If you’re in college, you’re probably looking for work to either help ease your student loan burdens or avoid debt altogether. Or maybe you want some extra spending money or cash for an emergency fund.
That’s where a convenient side-hustle can come into play. Who knows? Your side-hustle may even be a huge step to jump-starting your career.
While you’re hitting the books, you’ll likely be strapped for both time and money. So here are a few ways you can earn money on the side without a lot of up-front investment or time commitment.
Related resource: 19 Streams of Income You Can Start Right Now
Drive with Uber
The great thing about driving with Uber is that you can choose your schedule and cash out frequently when you need the money. Also if you don’t own a car, you can deliver food with a scooter or bike with Uber Eats.
- Find out more information about Uber Eats here
- Find out more information about driving with Uber here
Share your living space on AirBnb
I know some people who’s parents are able to buy or rent a home for their kids while they are away at college. If this is you, then you could either get long-term roommates or rent out your extra rooms via AirBnb. It can be terribly expensive to live in college dorms, as the prices for those living quarters are inflated and often include an expensive meal plan.
Find out what you can make in your area by renting rooms on Airbnb.
Find a flexible job on FlexJobs.com
FlexJobs is a great online resource for people who want to find all kinds of work from home. Check out one of the web’s largest flexible job search engine, FlexJobs.com. FlexJobs.com has a large database of legitimate stay-at-home jobs for college students that range from customer service to social media management and more. They even feature the best jobs for stay at home moms with no experience.
You can check here to see what kind of jobs are available at FlexJobs.com
Become a virtual assistant (VA)
There are plenty of opportunities moms to work from home as a virtual assistant. If you have a knack for organization and a tendency to support people behind the scenes, consider being a virtual assistant.
There are many tasks a virtual assistant could do including answering emails, arranging travel, scheduling social media posts and more. I’ve had small projects as a VA for writing sales copy, creating sales leads and configuring CRMs (customer management databases.)
If you’d like to learn about how to be a VA, check out Gina Horkey’s course, 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success.
Provide freelance writing services
The internet is buzzing with content and can hardly keep up with the demand for more. As more people live their lives online, there’s more content needed to extract money from those audiences. As a result, freelance writers can make up to six-figures freelance writing! Here’s the story of a friend who makes over $200,000 per year writing.
Freelance writing may sound like torture when you can barely keep up with college essays but the beauty of this job is that you can choose the niche or writing focus that resonates with you. Of course, there are some niches that are more profitable than others but there’s plenty of room to find a topic that you enjoy. If you’d like to explore freelance writing more, here are some resources:
- 10 Tips to Booking Your First Freelance Writing Client
- How I Make $225,000 per Year Freelance Writing
- 9 Ways to Earn Money as a Freelance Writer
Write short eBooks for money
Again, another writing job, but it’s where the big bucks are being made. You can create short eBooks and upload them to Amazon. If you have a skill or a niche fiction genre (think vampire ninjas who fall in love with mermaids) then you can earn thousands per month in passive income by writing eBooks and selling them on Amazon.
If that’s your thing, check out this post by my friend, Joseph Hogue, How I Made $22,000 in passive Income Last Year Self Publishing. You can also check out a course by my friend Michelle Jackson, who earns money writing romance stories for Amazon Kindle.
Get paid to play on Pinterest
So, this is a thing. In fact, I and tons of other bloggers are looking for virtual assistants that can provide Pinterest management. They are called Pinterest VAs. This platform is huge and it helps content creators, like bloggers and large brands, make a large amount of money through Pinterest.
If you think you’d like to learn about this gig, check out these course on becoming a
Start a blog and become an influencer
You can start a blog, YouTube channel or become an Instagram star. Whether your topics covers motivational quips, religious themes or toy reviews, you can monetize your online presence in many ways. There are ways to turn eyeballs into dollars online: affiliate products, sponsored content or digital products your loyal fans and followers would love to purchase from you. This can be SUPER fun if it’s related to your career or favorite hobby. If you can pull in an audience, you’ve got what you need to start earning money!
Click here to reserve a free domain name and sign up for web hosting for your blog.
Proofreader
Like the jobs above, proofreading for money can be done from anywhere. As a freelance writer, I’ve actually worked with dozens of proofreaders, fact checkers and editors for freelance writing assignments. If you are detailed-oriented and have a knack for grammar, you could do this.
Click here to find out more on how to become a paid proofreader.
Teach English Online
You can make an extra $500-$1,000 extra from home teaching kids English online. Services like VIP-Kid help you do just that. They will connect you to kids all over the world who are looking to learn English. All you need is a reliable internet connection and a few other, minimal qualifications. To find out what it takes to become an online English teacher, check out VIP KID’s website: www.vipkid.com.cn.
Sell Things
If you have things you don’t use anymore, you could sell them on Craiglist or Ebay. From textbooks to human hair and old video games, you’d be surprised at what the internets will buy. If you enjoy crafting, you could make and sell your wares on Etsy. Then, there’s wholesale and Amazon arbitrage. Don’t forget flipping free items on Craiglist for profit is a huge hustle these days, too.
Provide Services
Services are incredibly convenient because they can work around your schedule. Good, flexible service jobs include babysitting, tutoring, house-cleaning, house sitting, weekend catering, house-painting, bartending, gardening, pool service, snow-shoveling, car washing, personal training, or DJ’ing. The list is endless. Nowadays, there are tons of apps like Rover, Sitter City, Gig Salad and Task Rabbit to help you promote your services and connect with people who need you.
Want more ideas on saving, earning extra money and just getting your finances together in general? Check out my free guide, Money Hacks 101: 50+ Ways to Find, Save and Earn More Money.
Click here or the image below to get instructions on how to access it:
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I was a brand ambassador and loved it! I actually consider it my shoe into side hustling. Such a great list!