Three Years Later: What I Wish I Knew When I Started Teaching English Online
Note: this page may contain affiliate links. Learn more here.
Teaching English online has helped me to work from home, create an income, and build my own business. After teaching English online for three years, I have learned a few things that I wish I had known when I was starting.
If you are just starting in this industry, some of these reflections might help you as you navigate the waters of online teaching, or it might help you to think of what you are capable of and how you can brand yourself during any point in your journey.
Here are six key takeaways from my experience teaching English online for three years.
6 Reflections of an Online ESL Teacher
This is your business.
Online teaching is bigger than VIPKid.
Success is equal to your effort.
Build your brand from the beginning.
Time goes by very fast.
It’s not all about the props.
# 1 - This is your business
When teaching English online for a company you are an independent contractor. What does this mean? Well, it means that you are not an employee and you won’t receive any benefits in addition to your normal pay rate. It also means you have flexibility and can create your own hours and work schedule.
In the early days, I just taught for one company, VIPKid. I was fortunate to build up a solid amount of hours and was able to work consistently for them. It wasn’t until after a year of teaching that I decided to add other companies to add job security and stability.
As companies change their pay structure, stop hiring, or upset their teachers, it is important to have backups by diversifying your income.
I started to see this industry as an opportunity to create my own business out of it. Not that I would be moving away from online ESL companies, but that I would be able to choose where I worked and where I spent my time.
A big part of seeing this as my business was the opportunity to brand myself online, in social media, and on my website as an online teacher. It allowed me to create multiple revenue streams that all add to my monthly income.
That sounds exciting, right?!
Online teaching doesn’t make up my entire income, but it allows me to diversify my income and turn this into full time income. I only wish I had realised these potentials earlier.
#2 - Online teaching is bigger than VIPKid
A lot of online teachers see large online companies like VIPKid as the best and only options for them because of their marketing and online presence. You could substitute “VIPKid” for any big online company that you are working with, such as GOGOKID or Magic Ears.
I wished I had realised earlier in my online teaching career that there is a lot more out there besides VIPKid. While VIPKid is one of the larger and more reputable companies, it isn’t for everyone.
Not only that, but not everyone has success on their platform. As someone that recommends companies and helps people get hired to teach ESL online, I now know how important it is to help people find the best fit for them. Sometimes that means applying to many companies until something feels right.
When getting started, make sure that you weigh your options and use a variety of sources to find out about companies.
There are lots of options to online teaching. Perhaps you want to start branching out to independent teaching by listing your profile and classes on marketplace platforms like Preply or Outschool. Or maybe you are ready to teach online in other capacities through your own brand and business.
The sky's the limit and online teaching is only growing and expanding!
#3 - Success is equal to your effort
Online teaching success doesn’t come because you are from a particular country or because you have the “right look” on camera. Believe me, aesthetic features might help you with your first booking, but it won’t hold up if you are a terrible teacher.
Now, I know that you are not a terrible teacher. You know that you are not a terrible teacher!
However, the effort you put into your classes will be the deciding factor to your long-term success on a platform, or on your own as an online teacher.
The industry is full of teachers. Parents and learners have a lot of choice when it comes to choosing a teacher or finding a preferred method or style of teaching to learn from online. The choices are endless and it will come down to your efforts in the classroom to retain and have a consistent stream of happy students booking your classes.
That’s what we all want, right?
So, what can we do to help this?
I have broken down my best tips to ensure that your effort is 100% during each class, even when you don’t feel like it:
Treat each class as if it was your first time with the student.
Imagine that the parent is sitting in the corner of the room watching (which they probably are).
Find your branding and be consistent with this in your classroom.
Make a solid connection with the student so that they remember you.
Leave great feedback and help the parents understand areas for improvement.
Success is equal to the effort you put forth in your classes and with your students. Your students will come back for more when you are putting out 100% in each class.
#4 - Build your brand from the beginning
When you think of big brands like Apple, McDonalds and Starbucks, what comes to mind? For me, I think of consistency, reliability, and a proven outcome that I come to expect.
When your students think about you, what do they think about? Do they know you as the funny teacher, the teacher who will make a student feel comfortable in the classroom no matter what, or the ultra-serious teacher who is results-focused?
Whatever your brand is, own it. Use it to market yourself and allow it to help you shape your online teaching business. Building your brand can help you with consistent bookings, repeat customers, and expansion beyond the company you are working for.
Here are my top three tips for building your online teaching brand:
#1 - Choose that one thing
What is that one thing that sets you apart from other online teachers? Do you have a specific focus, area of expertise, or result that you can get from your students? Make sure your students and/or their parents know what this is and that you market it well in your classes.
#2 - Redo your profile
If you work for an online ESL company, or you are applying to work in the industry with a company, you will definitely be creating a profile of some kind to showcase yourself as a teacher. Usually this means a video, photos, and a bio. This is your first point of contact with new parents so make sure you think about bringing your branding into your profile. Think about a class mascot, a type of shirt you always wear, or a distinct background that is memorable.
#3 - Build an audience
Building an audience is something that I am grateful that I started to do after teaching online for about six months. I started mainly through YouTube, but I would suggest picking one platform that you are comfortable on. I would highly recommend doing this if you have skills and expertise to offer. This can turn into side income and a business later on as you develop and niche down.
#5 - Time goes by very fast
I never thought that I would still be teaching online three years later. I have evolved as an online teacher by working with multiple companies and now have the freedom to choose where I work based on pay and enjoyment.
Working with online ESL companies in China has allowed me to refine my style, and improve on my techniques. It has enabled me to do freelance teaching and set up my own brand online. I never would have imagined how much I would have evolved in this industry that started out for me as a part-time “gig”.
It can be easy to get on autopilot when teaching online and forget about continuous learning and growth that is available to you. You could teach for one company and get very comfortable and never advance or look for other opportunities.
Avoid this tempting scenario and take advantage of the opportunities that are out there in online teaching. As you gain experience you will find other paths and opportunities. Take risks and be willing to learn and grow!
#6 - It’s not all about the props
When I first started teaching online, I had very little to go off of when it came to examples, role models, and people to follow online. I was overwhelmed with the amount of props it seemed online teachers were required to use in their classes.
That was not me.
I knew that I couldn’t teach with that amount of props, visuals and energy. I quickly realised that you don’t need to.
While props and visual aids can be helpful in situations in your online classrooms, I wished I had known that I didn’t need to teach with a multitude of props all the time. This realisation would have saved me a lot of time in the early days.
Online teaching is a very visual experience and props and visual aids are important, to an extent. However, they do not define you as a teacher and they are not going to be the reason for low bookings or lack of success.
Teach in your style, be yourself, and you will attract your tribe. The amount of students you get or your level of success will not be determined by the amount of props you use in the classroom!
What’s next for you?
If you are beginning your online ESL journey, maybe you can apply some of my tips to your own situation and build a successful online teaching business. We all make mistakes, forget to follow our intuition, or get complacent in what we do.
As you begin teaching ESL online, you will have your own lessons, things you wished you had known from the beginning or mistakes you don’t want others to make. These are the things that make us better and keep us on our toes!
If you have anything to share about what you’ve learned along the way, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
So go out and have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.
In this video, Tim shares these same six things he’s learned as an online teacher in the past three years.
TIM GASCOIGNE
Tim is originally from sunny Bermuda but also calls Canada home. He has worked as an international school teacher in Beijing and Malaysia, but left his brick & mortar teaching position to teach online in 2017. He manages his website, Online Teacher Dude, where he helps people teach online and make more money from home.