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Teaching is one of the most noble profession out there. Every other profession is taught by a teacher. However, teaching can be exhausting emotionally and physically.
Teachers have a lot of time off, but depending on where you work, salaries may not be very high. If you are a teacher looking to make extra money to pay off debt, for vacations or for retirement, here are some ideas.
The good news is that some of these ideas will generate income for you for a long time, passed your initial work.
Below are 8 side hustles for teachers, along with some resources.
1.Become a Tutor
Teachers can be natural tutors because they can use some of their teaching skills. Tutors can focus on Standard Test Preparations, such as the SAT, PSAT, ITBS and others to earn extra income.
One option is to set up your own shop and marketing it in your school and other local schools. Typically thru word of mouth.
Another option is to set up a profile on an online tutoring platform. These platforms allow tutors to set their own pay rate and they are matched with students. Platforms matching students with tutors include Wyzant, TutorMe and WizIQ.
2. Create an Online Course
Online courses are very popular right now. A course can help many people, including other teachers and it can help you create income streams for the future. You don’t need a blog or a website to sell your course. If you have a following on social media or otherwise, you can sell your course.
Don’t think that you don’t have anything to offer, you do. Teaching is one of the few careers where you develop lots of soft and hard skills. Brainstorm all the things you already do as a teacher (write them down) and you will come up with some good ideas for a course.
On the down side, writing a course and selling it online will take time. But, think about the income you can generate once it is done. Since this is your product, only you can earn income into the future from its sales.
Three popular platforms to make and sell a course are Teachables, Thinkific and Udemy. The way these platforms work is; you sign up, create your course and put it for sale. They will retain a fee from every sale for the platform.
Open an account and actively participate on Pinterest
Pinterest is not a social media platform, it is a search engine, just like Google. However, on Pinterest people are searching for very specific topics and how to do posts. The audience is over 90% female. The topics most searched are DIY related, teaching materials is one of these topics.
Pinterest will help you a lot in generating traffic to the things you sell to make extra money. Familiarize yourself with this platform to make money with DIY and tutorials.
3. Make your Own Blog
The internet depends heavily on content and blogs are the main avenues to deliver this content. I am a huge proponent of having your own blog. The reason is that I have this blog and other content for the last 10 years and have seen the benefits. It is a passive income driven business and it’s an asset. There is a lot of work going into a blog at the beginning, but once you learn the ropes it becomes easier, much easier.
You can work on a blog at your own pace. There are a lot of resources online to get you started. I can tell you it is a real business, as long as you treat it like a business.
Check out my article: How to Start your own WordPress Blog
You will need a host and a writing platform for your blog. There are many inexpensive blog hosts, Bluehost and Goddaddy are two of these. For a writing platform I recommend Word Press. Word Press is a popular platform and easy to use. For an example of a successful teacher blog, check out MathGeekMama.
4. Be a Freelance Writer/Editor
I recommend more making your own blog because you retain ownership and control. But, if you need the cash you may write for other blogs. The downside is that this is a one time payment and you won’t collect residual income, but the site owner will.
If you don’t want to build a site, there are lots of writing gigs around. Here are some of the places looking for freelance writers; ProBlogger Job Board, Media Bistro, BloggingPro Job Board. Many smaller blogs pay for content, you can contact the site owner about opportunities.
5. Sell Teachers Lessons
This is one of the easiest and more popular option for teachers to make extra money. Creating lesson plans is something every teacher already does. Teachers can sell the plans to other teachers and to parents who want to help their children succeed in school.
Teachers Pay Teachers has been featured on many news outlets, here is an article on Business Insider about the business and here is another one about a teacher making $1m selling lesson plans. Teachers Notebook and Etsy are two other places where you can sell teaching material online.
6. Become a Virtual Assistance
Virtual assistants have their own businesses, generally very flexible. A virtual assistance helps with technical stuff, writing, running social media accounts and other blog’s activities. You can set your own rates and schedules as a VA.
Blogs and websites of all sizes and scope use virtual assistants to run their businesses. If you don’t have your own Virtual Assistant business, you can find gigs on sites like; Upfront, Indeed and Freelance.com. You can also use social media platforms and Pinterest to find VA work for your skills and schedule.
7. Teach English to Kids Worldwide
This is the beauty of the internet, you can teach online to students anywhere in the world, as long as there is a connection. English being such a popular language for business, a lot of parents want their children to learn it.
You can sign up with an online teaching platform to earn money as an English teacher. Platforms like, VIPKID, DaDa and Teach away match ESL students with English teachers.
These platforms offer flexible schedules and a salary rate. So, if you are looking for extra income outside your main salary or you hustle for a living, teaching English can be a good option.
8. Become a Translator
For people who are fluent in another language, translation work abound thru the internet. Translation agencies hire freelancers and sometimes employees for data call centers and translation jobs.
These opportunities are location independent and offer different salary structures. Requirements for obtaining a translation job varies depending on the responsibilities and on the level of technical difficulty. However, you must be fluent on the language you’re interested. There is usually a test before hiring.
I recommend doing what you enjoy most to make more money as a teacher. I highly recommend the choices that will provide you with passive or residual income.
These options are the ones where you create content and become the owner of it. Selling a course, having your own blog, selling ebooks are some of the best alternatives to make extra money.
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