Back in late 2008-2009 I got the idea to create a groundbreaking^^ video how-to guide for ESL teachers. It was going to be a guide for those interested in teaching English in Asia (China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan) and also serve as a resource for teachers. A resource that would help them in the classroom, by giving them instruction and fresh ideas. There were a lot of sites and resources out there for ESL teachers, but few of them were video based.
I also wanted to interview teachers throughout Asia and find out about their experiences. So I set out and started with a skydive in Hawaii. After that I returned to Korea where I was at the time and then left for China, then Taiwan and Japan. Not necessarily in that order. I interviewed a total of 30 or so teachers.
So this preview shows portions of exactly what ESLinsider is. I juiced it up with a little music and some scratching. Just so you know the text in the video is a little dated as the site has grown since that video was made in 2010.
I went to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Xiamen, China. In Taiwan I went to Taichung where I used to live and visited old friends and then to Koahsiung (that’s where the monkey was filmed). I spent a few days in Tokyo, Japan as well. After all that I went back to Korea and ended up interviewing the majority of teachers on Haeundae beach in Busan.
All of the how-to videos were shot in Korea in a combination of Hagwons and public schools.
The site started out as a paid membership site, but few people would pay. So whether my marketing story sucked or whatever, people just didn’t see the value in it. I think that without an incredible story few people will pay for online content. On top of that there is so much competition out there and it’s all a click away if people don’t find what they immediately want.
So in December 2011 I made the site free and added advertising. Initially costs of the video were too high, higher than any money I got back from advertising. So the next step was to put the video on Youtube and embed the Youtube videos on my site.