How to replace an Australian Teacher Income with Digital Skills

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Welcome to Exit Stage Teach, a vibrant community of Australian teachers looking to venture beyond the classroom. The team at Exit Stage Teach recently had an inspiring experience at the E-business Institute’s Annual Conference, where we delved into the world of digital skills and learned how these skills can be used to create an exciting new career. In this blog post, we will share with you the insights and opportunities we discovered during this event particularly, how many teachers we met who have replaced their Australian Teaching Income using Digital Skills. It’s a great pathway that teachers can use to replace their teaching wage. We saw how easy it is to earn $100,000 per year from websites. You don’t need any technical skills either. This is a strategy that the team at Exit Stage Teach are working on. Hopefully, this will be our Exit Stage Teach story, to one day leave the classroom, just like you by generating an income using digital skills. We have started building and acquiring a range of websites that generate or are starting to generate, a strong monthly income. We wanted to share this amazing experience with you and hopefully, you will get some ideas of how you could replace your teaching income using Digital Skills.

Meet the E-business Institute: Empowering Change through Digital Skills

The E-business Institute, founded by Matt and Liz, offers a wealth of knowledge on leveraging digital skills to replace traditional income sources. Over the past decade, they’ve been guiding individuals from various backgrounds, it was wonderful to see so many over 50 at the conference. Through the Ebusiness programs they manage to demystify digital processes. We loved hearing stories from several people who had no digital experience but since learning with Matt and Liz have gone on to earn exceptional wages using digital skills. The team at Exit Stage Teach are particularly fond of the WebDev Program, a step-by-step guide to building a WordPress website. What sets the Ebusiness Institute apart is its commitment to simplicity, ensuring even those less tech-savvy can thrive.

Debunking the Get-Rich-Quick Myth

The E-business Institute is not a get-rich-quick scheme, they provide professional accredited programs that emphasise learning and skill-building. While immediate monetary gains aren’t promised, you do create a solid foundation of digital skills. The only way you can earn big money straight away is by purchasing a website that generates a good profit, this can be done, but it costs money. The Institute recommends starting with WebDev course to grasp the fundamentals of building a WordPress Website and the importance of SEO and then follow on with more advanced techniques. Creating a thriving online business takes time, dedication, and a willingness to learn, ultimately resulting in long-term rewards if you’re willing to put in the time. It does take time an effort you are essentially starting your own business, however, the rewards of work flexibility and more passive income is a huge bonus.

Why Digital Skills Are Tailor-Made for Teachers

As educators, we are excellent communicators of complex ideas and simplifying information. These skills seamlessly translate into writing compelling blog content and resources that attract an audience. Many teachers in our Exit Stage Teach Community are already familiar with platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers and using it to sell their resources. By having your own website in addition to TPT you will be able to control the website traffic and not be restricted by the TPT platform algorithm. The E-business Institute teaches how to harness SEO techniques to elevate your website’s ranking on Google, a game-changer in driving organic traffic. This is something the Team at Exit Stage Teach are very excited to learn and we will be doing even more work on SEO in the future, so we can replace our income using digital skills.

Diving into Conference Highlights: So many Insights

The conference covered an array of topics, from website building and SEO to buying and selling websites, all tailor-made for teachers seeking career shifts. Let’s explore a few key takeaways:

1. Website Building: A Journey to Online Income

Website building was simplified during the conference and we learnt with the right tools and knowledge, almost any website can be turned into a revenue generator. You can create your website or purchase one and renovate it just like you renovate a house. Imagine owning multiple websites that collectively replace your teaching income, allowing you to work from home or explore the world. The power of local and Australia-wide SEO accelerates ranking, while WordPress remains the king of platforms due to its SEO advantages. You can still rank in a worldwide setting, it just takes a bit longer. We enjoyed hearing from a range of people who have replaced their income using digital skills. They all work from home or off travelling the world and working as they go. Websites aren’t that hard to build once you know the fundamentals and WordPress was once a space that only the top designers would use, with website builders, plug ins and a few skills anyone can master it. It’s really about researching what is trending at the moment, what are people searching for and what is selling well in the website world, this will help you focus on a niche. Websites like Flippa where you’re buying and selling websites is a great one to learn about what niches are really popular. It’s also a great resource, if you’re nerding out on websites like the team at Exit Stage Teach then you can jump on Flippa and learn so much. Most people write a description of what they did to create the website they are selling and ideas of how you can improve it. This is a great way to learn without buying a website. You can also start searching online for a niche market, something you might be interested in. Think about a problem that people have and how you can fix it. It’s really that simple. Check out our Blog How to Start an Online Educational Website and Retire from Teaching to see how Amanda Wood has replaced her wage with Educational websites.

2. SEO Unveiled: Your Path to Online Visibility

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) determines how search engines understand and rank websites. Quality content, keywords, and backlinks are vital SEO components. The conference highlighted the importance of keyword research and creating content that outperforms competitors. Teachers can benefit immensely from optimising their websites, driving targeted traffic and maximising income. Keywords are really important, by examining Short tail and Long Tail keywords and what is ranking in your niche, you can start to really focus on generating the right content for your audience in a way that directly drives traffic to you. Good quality content will rank highly every time, look at what is ranking in your niche, look to your competitors, see what they are writing about and then write it, but make it even better. The Ebusiness institute does a great job of teaching SEO, over the years the team at Exit Stage Teach have also worked with the fabulous Kate Toon for SEO. If you want to go into even more depth learning SEO we highly recommend Kate, she like Ebusiness Institute, has a fabulous community where she supports you in learning the depth of SEO for WordPress websites with a number of different course areas. Kate also has a number of free resources that are awesome for learning about SEO.

3. The Art of Buying and Selling Websites

The Institute enlightened attendees on the art of buying and selling websites. Renovating existing websites can swiftly yield substantial income, especially when leveraging aged domains. One of the perks of buying a preexisting website, especially if it’s been around for a while, you are purchasing what we call an aged domain. A domain is the website address that you purchase when you first start a website. Why is an aged domain good? Well, an aged domain will rank higher in Google because it’s been around longer. This can be a competitive edge when it comes to ranking in SEO. Buying websites from platforms like Flippa offers insight into niche trends. Additionally, purchasing established domains provides a competitive edge in SEO rankings, thanks to their longevity. We loved listening to the CEO of Flippa, Blake, at the conference, it was great to hear his take on purchasing websites and what’s hot at the moment about website sales.

4. The Journey to a Million-Dollar Blog

Blogging isn’t just a hobby; it’s a pathway to substantial income. While building a million-dollar blog isn’t an overnight feat, multiple income streams and high-quality content can make it a reality. Not to say it’s not achievable, we heard from several different people over the weekend who do have million-dollar websites. The biggest takeaway to building a million-dollar blog was having multiple income streams. The key lies in diversification— various revenue sources that collectively contribute to substantial earnings.

5. Monetising Your Website: Strategies for Success

Monetisation is the bridge between website traffic and income. The conference presented several strategies, from selling downloadable materials, to offering courses and memberships. Affiliate marketing and advertisements can further enhance revenue streams. Teachers possess unique strengths for successful monetisation, given their expertise in content creation and resource development.

Working on your blog/website to drive traffic is important but you need to add monetisation if you want to make money. Things like, a directory where businesses pay to be on your website (works well in the wedding industry for example), selling downloadable or E-Materials (This is a great one, especially for teachers, we are all used to creating worksheets and school materials). Selling a course to support your niche is another one teachers can easily do. Selling a membership for your community is a great one but it does entail more work as you need to be very present, it depends on what sort of business model you want to have.

6. Monetising Your Website: Affiliate Marketing and Advertising

Affiliate marketing – it is important to note this is not MLM (multilevel marketing). There are companies out there that claim to be affiliate marketers however, this is not the case. If you have to pay any money or buy into a program, then it’s not affiliate marketing! You should never have to pay money for an affiliate program. You sign up for a program like Amazon for instance, and then you recommend products. You will get a commission if someone clicks on your link and purchases. You should only recommend high quality products and it’s good practice to sell products you have used or currently use. This will help your audience trust you as they know you’re selling them great quality, not just anything and everything. Commissions change from program to program depending on what you’re selling. Adding Advertising on your website, things like Adsense, Media Vine and Azoic can add income to your website. They all offer different advertising campaigns depending on the number of visitors to your website. They will pay you if someone clicks on an ad and purchases. The more traffic you get to your website means you can negotiate higher paying programs through ads and affiliate marketing. Paid guest posts – you can have paid guest posts on your blog, where people pay to write a blog for your website, this is a great option as you get free content but you also get paid because the business wants to promote themselves to your community. It comes down to SEO, the more people you drive to your website the more money you are likely to make. You also need to ensure you offer great content, this will mean people will be more likely to make purchases through your website.

7. AI in the Digital Landscape: A Valuable Asset

AI has become a focus of 2023 with ChatGPT and other AI programs being used all the time. What we loved the Ai section at the Ebusiness conference, they showed us how to use AI appropriately for your blog. The issue with using the likes of ChatGPT to generate your content is, that it’s not always correct in its information so you do need to check what it’s creating and proofread what it creates. The other issue is, Google has already put out documents outlining that AI-produced information on websites will not rank as highly as genuine authentic writing. This is so important to consider when writing content for your website. What AI does do extremely well, is help you work out a plan for a blog article and give you ideas. It can help you with keywords and meta descriptions. You will still need to do the research to back it up and write it yourself but this alone is a time saver. The evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a definite highlight and great to see how you can positively use it in your business. AI-generated content should be used judiciously, as authenticity remains a key SEO factor. AI’s prowess is evident in social media and email marketing, providing a potent blend of convenience and creativity.

Empowerment Awaits: Replace your Australian Teacher Income using Digital Skills

Our journey through the E-business Institute’s Annual Conference reaffirmed the potential for Australian teachers to carve out new careers using digital skills. Remember that any entrepreneurial endeavour is a journey and very rarely an overnight success. With dedication, learning, and a willingness to adapt, you too, can exit the teaching stage and embark on an exciting new adventure.

If you’re eager to learn more about the possibilities that lie ahead, we invite you to explore the links below. As we reflect on our conference experience, we’re reminded that, “knowledge gained is a treasure that will empower us on our journey to new horizons”.

Check out these fabulous videos featuring teachers who have replaced their wage with Digital Skills. (Links for resources below these videos)