FAQs for Creators

With your very own store, you will get to sell your products and engage with your very own customers just like how you would with a physical store. The best part? You can do it in the comfort of your own home and it is absolutely free (i.e. there is no set-up fee)! 

Ever dreamed of owning a business and set up your very own store? Time to realise that dream here at LEARND.online!

Here’s a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we have received and we think you might be interested in. We would be updating this list frequently based on YOUR questions so do drop us more questions should you have any.

1. “Why are you doing this?”

We believe in the power of a community and we also celebrate the capacity of every individual. We believe that many creative ideas and invaluable wisdom are residing in each person. All that is missing is a user-friendly platform to showcase these amazing masterpieces to the public! That’s what we hope to achieve: a commonplace where ideas are shared and rewarded. It’s our dream to promote and support more creators, like you, to share your work as a perfect source of passive income! 

2. “How much does it cost for me to get started?”

Nothing. Getting started on our platform is absolutely FREE!

We have decided that there should be NO set-up fees to encourage everyone to share your amazing ideas. In other words, you will NEVER lose money on our platform.

3. “How do you sustain your business then?”

We believe in the win-win mentality and hence we adopt the commission model to earn alongside your successful sales. This way, you will always earn and would not have to fork out any money to sustain your business. 

In order to keep our platform sustainable, we collect a commission of 20% for every successful transaction. These funds will help us maintain and improve our platform (e.g. servers and hosting fees, third-party services, etc), attract talents and develop our team, and ultimately, provide better service for you and our customers.

4. “Will you claim intellectual rights on my idea?”

NO. You own your ideas and deserve full ownership of your ideas. It is not ethical to claim other’s credit for oneself and we definitely do not endorse or practice that. 

5. “What if my idea was inspired by the work of others?”

It is common for ideas to be build from and on other ideas. As shared in the previous question, it is poor ethics to plagiarise and of which violates our terms of use. 

Here are a series of guidelines to help ensure that you do not run the risk of plagiarism:

1. Sufficiently improve on the initial idea(s) or synthesise numerous ideas such that it becomes a unique idea of its own
2. Credit the original owner(s) and source(s) of inspiration so that they, too, gain exposure with your sharing (win-win)
3. Understand licences (e.g. creative common) and contact the owners when in doubt. Perhaps you can work out some partnership deals and collaborate on the production of more great ideas!

6. “What will happen in the event of an intellectual rights dispute/report on inappropriate content?”

We trust that every creator on our platform is ethical and does not harbour the intent to plagiarise or cause harm. As such, we would allow all products to be hosted immediately upon uploading by default (so as to allow you to start earning immediately).

However, we understand that actual scenarios are not black or white but in multiple shades of greys. There may be black sheeps lurking in our midst or just genuine instances of oversight. Should such situations arise, we will evaluate each situation on a case-by-case basis and take on every necessary action required to rectify the issue. For more information, please refer to our terms of service.

7. “How can I attract people to my store?”

We liken LEARND.online as a shopping mall for teaching and learning resources and within which lies your store! As the new mall in (virtual) town, organic traffic may be modest so do share your store and products with your existing network of family, friends and students! With the network effect, our mall should gain more traffic from the people you and the other creators recommend and more traffic = increase chances for product-customer fit = more sales!

In terms of attracting visitors (window shoppers) to your products, it voices down to attractive offers! Offers can be in the form of competitive price, great content and responsive support. Also, providing informative and clear descriptions of the products also help build sufficient trust for shoppers to make a purchase. We are also working on features that will allow you as a store owner to design sales and discount campaigns! Additionally, should you wish to advertise your products, we are also working on designing advertisement panels to showcase your work so stay tuned!

Image credit: Justin Lim from Unsplash

As a bootstrap (self-funded) company, we are keeping our business lean and so we do not plan on spending an extensive amount of resources on marketing but we are confident that with the great products that you contribute along with a reliable and user-friendly platform, we would all be able to enjoy building this amazing and sustainable platform together.

8. “How are the payments/transactions handled?”

As with most online platforms, we rely on professionals to manage our payment gateway. We rely on Stripe (also used by Amazon, Google and Grab) to help ensure that transactions remain safe and secure. This is also why you will be required to set up a Stripe account upon registration with us as a Creator.

Upon check-out, your customer would be billed the listing price (set by you). It will take about 7 to 14 days for the fees to be transferred. As part of the refund policy which requires a request to be made within 7 days upon purchase, the funds will first be transferred to LEARND’s Stripe account before being released to your account should there be no request for refunds. This full process is summarised in Figure 1 as shown below.

Figure 1: Summary of flow of funds in a transection

* do take note of this fee and its corresponding charges on the customer since that can affect the percentage cost for them (e.g. listing price = S$1.00 plus platform fee = $0.70 would mean a 70% increase in cost for buyers)

9. “I have never run a business before. Any help?”

Having read this far into the FAQ is a great testament to your interest in exploring this exciting journey of getting started! Running a successful business takes effort, time and also some element of luck. Instead of aiming to get everything right on the first try (some lucky ones do), let’s see it as an exciting journey of learning and discovery. Plus, we are here to walk this journey alongside you! We would be creating resources (e.g. guides and tutorials) to recommend suggestions and support you through this journey. After all, our success is defined by you!

While it may seem daunting trying to figure out the pricing, designing, descriptions, customer engagement, etc., the goal here is to get started and keep posting! Through the iterations, you will discover your style and what works best for you and your audience. After all, we would suppose that you might already have some resources that you are ready to share! Instead of spending hours refining and polishing the product, put it out there (perhaps at a cheaper price or even free of charge) and gather feedback. While you gain experience and improve, you would also be establishing your presence and building trust with your audience! Should you need any suggestions, do drop us an email at [email protected] and we will be happy to support you in any way we can.

It will be a thrilling experience and trust us on this. Imagining earning your first successful sale from a casual idea which you have always kept in your mind! With no financial cost on your end, you can experiment as much and as long as your like so let’s get started!

Image credit: Clemens van Lay from Unsplash