If you’re considering teaching online, you have a number of options. Whether you want to provide live lessons (e.g. via Skype) or earn passive income via an online video course, you typically have two choices:
1) Join a marketplace for teachers
An online teacher marketplace is a website where services (lessons, courses, etc.) are provided by multiple teachers, and transactions are processed by the marketplace operator.
As a teacher, you can register and create a profile, upload any content and wait for student members to enrol in your courses or book a lesson with you. Lesson scheduling and payment processing are handled by the marketplace.
Examples of marketplaces include italki.com and verbalplanet.com for language teaching, buddyschool.com for all topics, udemy.com for video courses.
2) Start your website
Starting your own website means that you are responsible for everything related to your site/service including domain registration, hosting, lesson scheduling, payment processing, video delivery, etc.
If you are not a professional developer or don’t have the budget to hire one, there’s a plethora of of website building tools and blogging platforms you can use. Examples include Wix, Weebly, Blogger, Squarespace and WordPress. Some platforms will provide free hosting but come with limited flexibility. With WordPress, you can build a fully-featured professional looking site without using any coding.
Which approach to choose?
There are pros and cons to both approaches. Joining a marketplace is typically very easy and you have potential instant access to thousands of student members. However, if you are in a competitive niche, you will struggle to compete with many established teacher members. With your own website, you are responsible for your own marketing and promotion. While this might sound even more challenging, you can reap long-term benefits with a smart approach.
The table below summarises the differences between joining a marketplace and building your own WordPress website.
| Joining a marketplace | Starting your own site | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup difficulty | Very easy. Just register and create your profile. | Initial learning curve. |
| Competition | Other teachers in the marketplace | Typically, similar websites in the same search results page. |
| Marketing effort | Depends on the marketplace. For established teachers with a solid reputation, very low. For new teachers in a competitive marketplace, it can be challenging to attract new students. | For a competitive niche, initial marketing effort will be very high to gain search engine exposure. |
| Expenditure | Joining a marketplace is usually free. | Typical costs associated with running a website (hosting, domain registration, etc.) |
| Potential number of students | Limited by the student population of the marketplace. | Any student searching for online lessons/courses is a potential client. |
| Flexibility | Limited to marketplace policies and profile interface. | With WordPress, you can add practically any kind of content and functionality you want. |
| Pricing strategy | Influenced by the marketplace competition. | Without direct competitors on the same platform, you have more flexibility. |
| Ownership | Your profile/courses are hosted on a third-party platform, which means you are subject to the platform's changing policies. | You own and are fully in control of all your content. |
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