Are you a retiree who makes money by tutoring students? You might be trading time for dollars. If you don’t teach, then you don’t make money.
Fortunately, there’s a way for you to can earn a living, while helping more students. Yes, you can multiply yourself (and I’m not talking about that blog community) with the help of the internet. Here’s how…
Tactic: Package your lectures as online tutorials.
When you tutor a student, there are basically two parts: Lecture and Interaction.
By putting your lectures online (in a password-protected website or blog), you can focus your personal time on your interaction with your student.
For example, you can require them to get background information online before the two of you meet and discuss the lesson. Now that’s more productive use of your time.
Your online lectures form part of your tutoring package. To prove that your students have watched, listened to, or read your online materials, simply post instructions online that look something like:
Let me know that you’ve gone through this online tutorial by emailing me at (email address) your answer to the following question [please limit your answer to no more than 300 words]…
Then state your question here…
When your students give you feedback, you then set an interactive, face-to-face discussion with your student.
Instead of the usual P500 per hour, you can offer a P400 per 30-minutes package.
Why only 30 minutes? That’s the face-to-face portion. The online materials will cost around P500, P1000, or even P2000 depending on the amount of material you post online.
Here’s a sample total package breakdown:
P2,000 – online access good for 5 months (one semester)
P400 per 30-minute consultation
Some students are more independent than others, and will opt for just your online materials. If 100 students sign-up in a semester, that’s P200,000 for you (or an average of P40,000 a month).
Those who want to avail of your 30-minute consultation sessions need to enroll in the online tutorials, because that will make your consultation periods more productive.
What if you don’t want to charge anyone for your online materials?
No problem… You can still offer the content for free, and then just work with advertisers or sponsors to help you recover your web-related expenses.
But what if I’m not technologically-savvy?
Relax… There are people who are techies. They can set-up membership websites easily.
Instead, focus on what you know and on what you can teach to others.
But I don’t know how to write!
You can teach people with the help of video. Lots of cellphones can easily take videos now, right? For example, the video below was taken using a cell phone:
[S3VIDEO FILE=’dumaguete2010/201005-noah-didiyee.FLV’ bgimage=’http://media.viloria.net/dumaguete2010/noah-didiyee-frame1.jpg’ width=’320′ height=’240′ displaymode=’embedded’]
The camera doesn’t like me!
Simple… offer audio (without the video). But you know what? Your students won’t mind. In fact, they’ll think you’re kinda cool!
But my voice sounds strange!
Hire a voice actor, then. But really now… if you’ll be interacting with your students, why worry about the sound of your voice? Trust me, your voice is wonderful! 🙂
But… but… but…
Okay, enough excuses. Here’s the bottomline…
Whichever strategy you choose, there’s no denying that the internet can help retirees become self-sufficient, earn a decent monthly income, and help countless young people learn from the knowledge and experience of their elders.
