Sitting in the comfort of your home office and yet getting a lucrative salary sounds fictitious to our ears. But this is not fiction anymore. Millions of teachers earn handsome salaries by teaching online nowadays. If you are thinking about making a switch to online teaching and are curious about how online teachers earn money, then you are at the right place.
The academic and administrative team at upEducators has worked with 5000+ educators. We have trained them in developing digital skills and learning digital pedagogies which has helped them boost their career as online educators. We have worked closely with teachers and witnessed the multiple ways in which teachers are making money online. We will discuss it in detail in this blog. But before diving into the ways to make money through teaching online, let’s discuss why one should consider teaching online.
Why Teach online?
Teaching online is not only comfortable but a very lucrative job. Here’s why online teaching is an ideal career option for teachers and educators.
Flexibility
Online teaching can be done from the comfort of your home. One does not need to commute to the workplace and can work from co-working spaces or even home offices. The removal of commuting saves a lot of time and energy otherwise wasted on moving in the traffic.
Increased salary
As there are multiple ways to earn through online teaching, teachers have the opportunity to earn beyond a fixed income. Online teaching makes it possible for teachers to earn more.
Better Work-Life Balance
Most teachers in traditional teaching roles are overworked. But online teaching models provide educators with a pepper work-life balance. Teachers can create a self-paced learning course and earn from it passively. Or they can choose to work and even take a break on their terms.
Focus on Teaching
With online teaching, teachers are liberated from administrative work. They can focus on what they love to do more. Online teachers are not burdened with administrative and other management tasks and they are never underpaid. They do not have to undertake unpaid tasks or work from anyone.
How to earn money by online teaching?
Teachers these days are earning from multiple sources with online teaching. The best part about online teaching is that there are no restrictions on teachers to pursue multiple ways of earning. Here are some of the most common ways in which teachers are earning online.
- Start your teaching website
There is nothing more lucrative than starting your educational channel or website. A website is essential for any business dealing online in this day and age. A teacher with subject expertise, knowledge, experience, great communication skills, digital know-how and digital marketing skills can sell an educational website within months.
Teachers can start their website and start teaching using free teaching platforms and resources like Google Classroom. Google Suit. Educators also have the option to build a classroom using paid tools and platforms like Teachmint and Trainer Central.
The biggest advantage of starting your educational website as a teacher is that you do not have to pay commissions on your lessons and classes. All that you earn is a direct income and there are no deductions to be paid. It is also a great way to build your brand instead of relying on other big platforms. This way, you get direct recognition and your fame does not hide behind big names in the industry. You just need to master your subject and digital marketing practices to gain the upper hand in the market.
In case you want to learn different tools that can be used in Online Teaching, how to design a course or how to market a course, then you can also check the course “A to Z of Online Teaching by upEducators which covers course designing, course delivery, marketing and digital skills and pedagogies for teachers.
- Join established Ed Tech Players like Vedantu and Chegg India
Teaching online in India is not limited to joining saturated platforms like Udemy. Teachers can earn lucrative incomes through less-crowded platforms like Vedantu, Chegg India and Unacademy. Teachers can enrol on such platforms and teach a subject in which they have expertise and experience. These edTech platforms offer good incentives to teachers for giving lessons. Teachers can register and receive regular teaching opportunities and timely payments via these edTech channels in India. Let us look at some important data related to the popularity and credibility of some of these platforms.
Vedantu
Culture and Value: 3.1
Work-Life Balance: 2.6
Compensation and Benefits: 3.4Unacademy
Culture and Values: 3.9
Work-Life Balance: 3.3
Compensation and benefits: 4.0Chegg India
Culture and Values: 4.2
Work-Life Balance: 4.4
Compensation and Benefits: 4.0 - Find students and teach directly with Online Tutoring Platforms
An online tutor in India with subject expertise and digital skills can earn a good side income with platforms like UrbanPro and SuperProf. Teachers need to sign up on such platforms and provide details related to the subjects they teach. For instance, teachers can use UrbanPro and can create free profiles to get access to 55 lakhs+ registered students. In India, teachers receive training and marketing support using UrbanPro and top teachers on this platform earn 40,000-1,50,000 per month. Such platforms provide direct access to students and teachers can earn a good income for their time and efforts.
- YouTube
Educational channels like Physics wallah have made a fortune and a huge following online by teaching on Youtube. YouTube has billions of registered users. And it is one of the best ways to earn income as a teacher. Millions of users search for educational videos on YouTube every day. YouTube has great potential for becoming an income stream for teachers. But content creation on YouTube is a time-consuming activity. It takes weeks to create one valuable video on YouTube. But once you have created a good resourceful video, you can earn millions from a single video on YouTube.
Building an audience on YouTube takes time but it comes with many perks. Teachers can make money on YouTube in multiple ways like Advertising revenue, channel memberships and affiliate marketing. YouTube pays creators monthly but an account needs to have at least 1000 subscribers with 4,000 watch hours in the past year.
- Udemy
Rob Percival, a “coding geek” with a mathematics degree from Cambridge university has 2,000,000+ students on the Udemy platform. After realizing the lucrative potential of teaching coding online, he gave up his traditional teaching job and became a full-time online teacher via Udemy. He has 30+ courses on Udemy and 400,00+ positive reviews from his students.
If one is an expert on a subject and has the potential to teach online, then Udemy is an ideal platform to teach and grow online. The way to become an online educator at Udemy is simple. You need to design and develop a course and then promote it to earn money. But it’s not as simple as it seems due to the increased competition on the Udemy platform.
Teachers on Udemy are supposed to become Premium Instructors or join the recently launched Udemy for the Business feature to sell their courses. Becoming a Premium Instructor is free. Once your application is accepted you can create, sell and promote your courses to a wide audience of learners globally.
The courses sold directly from Udemy only earn 37% of the total sale value of the course. The teachers earn 97% of the sale value if the sale is made through the course developer’s referral link/code.Udemy has 49+ million registered users and 680+ million overall course enrollments. Teachers get access to a wide market on Udemy. It is thus an ideal way to earn money online while teaching.
Teaching online is an extraordinary opportunity for teachers, especially after the global pandemic. More students are enrolling on complete online courses and thus there is an increase in demand for subject experts and teachers on all online platforms. Teachers can find fulfilling and lucrative job opportunities with online education.
Author: This article is written by Samiya Rashid for upEducators blog.