Looking to earn extra income as a busy student? This post covers 10 Simple Online Jobs for College Students to Earn Money remotely from campus without overwhelming your schedule. Read on for realistic ways to work flexibly and boost your bank account.
Landing an online freelancing job can be an excellent way for college students to earn extra money and gain valuable skills. With flexible remote work options available across many fields like writing, design, tutoring, and more, students can find online jobs that fit their interests and busy class schedules.
But with so many potential online freelancing gigs out there, how do you even get started earning money remotely as a student? This comprehensive guide covers 10 of the best online jobs for college students, the skills required for each online freelance role, typical earnings potential, and tips to land your first remote work clients or jobs. Whether you need some quick cash or want to build a side business around your studies, read on to learn how you can realistically earn money through online freelancing as a college student.
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Why Consider Online Freelance Jobs as a College Student?
Before jumping into the top online work options, let’s first go over why online freelancing is such a great route for college students looking to earn extra money. Here are some of the biggest benefits:
- Work from home or Anywhere: As a busy student, you likely don’t have long windows of time free between classes, clubs, and studying. Remote online jobs allow you to work flexible hours from your dorm room, library, coffee shop, or anywhere with a wifi internet connection. You can choose projects that fit your unpredictable schedule as a student.
- Gain Real Experience: Online freelancing lets you get paid to learn skills related to your major or career interests. The projects and clients you take on now can become killer resume builders down the line. Many online jobs like tutoring and writing also strengthen core skills that help in school too.
- Choose Your Income: Depending on how much time you can commit, online freelance platforms like Upwork let you control how many projects you take on each week or month. More work = higher earning potential while you’re in school.
- Open Up Job Options: Building a profile showcasing relevant work samples or feedback from past clients can open more high-paying job opportunities down the line. Paid remote work online now also looks great to future employers.
- Be Your Own Boss: As an independent contractor, you can enjoy flexibility and freedom in choosing your own work. No boss micromanaging your work approach either. Online freelancing puts you fully in charge.
Clearly freelancing online provides some major advantages over traditional part-time jobs available for students. You get to call the shots while getting paid. . That way, the money you earn from your side hustle can build over time without you needing to do anything!
Now what online jobs tend to work best for students hoping to earn some extra cash remotely?
Explore the ultimate and tested approach to earning $100-$500 daily. Kickstart your journey by tuning into this complimentary video now >>
10 Online Jobs for College Students to Earn Money
Here are 10 of the most realistic and profitable online jobs college students should consider exploring:
1. Freelance Writing
Out of all online freelancing opportunities, writing tends to be one of the most accessible gigs for complete beginners. As long as you can create well-researched content with good grammar and structure, you can find remote writing jobs across industries. Common projects include blog posts, website copy, social media captions, SEO content, scriptwriting, book/eBook authoring, and more.
The baseline writing skills needed here are taught in most college classes too. With a laptop and solid WiFi, you can write just about anywhere without any fancy equipment. Writing also scales up nicely as you build a portfolio and clients over time. Freelance writers can realistically charge $30-60 per hour with proven writing samples.
Building a profile on freelance sites like Contena, Scripted, WriterAccess lets you connect directly with clients needing blog, website, marketing, or other business writing services.
2. Online Tutoring
Leveraging the knowledge from your college courses is an easy way to make money online. Sites like Wyzant, Varsity Tutors, and Chegg Tutors connect students needing help in everything from Calculus to Chemistry with qualified tutors working remotely. Hourly rates often range from $15-40 based on your background.
You also set your own availability for working with students. Between virtual classroom settings and take-home assignment reviews, online tutoring jobs tend to offer solid hourly pay with flexible logistics for students. Having real tutoring experience also diversifies your skill-set for future teaching jobs or other education roles.
3. Virtual Assistant Work
If you’re highly organized and comfortable using everyday software like Email, Calendaring tools, and Office/Google suites, becoming a virtual assistant can pay reasonably well. Common virtual assistant duties include scheduling meetings, managing email inboxes, coordinating travel, document formatting, light research the search engine tasks, and generally supporting a business or executive with day-to-day logistics.
Average pay rates for virtual assistants tend to range from $15-25 per hour based on experience and skills. Once you understand the basics, virtual assisting provides consistent remote work that fits around college students’ dynamic schedules.
4. Sell Products Online
Selling products through your own online store or marketplace platforms like Etsy, Amazon Handmade, Redbubble and more continue growing in popularity. As a creative student, you likely have talents for crafting jewelry, clothes, art prints, stationery goods and other items people want.
With some business savvy, you can sell homemade and custom-designed goods through online stores as a lucrative side business. Your products just need to fill a buyer need or stand out creatively at a reasonable price point. Useful digital products related to your major like templates, online courses or toolkits also sell well.
While managing manufacturing and selling physical/digital products takes more work, dedicated online entrepreneurs can hit $1,000+ in monthly sales through their own web stores or marketplace platforms.
5. Become an Influencer or Blogger
Building an audience around a blog or social media channel in your niche allows students to potentially monetize their followings down the line. You don’t need millions of followers. Micro-influencers with a few thousand targeted, engaged followers actually tend to earn more through sponsored content deals, affiliate promotions, selling products, and other money-generating offerings.
College students who showcase campus life, study tips, life as an athlete, or creative talents on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and more can leverage their personal brands during school (and after graduating). Passionate niche blogs also establish online experts who get paid for branded partnerships over time. Brands and advertisers covet Gen Z insight. Blogging is easily one of the top online jobs for students to earn money because of how easy it is to start doing.
In most cases, you won’t earn much at first. But consistently creating content allows you to progressively monetize your influence down the line in creative ways.
6. Become a Social Media Manager
Leveraging social media skills from building your own online presence can translate into paid social media work for brands and businesses. Roles like social media platforms managers, online community managers, and social media assistants help guide messaging strategy, content calendars, ad campaigns, and day-to-day activities across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.
Average pay rates range from $15-25 per hour for social media freelancers just starting out. But businesses pay experienced social pros much more for boosting their branded reach and sales. If you already spend lots of time on social channels, why not earn money from that knowledge?
7. Online Survey Taking
In your limited spare time as a student, sitting down and answering online surveys may offer some smaller secondary income. Companies connect with target demographics like students to gain first-hand research into product feedback, brand awareness, purchasing trends and more through digital surveys.
Popular survey panels like Survey Junkie, Swagbucks and InboxDollars let members earn points, sweepstakes entries and cash (usually small amounts) for completing surveys, product tests or other data submissions. With enough time invested, users can realistically earn up to $100-200 per month. Just don’t expect to get rich quick here.
8. Website or App Testing
Similar to survey panels, platforms like UserTesting and TryMyUI pay everyday people to assess the user experience and functionality of client websites, mobile apps, prototypes and more. You just need a computer, smartphone and ability to note any performance issues or suggestions while using a piece of software.
Testing tends to pay $10 per every 20-minute video recorded test. So college students could expect to earn at least $20-30 per hour testing websites or apps whenever you have some time. The more devices, browsers and use cases you can test on, the more opportunities there may be.
9. Online Course Creation
Creating online courses allows students to sell their knowledge around hobbies, special skills and even coursework from their majors. With your background as a student, consider what insights or step-by-step lessons you can share through a self-paced online course, YouTube video series or printable handbook/eBook.
Web platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, Podia and Learnworlds make it easy to publish comprehensive video courses, quizzes and coaching offerings behind a membership paywall. Udemy also lets anyone upload online video courses with the upside of huge marketplace reach too. Even selling online courses for $20-50 each to a small niche adds up over time.
10. Graphic Design
Finally graphic design skills like creating logos, graphics, visual content or photo editing appeal to countless online clients from small startups to global companies. Easy-to-use design programs like Canva make visually standout content creation accessible to anyone these days too.
College students who showcase creative portfolios on popular freelance marketplaces can earn solid hourly rates upwards of $15-30 per hour if you have existing design experience. But complete beginners can also exchange simpler design tasks like basic graphics and visual content through freelance and virtual assistant platforms mentioned earlier to build a profile.
Start Earning Money Through Online Freance Today
As this breakdown of realistic online jobs makes clear. Earning legitimate money through remote work as college student is very doable if you’re willing to put in the effort.
No matter your major, skill-level or schedule, various freelance platforms give students a means to:
- Earn extra disposable income
- Offset education expenses
- Get paid to prepare for future careers
- Work flexible hours from campus or home
Explore a few great online job options that appeal to your interests and abilities. Sign up for related freelance sites. Set up an online portfolio showcasing any relevant examples. And don’t hesitate to apply to a few entry-level jobs at an hourly rate you’re comfortable with to get those initial client reviews.
The amount of money you can make through online freelancing correlates closely with the time you put into remote work on top of college demands. Find the right work-school-life balance that keeps money flowing in without overwhelming your academics.
With so many ways to earn online through independent contract roles these days. Students have ample money making potential if they can manage their time properly. Figure out which remote jobs best match your lifestyle and cash needs today.
Explore the ultimate and tested approach to earning $100-$500 daily. Kickstart your journey by tuning into this complimentary video now >>
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are some of the best online jobs for college students?
A: Some of the top online jobs for college students include freelance writing, online tutoring, completing online surveys, website/app testing, selling products on Etsy, virtual assistant work, teaching English online, selling class notes online, working as a chat agent, online data entry, transcribing audio files, editing photos online, writing reviews, and textbook rental/resale.
Q: How much money can you make from online jobs?
A: Income potential varies widely across the different online jobs. Typically, freelance jobs like writing, tutoring, virtual assisting, and graphic design tend to earn $15-30 per hour. Selling products or services can potentially net over $1,000 per month. Smaller earnings come from online surveys, testing, reselling texts, and other microtasks in the $100-300 per month range. The time you put in correlates to how much money is made.
Q: What skills do you need for online jobs?
A: Many online jobs require only basic skills like administrative tasks, writing, communication, organization. Customer service, creativity, or existing knowledge from college coursework. Some opportunities like graphic design or specialized tutoring expect applicants to showcase examples of abilities through previous work samples, training certificates, test performance, or profiles. Focus on online jobs that best match your existing skill-set and interests.
Q: Can online jobs fit with a college schedule?
A: Yes, most online job platforms and remote gigs offer immense flexibility in when and how often you work. From choosing clients, shifts, or projects to setting project deadlines and availability, online freelancing puts students fully in charge. The beauty is you can work around demanding class schedules and earn income through jobs like writing, virtual assisting, selling products, tutoring, transcribing audio. And testing websites whenever you have free time.
Q: Where do you find legit online jobs?
A: Excellent online job boards to browse remote opportunities include FlexJobs, Upwork, Fiverr, Contena, College Recruiter, Remote.co, and We Work Remotely. Industry/role-specific platforms also connect qualified applicants with clients and companies needing writing, programming, design, tutoring, sales, admin help, testing, and other virtual freelancing services. Always vet any job listings asking you to pay upfront fees or requiring extensive personal details early on.
Hope this FAQ gives you a better sense of the income potential, required abilities, work flexibility, and trusted sites to find remote online jobs as a busy college student!
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