As well as a writer, editor and computer / internet geek, I also occasionally do English teaching to Germans (preferably blue-eyed blondes with pigtails called Heidi but beggars can't be choosers!). But for some reason, I am averse to having people come round to my place and this causes problems when you're trying to build a private tuition empire. They want to come round to your place because they don't want you to know where they live (you never know, I might be the mad homicidal axe-man teacher!) and they don't want to meet in cafes because it is noisy, crowded and they end up with the coffee bill.

But the problem is I don't want them to come round to my place either. First of all, I am extremely protective of my "private space". Second, the flat is normally a messy unorganised place with stacks of books, papers, unorganised stamp collections, remains of lunch sitting in the kitchen area and I am not an enthusiast of dusting the shelves on a regular basis. Oh and let's not forget that in the summer it's not really professional to meet students while I am wearing very little clothing and drinking a cool beer! So if someone was coming around here for English lessons, I would have to get dressed properly, perhaps have a shave, clean the flat up, move the Playboy magazines and the beer.......as you can imagine, I am not really inclined to do that too often.

So for over a year, I did another job and I thought my teaching days were over. But then I realised that with the internet, students don't have to come around here and I don't have to go to them. They can be taught online. I sit in my messy hovel and they sit in theirs and never the twain shall meet. Hell, we don't even have to be in the same country.

I am a huge enthusiast of Skype and I try to use it as often as possible for my phone calls. Skype also has a built-in chat function. So that got me thinking. I could advertise to non-native speakers all over the world and if they download Skype, I could teach them over the Skype lines. So I advertised online for some experimental lab-rats and within 24 hours, I had my first students - one from Switzerland, one from Italy and another from Brazil. Payments can be made by EU bank transfer or Paypal, payable before the lesson starts. Any worksheets necessary for the lesson can be scanned into an Adobe PDF file and emailed to the student, who can then print it out at their end.

If you're looking presentable and you both have webcams, you can also switch on the cams and turn the lesson into a live video-conferencing lesson. If the student doesn't understand a word or would like you to write out a phrase for them, you can use Skype's chat function to type it out for them.

So far, things have been a success and I have interest from other people in other countries. I would say the only negative aspect to it is that in many countries, people can't afford to pay too much as their standard of living is lower and their salary is lower. Plus if they pay by Paypal, you have to take those fees into account. My normal fee is 20 Euros a hour (app. $25) but in many cases, I have had to take a pay-cut in order to get some extra work and to also test this online experiment.

I also like the Skype teaching idea because I don't have to travel anywhere to meet the student. So this saves me travelling expenses and travelling time. I can just sit in front of the computer, do one Skype lesson, hang up after 45 minutes, then the next student calls, then the next one......I don't even have to move at all!

I do have a problem which perhaps someone could help me out with. I am going to scan some flashcards into a Powerpoint presentation and I am looking for a way to share that presentation online with the student in real-time. So when we are both on Skype and the lesson starts, I would open the Powerpoint presentation and it opens at the same time at the student's end. They see what I see. Anyone have any idea how I could go about that?

Oh and if anyone wants English lessons over Skype, please let me know! We can begin negotiating!