How to maximize your earnings as an online teacher

Teaching English online is an excellent option if you’re looking to make money from home, but how can you squeeze the most income from it?

For many people, online teaching is a flexible part-time job that they do in their free time, for others it’s a full-time career that enables them to work from home.

Whether you’re just interested in part-time work, or you wish to go full-time, you’ll certainly want to make sure that you’re doing everything possible to maximize your earning potential. Doing this can require some planning and the right strategy, but if you’re fluent in English and have a stable internet connection then you should be halfway there already.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at different things that you could do to increase your income with online teaching – either through raising your hourly pay or through increasing your hours.

Get the right equipment

To be able to first start teaching online there are a few essential base items that you need to have, and depending on your current equipment, you might have to invest a little bit of money to get yourself kitted out with the standard base setup.

For your base setup you would need: 

• A basic computer/laptop (though it can be possible to teach through a smartphone with some platforms)
• HD Webcam, either built-in or an external one which can useful if you wish to move around/change the view for the student.
• Headset with a microphone.
• Internet connection.

Perhaps the most important item here would be the webcam. It’s important to remember that how much you get paid is linked to the quality of the lessons you deliver and the value that you provide for your students. If your students can’t clearly see you, then you’ll find it difficult to get hired by teaching platforms, students might not rebook classes with you, and you might get offered a lower hourly pay.

An external HD webcam would be the best option to ensure that your lessons are crisp and clear. If you aren’t able to get an external HD webcam (new or second hand), then a webcam built into your laptop might suffice, but you’ll need to test it and really assess how good its video quality is.

Get your TESOL certificate (one which covers online teaching)

If you wish to teach English online, then getting your TESOL/TEFL certificate is essential. Having a TESOL/TEFL certificate is one of the basic requirements when applying for online English teaching jobs. If you haven’t gotten your certificate yet, but want to teach English online – or anywhere for that matter – then get it done as soon as possible.

Without the TESOL/TEFL certificate, you’re going to have a tough time convincing online employers that you have what it takes to teach English as a foreign language. When looking for a course, you should also keep in mind that many TESOL/TEFL courses do not cover how to teach online. If you wish to do well at your job and demand a higher rate of pay, it’s important to get a course that introduces various important topics surrounding teaching English online – TPR, props, praise, demo videos, etc. 

The course we provide also includes a module with specific guidance for teaching English online, and you’ll be able to ask us for help reviewing your introduction video/resume afterward.

Know your bonus structures (and platform penalties)

Online teaching platforms rely on keeping their students happy. If the students are happy then they’ll book more classes, which means more lessons for you and more revenue for them. Most online teaching platforms will have various bonuses which aim to keep students satisfied. 

Here are some of the most common bonus types:

• Student ratings – after classes students will often be asked to rate the lesson, if you score high on these ratings then you may be able to earn a bonus.
• Full attendence – bonuses awarded for not missing any lessons or being late to lessons.
• Time with the company – you might earn more depending on how long you’ve been with the company.
• Hours per month – certain platforms might also give a bonus if you teach over a certain number of hours per month.

It would be a good idea to carefully review the policies and wording of any bonuses/incentives that your school might have. There might be certain things you can do to ensure that you hit these targets. Equally so, there might be things that you can watch out for to avoid getting any penalties.

Consider teaching on various platforms

If you only teach on one platform, you’ll be reliant upon them to give you enough classes. If they decide to reduce your hours, or if you lose some of your regular students, then you might find yourself earning less than expected. To protect against this, and to maximize the potential number of hours that you could work per month, it’s quite common for online teachers to work for more than one platform.

Here are a few online teaching platforms that you could consider: 

• iTalki
• Cambly
• Verbling
• Preply
• DaDa (prefer English native speakers, but also accept fluent non-native speakers)
• Palfish (this one targets kids and only accepts English native speakers)
• VIPkid (this one also targets kids and only accepts English native speakers)
• Magic Ears (this one targets kids and only accepts English native speakers)

If you’re interested in signing up for these platforms, then feel free to have a look at our handy guides that we’ve created specifically for this purpose. These guides should help you to submit your applications and increase your chances of getting hired.

How to start teaching English on italki

How to apply to teach with DaDa

How to apply to teach with Magic Ears

Get proof of your English language skills (non-native speakers)

Most English tutoring platforms are run by non-native speakers with limited English language skills. This means that they’re often unable to accurately judge how fluent a fellow native speaker might be, and so end up putting their trust in native English speakers instead.

To help settle their concerns, it could be useful to have what’s known as a language proficiency certificate such as an IELTS certificate or TOEFL (note: TOEFL with an “o”, not TEFL). This is where people often get confused. TESOL/TEFL relate to your teaching skills, but IELTS/TOEFL relate to how fluent you are in English.

If you can score high in an IELTS or TOEFL exam, it could help you to book more classes and to raise your hourly rate.

Get TEYL certified

A great way to increase your earning potential is to further develop your teaching skills. Young learners make up a huge portion of English language classes around the world. This means that getting TEYL certified can be an excellent way for you to further build on the skills that you learned in our 120-hour TESOL/TEFL course. Not only is this is a great way to develop your teaching skills by focusing on how children learn, and also how you can best teach them, but it is also a fantastic way to increase the pool of potential students that you are qualified to teach.

Diversify your classes

At the beginning of your online English teaching career, it would make sense to start out with providing conversation-based classes, as there are many children and adults around the world who are simply looking for a native English speaker to chat with in order to develop their oral fluency.

While these can be relatively easy to prepare for, they often pay less than other types of classes.

To get the best rates, you should consider diversifying your classes and offering a range of services. For example, some students are willing to pay premium rates for exam preparation classes that will help them nail that upcoming test or university entrance exam. But it’s not just students in school, there are also many adults who need help improving their English. A big portion of these are adults that are looking to secure a job or move abroad, and therefore need to reach a C1 level of English. By diversifying your classes and services, you’ll be able to increase your pool of potential students, and in turn also increase your earning potential.

Often, freelance teaching these other subjects can help to gain the highest rate of pay for your services as you’ll cut out the middle-man (the teaching platform) and teach more specialized lessons.

As you’ve probably realized by now, there are many factors that can influence your earning potential as an online English teacher. Although it may feel like you’re limited to the pay and hours of one single platform, there are actually lots of ways to get more hours and increase your hourly pay at the same time.