Earning a good income from the comfort of your home is a common goal among individuals planning to teach English online.Whether you decide to teach online part-time or full-time, it brings certain freedom and flexibility. However, if you don’t pre-plan the right strategy, growing your income online can prove to be a tedious task.
In our previous blog “How to Teach English Online and Make Money”, we discussed how you can get started with being an online teacher, what qualifications you need and the basic tech setup required. As promised, we are dedicating this blog to layout a few strategies you can adopt to squeeze the most income from your online English teaching job.
Identifying Peak Hours
If you plan to ensure that you get enough teaching hours, keeping yourself available for peak hours is a great solution. Identifying the hours when the language students are most available to attend online English classes is key.
Most online English teaching companies cater to students from Asian countries like Korea, China, or Japan. The average peak hours for these students are in the evening from 5 pm to 9 pm post their school or work hours. Similarly, you can identify peak hours for students in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. This will ensure that you always get teaching hours and earn more as some organizations offer higher rates during peak hours.
Finding Your Niche
When there are thousands of teachers online, you have to figure out how to stand out. One of the key strategies is to find a particular niche and excel at it. But how does having a teaching niche helps? When you have a niche, instead of being a regular teacher you specialize in a few things. Think of it as a specialized doctor vs a general doctor.
You can specialize in teaching students of a certain age, or helping students to prepare for tests, one on one classes, etc. Once you have figured out what niche you are good at, it will significantly spike your earnings. However, it is to be noted that this strategy works best for freelance teachers or small online teaching businesses.
Teaching On Multiple Platforms
Many online companies do not restrict you from teaching on other platforms while simultaneously teaching on theirs. It is a good practice to be working on multiple platforms so you are not dependent on the policies of just one company as it is common knowledge, policies change.
You do not want to be at the mercy of one company if they decide to allot you fewer classes/hours or do not increase your hourly rates. Having multiple options also allows you to rotate your teaching schedule, log in more hours and earn more.
Market Yourself
Marketing is a great tool that is made easy in the modern era of social media. The better you promote yourself properly, the better you earn. Be active, engaging, and bring fun into your classes. List out your experiences and qualifications, interact with others and build work relationships that will reward you back for many years into the future.
