Set up your hours in Availability. For example, if you work Monday-Friday from 9:00am-4:30pm, with an hour break for lunch at noon you would set your hours to “9:00am-12:00pm, 1:00pm-4:30pm”.

Offer extra hours, or change your hours, for specific days by using Override regular hours. If you wanted to change your hours on September 24th to be available from 1:00pm-7:00pm:

1. First click Override regular hours
2. Select the start date of September 24th so the new hours will affect just that day
3. Set the hours to “1:00pm-7:00pm” for that day
4. Click “Save Hours” to save your availability

Block off certain days, like holidays or vacation, with Block off time at the bottom of the page.

Alternating hours every other week

To make time available every other week have different hours:

1. Set your normal hours to be the availability for one week under Availability

2. Choose “Override Regular Hours” under Availability to set the other week’s hours

3. Designate a start date and an end date more than 2 weeks apart. If you want these hours indefinitely you can set the end date to be several years in the future. The start date is the week these other hours take effect.

4. Check the “every other week” button that appears after choosing the dates

5. Enter the times you’d like to be available on those days

6. Click “Save Hours”

The every (available) will be on the starting week, the other (not available or normal business hours) will be the week after. So if you make Wednesday February 5th- Wednesday February 26th from 10am-12pm available every other week your calender will show Feb. 5th and Feb 19th available 10am-12pm and not show availability or show availability set by your normal hours on the other weeks of February 12th and 26th.

Select the types of lessons you will be able to teach. Go to Availability & Calendars –> Settings.

1. The Schedule Page – Students can choose both the lesson type and the tutor they’d like to schedule a lesson with.
2. Individual lesson type pages. When students browse the Find a Tutor page, they will be able to select a lesson type to view tutors who can teach that particular lesson type. On the lesson type page, e.g. Conversation Lessons, they can schedule lessons with tutors offering English conversation lessons. On these pages they cannot choose the lesson type, only the tutor.
3. Individual Pro Tutor profile pages (Coming Soon). Pro tutors will get a personal profile page that shows the courses and posts created by them. On the profile pages, students can also view the lessons offered by the specific tutor and book lessons with him/her. On these pages students will not be able to choose another tutor, only the tutor whose profile page it is.
4. ESL Tutor Facebook page. On ESL Tutor’s Facebook page, students will be able to book lessons just like they would on the Schedule Page on ESL Tutor.
5. On individual tutors’ Facebook pages. Tutor (both Regular and Pro Tutors) have the ability to embed their personal calendars on their own Facebook pages. These calendars will allow students to book lessons with the tutor whose Facebook page it is, and not any other tutor. Please read below on how to add your calendar to your Facebook page.

1. Choose the lesson type to book
2. If the lesson can be booked on different calendars (different tutors), then they’ll get a list of calendars to book with or can choose “any available” to see the combined availability
3. Pick an available date and time for the lesson
4. Fill out their first name, last name, phone, and e-mail. These will always be asked for, they’re the basis for reminders and your client list.
5. Pay for the lesson.
6. Finally the appointment is confirmed. You and students are immediately sent an e-mail confirmation. Students will also have the option to register for an account to remember their information

You can add your own students to the scheduling system so that you can easily schedule lessons with them manually (whether online or offline lessons).

To do so you need to be logged in to the scheduling software and then follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to View Calendar and click on Clients.

Step 2: Click on Add Clients.

Step 3: Fill in your student’s details.

Import a list of students.

Under Import/Export/Syncing in the left hand menu you can upload a CSV (comma separated value) file of your contacts. On the second page you’ll verify the clients before you add them, and also select which columns correspond to the first name, last name, phone, and email of the client. From there you can choose “Import” to add them to your client list.

For help exporting your contacts to CSV from Outlook see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/ex…

For help exporting your contacts to CSV from Google see https://support.google.com/mail/answer/24911?hl=e…

Contacts on Mac do not export directly to CSV, but you can easily convert their format to CSV using something like http://www.antoniolore.net/ab2csv.php

From a Mac Numbers file, export as CSV: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/44828/can-numbers-save-a-file-as-csv

Import or export text (.txt, .csv) files Excel http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-HP010099725.aspx

You can export (or sync) your schedule to Outlook, Excel, or Google Calendar (Pro Tutors only).

Export to Outlook

You can export all your appointment to Outlook under Import/Export/Syncing clicking “Export to iCal/Outlook” will save all your appointments as an ICS file. In Outlook you can go to File–>Import–>Import iCalendar (ICS) file to import all your calendar information into Outlook.

Outlook 2007 supports iCal subscriptions which will automatically update your Outlook calendar with new appointments and cancellations. Clicking “iCal/Outlook Subscription” will open Outlook to set this up.

Export to Excel

You can export all your appointment to Excel under Import/Export/Syncing clicking “Export Appointments to Excel” will save all your appointments as a CSV file.

There are 3 options to print your schedule from the scheduling software:

– In the upper right hand side of the main calendar page click the “printer” icon and choose to “Print Agenda” (list view) or “Print Calendar”

– You can print your schedule from the main appointments page using your browser’s print button. That will print out just the schedule on the page.

– You could also print a list from Excel. If you click “Calendar Export/Syncing” on the left side of that page and export to Excel, you can print from within there.

One of the great things about teaching with ESL Tutor is that you can install your personal calendar on your Facebook page. This allows you to have students book lessons with you right on your Facebook page.

Step 1: In the scheduling dashboard, go to Client’s Scheduling Page.

Step 2: Click on Facebook.

This will automatically take you to Facebook and ask you for permission to install the app.

You can manually schedule lessons with your students using the scheduling software.

To do this, go to View Calendar.

Here you have two options.

Option 1: Click the +Appointment button.

Option 2: Click on the time you’d like to schedule the appointment.

Both these options will open the box where you can schedule an appointment.

Step 1: Choose the type of lesson.

Step 2: Choose your own calendar. Please be sure to choose your own calendar as choosing another tutor’s calendar can cause a lot of confusion.

Step 3: In order to send email and text notifications to your student with the correct appointment time, you need to choose your student’s timezone.

Step 4: Fill in your student’s details. Adding a phone number will allow the system to send automated text message reminders, and setting your student’s email will do the same via email.

Step 5: Click the Schedule Appointment button.

There are two ways to reschedule an appointment:

1. Click the appointment on your calendar, click the reschedule button at the top of the window

2. Click on the appointment and drag to the new appointment time on the calendar and confirm in the window by clicking the best option.

Choose either Reschedule Appointment (which will send an email notification to your student) or Reschedule, but don’t send email.

When you cancel an appointment you can mark it as a no show. This will show in the student’s history and also within reports. The normal cancellation e-mail will go out, or you can choose to not send an e-mail.

ESL Tutor’s commission varies inversely with the total number of points you’ve collected. You can earn points through a number of actions as described on the Earn Points page.

Only Pro Tutors can publish blog posts that will be linked to their profiles.

Blog posts refer to articles published on ESL Tutor by Pro Tutors. These blog posts are educational in nature and are a way to provide students with information and/or exercises that will help them improve their English.

There are multiple reasons to create blog posts:

• You earn points every time someone views your blog points
• You earn money for views. Since points are exchangeable for money, you earn a small amount of money for each view. If your posts are popular, this amount can grow quickly.
• You increase your ranking through points earned, leading to lower commissions paid to ESL Tutor. Please refer to the commission schedule above for more details.
• You get a better ranking in Tutor search results. When students search for a tutor on the Find a Tutor page, search results are ordered according to post count, placing tutors with a higher post count higher up on the search results.
• More students will view your personal profile page and possibly schedule lessons with you. Since all posts created by a tutor link back to that tutor’s profile page, students will often browse to the tutor’s profile. On the tutor’s profile page, students will be able to schedule lessons on the tutor’s personal calendar.

In order to create blog posts, you need to go to the backend dashboard. You must be logged in before you can access the backend.

When in the Backend, choose Posts –> Add New

You will see the following Create a New Post page:

1. Enter the title – The title of your post. You can use any phrases, words or characters. Avoid using the same title twice as that will cause problems. You can use commas, apostrophes, quotes, hypens/dashes and other typical sym9. Add a Tag (Optional)
   10. Allow Comments (Optional)You can allow your users to leave comments on your lessons.
   10. Allow Comments (Optional)bols in the post like “Preparing for the TOEFL Listening Test”. The system will then clean it up to generate a user-friendly and URL-valid name of the post (also called the “post slug”) to compose the permalink for the post.
2. Create post content – The blank box where you enter your writing, links, links to images, and any information you want to display on your site. You can use either the Visual or the Text view to compose your posts. In Visual view, you see what the post will look like once finished – with the formatting. In Text view, you see the HTML code. This view is useful if you want to add extra HTML code, or if you want to check for and delete formatting added by other programs such as Microsoft Word. You can use the text editor to create the content or you can copy and paste from another program. Be careful when copying from another program, such as Microsoft Word, as it can add a lot of unwanted formatting to your post. You can style the post any way you like. You can also add media such as video, audio and images to the post. Please be sure to use media that you own the rights to or use creative commons media. You can search for creative  commons media here.
3. Choose a category – Choose only one category that best describes what the post is about. Readers can browse specific categories to see all posts in the category. If you feel you need a category that is not currently available, please be sure to contact us.
4. Add tags – Tags are keywords from your article. They are like micro-categories for the blog, similar to including index entries for a page. Posts with similar tags are linked together when a user clicks one of the tags. Add new tags to the post by typing the tag into the box and clicking “Add”. You can add new tags, or you can choose from the most used tags.
5. Upload a featured image – Upload a featured image for your post. The featured image is what people will see when scrolling through the list of posts. Again, please make sure to use your own or creative commons media.
6. Add a focus keyword – Which keyword would you like your post to rank for in the search results? The best practice is to have your keyword(s) in your post title, post heading and content, as well as in the meta description.
7. Add the meta description – The meta description is a short description – 156 characters – that will be seen under the post title in the search engine results.

All posts are moderated and inadequate or off-topic ones will be deleted. Please create posts that create educational value to students.

Please make sure to follow the following guidelines when creating blog posts:

• Only create posts that add value to the site and add value for the students.
• Do not create self-promotional posts. Blog posts are for informational or educational purposes, not self-promotion.
• No more than one link to an external site per blog post.
• Do not use copyrighted content.
• Do not create posts with obscene, racists, or otherwise inappropriate content. Repeat offenders will be banned from the site.

Here are some tips you need to know to help you write your posts on ESL Tutor.

Practice Accessibility 
To be compliant with web standards for accessibility, be sure to include ALT and TITLE descriptions on links and images to help your users.

Use Paragraphs
No one likes to read writing that never pauses for a line break. To break your writing up into paragraphs, use double spaces between your paragraphs. The text editor will automatically detect these and insert <p> HTML paragraph tags into your writing.

Use Headings
If you are writing long posts, break up the sections by using headings, small titles to highlight a change of subject. In HTML, headings are set by the use of h1, h2, h3, h4, and so on. By default, ESL Tutor uses the first heading level within the site. You can use h2, h3, and h4 to set your own headings. You can use the Heading styles from your editing dropdown menu using the Visual Editor, or you can enter your headline manually in the Text Editor by typing:<h4>Subtitle of Section</h4>.

Use HTML
You don’t have to use HTML when writing your posts. The text editor will automatically add it to your site, but if you do want control over different elements like boxes, headings, and other additional containers or elements, use HTML.

Spell Check and Proof
Check your spelling and proofread regularly. Some serious writers will write their posts in a text editor with spell check, check all the spelling and proof it thoroughly before copying and pasting into the text editor.

Think before you post
Ranting on blogs is commonplace today, but take a moment and think about what you are writing. Remember, once it is out there, it can be seen by many and crawled by search engines; and taking things back is harder once it is public. Take a moment to read what you’ve written before hitting the Publish button. When you are ready, share it with the world.

Write about what you like
You’ve heard this a thousand times before and it sounds too cliched, but it is true. If you force yourself to write something that you don’t really enjoy, it will show. Perhaps you might not have a specific theme for writing when you just start, but that’s ok. You’ll become more focused later. Just enjoy the experience and write what you like.

Write frequently
Write as frequently as you can, but don’t let quantity get in the way of quality. Your viewers (and potential students) come for content, not to spend time reading useless stuff.

Consider your readers
Consider who will be reading your blog posts. Most of the students on ESL Tutor are from countries where English is a foreign language. Write your blog posts so they are understandable by ESL students. Also, don’t use too much slang.

Make use of comments
Comments let people share their ideas. Sometimes, they might not be good, but you can ask such people to shut up. Most of the times, they will and if they don’t you can delete their comments. Blogging like real life, can be both fun and not so fun at times.

Content is king
Content is what attracts your readers, so make sure to provide authentic and useful content.

Use pictures and videos
They make the pages colourful and help to keep the attention of viewers.

Save your posts
Save your posts before you press the publish button. Anything can happen with your computer or with an internet connection. You don’t need to lose your post.

• b – <strong></strong> HTML tag for strong emphasis of text (i.e. bold).
• i – <em></em> HTML tag for emphasis of text (i.e. italicize).
• b-quote – <blockquote></blockquote> HTML tag to distinguish quoted or cited text.
• del – <del></del> HTML tag to label text considered deleted from a post. Most browsers display as striked through text. (Assigns datetime attribute with offset from GMT (UTC))
• link – <a href=”http://example.com”></a> HTML tag to create a hyperlink.
• ins – <ins></ins> HTML tag to label text considered inserted into a post. Most browsers display as underlined text. (Assigns datetime attribute with offset from GMT (UTC))
• ul – <ul></ul> HTML tag will insert an unordered list, or wrap the selected text in same. An unordered list will typically be a bulleted list of items.
• ol – <ol></ol> HTML tag will insert a numbered list, or wrap the selected text in same. Each item in an ordered list are typically numbered.
• li – <li></li> HTML tag will insert or make the selected text a list item. Used in conjunction with the ul or ol tag.
• code – <code></code> HTML tag for preformatted styling of text. Generally sets text in a monospaced font, such as Courier.
• more – <!–more–> tag that breaks a post into “teaser” and content sections. Type a few paragraphs, insert this tag, then compose the rest of your post. On your blog’s home page you’ll see only those first paragraphs with a hyperlink ((more...)), which when followed displays the rest of the post’s content.
• page – <!–nextpage–> tag similar to the more tag, except it can be used any number of times in a post, and each insert will “break” and paginate the post at that location.
• lookup – Opens a JavaScript dialogue box that prompts for a word to search for through the online dictionary at answers.com. You can use this to check spelling on individual words.
• Close Tags – Closes any open HTML tags left open–but pay attention to the closing tags. The text editor is not a mind reader (!), so make sure the tags enclose what you want, and in the proper way.

Workflow Note – With Quicktag buttons that insert HTML tags, you can for example click i to insert the opening <em> tag, type the text to be enclosed, and click /i or Close Tags to insert the closing tag. However, you can eliminate the need for this ‘close’ step by changing your workflow a bit: type your text, select the portion to be emphasized (that is, italicized), then click i and your highlighted text will be wrapped in the opening and closing tags.

The Quicktag buttons also have the accesskey JavaScript attribute set, so you may be able to use a keyboard equivalent (e.g., Alt-b for bold) to “press” the button, depending on your browser.