translating your popularity as an online teacher ,into money

Hi Vinodita,

as I can only speak for myself I'll add my 2 cents here. I would never pay for learning English from a non-native speaker. I have listened to one of your recorded sessions and I think your English is really good. Anyway, if I can choose to get a native speaker born in England or USA, I would pick one of these people to learn English, along with the proper pronunciation.

I'm also a teacher at WizIQ but I would never offer English classes, even if most people tell me that I don't have much of a German accent. I limit myself to the "geek stuff" so I teach technical topics in English. Then I know that learning English is not the main topic for my students.

I also listen to podcasts (that's audio or video files that I can download on the Internet) if they are produced by native speakers of English. I only make exceptions when the topic is not English, but any other topic that I'm interested in.

What I want to say is this:

If people can choose between hundreds of sources to learn from native speakers for free, then why should anybody be willing to pay for your classes?

WizIQ is a platform for spoken presentations. You could have better results offering grammar or written English classes on other platforms like Moodle.

Anyway, I also agree with Narendran. If you can find something to stand out from the crowd you may get students paying for your classes.

Marian

Hi Vinodita, as I can only speak for myself I'll add my 2 cents here. I would never pay for learning English from a non-native speaker. I have listened to one of your recorded sessions and I think your English is really good. Anyway, if I can choose to get a native speaker born in England or USA, I would pick one of these people to learn English, along with the proper pronunciation. I'm also a teacher at WizIQ but I would never offer English classes, even if most people tell me that I don't have much of a German accent. I limit myself to the "geek stuff" so I teach technical topics in English. Then I know that learning English is not the main topic for my students. I also listen to podcasts (that's audio or video files that I can download on the Internet) if they are produced by native speakers of English. I only make exceptions when the topic is not English, but any other topic that I'm interested in. What I want to say is this: If people can choose between hundreds of sources to learn from native speakers for free, then why should anybody be willing to pay for your classes? WizIQ is a platform for spoken presentations. You could have better results offering grammar or written English classes on other platforms like Moodle. Anyway, I also agree with Narendran. If you can find something to stand out from the crowd you may get students paying for your classes. Marian

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This is one question all teachers need to put up. We have been successful as a face to face faculty, our audience mostly natives from our own region. How many of our loyal students are willing to take private tutoring from us? How many out of these loyal group would be willing to move to this online media?
I often ask myself, how competent I am in comparison to all native English Teachers online. Because, the online students can choose from an entire global pool of teachers. Unless I showcase the capabilities this target audience is looking for, I am sure I can't find or strike GOLD...

This is one question all teachers need to put up. We have been successful as a face to face faculty, our audience mostly natives from our own region. How many of our loyal students are willing to take private tutoring from us? How many out of these loyal group would be willing to move to this online media? I often ask myself, how competent I am in comparison to all native English Teachers online. Because, the online students can choose from an entire global pool of teachers. Unless I showcase the capabilities this target audience is looking for, I am sure I can't find or strike GOLD...

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Consider "selling" your teaching services to Human Resource Departments of non-english speaking companies who must deal with English-speaking customers. TEOSL need not be considered just an academic activity.

JohnK

Consider "selling" your teaching services to Human Resource Departments of non-english speaking companies who must deal with English-speaking customers. TEOSL need not be considered just an academic activity. JohnK

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Talking about skillsets and finding your personal niche is important but maybe you should start at the beginning: the customer, in our case the students.

When will they pay? Answer is simple: when you have something they want / need.

So lets take a look at students learning English. What are the cases and factors that would lead you to actually being able to charge for English lessons?
1. Student has money to spend. Very important because that already targets a smaller group of people if you focus on the Indian market. And if we stay in this topic: Student has credit card, PayPal or bank account. If you sum this up you should be able to set up a list of potential target groups for your lessons.
Internet access to attend one of your (free) classes is not the big problem anymore but actually paying for one might be a problem. Are your prices set for Indian customers or customers outside of India?

2. Your offer solves a problem / fulfills a need of the student. When do those students learn English? In most cases they prepare for an exam, a test like TOEFL, a job interview or need better skills for their job in general.

3. Do you offer a goal? Most students need structure as they have a personal goal and hence most often a deadline. If they cannot see that your lessons follow a path and lead to a goal, they won't pay.

There are of course a ton of other factors but to start with those three points should give you a good basis. Other factors might include Marian's point that Europeans would most certainly take a British or American teacher if they have the choice but there is another important point: Europeans don't take group classes. Europe is a one-to-one market.

What I would do is going through the points above and setting up a list of target groups, topics and courses. You should also openly ask for feedback and recommendations after each class you give. This way you will build up reputation for selling your paid classes.

Talking about skillsets and finding your personal niche is important but maybe you should start at the beginning: the customer, in our case the students. When will they pay? Answer is simple: when you have something they want / need. So lets take a look at students learning English. What are the cases and factors that would lead you to actually being able to charge for English lessons? 1. Student has money to spend. Very important because that already targets a smaller group of people if you focus on the Indian market. And if we stay in this topic: Student has credit card, PayPal or bank account. If you sum this up you should be able to set up a list of potential target groups for your lessons. Internet access to attend one of your (free) classes is not the big problem anymore but actually paying for one might be a problem. Are your prices set for Indian customers or customers outside of India? 2. Your offer solves a problem / fulfills a need of the student. When do those students learn English? In most cases they prepare for an exam, a test like TOEFL, a job interview or need better skills for their job in general. 3. Do you offer a goal? Most students need structure as they have a personal goal and hence most often a deadline. If they cannot see that your lessons follow a path and lead to a goal, they won't pay. There are of course a ton of other factors but to start with those three points should give you a good basis. Other factors might include Marian's point that Europeans would most certainly take a British or American teacher if they have the choice but there is another important point: Europeans don't take group classes. Europe is a one-to-one market. What I would do is going through the points above and setting up a list of target groups, topics and courses. You should also openly ask for feedback and recommendations after each class you give. This way you will build up reputation for selling your paid classes.

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hi Namarta ,thanks for your comment
Lets not talk about ANYONE else ,but to be very honest both of us are not bad as teachers and our face to face classes prove that .Even the online free sessions go great,the recommendations are there .students not only fron india but from all over the globe are there ,then the big question is why is the translation not there .Is it we are wrong somewhere ?can we think it over as a big teaching community ?
any takers
vinodita

hi Namarta ,thanks for your comment Lets not talk about ANYONE else ,but to be very honest both of us are not bad as teachers and our face to face classes prove that .Even the online free sessions go great,the recommendations are there .students not only fron india but from all over the globe are there ,then the big question is why is the translation not there .Is it we are wrong somewhere ?can we think it over as a big teaching community ? any takers vinodita

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Vinodita,

The question is not how popular you are but how different you are. A subject like English is taught by lakhs of teachers in India, starting from the Montessori to the P.hD in English and the bottom line is how different are you from them all?

If you try to encash your popularity or even your knowledge, then, you are not likely to turn up trumps. On the contrary, encash the difference, then u will succeed. Ask yourself, - Is there something that I can give to my dear student, which he can not get elsewhere, whether in his town or city or country. If you have an answer for that, you can rest assured that people will flock you like the flies on the jack fruit.

What I have said is just not Dogmatism but cent per cent Pragmatism, although it takes a little while to get set in, as it happens in our every day life. As a parting gift, here is a bit of a poem for you (I don’t know who wrote it)


Life's race is full of twists and turns,
As everyone of us finally learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won, had he stuck it out,
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow
You may succeed if you give it a go.


Best wishes,

Narendran

Vinodita, The question is not how popular you are but how different you are. A subject like English is taught by lakhs of teachers in India, starting from the Montessori to the P.hD in English and the bottom line is how different are you from them all? If you try to encash your popularity or even your knowledge, then, you are not likely to turn up trumps. On the contrary, encash the difference, then u will succeed. Ask yourself, - Is there something that I can give to my dear student, which he can not get elsewhere, whether in his town or city or country. If you have an answer for that, you can rest assured that people will flock you like the flies on the jack fruit. What I have said is just not Dogmatism but cent per cent Pragmatism, although it takes a little while to get set in, as it happens in our every day life. As a parting gift, here is a bit of a poem for you (I don’t know who wrote it) Life's race is full of twists and turns, As everyone of us finally learns, And many a failure turns about, When he might have won, had he stuck it out, Don't give up, though the pace seems slow You may succeed if you give it a go. Best wishes, Narendran

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Please take this posting positively, my 1 cents ONLY, worth comments, referring avenue for providing information in cyberspace via Internet free and NOT free of change, advertising and selling. A GOOD EXAMPLE IS Nellie Deutsch Online Facilitator and Teacher Mentor at Wikieducator, British Columbia, Canada 280 Members Recommend this Teacher. Nellie is a Canadian English teacher. I believe the highest score in members recommendations = 280.

Please take this posting positively, my 1 cents ONLY, worth comments, referring avenue for providing information in cyberspace via Internet free and NOT free of change, advertising and selling. A GOOD EXAMPLE IS Nellie Deutsch Online Facilitator and Teacher Mentor at Wikieducator, British Columbia, Canada 280 Members Recommend this Teacher. Nellie is a Canadian English teacher. I believe the highest score in members recommendations = 280.

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If I may reiterate some of my ideas from other discussions:

1. It is my sincere opinion that we have not reached a "critical mass" of active students (and teachers) at WIZIQ. Until such time as we reach a large enough community of buyers and sellers we cannot hope to build an economical model to evaluate.

2. As completely independent teacher/entrepreneurs we have the greatest freedoms but also the greatest inefficiencies of said liberties. Without some agreed upon or imposed context for offering a learning system (e.g. curriculum) we quite often will, to the say the least, find ourselves at cross purposes. At the worst it will be perceived as chaos or anarchy in the school house. This will also tend to perpetrate a minimally profitable business as it will look more like a street bazaar of many cart vendors vs a modern shopping center.

3. At WIZIQ there seems to be only two consistent discussions for online learning. 100% free and individual entrepreneurs offering services for a fee. While I have seen a few ideas thrown into some discussion threads, there has been no other examples within the class offerings of other profit models to look at. (Except Steve and "Do Education" see blog entry
http://english.wiziq.com/topic/202-kudos-and-welcome-wagon
And the occasional discussion about Edufire
But, the problem with most other profit models is that most will require some level of coordinated evaluation and testing which here-to-for does not seem to be our strong suit.

In any case, know that I am working on some "left field" angles on marketing towards a win-win-win paradigm. Student-teacher-WIZIQ community... "All for one and one for all".

If I may reiterate some of my ideas from other discussions: 1. It is my sincere opinion that we have not reached a "critical mass" of active students (and teachers) at WIZIQ. Until such time as we reach a large enough community of buyers and sellers we cannot hope to build an economical model to evaluate. 2. As completely independent teacher/entrepreneurs we have the greatest freedoms but also the greatest inefficiencies of said liberties. Without some agreed upon or imposed context for offering a learning system (e.g. curriculum) we quite often will, to the say the least, find ourselves at cross purposes. At the worst it will be perceived as chaos or anarchy in the school house. This will also tend to perpetrate a minimally profitable business as it will look more like a street bazaar of many cart vendors vs a modern shopping center. 3. At WIZIQ there seems to be only two consistent discussions for online learning. 100% free and individual entrepreneurs offering services for a fee. While I have seen a few ideas thrown into some discussion threads, there has been no other examples within the class offerings of other profit models to look at. (Except Steve and "Do Education" see blog entry http://english.wiziq.com/topic/202-kudos-and-welcome-wagon And the occasional discussion about Edufire But, the problem with most other profit models is that most will require some level of coordinated evaluation and testing which here-to-for does not seem to be our strong suit. In any case, know that I am working on some "left field" angles on marketing towards a win-win-win paradigm. Student-teacher-WIZIQ community... "All for one and one for all".

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Hi Vinodita:

It seems like you hit on the perfect question. It is being discussed in another thread too.

The question is>>do you see yourself as an online teacher or an online entrepreneur. If you had to build your teaching business offline, what are the things you would do? What will be the analogy in online world?

Having said that, do you think Online Courses would sell more than individual Online Classes?

Thanks

Hi Vinodita: It seems like you hit on the perfect question. It is being discussed in another thread too. The question is>>do you see yourself as an online teacher or an online entrepreneur. If you had to build your teaching business offline, what are the things you would do? What will be the analogy in online world? Having said that, do you think Online Courses would sell more than individual Online Classes? Thanks

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