Make Money as a Student!

Are you either a high school or university student looking to make some extra money? Well, you’ve come to the right place!

However, do be warned. In order to make money, you need to invest some time and effort. This means that you’ll need to give up some of your free time – time that you could spend on playing video games or hanging out with friends.

But this is also the first step to adulthood. You will have to take some risks, face some challenges, and get out of your comfort zone. But trust me, you’ll learn invaluable lessons along the way as well.

But back to the point of this article. You’ve probably already decided that you want to make some extra cash, and you are willing to sacrifice other things for it. But you’re not sure what to do.

So in this article, I have generated 14 different avenues of making money as a high school student. This includes both traditional methods such as getting a part-time job, as well as new opportunities given to you by the advancements in technology.

Traditional Methods

These traditional methods of making money as a high schooler have been around for decades. Before we delve into each one, here is the complete list of ways that a high school student can make money traditionally:

  1. Part Time Jobs
  2. Freelancing
  3. Lawn mowing company (might not even need the equipment!!)
  4. Tutoring/leveraging your skill/niche/knowledge
  5. Sell notes/study guides
  6. Sell goods at school – chocolates
  7. Dog walking
  8. Babysitting
  9. Get paid for doing surveys
  10. Mystery shopper

Part Time Jobs

Part time jobs are the typical go-to for most high school students. The upside to part time jobs is that your take home pay is pretty consistent from week to week and doesn’t require a lot of skill. You’ll also learn a lot of important skills as well, such as working in a team, interacting with co-workers and management, and task prioritisation to name a few.
There are a couple of downsides to gaining part time employment as well. Firstly, the hourly take-home pay is usually lower compared to the other items in the list. Furthermore, you will be assigned shifts, which might clash with your other commitments.

Additionally, you might encounter co-workers or managers that are tough to deal with. However, at least you get to learn how to deal with tough co-workers and managers which might come in handy later in your career.

Cafe waitress
Waitressing is a great part time job for students.

Freelancer

Being a freelancer has become an attractive option for most people that want to make extra money. Freelancing essentially is self employment. You are delivering services on a contract or project basis. You can scour platforms such as Airtasker, HighPages, and even Facebook community groups to find the odd jobs here and there that you might be suited for.

The main advantages of being a freelancer are a higher hourly pay and you set your own hours. However, the disadvantages of being a freelancer are that your income isn’t consistent, and that you will spend time working even though you’re not getting paid, such as replying to messages, looking for work, and travelling between sites.

All the following ways of making money as a student is a form of freelancing, so freelancing pros and cons apply to all of these money making ideas.

Worker using laptop
With freelancing, you get to set your own hours and your own pay.

Be a Lawn Mower

Being a lawn mower is one of the most common ways of making money as a student. It normally pays pretty well and you get a good amount of exercise. Even better, you might not even need to buy any equipment, simply use your clients (if they have one)!

However, lawn mowing jobs can be hard work and physically tiring, especially in the summer heat!

Lawn mowing equipment
Mowing other people’s lawns can be hard work, but there’s also good money involved.

Tutoring/Teaching your skills

Tutoring is also a common method for students to make money. It pays fairly well, and teaching other people is a good way of reinforcing what you’ve learnt already. This is called learning by teaching, or the protégé effect.

However, it can be difficult to find clients initially. Try asking around to see if you have any neighbours, family friends, or friends that might need some tutoring. And make sure to ask for referrals, as this can help build up your client base quickly.

Additionally, you might also need to travel to the client’s house, which can take a lot of time as well. However, you can always request that the client comes to your house instead, although you might lose a few potential clients this way.

This option isn’t limited to tutoring school subjects. You can also offer to teach other people skills that you have learnt. This includes teaching others how to play instruments, speak different languages, and private sports coaching.

A tutor helping a student
Tutoring subjects that you scored highly on has been a go-to method of earning money for teens for decades.

Sell notes/study guides

Selling your study notes and study guides is a good introduction to passive income. Passive income is a type of income that requires minimal work to earn and maintain. Passive income is one of the best methods of making money on the side, not just for students.

However, the money you make through selling study notes and guides can vary greatly. You can create a lot of good and useful content but that doesn’t mean that you’ll make a lot of money if it doesn’t sell. However, at the same time, your potential income stream is limitless if it sells really well.

Your income is not proportional to the amount of time and effort you put in. Whether you make a few dollars or make a few thousand, the amount of work you need to put in is about the same.

Study notebooks
Selling your study notes is an easy way of making money. After all, you’ve already done most of the work!

Sell goods at school

Selling goods at school such as confectionery and soft drinks is an easy way of making money as a student. You don’t need to sell, the products sell themselves baby!

However, you will have to carry the goods around, which can be heavy and tiring. You will need to check with your school to see if you’re allowed to sell goods on campus and to get permission.

Twix and Mars chocolate bars
Selling chocolates can be very profitable in school, especially chocolates

Dog walking

Dog walking is another easy way to make some money as a student. Plus, you get the benefits of plenty of exercise and interacting with dogs! However, this option might not be for you if you are allergic to dogs.

Get paid for walking other people's dogs
Walking other people’s dogs is a great way of exercising and making money at the same time.

Babysitting

Babysitting other people’s children has been a way of generating additional income for students for decades. Depending on the job, you might also be required to prepare meals for the children, clean, and play with the kids. It can definitely be tiring to babysit other children.

Just make sure to have all rules and expectations set out with the parents beforehand. You should sort out beforehand stuff like: when the kids are expected to go to bed; how much screen time the kids are allowed; what time the parents are expected to be back; and if the kids have any allergies.

Just like tutoring, it can be hard to build up a client base. This is because most people will need to have very high trust in you before leaving you with their kids. So make sure you ask around your neighbours, family, and friends to see if any of them need babysitting services. And remember to ask for referrals.

Get paid for doing surveys

You can also participate in surveys to make some side income. These are relatively easy and quick to complete. Although in general, the longer the survey, the more they pay. However, the downside to getting paid for doing surveys is that the amount they pay is generally quite low.

Mystery shopper

Mystery shopping is a great way to make some extra money. to pick up some extra cash. As a mystery shopper, you are hired to shop in stores and collect information about your experience. You can think of them as ‘undercover customers’. They act like a normal customer and report their observations on the store and staff interactions back to the company.

You can certainly make a living as a mystery shopper. However, most people pick up jobs as a side income. While the hourly pay might be quite good, there’s a good chance that you won’t have a consistent paycheck.

New Money – Opportunities Opened Up By Technology

In the previous list, the jobs that we listed have been around for decades. It’s probably what your parents did when they were a student. However, thanks to the exponential rise in technology, many new opportunities for making money as a student have opened up. This includes:

  1. Blogging
  2. Being a streamer/play video games
  3. Become a Youtuber/Content Creator
  4. Create an Ecommerce Store/Drop Shipping.

The amount of money you can make from these opportunities is limitless if you have a growing audience. But at the same time, you can also spend hours and hours of effort and see little to no result.

Blogging

Blogging is simply creating and self-publishing content online. Normally blogging refers to writing, but it can also include photography and videography as well. While the act of blogging is simple (just simply write a couple of articles a week), you will also need to know a lot of technical stuff as well. To be a blogger, you must have a website which must be set up and maintained.

To host a blog website, you need a domain name, a website hosting platform, a content management system (CMS), and different plugins to help you. If you’re interested in making money blogging, there are a lot of articles and videos on the internet that can help you with the things listed above. There are also platforms available that can do most of these for you, such as Wix or Squarespace. Alternatively, you can pay someone to handle this for you, although that means less money in your pockets.

The amount of money you can make from blogging is limitless. But at the same time, you can also spend hours and hours of effort and see little to no result.

Editing article on WordPress
If you’re highly knowledgeable on a subject, then blogging about your skills and experience can be a good money maker.

Streaming video gameplay.

I’m assuming that you have come across the platform Twitch before. If not, Twitch is an interactive live streaming service that mostly focuses on gaming and entertainment. Thanks to Twitch, you can make money while playing video games!

To get started you’ll need a Twitch account as well as a decent mic and webcam. You’ll also need a decent computer and a good and stable Wi-Fi connection.

Just like blogging, the amount you can make blogging is limitless. But remember at the same time, you can spend hours and hours of effort and see little to no result.

Gamer immersed in a video game.
Thanks to platforms like Twitch, you can now make money by streaming yourself playing video games.

Become a Youtuber/Content Creator

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 15 years, you’ve probably heard of Youtube before. Youtube is currently the second most popular search engine in the world behind Google. This means that if a person is looking for entertaining or how-to videos, they will probably search on Youtube at some point.

However, becoming a Youtuber, or content creator in general, can involve a lot of work. You will need to plan, film, and edit each video, which can involve hours of work. You will also need basic video editing skills, although there are plenty of videos on Youtube that’ll teach you just that.

But just like the other two options, you can either make a lot of money, or barely any.

Youtube Logo
If you enjoy making audio or visual content, then Youtube is a great platform for turning your skills and passion into money.

Create an ecommerce store/drop shipping

The last money making option for students is creating an ecommerce store. Thanks to Shopify, it’s now easier than ever to create an ecommerce site. You’ll also need a Paypal account to get paid.

When it comes to selling products, you have two options. You can either sell your own products, or you can sell other people’s products via dropshipping. Drop shipping is a form of retailing where you don’t actually keep the products in store. Instead, you will sell the product and pass on the order to a third party, who will then ship the order to the customer.

But having an ecommerce store or drop shipping business is tough work. You will spend hours preparing your site before you even see your first dollar. You’ll need to find and source products (unless you’re selling your own products), create product descriptions, take numerous photos of the goods, create labels for your goods, just to name a few. You’ll also need a plan on how you’re going to handle missing product deliveries, customer returns, and customer refunds.

And with the rise in drop shipping popularity, the space is getting very crowded and competitive, which means lower margins on your products and lower profits for you.

Amazon website
You can sell almost anything online thanks to platforms like Amazon, Shopify, Gumtree, and even Facebook Marketplace!

Concluding Thoughts

Good job on wanting to make some extra money as a student. It’s the first step in creating a better future for yourself. Hopefully with these 14 money making ideas, we’ve given you plenty of ideas on how you can begin that process.

And remember, the key for a successful tomorrow is by starting today.

2 thoughts on “Make Money as a Student!”

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