The Musician’s Advantage Online
There are many aspiring online teachers out there who face a large hurdle from the very outset of their project.
The first hurdle is not knowing what they are going to teach. Perhaps they have some specific skills, or a general knowledge in a few areas but rarely have they mastered a skill to a level where it becomes an obvious choice.
This is the musician’s first advantage. We have mastered a skill and (hopefully) by this point we have had experience teaching this skill to others. We are already off to a good start.
The second hurdle, and this is something that can ultimately cripple an online business, is making sure that you are passionate about what you are teaching.
Being engaged, excited, and passionate about your subject is absolutely crucial to success if you want to have a thriving online teaching business. For us, it is likely that we are already quite passionate about what we do.
Do be careful, however, to choose a path that you can sustain. One that will continue to keep you interested in a subject and happy to spend time teaching it to others.
Early on, we might have our eyes on the most obvious of targets. If you are a guitarist, then beginner pop guitar is the biggest pool of students. Likewise for a piano player, the bigger genres like pop and jazz seem appealing. But just because they are the largest, most competitive, groups doesn’t mean that they are right for you.
The real trick to success in this business is perseverance.
You are only going to persevere in you online teaching if you truly care about your topic.
For this reason, you should choose the topic that inspires you, not the topic that appears most lucrative.
If you happen to be interested in a narrow topic, then others will be too. Moreover, they will sense your enthusiasm and find it encouraging.
We have these two great advantages: being highly skilled at our craft, and knowing what it is we want to teach. Be sure not to get carried away with the initial scope of your project and focus in on a specific group of people that you want to serve. In the end, it is going to be your own sense of enjoyment and fulfillment that will carry you through to success.
How Much Students Are Used To Paying
Another advantage that musicians enjoy in the online teaching realm is the anchored mindset of the student.
A price “anchor” is something that sets a starting point for monetary value in the purchasers mind. For instance, if I offered you a car for 100,00 dollars I have anchored your perception of what it is worth. Your counter offer might be 70,000 but it is unlikely to be 5,000.
We get subjected to this all the time, you just may not realize it.
Have you seen the infomercials where they tell you the price then suddenly slash it in half?
“Get these two knives for $100, but today only you can get them for $50!”
This example has us already thinking of a value range of $100, and now that they are half price they seem a good deal! The truth is that the knives were always $50, but by placing the anchor in your head you now feel like you are getting a deal, and one that will expire soon (the concept of urgency).
The point is, as music lessons are already quite expensive in a one on one setting, music students have an anchored idea of how much they are going to pay. The even better news is that private music lessons are very expensive! So our leveraged teaching online, which we can offer to them at a fraction of the price, becomes an attractive proposition.
It is this simple. A year’s worth of lessons in New York? $3000. A year’s membership online? $300
This is a powerful selling point, and something we as musicians have in our favor when it comes to online teaching.
Ready to start teaching online?
As you continue to read throughout this site, I hope that you are convinced that teaching music online is a wonderful opportunity for musicians to help people and make an income.