When you have a job, you’re paid to work, but when you work online, you can set your own hours and choose to accept or decline assignments. This makes online tutoring an attractive way to make money on the side, either as a part-time gig or a full-time career. Before diving in though, it’s important to understand what it takes to be successful as an online tutor and how much money you can make with this line of work. Whether you want to do it yourself or hire someone else, here are some things you need to know about how to make money as an online tutor.
Understand your needs
When choosing between online tutoring and online teaching, you need to ask yourself how many hours a week you’re able to commit. Online tutoring can be done whenever it’s convenient for you—although it’s not typically on a set schedule. If you want more structure, online teaching is a good choice because you can expect that your classes will run weekly or biweekly. Online tutoring may also require higher qualifications depending on which sites you use.
Join a website that connects tutors with students
There are a variety of online tutoring websites that connect students with tutors. Take steps to ensure your credibility by joining a site like Varsity Tutors or Chegg Tutors, which have reputations for finding high-quality experts and connecting them with students.
Create a profile
You don’t have to have any prior teaching experience in order to start offering online tutoring services. The main thing you’ll need is a solid grasp of your subject matter and strong communications skills. After all, it’s one thing to teach someone over Skype—it’s another thing entirely to teach them effectively. Once you establish those basic criteria, you can open up your services for hire by creating a profile on sites like Upwork or Guru.
Target your niche
The truth is that your ability to make a living from online tutoring depends on how well you can identify a niche in which you are knowledgeable and passionate enough about your topic to teach it accurately and enthusiastically. As long as you focus on a specific niche (like teaching students how to complete online assignments) and target those students who are looking for your particular services, you’ll have no problem finding clients.
Prepare yourself
As a new online instructor, you’ll be teaching students who are located across different time zones. To keep your students engaged, it’s best if you can prepare a lesson plan and lecture notes in advance. Then you can focus on answering student questions and letting them know about upcoming deadlines for homework assignments.
Set up the right way of communication
There are multiple ways of communicating with students. If you want to set up your own online tutoring program, there are some things you should keep in mind before you get started. For example, how will students contact you and how can they pay for their tutoring sessions? Setting up a professional website for yourself is important for your business. And even if you have a YouTube channel or write a lot of articles, your own website allows students to find all information about your services in one place.
Build trust with clients
If you’re going to be doing work for other people—and yes, that means taking their money in exchange for teaching them something—you’ll want to focus on building trust early. One way you can do that is by being transparent about who you are and what your business is all about. Start with a good About page and move from there. A well-written bio coupled with testimonials, recommendations, and reviews should help clients see you in a more trustworthy light.
Charge appropriately and fairly
Make sure you charge appropriately and fairly. You are a professional and your services are valuable. This doesn’t mean charging $100/hour, but it does mean figuring out what is a fair price for your work in comparison with other professionals who offer similar services.
Offer discounts to build more referrals
You might think that offering discounts to your existing clients is a poor way of making new customers, but you’d be wrong. When they offer their friends and contacts a discount, they’re not only opening up new opportunities for you – they’re acting as advocates on your behalf. This is invaluable; these are people who have firsthand experience with your services, so if they recommend you to others, it’s because they know their recommendations will be well received.
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