If you are a teacher who wants to earn extra income, there are a number of ways for you to do so, without even leaving your own home. Regardless whether or not you are currently looking for additional income, making some extra money in your spare time is a great way to supplement your full-time teacher salary.
Whether you are a retired teacher, working part-time, or even working full-time, here are some great ideas to earn extra money on the side.
Create and Sell Online Courses
As a teacher, you likely already have extensive skills and knowledge about a subject area that you specialize in. The great news is that you can create online courses about that topic and may be able to sell them online to make money on the side.
So if you know a subject inside out, consider creating an online course. Chances are, there are people out there who are willing to pay you to learn. Selling online courses can be a great way to earn a passive income because you can sell a course over and over again.
You can create and may be able to sell your online courses via a number of online course platforms, including:
- Udemy
- Teachable
- Thinkific
- Skillshare
- CourseCraft
If you have your own website, you may also be able to sell your digital courses there by adding an eCommerce plugin to it or by installing online course-specific plugins.
Do Transcription Work Online
Transcription can be another great way to earn some extra income, and you can do this whenever you have a bit of free time. Transcription involves you listening to audio recordings and typing out what you hear into a text document. Working as a transcriptionist has been found to be excellent for teachers who have great listening skills as well as fast and accurate typing skills.
The type of transcription work that is available to you will vary based on any special skills you may have. You may search for projects in general transcription, legal transcription, and/or medical transcription, among others, depending if you have the necessary skill set. General transcription jobs usually do not require you to have any experience or certification to do them, but they tend to pay less than other types of transcription jobs.
Here are some transcription companies and websites that often hire for transcription jobs:
- Rev
- TranscribeAnywhere.com
- TranscribeMe
- Aberdeen
- GoTranscript
- Scribie
- Appen
- Babbletype
- Cambridge Transcriptions
- Birch Creek Communications
- CastingWords
- Focus Forward
- SpeakWrite
- Speechpad
- Transcript Divas
- Ubiqus
- Verbal Ink
Transcriptionists generally earn between $15 and $30 per hour.<sup>1</sup> However, many companies pay per audio hour transcribed. As a result, a transcriptionist’s hourly earnings can vary depending on how quickly a person is able to transcribe an audio file. Additionally, the expertise required to transcribe an audio file can result in higher or lower rates.
Become an Online Tutor
If you’ve previously thought about ways to earn extra money aside from your teaching job, then it’s likely that you’ve already considered tutoring. There are many online tutoring platforms that make finding students easier than say, looking for someone to teach locally. Working with these platforms, you’ll have the added convenience of earning money from the comfort of your home.
Many tutoring sites will give preference to applicants who already have teaching experience, so this is a great job for teachers.
Here are some popular online tutoring companies that offer online tutoring jobs:
- Tutors.com
- Tutor.com
- TutorMe
- Chegg Tutors
- Skooli
- Brainfuse
Online tutors generally earn around $12 per hour. However, tutors can earn as much as $25 or $30 per hour2, depending on the subject taught and the experience of the tutor, as well as a few other factors. You will often earn more if you tutor within an advanced subject area or if you tutor for college/university students.
Become an Online English Teacher
If you are a native or fluent English speaker, then you may also have the option of becoming an online English teacher to make some extra money. This can be an exciting job for many, because you are likely to experience different cultures and traditions as you teach online to students from around the world.
Some of the popular online English teaching sites include:
- Qkids
- italki
- VIPKID
- Magic Ears
- Cambly
- NiceTalk
- Tutlo
- Samespeak
- TeachPartTime.com
- Open English
- Learnlight
- TutorABC
- Teach Away
Some of the sites above may require teachers to have ESL certification to be able to teach with them, but others require only a bachelor’s degree in any subject.
How much you can earn as an online English teacher depends on the site you teach with. To give you an idea of what you may be able to earn, VIPKID ESL teachers earn a minimum of $14-$18 an hour, with some teachers earning as much as $22 an hour.3
Become a Freelance Writer
Teachers who have a knack for writing may be able to make money as an online freelance writer writing content for blogs and websites on topics they are familiar with. If you have good research skills, you can also research unfamiliar topics and write about them for potential clients.
You can write articles, blog posts, web copy, online reviews, and more, depending on your expertise.
There are various types of websites that offer freelance writing jobs online. You can join freelance sites, online writing jobs sites, or large content sites to potentially secure freelance writing jobs. You can also reach out to companies online or sites to see if they are interested in hiring you as an online writer for their business or organization.
Here are some sites that provide opportunities to make money for writing content for their clients or their own website, depending on the site:
- Upwork
- Freelancer
- PeoplePerHour
- Fiverr
- ProBlogger Jobs
- Textbroker
- iWriter
- Online Writing Jobs
- HireWriters
- Zerys
- greatcontent
- ClearVoice
- WL Marketing
- IncomeDiary
- The Penny Hoarder
- LoveToKnow
- Wise Bread
- Listverse
- College Humor
- Cracked
- RankPay
- A List Apart
- SitePoint
Some statistics show that freelance writers earn on average just over $20 an hour.4
However, earnings for freelance writers can vary greatly based on experience as a writer, skills, and the site or client they work with. As you gain some experience, you may be able to charge more for your writing work and also accept jobs that require more expertise in a specific subject.
Make Extra Money as a Virtual Assistant
As a teacher, you have organizational, communication and other valuable skills that are generally in demand. If you want to make some extra cash as a teacher, then you may want to consider becoming a virtual assistant.
As a virtual assistant (VA), you can complete simple tasks online for small business owners, bloggers and other people who do not have the time or in some cases the required skills to do those tasks themselves. Some common VA tasks you may offer, depending on your skills, include:
- Scheduling appointments
- Answering emails
- Data entry
- Editing and proofreading documents
- Writing reports
- Writing content for blogs/websites
- Managing social media
Here are some of the popular sites where you can find VA jobs:
- Zirtual
- Boldly
- BELAY
- Time etc
- Upwork
- Freelancer
- PeoplePerHour
- Fiverr
- Outsourcely
- Guru
According to Indeed.com, most virtual assistants in the United States earn between $7.25 and $38.40. averaging at $16.15 per hour.5 Again, your pay can vary depending on your skills, experience, and who you work for.
Become an Online Researcher
As an online researcher, you may be able to make money by providing answers to tricky questions posted by students or people. Depending on the platform/site, you can look for questions that interest you and then respond to them or answer questions that have been assigned to you by your clients.
There are many question and answer sites where people from all walks of life post questions and qualified online researchers answer those questions. As a teacher, you can browse these sites to find online research jobs in the field of your expertise and then request if there is any availability.
Here are a few sites to find online research jobs:
- Wonder
- Maven
- Studypool
- JustAnswer
- Experts123
Conclusion
We hope that this article has shown you that there are many great ideas out there for teachers to consider to potentially earn extra money. If you are a teacher who’s looking to earn a little extra income, we recommend that you look into one of the jobs mentioned above and see if you are well-suited for it. Since many of these positions can be performed entirely online from home with flexible hours available, there may even be something that is a great fit for teachers that are currently teaching.
As a teacher, you understand the value of being a lifelong learner, so we hope these ideas will provide you with insight into more opportunities to acquire new skills, while potentially earning a bit of money on the side.
The information provided is based on our general understanding of the subject matter discussed and is for informational purposes only.
1 “How Much Money Can You Make as a Transcriptionist” Mahesh Kumar, transcriptioncertificationinstitute.org, Sep. 2, 2019.
2 “How Much Do Online Tutors Get Paid?” Leyla Norman, careertrend.com, Aug. 20, 2019.
3 “Become an Online Teacher at VIPKid” Rachel Pelta, remote.co, May 13, 2020.
4 “Freelance Writer Salaries” Anonymous, glassdoor.com, Feb. 10, 2021.
5 “How much does a Virtual Assistant make in the United States?” Anonymous, indeed.com, Feb. 12, 2021.
