The internet is changing the conventional classroom system and now, it’s going to have a bigger impact on your teaching profession. By going online, you will not only learn how to make more money as a teacher, you’d also discover many opportunities that can turn your skills into a business making adventure.
Want to know what they are? Read on.
#1 Online Tutoring
Online tutoring is a platform that enables experienced tutors to coach/guide students in real time on a specific topic and it is usually managed by a tutoring company.
The process usually starts with a student or a parent searching for such services and requesting for a free demo. If he/she likes the quality of the coach, then the virtual class will commence at a designated time.
The service is usually charged on an hourly basis and depending on the level of your competency, you could earn between $15 to $20+/hour after deducting the charges paid to the company that you contracted with.
Start up cost and process – Application is usually free, but the company will likely review your qualification and arrange to meet online for verification purposes. So at the very least, you should have a good/fast internet connection (since video streaming can take up a lot of bandwidth), a clear PC/laptop monitor and a functional microphone/headset.
Some examples are Tutor, Chegg Tutors and Skooli.
The Pros
1) You can leverage from pre existing expertise to coach the students without having to draft a lengthy lesson plan.
2) The company usually provides in-house software to assist in the virtual teaching.
3) You can meet and help students from different backgrounds.
The Cons
1) If you are not comfortable appearing in videos, this might take some time to get used to.
2) Some subjects can be quite difficult to explain online so you need to find a way around that and get the message across to the student.
3) Convenient as it might seem, it still requires time commitment from your side which means teaching at night after your day job is over or even conducting lessons over the weekends.
Long term prospects – It’s more like getting an extra job and there’s a need to be available most of the time if you want to earn that hourly wages.
#2 Share Teaching Resources
Sharing teaching materials online is becoming popular as more people search for alternative methods to improve the children’s learning skills.
There are a few marketplaces that allow you to open a store where you can upload lesson plans and templates and offer them for free or charge a certain price for downloads.
Digital products usually doesn’t cost as much as printed ones so you are looking at selling between the range of 99 cents to $10.
However, don’t be surprised that you would actually earn less than that after sharing a small percentage of the sales with the marketplace admin and getting charged for transaction fees.
Start up cost and process – Original and effective teaching resources are more sought after so you might want to spend some time planning and curating good materials before listing them on your store.
The marketplaces usually have membership plans for sellers and if you opt for the premium ones, you can pay less (or not pay at all) the aforementioned commission/transaction fees.
Some examples are Teachers Pay Teachers, Tes Resources and Share My Lesson.
The Pros
1) You get to network and collaborate with other teachers.
2) You can use your creativity to launch an idea without the restriction of a classroom environment.
3) You can share your work through social media and get people to check out your store.
The Cons
1) There is a lot of competition on these marketplaces and it’s not easy to showcase your work when you are fairly new.
2) Earnings can be very measly if you don’t have good customer reviews or don’t share your work frequently online.
Long term prospects – There’s always demand for digital resources because they are affordable and convenient. The key point here is learning to promote them beyond the tools provided by the marketplace. Once you start to build traffic to your online store, sales can grow tremendously with very little effort on your side.
#3 Create Online Courses
By creating online courses, you are taking things one step further, transforming from a teacher to a brand. You aren’t just creating a lesson, you are lining up a series of modules to help students graduate from a certain set of skills and there’s a responsibility to follow through with their progress over a period of time.
There are many platforms that can host courses and even feature you on their marketplaces such as Teachable, Udemy and Skillshare.
Unlike digital resources, online courses usually sell for higher prices, between the range of $100 to $300 so even after paying the platform fees, you will still earn a substantial amount from one sale.
Start up cost and process – Having a detailed teaching program is a must before launching and you usually need to subscribe to the platform hosting to support the entire flow of the course online.
The Pros
1) When students sign up for your course, you usually get their contact email which allows you to engage with future promotions.
2) You can leverage from a lot technologies to make your course creative and interesting.
The Cons
1) Without endorsement, it can be very challenging to convince people to sign up for your courses.
2) You need to spend a lot of time preparing the course materials and learning to use different software like video programs.
Long term prospects – Online learning is the new era and when done right, you could build a long term customer relationship with the students thus turning your passion into an online business full-time.
#4 Create a Teaching Blog
A teaching blog is basically a website where you can publish and share your knowledge online. For most of the part, it involves writing about topics that’s within your niche expertise while addressing concerns/problems or offering solutions for teachers, students, parents and even the community.
There are several ways blogging can make money for you.
1) The easiest is to recommend education materials/teaching software that you’ve experienced yourself through affiliate programs. In this revenue model, you earn from sales commissions without having to go through the tedious process of creating your own product.
2) The other method is obviously to sell your own digital products, whether they are teaching resources or online courses. Having a blog complements these techniques because it helps to build an online presence first before the selling begins. This means, when you have a product ready, there’s already an audience to promote to.
The key to blogging is to understand what people are searching for about your niche online through specific phrases. These are called keywords and if you know what they are, it would make your blog more visible to the search engines and more engaging to read.
Here are some keywords that I’ve uncovered for you using my favorite keyword tool, Jaaxy. Do you think you can write an interesting article for any of these topics?
- How to write essay for English exam
- How to improve maths calculation speed
- Ways to help dyslexic students
- Reading tips for kids
- Memory games for students
In terms of earning potential, there are no set rules to how much you can earn. Some people make a couple dollars, some people make hundreds to thousands per month from their blogs. It all depends on what type of products you are selling/recommending and how much effort you put into writing helpful content.
The Pros
1) A blog allows you to take charge of marketing so that you don’t have to rely on marketplaces or other hosting software to do it for you.
2) It offers better engagement with your audience through blog comments, social sharing and direct contact.
3) As more keywords are built around your blog, it can attract massive online visitors from the search engines as well as paid advertisements.
The Cons
1) Learning web creation, and internet marketing can be overwhelming for some people because these are topics that most beginners are not familiar with.
2) Building online traffic can take many trials and errors before you get a steady traction.
Long term prospect – A blog can actually teach you the core of online marketing which other platforms lack. Equipped with such knowledge, an online business that has a blog will always triumph over those who don’t leverage from it.
What’s Your Teaching Expertise?
Find an answer to that and you’ve got yourself a niche. From there on wards, it’s just the matter of choosing the right platform and make it work using your creativity. I hope you have learned a few things about how to make more money as a teacher from this piece of article.
If you need some guidance, do check out my recommended training platform for some helpful tools and resources.
You may be interested to read;
Why You Should Blog About Personal Finance
Hey Cathy,
Thank you for sharing this great opportunity to earn some extra as a teacher online. l currently own an affiliate website and am in the midst of creating an online affiliate marketing course using the Teachable platform to add another stream of income besides promoting other people’s products.
Since I already have a substantial audience, l can easily promote my course to them once it is launched.
Awesine Shui Hyen. That’s great to know! 🙂
This article is loaded with lots of information that can create side income for teachers online, I even like the paragraph where you told people about creating their own teaching platform. It is an advice that me and my friend would work on before the end of this year. We just need a little financing to achieve it. Does Tutor dot com allow nonnative English speaker? Like someone from India.
I think the level of qualification matters more than the country of origin. You can apply to find out more.
With the advent of the internet, I think anything is possible. A teaching career can really be lucrative because the quest for knowledge will never diminish. It’s a good idea, especially for students who stay in remote places.
However, it depends on what you teach as some courses are not easy to teach off the internet.
I have been looking for a while for a way to make money online that would be interesting and not involving selling stuff, but rather something productive and help people. I never knew you could be a teacher online. I actually have a degree in teaching, but ever since I moved to a different country, there isn’t a lot of job offers available. I will definitely look into the online opportunity for teaching. Thank you for sharing this.
This is a great article about making money as a teacher online. I am a primary school teacher and can totally resonate with the extra income. I am glad to know that there’s actually room on the internet to expand my career. Thanks for sharing this.
Hi Cathy, that is an interesting read. Online education has truly taken over the traditional/classroom learning. There are so many opportunities for teachers online. Just like you mentioned, one can decide to work as a freelancer by working on platforms like iWriter and many other sites you mentioned.
To me, I prefer creating a teaching blog. Once you understand your targeted audience, you are able to reach out to them, and they will keep coming back for more. I have truly learnt one or two things from your write up on making money as a teacher online.
Thank you for this eye opening post. I have been wondering if there is an avenue where I can teach and create an impact knowledge on people. I will check out the Tutor and Skooli site and read more about them. What are the qualification I will be needing for verification?
Thank you.
Hi Clement. Each site varies, but I believe you’d need a teaching qualification of some sort in order to apply and to be approved as a tutor on their platforms.
Hi Cathy,
This article has been extremely helpful for me as I’ve wanted to become an online teacher for sometime now. I just didn’t know how to get started and what is the best ways to monetize without being in a physical classroom. Will certainly look through some of these options and see which is the best fit for my skills. Thanks a bunch.
Hi Cathy,
These tips will definitely inspire many fellow teachers who are struggling to earn an extra income. It can be challenging at first, trying to learn the rope of online marketing like building a website and writing content, but I think teachers are generally creative and they should be able to figure out a way to reach their goals if they want to find some success in the online space.
Honestly, I have never thought of earning money online through my teaching skills. It feels like the job needs to be physically conducted versus going online. After reading through this article, my initial perception is clearly underestimated. This is such a great idea and I could see it serving as an extra income for many teachers out there who are trying to make ends meet.
I actually used to do online teaching for a couple of years on a part time basis in languages. I went in to teach Welsh and didn’t really think there would be that much call for it. I thought it would be part time at best.
But, as it turns out, a lot of females were marrying Welsh men and were looking to learn a bit of the language to impress on the wedding day, others were simply English families that were about to move to Wales.
Looking back – it would have been amazing to see how much money you can make online through language teaching if you’ve put the hard work.
Hmm that is an interesting thought.
Since the era of internet is upon us, even online learning is in some ways superior to traditional method. One to one is especially useful to get the point across, and with time it gets easier since your teaching methods are also improving. Plus an extra income through home isn’t a bad idea.
Wow, this is a really intuitive article Cathy.
Thinking about it now it all seems so obvious to do these online courses as a teacher, but before reading your post, it hadn’t even crossed my mind.
I’m certainly going to be looking into this further as an extra income and hopefully in time become independent working completely from home.
Hi there Cathy,
Thanks for coming up with this article. Great idea for teachers.
I used to do online teaching both Spanish and English and yes, some very nice money can be made without leaving your home. But depending on your location, you really need backup devices options should something go wrong and be hard wired to the internet in case you get a glitch with your router’s WiFi.
I certainly wish I had thought of monetizing my lesson plans before, but hey – I can go work on that right now – nice passive income.
This article is really helpful for teachers who want to make money from the comfort of their home, or even to just double their income from working IRL at a school and then tutoring online at night.
What I like about it is that the programs online can accommodate any teacher and every subject, so it’s easy to register yourself and start tutoring for cash online.
Hi Cathy,
Agree that internet is providing great options and some freedom to teachers to make money online. I have a friend who joined one of those web based academies as a part time job just to make some extra money. Apparently he is good and started to be quite popular.
He setup a small ‘studio’ with a nice board, camera and audio system, so he was able to go around some of the problems of online teaching. Then, at the end of the school year he quit his job and moved to Thailand.
Now he is working full time as online teacher, making more money than before and living wherever he wants (in this case he moved looking for good weather and cheaper living costs).