11 Money-Making Ideas for Students You Can Try Today
Are you loving flipping those burgers or driving that pizza delivery car?
If you’re a college student, these are two of the most common part-time jobs you can find.
The problem is this: the pay is low; someone else is in control of your work hours (and they will invariably be on weekend nights when your friends are out partying), and the work is just flat-out boring.
Maybe it’s time you took a good look at the skills and talents you have, the things you enjoy, and figure out how you can turn those things into a freelance money-maker.
If you can do this, you will find that your time is much more your own, that you will enjoy what you do, and you have the chance to make far more money than that lousy minimum-wage job.
Here are some money-making ideas for students that you should consider, based on your skills and interests.
11 Money-Making Ideas for Students
1. Tutoring – On and Off-Line.
Most students have a subject in which they excel. There are students of all ages who need tutoring.
You can advertise your services on campus, in a local in-town newspaper for middle and high school students. And you can even join any number of national tutoring organizations who will find students in your locale for you.
With most of those companies, you can also tutor online, so your pool of customers can even be international.
You can sign up with a number of tutoring companies and probably have all the work you want.
Private tutors charge an average of $20 per hour – not bad for a part-time job.
2. Landscaping and Snow Removal.
If you like physical activity, this is a great way to earn extra cash.
Senior citizens and buy professionals tend to hire these two jobs out. And, as you accumulate some money, you can buy your own snow blower and lawn mower, making it even more convenient for your customers.
One young man began doing this in his own hometown while he was in college, built up a business, and ultimately had an entire crew working for him.
By the time he graduated (in horticulture), he opened up his own nursery and ultimately had several locations.
3. Use Your IT Skills.
If you have a repertoire of skills in computer repair and/or software expertise, a college campus is the perfect place to be.
Lots of students come to school with a basic understanding of Microsoft Office and basic computer skills. When that computer crashes or gets a virus, or when they need an understanding of complex software, you can be available at an hourly rate.
Advertise in the campus newspaper. But don’t stop there. Promote yourself at senior community centers and senior living complexes.
4. Freelance Writing.
If you can write well, both formally and informally, you’ve got lots of options and money-making ideas for students.
And the best part? You can write no matter where you are geographically.
- You can write fellow students’ essays, papers and reports, for as much as $16 a page (more if the topic or the project is complex).
- You can offer to edit and proofread fellow students’ essays and papers
- Companies hire college students who can demonstrate good writing skills. They have new orders every day, and you can pick and choose which ones you want to take
- If you like content writing, you can sign up with a company such as Freelance Writing Gigs. They post jobs for blogging and website content writing and you can bid on them.
- And if you like to blog, there are lots of blogs out there – in fact, a new blog is created about every half-second. Google popular blogs that pay for guest posting and get going. You can also try ProBlogger.net as a source for gigs.
5. Flipping Furniture.
College students are always looking for pieces of furniture for their dorm rooms or apartments.
If you have a truck or good-sized SUV, you can travel around the night before trash days, pick up items from the curbs, and refurbish them.
Check out re-sale and thrift stores too. A few tools and some paint, and you can turn a piece of junk into a cool looking piece that others will want to buy.
6. Buying and Selling on eBay.
Yes, lots of people make money doing this. In fact, there are those who make a full-time living at it.
Electronics, games, controllers, etc. are pretty popular items. But you can re-sell almost anything on that site.
Read also: How This Student Became a Full-Time Blogger and Makes $5000/Month
7. Social Media Expert.
Lots of small business owners want a social media presence, but they are often too busy to establish great profiles, create engaging posts, and responding to comments/feedback on their posts.
If you are good at this sort of thing, you can make some good money writing profiles and monitoring/maintain social media platforms for others.
8. Becoming an Entrepreneur.
If you have a great idea for a product or service, set out on your own.
The product does not have to be big and complicated.
Jennifer Eckstrom was a college junior when she had an idea – cute and frilly headbands for young girls who have lost their hair from cancer treatment.
Her company, Headbands of Hope, has a one-for-one charitable aspect too. For every headband sold to a customer, one is donated to a child with cancer and $1 goes to children’s cancer research.
The company has grown exponentially, offering other products too, and Eckstrom is a wealthy young woman today.
9. Take Your Art to the Fair.
There are more money-making ideas for students you can try today. If you make items – jewelry, wood carvings, candles, clothing items, unique wall hanging, etc., take them to local fairs and consignment shops.
10. Become a Software Tester.
Check out a large job posting clearing house such as Indeed.com for software testing jobs. There are thousands of them out there, because developers want honest feedback from typical users before they take software to market.
The pay is not great, but if you have enough of these gigs, you can do well.
11. Cleaning/Handiwork/Domestic Help.
Cleaning dorm rooms, apartments or homes of people in town is a great way to make money, if you like to clean and see the “fruits of your labors.”
There are other things in this arena of part-time work too.
If you are handy with small “fix-it” jobs, there are busy and elderly who need small jobs done – painting, cleaning decks and patios, gardening, etc.
Acting as a personal assistant for personal tasks can be pretty cool too – grocery shopping, running errands, dog sitting, for example.
One pair of college students in Colorado hired themselves out as assistants for car registrations, because busy people did not have the time or the desire to stand in line to get their license tags renewed. Doing laundry for fellow students is another option.
So, here are 11 money-making ideas for students that do not involve fast food, smelling like French fries, low wages, and a schedule that someone else controls. You may discover other side hustles too.
The best of part-time jobs involves doing things you enjoy anyway, so find things to do that capitalize on the talents you already have. Look hard at the skills and talents you have and figure out a way to turn them into extra cash.
Are you ready to start a blog? Here are some resources to help you out:
How to Start a Profitable Blog– This step-by-step guide to starting a blog is a must for everyone who wants to start earning online and become self-employed. Having your own blog is the first step to selling products, making money from affiliate marketing, building a name for yourself, getting traffic and monetizing that attention.
The Passive Income Boss[Free Course] – That’s another free course I released on the topic of earning passive income through blogging. You’ll learn what passive is exactly and how it works, how to get started with blogging and make your site powerful, and the 4 main passive income streams you can create using your blog.
Blogging Resources – To build a powerful site that turns visitors into buyers and monetize it well, you will need the right tools. In my Blogging Resources page, I’ve gathered the best of the best and the exact tools I’ve used to grow Let’s Reach Success and be able to make a full-time living as a location independent freelance writer.
4 Ideas for Side Hustles – Check out 4 side hustles you can start on your own and no later than this weekend that can be your chance to achieve financial independence.
My Monthly Income Reports – If you’re curious how bloggers make a living online, check out my income reports. I publish these monthly and share all the numbers together with the lessons I learned and the new things I’m working on.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – If you’re not earning money through affiliate marketing, then you are leaving money on the table. This step-by-step affiliate marketing strategy course shows you how to increase your affiliate income and make more money blogging. It’s by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents who went from $0 in affiliate income to over $50,000 per month (and also the first online course I’ve ever taken).
How Bloggers Can Make $10,000 a Month from Home– Curious how bloggers get to 10K/month working from home and what you need to do differently? In this article, I discuss why it’s possible for everyone to make that much on a monthly basis and how to get there.
How I Became a Location Independent Freelance Writer – In this post, I outline the exact steps from shifting my mindset back when I didn’t believe I could be making any money online to finding my first client, making my first $1,000/month, moving to another country and becoming location independent.
About The Author
This is a guest post by Dante Munnis, a writer who is interested in self-development, web related topics and success issues. He likes to write and share with people his experience on how to live better. You can get in touch with Dan via Twitter.
Stock Photo from WAYHOME studio @ Shutterstock
