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Hi All,
I just signed up for a 1 year's subscription with LessonRating.com a couple of weeks ago to increase my web presence for my studio. I have been getting new requests; but they have lead to dead leads. Most of the leads require a $5.00 deposit. I received $10.00 free after I signed up. Has anyone used this music directory before? I think if I am paying a subscription, I should not be paying for the leads. What do you think?

I personally think those teacher sites are way overrated. Your money might be better spent on creating your own website and promoting that. I'm finding that in my area, parents find me by searching 'piano teachers' in my town.

Hi Karen,

I signed up for a 1-year subscription to LessonRating.com back in January. So far, I would have to say that it has not done much to increase my business. When my profile first appeared, I did get several lesson requests, but only one of those resulted in gaining a new student, and that student only lasted a few weeks. (He was an adult who, as it turned out, didn't really want regular piano lessons, and I can't deal with that "on again, off again" kind of student.) The other requests that I followed up led to "dead ends" for a number of reasons, e.g. the student didn't have a piano or a keyboard at home; the student could only take lessons on weekends (I don't teach on weekends); the parent was inquiring about lessons for their child but hadn't even asked the child whether they were interested in taking lessons, etc., etc.

And now, lesson requests have completely ceased. I have not received a request for almost two months.

Soooo, I am inclined to think that I will not be renewing my subscription next year.

I have a question for you, though. Are you aware that there are two different kinds of lesson requests:

1. Network requests are general lesson requests where the student is not contacting a specific teacher personally.

2. Profile Lesson Requests are when a student finds your profile listing within the teacher directory and contacts you personally.

I have never followed up on a network request because I had to pay to do so and because I felt that the Profile Lesson Requests were much more likely to "bear fruit" because the requester had actually taken the time to read my profile listing.

I am on that site and it is a complete waste of the yearly fee IMHO. 99% of the people send a network request that you have to pay additional money to even view. I went back and forth with the webmaster about that. Ridiculous to pay an annual fee and then have to pay more unless someone sends you a personal request. Will not renew with them. Most of mine have also been dead ends from them.

I just checked them out and not one single teacher in my MTNA group is listed. Actually no one even in my city.

I will not renew with them after this year. I wanted to try a new music teachers online directory. Thank you for your feedback. I appreciated it hearing from all of you.

I use getlessonsnow.com and I've gotten some good students from that. The annual membership is affordable and I'm actually listed first on google when someone searches for a teach in my town (at least I as a few months ago when I checked). No hidden or extra fees.

I love getlessonsnow.com. Highly recommend, too.

LessonRating.com has been good for my studio since I've received many referrals to my studio site from it. But, you are right about the dead leads from it. When I first joined, I purchased 5 leads, of whom I could reach none. Disconnected phone numbers, bounced e-mails... and the direct profile requests weren't any better. But I have received 2 students who found me on LessonRating.com and then went to my studio website.... so I made the annual fee back quickly.

I find that teaching directories rarely work. Other comments have been to set up your own site. Focus on keywords. 'Piano', 'tuition', 'lesson', 'Teacher' and build these in to the home page of your site. This is better for you in the long run and generates more genuine leads as they will already know something about you from the website. Look at the bottom of our homepage at www.primavolta.co.uk and see how we add keywords. We also build them in to that first page to help climb Google in our area searches. Good luck!

Hi Miss Karen,

I work with LessonRating.com and felt it would be helpful if I responded to some of the comments in this thread to perhaps provide some clarity and helpful advice. If anyone has any specific questions they would like answered please also feel free to PM me...

dumdumdiddle said...

This certainly could be true. The way I look at it though is that it is good to have your name out in many places on the internet. This includes working on your own website as well as trying some of the teacher directory services. Also, having links from the teacher directories can help your own site get more exposure. It all comes down to how busy your studio is--if you are getting enough new students from your own site to where you can't take any more than it doesn't make sense to advertise anywhere else. If you are not filling your studio with students from your own website, then it may make sense to branch out and try something else.

sonataplayer said...

Since the memberships are for a full year, you still have another 7 months to allow your membership fee investment pay off. Really it only takes a couple of students for this to happen as pianoeagle points out.
You are correct that on average the profile requests are more likely to turn into a new student. Network Requests typically perform at about 20% meaning that out of every 10 students you purchase/follow up on, 2 of them on average turn into new paying students. If Network requests are $5 each, this means that for every $50 you spend on that program specifically, you should receive 2 new students on average. Another way to look at it is that you are paying about $25 for each new student. For a lot of teachers this investment makes sense and so they choose to participate in the Network requests program. For others, they do not need to add that many new students to their roster so it is not worth the effort.

pianoeagle said...

Glad to hear the investment has already paid off pianoeagle. As with any advertising you really have to look at it as a numbers game. There will be leads that don't pan out (not ready to start, doesn't have a piano, doesn't have the money, etc). However, as long as you sign a few students from the requests that you do purchase or that do come to you through your profile, the program should easily pay for itself. Also, you mentioned that on some of the leads you purchased they had invalid contact information. Remember that this is covered by the returns policy--if you purchase a lead with invalid contact information you can return it and get it credited back to your account.

Morodiene said...

I also think getlessonsnow is a great service. If you are looking for additional students I recommend signing up for both--the more ways your name is out there on the internet the better. Some services do better in some cities than others so I would also recommend doing a Google search for piano lessons / piano teachers in your city and see who ranks better. Whoever ranks better is likely to give you more referrals simply because they will have more traffic in the areas you want to their site. If both are ranked well, it may make sense to join both. Also to clarify--the LessonRating.com membership fee is the same price as getlessonsnow. For the same fee, I believe you get the same benefits which is inclusion in the directory for students to contact you. I think the main difference is that with LessonRating there is also an OPTIONAL program you can participate in where you can choose to purchase network lesson requests if you'd like that you have previewed in your area.

Lastly, Miss Karen you mentioned that you had just recently signed up with LessonRating this month but that you are already planning on not renewing your subscription next year. Keep in mind that LessonRating has another 11 months of your current membership to send you new students. If you gain even a couple new students from your membership within the next 11 months you may want to reconsider not renewing:)

Hope this was helpful for everyone. I think the name of the game with ANY advertising is the numbers. If you spend $50 on advertising, how many new students do you get in the end? If you get 8 "dead end" inquires from that $50 investment but 2 inquires that turn into new paying students, I think it makes sense to keep spending that $50 until you fill your studio.

Best,

JPE

A new student for $25 of advertising sounds dirt cheap to me. I have not used the Internet, and seldom deal with dead end or idiotic inquiries. But I do advertise, and I end up paying much more per student than this. JPE sounds like he has the right ideas.

The one thing about GLN is that it is simple and straight forward. A prospective student/parent can contact a teacher directly simply and easily. There are not two ways to go about it. And they don't charge an additional fee on top of their annual fee for a teacher to see a network request.

I believe that GLN doesn't offer 'Network Requests' as an option. You can only get requests through your profile. LessonRating has the same membership fee as GLN and offers requests through your profile at no additional cost as well--so the same thing. I think the main difference is that LessonRating ALSO has a program that is optional where you can browse students who don't contact you directly through a profile but who are still looking for a teacher. This optional program has a cost for each student you reach out to.

Either way, I again think it comes down to numbers. It is likely that both services can give you the return on your investment that you need. A lot of that depends on where you are located and how many students you are looking to attract...

JPE

I have also not had any luck with LessonRating.com. I signed up for a full year and did not receive a single student from them. Very disappointing. However, I get tons of leads from my website and online FREE listings. I figured out what works for me. Crazy thing is LessonRating still sends me leads even though I'm not paying for the service anymore, so as to tempt me (?). But I know it'll probably just end up me paying for something that doesn't work out. This has been my experience.

Ah, Peter,

As of yet, there has been very little mention of the "quality" of those individuals (or their parents) who actually become students.

I can now purchase a fiberglas trombone for around $80 -
" SOUNDS dirt cheap to me."

Ed

Ed, of course you are right to imply that they may be flake students, who crump out quickly. I do have doubts who would choose a teacher off these Internet sites.

Bingo!

That's a complete rip-off because you're paying already. Anyways, I wouldn't put much hope into sites like that; rather, try word of mouth.

It's proven time and time again to be most effective because word of mouth recommendations often come from people you trust.

Mention that you have "a few slots for booking" to your friends and family, and who knows? I get a lot of referrals from past students and through word of mouth!

For the record, I would totally take that plastic trombone.