Tutoring online is one of the most accessible ways to make use of what you have studied: you don’t need an office, you don’t need a company to hire you — all it takes is a subject you know well, a decent connection and the desire to explain. And yet most people who try get stuck at the same point: so, where do I begin?
This guide is meant for people starting from zero: university students, recent graduates, people who work and have a skill to share. It doesn’t promise easy earnings. It puts in order the decisions to make before the first lesson, and the ones that are better postponed.
1. Choose what you teach (and to whom)
The first question is not “how much can I earn” but “what can I really explain”. There is a big difference between knowing a subject and being able to explain it to someone who doesn’t understand it. Only the second counts.
Try to answer three questions in writing:
- Which subjects did I study well, not just pass? An exam taken with a good mark but forgotten within two weeks is not a subject you can teach.
- At what level can I teach them? Someone who has finished the liceo scientifico (Italy’s science-focused high school) can help a Year 1 high school student in maths with reasonable ease. A university analysis exam needs a different solidity.
- With what kind of student do I work best? Some people have patience with younger students, some prefer university students who already know what to ask, some are good with those who start out unmotivated.
You don’t need to teach everything. In fact: a well-defined skill is easier to present and to be found for. “Maths for high school” is a clear offer; “help with all subjects” is not.
Science subjects have steady demand, but they are not the only ones: languages, Latin and Greek, Italian, economics and the humanities all have families looking for them. If your skill is not maths or physics, that is not a disadvantage: look at how the humanities, English or Latin are described to get an idea of how a subject is presented to those who look for it.
2. Make sure you know the curriculum, not just the subject
If you teach school students, your reference is not the university textbook: it is the programme that student has to bring to class. Before taking on your first student:
- revise the textbooks actually used in high school;
- redo by hand the typical exercises of a class test, without looking at the solutions;
- prepare two or three alternative explanations for the concepts where students get stuck most often.
That last point is what separates a good student from a good tutor. If a young person doesn’t understand an explanation, repeating it more slowly doesn’t help. You need a second way of saying the same thing: a different example, a drawing, a simple numerical case. For high school maths and physics you can start from the maths and physics pages to see how the programme is laid out.
3. Tools: few, but they have to work
An online lesson needs fewer things than you might think, but some are non-negotiable.
A whiteboard to write on. Explaining maths or physics out loud, without writing, doesn’t work. A tablet with a stylus and screen sharing is the best solution; a graphics tablet connected to the computer is the minimum acceptable. Writing with a mouse on a web whiteboard produces illegible handwriting and after ten minutes tires both of you. If your subject is linguistic or humanities-based, the whiteboard matters less, but you still need a way to write examples, diagrams and corrections while you talk.
A stable video call. Google Meet, Zoom or equivalents are all fine. What matters is clear audio (even cheap headphones with a microphone make a big difference), a connection that doesn’t drop and the ability to share your screen.
A place to save what you write. A lesson where everything disappears when the call ends is half a lesson. Export the whiteboard as a PDF and send it to the student: it is the material they will use to revise, and concrete proof of your work.
A calendar. Even just the one on your phone, but only one, with all the lessons in it and reminders switched on. The first student you wait for in vain because you mixed up the times is likely to be the last.
Before you start, do a dress rehearsal with a friend: connect everything, write an exercise, share your screen, export the PDF. Finding out your microphone doesn’t work during the first real lesson is an expensive way of practising.
4. Decide how to work: on your own, with a platform or with an agency
There are three routes, and none is “the right one”. It depends on how much of what you want to take care of.
On your own. You find your students, set the price, collect payment, manage the calendar and solve the problems. You keep everything you earn, but you spend part of your time looking for clients and on administration, and at the start that part is large. We discuss it in detail in how to find students for tutoring.
With a platform. You sign up, create a profile, students find you and write to you. It brings you visibility, but puts you in direct competition with other tutors and usually keeps a share of each lesson. How much and how varies from one platform to another: always read the published terms before signing up. We discuss it in how much to charge.
With an agency or a service that assigns you students. Someone takes care of finding the families, agreeing the price with them and collecting payment; you teach the lessons. You have less control over price and choice of students, but you get rid of a part of the work that isn’t teaching. GL Ripetizioni works like this: how we work with tutors is on the become a tutor page.
Many people begin with one model and switch to another after a few months. It is not an irreversible decision.
5. Prepare your profile: four lines that say it all
Whether you choose a platform, an agency or word of mouth, you will be asked to introduce yourself. Write a four-line presentation once and for all:
- What you teach and at what level (“Maths and physics for high school and the first years of university”).
- What you studied, in terms of field and level, not as a boast.
- How you work: what one of your lessons is like, what you leave the student with at the end of the hour.
- Who you have already worked with, if it is true: tutoring classmates, younger siblings or neighbourhood kids counts. If you have no experience, don’t invent it: here we explain how to get chosen without a portfolio.
Avoid phrases that anyone could write (“passionate, patient, motivated”): they say nothing and read like filler. A concrete sentence (“I end every lesson with three exercises to redo on your own”) is worth more than ten adjectives.
6. The first week: what to do, in order
If you are starting from zero, a reasonable first week looks like this:
- Day 1-2: choose subjects and levels, write your presentation.
- Day 3: set up your tools and do the dress rehearsal with a friend.
- Day 4: prepare a first model lesson (how to plan it is described in the article on the first lesson).
- Day 5-7: choose a channel to be found (a platform, an agency, an announcement in your network) and put your profile online or send it in.
You don’t need more. The rest you learn by teaching real lessons.
7. A note on tax and contributions
The fees you receive for tutoring come with tax and social-security rules that are not the same for everyone: they depend on how much you work, how you work and your personal situation. INPS (Italy’s national social security institute) has a fact sheet on contributions for occasional self-employed workers (in Italian) to read as a starting point. For your specific case check with an accountant before you start, especially if you plan to make it an ongoing activity: it is much easier to start in order than to sort things out afterwards.
Where to start now
If you already have a subject you can explain and want to avoid looking for every family on your own, the shortest route is to work with a service that brings you the students. On become a tutor you will find how the collaboration with GL Ripetizioni works, which subjects we are looking for (all of them, not just maths and physics) and how to apply.
If you would rather start on your own, the first concrete step is just one: write your four-line profile today. The rest comes afterwards.
