5% of any successful bookings your recruits make with other teachers' private lessons, group classes, and self-paced courses on Lessonface, up to $100 per referral. Read on for more about the Community Share. 

Viewing the Source of Your Lessonface Contacts

To view the referral source of your student contacts on Lessonface, you will need to be in Lessonface Beta. You can check if you are in Beta by clicking the beaker icon at the bottom left-hand green menu. If it says "Turn Beta Off," you are already using Beta. If it says "Try Beta," you are not using Beta, but we'd suggest you do (you can always switch it back again later).

Once you have Beta turned on, navigate to your student contacts, using the star in the left-hand green menu, or from your dashboard. On each student contact, you will see referral information. Three possible referral sources may be shown: Lessonface, Lessonface Community (representing that someone in the Community helped get you the student, and will be earning the Community Share on this student's bookings) and Self, meaning activities with the student will be at the lower self-referral fees. 

More About the Community Share

Through the Community Share, we seek to encourage teachers (and other community members) who recommend other teachers' instructional activities on Lessonface when the circumstances make sense, thereby creating an even more collaborative and rewarding environment for all.

A new program started in December of 2023, the Community Share is a payout on bookings that students, friends, family, or other recruits of yours make with other teachers, similar to an affiliate program.

Example 1: Let's say you are a violin teacher, and a student you recruit to Lessonface decides to broaden their musical aptitude by taking up voice lessons with a vocal coach on Lessonface in addition to their violin lessons with you. You are earning 95% of the violin lesson tuition for this student, as one of your referrals. Now you will also earn 5% of the voice lessons they take with the vocal coach. (The voice teacher in this example continues to make the standard 85% of their regular lesson rate.)

Example 2: You are an Italian teacher and create a great set of flashcards for learning common expressions in Italian, which you set up as a free Downloadable. You share it widely and successfully around the internet with your referral link. Students who sign up for the free flashcards following your link are marked as your referrals, and you gain access to their contacts on Lessonface for following up with them, if you like. Lessonface's fee is only 5% on lessons those folks book with you. Bookings they make with other teachers - for Italian, voice, drawing, etc, on the platform will earn you 5% of those lessons.

Example 3: You are a guitar teacher going on a vacation in Italy and sign up for the Italian expressions flashcards from the above example and think they're very useful. You create your own referral link to the flashcards sign-up page (look for the chain-link icon in the green left-hand column to create your own referral links to any public pages at Lessonface). You share it widely and successfully around the internet with your referral link. Students who sign up for the free flashcards following your link are marked as your referrals. The teacher who created the flashcards gains access to their contact on Lessonface. Lessonface's fee is only 5% on guitar lessons those folks book with you. Any bookings they make with other teachers - for Italian, voice, drawing, etc, on the platform will earn you 5% of those lessons, up to $100 per referral.

Guitar teacher Sam Marvin called it the "mutliverse kickback," which is arguably a better name.

The Lessonface Community Share program is not just for teachers. We are inviting other Lessonface Community members - students, like-minded brands, influencers, etc, to likewise participate and help spread the word. See how it works for non-teachers.

*Programming of our partners like Loog Guitars, the MET Orchestra, John C Campbell Folk School and others may be subject to different arrangements which are discussed and agreed upon with participating teachers separately.

**Existing private lesson referral fee relationships will continue to be retained.