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One of the most common problems I hear from people is that they want to be a digital nomad, but they don’t know where to start. Because that is something I hear so often, I wanted to share with you how I got my start as a digital nomad and how I make money while working remotely and traveling the world.
Because I promise you, it is not as difficult as you are making it out to be. Making money online is so easy and something anyone can learn how to do.
I first started my remote working career through teaching English online for a company called VIP Kid.
VIP Kid is a Chinese based company that hires native English speakers from North America only, meaning only from the US and Canada. The students are all exclusively from China.
As a side note, if you are reading this blog and you are NOT from North America, don’t sweat it. There are still plenty of teaching opportunities out there for you. Two of the most popular ones I hear about are PalFish and iTalki.
Working for VIP Kid has been a fantastic way to jump start my digital nomad lifestyle. I think of it as a bridge job. What I mean by this is, teaching English online is not my ultimate goal, but something that is paying the bills for now and allows me to have the location independent lifestyle I desire.
I am not alone in this. Many people I meet in the digital nomad world start their remote working careers with teaching English online. This gives them sufficient income to cover living expenses (especially when living in countries in SE Asia and S America where the cost of living is low.) It also affords plenty of time to start building up a side hustle of something they are truly passionate about.
In this post, I want to share with you my experience working for VIP Kid and give you my best tips and advice for getting hired with them as well!
WHAT IT’S LIKE WORKING FOR VIP KID
How much do they pay?
Let’s start with the first question I always get asked “how much does it pay”. To answer that question broadly: it depends. I will crunch the numbers for you to show you how it all shakes out.
I make a base rate of $8 per class and then for each class I finish I get an extra $1. I don’t know how I could teach a class and not finish…. so that seems like a silly bonus, but I’ll take it. Then, if I teach at least 45 classes per month I receive an extra bonus of $1 per class.
Essentially this comes out to $10 per 25 minute class or $20 per hour. If I open my time slots up to be booked on “short notice”- meaning between 24hrs -1 hr before the start of class time, I can make an extra $2 per 25 minute class. Basically the highest I can get for a 25 minute class is $12.
So ultimately this comes down to an earning potential of $20-$24 per hour (as long as I teach 45 classes per month). Hopefully you are following this math.
What are the hours?
Now of course, another factor that determines the size of your paycheck each month is how many classes you actually teach. So I will also break down how that works too.
Once you get hired and start working for VIP Kid, you get to choose your own hours entirely because there is no minimum hour requirements per week. You can teach as little as you want and take entire months and weeks off if you desire. Or, the flip side of that, you can work as much as you want too.
The way it works is that you set your hours of availability, and then students can choose to book classes with you within those available hours. So it is important to keep in mind that regardless of how many hours you open up, the thing that matters is how many students are actually booking classes with you.
There are only certain hours where the students are likely to sign up for a class. These hours are 6-9pm Beijing time on weekdays (after school) and 9am-9pm Beijing time on weekends. If you are starting your teaching career in the US or Canada, this means getting up pretty early to get your teaching hours in.
If you were to “max out your bookings” and work as many hours as possible, you could work 3 hours each week day and ~12 hours each weekend. However, if you are living in the US or Canada there is a time zone difference, which will likely keep you from working all 12 hours each weekend. I think realistically you could work 5- 6 of those hours. Meaning you could work up to 27 hours a week, earning around $540 a week and $2160/ month.
Again, that is if you are looking to completely max out your bookings and work whenever possible. Feel free to do your own version of that math based on how much you are willing to work to calculate your own earning potential.
I generally tend to open up slots from 5-8pm Monday through Friday, which gives me about 15 hours a week. Working 15 hours/ week at $20/ hr is MORE than enough to cover all of my living expenses in SE Asia and then some. It’s a pretty sweet gig.
Another thing to keep in mind when getting started is that it takes some time to “build up your bookings”. Meaning that at first, students aren’t as likely to book classes with you because you don’t have any “apple ratings” and they just don’t know who you are yet. It took me about a month of teaching to build up regular bookings to the point where whenever I opened up a time slot, it would get booked. That is the goal you want to get to, because that is when you truly have control over your earning potential.
HOW DO I APPLY FOR VIP KID?
The application process for VIP Kid can be more rigorous than for other online teaching platforms, but in my personal experience it was fairly breezy and straightforward.
It took me one week to get hired. That means it only took 7 days from the time I filled out the initial application to when I was teaching my first class.
In order to be qualified to teach for VIP Kid you must meet the following requirements:
- Native English speaker
- Bachelor’s degree
- Citizen of US or Canada or be eligible to work in those countries (I believe if you have a working holiday visa for Canada you are able to get hired for VIP Kid)
From my experience helping other people get hired, I believe it is ALSO important to have:
- A TEFL certificate (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), this is an online certification course you can easily sign up for. I got my TEFL with i-to-i, although I believe you can find them even cheaper on groupon.
- Teaching experience. This can be as simple as informal tutoring experience, but in the initial application it is important to note that you have some level of previous teaching experience (even if its a stretch).
Application Process
Here is a general look at the application process.
- Use this referral link to sign up and make an account. If you have already made an account you can still enter my referral code CHELS0647 to give me credit as a referral source.
- Fill out a super basic application with information about your education level and teaching experience. Remember to check that you HAVE teaching experience and you HAVE your TEFL, even if you haven’t gotten it yet.
- Film a demo class (more info about this in the next session).
- Pass the mock class
- Finish the background check and other admin stuff and you are ready to teach your first class!
The basic application should be pretty self explanatory and as long as you meet all the criteria mentioned above, it should not be a problem at all for you to pass it.
Completing the demo class
- There are several options for submitting the demo class. There is a LIVE demo (where you sign up for a time slot and actually speak to a real person on the other end) and a pre-recorded demo (where you just go into the classroom and record yourself teaching a few slides).
- I recommend doing the pre-recorded demo. Which I think is the easiest and most convenient way to pass this portion of the application process.
- Headset or no headset? I think having a headset immediately makes you look more professional and makes it easier to get hired. However that being said, I don’t use a headset and was able to get hired no problem without one. So don’t stress about it, if you don’t have one or are having trouble getting one.
- Make a super simple teaching background and external reward system. Once you get hired you can get fancier if you wish.
- For the background I literally just hung up print outs of basic objects (flower, soccer ball, doll, schoolhouse, book ) on the wall behind me. You could also hang up something very easy like a map. Its also good to turn your desk around so that there is a wall right behind you.
- Here are some other background ideas- https://happyteachermama.com/10-vipkid-background-ideas/
- For the reward system I just cut out pictures of stars and held them up (You get a star! You get ANOTHER star) and that was super sufficient.
- This girl has got killer printable props and reward systems and it is where I get all my materials from.
My best tips for completing the demo class
An example of the demo class
If you are like me and you learn simply by watching and mimicking, this will be perfect for you. Watch my sample demo class that I recorded and feel free to do exactly as I do to pass this stage of the hiring process.
I hope this blog post and these video clips were SUPER helpful for you, and I am happy to chat with you if you have any other questions about getting started with VIP Kid. Feel free to send me an email chelsea@theturquoisetraveler.com with any questions you may have.
