Extra Income Ideas for Teachers

This website is the story about how I went from a school teacher who was tired of always being broke to now finally making enough money so I can now teach only part-time without the pressure to get a second job just to make ends meet.

My Story

My name is Brad Flickinger and I am a part-time computer teacher at a local Jr. High here in Fort Collins, Colorado.

I work as a school teacher because I choose to. Not because I have to. What a relief it is to be working at a job I love, instead of just doing a job because it brings in some money.

Here is how my story begins...

This past September I was sitting in the staff room eating my lunch when I was approached by a two teachers. "Brad, I hear that you are an inventor," one said as they both sat down at my table. Since I was new at that school I wasn't sure where they were headed with such a question.

"No, I am not an inventor. Who told you that?"

They then explained that some of my web design students had told them that I had a few websites and that these websites made me a lot of money. "Well, I guess in that context, I am an inventor." I clarified. They then wanted me to tell them how I did it.

So I put down my sandwich and started to explain how I make money from my websites...

It all started back in the fall of 2002, when I was sick of being always broke as a school teacher.

One day when I was sitting in the staff lunch room I looked around at my fellow teachers. I didn't like my own lunch, so I was curious to see what the other teachers were eating. What I noticed was that most teachers were eating horrible lunches! One was eating a PB&J another a 33 cent noodle soup in a styrofoam cup. So I asked the question to find out if they had the same reason as did for not eating in the cafeteria. "We can't afford it." they answered.

So here we sat, grown adults, and we couldn't even afford the $1.50 school lunch.

Since I was the web design teacher, I knew a lot of local web designers, and they made a lot of money. Everyday they would go out for lunch, some times with clients but mostly just as designers. So here they were dropping $10 to $20 on lunch everyday.

Everyday!

They would often invite me to come along but I would have to decline because I could not afford the tab. I knew if I worked as a web designer I could make a lot of money like my friends. The problem was; I didn't want to be a web designer, I wanted to be a teacher.

So how could I stay a teacher and make more money without having to take up coaching, tutoring or flipping burgers in the evening?

I was always seeing stories of how people struck it rich on the internet. So I decided back then that I wanted a piece of the action. But first I had to make up some rules so that I would get it right.

The Rules