Why I am leaving Italki.
(Note: This article is about teaching English on Italki, not about other languages. Also, please visit my YouTube channel about teaching online at )
A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about how much money I made money on Italki. Since that article, things had been going quite well. I was making some really good money (with my best month of teaching being around $4,500), and was more than happy to stay on the platform. I took a vacation to Hawaii, and one to Alaska. Life was good.
But now, I’m finished with Italki.
But before we get into the reasons why I’m quitting Italki, let’s talk about my financial situation with Italki since my last article. Actually, Italki had been a stable form of income after my first article. And, unlike many, the pandemic itself didn’t necessarily change my income. As I started to get more lessons, and the demand for my lessons increased, my rate increased as well. This led to an increase in income over time. Below is a chart of my Italk-only income between October of 2018 to August of 2021.
As you can see, the only major dips in income was when I was on vacation (which lasted between 10 and 14 days). This dip is natural in the world of self-employment. But the largest percentage decrease in teaching income is in August of 2021. In August, there was a 38% drop in Italki-related income. As for September lessons, the amount of lessons that students register for before the start of the month decreased by 48% compared to the previous month.
Of course, you might be saying to yourself “Dave, you just seem to be bad at keeping students.” Actually, the opposite is true. I have an average of over 11 lessons per student (including the ‘one off’ students). However, students eventually stop taking lessons. That’s natural. But in the past, those students had been replaced with fresh students. That isn’t happening anymore.
To put this into perspective, I would average between two and ten new students per month. This was enough to replace any student who stopped doing lessons with me. But that changed this summer. I have only received one new, non-recommended student over the last three months.
So, why is this the case?
- Italki is hiring way too many teachers, creating a “race to the bottom”.
Italki is hiring way too many English teachers. There must have been a decision sometime in the summer to make Italki into a McDonald’s-type school, offering a large number of “teachers” at cheaper prices, who are simply looking for weekend spending money.
For example, in the last 24 hours (from the time of writing, of course), Italki has posted 79 new English teachers on their website, many of whom are “community tutors”. If Italki keeps at this rate, they will have hired 28,835 teachers in the next 12 months (they currently have a little over 7,000).
Now, you might be thinking, “Dave, anyone who is a teacher should be allowed on the platform.” Yes, that is true, they should be. However, the focus on “community tutors” over professional teachers means that Italki is just becoming a “speak to a native English speaker” website instead of a “learn English from a teacher” website.
2. Changes to the search engine.
The search engine on Italki is being clogged up by the all of the new teachers being added. At the time of this article, there are 7,078 teachers on the website. Theoretically, there is a .0002% chance of me showing up on a potential student’s search in the first page. If Italki continues to hire at the rate that they are, there is a .0000002% chance of a student seeing a teacher’s profile.
Also, on the search, Italki is prioritizing new teachers over teachers who have been there for a while. Of course, new teachers should be given a chance. But they are given a chance at the expense of older teachers. For example, right now (9/3/2021 at 9:58 AM Central Time), the first 20 teachers on the search have a combined 73 total lessons. Of those, 75% are “community tutors”. And, of the “professional teachers”, ONLY ONE teacher has any actual teaching credentials, or have uploaded any type of teaching certificate. Actually, if you look at many of the “professional teachers” on Italki, none of them have any credentials whatsoever. However, according to Italki’s own website, to be classified as a professional teacher, one must have (copied and pasted from their website):
1. Accredited language teaching certificate
2. University degree in language teaching
4. Proof of employment at a language teaching institution
But no, many of the teachers on Italki don’t have this at all. In fact, they have no credentials whatsoever. Any time a document is uploaded to Italki, it will say so on the teachers profile. Also, work and teaching experience is listed as well. Below is what my profile says:
As you can see, my profile clearly shows that I have a CELTA, and that I taught at a language school in Russia (which can be verified on the school’s website). However, it seems as if Italki is just accepting anyone who claims to be a teacher, even if they don’t have any credentials or proof whatsoever.
With this flood of non-professionals onto Italki, the search engine isn’t really helping. Even if a potential Italki student searches for a “professional teacher”, they might not really get one.
In the past, Italki said that their algorithm is based on “activity on the website”, but this has also been shown not to be true. There are a number of teachers showing up in the Top 100 on the search engine that haven’t been active on the site for hours. Yet, teachers who are currently active on the website aren’t showing up.
Also, with a larger number of “teachers” on the website, the number of teachers that are active on the website will go up. Therefore, even if they used “activity on the website” as a basis for search engine placement, there are too many people on the site, and your chances of being seen become smaller.
3. Italki wants us to do our own marketing.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’ve paid Italki nearly $8,000 over the last few years. When I pay Italki that money, I expect them to provide me with a opening to students. And up until now, it’s been fine. However, with the push toward “cheaper is better”, helping out teachers who keep higher-paying students on the platform doesn’t seem to be a priority. Quantity is now king. Anyway, I digressed.
Even though teachers are paying Italki, the company is now pushing teachers to put “their (Italki) profile” on social media. But, I’m paying Italki to provide me with my students. I’m also paying Italki so I don’t have to advertise on social media. However, they seem to want it both ways. They are telling their teachers to advertise their Italki profiles on social media, while at the same time collecting 15% from each one of their lessons. This is either laziness or greediness on the part of Italki. Honestly, I think it’s both.
4. What I have learned over the last 2 1/2 years on Italki
I will admit, this is partially my fault. When I started making money I Italki, I should have started to spend more time on creating and promoting my own website. But as my income on Italki grew, I thought that it would be a stable source of income for the foreseeable future. And honestly, I think it would still be. But the choice that Italki has made to become the McDonalds of English learning means that everyone will lose out, even the noobies.
If I was able to do it all over again, I would have used Italki as jumping off platform for my own English-teaching website. I would have made the transition much earlier. Italki gives people a false sense of confidence that can disappear really fast.
5. Should new teachers still use Italki?
As I hinted in my last point, I do think that it was a good jumping off platform. If someone wants to be an English teacher online, Italki was a good way to get your feet wet. It was a good way to see how online teaching works. It was also a good way for you to know which students are good, bad, and where you should focus to expand your own personal teaching network.
However, with the large number of new teachers entering the platform (with two more teachers being added to Italki since I mentioned the 79 teachers above, which now makes it 81), it might be harder to find students even for new teachers. It might not be the best “jumping off” platform anymore, as even new teachers are complaining about students, even though they have lowered their rates and increased their availability (which is encouraged by Italki, which shows that teacher success isn’t a priority).
If I were a new online teacher looking for students, I would start with either Verbling or Preply. Verbling is a much better platform from a teaching perspective, and actually has qualified teachers. However, their advertising seems to be lackluster. I never found any real success on Verbling. As for Preply, their commission structure is an absolute ripoff. However, they do spend that commission money on advertising. Yes, you will get students, but you will pay through the nose for them.
Of course, these are just my opinions. Each individual teacher should do what they feel comfortable with. However, Italki has decided to take their website from being a legitimate teaching platform with qualified teachers, to so-called teachers who are just looking for extra spending money on the weekend. Maybe this approach will work. But if you area full-time professional teacher, I would advise to stay away from Italki, at least for now.
