As a recent college graduate, I spent years working a part time job and finding side hustles to make money while I was in college.
Nowadays, thanks to the internet, making money is easier than ever. Over the years, I’ve found multiple ways to make money while going to college.
How to Make Money as a College Student?
College students can make money by working a part time job either off campus or on. College students can make also make money online by doing social media, starting a website and flipping items. The quickest way college students can earn money is by offering services like dog walking, painting and landscaping.
In this post, I share practical ideas on how to make money as a college student. This includes earning money by providing services, working as a payed employee and making money on the internet.
Some methods will make you money more quickly, while others will take time to build and grow, but can be wildly profitable!
How to Make Money as a College Student Online
If you want to make money online as a college student, there are some ways that take more time and others that are quicker. Which is best will depend on your goals.
Here are some ways to make money on the internet that most college students can do:
- Start a blog or website
- YouTube channel
- Reselling items online
- TikTok
- Social media manager
Let’s go over the ways to make money online in greater detail.
How to Flip Items Online for College Students
Flipping or reselling items in college is one of the easiest and quickest ways to make money online.
There are a few methods to flipping items in college. You can sell your own clothing, handbags and sports equipment. However you can also purchase products online, purchase clothing at the thrift shop or find free items and and resell them.
Flipping items can be super profitable and can turn into a legit small business. In college, buying items like laptops and iPads, shoes and clothes are all great items to flip.
Items to Flip in College
If you’re interested in flipping laptops, go on Facebook Marketplace and watch the market. Eventually, you will get an idea of what’s a good deal, what’s been posted for a while and what’s a bad deal.
MacBooks and iPads are great items to flip as they are super popular among students. Purchase used MacBooks at low prices and then resell them to other students and make a profit.
If you have a place to store it, gym equipment can be very profitable to flip. Oftentimes, people will be looking to get rid of gym equipment at low prices and it can be resold very easily.
Clothing from the thrift shop are also great items to flip. Retro clothing is always in style, buying old clothing that you find cool at the thrift shop and selling it online is a great way to make money.
Where to Flip Items in College
Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji and VarageSale are great websites to flip items. Eventually if you build a reputation, consumers will start buying items off of you because they were referred by someone else.
There are apps like Depop and Grailed where you can sell used clothing online and there are plenty of buyers.
How to Flip Items with no Investment in College
The methods above require some amount of capital to get started. A way that you can resell items for free is by picking us free items and reselling them.
On Facebook Marketplace, VarageSale and Kijiji there will be people looking to get rid of items for free. If the item is in good condition, pick it up, clean it and post it online.
If you have friends or family that have shoes they don’t wear, gaming consoles they don’t use or old phones, offer to sell it for them and take a percentage of the sale.
Oftentimes, people have items that are just laying around and they are too lazy to sell them. This is a great opportunity to make money while not having to spend any of your own.
How to Start an Online Business in College
If you’re in college, you probably have a laptop and phone. There are so many opportunities to make money by starting an online business in college.
Generally, these businesses will take longer to make money but they can be very rewarding.
Start a Blog or Website
If you feel as if you have knowledge on a certain topic, share your knowledge by creating a blog or website. Creating a website takes very little investment and overtime can become a very rewarding business.
By writing articles consistently on your website, overtime your content will be displayed on google and you will begin to have an audience.
Once you have enough readers on your website, you can apply for affiliate programs and monetize your website with displayed ads.
Make Money Using Social Media in College
Another great way to make money online is to learn and build your social media following. We all use apps like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, so why not learn how to make money doing it?
There are plenty of videos online that will teach you how to grow your social media accounts. If you enjoy it, it can be worth pursuing the business side of it.
Once you understand how to do it, you can create meme pages, gaming pages or even approach businesses and offer to run their social media accounts. Social media managers charge hundreds and even thousands of dollars a month for this service, and you don’t need a college degree.
If you’re interested in making video content, try to learn either YouTube for long form video or TikTok for short form. These are two platforms require hard work and consistency which can eventually turn into a legit business.
TikTok and YouTube are great places to share your expertise. Some good ideas for college students are:
- Technology Tips
- Beauty Tips
- School and Studying Tips
- Video Game Tips
Once you build an audience, there are so many great ways to monetize your content. You can monetize your content by doing affiliate marketing, doing brand deals, digital products and having advertisements on your videos.
How to Make Money as a College Student Quickly
If you’re a college student, there are some great ways to make money quickly. As long as you have the time, you will be able to make money in college.
Provide a Service to others
Offering a service is a great way to make money in college. Find a service that you are capable of doing and offer it to others.
Lawn care
Landscaping is a great service to offer. If your college is near residential house, print some flyers and put them in peoples mailboxes offering landscaping services. It can be as simple as picking up leaves in the Fall and can even be done with a friend.
Painting
Another service that people will pay for is painting. Painting is quite easy to do, and people will pay for the service. Do a few houses for an hourly pay and once to get an idea of how long it takes you to paint a room.
Once you get some experience you can charge a flat rate for plastering walls and painting houses.
Car Washing & Detailing
Another service you can offer is washing and detailing people’s cars. There are some products that you can order online and people will pay a lot of money to have their car detailed.
If you do a good job, your customers will refer you to others and you can turn this into a business.
Shovel Snow
If you live in a colder climate, offer to shovel people’s walkways. If you live in a residential area and don’t mind being outside in the winter this is a great way to get in shape and make money.
Dog Walking
Dog walking is another great way to make money. Some people just don’t have the time to walk their dogs throughout the day.
Offering a dog walking service can be a very good way to make money while you’re in college.
Tutoring
If you do well in school, tutor others. You can tutor college students who are in classes that you’ve already done or if there’s a high school in your town, tutor younger kids. You can make a lot of money tutoring and be referred to others.
Monetize Your Skills in College
If you have a skill, monetize it in college! Whether it’s cutting hair, baking, doing makeup or being a personal trainer there are so many great ways to make money while sharing your skill.
Cutting Hair
If you know how to cut hair, offer haircuts to other students for $15 each. If you’re in college, students will want a convenient and affordable place to get a haircut.
Cutting hair is a great way to make quick money from your dorm room.
Make up
If you’re a girl who’s good at doing makeup, offer your services to other girls. Charge a reasonable amount for doing other girls makeup and market yourself by making an Instagram page.
Sell Baked Goods
If you have a recipe that everyone seems to love, start selling it. College students love baked good. The profit margins are really big on baked good so it’s a great business to start!
Personal Training
If you enjoy working out, share your knowledge with others. If you offer personal training sessions for $15 an hour you will have students who are interested and trying to get shape.
Teach them your workouts, document their progress and share it on social media. Eventually, you can turn it into a business.
Part-time Jobs for College Students
Sometimes, it’s easier to find a part time job and work for someone elese, especially if you need to earn money quickly and consistently.
If you prefer to work a job in college there are plenty of part-time jobs for college students. There are jobs like Uber and Doordash where you can choose your own hours, which is great when you’re in college.
Some part-time jobs that you can work on campus can be as a teachers assistant, work at the gym, at the cafe or as a lifeguard at the school swimming pool. There are many opportunities for students to work on campus and they pay quite well.
There are other good jobs for students like working at Starbucks, in a restaurant, clothing store, gyms or at entertainment centres. Personally, I worked at a trampoline park throughout college and it was a really sweet job.
Side Hustles for College Students
If you’re looking for a good side hustle in college look no further! There are some great side hustles for college students.
Sell T-Shirts with Your Cricut
Cricut machines have become very popular amongst college students. By purchasing a Cricut machine you will be able to make custom t-shirts, sweaters, mugs and water bottles from inside your dorm room.
Social Media Manager
It’s a really good side hustle which can become very profitable once you build up some clients. Use social media to promote yourself and build a client base.
Host Gaming Tournaments
If you have an Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo you can host gaming tournaments from inside of your dorm room.
Find a game that other students enjoy playing, charge between $5-$10 as a buy in. Create a tournament where students can win money and take a percentage of the prize money.
Help Other Students with Assignments
If you’re a student that is good academically charge students to help with assignments.
Whether it’s tutoring a student or editing assignments for other students, this is a great business to get into. It just takes some time and students will pay if you’re helping them get better grades.
Final Thoughts on How to Make Money in College
If you’re a college student, you are going to want to find a way to make money while you’re still in school. In this post we went over how to make money online as a college student, as well as more traditional side hustles and part-time jobs. I hope this helped and good luck in school this semester!
Do you have any ways to make money in college? Please let me know in the comments below.