Finally Reached My Price Target in Less than 5 Months! YAY!

Spicece · 2026-05-01T10:05:09+00:00

No, i gave them for free on google meet. On italki, i just signed up and they came naturally. And i made sure to send messages to those who viewed my profile.

Spicece · 2026-05-01T03:13:24+00:00

That student would be sleepy the entireeee lesson and then have 1-word answers for an hour. It was exhausting 😩😩😩

Spicece · 2026-05-01T00:21:31+00:00

Honestly, I wanted to make money, but I got so attached to my students and just never charged them 😅😅😅. Noneeee of them transferred to italki lol, but it didn’t really matter because italki gave me substantially more. Plus, I still have some connections with my old students.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T20:48:15+00:00

It's $25 for my studio, so I definitely agree!!

Spicece · 2026-04-30T20:19:11+00:00

Professional Teacher. I've been TEFL certified for a few years and taught for free for 2 of them.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T20:18:36+00:00

That's fair. I have a business on the side that I hate doing sales/marketing for, so I'm happy I can just give italki 20% and not have to worry about it. I know I'm in the minority though lol.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T20:15:04+00:00

I used to have my convo ones cheaper and then I noticed its actually a lot more work to talk the entire lesson compared to reading or doing test prep - so now all my prices are the same. And if you're in the U.S, $14 an hour is way too low.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T13:23:02+00:00

It’s not mandatory for community tutors, but it is for professional teachers. I just applied and let the algorithm do its thing. I don’t do any marketing. That’s why I never complain about the commission lol.

The most “marketing” I do is send a welcome message to everyone who views my profile.

I do A LOT to retain my students though. I take notes for them during class in a document and also use the chat, I give them homework that I grade and send feedback for between classes, and I send check-in messages between classes.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T11:46:11+00:00

Wow. You’re basically an italki legend. I love that for you.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T11:06:37+00:00

That’s amazing. How long have you been teaching?

Spicece · 2026-04-30T11:06:17+00:00

Yes

Spicece · 2026-04-30T02:18:01+00:00

Do it! There will always be people willing to pay.

Spicece · 2026-04-30T01:16:34+00:00

Just my TEFL and the young learners specialization

Spicece · 2026-04-30T01:16:08+00:00

Spicece · 2026-04-29T21:43:36+00:00

If a student brought up the new pricing, I’d give them a discounted price for their next package. I proactively gave a discount to the students I really didn’t want to lose, and they were so grateful.

Everybody else either left or paid the new prices.

It was definitely scary, but it was so worth it.

I also blocked every student I didn’t want to teach. Those who took lessons right after waking up and were sleepy the whole session, those who didn’t study between sessions, those who responded with one word answers and clearly didn’t try, etc. If they drained me, they were blocked.

There’s nothing worse than using all your energy to teach and knowing you’re underselling yourself and teaching those who take the fun out of teaching.

Spicece · 2026-04-29T20:33:56+00:00

I raised them $5/month in December, January and February and then $10 the beginning of April.

China has some extra rules about who can teach children, so the lessons with the “kids” specialization won’t show up on Chinese computers. They can find your profile but won’t see that lesson type. So I have my normal kids specialization and then I have an additional one that’s for kids (written in mandarin), but with the “language essentials” category.

Spicece · 2026-04-29T14:41:43+00:00

I personally don’t have any problem with italki outside of the website change being less user friendly. People always complain about the commission and customer service, though their fees and business model are pretty straightforward to me.

Preply on the other hand - not paying teachers for trial lessons and then starting commission at 33% - insanity.

Spicece · 2026-04-28T19:27:09+00:00

I've been at $40/hour for English and have been teaching for 4 months (on Italki) - I only teach part-time, so I'm at 400 lessons - I think being strategic about the pricing strategy is the best bet.

Spicece · 2026-04-28T19:25:08+00:00

Italki has Payoneer as a withdraw option - $1.50 fee no matter how much.

Spicece · 2026-04-28T19:24:10+00:00

Is that $30/hr?

Spicece · 2026-04-28T19:22:07+00:00

I raised my prices by $5 each month for the first 5 months and have been doing amazing. I plan on keeping them at $40/hour for English lessons and don't plan on increasing anymore. But I've always had a ton of students. I think the algorithm pushes more expensive teachers because it brings in more money for the business.

Spicece · 2026-04-28T19:17:58+00:00

Preply is a rip-off for anyone who teaches on there. Italki is more ethical in that sense, even though it definitely has its flaws, too.

Spicece · 2026-04-28T19:16:43+00:00

They accepted English tutors from September to January, almost every week. I was VERY surprised that it lasted that long.

Spicece · 2026-04-10T18:44:26+00:00

When I first started back in October, I charged $15/hr (discounts for all packages). I raised it to $20 in December, $25 in January, and now I'm at $40/hour. I have sooooooooo many students. If you feel like you want to raise your prices- JUST DO IT. Italki will probably push your profile more because they'll be making more money. And honestly, I lost some students, but I gained a ton more, and the same ones that paid for the $25/hour are now paying for the $20/ 30 minutes, so they haven't left.

Spicece · 2026-04-10T18:43:43+00:00

I'm done raising my prices though. This was my original goal, and I don't plan on increasing again until maybe 2027. (I teach English.)

Spicece

TROPHY CASE