How to Make Money with an IT Exam Preparation Course Using a Private Telegram Channel

Arseniy has been working as an IT tutor since 2020. At some point, he got tired of paying for ads to find new clients, so he decided to search for them through social media. Gradually, most of his work moved to Telegram. We discussed how to monetize an educational course through a private Telegram channel.

About the Content

In my public channel, I post useful information and share my personal thoughts. The private channel, on the other hand, is like a paid course for preparing for the IT section of the Unified State Exam. The course lasts a year and will finish in May, just before the exams. The lessons take place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays via Zoom, and the lesson recordings are posted in the private channel. It also contains structured materials, homework, and solutions — like in an online school. If students have any questions, they can ask them in a special chat or message me directly. However, this is rare: only about five students per week do so, and often, the  other students answer these questions.

There is also a motivational section for students, which consists of 10-15 minute audio podcasts where I share advice — since students often feel pressure from their parents and school.

I have a small team: someone does time-coding for videos, others structure the content, but I film everything myself. Preparing content for the private channel doesn’t take much time. After the lesson, I post the recording within 15 minutes. The rest of the time, I create a couple of posts or polls. However, a lot of time is spent on teaching and filming videos. I don’t have lessons on Saturdays and Sundays, but I still manage to work 5-7 hours almost without breaks.

When I’m teaching, I’m open and honest. I’m not afraid to reveal my true personality :) A lesson can last for two hours, but afterward, I still spend another hour and a half just chatting with the students. I believe teaching is my calling.

About the Audience

My audience is 90% 11th graders, with a few 10th graders. By the way, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of girls recently! I also have one IT teacher and a few students who have already graduated from school and are studying at university but want to reapply. Right now, I have over 900 students in my course.

I don’t use paid advertising, and the entire audience for my private Telegram channel comes organically from my other platforms. It’s quite simple: I create videos with useful information for the exam and say at the end, "Join us on Telegram."

About the Money

The subscription costs 4100 rubles per month. This is significantly below the average market price, as I based the price on last year's mini-groups, where the price was the same. There are discounts for early subscribers. I don’t plan to expand monetization tools just yet: if a student pays 4100 rubles per month, I’m ready to share all useful information with them.

Just in May, I recorded a video in my diary, where I decided that in three years, I want to become a dollar millionaire. I evaluated the online school market and learned that some math or Russian language courses can have, for example, 8,000 students, each paying 4,000 rubles per month. I already have over 900 students, so it seems my goal is quite achievable.