Three years ago, I was the student who lived in the library during exam season, color-coding notes and surviving on questionable amounts of coffee. Last semester, I earned Ksh 180,000 teaching those same courses on Somaonline. The transition from high-achieving student to successful online educator isn't just possible—it's one of the most lucrative and fulfilling side hustles available to recent graduates and current postgrads in Kenya today. But here's what nobody tells you: being good at a subject doesn't automatically make you good at teaching it online. I learned this the hard way when my first course had a 70% dropout rate and reviews that politely suggested I "reconsider my approach." What changed everything wasn't my knowledge—it was understanding how to translate classroom excellence into digital teaching success. Your Student Success Is Your Greatest Asset The mistake most new instructors make is trying to teach like their professors. Don't. You have something far more valuable than years of academic experience: you recently sat exactly where your students are sitting right now. You remember which concepts felt impossible until that one explanation finally clicked. You know which textbook chapters everyone skips because they're incomprehensible. You understand the real questions students are too embarrassed to ask in lecture halls. This recent experience is your competitive advantage. When I teach Financial Accounting on Somaonline, I don't start with debits and credits like the textbook does. I start with the exact confusion I had in second year when I couldn't understand why assets increase with debits. I address that confusion head-on because I lived it. Students don't just learn the material—they feel understood. Mine your own learning journey ruthlessly. What did you struggle with? What breakthrough moments changed everything? What would you have paid good money to understand sooner? Those insights are worth more than a PhD when it comes to connecting with current students. Speak Their Language, Not Academic Language Academic writing has its place. Online teaching isn't that place. When you're creating course content for platforms like Somaonline, you're not writing a thesis or impressing your former professors. You're having a conversation with overwhelmed students who are juggling five other courses, part-time jobs, and the stress of wondering if they'll even pass. Drop the formal academic tone. Use contractions. Start sentences with "And" or "But" if it feels natural. Explain complex concepts the way you'd explain them to a friend over lunch at the student center, not the way they appear in peer-reviewed journals. Compare these two approaches to teaching the same concept in statistics: Academic Approach: "The central limit theorem posits that the distribution of sample means approximates a normal distribution as the sample size becomes sufficiently large, regardless of the population's distribution shape." Student-Friendly Approach: "Here's the crazy thing about statistics: if you take enough random samples from any population—doesn't matter if that population is weirdly shaped or completely irregular—those sample averages will always form a beautiful bell curve. Always. That's the central limit theorem, and it's basically why statistics works at all." Same information. Completely different impact. The second version respects students' intelligence while acknowledging they're learning, not defending dissertations. Structure for the Distracted Brain University students in 2026 are managing notification overload, deadline anxiety, and the constant temptation of social media. Your course structure needs to accommodate this reality, not fight against it. Break everything into digestible chunks. My rule: no video longer than 12 minutes, ever. If I can't explain a concept in 12 minutes, I'm either overcomplicating it or it needs to be split into multiple lessons. Students on Somaonline are often watching between classes, during commutes, or late at night. Long videos don't get watched; they get saved for later, which means never. Each lesson should follow a predictable pattern. I use what I call the "3-2-1 structure": three minutes explaining the concept clearly with examples, two minutes showing real applications or worked problems, and one minute summarizing the key takeaway and previewing what's next. Students know what to expect, and their brains can prepare for the structure. Include deliberate pause points. After explaining a challenging concept, I literally say: "Pause the video here and try this practice problem before moving on." Most won't pause, but the act of suggesting it creates a mental checkpoint that improves retention even for those who keep watching. Show Your Work, Literally This is where being a former student gives you a massive edge over traditional academics. You remember making mistakes. You remember the wrong turns, the false starts, the "wait, I think I messed this up" moments. Show those moments. When I teach mathematical economics, I don't just present clean final solutions. I deliberately make common errors on camera, then catch and correct them. "Hold on, this doesn't look right. Let me check my work. Ah, I see the problem—I forgot to account for..." This does two things: it normalizes making mistakes, and it teaches the debugging process that's actually more valuable than getting things right the first time. Record yourself solving actual past exam questions in real-time, including the messy thinking-out-loud process. Students don't learn from perfect solutions; they learn from watching someone competent work through uncertainty to reach clarity. That's exactly what they need to do in exams. Create the Study Group They Never Had The difference between a transactional course and a transformative learning experience is community. On Somaonline, I don't just upload videos and disappear. I've built what my students call "the best study group I never had in real life." Set up a dedicated WhatsApp group for each cohort. Post there regularly—not just answering questions but sharing relevant news, exam tips, motivational messages during tough weeks, and celebrating student wins. When someone posts that they finally understood a difficult concept, I pin it and celebrate publicly. This creates a culture where struggling is normal and progress is recognized. Host weekly live Q&A sessions via Zoom and record them for students who can't attend. These sessions are gold for two reasons: you address common confusion points that improve your course for future students, and you build relationships that turn students into advocates who recommend your courses to their classmates. Run study challenges during exam season. "Everyone who completes the practice problem set by Friday gets entered into a draw for airtime." The prize costs me Ksh 500, but the engagement and completion rates skyrocket, which means better results and better reviews. Price Strategically, Not Emotionally Here's where new instructors consistently undersell themselves. You feel weird charging fellow students serious money, so you price at Ksh 1,500 or Ksh 2,000 for a comprehensive course. That's a mistake. Your course isn't competing with free YouTube videos (which are disorganized, incomplete, and lack support). It's competing with private tutors who charge Ksh 2,000-3,000 per hour for one-on-one sessions. A well-structured course that covers an entire semester of material, includes practice problems, provides community support, and offers you as a resource is worth Ksh 8,000-15,000 easily. I price my full-semester courses at Ksh 12,000. Some students bulk at first, but then I break down the math: that's about Ksh 1,000 per week over a 12-week semester, or less than two matatu rides per day. Compare that to failing and repeating the unit at Ksh 50,000+ in fees, or hiring a tutor for even one session per week. Suddenly Ksh 12,000 looks like the bargain it is. Offer early bird discounts (Ksh 8,000 if they enroll three weeks before semester starts) and payment plans (Ksh 4,500 x 3 monthly installments). Remove the price objection by making it affordable while maintaining the value perception. Leverage Your Academic Network Ethically You still have friends in your department. Your former classmates are now teaching assistants. You know which professors are approachable. Use these connections ethically to grow your teaching business on Somaonline. I ask TAs to mention my course when students come to them struggling with specific topics. Not as a sales pitch, but as a genuine resource: "Hey, if you want extra practice and explanation outside class hours, there's this course on Somaonline that covers exactly this." I send the TA a free enrollment so they can verify it's actually helpful before recommending it. Partner with student organizations. Offer their members a 20% group discount. Sponsor academic events with small amounts (Ksh 5,000-10,000) in exchange for being listed as an education resource partner. These investments pay back many times over in enrollments. Create free sample lessons and share them in relevant university WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels. Don't spam—provide genuine value. When students see you explaining in three minutes what their professor took an hour to confuse them about, they'll seek out the full course themselves. Update Relentlessly Based on Feedback Your first course version will be good but not great. That's expected. What separates successful Somaonline instructors from one-hit wonders is the commitment to iteration. After each semester, I survey every student: "What was the most valuable lesson? What remained confusing? What would you add or remove?" I take this feedback seriously and update the course before the next enrollment period. I announce updates to previous students ("Added three new lessons on the topics you found most challenging") and offer them free access to the new content. They become my marketing team, telling the next cohort, "This instructor actually listens and improves." Monitor which lessons students rewatch most—those need to either be simplified or expanded because students are struggling. Check where students drop off or skip ahead. Those sections need fixing. Keep your content current. Reference recent exam questions, current economic data, or trending examples from Kenyan companies. Nothing dates a course faster than examples from five years ago that students can't relate to. The Long Game Pays Better Than Quick Cash Here's the truth about teaching on edtech platforms: your first cohort will be small and you'll work harder than the income justifies. Your second will be bigger. Your third will start to feel profitable. By your fifth or sixth cohort, you'll have refined content, automated systems, a community that markets for you, and testimonials that sell themselves. I now earn more teaching four courses on Somaonline part-time than many entry-level jobs pay full-time. But it took three semesters of refinement, hundreds of student interactions, countless late nights improving content, and the willingness to learn from failures. The students don't need another person reading PowerPoints at them. They need someone who remembers what it's like to be lost, found their way through, and can now light the path for others. That person could be you. Your student success story isn't just a source of pride—it's a business model waiting to happen. The only question is whether you'll build it.
