As much as we love it here in Siberia, there is the daunting reality setting in that we're slowly losing contact with the folk back home, and support for what we are doing here may eventually dwindle away! I talked a bit about this in the previous post.
I'm loving so much being able to spend time with the children at the kids club, and have been hanging out for residency so that I can finish up full time study. That would give us a ton of time to do much more in the community and seek out additional opportunities to make a difference in people's lives.
I'd hate to get residence, finish uni, then fill up my time with a full-time working commitment. Doesn't make sense. I can do that in Australia for at least 3 times the wage I could earn here.
What's the answer?
I'm hoping it's at least one of few things, all of which I'm dabbling in at once.
First, it's the aforementioned (in the previous post) possibility that LearnAussie.com will become a brand of some sort. This may lead into teaching English online.
By the way, I've joined a Facebook group of over 2,200 mostly Iranians learning Aussie English. I was surprised to discover that there are over 70,000 Iranians living in Australia - did you know that? This group has been good fun, and I was quickly promoted to Administrator and encouraged to share my blog posts and any videos I make in the future.
Apart from that, I have been looking into Udemy.com. It seems there are viable opportunities there to create video lessons on any topic (including Australian English) and make a steady income online.
Another interesting thing I've been researching is YouTube channels and how even the dorkiest people are making income from a popular channel.
Some of these things seem like pipedreams for the occasional lucky pioneer. Time will tell if any of them will pay off for me.
In the meantime, I'm doing it the hard way. In MacGyver fashion, I've rigged up a little sound recording booth with a microphone, a chair and a big fluffy dooner. My cousin Dave gave me a little USB sound mixer and I've scored my first job on oDesk.com
So what will I be doing?
Don't get excited. It's a 1 hour job worth $10.80. But at the end I get feedback (hopefully good) on the quality of my work.
All I have to do is read 200 lines of text in my awesome Aussie accent, save them as an audio file and send them off to my employer.
If I manage to score bigger and better jobs from this, then great. Otherwise, at least $10.80 will buy the Phillips Family more than a week's supply of milk!
I'd love to hear your ideas on passive or online income opportunities if you've had experience in any of these areas. (No, not get rich quick schemes - just honest income). Feel free to comment below.
I'm loving so much being able to spend time with the children at the kids club, and have been hanging out for residency so that I can finish up full time study. That would give us a ton of time to do much more in the community and seek out additional opportunities to make a difference in people's lives.
I'd hate to get residence, finish uni, then fill up my time with a full-time working commitment. Doesn't make sense. I can do that in Australia for at least 3 times the wage I could earn here.
What's the answer?
I'm hoping it's at least one of few things, all of which I'm dabbling in at once.
First, it's the aforementioned (in the previous post) possibility that LearnAussie.com will become a brand of some sort. This may lead into teaching English online.
By the way, I've joined a Facebook group of over 2,200 mostly Iranians learning Aussie English. I was surprised to discover that there are over 70,000 Iranians living in Australia - did you know that? This group has been good fun, and I was quickly promoted to Administrator and encouraged to share my blog posts and any videos I make in the future.
Apart from that, I have been looking into Udemy.com. It seems there are viable opportunities there to create video lessons on any topic (including Australian English) and make a steady income online.
Another interesting thing I've been researching is YouTube channels and how even the dorkiest people are making income from a popular channel.
Some of these things seem like pipedreams for the occasional lucky pioneer. Time will tell if any of them will pay off for me.
In the meantime, I'm doing it the hard way. In MacGyver fashion, I've rigged up a little sound recording booth with a microphone, a chair and a big fluffy dooner. My cousin Dave gave me a little USB sound mixer and I've scored my first job on oDesk.com
So what will I be doing?
Don't get excited. It's a 1 hour job worth $10.80. But at the end I get feedback (hopefully good) on the quality of my work.
All I have to do is read 200 lines of text in my awesome Aussie accent, save them as an audio file and send them off to my employer.
If I manage to score bigger and better jobs from this, then great. Otherwise, at least $10.80 will buy the Phillips Family more than a week's supply of milk!
I'd love to hear your ideas on passive or online income opportunities if you've had experience in any of these areas. (No, not get rich quick schemes - just honest income). Feel free to comment below.
2 comments:
Privet Brett! I found your Mandarin blog through the Digital Language Collective and clicked enough links to wind up here :p Are you also learning Russian?
How did the oDesk job go? My husband and I are really interested in the same topics (passive/online income) and have looked into oDesk (well, Upwork) as well.
When we were living in Ukraine, I had a blog for English learners- similar to your Aussie English blog- and signed up for AdSense, but the blog never really took off. I've learned a lot since those days and I feel like making a living online all comes down to attention. You can produce awesome content but if no one's looking, it's just published into the void. That's the biggest question- how to find an interested audience? At the same time, I think that an audience online comes with consistency. You must keep sharing things of value over long periods of time... but it's hard to stay consistent when it seems like there's no feedback or support. The chicken and the egg issue, I guess.
If you're still considering teaching online, you might like to check out Fluent Language Tuition. The creator is a German tutor and she's made a Udemy course for those who want to teach online. It's on sale right now: http://goo.gl/FxqDEr Let me know if you decide to take it- we can be course buddies :)
Another idea, if you're talented at creating PDFs, etc, is to sell a product on Gumroad. I've bought several things on there- a yearly planner, even a series of emails for teachers from the Fluent site. You could make an e-book / PDF series of Aussie English or "9 Useful Things to Know Before You Move to Siberia", etc. I don't know what Gumroad charges to use their services, or if it's user-friendly or not, but they did just start an affiliate program which would be useful if other people want to share your content.
Anyways, I hope you and your family are enjoying Siberian summer (aka, the non-frozen months). Good luck with your projects- stay strong and keep working at it! :)
Hey Katherine, I can't believe I only just saw this comment! I'm sorry if it seemed I snobbed you, but I obviously don't have my notifications setup right.
Anyway, I see you're blog is still happening and you've got a nice FB page. I'll try to connect with you there!
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