Why online tutoring beat in-person, and what that means for new tutors
Pre-2020, in-person tutoring was the default. A tutor in Wandsworth taught kids in Wandsworth. Then schools went remote, parents got used to lessons over Zoom, and the market reset. Online is now around 70% of the UK private tutoring market by volume, and rising. For new tutors, that’s brilliant news — you’re not capped by geography. A student in Inverness can book a tutor in Cardiff. The downside is you’re competing nationally too. The Russell Group graduate in Plymouth charging £25 an hour is a direct competitor with the one in Hampstead.
What wins online: specificity. “GCSE Maths tutor” is too broad. “AQA GCSE Maths Higher tier, focused on grade 7-9 algebraic proof and trigonometry” is what parents are searching for. The tutors who fill their week within a month tend to specialise in two or three things — for example AQA A-Level Chemistry and OCR A Chemistry, or 11+ for Sutton Grammar and Tiffin, or Edexcel A-Level Economics with a focus on Theme 4 essays.
Most tutors here run a mix: some weekly regulars, some short pre-exam blocks (a Year 11 booking 8 sessions before the May exams), and the occasional Oxbridge interview prep at £80-£100/hr in October-November. That mix smooths the income across the year. December and August are quiet, January through April is full.
The setup that actually works
A working online tutor’s home setup is more about reliability than fancy gear. Two monitors help — one for your video and the student’s work, one for your notes and past papers. A wired ethernet connection rather than wifi avoids dropped calls mid-session. Decent lighting (a £25 ring light or just sitting facing a window) means parents who pop in to check don’t see you in the gloom.
For STEM subjects, the must-haves:
- A graphics tablet with stylus — Wacom One or Huion 1060
- Whiteboard software — BitPaper, Microsoft Whiteboard or the built-in Zoom whiteboard
- A folder of past papers and mark schemes ready to share
- A clear method for sending homework — usually a shared Google Drive folder per student
For essay subjects (English, History, Economics, Psychology):
- A method to mark scripts in real time — Google Docs with comments works well
- Access to specification documents and exam-board mark schemes
- Sample answers at different grade levels for comparison
Tutors who batch-prep their resources earn more per hour, because they’re not building from scratch each session. A folder of model essays, marked exemplars, common-mistake worksheets and topic-specific past paper questions saves about 20 minutes of prep per lesson.
Where new tutors lose students in the first month
Picture a new tutor — third-year Imperial physics student, brilliant at A-Level, applies to three platforms in October. By December they’ve had two enquiries and converted neither. What went wrong:
- They wrote a generic bio: “Hi, I’m Tom. I’m passionate about physics and enjoy helping students achieve their goals.” Could be anyone. Doesn’t mention exam boards, doesn’t say which schools their last students went to, doesn’t quote results.
- They priced at £45/hr with zero reviews. Parents look at the search results, see a £45 tutor with 0 reviews next to a £35 tutor with 14 reviews, and click the second one.
- They replied to one enquiry after 18 hours. The parent had already booked someone else.
- No video introduction. Profiles with a 60-second intro video convert about 3x better than ones without.
Fix: rewrite the bio with specifics (“Final-year Imperial Physics MSci. Last year tutored 4 students through AQA A-Level Physics, all hit A or A*. Specialise in Paper 2 fields and capacitors, where most students lose marks”). Drop the rate to £30 for the first 5 students to build reviews. Set notifications so you reply within an hour. Record a short intro video on your phone.
What our 5% commission means in real numbers
Most platforms take 20-25% per booking. We take 5%. On a £40-an-hour lesson, that’s £38 to you with us, £30-£32 with competitors. Across a year of part-time tutoring — say 8 hours a week, 35 weeks of the school year — that’s 280 hours. £40 an hour on competitors nets you around £8,500. The same hours here nets £10,640. That’s £2,000+ a year going where it should: to you.
Listing your profile takes around 20 minutes. The free first 30-minute session is built into the platform — parents can book it without paying, you teach a sample lesson, they decide whether to continue. Most tutors convert 60-70% of free trials into paid weekly slots. There’s no subscription, no premium tier, no boost-my-profile upsell. Just create a profile, get verified with DBS, set your rate, and start replying to enquiries.
The platform sends you an annual earnings summary in April for your tax return. You handle Self Assessment yourself; most tutors set aside 25-30% of takings for tax and NI and have no nasty surprises in January.