Starting online tutor need help

AxeInsight

Hey guys, I've been visiting this forum for a couple of months now, and I have to say I like the community and the spirit of the forum a lot. My name is Max, I'm a guitar player from the Paris area and I'm an aspiring online tutor/teacher.

I've been trying to answer questions on the Technique and Theory threads when I could and noticed that there are a lot of intelligent and helpful people in here, so today I'd like to explain the problem I have in the hope that you guys can share some tips/feedback on my situation, here it is:

I'd like to establish myself as an electric guitar tutor online but my problem is (I think) that nobody know who I am yet so despite all the time and efforts I already put into this (creating my own website axeinsight.com, publishing a lot of free content and sharing my ideas through Youtube, and even creating an online course which encapsulates my view of learning Lead Guitar from top to bottom), I still can't get students.

At this point I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Are my ideas stupid ? Do I express them poorly ? Do people just not care ? Should I team up with someone who knows the community to grow my presence ?

One of my problems for sure is that I want to do everything by myself, but now I recognize that I need help, or at least an outside look. This lack of success slowly eats at my motivation and I don't really know what to do anymore.

Here it is folks, any tips feedback is appreciated, you can find all the info about me on my website axeinsight.com and my work on youtube by typing AxeInsight in the YT search bar.

Thanks for your attention

Max

P.S: I know this probably isn't in the right section, but I don't know in which one it should go so I put it in the one I'm most familiar with. If admins want to move it then go ahead.

Lestratcaster

Hi Max, guitar tutor of nearly 10 years here, I have the same problem with trying to advertise and sell online lessons. I have a lot of clients who do in person lessons but for some reason struggle to get anyone doing lessons via Skype/FaceTime/GoogleHangouts etc. I have all the HD cameras and external mics so the experience won't be poor quality.

The thing is the market is very competitive as well, almost anyone can do online lessons if they have a Smartphone. Also the other thing is the "trust" issue, how do they know if they pay the tutor (most do advance payments only) they will receive the lesson as scheduled? Others find it very strange to have some talking to them on a screen, they might be worried they can't see or hear information clearly.

Alot of it will be down to how much online presence you have, I do notice a lot of successful online tutorial vids (e.g Justinguitar and Guitarjamz) have a big online following. I'm sure you're good at what you do and can be successful its just the starting point of getting the numbers and establishing yourself online.

I'm not really sure what to advise other than work on your google SEO and advertising. I'm sure someone else will chime in with their offerings but I'm in a similar position to you with the online thing.

OnTheRopes

From a potential client's point of view, what would make me choose to buy an online course from yourself rather than one of the big players.
By this I mean I like many others spent a lot of time researching the best route to take on this. Doing a search online immediately brings up Jamplay, Guitar Tricks and Truefire. Reading as many independent reviews as I could find I came to the conclusion that GT was the most structured approach and I enrolled. I also occasional buy a tutorial off Truefire.

My point is, as you no doubt are aware, the market is very saturated, you could spend a lifetime on YT on free tutorials for instance, many of these are marketing tools to attract people into buying courses but why would I be attracted to you, what is your USP. 
There are people like Steve Stine who must have hundreds of great free tutorials, many sponsored by Guitar Zoom etc to draw people in. How many free tutorials do you have for marketing? Am I likely to come across one if I search in YT?

Your website, if I google "Online guitar lessons" or Tutorials or Guitar Course or Skype Guitar lessons am I going to see your site on page 1 or 2 on Google, because that is where you need to be. You nee to work hard and study Search Engine Optimisation for your website. You also need to drive traffic to your site by posting on social media everywhere, maybe helpful posts on forums with a subtle link to your website perhaps in your forum signature, not blatant spamming. You missed an opportunity in your post above, one link their asking for opinions on your site would have got some traffic.

Online success these days depends so much on using social media to get traffic to your site.
Have an online competition where anyone signing up to the course gets X free skype lessons or something, try and get followers on Twitter and then post there but always with a link back to your website.

Of course all this may not be what you want to do

OnTheRopes

I found your website and a couple of points (only my opinion)
The first portrait is too intense and from your comment you know that so why not change it , the second though not looking at the camera is much better, I am sure you can find a better photo. 
Second, I really dont like the swirly red and black background it is far too distracting from reading any content.

Your home page rally needs something to grab the interest and keep it, as it stands I don't find it interesting enough to stay around long. Why not put a video on the home page where you introduce yourself and get people excited about what you have to offer Perhaps another video with a demo lesson. I think you need to look at succesful competitors websites and take the good ideas from them.

What some people do o YouTube is make a controversial statement as the title of the video  like for example "Why you don't need to learn scales" this of course is click bait and then they usually go on not to say don't learn scales but you should also learn arpeggios for example. 

Now, check out this guy, I love his approach, easy going but tells it how it is. Hundreds of hours of free lessons but also does online teaching. 

Anyway, just I hope a bit of constructive criticism 

AxeInsight

@OnTheRopes Thanks for your feedback, it is constructive and that's what I look for. Cheers!