One of the best ways to find students to teach online is to offer a Free Trial English lesson for first-time students. Everyone loves something for free and this is your chance to show the student your ability as an English teacher and that the student will enjoy working with you. This is a great way to market yourself and is one of the first things I talk about in my how to teach online webinars.

When we buy a car, we expect to be able to take the car out for a test drive. This is basically what your student will be doing here: testing your teaching ability and. It is your potential student's chance to kick your tires and for you to shine as an English teacher. The most important thing you will need to learn about how to teach online is how to attract students.

I suggest a fifteen minute lesson on Skype or one of the other free video chat services. Fifteen minutes is enough 'free' minutes to get a student interested in trying a lesson. It also gives you enough time to introduce yourself, give a short lesson and then give your sales pitch to your potential customer.

In your introduction you need to smile a lot, be friendly come off as professional and kind. Yep, it's that old first impression thing; if the student immediately likes you, then you will have a better chance of making a sale. You just need to take a few minutes introducing yourself and asking some questions about the student. This is important to help the student feel more comfortable with you before you begin the short trial lesson.

It's best to keep your prepared lesson to about seven or eight minutes. Make sure it is a lesson that you have prepared well for and are comfortable with. You don't want to stumble during this part of the trial. You want to come off as professional and well prepared.

Once the actual lesson is over this is your time to switch hats from English teacher to salesperson. Have your sales pitch prepared. Not all of us are comfortable selling and that is why practicing your sales approach is important. Practice your sales pitch out on a friend or family member first. Learning how to give a good sales pitch and attracting students is going to be your first goal in learning how to teach online.

The free trail lesson will be essential to marketing yourself to potential students online. When most people think about how to teach online they only think about teaching, but learning how to market your self is as important! Offering a free lesson will bring students to you!

David C. Redman is an actor, writer, publisher and marketer living just outside of the ancient city wall of Seoul, S. Korea and within a missile toss of the North Korean border.

David was a lead actor on MBC's hit TV show 'Surprise' where he appeared in over 127 episodes. He became known for his portrayals of a detective, the Professor and his comedic roles. David was also a scriptwriter and actor for EBS 'Go Go Giggles' and contributed to numerous ESL publications. He is part of the writer team, Redman / Kup that produced the innovative ESL comic book, 'Quantum Spies'.

You can catch up with David at one of his free weekly webinars on teaching online at http://www.how-to-teachonline.com/webinar/