The best idea I've seen for an online business in a while - Well made cooking tutorials with a monetized twist.

But this isn't just a great idea because of the great cooking tutorials.  It's a great idea because selling education in this way will work and this is the way to do it.

How To's are somewhat of a tradition online.  I believe that How To articles are profitable online for 3 reasons:

1. They answer a question.  How To Do "something"

2. They are never perfect.  A great How To provides a complete set of steps to accomplish a task but leaves the reader / viewer wanting just a little bit more.  Hopefully, those readers and viewers click on your ads for more information.

3. Great How To's are full of great content that was not previously available online.  From How to Hack Your Roomba to How To Determine Database Cardinality, How To's add some of the best content available to the Internet.

So what's the big idea?

Rouxbe.com - it's a complete online cooking school.

Take one dash of video, add one part well written content, mix in a great segmented video player and you have the foundation to Rouxbe.com.

But wait, there is icing on this idea cake.  Take a close look at they way they monetize their content.  They give you a free sample to show you what great quality they have, start a lesson and give you a few free tips.  But if you want to know how to finish the recipe or want full access to their curriculum, you need to pay.

There's a 7 day all-access trial, integration with TastyPlanner (a wicked awesome cookbook that I use) and enough food to make you hungry at your desk.

Rouxbe differentiates itself from popular video sources such as The Food Network and Epicurious by saying that "you won't find celebrity chefs or millions of user generated recipes at Rouxbe but you will find hundreds of close up instructional cooking videos that focus on the food and learning how to cook it."

Posted via web from Rob Brown