Working through college is a good way to offset the high costs of school.
But it can be tough to find a decent-paying job you can balance with classes and extracurriculars.
Instead, look into legitimate ways to make money online for a more flexible source of income.
For a regular paycheck and work-at-home schedule, check out these 15 online jobs for college students.
1. Social Media Manager
Starting Pay: $15-$40/hour
Managing a company's social media accounts can be a fun way to make money on a flexible schedule. It's also a cool way to connect with businesses you love.
A social media manager serves as the voice and face of a business on a number of engagement platforms. You'll promote deals and content and interact with followers.
Related: How This Woman Turned Her Social Media Presence Into a Lucrative Side Gig
How to Get Started
You could post your resume on random job boards, but it's better to contact local companies directly. Better yet, connect with a business you already patronize.
Focus on social platforms you love and know inside out to boost your pay. If you're a Twitter fiend, talk up your experience. If you spend all your free time on Pinterest, put your pinning skills to use.
Then, get creative: Outline a plan to connect with customers via Snapchat or Instagram. Smaller companies might not have thought about exploring these platforms, making you an integral part of the team.
2. Online Tutor
Pay: $13-$20/hour or more
Take your academic strengths and knowledge online to start your own tutoring business.
Offer peer tutoring for fellow college students or connect with K-12 students in home-school programs.
And it's not just academic: Focus on your extracurricular talents, and offer tutoring or consulting in things like music, art, social media, fashion or nutrition, too.
How to Get Started
Market your tutoring services online at sites like Wyzant or Tutor.com. Or apply through one of these online tutoring companies.
Or, do all the work upfront and create an online course to sell through Skillshare, Udemy or your own site.
3. Data Entry Clerk
Pay: $9-$16/hour
These aren't the best-paying online jobs, but they also don't require a ton of skills or experience. Typically, all you need is a computer and an internet connection.
Data entry jobs can include a variety of responsibilities including creating or correcting texts, categorizing data and participating in surveys.
How to Get Started
Find online data entry jobs through these sites:
4. Resume Writer
Pay: $15-$25/hour
Know someone about to graduate or looking for a new job? Offer to help polish their resume to make it job-search-ready.
How to Get Started
Find online resume writing jobs through these sites:
Note that you'll face a lot of competition and submit many unanswered applications.
Instead, try reaching into your existing network for potential clients, like friends looking for summer jobs and internships.
5. Search Engine Evaluator
Pay: $12-$15/hour
Earn up to $15 an hour cleaning up search engines, like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
Despite constant updates to their algorithms, search engines are still riddled with errors. They rely on real humans to look at search results and offer feedback on quality, accuracy and usefulness. That's where you come in.
How to Get Started
It is important to note many evaluator roles require applicants to be bilingual and a resident of the country they're evaluating for. Most evaluators are also expected to complete training and testing beforehand.
Find search engine evaluator jobs through these sites:
6. Niche Blogger
Pay: Varies
Choose a topic that offers clear value to readers. By focusing your efforts on becoming an authority, you can make money blogging.
If you create a go-to source of information in your niche, you can earn money through relevant advertising, affiliate marketing and sponsored posts.
With good planning and time management, you can write for and promote your blog in your spare time, and earn passive income all day when readers visit your site.
And if you're just starting out, a great way to promote your blog is to reach out to popular blogs and websites within your niche to see if you can contribute. Many websites are open to contributors, and your post can include a link to your blog.
If you're just starting out, promote your blog by reaching out to popular blogs and websites within your niche to see if you can contribute with a guest post.
How to Get Started
Here's Our Step-by-Step Guide: How to Start a Blog
Your first step is to create a website. You have a number of hosting options, one of the most popular being Bluehost. You'll have to pay a little â€" just $2.95 a month â€" but it's integral.
7. Freelance Writer, Editor or Illustrator
Pay: varies; $50+ per article
This is how I made my living for four years while I traveled and moved around the U.S. It can be lucrative, flexible work.
You can make your own schedule, pick your own gigs and set your own rates. The best part is you get paid to write about almost anything!
Making money researching and writing about your existing hobbies and passions beats a barista gig at the campus coffee shop, right?
You can also try freelance proofreading. These gigs are good ways to keep your foot in the door of the writing world when you don't have the time or energy to dedicate to composition.
Those with an artistic inkling may want to consider freelance illustrating. Create art for book covers, blog posts, tarot cards, clip art and more.
How to Get Started
A quick search will show you there's no shortage of freelance writing work online. It's hard to sift through, so here are our tips on finding the best gigs:
- 4 blogs that will pay you $100+ for a post
- These 15 sites pay $200 or more per article
- How to use Reddit to find freelance writing jobs
- Where to find freelance blogging gigs
- How to pitch a story as a freelancer
And if you want to give proofreading a go, there are a ton of online courses out there.
Try Proofread Anywhere. It offers a free introductory workshop so you can see if it's the right way to go. If you follow through, it teaches you how to start your own business, so you can craft a schedule that fits your semester workload.
Want to try your hand at freelance illustrating? There are many ways to showcase work for potential clients through services like Upwork, Behance and Instagram. You can always create your own personal website, too.
8. Micro-Freelancer
Pay: $5-$50 per gig
Could you really cut into your debt, or even make a living, $5 at a time?
If you get creative, you might be able to do just that with Fiverr.
Turn your weird ideas and unique skills into gigs on Fiverr. One woman used Fiverr to market her resume-writing skills and has since earned more than $2 million!
If you don't want to wait for takers, look for a requested service, and pick up a few bucks from someone who needs help with a quick, simple task.
Copycat sites offer similar opportunities.
Try Gigbucks for tasks ranging from $5 to $50. TaskRabbit also connects you with real-life and virtual odd jobs that can bring in extra cash or even become a full-time job.
How to Get Started
Related: How to Make Money Fast: 35 Best Ways
Read our overview of what you could sell on Fiverr to get an idea of the hidden gems and talents you might possess!
But make sure you're valuing your time; if you're only earning $4 an hour, it might not be your best bet.
9. Virtual Recruiter
Pay: $20-$30/hour
Put your skills and connections in your industry to use by connecting employees or freelancers with the right jobs.
As a virtual recruiter, you'll work as a liaison between a company and potential new hires. You'll do things like post available jobs, screen resumes, conduct preliminary interviews and negotiate salaries.
Work can pay around $50,000 per year for full-time employees, $20-$30 per hour for contractors or employees, or on a commission rate you set as a freelancer.
How to Get Started
This is freelance work, so you can start by perusing virtual recruiter job listings on LinkedIn or these freelance sites:
- Upwork (formerly elance/oDesk)
- Freelancer
- SimplyHired
- CareerBuilder
10. PowerPoint Presentation Designer
Pay: Varies, approximately $10-$20 per slide
Did you master PowerPoint for a project last semester? Turn that skill into a moneymaker!
When businesses or keynote speakers don't have time to create presentations for their events, do it for them.
How to Get Started
Set up your own virtual storefront, like this professional slide designer, or list your services on freelance sites like Upwork or Freelancer.
11. Genealogist
Pay: Varies, $70-$700 per project
Yes, people will pay you to put together their tricky family trees.
Are you already a hobby genealogist or studying the subject in school? You could charge between $70-$700 per request, and take on as much or little work as you can manage.
How to Get Started
Set up your own virtual storefront, like this professional genealogist, or list your services on freelance sites like Genealogyfreelancers, Freelancer, or Fiverr.
12. Virtual Assistant
Pay: Varies with duties; $10-$20/hour
Get paid to use the organization and communication skills you've developed to stay on top of schoolwork, classes and extracurriculars.
VA gigs vary in pay, hours and the actual work. You might help people and businesses with data entry, social media management, website maintenance, research and customer service.
With more and more professionals diving into freelance jobs and self-employment, these positions are increasingly in demand.
How to Get Started
Find virtual assistant jobs through these sites:
- Zirtual
- People Per Hour
- Work at Home Mom (not just for moms!)
- VA Networking
13. Transcriptionist
Pay: $15-$25/hour or more
Transcribing requires little to no prior experience, and offers flexible hours and workloads.
The work sounds easy: Listen to audio and type what you hear. But it can be repetitive and requires a lot of attention to detail.
With that said, the flexible work hours fit well around an academic schedule. And the pay is a pretty good selling point: Earn around $15 to $25 for general transcription, and more if you learn to specialize in the legal or medical fields.
How to Get Started
Find transcriptionist jobs through these sites:
Or, if you want to start your own transcription business and pick and choose your clients, Transcribe Anywhere offers online courses. There's even a free introductory mini-course that'll allow you to take a trial run.
14. Audiobook narrator
Pay: Varies, $10-$100 per hour for beginners
Is your nose always buried in a book? Narrating an audiobook might be the perfect side hustle for you.
With the rise in popularity of audiobooks, there are plenty of opportunities for beginners and experts alike to get paid to record. Salaries vary depending on location and experience, but narrators just starting out can make anywhere from $10 to $350 per hour.
How to Get Started
Find narration jobs through these sites:
Note taker
Pay: Varies, $25-$50 per credit hour
Why not get paid for something you already do? If you pride yourself on your note-taking abilities, selling your notes for popular courses is a great way to make extra cash on the side.
One college student within seven semesters of school was able to make $6,000 dollars just by selling her class notes!
How to get started
Most colleges already have programs for students to make money by note taking through the school's resource office, typically through the disability services department.
But if your school doesn't offer these opportunities, no need to worry because there are lots of websites that will pay you for your notes including:
Dana Sitar is a former branded content editor at The Penny Hoarder. Freelancer Caroline Gaspich contributed to this report.Â
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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