10 Side Hustles for Teachers to Make Money - And 3 to Avoid

Updated: Jul 18

Teaching is a profession that many have a love/hate relationship with. Teachers generally love educating America's children, helping to create the next generation of leaders. But all too often, paperwork, stress, and low pay take a bite out of this passion.

Thankfully, there are a number of ways for teachers to use their passion for education in a way to help them grow their incomes through some creative side hustles.

Today, I'll show you the 10 best side hustles for teachers, plus five to avoid.

10 Side Hustles for Teachers

Teachers at all levels and of all subjects will find these side hustles to be worth considering.

1. Online courses and study materials

Teachers have knowledge - and lots of it! So, why not leverage it in an attempt to make a few dollars outside of your full-time teaching gig?

Building online courses and study materials can be a great way to do just this. I recommend starting with your area(s) of expertise, since it will be much easier for you to seamlessly put together materials. Plus - you may be able to leverage existing lesson plans that you have already written for your students!

This can be one of the best side gigs for teachers to get started, for a couple of reasons:

Bundling study materials or courses into an organized structure will use many of the same skills you've developed to put together cohesive lesson plans.

It has never been easy to get started, thanks to the assist of AI services such as ChatGPT. And while you won't want to use its output verbatim, it can provide a great structure to help you get started.

Getting started

To get started, you'll need to make a few key decisions, including:

What type of materials will you create? Pick your subject matter and level at which you will teach.

What is the purpose of these materials? Are you looking to build content to help students prepare for standardized tests, to reinforce knowledge, or for another purpose altogether?

What type of materials will you create? Do you want to build courses, study guides, video lessons, or something else altogether?

I recommend that you do thorough market research online before you get started to see what types of courses and materials seem to sell well online.

Pricing your materials

You're probably wondering how you should price your services. And the honest answer is that it depends. It depends on the type of content you're producing and how your competition has priced their products.

You'll want to keep all of this in mind.

2. Teach English online

For those of you that are feeling less entrepreneurial at this moment in time, you may be able to take on a second job teaching English online to students across the world.

The work isn't hard and you don't need to be an English teacher in order to be eligible.

The most popular sites to teach English include:

VIPKid
Cambly
Preply

VIPKid

VIPKid is probably the best-known platform around the country. If you work for the company, you'll be teaching English to Chinese students between the 4th and 12th grade. It can be easy money too, since your curriculum is written for you, and you won't need to create your own lesson plans.

Pay ranges between approximately $15 and $20 per hour.

Cambly

The Cambly platform is even more lowkey than VIPKid, if possible. Rather than following a curriculum created by the company, your job will be to converse with students from across the world to help them strengthen their spoken English.

Because the work is easier, the pay is lower, and starts at about $10 per hour.

Preply

One more company to consider is Preply, which has a signiifcantly different business model. Preply tutors can actually cusotmize profiles and set their own pay rates to entice others to take them up on their services. Most Preply tutors set hourly rates between $15 and $20 an hour, but the company will tkae 100% of your earnings for a student's first class.

That is a notable con in my eyes.

3. Proctor exams

Teachers in many districts around the country may be able to make a bit of extra money by proctoring exams like the SAT or ACT.

And while it may not be fun to give up your Saturday morning to proctor the SAT, it can be a good way to put some extra money in your pocket a few times each year. For example, proctors can make up to $25 per hour for their work, though this depends largely on your location.

The con of this strategy is that it really is not a true side hustle or second job, and you cannot make your own hours or work whenever you want to.

Still, a quick $100 every now and then in exchange for a Saturday morning isn't bad at all!

4. Start an education focused blog

Clearly, I am a huge fan of blogging. In fact, I recommend starting one to just about anybody looking for a good side gig that has the potential to turn into so much more. But teachers have a really unique opportunity to turn a blog into something special.

Here's why.

By blogging about educational topics, you are filling a number of different niches at one time. For one, you're helping others to find educational resources that can make a huge difference in their (or their family's) lives.

Secondly, depending on the path that you have, you may have a path to distribute your own materials or courses that you create.

And finally, you're establishing yourself as a thought leader in the education field.

All of this requires a steady readership, however.

Growing a blog

Growing, and ultimately monetizing, a blog will require months to years of hard work and dedication. But the rewards will be so worth it!

Your key will be to learn as much as you can about search engine optimization. Luckily, there is no shortage of completely free resources out there, but I recommend that you start by checking out Neil Patel and Semrush.

From here, your main goal will be to write as much high-quality content as you possibly can.

Check out my DIY guide to monetizing your blog too!

5. Work summer camp

Most teachers get their summers off from teaching, and that is awesome! But for money or boredom reasons, many educators don't actually take the whole summer off. If you're looking for a side job or second gig to help you pay your summertime bills, working at a children's summer camp may be the perfect next step for you.

There is no shortage of summer camps available in just about every subject and topic imaginable.

I think back to my childhood, when I enrolled in camps of all sorts, from space camp to basketball camp to baking camp.

Getting a job at a summer camp

Do keep in mind that planning for many summer camps may start in the dead of winter, or potentially even earlier. This makes it important to have your ducks in a row as soon as humanly possible.

That way, you won't miss out on any opportunities that you were excited about.

6. Tutor students

You're a teacher with experience and expertise in your field. These qualities are heavily valued in educational circles, potentially making tutoring a really good side hustle option for you to consider.

And while it may be a conflict of interest to tutor your own students outside of school for money, you can still acquire clients through referrals of other teachers you know in your school or across your district.

Finding students to tutor

Starting a tutoring gig doesn't have to be super complicated either. Finding your first clients will always be the hardest part, but then word of mouth will handle a lot of your referral work for you.

Besides having other teachers refer students to you, I have a couple of recommendations to help you get off the ground more quickly:

Utilizing social media services like LinkedIn to market your services
Create business cards and distribute them as you see fit

You can also supplement your tutoring income by working for online tutoring sites such as Tutor.com or Wyzant.

7. Write and publish an eBook

Educators with a passion for writing may be surprised to learn that they can make some good money by writing and publishing their own eBook through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or other like services.

With the KDP program, you can write about anything you want. Fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and DIY guides all tend to sell well.

Writing a book

Once you decide what book you'd like to write about, it's time to start writing. But before you do, I recommend that you take these tips into account:

Do thorough market research to see if there is enough demand for your book
Create an outline before you write a draft
Ask others for feedback on your idea before you get too far

After you're happy with your idea and feedback, feel free to start writing!

How to publish your book

Once you're happy with the manuscript you've written, it is time to convert it into a format that can be read online or with an electronic reader.

I've used the Kindle Create software in the past, and it worked really well for my needs.

After you download it, you'll find all the tools you need to customize and bring your eBook to market.

Market your eBook

After you've written and published your eBook, you'll need to market it to have any chance of your writing career being a profitable side gig. You have a number of options to increase the visibility on your completed book:

Use social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to spread word of your book
Build a website highlighting your works, potentially with a blog
Choose a title and write a description that will help increase visibility

For best results, I recommend that you start with your marketing efforts before the release of your book, since it will take time for your efforts to materialize.

8. Event planning

Event planning can be one of the best second jobs for teachers to make good money, but only for those that are willing to dedicate a lot of time to doing it right. First of all, it provides a great opportunity for teachers to use their organizational skills towards something else.

But, the work can be intense and stressful. So, to make sure that event planning is for you, you'll want to consider these factors:

Nights, weekends, and holidays: Your schedule will be determined by your clients. Events are most often held on nights, weekends, and holidays, so make sure you're willing to work on these days.

Legal and financial documentation: Large events are no joke, and you'll want to make sure that you're prepared to handle negotiations, contracting, and insurance requirements that may pop up.

Pick a niche: The last thing you want to do is further overwhelm yourself with a side hustle. Picking a niche can help you minimize this. Maybe you'll offer to plan luxury picnics during your summers off from teaching, for instance.

9. Sell educational materials on Etsy

Etsy is actually one of my favorite side hustles for teachers to make some extra money because of the depth and breadth of materials that you may be able to monetize. Selling digital downloads on Etsy has increased in popularity over the past couple of years, for one main reason.

It presents a great opportunity for passive income for the creators of these materials.

I browsed Etsy quickly as I was writing this piece, and I noticed that there were all sorts of options for teachers, including beautifully designed, including:

Worksheets
Posters
Coloring books
Calendars

The world is your oyster!

10. Proofreading and editing

My last recommended teacher side hustle is to work as a professional proofreader. This may appeal more to English and Language Arts teachers in particular, but educators of all subjects may opt for this line of work.

As is the case with many of the side gigs on this list, you may opt to freelance or work for an already established business.

3 side jobs for teachers to avoid

Being a teacher can be stressful enough, so it is important to avoid any side hustles that add stress or don't carry enough profit potential to be worth it. Next, let's evaluate those side jobs and gigs that just aren't going to be worth it for the majority of educators nationwide.

1. Completing surveys online

Filling out online surveys with sites like Swagbucks can be a decent way for some to make a few extra dollars outside of work. But for teachers, there are so many higher paying alternatives available that I just don't think it is worth it.

In my opinion, educators are better off pursuing any of the strategies that I introduced above instead.

2. Trading stocks

In full transparency, I don't believe in relying on trading stocks as a side hustle for anybody. Investing in stocks to make a profit takes hours of research and thorough analysis, which the vast majority of traders do not complete.

The reality is that, in the majority of instances, day trading is much closer to gambling than it is to anything else.

Stick with side hustles where you have greater odds of making money, and no chance of losing money.

3. Multi-level marketing (MLM)

I don't advise that educators take part in any multi-level marketing schemes, such as Pampered Chef. This is because these arrangements oftentimes require an initial financial investment to get started, which you may or may not get back.

Additionally, participating individuals oftentimes find that their goals are not aligned with the company in which they represent. For example, companies predominantly focus on recruiting others to take part, while your goal should be to sell as much product as you can.

Finally, some MLM arrangements require you to move a certain amount of inventory, which you may have to purchase yourself in the event that you are unable to sell it.

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