So you’ve decided to give the online ESL teaching game a whirl. You’ve spent months preparing for your classes, polished your skills with numerous practice tests, and are now ready to unleash your lessons to the world.

Setting up a blog to teach English as a foreign language is a popular choice amongst English teachers. The appeal of the digital nomad lifestyle is strong with many believing that working remotely is more flexible than a regular teaching job. While there is no denying that the world of online ESL teaching is growing, it’s also a very competitive space.

ESL teaching in particular is one of the fastest growing and most in-demand career pathways amongst educated workers. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment opportunities for English teachers are expected to grow 29% from 2018 to 2028.

Being able to market yourself as an online ESL teacher is fairly easy. All you need is a blog and a little bit of skill in using WordPress.

The Basics Of Blogging

Blogging is a fairly straightforward process and, similar to other content-creating platforms, you’ll quickly come to understand the logic behind the WordPress dashboard.

The platform provides you with a blank canvas ready for you to build your blog around. Essentially, you’ll be using the dashboard to compose your blog posts, add content, and connect with potential readers.

To set up your blog with WordPress, you’ll need to go through a few simple steps.

1. Choose a blog title and description

Blogs are typically very succinct descriptions of a particular subject matter, often no more than a couple of paragraphs long. Think of your blog’s description as the blog’s SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) brief. It will serve as your guide to potential readers who may search for related content using popular search engines such as Google.

This is an important step as you may be competing for reader attention with hundreds of other blogs. It’s therefore crucial that you pick a catchy blog title that will draw readers in and keep them coming back for more.

2. Install WordPress on a hosting server

If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ll be familiar with the term web host. Essentially, a web host is the company that you pay to maintain and run your blog’s hosting server. Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll need to purchase a hosting plan from a reputable company such as Bluehost, which offers quality services at reasonable prices.

3. Customise your blog’s look

Blogs come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all share a couple of common features. First, they’re generally very simple to look after. This can be a great relief to beginners who feel that they’re unable to handle too much complexity. Second, they’re usually very easy to read. With so much content going viral on social media platforms, readers are constantly seeking quick, easy-to-understand reads.

If you find that your blog’s design is a little plain, you can take the time to customise it using a tool such as Elementor. Alternatively, you can hire a designer to help you give your blog the boost it needs to stand out from the crowd.

4. Build a community

If you have a blog, you undoubtedly possess a significant social media following. Whether you’ve amassed a million or ten thousand followers on your various platforms, you have a ready-made audience that you can utilise to advertise your blog.

As an ESL teacher, you may be looking to expand your social media following with the aim of attracting potential students and rewarding partners. Developing a social media strategy that incorporates your blog is a great way to grow your audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Blogs aren’t just for showing off your work. They can also be immensely valuable tools for establishing expert status.

5. Content is king

If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ll be familiar with the concept of quality content that happens to be useful. In the same way that a high-quality product attracts customers, expertly crafted content will undoubtedly attract readers to your blog.

Creating useful, informative content is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and a content marketer would say that being able to pull in the relevant audience is half the battle won. You’ll also want to make sure that your content is of a high quality, ensuring that even experienced readers feel that they’re gaining something from your material.

With so much competition in the online ESL teaching space, attracting relevant readers is no easy feat. However, by utilising the above tips, you’ll be able to position yourself as an expert in your field and attract high-quality traffic to your blog.