As a student, you’ll be online quite a lot. With the cost of living increasing with every passing month, many students have found themselves needing to use their time online to earn money. Thankfully, there are plenty of options for online jobs that work great for students, and can fit around your lifestyle and timetable with ease!
Work as a Virtual Assistant - $1,000.00 - $3,000.00 per hour
Working as a VA offers solid variety, and if you’re already an organised person, you’ll be right at home. You’ll need to take on tasks from admin and research to customer service and social media, so you have to be the sort of person who takes on new challenges in your stride.
It can be demanding, and if you’re successful you’ll have a few clients to juggle, but once you get a decent reputation, you can earn pretty well.
By reaching out to local business owners or signing up for platforms like Upwork and Belay, you can make a start on building out your client base. You’ll even be able to charge higher rates if you position yourself as an expert in an in-demand niche.
Tutoring - $1,500.00 - $4,000.00 per hour
Tutoring is always valuable to students of all ages, and can pay pretty solid rates. You can do this as a student yourself, as long as you can prove your expertise at the required level of your subject of choice.
It’s rewarding work too—you can help students achieve their potential, which is pretty cool.
Of course, it isn’t easy, and getting initial students can be tricky. Proving yourself with your first ones will boost your confidence and potential to gain new clients through word of mouth, too. I’d start with by going through local networks. Friends, family, and Facebook groups can get you started, or you can utilise platforms like Superprof and Tutorful if you don’t have those initial leads.
Work in Data Entry - $1,000.00 - $2,000.00 per hour
Data entry is simple work, and it’s always doable online. It can be pretty boring, and there are scammers out there pretending to offer high-paying work that actually doesn’t exist. Never pay to join a platform or scheme with data entry roles. They can be pretty sneaky.
Still, if you want easy work, it doesn’t get much simpler. Follow instructions and you’ll be golden, and you might be able to make a decent bit of cash on the side too.
Head over to sites like Clickworker, Microworkers, or Upwork to find the more reliable data entry jobs to fit in between lectures.
Social Media Management - $1,500.00 - $5,000.00 per hour
As a student, you’re probably more plugged into the social media system than most. So, why not monetise that knowledge?
It can take a lot of time and effort to stay up to date with all the latest trends and tools, but with growing experience, you can make some really solid cash by managing social media output. It could even become a more permanent career path post-graduation. You’ll have years of experience before your classmates have a single one!
I’d suggest starting with small local businesses, pitching them with a portfolio built by working with your own or your friends’ accounts. Short-term packages, such as 10 posts for $100, can be a solid start, and once your body of work is impressive enough you can start ramping those earnings up. The likes of Upwork, Fiverr, and PeoplePerHour are great options to expand your client roster, too.
Selling Digital Products - $500.00 - $10,000.00 per product
You might’ve already done a bunch of the work for this side hustle, and it’s got plenty of passive income potential. Already got a bunch of in-depth study guides or templates? Fancy yourself a bit of a design or organisation whiz?
It’s pretty easy to upload these products onto platforms like Etsy and Gumroad, although given the low barrier to entry plenty of other people have done the same. You’ll have a lot of competition, so promoting your shop and standing out in a saturated market will be your main challenges.
Try promoting your storefront in student spaces, or other spaces that’d benefit from your digital product!
