The BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: LessonPathways.com is now FREE for EVERYONE to use!  Please read the message from our founder, Richard Rasmus, below:

NEWS

We have exciting news to share with you about the future of LessonPathways.com!

We have decided to transform the Lesson Pathways site from a paid subscription-based service to one that is advertising- and donation-supported. As a result, if you are currently a subscriber we are canceling all paid subscriptions and invite everyone to use LessonPathways.com at no additional expense.
I know that we have many satisfied customers who are actively using Lesson Pathways with their students.  If you feel that our service is of value to you, we ask that you consider contributing to support Lesson Pathways and help allow us to continue to bring you this valuable educational resource.

BACKGROUND

When Lesson Pathways first launched in August 2009, we initially offered free 12-month subscriptions for those who agreed to fulfill Beta Tester roles.  Within a 4 day time period, over 4000 users signed up for free accounts! The feedback we have received on our service since then has been phenomenal.  Unfortunately, once we moved to a subscription based system, the number of paid purchases we received not enough to cover our operating costs.

While we are confident that we are offering a top-notch service, we are attempting to sell our service during a very difficult economic time.  We have received many emails from families who would like to use our service, but are unable to do so due to tight household budgets.

We have spent many hours trying to find a solution – something that will help us cover our operating costs AND provide an educational tool to families who need our help.  We believe we have come up with a viable plan.  However, we will need your help – the help of the Lesson Pathways community – in order to make it work.

Our new approach, called a “freemium business model” is currently being used by sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Skype.  These sites offer a valuable free service, attract a very large number of users, and receive income when users click on affiliate and paid advertisements.  Over the course of the next few days we will switch Lesson Pathways over to a similar revenue model and we hope we can count on your support!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We are hopeful that by changing the fundamentals of how we operate, we can continue to improve and expand our educational offerings. In addition to considering making a donation to Lesson Pathways, we hope you will help us in the following ways:

Share Lesson Pathways with anyone you think might be interested in our free service: face-to-face, postings in online forums and blogs, and on Facebook, Twitter or any other social or educational network to which you belong.

Support our advertisers and sponsors and buy educational and other supplemental materials by clicking on affiliate links you find on our site, such as links for Amazon books displayed with the Pathways.  Also consider shopping through the Lesson Pathways Online Shopping Mall, where you will find a variety of popular online stores.

Contribute content and help us maintain our site.  There are numerous ways to share your thoughts about our service or the sites we feature, such as commenting on our pages or flagging broken links.  We also hope that more experienced users will help newcomers by answering questions and offering support on our user forum.  In addition, we hope those of you who have a keen interest in education will volunteer to help us create new content.  This can be done by offering guest blog entries, suggesting alternative sites to feature, or creating new Pathways that reflect your own interest, knowledge, and educational philosophy.

Thank you again for your support.  We hope you will continue to be a valuable part of the Lesson Pathways community and will help us during our transition period and beyond!

Please visit our Free Service FAQ’s Page or feel free to contact our customer service department at ContactUs@LessonPathways.com if you have any questions, comments or concerns you would like to discuss.