More learning than ever is taking place in front of a computer these days. Logically, it’s also the perfect time to make money tutoring online teaching something you know.
While you can create and sell an online course on Udemy, there’s a much better option. You can share your knowledge and help others by offering one-on-one tutoring services online.
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Become a tutor and make money tutoring online
What are the benefits of working as an online tutor?
Online tutoring is a great way for college students and others to make money while teaching a subject you’re passionate about.
With online tutoring, you have full control over your hours and where you work every day. The flexibility that comes with online tutoring can make it easy to fit the work in with your busy routine and to take breaks when you need them.
Tutoring can also help you hone your own skills and master whatever subject you’re teaching. Tutors often report feeling more confident and motivated as they notice the deep rewards that come with helping others, according to the National Tutoring Association.
How much money can you make as an online tutor?
Online tutors can make anywhere between $21 and $27 an hour for most subjects. But, tutors for specialty subjects like test preps for SAT courses can make much more.
Pay as an online tutor largely depends on how much experience you already have as an online tutor, your education or training in the subject area that you’re mentoring in, and the current supply and demand for tutors in that field.
Is there a big demand for online tutors in 2023?
The demand for online tutors has never been greater. As many people continue working and learning from home, tutors play a crucial role by helping kids keep up with their schoolwork.
The online tutoring service Varsity Tutors reported gaining hundreds of thousands of new users when the pandemic began shutting down schools (source).
Analysts predicted the U.S. private tutoring market will be close to $218 billion by 2027 (source).
What subjects are most in-demand?
There is significant demand for online tutoring across a wide range of learning subjects.
Reading and math are typically two subjects that students seek the most help for. College students are also seeking out more tutoring services for general education classes and advanced courses in their field of study.
Other classes, like exam preparation services for the ACT and SAT, are also always in demand.
What equipment do you need to become an online tutor?
To get started, you’ll at least need a computer with a reliable internet connection.
It may also be helpful to eventually invest in a set of headphones and a quality microphone so you can easily communicate with your students over the computer.
If you’re teaching someone how to play a musical instrument or do something with their hands, you may need to invest in a different type of camera so they can easily see what you’re showing them.
From there, you’ll have to consider what teaching tools would be most helpful for specific lessons. For example, maybe you need to explain how to do something by drawing it out visually.
To do that online, you’ll likely need a software program that allows you to share your sketches over the computer. One program is Whiteboard Fox, which shares virtual drawings in real-time online.
It’s good to do some research beforehand and have a few online resources in your toolbox so you can be ready to answer questions and share information in a variety of ways depending on your student’s learning style.
As you get busier and gain more clients, you can also consider investing in a lesson planning system to help organize your notes and learning materials for each student. In addition, there are software programs (like Tutorbird) designed specifically for online tutors to track their paperwork and schedules.
Do you need a college degree to become an online tutor?
Not all subjects require tutors to have a college degree or even any formal training. However, some online tutoring services do have requirements – such as a bachelor’s degree or college experience – to work through their sites.
Luckily, there are still plenty of options for online tutors who don’t have a college degree. Education requirements typically depend on the subject matter and difficulty level of the content you’re teaching.
For example, a high school math whizz can be well-qualified to tutor an elementary school student on simple math assignments but probably couldn’t tutor another student at the college level.
More advanced subjects, especially at the college and graduate level, may require that you have a degree in the subject you’re teaching. Always be honest with your clients on your qualifications so they receive the best help they can get.
If you don’t have a college degree, but you want to appear more professional and boost your tutoring resume, you can consider becoming a certified tutor through the NTA. The certification process requires special training, a background check, and paying annual fees.
Is online tutoring right for me?
Tutoring requires a bit of time and patience, but once you find your stride and notice how your students improve, it can be a truly rewarding job.
Online tutoring is an especially great option if you’re an aspiring teacher or you’re interested in pursuing further education in a specific field of study. Tutoring gives you valuable, real-life experience to learn from and refer to later in life. Plus, regular tutoring helps keep your skills sharp and explore different teaching methods.
Best places to make money tutoring online
The first thing that any online tutor should do is to consider where they will work. For example, you could advertise using the web, or you could turn to classified ads and other similar stuff and do it that way.
However, I recommend that you list your tutoring services on one (or more) of these online platforms.
They offer amazing platforms for freelancers just like yourself to start tutoring people and making a living doing it.
The best starting places to list your online tutoring services include:
Outschool
Set up a class and curriculum for your online students to register for.
To offer classes online, you can sign up with Outschool and follow the steps to complete your profile.
While it’s not exactly tutoring, with Outschool, you’re signing up as a teacher to offer a class that students can register for.
There is an onboarding process and a background check to go through, first. But after you’re set up, you have the opportunity to make good money teaching on Outschool.
TutorMe
Here’s how this service works. Students who want a tutor answer several questions to give the system information on what they need help with. Then, their smart matching system connects them with an online tutor. That’s where you step in.
Tutors give help using a virtual whiteboard, audio/video chat, screen sharing, and more. Once the lesson is completed, both the student and the tutor can rate each other to benefit the TutorMe community.
Step Up Tutoring
Here, you can donate your time and volunteer to tutor underprivileged children.
Yup
On-demand math tutoring, from simple math all the way to Calculus.
Wyzant
Set your rate based on your experience and qualifications and get paid by direct deposit.
Varsity Tutors
Be your own boss and work as an independent contractor, setting up your own hours, pay rates, and teaching method.
Growing Stars
Students can sign up and be paired with a tutor to help boost their grades.
Flexjobs
Want to find a high-paying tutoring job? Look at the listings for tutoring jobs available at Flexjobs. After a quick search, I found companies looking to hire a graphic design tutor, a test prep teacher, and a writing tutor. Plus, they were all remote jobs with good hourly rates.
Studypool
Want to make money answering questions? You can make good money using only your knowledge and your keyboard at Studypool.
Oftentimes, finding answers to questions requires little more than time and some ability to use Google search.
For example, after a quick search, I found a user willing to pay $30 for help finding examples of brands that disrupted their industries. After doing a Google search, I was able to find several articles giving examples – more than enough to answer the user’s question.
italki
Do you speak multiple languages? If so, you can help others learn a new language on italki.
You can apply as either be a professional teacher or as a community tutor. Either way, you can set your own hours and set your own price.
Upwork
While Upwork might not be the perfect place for a tutor, it’s very good to have a profile set up regardless. You can search out potential jobs after filling out your profile and tender for the contract. Everything is handled through Upwork, from status reports to submitting work and getting paid. It’s straightforward to use, and the feedback option means building a reputation is easy.
Tutor
While you need to apply to Tutor, it’s one of the best sites if you want to make money tutoring online. The standards are quite high, though, so we probably recommend that you get some freelance experience and find some comfort in the art of tuition before you start up with Tutor. When you are ready, though, you’ll get a huge amount of use from the site.
Fiverr
The other main site that we recommend you look into is Fiverr. Fiverr allows you to do a service for anything, starting at just $5. Obviously, you need to set up a reasonable price to make sure you can make a good living. For every $5 you earn, you get $4 – Fiverr keeps a dollar for each $5 earned. It’s a brilliant starting place, though, and should make it very easy for you to find success.
Prepnow
If you want to help people with test prep, you need to get a tutoring job at PrepNow. Their main 3 subject areas include high school math, SAT prep, and ACT test prep.
To get accepted as a tutor here, you need to have at least two years of tutoring or teaching experience. You also need a bachelor’s degree. One more thing to note here is that tutors are required to commit to tutoring for at least 6 hours per week.
Skooli
If you want to help people learn a new language, get help with their homework, or pass a test, give Skooli a shot. These guys pay more than most online tutoring sites, with rates hovering at $25 per hour.
Prospective tutors go through a verification process that includes a background check.
Working as a tutor offline
While it’s great to make money tutoring online, you shouldn’t ignore offline tutoring. For example, you can tutor students in math or English, to name a few.
Here are my best tips for making money as a tutor.
Pick your specialty
It goes without saying that you need to choose a passionate subject and immensely knowledgeable about. You don’t need to have a degree, but it’s hard to get offline tuition jobs without one; don’t be offended if people don’t want to hire you without one.
Choose a starting point
Will you work from home or head over to see the client? There is no right or wrong answer, but you need to choose. Other popular places are local meeting points like cafes and libraries. Group tutoring is useful, too, but it’s usually something you can decide on a client-by-client basis.
Set your fees
Every good tutor provides a clear and upfront pricing place. You might have a lot of competition and thus need to be more generous to get work at the start. You might be one of the few experts in your field, and thus you can charge more locally. It’s always important to make sure that you never undersell yourself nor charge people an extortionate rate. Charge too much, and they expect you to turn them into an expert; charge too little, and they’ll wonder why.
Develop a cancellation policy
You need to make it easy for tuition to end if both parties are unhappy. Make sure you have a cancellation policy for both individual lessons and full tuition programs. It’s reasonable to charge for last-minute cancellations or to stop tuition for students who are always late. It’s entirely your choice.
Get yourself noticed
Now that you have the foundations in place, advertise your business. Again, local advertising is your best place, with online classified ads sites like Craigslist being useful here. In addition, you can play ads in local libraries, campuses, and noticeboards in the community, the kind of places that students might look to find help.
Make sure you invest in getting a nice professional ad made up and perhaps include some experience and references which can be looked at and viewed to help convince someone to hire you.
Lastly, make sure that you need to file taxes and go self-employed once you earn beyond a certain threshold. Do that, and you can easily start making a good sum of money from your tuition.
While it’s dependent on your tuition quality, your subject, and the number of students you have, you can easily make this a long-term employment opportunity or at least help pay off some of those bills of yours.
Now it’s on to you. Sign up with one (or more) tutoring sites and start selling your expertise!
