RocTutor.com has just been updated with a new Resources tab! There you will be able to find an archive of our best and favorite blog posts, educational resources we've made, as well as links to useful sites.
Our first resource that has been made available is for the Living Environment Regents course and it covers Biochemical Building Blocks. Check it out by clicking here. You can even download it as a PDF file to print or take with you on your eReader!
RocTutor will be bringing you more resources in the future. If you'd like to make some extra money and help write additional resources, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
How to Advertise Your Tutoring Services on Craigslist
Craigslist is awesome because you can advertise for free and your ad will have little competition on the page. I rarely see more than 5-10 ads for tutors on craigslist for each day. Here are some guidelines you can follow to write a great craigslist ad.
1. Stick to advertising one subject in your ad. A common misconception is that you can get more clients by appealing to a more general population. If there are other subjects you'd like to tutor, make just make separate posts for them. Why? Think about it, if you were looking for a Trigonometry tutor would you click on the post titled "MATH TUTOR" (I got the previous example directly from craigslist) or "Experienced Trigonometry Tutor"? By advertising one specific subject you can appeal specifically to the clients you want to attract. By appealing to everyone you appeal to no one.
2. Be descriptive in your title and location fields. Be descriptive in your title; include the subject you've selected to tutor in as well as whatever adjective describes you best whether it be 'experienced', 'college grad', 'certified teacher', etc. In your location field make sure to tell your location as well as a note stating you're willing to travel (if you're willing to travel).
3. Clearly and concisely state your experience, qualifications, and why you should be hired. You want to have the least amount of text possible while avoiding crappy posts such as: "im in college. chem major. email if interested." After briefly stating your qualifications and experience, tell your prospects in why you should be hired. Make sure that you focus on a quantitative benefit. For example, "I have the knowledge and experience to tutor any student!" is something you want to avoid. If I'm looking for a tutor then it's a given that they should have knowledge and at least some tutoring experience. Instead, use something like: "75% of my students have increased their World History scores by a full letter grade within just one month!" The most important thing is to be honest. Don't promise anything you can't deliver.
4. Provide as many ways to be contacted as you can. I personally provide my email, Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, and cell number (making sure to tell potential clients to call or text me anytime). When I make posts for RocTutor, I also include a link to Facebook, Twitter, and the website. Your prospects will all have different preferred modes of communication and you want to be easily accessible by whatever means they prefer. Make sure you check your voice mail greeting and would be okay with customers hearing it.
5. Price to value. Do not under any circumstances try to advertise your services lower than your competitors. Getting into a price war is a race to the bottom. Instead, go above and beyond expectations and work hard to prove that you're worth the price you ask for. I started charging $15/hr and then steadily increased my rates to $30/hr once I began getting more clients than I could handle. If you're good, the news will spread, and then you can start increasing your rates.
6. If you already have clients, ask them if they'd be willing to be references for new clients. In my experience, my clients have been happy to help me out by volunteering as a reference for me. If you give them your best work they will feel obliged to help you in return. Including references can help to win over skeptical first-time customers and they also let potential clients know that you've been successful tutoring in the past.
If you have any questions, comments, or criticisms please don't hesitate to share them in the comments!
1. Stick to advertising one subject in your ad. A common misconception is that you can get more clients by appealing to a more general population. If there are other subjects you'd like to tutor, make just make separate posts for them. Why? Think about it, if you were looking for a Trigonometry tutor would you click on the post titled "MATH TUTOR" (I got the previous example directly from craigslist) or "Experienced Trigonometry Tutor"? By advertising one specific subject you can appeal specifically to the clients you want to attract. By appealing to everyone you appeal to no one.
2. Be descriptive in your title and location fields. Be descriptive in your title; include the subject you've selected to tutor in as well as whatever adjective describes you best whether it be 'experienced', 'college grad', 'certified teacher', etc. In your location field make sure to tell your location as well as a note stating you're willing to travel (if you're willing to travel).
3. Clearly and concisely state your experience, qualifications, and why you should be hired. You want to have the least amount of text possible while avoiding crappy posts such as: "im in college. chem major. email if interested." After briefly stating your qualifications and experience, tell your prospects in why you should be hired. Make sure that you focus on a quantitative benefit. For example, "I have the knowledge and experience to tutor any student!" is something you want to avoid. If I'm looking for a tutor then it's a given that they should have knowledge and at least some tutoring experience. Instead, use something like: "75% of my students have increased their World History scores by a full letter grade within just one month!" The most important thing is to be honest. Don't promise anything you can't deliver.
4. Provide as many ways to be contacted as you can. I personally provide my email, Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, and cell number (making sure to tell potential clients to call or text me anytime). When I make posts for RocTutor, I also include a link to Facebook, Twitter, and the website. Your prospects will all have different preferred modes of communication and you want to be easily accessible by whatever means they prefer. Make sure you check your voice mail greeting and would be okay with customers hearing it.
5. Price to value. Do not under any circumstances try to advertise your services lower than your competitors. Getting into a price war is a race to the bottom. Instead, go above and beyond expectations and work hard to prove that you're worth the price you ask for. I started charging $15/hr and then steadily increased my rates to $30/hr once I began getting more clients than I could handle. If you're good, the news will spread, and then you can start increasing your rates.
6. If you already have clients, ask them if they'd be willing to be references for new clients. In my experience, my clients have been happy to help me out by volunteering as a reference for me. If you give them your best work they will feel obliged to help you in return. Including references can help to win over skeptical first-time customers and they also let potential clients know that you've been successful tutoring in the past.
If you have any questions, comments, or criticisms please don't hesitate to share them in the comments!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Easy Steps to Finish an Essay on Time
Writing good essays and submitting them on time is easy when you break down the work and organize it into small, simple steps. These steps will require a little work each day rather than an overwhelming amount of work and an all-nighter the day before the essay is due. The steps will be listed below and you can combine steps from different days depending on how long you have to write your essay. Here are the steps:
Days 1-2: Take a day to figure out what you want to write the essay on and what you think your thesis will be. Think about this as you go about your daily routine and as you fall asleep.
Day 3: Write an outline to layout the points and topics you plan to write about to support your thesis.
Day 4: Get a pack of index cards and write each topic/point at the top of its own index card. Arrange the index cards in a logical order. This is the order that the topics/points will be written about in your essay.
Days 5-10: Each day pick a topic or two to research. Print any electronic sources and photocopy any physical sources. Attach them to the relevant index card with a paper clip. Next, write notes and quotes (from the sources) that you plan to use in your essay on the index card.
Day 11: Write your introduction and revise your thesis if you think you can improve it now that you've done research and know the subject better.
Day 12: Write your paper! This will be quick and easy since you can go through your index cards in order and systematically convert your notes into paragraphs using appropriate citations.
Day 13: Proofread your essay for any grammatical errors and to make sure that everything flows well and makes sense. Ask a friend to proofread it too. Finally, make any changes that you see fit.
I hope this helps to make your next essay less intimidating! In general, by breaking complex challenges down into simple, easy to do steps, you can conquer those challenges with relative ease.
Days 1-2: Take a day to figure out what you want to write the essay on and what you think your thesis will be. Think about this as you go about your daily routine and as you fall asleep.
Day 3: Write an outline to layout the points and topics you plan to write about to support your thesis.
Day 4: Get a pack of index cards and write each topic/point at the top of its own index card. Arrange the index cards in a logical order. This is the order that the topics/points will be written about in your essay.
Days 5-10: Each day pick a topic or two to research. Print any electronic sources and photocopy any physical sources. Attach them to the relevant index card with a paper clip. Next, write notes and quotes (from the sources) that you plan to use in your essay on the index card.
Day 11: Write your introduction and revise your thesis if you think you can improve it now that you've done research and know the subject better.
Day 12: Write your paper! This will be quick and easy since you can go through your index cards in order and systematically convert your notes into paragraphs using appropriate citations.
Day 13: Proofread your essay for any grammatical errors and to make sure that everything flows well and makes sense. Ask a friend to proofread it too. Finally, make any changes that you see fit.
I hope this helps to make your next essay less intimidating! In general, by breaking complex challenges down into simple, easy to do steps, you can conquer those challenges with relative ease.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Motivational Tools to Help Your Child do Homework and Study
There are a few good strategies that you can try out to help motivate your child or your students to do their homework or study (and with a little creativity, these tips can be applied to other things such as chores)! There are strategies both for the short term and the long term.
A long term strategy is a sticker board. For this, simply post a board or paper in your home and purchase some stickers from a dollar store. Every time your child completes a homework assignment and/or studies, he or she gets a sticker. Choose a number of stickers to be an appropriate goal for the student and once your child has accumulated that number of stickers, allow him to choose a reward such as a pizza party, a gift, or a special trip somewhere. This will give your child daily feedback on their work and help them visualize their progress towards their long term goal.
A short term strategy is an immediate reward. If a long term strategy doesn't work well with your child, you can try to incorporate a short term goal as well. In addition to earning a sticker for a sticker board, he could also receive a small piece of candy or some time to spend on the computer or watching television, whatever is appropriate to you. This method will help to motivate your child to work towards long term goals and, eventually, your child can be weened off of the short term rewards and focus more on the long term.
For older students, reward good grades as well as improved scores on report cards/midterms. If your child gets good grades, give him some extra cash, let him borrow the car, or anything that is appropriate for your situation. Look at poor grades from a positive perspective. Instead of being angry over a C in math, tell your child that if he works hard and improves his grade, he'll not only be better off academically but he also gets another opportunity to earn a reward.
These are just a few drops in the bucket as far as motivational tactics go. If you have any you'd like to share please do so in the comments!
A long term strategy is a sticker board. For this, simply post a board or paper in your home and purchase some stickers from a dollar store. Every time your child completes a homework assignment and/or studies, he or she gets a sticker. Choose a number of stickers to be an appropriate goal for the student and once your child has accumulated that number of stickers, allow him to choose a reward such as a pizza party, a gift, or a special trip somewhere. This will give your child daily feedback on their work and help them visualize their progress towards their long term goal.
A short term strategy is an immediate reward. If a long term strategy doesn't work well with your child, you can try to incorporate a short term goal as well. In addition to earning a sticker for a sticker board, he could also receive a small piece of candy or some time to spend on the computer or watching television, whatever is appropriate to you. This method will help to motivate your child to work towards long term goals and, eventually, your child can be weened off of the short term rewards and focus more on the long term.
For older students, reward good grades as well as improved scores on report cards/midterms. If your child gets good grades, give him some extra cash, let him borrow the car, or anything that is appropriate for your situation. Look at poor grades from a positive perspective. Instead of being angry over a C in math, tell your child that if he works hard and improves his grade, he'll not only be better off academically but he also gets another opportunity to earn a reward.
These are just a few drops in the bucket as far as motivational tactics go. If you have any you'd like to share please do so in the comments!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Years News and Deals!
Hi everyone, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great year in 2010 and are excited to get the ball rolling in 2011. I know I am!
I just finished rebuilding the website from scratch to make a lot of desperately needed improvements. I'm very proud because I did it 100% in Notepad++ without using a template this time. If it's of use to anyone, http://www.w3schools.com/ was an indispensable resource on CSS/HTML through this process. Make sure you check out the new website if you haven't already (also, I'd love any feedback and criticism if you happen to be a web designer).
Finally, in celebration of a fresh start and to help accomplish any academic resolutions that you or your child may have, RocTutor is offering a 10% discount on 10 hours of tutoring and a 20% discount on 20 hours of tutoring. All you have to do is mention this blog post when you're purchasing and scheduling your sessions. For new customers, RocTutor offers a free consultation which you can learn more about here. This offer will end on January 31st so make sure you don't miss it!
I just finished rebuilding the website from scratch to make a lot of desperately needed improvements. I'm very proud because I did it 100% in Notepad++ without using a template this time. If it's of use to anyone, http://www.w3schools.com/ was an indispensable resource on CSS/HTML through this process. Make sure you check out the new website if you haven't already (also, I'd love any feedback and criticism if you happen to be a web designer).
Finally, in celebration of a fresh start and to help accomplish any academic resolutions that you or your child may have, RocTutor is offering a 10% discount on 10 hours of tutoring and a 20% discount on 20 hours of tutoring. All you have to do is mention this blog post when you're purchasing and scheduling your sessions. For new customers, RocTutor offers a free consultation which you can learn more about here. This offer will end on January 31st so make sure you don't miss it!
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