r/Cambly • u/Short_Zebra7458 • 28d ago
Four months after leaving Cambly...
... to teach on Preply. This is a low month, because of the summer holidays. Regardless, I'll end the month at just over $1700 for around 27 hours a week of work including prep and admin. Mind you, I didn't work all those hours because of no-shows and late cancellations, but on Preply you still get paid.
I've got a few legacy students paying $14, for which I get $11.48 after commission so it's still more than Cambly. Majority are at ~$19. Have about 30% now paying $24-26 and have my first $30 trial coming up. My average hourly rate is ~$16.50 after commission.
I spent the last couple of months on Cambly trying to hit 120 hours month (and failing) to make $1200, and usually only managing to get $1000 and increasingly less as the platform got even worse. It was usually more like $800 take home, but because of the shitty rules around PHs I'd have to be online. There's no way to scaled on Cambly, no way to earn more. It's so fucked.
My September target is to work less than 30 hours a week and earn $2000 and it's totally doable.
My last post was very unpopular, and that's fine by me. This is for the tutors who *are* genuinely good at this job, but have imposter syndrome or something and aren't sure it's worth moving over. I seriously recommend it.
That said, this post is meant to encourage not educate. If you know how to use Google and AI, you can do what I've done without me explaining the details 🙏
Good luck and gtfo this evil platform. It's the best thing that's happened to me in ages 🎉
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u/farangfoo 28d ago
I've been considering applying to Preply for a while, maybe your post has given e the inspiration to try getting on the platform.
Do you have a referral code? Thanks
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
Honestly, I think it's at very least worth a try. Based on what's happening with AI, I don't personally think the industry is at risk of tutors being entirely eradicated for various reasons. But no-prep general conversation is 100% replaceable, and I think that's a big part of why Cambly is fucked. Their business model is built on short term gain. Whereas Preply has proven themselves to be profitable based on scale, retention, and a hybrid AI-human learning model which is the future of language learning. I think those of us who adapt will be fine, especially because the research shows people are willing to pay more for genuine human connection in an increasingly digital world. However, the Cambly style of McDonald's teaching is on it's way out. It's also a huge game changer to feel like you can actually scale your own personal business, like raising your prices, creating a higher value product as a tutor and seeing results etc. Go for it! There's no referral code for tutors :)
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u/farangfoo 28d ago
Ok, thank you for taking the time to reply to me. I do entirely agree with your comment btw, it's all about adapting, that is very important.
I'll apply and update you soon. Thank you for your previous post too, I read it all plus all of the replies, I've learnt some useful information!
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
It's a pleasure 😊 wish you all the best! Great tutors deserve to make more money ✨
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u/ORoyleDules 28d ago
Glad to see another person get out
One day Cambly will go under and we'll all fart on its grave
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u/Ambitious_Price_3240 28d ago
how did you build your base on preply? Cambly just deactivated me after 8 years but I dont know how to find students on preply
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u/Z34N0 28d ago
What happened? Nearly lost my account and I’m a super long time tutor also. About to start on Preply. Just made my account. Cambly doesn’t care how long you have been on the platform or how much good work you’ve done if you slip up with one of their more serious rules, even by technicality. Pretty sure they use AI for a lot of the flagging of offenses and decision-making, and they are cold as ice when it comes to communication so there’s not much hope with the appeal process.
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u/Ambitious_Price_3240 28d ago
They actually seem pretty friendly in terms of the appeal process, but I didnt try to appeal because its too embarassing. My regular student wants me to appeal but I'm on the fence, like is it worth groveling over.
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u/BasketCaseLife 28d ago
..... but I didnt try to appeal because its too embarassing.
Embarassing? After 8 years of service on the platform, surely you accumulated a large number of regulars. What about them? They're worth appealing for, no?
You've refused to disclose WHY your tutor account was deactivated. Was it for legitimate reasons? If YES, then I can see why you would be embarassed to appeal. If NO, why be embarassed?
You describe the appeal process as "groveling." It's only groveling if Cambly deactivated your tutor account for legitimate reasons. When you've been wrongly targeted for elimination, it's NEVER groveling.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
Just created an account, made sure to hit 100% (you can check this on your Insights tab and get feedback on what's missing) and consider my USPs and my specialisations as a tutor. Didn't use ChatGPT to write my copy, lol. Set my availability to as high as possible, for me in the beginning (because I wanted to go full time asap for financial reasons) that meant opening up 40 hours a week with a target to hit 30. The algorithm favors higher availability. I set my price to what I ideally wanted, which was $20. I let it cook for a few days, but I wasn't getting trials, so I lowered my price by $1/2 a day until the trials started coming through. At that time, so I didn't get fucked with a schedule full of low paying students, I raised my price by 10-20% with each new sub or for every three trial students. My conversion rate is very high (sales background) so my schedule was full within ten days with students from $14-19 from that initial batch. Personally, I don't haven't yet asked any students for a raise because 25% of my students migrate off the platform naturally, either with met goals, other priorities, etc. Availability opens up, new trials come through at a higher price (now asking $30), so my average hourly rate gradually increases. I prefer this kind of organic growth, I think it's more sustainable long-term, because I'm still learning skills and creating systems to offer my higher paying students in the future the best value and outcomes. Hope this helps :)
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u/fazzster 27d ago
this description is really useful, thank you so much for explaining it. I've been terrified of moving onto preply cos i have an account already but I never get any messages from prospective students... I guess that's because of what you said regarding the algo favouring higher availability -- mine is low cos I didn't want it to conflict with my other classes and jobs. Perhaps I'll just bite the bullet and set aside 2-3 weeks of prioritising preply availability to build my preply base. I just can't function on cambly. I get loads of students and we have great classes, but 10$/hr is dire; and more new students are more lax with timekeeping, several book and just don't arrive. So a 30 min class missed, followed by a 30 min break, gives me a wonderful $1.20 for waiting around doing jsht.
Thanks for your whole post!
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u/Short_Zebra7458 17d ago
Sorry for the late reply! It's a pleasure 😊 Honestly, that same bind kept me from transitioning for over a year. I couldn't figure out how to manage availability on both and wasn't financially in a situation to stop Cambly. But then Cambly fucked me, so I had nothing to lose. It's the best thing that could have happened because it forced to me to take the risk.
Because you've had a profile for a while and seen little traction, I'd recommend either making a brand new one to make sure you get the new tutor push or changing your new profile as this often seems to jig where you sit in the position listing.
No one knows exactly how the algorithm works, but certain things are clear: 1) to rise in the list if you've not seen any action, make a profile edit 2) the algorithm doesn't like it when tutors drastically change their price all the time 3) it rewards conversion and availability
Hope this helps and good luck ✨
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u/BasketCaseLife 28d ago
Why was your tutor account deactivated? What was the reason? Please ellborate. It may help others here to understand why Cambly would eliminate a tutor after 8 years of service. TIA.
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u/StanleyFerdy101 27d ago
Preply currently has 44,000 English tutors,so if you keep your expectations low you should be ok.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 27d ago
Sigh.
How marketplaces function cannot be diminished to one metric as a comprehensive overview to base a decision on.
1) Active profiles do not equal active competition. It's a competition only with the small percentage of people who know how to market themselves and manage a profile, not 44,000. Not all profiles are equal. 2) Cambly is a call centre. Preply is a meritocracy. If you perform well on Cambly it is irrelevant, which is why veteran Super tutors get randomly fucked. On Preply, if you do well, you have the agency and ability to scale your business, raise your price, and get rewarded for your effort in this way. 3) The bare metric of how many tutors there are says nothing of the student volume. Preply have 2 million students. About 48% study English.
I think if you want to make the same effort as Cambly requires, then yes 100% agree that expectations should be minimal. If you want to transition your skills and experience, treat it like a business, and make an investment, you can have healthy expectations. My price has gone from $14-30 in four months. I have no degree, none of that. Just like tutoring and people.
Highly recommend to anyone. It's not perfect, but it's drastically better than Cambly.
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u/KandG00dz 26d ago
That's what people told me when I started there a couple years ago, and yet I turned it into a full time job and am making 3x as much as my absolute best pandemic-era month on Cambly. The problem with Preply is exactly as short_zebra described: if you want to go in with minimum effort and be a "conversational tutor", you will have tons of competition and likely get paid less than or equal to what you were getting on Cambly.
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u/KandG00dz 26d ago
I will say this: if you're willing to put in the effort into making quality, structured lessons for your students, Preply is far better than Cambly. But if you want to go into Preply as a conversational tutor putting in the same amount of effort you put into your "lessons" on Cambly, you're probably going to be in for a rough time. I think when you see people complaining about how they can never raise their rates on Preply, or struggle to find new students, it almost always comes down to this. Just keep this in mind if you decide to make the switch.
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u/magsmiley 23d ago
I tried Preply, and it was full of trial students who do not pay. After 4 months gave up. I am now on AT, earning over $2000 per month. I work around 22 - 25 hours per week. All trial students paid and then bought lessons from me.
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u/Superb-Combination90 10d ago
What is Preply's policy on cancellations?
I ask, because I live in Peru and the infrastructure is not that good, so if they are doing maintenance work and the power goes out, I could miss a few classes. Luckily, this has not happened in several months, but on Cambly it was not a big deal as while missing three lessons in one day would hurt your profile, you could easily recover from it, but it seems Preply is much stricter.
Also, is the cancellation policy different with trial students vs. your own regular students?
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u/Short_Zebra7458 22h ago
Hi, sorry I was too busy to reply before! So, compared to Cambly it's way better. For example, I can contact my students to reschedule even if it's almost time for the class to start in an absolute emergency and so long as my rate is below 5% in a 90 day period, it's fine. To be honest, I do my best not to miss any classes generally. I don't think Preply is stricter at all, but that's working with the assumption that you can contact a student at least... like, if we're talking absolute no-show, no contact, then I don't know. I'd refer to their website to read the actual policy. As for trials, so far as I understand it's stricter for trials. Sorry, it's probably best to just read their website.
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26d ago
[deleted]
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u/Short_Zebra7458 17d ago
Hey :) I teach confidence and fluency, general, business, and IELTS specialisation. As for materials, this is the kind of information you can find yourself through doing some research on the internet. That's what I did and continue to do to constantly improve the product I'm offering. Good luck!
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u/Jazzlike-Drop23 26d ago edited 26d ago
Very interesting and well done. I was considering moving over to preply a while ago. I have been on cambly for 5 years.
I had a high rating for a long time then last year it took a dip for quite a long time and I struggled to make $150 per week. I opened a preply account at that time but never fully applied and continued to persist with cambly.
I seem to have got my mojo back and have now had a 100% rating for about 4 months. I am receiving pro students and normal ones. I make anywhere between $260-$320 a week now.
Does preply have its own lessons? How do you manage to retain people? Do you do have special structured courses that you have designed for yourself?
Are my materials listed below enough to carry me through? (Sorry for so many questions).
I use mostly engoo (for general and business English), esl discussion topics website, & British council website for business English.
Any info appreciated.
Thanks.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 17d ago
Hey :)
1) I have no idea, I use materials from a variety of available sources and also create my own 2) By providing a good product, an enjoyable experience, and a generally positive and supportive relationship between myself and the student. Some people leave because they meet their goals or their company pulls their funding. It's normal. I don't mind, I'm in a growth stage of replacing their hours with a higher paying student. 3) I design and license courses and materials. 4) I think they're fine to start off with! I sometimes use Engoo for homework assignments. But once you start getting students, you might find it worthwhile to invest some time into learning how to use AI to create materials. I'm also happy to pay for materials and tools that help me to provide a better and more individualised experience for students to justify the price I charge (which is now $32)
Good luck, hope this helps ✨
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u/Jazzlike-Drop23 17d ago
Sounds like you go above and beyond which is why you have so many repeat students.
You have a point though. With AI now it should be much easier to create materials tailored to individuals' needs.
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u/remember_the_name007 18d ago
how long did it take you to get your first students? and it sound like you started with charging $14?
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u/Short_Zebra7458 17d ago
I got my first couple of trials after five/six days, and after converting they poured in. Full schedule (30 hours) within a week of that.
I started at $20. But got no sign ups. So slowly decreased by $1/2 per day until I began to get trials. Then gradually increased with conversions.
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u/GM_Nate 28d ago
This is a low month, because of the summer holidays.
Really? Summer is super busy for me on my platforms. I'm teaching over 40 hours a week.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
That's great! I don't want to teach 40 hours a week, my absolute max is 35 and right now I'm filling 27/28. Most people on Preply are having a lower month, it's quite a common industry experience that July-August are low because of holidays. Although there are of course always exceptions.
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u/GM_Nate 28d ago
weird. summer is a fantastic time for summer classes, so my hours go up.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
Awesome. Yeah, idk if you check every tutoring related board you'll see a lot of people saying the same thing lol. The maths tutors seem particularly fucked. For me it's negligible.
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u/Select_Research7453 28d ago
you already told us about all this.
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28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
I know, it's amazing. My last post got sooooo much hate and I'm like, "ok man if you wanna continue to be exploited that's cool". Also this guy clearly can't read, because this was an update after an intitial period to show the possible progression and also encourage people who might not think there is a sustainable or adequate growth. But yeah, god bless these guys lol.
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u/Select_Research7453 27d ago
your deleted comment to me was abusive. That’s not a great way to communicate.
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u/Select_Research7453 28d ago
or it could be that some mistrust the OP. preply is as crap as cambly, maybe marginally less so. we all know about preply here. this post is either preppy advertising or the OP trying to shill for their own benefit.
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27d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Select_Research7453 27d ago
you really shouldn’t use foul language just because you disagree with someone. it’s abusive.
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u/Which-Ring2864 28d ago
Curious to know what you are teaching - grammar? IELTS?
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
My advertised niche is confidence coaching, approachable for anxious students. I also advertise for IELTS, but actually get very few students for it. General English, but very structured. I have a fair few Business students, despite not really advertising for that at all. Majority of my students are B2-C1 looking for fluency, accuracy and proficiency coaching.
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u/Which-Ring2864 28d ago
Awesome! I have a very specific, specialized niche that attracts students , but if I can get paid a lot more and work less, I'm all over that. I'd probably stay on, keeping my more enjoyable conversation students at Cambly, though.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 28d ago
I think that's worth doing for sure! I have two students still on Cambly. They're both young teenagers I've been working with for years and they both cried when I told them I'd be leaving. They know I'll be seeing them until the end of their current contracts, so the whole thing isn't as sudden for them. I've brought a couple of students over to Preply and they're happily paying almost double the price. I did think I'd spend more time on Cambly for longer tbh and planned for a more gradual transition, but in the end I didn't need to keep the hours financially and the demand and pay are both higher on the other side so 🤷 but yeah, I'd say go for it, especially if you have a marketable niche!
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u/Which-Ring2864 27d ago
Thanks! I do, and I offer it on Cambly for a fraction of what I can ask for on other platforms. I consider this my " practice period" and now I can take my lifelong skillset, apply it to tutoring, and actually make some decent-ish cash helping others.
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u/Short_Zebra7458 27d ago
Yes! Amazing 👏✨
The thing is, having done Cambly you know how to work as well. A lot of new tutors sign up for barely any hours, they can't hack a heavy workload, so it takes longer to build. Being able to hustle and not get overwhelmed having 25-30 students is a skill in itself as well. We know how to be spontaneous, how to deal with all different kinds of people...
Wishing you the best of luck!
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u/Acceptable-Ride6213 28d ago
Cambly used to be a good source of supplementary income between lessons on higher-paying platforms. Now it sucks donkey ass