If you are working full time in academia, odds are that your income is not keeping up with inflation, debt, and expenses.
I wish this were different, but your university is not going to magically sprinkle more money on you.
It's up you to hash a rescue plan. Your choices are to leave altogether or supplement your income with a side hustle.
Why you need a side hustle:
You can pay off your student loans faster and be on the road to financial independence more quickly
You can give yourself the raise you need in order to hedge against inflation and improve your quality of life
You can scale your personal brand up to larger audiences and get opportunities for higher paying gigs, like consulting and speaking
1. Teaching online
This is a natural fit because it's something you already know how to do and you probably have the materials for it. And once your course is built, you can continue to bring in revenue for very little of your ongoing time and attention.
Setting up an online course is fast and easy with a learning management system (LMS) that caters to course creators. I like Thinkific because their LMS is intuitive to use, the payment system connects directly to your bank account, and you keep all of your revenue.
If you have an online course that is priced at $200, you would only need to sell 5 of them per month in order to bring in an extra $1000 monthly. Even half that amount can be very helpful in boosting your income.
2. Membership Services
If your area of expertise has broad appeal for public or professional audiences, you could have a membership service, in which some of your online content is behind a subscription paywall.
Memberships can take on almost any form--online magazines, tutorials, discussion groups, just to name a few.
If you're not sure where to start, try setting up shop with Patreon, which covers a lot of different formats and has a built-in subscription payment system.
3. Paid Newsletter
Is writing your main strength? A paid newsletter through a service like Substack might be the best fit.
Newsletters are an underused medium for academics. If you are particularly short on time (and I know you are), this can be an especially good side hustle because you can use material you're already creating and package it for your audience. They can take on a variety of forms, but usually will be some combination of your original content (that is, your research or creative writing) and curated parts of others' work.
Income-wise, newsletters can be a strong revenue stream as you gain followers. For example, if you were to have only 250 subscribers to an $8 per month subscription, you can earn $1800 a month (250 x 8 - fees), or $21,600 per year. That's a pretty solid raise.
Not sure which side hustle is best for you?
I recommend starting with the medium for which you have the most and best quality material already prepared:
If you've gotten feedback from your students that your online courses are fabulous, then use that material to build a course that you sell directly to learners around the world.
Does your area of expertise have practical application, like data analysis or music performance? Assemble all of your best teaching, writing, and performance/masterclass materials and start piecing together a membership.
Are you already in the habit of writing for an online audience? Try the newsletter format.
Ginger Lockhart, PhD is a former tenured professor and creator of QuantFish, a statistics education platform, and QuantFish R&D, a research and consultancy service. She does this alongside her husband and three young kids from a little farm in the West Virginia countryside.
Follow along here for guidance on starting your life as an independent academic. Continue the conversation on LinkedIn.