As has already been mentioned here, building an online “reputation” or presence a key succes factor for online teachers. It’s both a questions of getting people to know you and standing out as a professional, trustworthy teacher. That’s why it is so important to have you own website/blog/personal page.

But setting up a website/blog of course isn’t the hard part… The real challenge is generating traffic. This can be really intimidating at first. It’s a long process : creating traffic always starts extremely slowly. Also, standing out in the ocean of existing stuff already out there can be daunting.

We decided to conduct interviews with some successful bloggers out there to learn a little more about the process of creating a blog for students. Vanessa Prata, a Brazilian journalist and English teacher who blogs at teachervanessaprata.blogspot.com , was kind enough to answer some of our questions. Even though Vanessa doesn’t actually give online classes, I think her experience as blogger is very valuable.

Can you tell me a little bit about your activity as a blogger?

I started my blog teachervanessaprata.blogspot.com in January 2009, in order not just to have a portfolio of my work, but also to be able to share interesting information with other teachers and students and to offer one more tool for my own students to improve their English. The blog has, for example, a selection of useful links such as online dictionaries, grammar exercises, movie activities and several texts, in Portuguese and in English, which might help students “learn how to learn”. At the moment, I have on average 1,700 visits per month and 144 followers. It’s curious that I don’t know personally most of my followers, they were not my friends from “real life” who started following me, but professionals and students who found my blog and liked it.

What is most relevant to generate traffic among language learners ?

I believe students really like hints and curiosities about English language, such as idioms, slang, and specific vocabulary about a certain topic, like words related to “soccer” during the World Cup, for instance. They also tend to like links with online exercises and movie activities, as it’s easier and funnier to do online exercises than to study only with a grammar book. Teachers, in general, like the interviews I publish with authors and other professionals and the texts about helping students learn better, such as how to manage time, how to study alone etc.

Do you had demands for one-on-one classes (online or offline) ?

It’s curious, but so far I haven’t had students who found me through the blog only, without a personal indication. I have been contacted some times, but it ended up that the person didn’t actually start the classes, or due to lack of time (mine or theirs), or because of distance, or because the person was just comparing some prices. It’s even more curious that up to now I have never thought online classes, always offline. I believe Brazilian students (and teachers) are still not used to studying and teaching online, although this market is growing a lot recently. As our internet is not always that fast and reliable, and Brazilians tend to like “face to face” contact, we still have some barriers to break against online teaching. But we are on the way towards it.

About Vanessa Prata

Vanessa Prata is a Brazilian journalist and English teacher, who has a bachelor’s degree in Social Communication from Faculdade de Comunicação Social Cásper Líbero (2002) and a graduate degree in Translation from Centro Universitário Anhanguera-Unibero (2011). She has been teaching since 1999, holds CPE, ICELT and TKT certificates, from University of Cambridge, and is certified to apply the TOEIC exam.

She blogs at: teachervanessaprata.blogspot.com