Online Jobs for College Students

Want to earn extra money while playing online?

First let me make it clear the type of “jobs” I’m about to discuss aren’t the kind where there’s a direct exchange for your time and money. You’re not going to “clock in” and “clock out” and receive a paycheck 2 weeks later. I’m talking about money making opportunities that are available to you to take advantage of online. The internet is a great place for business and there’s tons of money to be made. Yes, legitimate money! So I’ve put together a little list of online jobs for college students–ones which I think you’d actually enjoy doing, could fit in well with your crazy schedule, and could earn you extra cash in the process.

The thing that’s great about these types of jobs is, while yes, they require a lot of hard work, at least you are able to do it on your own time. You don’t have to “go’ to work, work happens where ever and whenever you want.

 

Create your own website/blog

Go buy up a .com and create a website or blog. The theme could be something you love or are really interested in, but keep the focus on a particular niche. You want this to be something for the public to be interested in, not just your friends. So create a website with a target audience in mind. People make blogs and sites about anything these days, I’ve even seen many blogs reviewing different kinds of beer and malt beverages! It really can be anything!

The point is, if you can get people to see your website, you could be able to take advantage of the traffic flow and monetize it, whether it’s relying on ad revenue or affiliate programs. It may seem like it’d be impossible to develop a large enough following to bring in some cash, but with the help of SEO, social networking, and your unique engaging content, it’s not as hard as you might think. Keep in mind, there’s people making full time income doing this sort of thing, so it’s nothing to snuff about.

 

Start up a Youtube channel

You know how people create Youtube videos of just about anything these days? Like from makeup and hair tutorials to reviewing video games? People do this because it’s fun, AND they earn money!

It also helps to have a unique, like-able, or interesting personality for this, along with decent quality camera or webcam. No one likes watching someone talking in monotone on a bad quality webcam. Make them interesting! As with the blogs, if enough people watch and like your content, you can put ads on and it’s another source for revenue! You could also tie in the affiliate marketing with this if you have a relevant website to link back to. (Creating a Youtube channel AND a blog would give you the potential to make way more money.)

 

Advertise your services on Fivverr.com or Elance.com

If you are skilled at anything, you may want to check out Fivverr.com or Elance.com. With Fiverr, basically you advertise your personal services starting at $5. These can be anything from writing a 400 word article, putting together a resume and cover letter, to designing a Facebook timeline cover. You can up-sell your offers to include incentives or additional services if you want to charge more per offer (Like, “I’ll have it done in a day for an additional 20 dollars.”) After people have hired you for their service, they can leave a recommendation for you, so others can see you are a trustworthy candidate.

If you spend any time on the site, you’ll notice people are offering to do some pretty bizarre services! But in all seriousness, despite the weird offers, there’s people looking for legitimate services on Fivverr all time time, so put yourself out there! Just make sure you upload a video for each service you want to advertise, so people know you are a real person and serious about it. The downside of Fiverr is they charge a 20% fee per gig.

Elance.com is quite similar to Fiverr in theory, although it’s a bit more professional and they charge less, just 8.75% commission per gig. It can be a bit harder to get decent work on the site though. On the upside you have the potential to earn a lot more for each job you perform.

 

Don’t bother with online surveys!

Oh, and one last piece of advice– don’t waste your time taking online surveys. I know there’s a lot of hype out there talking about the great cash to be made from survey taking, but it’s not really true. Websites like Swagbucks and Surveymonkey may be popular, but they’re mostly for fun more than anything. I attempted to try and make extra cash from survey taking during college. I spent hours of my time filling them out, and all I got in return was a 10 dollar target gift card mailed to me a month later. Now, I could have spent 1,000 hours of my time and perhaps upgraded to the 100 dollar gift card, but would that really have been worth it?

 

Purchasing your own website is my #1 recommendation because when you have your own site, you have more control and the ability to make money however you want. In addition, you can work when YOU choose, as little or as much as you want. If you’re interested in a great online training community that will help you get started profiting from your own site, you can read all about it here!

 

If you have any questions or comments please leave them down below.