Should you teach on Preply?

In today's video, I'm going to be discussing the benefits of conducting lessons on Preply and loosely comparing it to conducting lessons outside of Preply.

[@jessicadavis5671]

Just started my Preply journey today by teaching 3 trial classes. I’ve had previous experience teaching ESL online through VIPKID. I love the later class times since classes are for kids AND adults all over the world (and not just China). When I changed my rate from $25 to $3 to see if students would book with me, I was shocked to receive over 86 messages in my first day and a nearly full teaching schedule for the next month. Granted, I will increase my price over time, but I was shocked (in a good way) at the rapid response of students to message and book a trial class with me. There are plenty of students on Preply waiting to find their tutor match!

[@teachercook-e2572]

Hi Jessica, funnily enough my journey started in a very similar fashion. I reduced my rate down to $7 hoping to entice more students and it was the perfect case of 'be careful what you wish for' as I woke up the next day bombarded with messages and booked trial lessons. As you rightly said, there are plenty of students waiting, there will always be a demand for tutors

[@Aiysha17]

​@@teachercook-e2572 Yes, initially when I saw the commission rate, I set my rates higher to ensure a reasonable hourly take home pay but then I realised if I get my 20 hours of 33% commission first at a low rate then I'm paying less overall as it's a straight percentage and then I can hopefully secure regular students for when it drops down to 28% and so on and I can start to raise my rate. It's an investment in my future on Preply. Immediately in 24 hours, I've gotten so many bookings and messages, so I really hope a I can retain as many as possible going forward too, plus the teaching hours and reviews will act as a sort of reference for new students searching who are comfortable with the newer rates. We'll see how it goes lol

[@user-qq8jm4ir9p]

Hi Jessica. I'm a new tutor on preply and this price thing is confusing. Let's say if I drop my price to 3 or 5 dollars. And have a plethora of students. Possibility is there that some may want to continue with me. So how do I take from 3 dollars to 12 dollars which is gonna be my price. And I suppose preply is strictly not allowing tutors to increase price after there is a conversion.

[@jessicadavis5671]

@@user-qq8jm4ir9p Welcome to Preply! I would slowly increase my price with my regulars who have bought subscriptions with me over a period of time. From my perspective, after 10 lessons would be a good foundation to build a professional rapport with your student for them to see your teaching style to decide if they would like to continue with you at an increased rate. I wouldn’t increase my rate significantly at the beginning, but you could always increase your rate for new students once you build up your regular student base. Hope this helps!

[@aussienarealmariantebrolacci]

Thank you for your videos! I just started at Preply and I’m a bit lost!

[@henli23]

I enjoy your videos. You are real and authentic, please make more

[@teachercook-e2572]

Thanks a lot, noted!

[@lifeasgomolemo]

I've been on Preply for a while now, and i have a lot of views on my profile. I taught one student. I get a lot of students who consider me as a tutor, but they dont book me. It's quite frustrating . Do you have any suggestions ?

[@teachercook-e2572]

Hi there, my advice would be to message these students that consider booking with you. But don't just copy and paste a generic message for all of them, make it personalised and that helped me. When I could see a student was from Poland, for example, from the timezone in their bio saying 'Warsaw GMT+1', I would comment on this, compliment the country, say how I've been there and always loved it. These personal elements really help set you apart. I imagine these students receive lots of generic messages from other tutors, so why not stand out?

[@MichelleChiku]

Thank you for sharing this Teacher. I have just started teaching online. Please can you recommend where I can get free teaching resources? Also Free Talk for adults and children

[@teachercook-e2572]

Definitely check out 'onestopenglish' and 'linguahouse' for free lesson plans!