The Kate Languages Podcast - S8 Ep4 - Passive income ideas for teachers

In Episode 4 of Season 8 of the Kate Languages Podcast, I described five ways in which you can earn passive income as an MFL teacher. Here is a summary of what I said in the episode. To listen to the episode in full, click "play" above.

Firstly, what on earth is passive income?

Passive income is essentially earning money without having to put in continuous daily work to maintain it. It's like planting a garden of income-earning opportunities - once you've done the initial planting and setup, you can enjoy the fruits of your labour with minimal additional effort.

The word "passive" can be slightly misleading because there is significant work involved upfront. However, the beauty of passive income is that once you've created something valuable, you can continue to earn from it without additional time investment.

For example, I once made £550 from a "Buy Everything" sale while having a nap in the car on a French motorway (when my husband was driving)! That wouldn't have happened without the tons of work I'd put in beforehand, but at that moment, I was literally making money while sleeping.

5 Passive Income Ideas for Teachers

1. Writing and Publishing Teaching Resources

This is perhaps the most obvious form of passive income for teachers. You can create teaching resources and sell them on platforms like Tes or Teachers Pay Teachers, or even on your own website.

Important caveats:

• Make sure you're only selling original work - never sell copyrighted materials

• Check your school contract - schools may own the intellectual property of resources you create for your classes

• Be aware that platforms like TES take a significant commission

When I started selling resources, I priced them very reasonably (perhaps too cheaply - £3 for a 90-word booklet!). Over time, as I built my reputation and expanded my offerings, I developed subscriptions and my "Buy Everything" bundle, which has grown from £100 to £550.

Remember that building passive income takes time - don't expect to upload a resource and make thousands overnight. You'll need to gradually build your audience through social media, potentially create an email list, and establish your reputation for quality resources.

Pro tip: Always include answers with your resources! There's nothing more frustrating than buying a resource without answers.

2. Workshops and Webinars

While running a live workshop might not seem like passive income initially, the key is in what you do afterwards. Here's how to make it passive:

1. Prepare and promote your workshop on a topic you're knowledgeable about
2. Deliver it live and record the session (recording is essential!)
3. Make the recording available as an "evergreen" product that people can purchase at any time

When you're just starting, you can keep it simple by uploading the recording to Google Drive and sending the link to participants. If you want to sell access afterwards, you could add a PayPal link to your social media profiles and manually send the recording link after payment.

To make this truly passive, you'll eventually want to set up a system where people can purchase and access the recording automatically - which brings us to the next point.

3. Creating and Selling Online Courses

Online courses are an excellent way to package your expertise into a product that can sell while you sleep. As a teacher, you already know how to plan lessons - and creating a digital course isn't that different!

Start by identifying what you're good at - perhaps behaviour management, teaching phonics in languages, or engaging Key Stage 3 students. Your course doesn't need to be massive or overly fancy.

When I first created it, my "Structuring an Outstanding MFL Lesson" course consisted of just five PowerPoints with recorded commentary. I simply used PowerPoint's recording feature to talk through my slides, exported them as videos, and uploaded them to my website. I have since re-recorded the videos and created new PPTs, but it was still very straightforward, and I still used PPT to do it all.

You can also include downloadable resources, workbooks, or copies of the PowerPoints if you wish. The key is creating something valuable once and then selling it repeatedly.

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services you believe in and receiving a commission when people purchase through your unique link. For example, I'm now an affiliate for Kajabi (the platform I use for my website), so if you sign up using my link, I'll receive a percentage of what you pay.

Many companies offer affiliate programmes - Amazon is perhaps the most well-known, but there are many others that might align better with your values and audience. If there's a product or service you regularly use and recommend, check if they have an affiliate programme.

I'm also setting up my own affiliate programme for my online course. If you've bought the course and would like to earn a bit of cash when you recommend it to others, let me know and I'll set you up!

5. Investing

While not specific to teachers, investing is perhaps the purest form of passive income - your money works for you while you do absolutely nothing.

I've recently started investing through Wealthify, creating an ISA that invests only in ethical companies. For those who, like me, are conscious about where their money goes, this can be a fantastic option.

I highly recommend the book "Girls That Invest" for beginners - it breaks down investing in an accessible way and shows that it's not as high-risk as many people believe. I'm currently seeing returns of about 6-7% on my investments, which is higher than most savings accounts, and because it's an ISA, it's tax-free.

This form of passive income is more about long-term financial security than immediate returns, but it's worth considering as part of your overall passive income strategy.

Remember that the value of investments can go down as well as up and your money is at risk if the markets perform badly.

Final Thoughts

Developing passive income streams takes time and effort upfront, but the long-term benefits can be significant - especially for busy teachers who may not have the energy for evening tutoring sessions or additional active work.

Whether you start with creating teaching resources, recording workshops, developing online courses, exploring affiliate marketing, or investing, the key is to begin with what you know and what feels manageable.

If you would like some guidance on how to set yourself up to get passive income from teaching resources and/or workshops, why not join me for the next round of my small group programme "Teaching Beyond the Classroom"?