Teaching English via Skype

[Rhombus]

I have seen a couple of advertisements of where people pay to practice their english via Skype.
Has anyone had any experience doing this? How do you advertise the service? Where do you obtain customers?
I would not like to join a company offering the service, would prefer to cut out the middle-man and thus reduce cost charged.
It does seem like a pleasurable, honest way to earn a dollar so appeals to me. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[CookieRunner]

In my experience as a worker online, I have not heard of anything that's not a company who can teach kids or adults online via skype. Unless perhaps you will advertise on your own... That you can teach online and all that cause I have seen many people who looks for jobs on those sites and look for prospected clients. In my case, that idea would be fun and my forte but I don't always see something that is not a company, it is always a Company that looks for employees and teach online using skype.

 

[Heather]

Maybe you can join a company first before trying to be independent since you don't have any idea on how it is working. From that you can meet some connections in that field as well, right? Or maybe your clients in that company will recommend you to others and can reach you straight.

 

[trendjing]

I would say that it is better if you join a company for the reason that you are going to be tied up to their policy and terms of salary, which I guess is a form of security on your part. Let us say you have your own tutoring service online and pay for the ads in social media. What if the student will not pay you the right amount? You will just have to keep on sending emails or calls to your customer.

Another point why it is beneficial to be a part of a company is because you will be provided lesson plans and trainings on how you will interact with students.

Students from the company will also give you rating on how good you are, in which you will never know during an online lecture. From here, you will perceive if you really are an effective english teacher

 

[Sase3119]

There are lots of websites around where they hire people for this exact purpose, but I've never heard of anyone doing it freelance. I suppose there's no reason you couldn't, but I think people would be more hesitant to hire you than going through a reputable company.

A lot of the websites will let you choose your own pay rate as well, so there's not much of a down side to using them.

 

[john113]

You didn't specify the set of skills or services that you can render, as well as your professional level, so I will just give a general advice.

In my opinion, it would be best to start off with a company. Speaking of "company" I mean the legitimate ones. Don't just fall into those advertisements that pays a lot for a shorter time compared to others. Always compare the rates. If one company is offering to pay you $20 and the others are giving you only $10, I would prefer to go for the latter because there is a chance that the former is a bogus. Of course there are ways to verify a company, my point is to be on the safe side.

The biggest disadvantage of working alone, especially if you are a newbie is it difficult to look for a client/customer, and often you will offered with a very minimal rate. Sure you can use platform such as UpWork where you can advertise your services and potentially get a customer. But most of the time, the customer that you will get is also a "company". Rarely you will be able to encounter an individual looking for a specific service.

I hope this helps.

 

[Nancy G]

I have seen a couple of advertisements of where people pay to practice their english via Skype.
Has anyone had any experience doing this? How do you advertise the service? Where do you obtain customers?
I would not like to join a company offering the service, would prefer to cut out the middle-man and thus reduce cost charged.
It does seem like a pleasurable, honest way to earn a dollar so appeals to me. Any advice would be appreciated.

I believe it will be best and safe for you to start working for legitimate companies hiring qualified individuals to teach English.

I mean “Best” in terms of getting the experience and support systems you need to get you started teaching English, where you get the proper training and lesson plans to make you a good English tutor, matching you with the right steady source of clients. The job may look simple but how to be an effective teacher may require some skills, psychological and behavioral changes.

You will be a lot “SAFE” this way because you do not need to prequalify your clients as the company will be the one doing this on your behalf and you get paid as agreed, thus, keeping you away from being victimized by scammers if you do it independently.

In the long run, once you have established your reputation, with a strong client following and knowing the ins and outs of this service, you may be confident enough to establish your own website or work independently.

 

[Joscess]

I agree with the previous comments. I also think that you should first join or be a part of the company. Not only will it give you experience but it would also give you an idea on how the industry works inside and out. And when you already know these things, that the time to go solo.

See, this is because I've had experiences wit online teachers that thinks that they can teach English simply because they speak the language. I think that there is more to it than just that. In order to be an effective teacher, in my opinion, is to also be able to apply the principles of teaching in the online English teaching process. You have to make sure that they will understand you from their limited vocabulary and make sure to learn from you, cause mostly, if I am not mistaken, the customers/ users of these services that you are trying to offer are of limited vocabulary or do not have English as their first language or only knows a few words in English. So, without proper skills in teaching, the learning process might be frustrating not only for the English students but for the teachers as well.

 

[HazelDJ]

I have seen a couple of advertisements of where people pay to practice their english via Skype.
Has anyone had any experience doing this? How do you advertise the service? Where do you obtain customers?
I would not like to join a company offering the service, would prefer to cut out the middle-man and thus reduce cost charged.
It does seem like a pleasurable, honest way to earn a dollar so appeals to me. Any advice would be appreciated.

You can google some sites for tutorial services. There are lots of them. Still, you have to go through examinations and pass it before they hire you. One thing more is that you have to be sure that you have the best internet connection. This is a requirement so that you have a clear conversation between you and your client. In case your teaching session goes vague, you will not be paid.

 

[Adventurer30]

You can advertise your services for example in social networks. Or forums on earnings. You can pay for advertising in a certain company. There are a lot of ways.