Global Music Teachers
About me
Born in CHCH and studied at the CHCH Jazz School BMus, bassist. Moved to Melbourne in 2005, studied honours in music, toured around Australia, NZ, Dubai. Recorded 2 self managed albums and recorded on many records since. Festivals, shows etc.
While in Australia I joined Australian Music Teachers Online
NZMTO
Moved back to NZ 2011, this is when I started NZ Music Teachers Online (NZMTO). From 2011 to 2014 it was a free site to join and had roughly 150 teachers on it bubbling away. I did a redesign in 2014 and created a premium option for new teachers and asked old teachers to move to it as they already had premium features.
2014 - 2017, the site has grown to now support 550+ teachers. And has an annual revenue of roughly $28,000.
What is the site?
Teachers are listed on search pages for their instrument, service and location. They are ranked in plan option. Professional Plan teachers at the top, Premium & Featured below and Free plan at the very bottom. Every 2hours the teachers are reordered so everyone gets a chance at appearing higher up. Professional & Featured Plan teachers appear on the homepage and sidebar of the site.
A profile consists of a page with an image, banner image, bio, teaching info, youtube videos, contact details and a contact form.
All student enquiries are directed straight to the teacher. I keep a record of each student enquiry, to date roughly 14491 student enquiries since Jan 2013. Roughly between 15 - 20 student enquiries per day (NZ site).
Process for a student
Students can browse the site for a teacher and contact them directly via the contact form on each teachers page or via their contact details. When a teacher is contacted a thank you message tells them the teacher will be in touch and they are asked to like the FB page.
Process for a teacher
The Join Up page has info on the plans available. In July I discontinued the free plan for new teachers. The page highlights the main features of creating a page with teacher testimonials to back up the site.
They join, confirm email address, create a page. I moderate it, make it live and promote the teacher on Facebook and if international on Instagram.
Ideal Teacher
- A school or academy looking to use their ad spend more effectively. They choose the top tier. Get in multiple pages because they have a team of teachers. Get a steady stream of enquiries so $200 easily made back in a fortnight or so.
- Teachers that are not using social media or the web to create a stream of enquiries.
- Graduates from Uni courses looking for another income stream.
- Orchestral musos looking for another income stream.
- Covers band session type musicians.
- Teachers spending money on Adwords or FB advertising.
NOT
- Well established music teachers that already have great social media and website that is functioning really well, they see GMTO as a threat.
- Well established artists that are not really looking for much teaching work if any. Largely unavailable to do any teaching. View teaching/teachers as a path for unsuccessful musicians.
Current Monetisation
Yearly registrations. Plan tiers are $40/$100/$200 per year. I tried google Adsense with no real return at all. 3 years on free pages and made $120.
Like to look at co-promotions to get more teachers on board. Until I feel I can really offer a guarantee to an advertiser. At the moment 800 page views a day. Mostly from Google and direct with some from Facebook.
RMA and Albany Campus paying $700 a quarter for top spot on the homepage.
Launching in other cities
In 2016 did a redesign of the site, main goal was a more feature rich, image heavy design with the removal of any NZ elements so I can duplicate it completely and launch the product in other cities/countries.
Launched now in Melbourne, Sydney, NYC and London. Hoping to launch in San Fran Bay Area.
Melbourne has over 150 teachers. Sydney 2, NYC 20ish, London 1.
Big push was Melbourne as lots of friends so easy to get my first 50. Then the rest through Facebook and cold emailing. Easy to get people on board once there are a number of teachers on there.
Other cities very hard to get traction due to competition, no ad spend, no contacts, no energy either.
Social Media
Predominantly using Facebook, where I promote every paid plan teacher in NZ, and every teacher on international sites. Positives are social sharing by teachers and their friends which in turn brings in more teachers. Teachers like seeing this extra promo especially if it gets traction. Instagram much more time consuming and less sharing however much easier to reach new people through tagging.
Each site has it’s own Facebook page. Spend so far on Facebook just under $1000 for Melbourne. A small amount on NZ. Making a small loss on this but getting great traction and visibility that not getting on Google just yet.
There is a Global Music Teachers Online Facebook group. Plan is to have tutorials, resources and teacher interactions. Need to create content and plan a strategy for this.
https://www.facebook.com/nzmusicteachers/
Competition / Other models
Complicated design or ugly (lots of advertising). Unable to browse teachers, though I need a quick find feature as an alternative to browsing.
Roughly similar pricing with Free option. Biggest difference is they are not using social media to promote teachers rather just the business. I’m seeing results from promoting the teacher in terms of generating more teacher registrations.
Interested to know how much money they are generating from advertising as many ads on home page and around the whole site.
3rd Party affiliation options & partnerships
Started a relationship with Music Planet, they have flyers in store, I have an image link to their site on all free plan teacher pages.
Example: https://nzmusicteachers.co.nz/michael-story/
They also plugged the site on Facebook and I did the same for them. Really nice guy Kieran Anstis. Opportunity to expand relationship through more co-promotion though their social media is much bigger than mine so it is more about giving them access to teachers who have students buying gear. Or deals for teachers for rental or cheap learner gear.
Advertising options on the site
The example sites demonstrate use of Google Adsense heavily plus affiliate links. Want to keep the teacher pages free from any marketing and keep them feeling professional and styled by the teacher. Move the teacher away from creating their own site or muddying their music endeavours with teaching info.
Need to reach out to more affiliates with a more solid offering.
NUMBERS
Roughly 700 teachers total. (many leads but no page creation).
60 teacher enquiries in Melbourne, 14491 NZ.
$28,000 is revenue.
314 paid plan teachers, 220 free.
Rest are leads that haven’t created a page.
Development and management all by me.
Ad spend roughly $1000.
Domains and hosting costs $400ish total.
IDEAS
- Articles with links to teachers. Teachers create the content. Can be very basic. “How to warm up on Guitar”, “Why learn the bass?”, “Difference between Violin and Viola”.
- Apps I use for teaching as a viral video, get engagement, approach app developers.
- Cold email plan/strategy as many teachers are online.
- Better use of Facebook ads
- Continue to forge relationships with schools to reach their itinerant staff.
- Starting up in more rural/urban areas where there are less performance opportunities. Melbourne, London, NYC and Sydney are great cities for gigging musos. Lots of competition already. Thinking San Fran Bay Area has more small towns and small cities where there are lots of students and teachers that are looking for additional income streams.
- Marketing strategy targeting the pain points and key features of the site
IMPROVISE...
Global Music Teachers
By michaelstory
