Notes FAQ

Why should I publish my notes here?

1. StudentVIP is huge. It has over half a million student members, so its the largest university website and community in Australia. Our massive website traffic and membership community will deliver the most sales of your notes.
2. StudentVIP is trusted. Services like StudentVIP Textbooks and the Lost On Campus App help thousands of uni students every year. StudentVIP has a reputation for delivering useful high quality services to students.

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Who can sell notes?

Anyone who has completed a subject is eligible to sell notes. However, we only publish very high quality notes.

Probably only 10% of students create beautifully thought through, well researched, easy to read subject notes. If that’s you - we’d like to publish you!

But guess what - many of these students think their notes aren’t good enough!

They just assume everyone does organised thoughtful notes. If you are not sure, there is no harm in submitting them to our moderators. It’s a private process. If one set of your notes doesn’t make the cut it’s not the end of the earth. Try it and see.

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Do you accept all notes submitted?

No.

We have a team of moderators who look at each upload individually and determine if it is up to the standard we require. If you are not sure if yours are good enough, just submit them anyway - sometimes we find students are too hard on themselves and actually have brilliant notes.

However, moderators will not accept any material that are not your subject notes, such as assignments or work that is required to fulfil a course such as projects or exam responses won't be published.

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How long do notes take to be moderated?

It generally takes a week for the notes to be moderated. For a speedier moderation, we recommend you follow the guidelines before uploading. It's also important to include a thorough description - not only will this help sell your notes, it means our moderators can approve your notes quickly!

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How much can I make?

You can price your notes between $14 and $99. The average is $39. You get 70% of the sale price. The site takes a 30% commission. This rate compares well with other sites that take 50% from authors. Ouch!

Note, we may in the future help market everyone’s notes by offering a discount voucher code. We only do this to encourage mores sales of your notes. In this case, the sale price is reduced by the discount amount and you receive the reduced sale price.

The maximum discount code we will issue will be 30%.

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How can I make more?

That's easier than you think;

• upload other subjects you have done high quality notes for.
• Write good descriptions (one line descriptions don't impress potential buyers).

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How can I write good notes?

Take a read of Claire Brown's article on the best, most effective way to take notes for some great pointers on writing effective, quality notes.

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Is this legal?

Yes.

As long as the subject notes are a mixture of your research and thinking from multiple sources (eg lectures, textbooks, private research), you are legally the author of a new work and have the right to sell it. We will not accept any material that are not subject notes, such as assignments or work that is required to fulfil a course such as projects or exam responses.

Even better, it’s a good thing to do. Not only do other students get to review their subject from a different perspective, they can also learn to write better notes themselves. Someone with a pass-average may have never seen what a distinction-average student’s notes look like.

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Can I sell essays and assignments?

No.

Why? Essays and assignments can be handed in and potentially be passed-off as someone’s work when it isn’t. We don’t want assist plagiarism. By comparison, subject notes help you study and are not handed in for assessment.

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Can I sell exams?

No.

Exams questions are written by the university and belong to them. Often universities also require that students agree that the answers also belong to them.

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What is the difference between “lecture notes” and “subject notes”.

If your notes are just a verbatim record of the course lectures, and yours are the same as every person in the lecture, you haven’t created a unique work. The site doesn’t accept lecture notes. “Subject notes” are considered a new work, if your notes are different to others and are a result of your thinking of ways to summarise a topic based on multiple sources of information (eg lectures, textbooks, research).

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Can I submit my work on multiple sites?

No.

For us to offer you 30% commission, we require you in return publish your notes exclusively with StudentVIP and with no other sites. Breaching this term forfeits all revenue you have earned on the site and exposes you to a larger damages claim.

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How do I get paid?

Easy!

Login and go to Notes, then My Activity. From there you can see your listed notes, sales history and payment transfer history.

After your receive a sale, there is 4 day grace period before the funds are released to request a payment transfer. Click the link marked “Request transfer” and we will transfer funds into your bank account within 14 days (usually faster).

Your account will show the transfer and adjust your available balance.

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What formats do you accept for uploads?

PDF.

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Who buys the notes?

1. People curious to see what a really good set of notes look like. They want to learn how to better summary notes themselves.
2. People who are time poor and want a faster way to do exam prep. The crammers!
3. People who missed some topics during the year.
4. Keen students who are keen to do extra prep for an exam and decide reading their own notes for the 5th time, or the textbook again and again wont help as much as seeing someone else’s perspective on the subject.