How do I find new students?

It is hard for new teachers to get students. Here are a few tips that might help. Most of our successful teachers have done the following.

Profile

Update a professional-looking profile - Good profiles should: Avoid spelling mistakes, have a high-quality profile picture and video introduction that show you professionally and in your best light.

Write an effective short introduction - Include as much information about yourself, what kind of students you can help, and what your lessons will be like. If you have experience teaching students from a certain country or language, write a sentence in their language! Please keep in mind, any personal links shouldn’t be included in your profile though. 

Example: I am a native-born English woman and a professional online English teacher with 3 years of experience. I specialize in literature, public speaking, and studying famous speeches. 我教过中国学生，希望我也可以帮助你！ 

Price & Lessons

• Offer a competitive price
• Offer package deals
• Offer trial lessons
• Update calendar regularly and set more available slots

Activity

Contribute to italki Community - Help students with corrections and answer their questions. Your potential student may not be the person asking a question, but another person who is reading your answer to the question.

Example: "... I hope that answers your question.  If you'd like to practice speaking, I'd be happy to help you develop a study plan.  Feel free to look at my teaching profile and class offerings and send me a message if you think I can help you."

Write clear and detailed class descriptions - Be detailed and concrete so students know exactly what they are buying when they use their credits on your lessons or packages.  Tell the students what new words, grammar, or skills they will learn and how they will use them.  Many students don't know how to organize their time or what to focus on.  When you schedule lessons or, even better, a series of lessons in a package, you help the student by giving them deadlines and a clear focus.

Ask for referrals from happy students - If the student is very happy with you as a teacher, they would probably love to tell their friends about you.  Especially if they've just achieved an important goal or are finishing their lessons with you, let them know that if they are happy working with you, that you would be very glad if they would recommend you to others.  Think of how you feel when you know of someone or something that you can confidently recommend to your friends.

Read more about Marketing yourself outside of italki