How to Make Money as a College Student 2024

The price of college continues to go up which means many will look for ways to make money as a college student.

So how can you make money as a college student in 2022? Online tutoring, starting a blog, freelance jobs, proofreading, and getting a part time job are some of the best ways to make money in college. Making money in college can be done completely online or in person, the choice is yours to decide!

Transitioning from high school to college means many additional expenses for many. This might come in the form of paying for housing, food, tuition, or even just recreational expenses.

This means finding some way to make money in addition to going to school is something many students will opt to do. It tends to cost tens of thousands of dollars to pay for college. Of course, this changes depending on what school you go to.

Working a part time job allows many to pay for their tuition and cover any additional expenses.

Everything listed below is all proven ways to make money as a college student. They can be done along with any college schoolwork that you might have.

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What Is The Best Paying Job for a College Student

The best paying job for a college student is either online tutoring or freelance jobs. Freelancers earn on average $31 an hour and online tutors earn on average $20 an hour. These wages might vary based on your location.

Of course, that is only taking into account jobs, there are a variety of different businesses that can be started as a college student that can earn six figures or more each year.

How to Make Money as a College Student Online

A lot of students take a look at their college tuition and start looking up how to make money as a college student online. Making money online is great for college students in particular because it can afford them the ability to have flexibility with their schedule. After all, college life can be pretty crazy.

There are two main ways to make money online as a college student.

The first is online jobs like freelancing jobs, online tutoring, or graphic design jobs. These can be a good way to earn some extra cash quickly, and often pay you based on how many hours you work.

The second way is what we recommend every college student should do, start an online business. This can be in the form of a blog, a t-shirt company, social media theme pages, a dropshipping store, etc.

Online businesses typically take a lot more effort upfront to start but have the potential to make you a lot more money. For example, blogging is an online business that a ton of college students have started. Many start their first year of college and by the time they graduate they are earning a full-time income, about six figures every single year!

How to Make Money in College Without a Job

If schoolwork is taking up your time and getting a part time job does not fit in with your schedule, there are plenty of alternative ways to make money in college without a job. As stated previously online businesses are a popular way to make money as a student because they give the student the ability to set their own schedule and work when they want.

Usually, with online businesses, the amount of time you put in will be what you get out of it. So if you work hard initially, later down the road your online business will essentially turn into passive income. This means you hardly have to work at all and still make money.

Related: 21 Best Passive Income Ideas

14 Ways for College Students to Make Money in 2022

Here are 14 of the best ways for college students to make money in 2022. This list is in no particular order, all are great ways to make money as a college student.

1. Online Tutoring

If you are particularly strong in a certain subject in school, you could tutor others for money. On average online tutors make $20 an hour.

There are many sites that let college students register to become tutors. In no time you could be making money as a student online.

2. Drive for Uber or Lyft

If you have a car that can be reliably driven around than you can drive for either Uber or Lyft.

Driving jobs have become one of the most popular side hustles in recent years due to how easy it is to get started. On top of that, you get to set your own schedule and choose when you want to work.

If you have some extra time on the weekends, use it to make money driving people around. This extra time can turn into extra cash real quick.

3. Freelance Jobs

Freelance jobs are another great way to make money in college because like other jobs on this list, you get to set your own schedule. As a freelancer, you are your own boss and get to charge whatever rates you want for your work.

There are many different types of freelance jobs. For example, there are freelance writers, translators, accountants, designers, developers, the list goes on!

Find a field that you are passionate about and skilled in and you could make money doing something you enjoy.

4. Start a Blog

Starting a blog is an online business that pretty much every college student could do.

What do I mean by this?

Well, in college they make you write essays that can range anywhere from just a couple of pages, to more than 30 pages!

So writing a lot of content comes naturally to many college students. By starting a blog, you could write content with the end goal of making thousands of dollars each month from that content.

How to Start a Blog

Many start blogging in college and end up not regretting it one bit. It’s simple, easy to start, and usually only takes a few clicks to create and publish your first post on a website.

We made a few mistakes that could have easily been avoided if we had the knowledge from the start. All this is talked about in our guide to starting a blog.

Many make money online blogging and completely change their life. Most blogs can make money completely passively, meaning they do not touch them and still make money.

This is all possible because we put in a lot of work for a few months at the start, created a ton of content, and are now able to sit back and enjoy the results.

One of the best reasons for starting a blog compared to other online businesses is the extremely low price to start. It costs less than a cup of coffee each month to start your own blog using Bluehost.

We recommend Bluehost for any blogger that is first starting out for a couple of reasons. We love recommending them because they provide the best web hosting for a very low cost. On top of that, whenever we had questions about how to fix something on our website, their customer service team helped resolve the issue in no time.

We made a guide on how to make money blogging that I highly suggest you check out if any of this interests you.

Related: How to Make Money Blogging

5. Get a Part Time Job

Working a part time job can be a good way to earn money fairly quickly. Part time jobs offer the luxury of making money working a few hours here and there, while still attending college classes and having a social life.

Most part time jobs do not have any experience requirement. Of course, there might be some sort of interview process. That being said, just about anyone can get a good part time job in college.

6. Graphic Designing

If you have any artistic talent, consider becoming a graphic designer. Graphic designers are needed in almost every online industry.

You could design websites, create logos for businesses, or even create social media posts for content creators.

On average part time, graphic designers make $35,000 annually. That’s a pretty decent salary for only part time work. That can cover the cost of tuition and more for many colleges.

7. Run Errands

Running errands is another good way to make money as a college student. Platforms such as TaskRabbit let you complete tasks for people nearby to earn money.

Potential tasks to make money running errands include help moving, assembling furniture, repairs, packing, etc.

Spending a lot of time on social media is normal for most college students. But did you know that you can actually get paid to post on social media?

You can help businesses post content on their social media and get paid up to $35 an hour! No experience is required, all necessary training will be provided. This job is great for college students who have extra time on their hands and want to make money 100% online. This is a remote job so you can work from anywhere that has an internet connection.

This job is in high demand and could be the perfect opportunity for you to make money in college.

9. Become a Proofreader

If you are not that into writing but would rather edit other people’s work, proofreading could be the perfect job for you. College classes assign A LOT of essays and writing assignments. Your peers might be having a tough time with their papers and you could help them out.

A good proofreader is always needed. If you are good at proofreading or editing papers, you could provide your services to other college students.

10. Write Resumes

Knowing how to write a good resume is a very valuable skill. You could easily turn this into a way to make money in college with a little bit of networking.

The best way to start making money writing resumes is to ask your college peers if they want a good resume that will help them land a job. Alternatively, you would also offer your services on freelancing sites like Upwork.

11. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing where you promote another business’s products or services for a commission of each sale.

For instance, say I sold a $10 product and as an affiliate marketer I receive 50% of the sale. I would get $5 for every product or item sold worth $10.

Affiliate marketing can be done so many different ways. You can grow a following on social media such as Instagram and recommend products that you enjoy, start a blog, or even a YouTube channel.

Most affiliate marketers promote products that they use or enjoy because they know the product will be valuable to their audience.

Here at Next Gen Business, I promote certain products or services that I know my audience will find valuable.

If you are a complete beginner to affiliate marketing I suggest visiting YouTube for tutorials (beware of too good to be true dream sellers). It’s a good starting point for beginners to start making money with affiliate marketing.

12. Online Assistant

Becoming an online assistant is another good way to make money from college.

As an online assistant, you get to choose where and when you work, making it an ideal job for college students.

You get to choose which tasks or projects you want to do. Tasks could be from data entry, customer service, online research, surveys, product testing, and much more.

Online jobs such as online assistants are in high demand. Some job sites make it easy to learn how to become an online assistant and make money online in college.

13. Instagram Theme Pages

Growing Instagram theme pages are one of the first things that I started doing when I began my journey of making money online.

I started growing theme pages because I knew I could make money with them. On top of that, starting them cost me nothing. Yep, you heard me right, it costs zero dollars to make a theme page. Anyone, including you, can do what I did and make money that way.

What exactly are Instagram theme pages? Instagram theme pages are Instagram accounts dedicated to posting content about a certain topic or niche.

An example of this would be an Instagram pet niche account that posts cute or funny pet videos.

After these theme pages start to gain a following (could be as little as 1,000-3,000 followers), businesses will reach out and ask for paid promotions.

These paid promotions are basically just ads that they want you to post either in the form of an Instagram story or feed post. The businesses will often offer between $10-100 for a promotion on your page, depending upon your engagement and how many followers you have.

If any of this sounds interesting, you can learn more about how to grow an Instagram account up to 50,000 or more followers here.

14. Web Designer

Becoming a web designer now is quite easy and can be done by any college student, given they are willing to put the work in. A web designer creates the layout and design of a website and gets paid quite well for doing so.

According to ZipRecruiter, web designers make on average $33 per hour.

With the popularity of the internet, it is safe to say that websites are not going anywhere any time soon. This means there are plenty of opportunities to make money designing websites in 2022 and for many years to come.

Conclusion

Making money as a college student is not as hard as many like to imagine. With the rise of the internet, its easier than ever before to make money online in college.

Whether you want to start an online business like blogging or get an online job like freelance work, it can all be done in college.

A lot of the ways to make money listed above are placed on this list because they let you work with a flexible schedule. With most of the jobs and businesses above you get to choose when and where to work.

This is perfect for when in college because students often have a very hectic schedule with a ton of homework to finish, classes to go to, or extracurricular activities to attend.

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