Instructor Revenue Share

What This Recipe Does

This recipe creates a monthly performance-weighted distributor designed for LMS course platforms like LifterLMS and LearnDash. It splits a portion of your subscription revenue among instructors based on how much student engagement their courses generate. Instructors whose courses see more lesson and course completions earn a larger share of the monthly pool.

The model rewards instructors who create compelling, completable content. Rather than paying a flat rate or splitting revenue equally, this distributor ties compensation directly to student outcomes. Instructors have a clear incentive to produce courses that students actually finish.

Who It’s For

• LifterLMS and LearnDash site owners running a multi-instructor platform who want to automate revenue sharing based on student engagement
• Online course marketplace operators building a Udemy-style or Teachable-style experience on WordPress where instructor pay reflects course quality
• Membership site owners who feature courses from multiple educators and need a fair, performance-based compensation model

How It Works

When you apply this recipe, Siren creates a distributor shell configured for monthly, performance-weighted payouts. The distributor uses the performanceSharedPool resolver, meaning each instructor’s share is proportional to their engagement score relative to all other instructors.

After applying the recipe, configure three things in your Siren admin. First, set up two metric tracking events: courseCompleted with a point value of 10, and lessonCompleted with a point value of 1. This weighting means a full course completion counts ten times more than a single lesson completion, rewarding instructors whose students see courses through to the end. Second, set the revenue percentage that defines the pool. For instructor-driven platforms, 25-50% of qualifying revenue is typical. Third, configure the commission pool filters to include only subscription revenue, keeping one-time product sales or other income streams separate from the instructor pool.

Once everything is configured, the system operates on autopilot. Siren tracks lesson and course completions throughout the month, builds each instructor’s score, and distributes the accumulated pool on the first of the following month. An instructor whose courses generated 40% of all tracked completions receives 40% of the pool.

{
  "version": 1,
  "name": "Instructor Revenue Share",
  "description": "Monthly revenue distribution among course instructors, weighted by student engagement with their courses.",
  "distributors": {
    "instructorShare": {
      "name": "Instructor Revenue Share",
      "description": "Splits a percentage of monthly subscription revenue among instructors based on course and lesson completion metrics.",
      "distributionResolver": "performanceSharedPool",
      "distributionPoolResolver": "revenueSinceLastDistribution",
      "status": "active",
      "units": "USD",
      "schedule": ["first day of next month"]
    }
  }
}