Tutoring with Cambly: The Pros and Cons of Working on the Online ESL Platform

Pros and Cons of Tutoring with Cambly

Cambly is a great online job that doesn’t require a deposit or degree. They offer a variety of benefits that a lot of other online ESL companies don’t. If you want to make money talking to people from all over the world, you may want to consider tutoring with Cambly. Here are some of the best parts about working with this company.

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The Pros of Working on Cambly

Weekly Pay

This is one of those Cambly-only benefits that we mentioned. Most online ESL companies, especially those that are based in China, only pay once per month. Sure, the pay maybe a little higher than Cambly offers, but it’s nice to have that money coming in every Monday through PayPal.

Work is Available 24/7

With a lot of ESL work on the internet, you need to be available during Beijing peak hours – which, if you’re in the U.S, means super, super early. Then, there aren’t typically very many students online at other times. Cambly is multi-national, and there are students from many different countries that are online at all times, which means you can make money at all hours. This is one of the only online ESL companies that offers this particular benefit as of now.

It’s Easy

Another thing about some ESL companies is that they require you to use a ton of energy, TPR, props and the like, to engage children of various ages. On Cambly, you can set your preferred age and difficulty range of your students. Since the majority of clients on Cambly are adults that already at a conversational level of English, you can just have laid-back conversations, with no props or crazy arm motions necessary.

You Can Set Your Own Schedule (Or Not)

Cambly doesn’t require you to open any minimum number of hours. In fact, if you’re looking for a company where you can just jump online at any hour and find a student, Cambly is for you. You don’t have to open your schedule in advance if you don’t want to. However, if you prefer to have a set schedule, you are free to do that as well.

You’ll Meet Cool People From All Over The World

Some great people use Cambly to perfect their English skills. You will encounter everyone from Doctors in India to people working in the film and television industry in Turkey. Oftentimes, your student will simply want to have a conversation with you – which means you can ask them to tell you all about themselves and you may really enjoy what you hear! Who knows what sort of working relationships you may find yourself with when you’re tutoring with Cambly! So, are you ready to start earning? You can apply for your new job here.

Priority Hours

Priority hours on Cambly are a great way for new tutors who have just started to earn money online and acquire regular students. When you log on and see available priority hours and choose to make yourself available, you’ll be pushed to the top of the site and basically promoted for students to find more easily. Cambly also guarantees you a minimum of 15 minutes paid for each priority hour, and sometimes 30, which means that if you don’t get at least 15-30 minutes worth of calls, you’ll get paid just for sitting around and waiting for them.

Referral Program

The online ESL tutoring company offers a referral program that pays out for each teacher you refer that successfully completes 10 priority hours. Once you officially become a tutor and you log in to your dashboard, you’ll have a “referrals” tab where you’ll find your link to distribute, and where you’ll be able to track everyone who signs up using your code. It will show the tracking up until their 10th priority hour. Once you see that your referral has completed those 10 hours, you’ll need to send support a message and request your payout.

Downsides of Working for Cambly

No job is without its pitfalls, and as great as Cambly is to make money online, there are also some cons to working for them that you should be aware of before you get started. So, what are some of the downsides to working as an online English tutor on this particular platform?

Low Pay

Comparatively speaking, Cambly doesn’t pay very much in the online ESL world. They pay by the minute ($0.17/minute,) which equals out to just over $10/hour. They also don’t offer any type of bonuses as some companies do. They pay a bit more for Cambly Kids ($12+/an hour). The referral program also only pays $20, which is lower than some other companies like PalFish.

No Structure

This may be a pro or con for you, depending on whether or not you prefer free talk to structured lessons. Most of the time, you will just have a student that wants to have conversations with you to practice. There is a library of random lessons available for you to use if you need to access them, but there aren’t your typical slide-to-slide lesson like on many of the online ESL platforms. I’ve written a post on how to structure your conversations while tutoring on Cambly to make lessons easier for you!

Dickheads

Okay, that title is definitely a bit of a pun, because when you’re working with Cambly, you always run the risk of encountering a flasher. Unfortunately, they don’t screen the students very well, which means there’s no way of telling if the person on the other end of that free trial is a serious student, or someone just looking to screw around.

The screwing around can come in many fabulous fashions on Cambly, from your average group of teenagers making prank calls to full-on perverts trying to flash you their junk. I will say that neither has happened to me, personally, during my time on the platform. Though I have heard many stories from other tutors that have dealt with the nonsense. They do make it possible for you to shut off the screen on your end during free trial courses, and you can always block and ban anyone who is out of line.

Ready to Earn Money From Home?

If you’re ready to start making money, head to Cambly’s site and apply for a tutoring position now!

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