How’s your college life doing? Do you have enough free time after you finish classes and assignments?
Because if you do have time, you can spend it doing something that will help you make money. While your friends are partying outside, you can hustle hard to make some decent money.
There are many college students out there who make a lot of money online. Some do it by writing, some by designing and the list goes on.
We are so lucky to live in this generation where everything is accessible at our fingertips. So why not take advantage of this and make some money?
In this article, I’ll be showing you 9 different ways you (a college student) can make money online.
What do you need to make money online?
Before you start finding jobs online to make money, you should know what will be required.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to make money online. Here’s what you will need:
1. A computer with an Internet connection
A computer or a laptop with a decent Internet connection is more than enough to get started. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on buying an expensive laptop.
Just a computer with an Internet connection can do wonders for you.
2. A PayPal account
Once you start making money online, you will need a PayPal account to withdraw the money you earn.
There are many other alternatives to PayPal but I think it’s the best.
3. A Bank account
You also need a bank account to keep the money you earn.
4. An Email Account
It’s pretty obvious that you will be needing an email account. Once you start getting clients online, it is better to contact them via email.
Setting up a separate email account for this will help you.
5. Google Drive
Many recommend to buy Microsoft Office but I don’t think it’s that necessary. When you have an Internet connection, it is easier to work on Google Drive.
You can create word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations too. Plus it syncs with your device which means no worry of carrying your files on your phone.
6. Skype
Skype will make communication between you and your clients easy. So it’s better that you set it up.
How much money can a college student make online?
Before even beginning, many people ask: Can I make a thousand dollars online? How long will it take me to make $100?
You need to know something:
Yes, you can make $1000 online or even more but you need to be patient. Money is not going to come right away.
You will apply for various jobs and fail multiple times. It’s not that easy. Even if you’re highly skilled, you will have a hard time getting clients.
It’s not because your skills are not good enough, it’s because there is too much competition now. Everyone is trying so hard to make money online.
Some quit after a day, week or a month. Some continue for years. There is no definite answer to how long will it take you to make money. Can be a week, a month or even months.
But you should know that you can make thousands of dollars online even as a college student.
There are people who have turned this into their full-time work and now live completely on their online income.
You just need to be patient and work hard. With that being said, here are 9 online jobs for college students to make money online.
9 Online jobs for college students to make money online
1. Freelance writing
There are a ton of writing jobs available. If you have good writing skills, you can become a freelance writer.
These are the various types of freelance writing jobs that you can apply for:
- Articles & Blog Posts
- Resumes & Cover Letters
- eBook Writing
- Business Copywriting
- Press Releases
- Transcriptions
You can pick any one type of the above freelance writing jobs and get started. At this moment, you will find many article-writing jobs because of the increased demand.
eBook writing is also good for you if you have the habit of writing a lot in less time.
You can make from $10 to $100+ for each freelance writing job. But if you get a long-term client, you can get paid more than $1,000 a month.
So how do you find clients offering freelance writing jobs? Here are some platforms:
But there’s a problem. NO ONE is going to hire you if you have no writing experience. Kinda sucks but that’s how it works.
How do you tackle this problem? By writing.
I already mentioned the different types of freelance writing jobs available. Pick one and also pick a niche in which you will be writing. It can be technology, health, parenting, marketing, etc.
Once you do this, start writing. Let’s say you want to get a job as an article writer. The best way to make this happen is by writing for other blogs.
You can start your own blog but it would be much better if you write for others. So, here’s what you should do:
- Make a list of blogs in your niche/industry
- Filter out the biggest blogs from your list
- Reach out to small blogs for writing a guest post
- Write for them
- Repeat
Keep doing this till you have at least 10 articles written for different websites up your sleeve. Now, when you send a proposal to a client for a freelance writing job, you will have something to show them.
2. Selling photos
Do you take good photos? Like really good photos? Then you can sell them!
Yes, you heard me right.
There are many websites and apps out there where you can sell your photos. You can get paid from $5 to $100 for each photo.
And no, you don’t need to have a good camera at all. Your photos just need to be good enough.
One such website is Foap. You can also download its app on your phone. Each photo on Foap is priced at $10. But you will make $5 when each photo is sold because Foap takes the other $5.
But here’s the deal:
It’s not that easy. There’s a ton of competition and people don’t buy a $10 photo unless it’s REALLY good.
So your photos have to be of top-notch quality to generate sales.
But the world doesn’t end right there. There are many other websites where you can sell your photos.
Here are some:
3. Web Design
Do you have web design skills? If you do, you can do web design work and make money online.
You can find clients out there looking for web design work. These clients sometimes want small changes to their website and sometimes want to get a website designed from scratch.
Whatever it is, you can get paid around $50-$500 for web design work.
But before you apply for any job, you should know which skills are required to get web design jobs:
- Knowledge of WordPress and how it works
- Basic HTML & CSS
The best place to find clients for web design work is Upwork. It’s because you can find high paying clients on Upwork.
Just take a look at this job:
You can find many jobs like this on Upwork.
There are other platforms too where you can find web design work. Some of these platforms are:
4. Graphic Design
Your designing skills can make you some good money.
You can find many designing jobs out there. In fact, there are freelance platforms built just for designing.
That’s how high the demand is for graphic design work. To make money online from graphic design, you should know how to use the following software:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
And to get high paying clients, I highly recommend you create a profile on Behance and Dribbble and start uploading your work.
Many clients will ask you to show your portfolio before hiring you and sending them a PDF document with your designs is a little embarrassing.
Setting up an account on the above two websites will also help you in the long run. Once you create your profile on Behance and Dribbble, you should start uploading some of your good work.
If you don’t have enough work to upload, start designing. Look for inspiration and start designing stuff and upload it there.
Your portfolio can help you get some big clients.
To find clients for graphic design work, you should get started with 99Designs. This freelance platform is only dedicated to designing work.
On 99Designs, clients run a contest where you design what they require and submit it to them. Sometimes the contests are open which means you can see what other designers have submitted.
And sometimes it’s private. Either way, the client chooses the best design and pays him/her.
These clients pay from $50-$1000+ per contest. There are many categories on 99Designs to find work.
Some of them are:
- Logo Design
- Clothing & Merchandise
- Art & Illustration
And so on.
You can also find design jobs on Upwork and Freelancer but start with 99Designs first because here you can find high paying clients for design work.
5. Social media management
Do you love social media? Do you love getting more followers on Instagram or Twitter?
If you’re the type of college student who loves growing social media accounts then you should really start finding social media manager jobs.
The work of a social media manager is to manage different social media accounts of a brand or a company.
You may be given a job to post 5 times on a Facebook page or post an image daily on Instagram. But apart from this, many social media managers are given the responsibility of growing social media accounts too.
You can get a job to post 2 images on Instagram daily and take the account from 600 to 1000 followers in a month.
Social media managers make a lot of money. The best ones can make over $20,000. No kidding!
Again, you first need to have some experience. No one is going to hand over their social media accounts to someone who has never done anything like this.
So what do you do? You start working on growing social media accounts. Choose any one platform. Facebook, Instagram or anything. I would not recommend Twitter because it’s not easy to grow a Twitter account unless you’re a business or an influential person.
The best one would be Instagram. You can start an Instagram account on any topic you like and start posting pictures regularly.
Plus, don’t forget to post stories on Instagram too. As a new (not so new) feature of the platform, clients will expect you to create stories for their accounts.
Growing an Instagram account can be easy if you’re consistent.
Once your account is big enough, you can show it to your clients so that they believe in you.
The best platforms for finding social media manager jobs are:
6. Taking surveys
There are websites out there that pay for doing online surveys. You basically have to fill in the survey by answering some questions and you get paid.
Don’t get too happy because you won’t be making a lot per survey. But if you have the capacity of completing a lot of surveys, you can make some decent money.
How decent? How about $200/month.
Yes, if you have a lot of spare time, then you can really make that much money.
But first, set up a new email account for surveys. You don’t want to beat your head against the wall by seeing your inbox full of promotional emails and spam.
There are a LOT of paid survey sites. Not all of them are good. Some of them are scams. So stay away from those websites.
The websites I am mentioning below are good and are guaranteed to pay you:
7. Being a virtual assistant
Become someone’s virtual assistant and get paid. A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who works remotely for a person, company or an organization by completing certain tasks.
Virtual assistants are paid hourly depending on the amount of time they work. This way your earning can be $10 per hour or more.
Your tasks as a VA can be becoming a social media assistant, designing images, writing content, etc. It all depends on what your client does.
But not everyone is a good fit for becoming a virtual assistant. A good VA should have the following qualities:
- Follows orders
- Professional
- Patience
- Hard working
Obviously, this is not the end of the list of qualities but these are essential to becoming a good VA.
You can find virtual assistant jobs on the following platforms:
8. Data entry
If you have a good typing speed, you can utilize it by doing data entry jobs and making money online.
These data entry jobs vary depending on the work. You can make money by typing text on a word document, filling in forms, entering data in a spreadsheet, captcha entry and more.
All these types of data entry jobs can help you make money as a college student.
Some websites where you can find data entry work are:
9. Fiverr
Fiverr is a website where you can create gigs and make money. Each gig is of $5 but you can increase its price by adding extra add-ons to your gig. The best part is that you can create as many gigs as you want.
Gigs can be of any category. From article writing to designing. In a nutshell, you can create a gig on all the above types of jobs mentioned in this article.
But that’s not it. You can do a lot more on Fiverr. You can also teach languages, singing, dancing or anything on Fiverr.
You can sell your music or create music for people, make videos, convert files and do a lot more.
But the real fun begins in the Fun & Lifestyle category of Fiverr. You can find a gig on everything here.
And you can also create these types of gigs. Some of the best ones that get the most sales are:
- I will stand near Eiffel Tower and hold your message
- I will sing Happy Birthday for you
- I will be your friend for a day
- I will record my voicemail or any audio for you like Donald Trump
The list never ends!
Just take a look at the first gig in the above image. That gig was sold 856 times which means that the seller made $8650 from just a single gig!
If you can create a gig like this, you can make a ton of money. The top earners on Fiverr make over $10,000 or even more.
Conclusion
It’s not impossible to make money online as a college student. You just have to stick to one thing that you do well and work really hard.
Many college students make money online by doing similar jobs. So you can!
You can drop comments below if you have any questions related to making money online.
Guest author: Kulwant Nagi is a professional blogger and affiliate marketer. He loves to share the tips about starting a blog and bringing traffic to your website.