How can a language teacher find private work, at home or abroad?

If you are an ESL teacher you may be lucky enough to work for a good school, but maybe not. Regardless, unless you do private work, your income rarely reflects the amount or quality of work you do. Private students, either in addition to or in place of school work can allow you to earn more money and also retain your independence. But how can you find enough private students to achieve financial freedom?

Many teachers say they rely on word of mouth, and it’s true that referrals can generate good quality leads. However, unless you are an established teacher with lots of students to 'milk', word of mouth won't generate much work. Free adverts on bulletin boards and classified advertising sites is quite a popular option, but it means competing with thousands of other people, most of whom resort to “selling” themselves by offering the lowest possible price. It isn’t a form of advertising that enhances your professional image.

So why not get a website, or a blog?

This is perhaps the most cost-effective solution. It adds strength to word of mouth referrals, allowing potential students to see what their friends are recommending before they speak to you, and provides you with a permanent advertising platform.

But do you need a blog or a website?

Very few new-comers to the internet ask the right questions before they take the plunge. The questions you need to ask are “What do I want to achieve?”, “What do I want my site to do?” and “How much time can I dedicate to my site each day/week?”.

‘Brochure Websites’

Traditional websites, whether you call them ‘html websites’, ‘brochure websites’ or ‘static websites’ are more or less online advertising brochures, sales brochures. They are intended to transmit a message, or an image. They require almost no maintenance, are very rarely targetted by hackers, are exceptionally stable and aren’t particularly expensive. In standard form, they do not allow visitors to interact, only to read and observe. They allow visitors to see what you are offering and provide them with the means to get in touch with you.

HTML websites are massively stable. Once a site has been created it almost never needs revising – though of course you can update or edit it to your heart’s content.

Unlike a blog, which is the visual interface of a software program under constant development, you won’t wake up one morning to discover that parts of your site are no longer working because the program designers have 'upgraded' something. Nor will you receive emergency emails advising you that you absolutely must upgrade to the latest software version to plug security gaps which allow hacker access to various parts of your site. HTML sites are as stable as .... well, rock.

For examples of teacher websites, visit ildocente.it (English and Italian) and insegnanti-inglese.com (only Italian). Insegnanti-inglese.com has a large quiz section with over 40 interactive language quizzes, plus a full online level test.

Blogs

Blogs, on the other hand, are better compared with chat rooms. They have the facility to display static content, but are generally much less flexible. Wordpress, the most popular blogging platform, is in a state of constant development, and to gain the most from it you either need a professionally created site or a lot of knowledge. It’s true that an absolute learner can create a wordpress site quickly, but it will very rarely look professional.

Blogs also appear to be the hacker’s destination of choice. Sites that are not constantly maintained can be hijacked, and if your site is hacked it isn’t always so easy to repair or restore it to its previous state.

It's obvious that blogs eat your time. What is the sense in having a site which allows users to post comments if you don’t check them daily for spam, respond where appropriate and also post new articles for users to comment on? How much time do you imagine this absorbs? Infinite amounts, can be the answer.

Wordpress is under constant development. Almost every new version comes with advice that it plugs security weaknesses that you didn’t know existed in the version you are using. With each update comes the risk that sections of your site will cease to function. The comments pages on the wordpress site are full of complaints along these lines.

So, get a proper website!

Teachers, if you want to attract private students, to generate income without surrendering your free time, get a proper html/static/brochure website. A simple 5-6 page site can express everything you want to say, advertise everything you have to offer, and generate leads for you to follow.

I am a designer working for beendesigned.org, a website design group set up and managed by a team of ex-teachers. We specialise in designing websites for teachers, especially for those who want to generate business. We have English, Spanish and Italian designers, plus access to Russian, German and French mothertongue teachers, so multi-language sites are easily arranged...

If you’d like to see what we can do to help you, or just to read about website design and functionality, visit our website at beendesigned.org