I was thinking about college while in the shower yesterday (too much info? If so, I'm sorry. 
) and about how there are a lot of schools I'm considering that are pretty far away.
I thought about visiting them, but then I came to the conclusion that it's probably not worth spending $500 in travel expenses to visit a school that I may or may not get into. Even if I go, I'd just go on a guided tour and check out a few things on my own. I figured that this wasn't worth $500 unless I'm accepted into the school and really considering attending.
Then, it hit me: Put guided campus tours online.
I thought about it further. People take college searching pretty seriously -- especially where I live. $500 in travel expenses is a pretty good sum of money. $30 for a preliminary seems very realistic.
These are the details of thought of for this idea thus far:
I think this is something I will look into once I get my other business's development completed. Speaking of which, I really need to get a merchant account set up today! :smx4:
Feel free to post any comments, thoughts, or criticisms. As always, thanks!
) and about how there are a lot of schools I'm considering that are pretty far away.I thought about visiting them, but then I came to the conclusion that it's probably not worth spending $500 in travel expenses to visit a school that I may or may not get into. Even if I go, I'd just go on a guided tour and check out a few things on my own. I figured that this wasn't worth $500 unless I'm accepted into the school and really considering attending.
Then, it hit me: Put guided campus tours online.
I thought about it further. People take college searching pretty seriously -- especially where I live. $500 in travel expenses is a pretty good sum of money. $30 for a preliminary seems very realistic.
These are the details of thought of for this idea thus far:
- When you go to a school for a visit, you are usually put into a group with a student of the school who will serve as a guide. I figured that since they do this for free anyway, they shouldn't have a problem with submitting one to a website (mine) to reach a greater amount of prospective students -- especially if they believe in their school. This is the school's opportunity to SELL their campus and institution.
- In addition to these organized campus tours, we would welcome videos posted by students that give more of an idea of what the campus (and campus life) are about.
- We would offer yearly subscriptions (because that's usually about how long people search for schools for) for about $30. I've also thought about offering high school memberships for about $1,500/year. Price point is still something I'm undecided upon thus far.
- As I've mentioned, I think this solves a need in a reasonable manner. It's not overly expensive, and I don't see any potential setbacks in the demand for this type of product/service. Kids will always be getting ready for college, and they will always be interested in schools far away from their own.
- Aside from building and housing the site, this would not be too costly as far as startup goes. The videos would be provided by the schools, which wouldn't cost anything to us. This would essentially be our inventory. While it may be difficult to get schools interested at first, once others begin to budge, their competitors will likely follow suit.
- Highly scalable (selling memberships has no cost to me!) and fairly passive, given that I would not be selling a tangible product.
- Stable customer base. Can earn return customers for future kids.
- Not much competition out there other than sites that offer virtual tours with 360 degree views.
- Many campuses out there; I would have to be able to sell my idea to them in order to succeed.
- Could take a bit of time to get set up.
- This COULD be available in places like YouTube for free, so quality will have to be high in order to maintain position in industry. Universities may also eventually offer this for free on their own sites if they do not already.
I think this is something I will look into once I get my other business's development completed. Speaking of which, I really need to get a merchant account set up today! :smx4:
Feel free to post any comments, thoughts, or criticisms. As always, thanks!
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