No matter if you are considering Teaching English Online as a side gig or turning it into a full-time career or business, it comes down to one question:
How much money can I make?
The answer depends on several factors, such as the platform that you choose to use, your experience and whether you go totally freelance or work for an established company.
If you are a beginner teacher, you can typically earn between $10 and $15 per hour. That said, more experienced teachers can often demand a higher rate.
And if you specialise in a high-demand area such as Business English, exam preparation for IELTS or something like pronunciation coaching, then your rates can be even higher.
I would argue that if you are serious about increasing your earnings, then you need to think very carefully about going beyond just simply teaching classes.
If you develop a strong niche, leverage the right technology and offer additional services, you can maximise your income and establish a sustainable online teaching business.
This guide is Part Seven of my Ultimate Guide To Being An Online English Teacher — Earning Potential And How To Increase Your Rates.
In the following guide, I will walk you through the different earning levels, strategies for increasing your rates, and ways to diversify your income so you are not just trading your valuable time for basic rates of pay.
Average Rates on Different Platforms
As an Online English Teacher, your earning potential can vary greatly depending on several factors, such as:
- the platform you use
- your experience
- your qualifications
- the regions you serve
Here is a breakdown of the average rates for the different platforms and teacher levels.
Beginner Teacher Rates
We all have to start somewhere and if you are just starting out, expect to be paid between $10 to $15 per hour.
This is for major platforms, such as:
Nope, not a lot of money at all. This is about the same that entry-level staff get at McDonald’s.
So why is it so low?
Well, one, this is the beginner rate. Everyone has to pay their dues, and this is what you will have to tolerate and accept if you are just striking out on the big platforms.
You need to build your experience and reputation. And you also need a lot of student reviews.
Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of public opinion on a huge tech platform.
On top of that, these companies take their cut of your earnings, which could be between 10-30%, thus reducing your total take-home pay.
Experienced Teacher Rates
Once you have more experience and a ton of student reviews, you can increase your rates.
Some experienced teachers on platforms such as VIPKid, iTalki or Preply can charge anywhere between $20 to $40 per hour. Sometimes more than this.
It all depends on your experience and the niche of teaching you are doing.
But also, on these big platforms, you are ONE teacher of THOUSANDS all vying for students.
Please bear that in mind!
What about freelancers or going independent?
Teachers who go freelance or independent outside of the major platforms have total control over the rates they charge.
If you are in a high-demand niche like Business English, IELTS prep or even accent reduction, you can charge more than if you are just offering General English or Conversational English.
But you have to find ALL your students by yourself. This is why so many people use the big platforms — a ready supply of fresh students every day.
Strategies to Increase Earnings
You can increase your earnings as an Online English Teacher.
It takes time, and a lot of work, but it can be done.
Let’s look at some ways to do this.
Specializing in Niches (Business English, Exam Prep, etc.)
I have mentioned before how you need to ‘niche down’ as the marketing gurus tell us to do.
Choose an area of Online English Teaching in which you can be an expert, rather than being the obvious jack of all trades in General English teaching.
Below are some of the areas in which you can specialise.
Business English:
Global business continues to expand as countries develop and find themselves in the global trading arena.
As such, many professionals are seeking the right kind of training to help them improve their English communication skills for work-related purposes.
By offering highly specialised Business English lessons, you can justify a higher rate.
Topics that you might wish to cover could include:
- writing professional emails
- phone etiquette
- presentations
- negotiation skills
- sales English skills
- Marketing English
The list goes on and on…
Exam Preparation (IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge exams):
There is a HUGE demand for preparing students for all the different English proficiency exams.
As such, this can be a profitable market.
Each of these exams has its own set of strict criteria and requirements, and students are willing to pay (or their parents willing to pay) for highly specialised coaching and training.
Do NOT offer classes in all of these tests, but instead specialise in just ONE.
If you only offer classes to students who wish to take the IELTS test, then you will have much more success than if you offer classes in IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GMAT and so on…
Young Learners:
This is another huge market as parents seek highly trained teachers to help their children acquire the skills of English from a young age.
This niche often involves creating more interactive and game-oriented lessons, with visually stimulating lessons.
But watching young kids learn quickly — and they do learn quickly — can be extremely rewarding.
Accent Reduction/Pronunciation Coaching:
And there is now a growing market for teachers to help students who wish to reduce their accents.
These students are looking to help improve their pronunciation — often paying premium rates.
Some students are looking for teachers to help them sound British, so British teachers can take advantage of this.
The same for other students wishing to have an American accent and American teachers.
Upselling Services like Personalized Lesson Packages or Additional Resources
Once you have established yourself as a reputable Online English Teacher, you might want to think about selling other services or upselling.
Below are some ideas for you to consider.
Lesson Packages:
Whenever I have done private classes, I found out very quickly that the best thing to do is to get the student to pay upfront for a package of classes rather than just paying for each class as they finish.
For example, you might have a student who wants to prepare for the IELTS speaking test. So they hire you to do the classes.
Ideally, you should get the student to pay upfront for, let’s say, ten classes. The goal being to improve the student’s ability to speak in the IELTS test.
The good thing about doing this is that it shows commitment from the student. It shows they are serious and mean to continue.
Those are the students you want to attract and keep.
Additional Resources:
Another thing you can offer your students is additional resources.
These can be in the form of:
- full lesson plans
- worksheets
- quizzes
- vocabulary lists
- reading material
As long as you have written and created all the learning material yourself, then it is yours to sell at whatever price you see fit.
You can sell these materials to your existing students — or to anyone who wishes to buy them.
That could also include other Online English Teachers.
Group Classes or Private Groups:
I know that some Online English Teachers do group classes in their online classes.
Me personally, I don’t like the idea of this.
I think the dynamic for online classes work best one-on-one — one teacher and one student.
That said, many teachers do group classes — and you can too.
With a group class, you can increase your hourly rate quite considerably.
So, for example, you might have a Business English class for One-on-One classes where you charge $40.
But if you have FOUR students who would like this kind of class and are willing to be in a group together, you might be able to charge them $15 an hour each.
That brings the total to $60 for the hour.
This sounds fine in theory. But in practice, you are often going to have a time when ONE student cannot make the class.
They call you and tell you they cannot attend.
So why should they pay?
But the other three students are only willing to pay $15 an hour.
Now your rate is down to $45 an hour.
Not bad. But what if TWO students cancel class?
I hope you understand the point I am making here…
But hey, if you see this as a good opportunity, go ahead.
Just make sure you outline the rules of the classes clearly.
Leverage Technology To Scale Your Income
There are also ways in which you can use technology to boost your teaching income.
Pre-recorded Lessons:
One option is to create video courses and sell them via platforms like Teachable or Udemy.
Some people do this.
But I think a better option might be to create a video course and publish it for free on these platforms.
Then you can add links to your site where to find additional worksheets or other parts of the entire lesson plan.
I think this could be a better way to introduce potential students to what you are offering.
But that’s just my opinion…
Live Webinars and Workshops:
Another option is to host webinars.
So, for example, you could run a webinar workshop on IELTS speaking practice or Business English.
Again, like anything where you are trying to build an audience, this takes a lot of time, energy and hard work.
But if done well, it could bring lots of potential students to your website or social media platforms that you use.
Some people who do webinars — or live streams — charge a fee for it.
Others ask for donations.
Or you could just do it as a marketing exercise.
Additional Tips for Increasing Earnings
I will just add a few more tips about increasing your earnings and then we are done for this section.
Get Referrals:
If you have students who are very satisfied with how you teach them and they clearly like what you do in your classes, then ask them for referrals.
Nothing is better advertising than word of mouth.
You can offer your students a discount — or maybe one or two free classes — for every student they bring to you.
Do NOT just hand out free classes to students who give you a potential student. Because the potential student might not become a full student for you.
Maybe wait and see if the potential student signs up for a series of classes with you.
Then confirm free classes with the student who introduced the potential student to you.
I hope I am being clear here!
Boost Your Online Presence:
I have mentioned this here and there throughout the guide so far.
But you MUST have an online presence. Especially if you are freelancing or independent.
This means doing one or some of the following:
- creating your own professional website
- showcasing student testimonials
- using social media platforms
- making videos on YouTube or TikTok
You have to do this to compete. It is vital.
Diversify Your Income Streams:
And as I mentioned above, diversify your income.
Selling your TIME as an Online English Teacher is great. But you can only sell that time ONCE.
Creating digital products is another way to boost your income.
You can sell:
- ebooks
- courses
- lesson plans
- worksheets
There are many options for you. And plenty of platforms to help you do it.
But I think creating your own site is best.
Conclusion
Teaching English Online can be a rewarding.
It can be a very satisfying thing to see your students develop and watch as their English skills grow.
But it is not the highest paid career in the world. In fact, the rates can be very low.
If you want to see higher rates being offered to you, then you need to develop your skills and think about cornering one niche demographic.
You also need to think about leaving the online platforms and going solo.
Yes, this is very very hard work. And the success will not come overnight.
But it can be done.
And if you think about offering extra services outside of the usual teaching, then you can see more financial reward for this.
I would say that this all comes down to diversification.
Relying solely on what you are paid by the online platforms for basic teaching hours is not going to do much for you.
Think about what other services you can offer.
Develop your skills so you can now do professional coaching or teaching to a corner of a niche market.
This is the right way to do things.
And you can read the final part to my series here by clicking the link below…
If you like what you have read so far, please leave a comment below.
Many thanks!
