Teaching English Online As A Side Hustle

These days our lives are all about convenience and flexibility. And there’s not much more convenient or flexible than teaching English online as a side hustle. 

What is teaching English online?

But before we get ahead of ourselves, what exactly is teaching English online?

Teaching English online is a a way for TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) teachers to teach English to non-native speakers of English online. 

EFL students can be any age, any nationality, any English  level, and based anywhere in the world. 

TEFL teachers can also be anywhere in the world and any nationality.

The major requirements for teaching English online is to be fluent in English and have a TEFL qualification. Sometimes you might need a degree too, but this is not always the case.

Your lessons could be conversation-based, or following a coursebook, or focusing on a specific need of your student. Online English lessons can be 20 minutes or 90 minutes or anything in-between.

You can work for an online company or you can be an independent online teacher.

Why should you teach English online as a side hustle?

The current climate means working online is one of the best ways to guarantee an income. Teaching English online is one way to do that.

It’s convenient and flexible – and super easy to get started. You don’t need a lengthy, expensive degree to be an online English teacher. And you don’t need loads of capital to set yourself up. 

It’s the ideal way to earn a bit of extra money – and who doesn’t want extra money?! 

Is teaching English online a good side hustle?

Absolutely. Teaching English online can most certainly be a full-time job, but it can be a serious side hustle too.

Even if you already have a part-time or full-time job, there’s no reason you can’t work as well as teach English online. 

Think about it.

It’s not easy finding a job these days, no matter what your skills and experience. If you already have a job, you might not want to let it go on a whim of working remotely. Which is why you don’t have to! Teaching English online can be done on top of your usual 9-5.

If you are working as a graphic designer, HR manager or brand strategist (or anything else!), you can teach English online as a side hustle for extra income – or to test the waters for a new career.

Without having exact figures, it’s safe to say that a large percentage of online English teachers have more than one job. These teachers teach for a few hours a day, but also earn money from blogging, social media, writing, selling products, or even study.

Read more: How Much Money Can I Really Make Teaching English Online?

Let’s look at how that would work.

How can I make money teaching English online?

Teaching English online offers you the opportunity to work as an independent teacher or for an online company. Either way, you’re paid an hourly rate. The beauty of this is that you can work as many hours as you want and when you want. 

Sure your company might have minimum hours they require you to teach, and time zones dictate certain hours your students will be available, but the sheer number of online jobs means you can tailor your schedule to suit your lifestyle.

In other words:

You can choose how much you want to work

If you only want to work one hour a day, that’s fine. If you’re having a slow month and want to work 8 hours a day, that’s cool. If you’re trying to save up for a new iPhone, you can put in a few extra hours every week until you’ve reached your goal. If you get sick and don’t want to work for a week, that’s also ok.

You can choose when you want to work

If you prefer to do your day job, uh, in the day, then you can schedule a few English lessons for the evenings or early mornings. If you really want to you could teach all your lessons before 9am every morning and have the rest of the day to focus on other work (and have a nap, hopefully). 

If you’re wondering how on earth you are going to wake up your students for such early morning classes, remember that your students are probably in a different time zone to you. While it might be 6am for you it could be 5pm for them. 

You can choose how it works for you

Do you only want to work weekends? That’s fine. Find students who feel the same or work for a company that offers weekend work.

Would you rather students find you? Okay, then. Upload a introductory video to an appropriate platform and wait for students to book lessons with you.

Are you ready to ease yourself into working remotely full-time? No problem. Teach on the side to gather up some savings until you’re ready to take the plunge. Bonus: you’ll already have work lined up for when you leave your job.

In a nutshell, teaching English online can be anything you want it to be, which makes it the perfect career choice for right now.

If the world of teaching English as a foreign language has always intrigued you but you’re not sure yet if you want to give up your career, perhaps now is a good time to get involved with teaching English online as a side hustle. Only time will tell if you want to make a career out of it and, in the meantime, you can earn some pounds!

How to get started teaching English online

It’s quite simple: get TEFL certified!

[Psst! Sign up for a TEFL course with The TEFL Academy and you also get access to our Top-Up Course Teaching English Online And One To One absolutely free!]

Read more: How Teaching English Online Can Help You Become A Digital Nomad