How to Make Serious Money Teaching Guitar Online

The rise of online education has opened up incredible opportunities for guitar instructors like you to start teaching guitar online.

We are sure you know by now that you can reach students from all corners of the globe, all from the comfort of your home studio. 

Now is an exciting time to share your skills and passion for teaching guitar.

Now it's easier than ever to extend your business beyond the confines of a music school or community hall and make a serious living teaching guitar online.

The key is to tap into the passive income potential of pre-recorded lessons to make the most effective use of your time and secure a healthy bottom line for your business.

In this post, we'll walk you through the tips and tools to get you started with your own online guitar school.

We'll then share some real-life examples from MemberMouse clients who have turned their passion for music into roaring successes.

So, let’s get started and turn those guitar teaching dreams into a reality.

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Table of Contents

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Teaching Guitar Online vs In Person.

Being a guitar instructor is a rewarding career. You get to share your passion for music and impart your knowledge onto people who share your love of the instrument.

But in-person teaching comes with its limitations that can prevent you from making the serious money you deserve:

Challenges of Teaching In-Person

1. Your Time and Energy: Time and energy are finite resources that are the greatest barrier to making more money from guitar instruction.
2. Your Location: Your pool of potential customers must be at least within driving range of where you live. You're also limited by the average budget of people in your neighborhood who might not be able to afford the high prices you deserve for your time and skills.
3. Awkward Hours: Your schedule is entirely dependent on when your students are available for lessons. This often means working late into the night or on weekends. Not ideal for your social or family life.
4. Operational Costs: Teaching in person comes with overheads such as renting a teaching space, travel expenses, and time spent commuting to lessons.
5. Boring Curriculum: While students have the best intentions, let's face it, they often don't have the patience and determination to progress to more challenging material. This means you end up teaching (and hearing) the same tunes again and again.

Online teaching breaks down these barriers, opening up your services to more people and drastically increasing your earning potential.

Opportunities of Teaching Guitar Online

1. Passive Income: Create courses or video tutorials that students can purchase and view at any time. This allows you to earn money even when you're not actively teaching, diversifying your income streams beyond live sessions.
2. Open up to a Bigger Audience: The internet breaks down geographical barriers so you can reach students from all over the world. This massively expands your potential customer base. You're no longer limited by local demand or regional economic conditions.
3. Work When You Want, From Where You Want: Set your own schedule and choose your workplace. Whether it's from the comfort of your home or by the pool, you have the freedom to design your work environment and hours.
4. Lower Operational Costs: Reduce the overhead costs associated with in-person lessons, such as renting a teaching space or commuting. That means higher net earnings and less financial stress.
5. Get Creative with Your Curriculum: Leave repetitive beginner lessons to video tutorials and free up your time and creative energy to develop new dynamic lessons. Get into advanced techniques, explore niche genres, or blend in other musical skills like composition and music theory, rekindling your passion for teaching and offering an enriched learning experience for your audience.

As you can see, it isn't all about making more money (though that's a huge perk, let's not lie), teaching online can help you fall back in love with your career as a guitar instructor. The opportunities for earning and creativity have just gone stratospheric!

Now let's look at your options for teaching guitar online.

Tools & Platforms for Teaching Guitar Online

Ok, let's get into it. When it comes to teaching guitar online, you have several options for where to host your courses.

You can choose third-party platforms like Udemy and Coursera, or you can run your own WordPress website. 

Each has its pros and cons, so let’s break it down.

Benefits of Using A Third-Party Platform For Teaching Guitar Online

1. Ease of Use: These third-party platforms are ready to go and designed to be user-friendly. You can quickly upload your courses with minimal set up.
2. Existing Audience: Popular course hosting sites like Udemy have a massive user base. With millions of students already browsing the platform, you have the potential to reach a large audience without much marketing effort.
3. Marketing Support: Udemy often promotes courses through their marketing channels, which can help increase your visibility and attract students.

Drawbacks of using Third-Party Platforms For Teaching Guitar Online

1. Limited Control: When you use a platform like Coursera, you have to play by their rules. This means limited control over your content, course structure, and even how you interact with your students. Most only provide the possibility to upload video courses with no opportunity for expanding your offerings with things like live classes and webinars.
2. High Competition: These sites host thousands of courses, which means you’re competing against many other instructors. Standing out can be tough, especially if you’re just starting out.
3. Fees and Revenue Sharing: You’re often at the mercy of their pricing models and policies, and they take a substantial cut of your earnings, in some cases they take as much as 63% of revenue from course sales.

Advantages of a Self-Hosted Site For Teaching Guitar Online

1. Full Control: With your own WordPress site, you have complete control over every aspect of your courses. You decide the content, the structure, and how you want to engage with your students.
2. Branding: Your website is an extension of your brand. You can customize it to reflect your style and values, creating a unique and professional look that sets you apart.
3. Pricing Flexibility: On your own platform, you set your prices. You can offer various pricing models, including one-time payments, subscriptions, and membership plans, maximizing your earning potential.
4. Reduced Fees: Without a third-party platform taking a cut, more of your earnings stay with you. This can significantly boost your overall income.

In the end, while third-party platforms like Udemy and Coursera offer convenience and access to a large audience, a self-hosted WordPress site gives you the freedom, control, and potential for higher profits. 

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Starting a Guitar Course Website on WordPress

WordPress continues to be the most popular content management system in the world powering 43% of all websites.

Its superpower is the many thousands of plugins that extend its functionality, meaning you can make the exact website you envision for your business.

Here are your first 3 steps to starting your WordPress website:

1. Choose a Hosting Provider: Select a hosting provider that offers good speed, uptime, and customer support. Popular choices include Bluehost, SiteGround, and WP Engine.
2. Install WordPress: Most hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation. Follow their instructions to set up your WordPress site.
3. Select a Theme: Choose a WordPress theme that reflects your brand and is optimized for online courses. Check out this blog and scroll down for a list of our favorite themes that play well with plugins.

Choosing a Learning Management System

We've spoken about the power of WordPress plugins to add functionalities on your site. Well, to turn your WordPress site into an online school, you’ll need the right LMS plugin.

MemberMouse is a standout option chosen by successful online guitar instructors for a number of reasons:

• Easy Setup and Management: MemberMouse is designed with user-friendliness in mind, allowing you to set up and manage your courses without hassle.
• Comprehensive Courses Add-on: Courses for MemberMouse lets you create unlimited courses on your site. Divide your course into modules, add quizzes and assignments to test your students’ understanding and keep them engaged, and reward them with certificates at the end of their course.

• Feature-Rich and Flexible: MemberMouse was initially designed as a membership plugin, that means you can offer far more than just online courses on your website. You can put almost anything behind a paywall and even sell physical products on your site via MemberMouse. This further extends your website's earning potential.
• Advanced Reporting Suite: When it comes to refining your product and seeing what works, data is key. Unike many of its competitors, MemberMouse offers an advanced reporting suite where you can get key financial metrics including monthly revenue and average customer value.
• Set for the Stratosphere: MemberMouse is the best option on the market when it comes to scalability. It's data architecture means that running and maintaining your online course will be a breeze when you make it big! It can support hundreds of thousands of members making it the perfect long-term option for aspirational entrepreneurs.

By choosing MemberMouse, you’ll be well on your way to creating a professional, engaging, and profitable online guitar school.

But don't just take our word for it. In our next section, we'll showcase some inspiring examples of successful MemberMouse clients who have turned their teaching passion into thriving online businesses.

MemberMouse Success Stories: Teaching Guitar Online

To inspire you further, let’s look at some success stories of instructors who have built thriving online guitar schools using MemberMouse. These examples demonstrate how powerful and effective this platform can be.

Active Melody

Active Melody is a fantastic example of how an individual can transform their passion for guitar into a successful online teaching business.

Brian Sherrill, the founder of Active Melody, created a comprehensive online guitar lesson site that offers high-quality video tutorials, interactive lessons, and community support for guitar enthusiasts of all levels.

Using MemberMouse, Active Melody has been able to effectively manage memberships, track student progress, and offer a seamless user experience, resulting in a loyal and growing student base.

Banjo Mountain

Banjo Mountain is another inspiring success story, showcasing the potential of niche music instruction. Founded by John Boulding, Banjo Mountain focuses on teaching students how to play the banjo through detailed lessons and personalized feedback.

With MemberMouse, Banjo Mountain has streamlined its membership management and content delivery. This enables John to focus on creating exceptional instructional material and providing personalized support to his students.

Tips for Optimizing Your Online Guitar Course

We hope the above examples have inspired you to see how you can make your online guitar course a success.

Here are a few more ideas to help you optimize your course for maximum revenue generation:

Consider “Dripping” Your Course Over Time

Drip content delivery refers to the method of releasing course material gradually to students rather than all at once.

This can help keep students engaged over a longer period, prevent them from feeling overwhelmed, and create anticipation for upcoming lessons. It also encourages consistent participation and can reduce the rate of students dropping out midway.

Upsell and Cross-sell with MemberMouse SmartTags™

Use MemberMouse SmartTags™ to offer personalized upsells and cross-sells based on the user's current course enrollments or past purchases.

For example, if a student is enrolled in a beginner course, you could upsell a more advanced course or cross-sell related music theory classes. This strategy enhances the learning experience while increasing the average revenue per user.

Offer Tiered Pricing

Create multiple pricing tiers for your courses, where higher tiers offer additional benefits such as one-on-one coaching sessions, exclusive materials, or access to live Q&A sessions with you.

This allows students to choose a level of engagement and investment that suits their needs and budget, while also maximizing your revenue from those willing to pay more for enhanced learning experiences.

Diversify Your Income Streams

Expand your income sources by becoming an affiliate for products you recommend, such as guitars, tuners, or other musical instruments.

Use tools like Pretty Links or Thirsty Affiliates to manage and cloak affiliate links. This strategy not only provides your students with trusted resources but also earns you commission on sales made through your recommendations.

Offer Free Trials

Introduce a free trial period for your courses to attract potential students and give them a taste of what you offer without immediate financial commitment.

Though it might seem counterintuitive, free trials can lead to higher conversion rates as users are more likely to subscribe to a paid plan after experiencing the value of your teaching firsthand.

Read our post on the pros and cons of trial membership to weigh up whether it's right for you.

Offer Word-of-Mouth Incentives

Encourage students to refer friends and family by offering incentives such as discounts on future courses, exclusive content, or free merchandize.

This creates a viral marketing effect that can significantly increase your student base and, consequently, your income.

Make sure the referral program is easy to use and rewarding enough to motivate students to participate.

Leverage Social Proof

Showcase testimonials, success stories, and reviews from current and past students. Positive feedback can significantly boost the credibility and attractiveness of your course to prospective students.

You can display these prominently on your course landing page, in marketing emails, and across your social media platforms.

Read our blog on how to optimize your course landing page for greater conversions.

Conclusion

Creating your own online guitar school and teaching guitar online is a transformative journey that offers immense rewards. 

Now is the perfect time to start planning and creating your own online guitar school.

With the tools, tips, and techniques we've discussed, you're now equipped to transform your passion into a thriving digital enterprise. Whether it's through engaging video courses, interactive live sessions, or innovative pricing strategies, the potential to expand your reach and impact is limitless.

Remember, the success of your online guitar school hinges not only on the quality of your content but also on your ability to connect with and understand the needs of your students.

By embracing the flexibility and creativity that online teaching offers, you can continually refine your offerings and grow your community of learners.

As you move forward, take inspiration from the success stories we've shared and keep in mind the potential to not only teach but also inspire.

The digital stage is set, and it's your time to play. Start today, build incrementally, and watch as your online guitar school flourishes into a beacon for budding musicians around the globe.

We can't wait to see where your talents and our guidance will take you. Here's to your success in the digital arena of guitar teaching – where your music, and your impact, can resonate farther than ever before.

Got any questions or want to share your insights from teaching guitar online? Let us know in the comment section below!

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