December 2022 – Thrive Beyond Teaching

My first blog post on this site was 8 Practical Ways Teachers Can Start Practicing Self-Care Today. Two of those tips were: Having multiple streams of income Seeing what other main income sources are out there should you ever decide to leave teaching In an effort to follow my own advice and empower other teachers, I started this blog. Teachers can make money blogging. Your blog doesn't even have to be about teaching, but it could be. Generally speaking, blogging success comes from perseverance and dedication to learning. These are qualities most teachers embody. Blogging can also be a great gateway to other income streams like ad revenue, affiliate marketing, and selling digital products. Don't take my word for it. Here are four successful teacher bloggers who prove that blogging is worth the time and effort. Lindsay Ostrom of Pinch of Yum Background: According to Lindsay's About Me page, she started her blog as a hobby while she was a fourth grade teacher. Her blog is now a successful business with over one million Instagram followers. Blogging: It doesn't look like Lindsay shares the details of her business publicly, but her blog seems to be the center of Pinch of Yum. Her website also lists Food Blogger Pro and Clariti as Pinch of Yum's other brands. And it all started from a little hobby food blog. Becca Davis Background: Becca Davis is a music teacher who has multiple business endeavors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lhyWKyqvHg Take a peek at Becca's multiple income streams, including her blog. Blogging: Unlike Lindsay, Becca's blog is not a major source of income. Instead, she uses it to drive business to her main income source- Teachers Pay Teachers resources. She has multiple videos on how she uses blogging to grow her business. Get On My Plate Background: Casey is another example of a teacher turned food blogger, but please don't think food or education blogging are your only options! The possibilities are endless! Blogging: Casey's blog is the driving force of her business. In addition to recipes, Casey shares blogging advice on her website. She also shares quarterly blogging income reports. According to her 2022 Quarter 3 report, Casey made almost $25,000 from her blog. Most of that revenue (over $21,000) was from MediaVine Ads. The rest was made up of affiliate income, sponsored posts/miscellaneous, and Pinterest Creators Program. Note that even though Casey is making bank from MediaVine ads, she is working to diversify her income sources. It's always a smart idea to make sure no one income source can make or break your financial success. Cult of Pedagogy Background: While your blogging business doesn't have to be about teaching, it definitely can be! Jennifer Gonzalez is the perfect example of this. Jennifer is a former language arts teacher who has created a well-respected community of educators seeking to up their best practices game. The team at Cult of Pedagogy has a blog, podcast, video library, store, and more. Blogging: According to Jennifer herself, the Cult of Pedagogy blog is the "meat" of the whole operation. This blog post gives us a sneak peek behind the Cult of Pedagogy scenes. As you can see, these entreprenuers do so much more than blogging, but ... Blogging is an integral online business component and a great way to get started. You've already got the basic skills and tools! If you're a teacher, chances are you are a proficient writer with internet access and a computer. How Does a Blog Make Money? There are many ways blogging can turn into multiple streams of income. This list is far from exhaustive. Affiliate Marketing (One of my favorite blogging gurus, Sophia Lee, swears by the course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I have not taken it myself, and I make no commission from either of these mentions.) Ads Sponsored Posts Products Courses Ebooks These are just some of the ways blogs can lead to various income streams. None of these are get rich quick schemes, and they all require hard work and dedication. The possibilities might seem a little overwhelming, but focus on building 1-2 streams at a time. Here's what my business plan looks like. My Blogging Business Plan and Beyond I plan to join the ranks of these successful teacherpreneurs. Here's how. Continue to grow my day job income. I recently moved to a new state. That move gave me a $15,000 a year increase in my teacher salary and a one-time $3,000 signing bonus. I just applied for a leadership teaching position that is the same salary, but would put me in a better position to become an instructional coach in the next 2-3 years. That would be another $30,000 salary increase. After that, I might be in a positon to leave and focus on my online business full-time or consider working in a teaching related field. Teachers are NOT trapped. We just need to get wiser about creating our own opportunities. Create and publish my first 10-30 value packed blog posts. This is the stage I'm in right now. I think it's the hardest and most daunting. You'll probably need to study the basics, set up your website, and take many more steps before you even begin to blog. If you can get through this painstaking phase, you've got this! The Project 24 System has been my best friend through this process. If you can't afford it right now, Income School also has great video resources on YouTube. Start driving traffic to my blog. I plan on using Google itself as my first traffic driver. I aim to rank on page one by consistently publishing high-quality blog posts on 2-3 topics. Besides that, I will be creating a Pinterest strategy. Every blogger I follow has talked about Pinterest being their main social media traffic driver. I will probably take the Perfecting Pinterest course by Sophia Lee once I'm ready to focus on my social media strategy. I will also consider starting a YouTube channel. Start monetizing my blog with ads. This step might actually be number three if my blog picks up enough traffic organically even without a social media strategy. Regardless, ads will be my first monetization stream. Add affiliate marketing as a second blog revenue stream. I still have much more research to do on affiliate marketing. I will cross this bridge when I get closer to it, and I will probably take the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. Create products as a third stream of income. I plan on starting with Teachers Pay Teachers products. Then I might look into selling those products on other marketplaces. Finally, I will look into creating ebooks and courses. These are just tentative steps that I will constantly be re-evaluating as I learn and grow. Note that these steps will take place over a series of months or years. I will only be putting my main focus on one or two at a time. But blogging life isn't for everybody. Here are some points you might want to consider. Pros and Cons of Blogging for Teachers ProsCons Blogging can be a lucrative source of additional income for teachers. It can even replace teaching as a primary income source.It can take months, or even years, to see a return on your time investment. It's a high risk bet if you need additional income now, or even in the near future. There's a low barrier to entry. There are some startup costs associated with blogging. At the very least, you'll need to pay for your domain name and hosting. However, these costs are extremely low compared to starting most other business types.While the startup costs are a low barrier to entry, there are other barriers to consider. Are you willing to put in the blood, sweat, and tears required to succeed while seeing little to no return for the first few months or years? Not everyone is built for this kind of delayed gratification.I don't consider blogging a side hustle. It is a business, and you are the business owner. You can work at your own pace, in your way, and on your own schedule. There is far more freedom than making extra income in other traditional ways.Not everybody can work so independently. Teachers are used to having set hours. While blogging alows for flexibility, it also requires consistency, especially the first few months. Giving yourself a schedule can help. Final Thoughts Teachers can make money blogging while doing what we do best- adding value to the world in our own unique ways. There are many examples of successful teacher bloggers who use their blogs for business in a variety of ways. While the start-up costs are low, you must be high in drive, perseverance, and vision to succeed at blogging. Don't take my word for it. See the successful examples above. Have you found any other successful teacher bloggers? If so, please share in the comments below! Stay tuned for regular blogging updates throughout my journey. I'll share what I'm learning, how I pivot from this plan as needed, and how my blogging business is growing. Hopefully, it will help you decide if blogging is right for you and give you some helpful ideas if you decide to pursue this business.