Are you in college and looking for easy ways to make money online?
There are a lot of legit ways to make money online while you’re in college, whether you want a side job to make some extra cash or you want to start a full-fledged online business.
This guide lists 15+ easy ways that students can make money from the comfort of their homes.
Table of Contents
1. Sell Your Old Textbooks
If you’re like the average college student, you probably have a big stack of old textbooks in your room that are just gathering dust.
Instead of letting the resale value go down, sell your textbooks at a lower price than the campus bookstore when your classes are over and watch the requests to buy come in.
In the past, people have made whole Facebook groups around reselling textbooks, so get rid of them while you can.
2. Flip textbooks for a living
On the other hand, you could buy online textbooks for classes you aren’t taking and resell them at a higher price than you bought, but still less than what your campus charges.
The sad truth about this chance is that it only comes up once a year when students start a new school year. Even so, it’s a short time that can bring in a good amount of money.
3. Start A Blog
You could start a blog if you like to write and want to help other people. A blog is a website where you can write about different things. You gain a following by helping your readers solve problems in a certain niche, such as student life, fashion, or money.
You can make money with your blog through affiliate marketing, ads, selling eBooks or other digital products, or offering services like proofreading or virtual assisting.
4. Become a Freelancing Writer
In general, freelancing is a growing line of work. Millions of people have left their 9-to-5 jobs for freelance work, and if you start in college, you could get ahead of the game.
There are many ways to start writing for yourself. Companies always look for different kinds of writing, like how-to guides, technical writing, brochures, and general website content.
Freelancing sites like Upwork and Fiverr are good places to start looking for writing jobs that you can do on your own time. You can look for jobs based on your interests, skills, or knowledge and then apply for any of them.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a long list of qualifications or many years of experience. What matters is how much you love writing.
Only some people are good at writing, but if you can play with words and get your point across, you can sign up for freelancing sites like Upwork or Fiverr and make money that way.
5. Find a Virtual Assistant Job
You could become a virtual assistant if you know how to do certain things online. Customer service, data entry, social media marketing, graphic design, and writing are some things a virtual assistant can do. Virtual assistants are often hired by businesses to help with tasks that don’t have to be done in-house.
Virtual assistants can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars each month. You can also work with more than one client if you have the time. All you need is a computer, a good way to connect to the internet, and a few hours to work on the job.
6. Become a Vlogger
Do you know how to make good videos? Starting a vlog is very easy, and you don’t need expensive equipment. You could start with just your phone. You also don’t need to buy expensive software to edit videos because there are now many free online video editors. YouTube is the best place to share your work, and many people are waiting to see what you make.
Video-sharing apps like Instagram Stories and Snapchat let you show what you do daily or talk about something you’re interested in. Then, you can upload these videos to YouTube, where you can make money from ads. You could make up to $8 for every 1,000 views. The more people you reach, the more money you make.
7. Sell Online Designs
You can sell your designs online if you are creative and know how to make simple designs in Canva, Illustrator, or Photoshop. With sites like Redbubble and Society6, you can upload your design just once and then sell it repeatedly on stickers, T-shirts, posters, and many other things.
The best thing about these websites is that they make the product, ship it, and take returns, so you don’t have to do any work regularly. This is a real set-and-forget system, and the money can continue for years to come.
8. Become a Translator
Do you speak more than one language well, or are you bilingual? You might consider becoming an online translator if you speak more than one language well.
There are a lot of sites, like Unbabel and Upwork, where you can sign up to be a translator. Many of these sites don’t need you to have a degree or anything like that. You will have to show them a sample translation, so they can ensure you know this language well.
9. Fill Out Online Surveys
Online surveys are a great way to make a little extra money. Companies like Swagbucks let you take several surveys every day and pay you anywhere from a few cents to $5 for longer surveys. Depending on how long you stay focused, you could sign up for multiple sites and answer questions honestly to make good money.
10. Complete Market Research
Market research is what companies do to determine if their products or services will succeed when they go on sale.
That’s where you come in.
As a market researcher, your job is to answer companies’ questions about their products. You can join sites like Paid Focus Groups and User Interviews and get up to $1500 for your time.
11. Become an Online Tutor
College students are deep into their studies. There is no better time to offer your help as a tutor than when school is still on your mind.
You might be able to sign up for in-person tutoring through your school, but you might also want to sign up as an online tutor on sites like Wyzant, where you can set your rate.
12. Help High School Students With College Essays
You probably remember how hard it seemed to write essays for college when you were in high school. Now that you’ve been accepted reach out to high school students in your hometown and offer to help them write strong college essays.
Make sure you don’t write their essays for them. Instead, offer to help them make an outline and be an extra set of eyes. You can also ask a professional writing service to look over your paper and fix any mistakes they find.
Parents are often willing to pay a lot because their child’s chance of getting into college may depend on it. So, ensure you know what you’re doing and can help people get into colleges.
13. Sell Online
You can sell things on Facebook market place, eBay, and other sites. You can make money quickly by selling your clothes, shoes, other used items, or textbooks.
If you are creative, make custom products or printables and sell them on sites like Etsy.
14. Become a Data Entry Specialist
Data entry is a tedious job that no one wants to do. But if you are in college, this could be an excellent way to make money.
Data entry jobs are always posted on freelancing platforms, and you need basic skills with spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
15. Become A Social Media Manager
As a college student, you learn more about social media than anyone else. You probably grew up with social media, and it’s only getting bigger. If you’ve built a following for yourself, you could do the same for others trying to make a brand online.
If you spend a few hours a week on social media, why not get paid for it? There are so many businesses that use social media now, and a lot of them need more time to make the most of their pages.
Businesses often hire social media managers who work on their own to help spread the word about their brand.
An excellent way to start looking for work is to go to local businesses and tell them what you do and how it can help them.
16. Proofread and Edit Essays
Proofreading and editing are easy ways for college students to make money online if they have a good eye for detail and know their grammar and punctuation rules. Use your writing skills to help others by offering to proofread and edit their papers.
One great thing about this chance is that you can set your rate or raise it based on the length and difficulty of the essay.
17. Review Products
Consider becoming a product reviewer if you like to open packages and try out new things. This works best for people who already have a following because it gives the company sending the product something in return.
Restaurants, stores, and other businesses will all take written reviews, and some will pay you a lot of money if you have a lot of followers.
18. Sign Up for Fiverr or Upwork
As was already said, any college student who wants to start freelancing must be on Fiverr and Upwork. Upwork is harder to get into because they accept people based on their skills and the needs in their area, but if you do get in, you’ll have a lot of job opportunities.
Fiverr is much easier to start with and gives people with niche skills more options.
No matter which platform you choose, any college student who needs money should sign up as a freelancer on one of these sites.
19. Play Video Games For An Audience
Do you spend much time in front of the screen playing games? If so, why not let other people watch it and make money from it?
Sites like Twitch let you stream games while you play them, which means you can get donations for doing what you already do daily. If you want to get serious about gaming, you could also make a YouTube account.
That’s all I hope you all got a brief idea about how to make money online while studying. If you want to learn more about how to make money easier in online read this article 16+ Legal Ways to Make Money Online in 2022.
