Frequently Asked Questions
Who is behind make.courses?
This platform was founded by James Maniotis & Matt Barnicle in order to build a friend's custom video training platform for which no suitable alternatives existed (or exist to this day).
What is make.courses?
make.courses is a collection of automation, micro-service scaffolding, open source projects, and our own apps. They come together to produce a platform that can manage your customers, up-sell to your customers, implement your custom website, serve a private tiered community to your customers, serve your custom videos (via subscription & one-time payments), and much more.
What technical specifications are your infrastructure built on?
NodeJS, Ghost, NodeBB, Stripe API, Docker, NextJS, MongoDB, Linux. The default video hosting is done via Vimeo, but you may choose to host your own videos for your make.courses instance.
Where are your server(s) located?
Anywhere you like. We do managed hosting for clients who want that. It is quick & simple to transfer your VPS into your own account or even host on-premise. It is the same stack of services either way.
What do you offer in terms of business setup assistance?
A constant problem with international entrepreneurship is how to receive payments from customers in a reasonable way. That means: supporting most of their payment methods, and then eventually receiving the money at your bank without loads of currency conversions & fees. We continue to work with experts in many domiciles to ensure flexibility and optimal configurations.
In many cases this means creating a US LLC, a US Stripe account, and receiving your payments in USD into a US bank account that is owned by your company.
Platforms are censoring content?
A concern for many is not so much about politics or free speech. Many mainstream platforms are now often censoring, shadow banning, down-regulating, and generally being unfair to many whom rely upon them for their own livelihood. We do not think of this as a "problem with technology," but rather a misuse of technology and strategic anti-competitive behavior.
Some platforms that we have heard of committing one of these offenses include, but are not limited to:
- Facebook
- Parler
- Instagram
- Twitter
- YouTube
- Google
- MailChimp
- PayPal
- AirBnB
- Patreon
- Amazon
- Apple
- Rokfin
- Plenty more (you may email us with documentation to add suggestions that deserve infamy)...
By what mechanism(s) may I release videos to my customers?
Subscription: In our system, you are able to release videos to customers @ 1 video per week for a defined amount of time. You may charge customers per video, per month, or per year.
Non-Subscription: You are able to provide videos for purchase individually or as a set using modules.
Any New Mode: Considering our system is flexible, we may decide to implement your custom video unlocking schedule. Just get a free consultation with us to see.
That is the power of make.courses. You can work with us to create a platform that works best for you!
Am I eligible for make.courses?
This is not a cloud platform where customers each receive identical infrastructure & features. Inflexible systems like teachable.com already exist...
We require any new customer to have a minimum of 50K followers on the social media platform you use for sharing your educational content.
We also reserve the right to refuse customers who we believe are not actually producing "educational" videos. Yes, that is open to our interpretation of "educational."
Why don't you make this website look like a make.courses platform with live demonstrations?
This is our info site about our product and services. We're currently focused on our clients and the software they need updated and improved - rather than on marketing. In the future we are considering implementing an easy-to-use SaaS-like offering so you can easily launch instances of make.courses via our website.