How To Start An Online Tutoring Business

With the revolution of online tutoring, remote learning has become learners’ favorite worldwide.

Private online tutoring is a lucrative opportunity for professional educators, retired teachers, or anyone with expertise and experience in a particular niche to make a side income and establish their career.

Online tutoring offers many benefits to students and tutors, which we will explore in depth in this blog.

By the end of this blog, you will be able to decide by outweighing the pros and cons of whether running an online tutoring business is profitable.

Advantages Of Online Tutoring Business

Online private tutoring is a lucrative business. However, to thrive in this highly competitive industry, one must have a passion.

If you are considering starting an online tutoring business, make sure it is the right fit for you.

You must be confident in your ability to handle the challenges presented by online tutoring, especially if you are accustomed only to classroom-based teaching practices.

To understand whether online tutoring suits you, let’s examine the advantages of the private tutoring business.

Highly Convenient And Time Saving

Online tutoring is highly convenient and saves precious time for both educators and learners. Learners can access the courses and attend the classes at any time that is convenient and accessible for them.

If the virtual lessons are delivered in real-time, students can join the live class at a decided time, avoiding potential delays on both sides. 

Interactive And Innovative

One of the major benefits of online tutoring is its capability for student engagement. A powerful online learning platform can capture students’ attention and foster engagement.

Where traditional tutoring includes textbooks, worksheets, and interactive activities, virtual private tutoring also utilizes digital tools to present all the information in an interactive way.

Online private tutoring results in a user-friendly and enriching environment in which learners flourish.

Flexibility

Online tutoring allows teachers to take classes at any time of the day at their convenience. Private tutors can also fit online tutoring into their personal and work schedules.

It is also flexible regarding interaction between tutors and students and modifying the delivery of lessons. This is nearly impossible in traditional classroom-based learning, as the strength of the classroom limits the interaction. 

Low Start-Up Costs

One of the significant benefits of launching an online tutoring business is minimal start-up costs. This is truly a big opportunity for private tutors.

You are good to start if you have a basic computer with a camera and an internet connection.

As you expand your business, you can purchase a whiteboard online tutoring software packed with all the essential features to start your online tutoring business.

Pinlearn is an all-in-one tutoring software that equips educators to create a full-fledged tutoring website hosting live and self-paced online courses. 

Personalized Tutoring

When teaching in a traditional classroom lacks personalization due to high-class strength and other factors, online tutoring supports personalized teaching.

In classroom-based teaching, tutors are unable to attend to and respond to each student as they must keep up a fast pace to complete their lessons.

However, online tutors can decide the number of students in a class, providing a personalized approach where learners can gain knowledge at their own pace. 

Helps Improve Student’s Technology Skills

As we live in a digital world, it becomes important for everyone to have technology-based skills. Online learning helps students add more skills to their baskets by getting them early exposure to technology.

This helps them to understand the technology better and become more strong with their digital skills.

Disadvantages of online tutoring business

The benefits of online private tutoring are numerous and often outweigh the disadvantages. However, like any other sector, online tutoring also has some drawbacks. So, let’s look at the disadvantages of online private tutoring.

Learners Miss The Classroom Interaction

Most learners, especially the younger generation, are accustomed to classroom-based teaching, which helps them develop overall.

A survey of 2,500 educators in eight countries concluded that online learning is not as effective as classroom-based teaching. According to a McKinsey & Co report, virtual learning scored just five out of ten. 

While this is a drawback, if you can bridge the gap by incorporating an engaging learning approach, you can use it to develop your self-learning skills. 

Chances Of Distraction

Virtual tutoring offers students the convenience of learning from the comfort of their homes with the help of the internet. However, it also opens the doors to distractions. Students can easily get distracted when at home, which can be difficult for tutors to control.

However, tutors can mitigate this drawback by using live sessions, during which they interact with students in real time. 

Technology Related Problems

As online private tutoring completely relies on an internet connection, technology-related issues can affect its efficiency.

Educators and students must both have access to a reliable internet connection to enjoy the advantages of online tutoring.

Hence, ensure you have good internet connectivity and encourage your students to have one, too, to avoid network issues. 

Running an online private tutoring business has benefits and drawbacks for educators and students.

As an educator, private tutoring can be a highly successful and profitable venture if you can keep up your passion for teaching and work on offering the best learning experience to students.

While online tutoring has some disadvantages, if you leverage the right strategies and tools, you can turn these disadvantages to your advantage.

Accept the drawbacks and take care of them to successfully run your private tutoring business.

Online tutoring is here to stay forever and coexist with traditional classroom-based learning. The earlier you embrace, the better it is for you to emerge as a reputed and successful online teacher and build a profitable career. 

Online Tutoring Business VS Offline Tutoring Business

Before we proceed to the online tutor salary part, it is crucial to understand the difference between offline and online tutoring and to know why a tutor considers teaching online.

Offline tutoring is when a tutor is physically available to mentor a student or a group of students on a particular topic.

This type of tutoring occurs in a physical classroom environment (it may differ from one-on-one private tuition).

Whereas in online tutoring, the tutor teaches through a virtual medium. The online medium allows the tutor and the students to teach and attend classes from the comfort of their homes.

The online medium also allows the tutor to reach a greater audience and have a global student base. In offline tutoring, the student base gets restricted to a specific area.

Online tutoring offers other benefits, such as flexible working hours and better and easier payment. Shifting to the online medium is one of the most intelligent choices a tutor makes to elevate their earnings.

How Much Do Tutors Make Via Online Tutoring Business?

According to the market standards, the average monthly rate for live online classes (for school and high-school-based topics) is $20 per student. The classes are typically scheduled thrice a week according to your chosen schedule.

Let us assume you have 20 students in a batch, which means you can earn $400 ($20*20) from one batch.

If you can teach two sets of 20 students, you can easily make up to $800($20*20*2) a month through live classes only.

Also, there will be times when your students book private one-on-one classes with you. Private one-on-one sessions are charged on an hourly basis, and the average industry rate ranges from $8 to $16 per hour.

Assuming you take at least 5 private classes in a month (an hour each), you can earn a total sum of $840-$880 per month.

The rates can increase if you teach courses that require a higher level of expertise, such as preparation courses for competitive exams like the GMAT, CAT, XAT, and more.

Also, if you have the resources to make a prerecorded course, upload it on sites like Udemy, Coursera, and more to keep earning extra.

Usually, a course contains 10-12 pre-recorded lectures priced at a standard rate of $12-$15 per student. If at least 10 students attend the lectures monthly, you can earn an extra sum of $120-$150 a month from a single prerecorded course.

Types Of Online Tutoring Business

There are two ways to start your online career and make money on the go, and in this section, we will describe each type in detail.

Joining Existing Platforms Like Udemy

Udemy is one of the leading e-learning platforms in the world. It allows teachers worldwide to sell their online courses.

If appropriately used, Udemy can be a source of significant revenues in a short time. Tutors like Rob Percival and Victor Bastos have already made over $1 million using this platform. They also enjoy a vast global student base.

However, before joining Udemy as an instructor and increasing your online tutor salary, you must know that Udemy works on a marketplace business model.

This means the payout and commission rates differ according to how the sale was made.

They have 2 payment tiers, and here is how you can earn tutoring on Udemy.

• If the sale occurs entirely through the tutor’s promotion via social media, organic advertisement, using coupon code, the tutor will get 97% of the share from the sale; the rest goes to Udemy
• If the sale occurs due to a paid promotion by Udemy, the tutor receives only 37% of the total share of the sale.

Creating Your Own Tutoring Platform [Self-Hosted Platform]

Creating your own platform might sound like a highly complicated task for a tutor. But what if we tell you that a full-fledged online tutoring platform can be completed within 24 hours?

Yes, you read it right. Using turnkey solutions like Pinlearn, tutors can create an online platform to sell their expertise.

If you are not comfortable sharing your hard-earned money with a third party, building a unique platform is the best option.

Also, having your own platform lets you integrate and work with things that suit you the best, plus you can work according to your own schedule.

How To Start An Online Tutoring Platform Using Pinlearn Software?

Here are the steps that you can follow to start an online tutoring platform

1. Choose A Domain Name

The first step towards creating an e-learning platform is to purchase an effective domain name. You can purchase domain names on websites like GoDaddy. Remember to always pick simple and effective domain names.

Try to steer clear of unnecessarily long and hard-to-spell terms. These names are difficult to remember and, thus, hard to track.

There are good chances you won’t get the name of your choice. In such cases, try tweaking the name a little. Once you’ve done this, you can proceed to pick a hosting server.

2. Choose A Web Hosting Plan

Choose fast and secure web hosting to host your online platform. Cloudways is one of the best and fastest web hosts out there, and you can choose to host your online tutoring software there.

3. Install Pinlearn Software

The installation is a crucial step that requires sound technical knowledge. For your convenience, the team from Pinlearn installs the software on your servers.

Once the installation is completed correctly, you will have a fully functional online tutoring platform ready for professional use.

4. Customize And Go Live

Being a white-label software, Pinlearn allows you to make endless customizations. Ensure you have a clear vision of the website’s appearance.

Properly convey the changes to the team at Pinlearn, and they will make the changes for you quickly. Once you feel that the product is ready to go live, it is time for you to launch it.

How To Attract A Good Student Base?

Once the e-learning platform is created, it is time to go ahead and market your product. No matter how good your platform looks, you won’t get a good student base without effective marketing. Here are a few ways to market your e-learning website.

• Spend a little time on the internet and find out the contact details of potential customers. Draft a catchy and creative email informing you about your platform and mail it to the contact you have gathered. Email marketing can be very effective, especially in the beginning stages.
• Open a social media page for your platform, create good posts regarding updates, information, and announcements related to the website, and post regularly.
• You can also answer e-learning-related queries on platforms like Quora, where you can add answers and ask readers to check your platform for a well-rounded experience.
• Try to create free introduction videos for each course and post them on your websites and social media as teasers. This will attract more students who will purchase the entire course.

How To Make More Money In Online Tutoring Business

The average online tutor salary is the minimum a tutor can earn online. With a bit of effort and smart planning, tutors can make a lot more. Here are a few tips and tricks to increase your online tutor salary.

• Teach multiple batches: The live classes require you to teach for 2-3 days a week, so try to operate multiple batches in a week.
  
  For example, if you teach a batch on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, try to accommodate another batch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This way, you can have more students and earn better.
• Use innovative technical tools: Learn to use online teaching tools like an online whiteboard and more.
  
  Try to gather more online content in PDFs for study material and try to add interactive features like animations, live quizzes, etc., to your classes. This will make your course more interactive and attract a better crowd.
• Teach multiple subjects: While your genre will be the same, try to split your expertise into different sub-genres and create courses out of each sub-genre.
  
  Suppose you are a school-level science teacher. Split the subject into school-level physics, chemistry, and biology and have separate classes for each. This will effectively increase your online tutor salary.

Conclusion: Online Tutoring Business

The transition from the offline to the online medium of tutoring can be a little long and challenging, but it is filled with rewards. Being an online tutor, you not only earn more, but you get to learn and adapt to the world of technology.

Steps like marketing and content creation might sound new to you, but once you grab hold of these things, the possibility of having a high salary becomes endless. Go ahead and fulfill your desire to earn great via online tutoring.

FAQ | Online Tutoring Business