Job Discussion Forums

[Gerund]

Can anyone give me some advice about online teaching? From what I see, there are a number of companies which do this, and some seem quite professional and successful because they seem to be in need of new teachers, but the pay is generally abysmal�not much more than minimum wage.

I�m highly qualified and experienced. I currently earn a salary far in excess of minimum wage, but in a country that I really don�t like living in. I want to return to the USA and be able to support my family there. Is there a way to get into online teaching and attract students who are able and willing to pay more for what I have to offer?

I�m interested in either working through a company or setting it up privately, but if I go the private route, how do I reach potential students?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[santi84]

I'm in Canada, not the US. Unfortunately, I don't think I could trust an online teaching income to support my family. I am not the primary wage-earner, my husband is, so I feel secure in online-only teaching, but I couldn't if I was the breadwinner. I would feel the same way about private lessons (in-person) as well.

Have you checked out more reputable companies such as Myngle? I know a lot of companies offer peanuts but some do offer more (again, still not sure if it's something I would gamble to support a family on).

What kind of qualifications do you have? If you want to move back to North America and support a family, would you be open to teaching in a public school (or private) and use online teaching as a supplementary income?

[naturegirl321]

misterbrownpants did, but no longer posts here. hollysuel does (did?) and occasionally posts here. It's hard though. Seems like most places just provide the platform and have a couple of popular teachers that take all the students. MIght try setting something up on your own?

[scot47]

The teacher won't make the big bucks..if there are any $$$$$$s in it, the money will be made by the provider of this "service".

[coledavis]

There are lots of people doing this and I think it is expanding because of the recession. So unless you can conjure up a cult following, I would say that this strategy seems unlikely to succeed. During boom times, it is usually financially better to stay at home; during the bust I think it is the reverse.

Re getting the cult following, it depends on what your qualifications are and just how marketable they are to TEFL students. E.g. business, science and management WITH teaching experience and maybe you're talking. Perhaps you could tell us what your qualifications are and we can comment on their marketability in TEFL.

[sisyphus]

It's interesting Ive heard of a few people setting up these online teaching websites, but I haven't come across many students who use them. Maybe the market is more geared to China etc rather than Europe. It could be a boom market in the future but I think the lack of real interpersonal relations will hinder your chances of maintaining students for the long term. As ColeDavis said if you have exceptional skills i.e can do specialist areas such as Banking, Business, maybe theres a market. I read one post that a certain firm is taking on hundreds of online teachers but can't remember where it was or name of company, sorry.Somewhere on Daves.

[MsBlackcurrant]

I've been thinking of doing a certain TEFL course partly because it offers training in how to teach English via Skype; I figured that if I ever manage to buy a house in the UK, it'll probably be in a dodgy area without many jobs, so online teaching would be one way of making money! But maybe there's not much money to be made in it after all.

[TwinCentre]

I suspect there is a lot of money to be made in online teaching if you know what you are doing, and teachers may not be business people, so often they don't...

I knew of someone who claimed to make a lot from it, and I believed her. She thought locally, marketed to Japanese parents in Hokkaido only (no where else), and her website was in Japanese. They thing was, and this might be the key, she advertised her website through physical media - not online...I'm talking about newspapers, magazines, local radio etc. And she no doubt invested $$$ doing that.

I just wonder if she 'knew what she was doing', I kind of suspect so...She had a plan, angle and niche.

Perhaps choosing a focussed market, and having a strong affinity with it would be the ticket, if you don't do that, then you will just get lost in the great abyss of the www. This woman spoke fluent Japanese, for example.

I once tried online teaching with Music not English, didn't work well because I didn't know who I was trying to market to.....ehm...the 'world'.....duh! Lesson learned.

[Teacher in Rome]

+1 everything that TwinCentre just said.