Teaching English online has never been more possible than in 2023. With more students deciding to learn online and more companies and schools also offering virtual lessons, there is a lot of work out there for TEFL teachers. To maximise your earning potential, you need to understand what types of online jobs are out there and what they can offer you in terms of pay.

Why teach online?

-Teaching online gives you more freedom over your schedule. You can decide the hours and days that you want to work and take holidays more easily when you want to.

-Teaching online gives you greater access to tools, platforms and students from all over the world. You have more reach as a teacher, which can be profitable. This means more availability in terms of job offers too!

-Working from anywhere! This is a significant advantage of teaching online. If you want to work from home, then you can! If you want to work from the Bahamas, this is also possible! All you need to do is take your laptop and have a good internet connection, you can be a travelling TEFL adventurer!

-Access to more students means more work and more opportunities to earn money. If you specialise in private lessons, you can charge a higher rate, which is much easier to do online than face-to-face in your local city.

What do I need to become an online English teacher?

First of all, you need a TEFL qualification. The minimal requirement for the TEFL industry is the 120-hour TEFL course. This is a good option if you have some classroom experience and a degree. If you don’t have a degree or any teaching experience, you might want to consider doing the 180-hour Level 5 Diploma, which will give you a complete overview of TEFL and all the skills you need to teach both in the classroom and online! 

Suppose you are keen to develop your skills even more. In that case, taking our 300-hour Advanced Diploma is the perfect qualification as this includes specialist courses (such as how to teach English online and Business English). This way, you can truly master the art of TEFL!

After your qualifications, the essential tools you need to teach online are a good laptop and equipment. Trying to train with a tablet may seem like an excellent idea, but in the long run, it won’t work and won’t let you teach quality lessons. You need to invest in a decent laptop. It doesn’t have to be the best on the market but it should have a good memory and processor. 

You’ll also need to ensure your laptop has a good camera and microphone. If not, you’ll need to buy these separately. Many teachers prefer to buy headphones which feature noise cancellation. If you’re working from your own home, you need to ensure you have reliable high-speed internet. It’s always a good idea to have a backup such as a dongle, cable or even your phone internet in an emergency!

What can I earn as an online English teacher?

What you earn will depend on how and where you decide to work. There are more ways you can work online with other conditions (some good, some not so good). Let’s take a look at the various options and the earning potential.

Working for a big ESL company 

This is how most people start out working in online TEFL. Why? It’s the easiest way to get work, and you don’t have the stress of finding students or classes. Often, these companies have their preferred teaching methods and materials prepared, which is also more easy-going for starting. Different companies specialise in other markets around the world. Hence, it’s essential to check the peak earning times as sometimes, across timezones, this translates into you needing to work during the night, which means it’s not the right company for you!

Working for a big ESL company can mean earning anything from $10-$20 – remember, most schools pay you in US dollars! The amount varies from company to company and depends on experience or mother tongue. Many companies offer to pay on a rising incentive scale, meaning it goes up based on weekly hours worked, reviews from students and the number of years worked. This is important to check when you apply for a company, as it means your earning potential can increase.

Advertising yourself on a teaching platform

Many platforms (ClassGap, Amazing Talker, Italki) that act as a sort of middleman between teachers and students – connecting them for private classes, for a fee, of course! These platforms require setting up your profile and advertising your teaching services. They typically include introductory videos, student reviews, a timetable where students can book online lessons, or even a trial lesson.

These platforms help a lot to find students; the best part is that you can charge what you want. You can typically make more money here than working for a more prominent company. You set your rates, so this is possible if you want to charge $30 an hour! Then, you need to factor in that the platform will take a commission from you – typically between 10-30% depending on the website. 

Although making more money and setting your hourly pay is undoubtedly an advantage, you must still be realistic. Look at similar teachers’ profiles and see what they charge to help you develop it at the right price. It needs to be fair for your qualifications, experience, and time, but you won’t get any students if you put it at a ridiculously high price.

 Typically the more experience you have and the more good reviews you get on the platform, the more students and interest you will get. Once you have established a long-term relationship with the student, you might even agree to arrange classes away from the platform, meaning you get 100% of the pay with no commission to be paid.

You are building up your TEFL empire!

This is the most lucrative way to teach TEFL. You market yourself, find your students, decide your pay, and then teach away! Sounds simple? Not very! This is undoubtedly the best way to make money, but it takes time and effort. You have to build up your reputation and marketing strategies to attract students. This often means having an excellent social media presence and investing in marketing. Building up a student list takes a while, but you can make anything from $25 an hour doing this. If you can get a group of students together, you can make 60-90 euros an hour, depending on the number of students in the group!

This is certainly for those in TEFL long-haul, and it might take a few years for you to have your own business, but it is very profitable. If you invest the time and effort – it will grow, and you will make top dollar for your lessons! You may even arrive at the point where you hire other teachers to deliver lessons too! Social media is essential for this teaching type, and building a website for your potential students to checkout!

When setting your rates, you need to consider the following:

-your experience and qualifications. If you’re new to teaching, you might not be able to charge a lot immediately, but this will increase as your knowledge increases!

-where are your students based? Remember that if your rates are much higher than their local rates, they probably won’t be able to pay you more.

How should I begin?

The beauty of online teaching is the flexibility to choose your schedule. Combining different income-generating modes is the best way to build up your timetable and salary. To start, a giant ESL company will offer you more job stability and an easier way of earning, so apply for a range of these. Then you can also think about how to market yourself and get your classes simultaneously. This will likely start small with a few private students, so having worked with a leather company can offer you more job security for your wage. 

To excel at teaching online, multiple income sources are the best way. There’s nothing wrong with working for a more prominent company, advertising yourself on a teaching platform and taking time to market yourself on Instagram and attract your students that way. As the number of private students and higher earning classes increase, you can reduce your hours with the teaching company where you don’t make as much money.

Once you gain more experience and confidence, you will learn how to make more money and specialise in this. Perhaps you’ll find a niche area of English teaching and develop this further, which is a great way to maximise your income!

A wide range of salaries is available for online teaching, and you might not earn the highest rates right away after you qualify. It’s essential to put the groundwork in first to succeed in the long run. Charging a higher rate will naturally follow as you gain more experience and knowledge of how the online TEFL world works. Work for multiple companies and platforms to get options for when you want to work and clock up the hours.