When I was in college, the Internet was not as prevalent in our daily life as it is today.
While you can still find some online jobs for college students back then if you know what you’re doing, many of my friends looked for part-time retail jobs, waiting tables, or jobs in fast-food restaurants.
It was tough finding an offline job that pays decently while still allow you to balance your classes and extracurricular activities.
Being the nerd that I was, I discovered how people made money by creating websites and promoting products and services via affiliate marketing.
That was how I got started in online marketing around 20 years ago! I discovered how anyone – including college students – could make money online if they had access to the right information!
Earning extra income working through college can help reduce the burden of college expenses.
So in today’s post, I am going to share some of the best online jobs for students that pay well or even allow you to earn a full-time income.
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure page for more information.
Legit Online Jobs for College Students to Make Extra Money
Working a part-time or even a full-time job to earn extra money to cover expenses is a dream for many college students.
If a regular job is too much of a commitment, doing a gig which is a temporary, flexible short-term job where you work as an independent contractor or a freelancer is ideal.
Thanks to the Internet, you can easily find flexible jobs and gigs for college students that won’t interfere with your school schedule.
1. Survey Taker
Companies spend billions of dollars on focus groups and surveys in an effort to improve their products and services.
As an incentive for consumers to fill out online surveys, those companies offer them rewards for each survey they fill out.
While this is not an actual job position that you hold, it’s included here because taking online surveys is one of the easiest ways to make extra money online for students.
How to Get Started
Joining a survey site is free and effortless. However, since you won’t be eligible for every survey, registering with several sites is highly recommended.
You can cash out your earnings via PayPal or redeem your points for gift cards from popular retailers like Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes, Target, Walmart and more.
Here are a few of our favorites:
- Survey Junkie – Earn between $0.50 to $50 per survey in your spare time. The average survey takes between 1 to 2 minutes to complete.
- Swagbucks – as a college student you probably search the web a lot, watch videos or play online games. This site will pay you for doing those activities!
- InboxDollars – rewards you for participating in other online activities such as reading emails, watching videos, playing games or shopping online. They’ll credit your account $5.00 just for registering then another 50 cents for completing a short profile.
For more survey companies to join, check out our online surveys for money article where our users earn the most money from.
2. Freelance Writer
If there’s one activity that you do a lot in college, it’s writing and researching. Why not take these skills and put them to work for you by becoming a freelance writer?
Anyone can make good money from freelance writing gigs as long as they have good grammatical skills and a desire to write.
Freelance writing is one of the most flexible jobs for college students as you can write from anywhere, make your own schedule, pick your own gigs and set your own rates.
How to Get Started
If you’re a complete beginner, check out Start A Profitable Freelance Writing Business In 5 Weeks
This course is perfect for college students who want to make more money on the side or get consistent paid work in as little as 5 weeks.
Alternatively, if you want to learn how to make your writing sparkle check out: Writing With Flair: How to Become An Exceptional Writer.
To get started with writing gigs, check out the following freelance sites:
- Fiverr – the trick to making money on Fiverr is to offer small gigs and sell them frequently. You can charge extras by offering add-ons and different packages to cater to buyers’ specific needs.
- Textbroker – pays you based on your star rating and it ranges between 0.07 cents to 0.5 cents per word.
- Upwork – use this when you’re ready to compete with other freelance writers for clients.
- Problogger Jobs – Having some previous work to show and testimonials to support your pitch can be extremely helpful here.
3. Blogger
I started my first website while in college around 20 years ago! It allowed me to make money from my dorm room and none of my friends knew about it!
I was making around $1000-$2000 per month passively. As a student that gave me a lot of freedom and breathing room when it comes to my expenses.
Back then it’s just a regular website and the term blogger or a blog was not even invented yet!
Today, you can make money by displaying ads, accepting sponsored posts, doing affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or services.
Truth be told, creating a successful blog is hard. Most bloggers make nothing in their first year and gave up.
Some managed to rake in $2,000 monthly or more in their sixth-month of blogging. And once in a while, you encounter bloggers who make over $100K per month just after one year.
It’s all up to you really.
How to Get Started
Check out my step-by-step guide to starting a profitable WordPress blog in 30 minutes or less.
If you want a more detailed guide to starting a blog, see Blog for a Living: Complete Blogging Training Level 1, 2 & 3.
This course will teach you how to make a full-time living, or in this case, make extra money as a college student, starting on a very small budget.
No knowledge of blogging or online business is required.
After taking the course, you should be able to generate sales and affiliate commissions 24/7 on autopilot.
I wish this resource was available back then when I was getting started as it would have shortened my learning curve tremendously.
4. Virtual Assistant
Businesses and individuals often hire virtual assistants because it’s cheaper than hiring a permanent employee.
Your tasks as a virtual assistant can range from managing someone’s schedule, managing social media accounts, marketing, customer service, data entry etc.
Since this job can cover many areas, you can tailor your services to what you know how to do.
Having some background in administration and proven organizational skills will help a lot.
As the title suggests, there’s no need for your physical presence as you’ll be working online. All you need is a laptop and an Internet connection.
The work schedule is flexible as a virtual assistant need not be logged in the whole day. This is a perfect job for a college student if you could find one that matches your skills and interests.
How to Get Started
If you want to learn more about working online as a virtual assistant but:
- You are unsure if this is for you
- Don’t know how to launch your business
- Wonder how to set your rates etc.
See this resource to help you out: New Virtual Assistant Business – Your Blueprint to Launch
You can find virtual assistant jobs from the following websites:
- Upwork – Freelance virtual assistants at Upwork.com charge an average of $18-35 per hour depending on skills and experience. To get clients, you may need to put yourself out there and actively pitching for work.
- PeoplePerHour.com – This is a UK based company offering freelancing services.
- Fancy Hands – most tasks are short paying anywhere from $3.00 to $7 per task. These may include making phone calls, scheduling appointments, data entry, finding hotels etc.
5. Social Media Manager
Today, most business uses social media to connect with their customers. Managing it in-house is more expensive because they will have to hire a full-time employee and pay taxes.
This is where freelancers or an independently contracted social media managers come in.
If you’re are active on social media, have a knack for creating the perfect posts that get attention, this online job for college students is perfect for you.
You’ll be helping individuals and business handle their social media presence, engage with their users, answer emails, design graphics and strategizing.
As a college student, you probably use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat personally already. Even without professional experience, you can still look for your own clients.
How to Get Started
If you don’t have the first clue as to how you could become a social media manager or if you even wanted to, the following course will help you decide:
Here are a few more sites to find social media manager jobs:
- Upwork – browse these profiles on Upwork and see how you can do the same or perhaps offer something even better.
- CloudPeeps – an online platform for freelancers to offer their service to businesses.
The best opportunities come from networking and pitching business directly. Reaching out to businesses you already patronize is even better.
Don’t be shy to send a cold pitch via email or social media and offer your services directly to bloggers and business owners.
Join relevant Facebook groups where business owners and bloggers hang out and let them know about your services.
6. Graphic Designer
This is also one of my side hustles where I do small graphic design work on Fiverr and other sites.
I don’t have any formal training or a degree in graphic design but that doesn’t stop me from offering my services and earn a little money on the side.
Knowing how to use graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and having an eye for detail will help a lot.
Even better, if you’re studying art or graphic design, you can start applying your creative design skills now and get paid for it!
Otherwise when starting out, focus on small design gigs like designing logos, advertising banners, business cards, infographics, social media images etc.
How to Get Started
If you don’t yet have the necessary skills but want to give graphic design a try, see the Graphic Design Bootcamp.
This course is geared towards total beginners and will teach you how to make some of the most popular projects in the industry like:
- Custom logos
- Business cards
- Brochures
- Web graphics
- and more…
I’ve personally taken this Photoshop 2021 Essential Training course at LinkedIn Learning which helped me brush up and improved my graphic design skill quickly.
LinkedIn Learning offers 1-month free trial giving you unlimited access to over 13,000 expert-led courses in addition to the Photoshop course above.
You can view the courses offline to learn on the go even download the videos into your computer with a plugin.
Sign up with LinkedIn Learning FREE trial here.
Below are a few more places to find legit online jobs for graphic designers. It’s possible to make good money if you offer your services on several of these sites at once.
- 99designs – you can either work with clients directly or participate in a design contest.
- Upwork – a freelancing marketplace where you need to actively pitch for work to compete with other graphic designers.
- Dribbble – this is a site meant for designers to showcase their work. You can’t make money directly via Dribbble though. Instead, when someone sees your work and like it, they can contact and hire you.
- Fiverr – the place to offer micrographic designs. One of the best ways to make money on Fiverr is to automate your workflow.
You can also reach out directly to small businesses in your area and let them know you can create business cards, flyers, advertising banners, etc for them.
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7. App/Web Developer
In college, I studied engineering but my real passion was and still is programming.
I taught myself to code and that gave me the skills to develop my own software products and mobile apps. In fact, they have been one of my main sources of income.
You can work on your own projects or take on clients, it’s up to you. Although it’s easier to work for other people if getting paid fast is your objective.
How to Get Started
If you are new and want to give this a try, getting a good foundation in coding is important.
Start with smaller gigs instead of taking on big projects. Build your profile and experience slowly.
Besides, as if college is not demanding enough you don’t want to feel pressured trying to catch up with other project deadlines.
The following resources should help you get started on the right foot:
- The Web Developer Bootcamp 2021 – a complete beginner full-stack developer course that covers NodeJS, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and more. This is a comprehensive course that teaches everything you need to know about web development.
- The Complete Android Oreo Developer Course – Learn Android O App Development using Java & Kotlin – build real apps including Super Mario Run, Whatsapp, Instagram and 20+ others. Whether you want to be a professional app developer, take freelance gigs or do side hustle for a college student, this course is for you.
- iOS & Swift – The Complete iOS App Development Bootcamp – if you want to learn Swift and iOS development to build any app you want, then this course is for you. No previous programming experience needed.
8. Proofreader & Editor
With the popularity of blogs and doing business online, the demand for proofreading and editing are growing exponentially.
If you have the ability to spot grammatical and spelling errors that others might miss, this online job for students could be for you.
Aren’t proofreading and editing the same? Not really.
Proofreading focuses on correcting errors in grammar, spelling, punctuating, formatting and so on while editing involves restructuring, adding and deleting content.
These are great gigs for college students if you don’t have the time nor the energy to dedicate to full writing gigs.
How to Get Started
Having a good command of English, spelling, grammar and writing skills are necessary to get started.
Personally, being a non-native English speaker myself, this is one job that I feel I don’t have enough skills to do!
I’d probably have to dedicate as much time as I was learning to programme in order to do this more proficiently.
For that, I would start learning on the nuts and bolts of actual editing by taking this course: Editing Mastery: How To Edit Writing To Perfection.
For proofreading, check out: How to Find & Correct Writing Errors: The Proofreading Guide.
To learn how to make money as a freelance editor, see: How to Become a Freelance Editor: Make Money Copy Editing
For more proofreading and editing jobs for college students, check out:
9. Teach English/Tutor Online
While you can often work as a tutor on campus, these positions are often unpaid or pay very low.
If you want more flexible jobs for students that pay well, then online is where you need to go.
As an online tutor or English teacher, you’ll be video-chatting via Skype with someone or with a group of students.
You can teach English as a second language or tutor in your favorite subjects like math, science, music etc outside of school hours.
Often you can set your own schedule, set your own rates and do this part-time.
How to Get Started
If you want to earn an income teaching English online or have done some online teaching but want to improve, check out the Teach English Online: find students and start teaching now.
By taking the course, you’ll learn the essential tools and gain knowledge to teach like a pro.
Here are some of the best sites to start offering your teaching/tutoring services online:
- Cambly – an online English tutoring service that connects native English-speaking tutors to students from all over the world through their video chat platform. It pays $0.17 per minute ($10.20/hour).
- Tutor.com – one of the popular websites to get paid for online tutoring in various subjects. This is a great site to find part-time remote work for college and graduate students.
- Chegg Tutors – an online tutoring platform that helps students get homework help or set up affordable online tutoring with a tutor on various subjects.
- NiceTalk Tutor – a mobile app developed by a Chinese company that provides students with instant access to fluent English speakers through one on one video chat.
- Wyzant – provide 1-on-1 lessons. Active tutors receive over two tutoring job opportunities each week.
- VIPKid – Hires home-based ESL or English as Secondary Language teachers for Chinese children. Though you do need a bachelor’s degree to apply.
Most of these companies will provide you with the materials to teach the classes.
Since most of the students are in China (if you choose to teach English), you can start working after your classes are over in the evening.
You’ll likely need to commit to certain hours on a daily or weekly basis.
Alternatively, if you have the time, energy and expertise, you can create your own online courses and sell them through Udemy or Skillshare.
10. Transcriptionist
If you are a good listener and are able to type quickly and accurately, this is an online job for students that you can pursue online.
A transcriptionist job involves converting speech, either live or recorded, into a written text document.
This may involve transcribing dictation from doctors, lawyers, a college lecture, videos and audio podcasts.
Legal or medical students may be able to demand higher rates with their specialized knowledge in those fields.
Since you get paid per audio minute, the quicker you transcribe the more you can make.
How to Get Started
If you want to learn more about becoming a transcriptionist, earning $15-25 an hour working part-time online, see this resource: How to Become a Transcriptionist.
It teaches you how to jumpstart your transcription gigs by:
- Strengthening your typing and grammar skills to become a more proficient transcriptionist.
- Showcasing the minimal equipment you need without breaking the bank
- Explaining how to apply to companies
- Teaching you how to avoid low-paying jobs
- Knowing how to manage the business side of transcription as a subcontractor
Alternatively, here’s a FREE mini-course that teaches you how to make money as a general transcriptionist working from home: Transcription Foundations: Free 7-Lesson Mini-Course with Janet Shaughnessy.
You can find transcriptionist jobs through these sites:
- Rev – general transcription service, subtitle and translation for audio and video.
- Babbletype – for transcriptionists, proofreaders and translators who want to work online
- Quicktate – transcribes voicemail messages, memos, letters, legal files, medical files, recordings of phone calls, conference calls and other audio files.
- TranscribeMe – transcriptionists with specialized backgrounds in medical and legal fields are paid a higher rate.
A transcribing job offers flexible hours and workloads to suit your academic schedule.
That being said, the job can be repetitive and requires a lot of attention to detail because some of the audio may not be too clear or are spoken with a strong accent.
11. Online Jobs for Students: App & Website Tester
When it comes to how websites and apps work, developers might hire testers to provide feedback.
There’ll be instructions you need to follow to evaluate whether a website is intuitive to use and easy to navigate. Then you share your feedback in a screen recording program and a microphone.
This is an easy online job for students that pay around $10 for running a 15-20 minutes test.
That being said, since there are many registered testers eager to take any test, you probably won’t get as many tests as you would like.
How to Get Started
Approach this opportunity as a gig to do in your spare time instead of as a way to earn a consistent income.
You can learn more about these online jobs for students from the following websites:
- UserTesting – accepts testers from anywhere in the world. Pays $10 via PayPal for every 20-minute video you complete.
- Userlytics – pays between $5 to $50 per task depending on their complexity.
- Try My UI – run a usability test for websites and apps and give your honest feedback by letting the designers and coders see the obstacles normal people run into. You will be paid $10 for a 20 minutes test.
- UserFeel – each test lasts 10-20 minutes which will earn you $10. You do it from your home computer or smartphone. Payment is via PayPal or Amazon Gift Cards.
- Enroll – tests which logo is better, clarify content or test websites before they are published.
- Analysia.com – Get paid $10 to test websites for 10-15 minutes.
12. Data Entry Jobs for College Students
Data entry jobs don’t require much in terms of technical skill or previous experience as long as you can type quickly and are detail-oriented.
This job involves entering numbers, text or symbolic data into a computer system or spreadsheet using a keyboard and a computer.
While the job can be easy, it tends to be repetitive and may not pay much. Still, it can be a great online job for college students who don’t want a serious commitment.
How to Get Started
The following websites offer data entry jobs online.
However, you’d probably end up considering other tasks too because these websites offer more than just data entry jobs.
- Amazon MTurk – a website from Amazon that offers various small tasks, including data entry, that can be completed quickly.
- Clickworker – a global company that uses crowdsourcing for various microtasks such as writing, translating and data entry.
- Cass Information Systems – Offer location-based position worldwide. Look for remote data verification clerk for data entry positions. Requires on-site training before you can do the work from home.
- SigTrack – Hires seasonal data entry operators located in the US. You’ll need to do a 3 minute Skype interview to prove your identity and US residency.
13. Search Engine Evaluator
Online search engine evaluator job involves accessing whether search engine results are accurate, relevant and timely.
For example, Google and Yahoo employ search engine evaluators to find whether their search results or ads matched with what you were asked to search for based on certain guidelines.
Rating search engine results is one of the interesting online jobs for students to earn money. You’ll help tweak their algorithm for best user experience.
But since most jobs are project-based, they can be limited and inconsistent. So you should consider it as a side gig instead of as a way to make consistent income.
How to Get Started
Search engine evaluator jobs can be quite technical requiring your ability to analyze and use various online research tools.
Some will require you to dedicate a 10-30 hours per week. So if you have a very busy schedule, this is probably not the best online jobs for students.
However, if you’re up for the challenge, check out the following websites to get started.
- Appen – they are looking for independent agents for several positions in various countries.
- Lionbridge Smart Crowd – offer many part-time positions including typing, data tagging, data cleaning, updating data etc. Required to work up to 20 hours per week.
You may also consider other online jobs for college students such as social media evaluator, Internet analyst, web content assessor, ads quality raters, online map quality analyst, and other positions.
14. Resume Writer
A great resume that markets your strength and matches for the job helps you stand out among other applicants.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to create resumes that have the power to open doors.
This is where resume writers come in.
If you have the talent and had had success getting a positive response from great companies based on your resume, you can offer your resume writing service to others.
In addition, you can offer LinkedIn profile writing services as many recruiters look for potential employees on this social network too.
How to Get Started
Even if you don’t consider yourself as a good resume writer, you can start building your skills by taking this course: Career Hacking: Resume, LinkedIn, Interviewing +More.
It’s a comprehensive course that teaches you how to have:
- A killer resume
- A great LinkedIn profile
- Persuasive interview skills
- A top-tier network of professional contacts
Thanks to the Internet, you are not limited to offering your service to friend groups.
To find online resume writing jobs for college students, check out Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr or WriterBay.com to offer your service to a wider audience.
Just keep in mind that, the wider the audience, the stiffer the competition.
If you’re just getting started, you’d probably have better luck if you know someone about to graduate or looking for a new job.
Online Jobs for College Students With No Experience Are Everywhere
These are some of the best online jobs for college students. Most require no experience and no investments (or very little) except your time.
Some jobs like graphic design or web development may require some technical skills but you don’t have to be a graphic design or programming major to make money online.
Today, the best online jobs for students are just a search away. You can even work from your dorm room or anywhere as long as you have a laptop and an Internet connection!
Hopefully, you find something from this list that matches your interests and doesn’t interfere with your college schedule.
Have you worked one of these jobs in college? Let us know in the comments below!
