One of my previous posts I shared was more a current review about Preply as a platform and the growing concerns that I had regarding the reduced number of bookings that I had over the past number of months. However, since that honest and candid review, I received quite a lot of feedback from other tutors on the platform sharing their experiences which were rather similar in this regard.

I created a dedicated page on my website for potential students to book a trial lesson with me which gained some interest over the past few weeks and have already had a few bookings, but I have kept my Preply profile live with anything just in case.

In the video above, I shared a few thoughts about post-Preply with a scheduled lesson with a student but they never turned up. However, despite some of the challenges that I had encountered, there has been an improvement of late. In this post, I share some of my thoughts and reflections.

Funnily enough, over the past few days, I received two trial bookings on Preply with students and both had thankfully attended their initial lesson with me. The first student was a 25-minute trial while the second was a 50-minute trial lesson. Remember, that both are unpaid and I am working for free on Preply. The latter trial lesson was looking for a short intensive course (approximately four days) for IELTS preparation and that was all.

When we look at the Preply platform, they obviously rely upon a subscription model with emphasis on long term language learning rather than these short term goals, particularly with exam preparation. Additionally, their pricing model locks students into a monthly payment schedule with little room for adjustment or bespoke courses. What I recommended the student to have lessons outside of the Preply platform and for them to settle payment directly for the four lessons over the four days.

The student was dead keen to continue the lessons outside of the Preply platform and not be locked into a monthly payment schedule. Now, the platform could claim that they could book four lessons and then the tutor schedule in those four lessons within the next few days, but there is limited flexibility and both the student and the tutor have to do all the hard work, with the student needing to cancel their subscription immediately afterwards. On top of this, Preply take the commission despite both parties doing all the work their end to ensure everything is agreed upon. Unfortunately for me, the trial conversion rate suffers as their system notices that I had a trial but no successful subscription, despite myself offering greater flexibility for my potential student.

The benefits of offering bespoke and independent courses is that I don’t pay a commission towards the platform and everything is received as invoiced. I decided to invoice the student with Wise payment and they had settled this within 30 minutes. Once this was confirmed, I scheduled in the 1 hour Google Meetings with the student and sent out an invite for them. There is more information about charging students in my previous post.

Where does this leave me for now? Well, I will continue to leave my Preply profile open but I will also focus more on offering more indepedent online courses, particularly for short term goals with potential students. In retrospect, I offered a lot less than what I usually charge but if this student converts post-IELTS, then it would be a bonus.

I do have an online meeting with Preply next week where they emailed me personally with the aim where they could improve their platform, so I will certainly have a bit more to share in due course. I do hope they are receptive and it is obviously in response to what I have recently shared on YouTube and on my website about their platform.

For now, thanks for reading and have a splendid rest of the week!