But I'm not in it for the money" you say. Me neither.

I love music and I love to teach music. I feel sorry for people that go into a field just to make money.  They're missing it. You've got to love what you do to do it well. So with me, teaching music is a "get to" – not a "got to."

But if you love people and you love music, what's the harm in maximizing your income? It's not the raw pursuit of money – it's simply multiplying yourself so that your skill can benefit more people, and in so doing, benefit yourself as well.

Why beginners? Because for every advanced music student, there are 100 beginners. It's just a matter of numbers. If you want to teach more advanced students (as I do) that's fine – it all adds up. But beginners are the "low hanging fruit" – you can reach them easily and there is no limit to their numbers.

Every year millions more kids get to the age where their parents start thinking about getting music lessons for them, so your prospect list is constantly getting bigger every day. There are plenty of beginners to go around, so competition is really not an issue at all for a person who loves both people and music.

What about adults? Every year several million people retire from their jobs and careers, and many are looking to take up hobbies they never had time for before. So if you are a musician looking to increase your income, look no farther. Get a business card and take out a couple low-cost classified ads in your local paper, or place a small ad in your local Yellow Pages. If you're a good teacher, you soon won't need to advertise at all – word of mouth will take over and soon you'll be teaching other family members and friends, so your expenses will drop to zero as your teaching income rises.

Here are some tricks:

1.  Leverage social networking to let people know you're available to teach guitar (create a Facebook page, add as many friends as possible, etc.)

2.  Get a twitter account and tweet constantly.  I suggest you even get an iPhone to tweet from almost anywhere.  Promote your message.

3.  Get a YouTube account (who hasn't visited YouTube?) and create your own channel.  Upload videos of yourself giving basic lessons (be careful not to violate any copyrighted materials by posting videos that don't belong to you.  Film yourself with a digital camera (many of them are now available with HD) strumming chords or playing simple chord progressions or standards.

4.  You can even register your own guitar related domain website but there are already thousands out there - try setting up your Ning.com account.

I'm sure you get the idea?  Basically, the Internet opens up a whole new world of opportunities when it comes time to monetizing your guitar hobby!  But no matter what, always respond to people requesting information and do so promptly.  You've got to take your craft seriously if you're to bring it to a level where you can buy extra equipment or that much lauded BB King ES-355 BB King Signature Model ($7500USD last time I checked) or that $800 Fender Blues Deluxe amp.

That's nice work. And – you CAN get it!  But don't be disappointed with students who don't practice what you teach.  This is one of the caveats I hear from other guitar or music teachers in general.

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