How to get more students on Preply: Choose a niche!

Introduction

The most asked question in every Preply facebook group is how to get more students on Preply? My answer is, choose a niche. You’ve probably heard this from all the social media gurus as much as I have and it may sound contradictory as a Preply tutor. I mean surely if you’re able to teach a wide variety of specialties then you’d attract more students to your profile which means more money for you right? Well it’s not that plain and simple and here’s why.

Conversion rate

Preply measures your student conversion rate which is how many students subscribe after each trial lesson you have. This percentage shows Preply how good your profile is at attracting students and consequently how good you are at convincing them you’re the right tutor for them. This measurement is so important that it forms part of the 7 criteria to become a super tutor on Preply.

The higher the percentage, the more the algorithm perceives you as being good for business. Remember, Preply gets paid when you get paid so the more students you can convert, the more money Preply can make from commissions. This also means that the algorithm will push your profile out to as many students as possible, this is where the importance of a niche comes in.  

Importance of a niche

When the Preply algorithm starts pushing out your profile to more students, it is ideal that it pushes it out to a particular student type. I call this your student avatar, the typical student that would be attracted to you, your teaching style and they are also the kind of student you’d enjoy teaching. This means if the algorithm shoes your student avatar your profile, they would most likely like your profile and you are likely to convert them into a subscription. This in turn increases your student conversion rate.

I always use this analogy to the tutors I coach so that it makes sense. Imagine two scenarios, a tutor with a general profile that attracts everyone vs a tutor with a profile aimed at a specific student avatar. What could happen if each tutor gets 10 trial lessons?

General profile

This tutor gets trials from 2 beginner adult students, 3 business English students, 3 EILTS students, 2 child beginner students. Out of these trial lessons, only 4 students subscribe. The 2 beginner adult students and 2 child beginner students. The tutor gets a conversion rate of 40% as a result. This is a not a good score and it will not persuade the algorithm to more students because you’re unable to convert the one’s it sent based on you profile. It is also clear that this tutor is liked by beginner adult students and parents of children at beginner level. This tutor could benefit from structuring their profile to attract beginner students, either by focusing on kids or adults. 

Niche profile

This tutor’s profile is structured to attract adults above 20 years of age who are interested in business English to advance their careers and apply for new jobs. Therefore, they get trials from 2 beginner adult students, 3 business English students, 3 EILTS students, 2 conversational students. Out of their 10 trial lessons, 7 students subscribe. 3 business English students, 2 EILTS students, and 2 conversational students. The 2 beginner adult students felt intimidated by the tutor and 1 EILTS student just didn’t like the tutor.

The tutor qualifies to be super tutor because they got a conversion rate of 70% which is more than the 60% minimum. This tutor’s profile is clear about who they teach and the algorithm knows who to send the profile to based on the type of students who subscribe to the tutor.

How to choose a niche

Choose your niche based on your strengths. The fact is, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and we should all endeavor to improve our weaknesses but if you want to get more students on Preply, lean in more on your strengths in the beginning. Do you have experience in a particular English subject? Perhaps you like traveling so you teach English for travelling or you’ve worked in corporate so business jargon is more up your alley? Maybe you’re an hiring expert so you could do interview prep and business English. Whatever is your strength, choose subjects that align well. Here are the list of specialties (subjects) on Preply.  

In case you feel you don’t know what you’re good at because you have never taught before. Take this test to see what kind of a teacher you are and this will help you decide which niche you’re probably best teaching.

My niche of choice

I have some corporate experience and I enjoy giving presentations. I also enjoy talking to new people and I’m quite inquisitive. As a result, I know how to ask the right questions to get more information from someone. I’m also fairly patient but I don’t have the kind of patience to teach children and English beginners. Taking all this into account, I chose business English as my major offering but I also chose some complementary subjects like interview prep and conversational English to mention a few.

Besides the above, business English takes the biggest share of the students on Preply at 33% compared to all other English specialties so that’s a no brainer. Read this article, subjects that will make you more money on Preply, to find out why business English related specialties will make you more money on Preply.

So, is a general profile a bad idea altogether?

A general profile that attracts everyone is not a bad idea at all. It may be a useful way to find out your strengths and who your student avatar is. I have also coached a number of tutors who chose the general profile route and they still achieved success on Preply because there are a lot of things that play together to ensure that you have a winning profile. My only concern is that when you have a general profile, you can have a variety of students book trial lessons with you yet you are not their ideal tutor. This means they won’t subscribe and that affects your conversion rate.