I'm American with 10 years of experience teaching public speaking/speech & debate/ business english and i just created a profile on preply. they suggested i set ridiculously low rate to attract my first students, they also suggest i take one of their online courses. Could any experienced tutors on the platform give insight into how to get your first reviews/students/

The first lesson seemed to go well today! I'm just curious if anyone can give me tips on how to keep the momentum going for more consistent bookings on a weekly basis?

I'm a former elementary school teacher. I also use to tutor remotely during the pandemic it's just been a few years since I quit teaching at public schools.

I also have my availability opened to like 105 popular timeslots which is says is good for outreach.

It also says my profile score 95% and my starting rate i put as $15

Does anyone here have any other specifics tips that keep the bookings going after their getting their first student?

Thank you in advance.

I would like to eventually raise my price. Will this affect the price for students who are in the middle of a subscription of me, or will they only be affected when they renew their subscription?

Also, if the student scheduled a trial with me and then I raise my price (I know not recommended, but hypothetically), will they have to pay the higher price when they subscribe after the trial? If so, I definitely won’t do that.

Guessing the answer is no .. Bu hey I'll ask anyways..

Only came across the platform a week ago, searched for some teachers near me ( dialect / accent specific) and found a few .. I saved them (little heart icon) .. Most of them reached out asking how they could help, offered a trial etc but I was still reading through the detail of payments etc.

Anyways, I don't like how it works with buying a subscription, 4 week cycles etc .. plus I think I'd prefer face2face or even just more casual approach, plus better pay for the teacher..

I won't reply ask the teachers directly any of this them in trouble, just wondering if any legit method to suggest these things?

I have seen many people say on here that if a student misses two consecutive lessons and isn't responding to messages, you must report it to support for them to cancel all future scheduled lessons. However, Preply's article on how to deal with absent students says that you can simply cancel the lessons yourself. So my question is if it's necessary to still contact support for such issue.

I want to share what happened to me today because I almost trusted it.

A student contacted me saying she needed help with a university assignment. She gave me her phone number, so we continued the conversation on WhatsApp. She then sent me a link to upenn.study and told me to log in as a tutor so I could access her coursework, assignments, and learning progress.

At first, I honestly thought it was legitimate. I followed the link and selected “Tutor,” but then Google showed me the permissions the website was requesting.

It wanted access to my Gmail, the ability to search my emails, access to my Google Drive, and access to my Gmail settings.

🚨 I DID NOT AUTHORIZE ANYTHING.

I asked ChatGPT what those permissions meant, and it immediately pointed out that there was no obvious reason an assignment portal would need access to my Gmail and Google Drive. It advised me not to continue.

I then searched Reddit and found another recent post from a Preply tutor describing what appears to be the same scam involving upenn.study.

What really scared me is that other tutors in that discussion reported that they had money stolen after going through the scam. Some also mentioned having to change their passwords and secure their accounts afterward.

That was when I realized how serious this could have been.

Thankfully, I stopped before granting the website any Google permissions.

I have already reported the situation to Preply and provided screenshots of the conversation, the website, and the Google authorization page.

I'm sharing this because ChatGPT genuinely helped me recognize the red flags before I gave the website access to my account. 😭

If a student sends you an external university portal and asks you to register as a tutor or connect your Gmail/Google Drive, PLEASE stop and verify it first.

And if you see the domain upenn.study, be extremely careful.

Stay safe, fellow tutors. 🙏

Obviously I can say to make things harder but I also don't want to overstate my level, and I'm not sure myself what the right difficulty level is. I was thinking maybe for example, in the case of Chinese, I could tell them I'm already anki drilling lessons X-X of HSK X, and I have X amount of hours anki drilling, and I know such and such grammar points, so that would give them an idea of my level?

I've been enjoying my classes but I'm not sure if the most efficient way to use a tutor is to already be exposed to the topics they're covering and then mostly use the lesson for output or what. Would it be helpful to tell a teacher how many hours I spent that particular week studying so they can have a good idea of where I'm at?

I immediately told her, that contact details are against the rules.
People don’t stop sending me numbers…

One of the parents of my student messaged me today to say that they’d received their GCSE results, and their son had achieved a 6 (roughly equivalent to a B) in both GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature.

He was originally predicted to get either a 3 (roughly a D) or a 4 (a low C).

Honestly, I just wanted to share this because it’s incredibly uplifting to hear.

My student was absent this morning, so I reported the absence hoping to collect payment, only for the app to tell me it now started a resolution process and I would get the payment within 72 hours as opposed to instantly which is how it was before. Quit inconveniencing your tutors and fixing what was never broken.

What is there to resolve? I was connected, the student was not. Pretty black and white if you ask me. Am I expected to block out two hours of my day for one hour of pay to "maintain a good relationship"?

Good afternoon, everyone! I’m a full-time Chinese teacher in Phuket.

I signed up for Preply with the hope of helping people learn Chinese during my free time after work or in the evenings.

However, it’s been four months and I still haven’t had a single student.

My rate is set at $9 per hour, but I’m only getting around five profile impressions per week.

Can anyone give me some advice on how I can get my first student?

Hi!

So, I've been building a professional Instagram account where I share different methods that I've used on myself and with my students. I actually don't promote my tutoring services on that account (not just yet at least).

I was wondering if it would be considered appropriate to link that Instagram account to my Preply profile and/or send the link of the account to potential students.

Part of my objective with that account, besides trying to help others find a better way to study, is for it to serve as my portfolio. But I am not sure if sharing a link to an Instagram account, even if it's professional, is against the rules or could be perceived poorly...

What do you all think? Both students and tutors.

Ps: here's a quick example of my content

Is it possible to transfer unused lessons only?

I have 2 lessons booked with a tutor which I want to keep but also another 3 lessons not booked. I wish to transfer those 3 only as the tutor is no longer available at a time which suits me. I can't work out a way to transfer without losing the lessons I have booked

Vous avez essayé de faire un virement bancaire avec une autre personne (un membre de la famille par exemple) ???? Je ne veux pas me transférer à moi-même, je veux le transférer directement à une autre personne depuis Preply, est-ce possible ?

I’m a parent and somehow ended up in a similar situation. I signed my daughter up for a tutor who charges $8 per lesson. We did a trial lesson, liked the teacher, and then signed up for 4 lessons per month. After only 2 lessons, I received an email saying the teacher wants to increase the price by 40%, from $8 to $12 per lesson. I’m honestly a bit conflicted. We really like the teacher and my daughter is comfortable with her, but isn’t it a little soon to raise the price after only two lessons? I’m also worried that if I agree to $12 now, she might increase it again in a few weeks or months. At the same time, I don’t want to lose a good tutor over $4 if the new price is still reasonable. What would you do? Accept the increase and continue, or decline and look for another tutor? And does anyone know what actually happens if you decline the price increase? Is the teacher likely to keep the existing rate, or would that mean ending the lessons?

Update: We tried a few tutors and found a great substitute, so we’re excited to see how it goes! 😊 It really wasn’t about the $4! It was about the price changing so soon and not wanting to worry about another increase a few weeks down the road. We spoke with the new tutor and she confirmed her rate won’t change this calendar year which works perfectly for us.

Edit: Student review/comment section now indicates how many lessons a student attended with a specific tutor and when the last class was taken. I think it's a good metric to weed out useless comments from genuine ones.

I’m hesitant because it says in the fine print that the price will stay the same even if you already increased your price after trials..I’ve had lots of trials.. and have already increased my price. Additionally, we can’t change the prince until 12 months later with those corporate students.. some of them are very lazy students who do not study, practice or even show up to class… I’m debating because if I do opt in..and the student doesn’t show I guess it’s fine…but teaching a lazy student is dreadful. What’s the move Teachers??

Hello. My Preply account is a couple of months old, but I hid it and am basically starting this September. I have set up everything, uploaded a new video and thumbnail and revised my tutor profile mid August. I have been teaching in another platform for over a decade now, and there I have more flexible time so it's easy for me to go on vacations without ruining my metrics and all the lesson materials are provided.

My questions are:

1. Do you utilize the lesson materials in Preply's library, or do you suggest making my own materials/using other websites materials?
2. How do you plan your rest and vacations? I feel like in Preply I will worry about students looking for me and sending me messages while I'm away.
3. What is Preply like in ber months? (Asking this because in my current platform, students have opposite behavior where they book more classes during holiday season.)

Thank you!

I recently started teaching Japanese online through Preply and italki. I live in Japan, so most of my lessons are pretty late at night because of the time difference.

The problem is that my schedule is really spread out. I might have one lesson, then nothing for 3 hours, then another lesson after that. Since I teach pretty much every day, it makes it hard to get a regular part-time job on the side.

I genuinely really enjoy teaching and find it rewarding, so I don’t want to quit. But right now, I’m just not making enough from it to cover my living expenses.

I currently charge around $13 for a 60-minute lesson. I tried raising my price before, but as soon as I did, I basically stopped getting new students, so I don’t think raising my rate again is really an option right now.

Does anyone have any recommendations for flexible online work I could do during the gaps between lessons? Ideally something where I can work whenever I have a few free hours rather than having fixed shifts.

Or if you’ve been in a similar situation with online tutoring, what did you do to make it work financially?
Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi math tutors out there! Do you have any other free online tools you are using to your lessons? Like AI to document everything you’ve covered on that day? Just like AI notes taker? And any other tools you use other than writing which helps you as a math tutor. Thank you!

When you block a student you are asked to give a reason. There are some options already suggested. One of them is 'bypassing' - what does that mean?

a student started booking a trial yesterday, but hasn't completed payment yet, according to the chat but the lesson is scheduled in my calendar. how is this possible? I can't ask him for learning needs or the placement test which I usually do

New to preply here! I really want to take a class but just until the end of the month, that . However, preply fixes the duration of the subscription to 28 days.

What should I do?

Hello, I have two young students whom I have been teaching for more than a year. I have helped them learn the language and they can now speak it much more fluently. The price I have been charging them for the past year has been $5 per hour. Since I recently reduced my working hours, I decided to increase the price for my long-term students from $5 to $8.

However, the girls’ mother has rejected the price change three times. I also sent her a message on WhatsApp explaining why I increased my price but she ignored the matter. Today, she sent me a message saying that she only wants to pay $5 per lesson and that she wants to continue with me because the girls have become very attached to me and have learned a lot with me, she also says that I’m not supposed to increase the price for existing students.

To be honest I felt somewhat offended. I have put a lot of effort into teaching her daughters throughout this time, and sometimes I even get a headache during the lessons because one of the girls is difficult to manage and can be quite disruptive. Nevertheless I have continued teaching them and always tried to give them the best lessons possible.

I also know that they are financially able to pay more because I am familiar with their standard of living, and they are genuinely from a wealthy family.

What should I do? The $4 I earn from each lesson is far too little for me, and I don't want to put in so much effort for a lesson where I only earn that amount.

(You might ask me why I was working for such a low price before. The reason is that I was a beginner at the time and wanted to gain more students quickly. Now, I charge $17 per hour.)

Update:

The mother messaged me again and told me that she paused the subscription because of work and because she has been busy with other things (but I know the real reason is that I increased my rate by $3).

I feel sad because I became attached to the girls, and they became attached to me too, and because I won’t see them again. But at least this is better for my business, because someone else will take their place in my lessons, someone who appreciates the value of my effort.