[openmind]

Hi Eric, you are perfectly right and agree with everything you've said. You need a clear and detailled business plan that covers at least the following points:

- your target market(s)

- the benefits and value your target group receive from and through your site

- your business model (advertising, selling products and services, free content and features to build a community and network)

- technical requirements and development of new features

- synergy elements and partnerships

Might not make dramatic reading but if you write everything down as detailled as possible you will see that you can't fail and that you can create much more value through your site than you would ever be able by teaching the convential way. Teaching means you get paid per hour, for your input. Creating a website and viewing it as business rather than a hobby means you will get paid for the output (the outcome) and you will get paid many times and not per time unit. When you stop teaching what happens to your income? When you take the time and energy to create a business in your head and then write it out (this might take several weeks or months or sometimes years), you create a tool, a system that will function even without you because you enable other people to participate. When you teach, you basically are own your own. Maybe there is a the director of your school but he or she might be more concerned with administration than with creating more value. When you see your website as a business, you can generate value for more than just your students...