Are you a teacher who’s looking for a side hustle to bring in extra income? Or maybe you’re ready to use your teaching skills to work online so you can travel more. In this post, I’ll share the top 5 side hustles for teachers.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. This means that I receive a small commission when you make a purchase using my link or sign up to be a teacher with my referral link – at no extra cost to you. This helps me continue to provide free content for teachers. Thank you!
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Side Hustle # 1 – Creating Teaching Materials to Sell Online
The first top side hustle for teachers is creating lesson materials or curricula and selling them on Teachers Pay Teachers or The Tutor Resource.
If you’re already working as a teacher or have in the past, chances are you’ve created worksheets, activities, lesson plans, slides or curricula for your classes. These days it’s easier than ever to sell things you’ve already created on websites and marketplaces.
Selling on Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace that was founded in 2006 and thousands of teachers buy and sell their teaching materials on this site. I’ve personally sold PowerPoint presentations, lesson plans and worksheets I’ve made on Canva and have purchased numerous teaching materials to use in my own classes. If you’d like to try Canva Pro for 30 days, click here.
A tip is: If you want to streamline the process of setting up your Teachers Pay Teachers store, you can hire a VA (virtual assistant) to help you create, format and upload. You can check out my friend Katie Gettys’ video on how to hire a VA to help with your TPT store.
Selling on The Tutor Resource
If you’ve created slides for your classes, especially if you teach online, you can upload and sell your lessons on The Tutor Resource. This is a newer platform that is growing quickly. It was started during lockdown to provide a variety of lessons for online teachers.
Teachers can subscribe to your lesson plans and you can make passive income off of your lessons and slides. Setting up your selling profile is free.
Side Hustle # 2 – Teaching Online
A second way to make money online as a teacher is by teaching online. If you’re looking for just a few extra hours per week, you can work for online ESL companies that provide ready-made lesson plans.
If you want to earn a part-time salary, then I recommend teaching on marketplaces like Outschool or teaching online as a freelancer.
I personally teach English online as a freelancer, teach ballet on Outschool and tutor ESL on Cambly. I recommend teaching for a few different companies or marketplaces to help diversify your income.
To learn more about online teaching, download my free online teaching cheat sheet.
A tip is: If you are looking for a flexible side hustle as an online teacher, look for companies that have no minimum hours. This makes it much easier to manage your teaching schedule, especially while traveling.
If you want to fast-track your online teaching journey, you can enroll in my online teaching mini-course “Teach Online in 10 Days.”
Side Hustle #3 – Creating Online Courses
The third top side hustle for teachers is creating an online course. If you want to share your knowledge with people without exchanging time for money, then online courses are a great option. As a teacher you already have the skills to build and deliver an engaging online course.
A tip is: before you create a course, make sure you know who your target student is. Instead of selling a general English course, choose a specific niche, or topic to focus on. Then, you can use social media to market your course.
To learn more about choosing a niche and using social media to reach your target students, you can watch this free masterclass. While this training is targeted at freelance online teachers, the same concepts are relevant for course creators.
I create my courses using Kajabi which is an all-in-one course creator, email marketing system and website builder. Other options include Podia and Teachable if you have your own audience. If you don’t have students yet, then try Skillshare or Udemy. Each platform has its pros and cons.
I personally use Kajabi because everything is in one place and I don’t have to pay separately for a website or email marketing software. I also love the way the course looks for my students!
Side Hustle # 4 – Setting up a YouTube Channel
A fourth way to make money online as a teacher is by creating a YouTube channel. YouTube is how 90% of my followers find me and it’s free to start a channel.
You can earn money from a YouTube channel by earning Adsense money once you are monetized, selling products like teaching materials or online courses, or even coaching subscribers.
A tip is: the same concept of having a specific niche applies to your YouTube channel. Be really clear on who you help and stick to helping that one student or person. To give you some ideas, maybe you focus on helping intermediate English language learners, fifth grade teachers or people preparing for the CELTA.
Getting started on YouTube can be overwhelming, but all you need is a phone to get started! I personally worked with a coach to help me set up my channel and it made the whole process so much easier. Her name is Danie Jay on YouTube and I highly recommend working with her. You can get on the waitlist for her program here.
Side Hustle # 5 – Freelance Writing, Editing or Creating
The fifth top side hustle for teachers is freelance writing, editing or creating on websites like Upwork or Fiverr. As a teacherpreneur I have used Upwork and Fiverr to find logo designers, online marketers, video editors and designers. If you are skilled in any of these areas, then you can sign up to work as a freelancer on these sites.
Teachers are often jacks and jills of all trades so having a side hustle as an online marketer, writer, editor or even translator is possible. Working as a freelancer allows you to work as much or as little as you like which can be helpful for teachers since our workload may change throughout the year.
A tip is: even if you don’t want to work on Upwork or Fiverr, I recommend signing up for these sites because as a teacher with a side hustle you are very likely to need someone’s help to fast-track your side hustle at some point.
Investing in video editors, logo designers and marketers has helped me save time and focus on creating new content for teachers like you. I’ll put links for both sites below.
Teacher Side Hustles in General
A general tip for any teacher side hustle is to pick one and stick with it. Some of these jobs can bring in a lot of income, but it takes time, patience and persistence to see those larger numbers.
A side hustle isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, but if you are consistent, it can bring in a great side or even full-time income.
Which teacher side hustle will you try? For more teaching tips and tricks you can follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Happy teaching (and side hustling!)
