« | Home | »

Online Homework Help Services vs. Online Tutoring Services

By Scott Palat

My first introduction to online tutoring started with a cheap homework help service where we charged $99 a month for unlimited homework help on ehomeworkhelp.com. Soon after the launch of this website, I quickly learned that parents want more than just homework help for their kids.

How did I figure this out?

Most parents canceled their service with us and on some of the exit interviews; I asked them why they were canceling. Some parents wanted the same tutor for their child. Others wanted to speak with the actual tutor so they could discuss their child’s learning needs in more detail and some just didn’t value homework help, because it seemed like we were degrading our own service by being on call for 12 hours a day and only charging $99 a month.

Soon after this discovery, we launched 2 new online tutoring websites which offered 1 on 1 tutoring from tutors who cared. We also raised our prices significantly. I quickly learned that parents will pay just about anything for a tutor who takes the time to care by calling and consulting with them on a biweekly or even monthly basis.

We charged our clients between $25 – $40 per hour and never once did we even have question or concern about pricing. Looking back on this, we could have charged more money for our online tutoring service if we wanted to.

The secret formula below gave parents a better hourly rate if they committed to more hours per month.

Note: Before we offered our monthly packages, we forced parents to pay for our 1 hour introductory offer. We charged $35 for this and we gave out close to $300 worth of bonuses. It was an irresistible offer that came with a money back guarantee.

After parents allowed their children to try our service, most asked about our monthly programs right after the introductory tutoring session. Here are the pricing plans we offered:

Bronze = up to 3 hours per month for $119($40 per hour)

Silver = up to 6 hours per month for $199 ($33 per hour)

Gold = up to 10 hours per month for $249 ($25 per hour)

Most parents instantly went for the best value which was our gold package. In cases where parents didn’t use all 10 hour per month, we did not allow rollovers. Instead we recommended they downgrade to the Silver.

This pricing structure worked great, but if you are targeting specific states like California or New York, you can raise your prices and still have amazing success. Just make sure your packages offer cheaper hourly rates if the parents commit to more hours.

Also, make sure you bill all of your clients every 30 days. You can use paypal.com’s virtual terminal to run credit cards and deposit the money directly into your bank account. Your parent clients will thank you for this simple billing method and they’ll be happy to pay you as long as you take the time to care by consulting with them about their child’s learning needs.

Topics: Tutor Tips | No Comments »

Comments