So many people are working remotely these days, and instead of being full-time employees, many people are deciding to take advantage of the worlds of freelancing and working in the gig economy. 

One way to make your own schedule and earn money from anywhere while working remotely is to be an online tutor.

There is such a demand for online tutors right now because of the pandemic. People are staying home, so they want tutors to help them stay connected and engaged with the world, and they might also be looking for tutors for their children to help supplement their remote learning. 

With that in mind, the following are some things to know about working as an online tutor, whether that's a foreign language tutor, an elementary school tutor, or anything else. 

What Are the Benefits of Being an Online Tutor?

There are a lot of benefits that come with working as an online tutor. These include:

  • You can work from anywhere. This is really the beauty of being able to do a remote job. You can travel abroad, or you can work from your home. If you want to go on vacation, you can still earn an income during that time if you choose to. All you need is a device and an internet connection and your business is essentially up and running. 

  • Along with the freedom to work from anywhere, you also have the ability to make your own schedule. You can take on as many or as few clients as you prefer and schedule lessons for times that work best for you. 

  • Your earnings can be nearly unlimited and based on how much you want to work. 

  • You're helping someone else learn and reach their goals. 

Decide On Your Focus

The best thing you can do to start to find online tutoring jobs is to have an area of specialty where you're going to focus. This will differentiate you on tutoring marketplaces. 

If you try to be too general, then you're likely to connect with fewer people. If you can offer something very specific, this becomes your niche.

Your targeted pool of clients might be smaller, but you're also likely to get better results from people who are more serious about actually hiring you. 

Some of the most in-demand general categories of online tutors include:

  • Reading tutors for elementary school children

  • High school math and science tutors

  • Foreign language tutors

  • High school test prep

  • College test prep

Decide How You'll Work

You have some options as far as how you'll work and also how you'll connect with clients. 

One of the easiest ways to get started is to go through a tutoring marketplace. You can create a profile and then find clients directly through the site. These sites will allow your students to leave reviews, you can set your fees, and you can manage most aspects of your business easily through a marketplace platform. 

You can also work for a tutoring company that will assign you clients, and then you'll earn a set fee or salary. 

With this option, you don't have to spend time trying to find clients, but you're also probably going to earn less. 

Another option is to create a website and work on SEO and marketing to attract clients. 

This is probably the hardest option when you're just starting out, but it's also the best way to build a standalone business. 

Will You Make a Good Online Tutor?

While online tutoring is in demand right now and can potentially be lucrative, it's not something everyone is well-suited to, and you have to be honest with yourself about that. 

While you might have certain skills, will they translate to you being an effective tutor?

There are both hard and soft skills that can be important if you want to be an online tutor. 

  • Expertise: You need to have a high level of expertise in your area of focus because you have to be able to take your knowledge and help someone else gain an understanding of it. If you don't have expertise then it's going to be  difficult to not just teach but also identify your students' weaknesses that you could help them with. 

  • Engaging: To be a tutor, especially online, which comes with some challenges, you have to be an engaging person. You have to have the ability to communicate in a way that's interesting to your students. 

  • Motivation: If you're going to work as a tutor, yes, you have flexibility in how and when you work, but that also means you have to be a self-motivated person. 

Some other characteristics that are good to have if you truly want to be successful as an online tutor include:

  • It would be helpful if you've also done online learning. This is because you'll know what it's like to be on the student's side of things, so it'll help you provide a better, more engaging, and more effective experience. 

  • You do need some business-minded skills. For example, you're going to have to provide customer service in a lot of ways. When you get emails, you need to respond promptly and effectively. You'll also need to look at ways you can boost your revenue as you build your client base. 

  • An online tutor needs to be very comfortable with technology, and you need to stay on top of the most advanced e-Learning tools. 

  • Having a background in mentoring or coaching can help you be a more engaging teacher. 

Finally, if you know a bit about the learning process itself and the science of learning, you'll be a more effective tutor. If you don't already have some of these skills, you can learn them and improve upon them as long as you  have the initial expertise in the area you plan to tutor in. 

Exploring a career as an online tutor is a great option right now, or you could just do it as a side hustle while you keep your day job.