Freelancing is one of the best jobs for students because you choose what service you want to provide, which clients you want to work with and you make your own schedule. Here is a list of freelance jobs for college students that you can start today.

1. Freelance Content Creator

This is a GREAT online job for students because I met a mom who does this and she makes so much money that she was able to retire her husband from his job! If she can do it with kids on the side then you definitely can with your school schedule. 

Most people have no idea that this niche exists or that there are thousands of bloggers that regularly purchase from freelance content creators working behind the scenes.

You have to see how this works as another mom that I interviewed who does this made $4,000 her first month after she got the proper training! It’s insane, and no one talks about this.

How to get started: Check out the article on How to become a Freelance Content Creator

2. Social Media Manager

Are you on Social Media? You’d be amazed at how many small businesses in your area do not utilize this for their business.

They would love to have a young student who is active on Social Media to post on their behalf.

How much can you earn? You could make anywhere from $1,000-$10,000 per month depending on how many clients you have.

There are many Social Media schedulers out there that you can use so you’ll only need to work a couple of hours and can sit back and collect your check (while focusing on schoolwork of course).

How to get started: See how Annelise Pickett manages social media accounts here and how you can too.

This is one of the best online jobs from home for students. 

4. Proofreader

Do you find yourself easily catching errors when reading? Do you cringe when you see grammar mistakes? If that’s you, you would make a great proofreader.

Proofreaders are NEEDED! I know, because I use one myself.

How much can I earn? Caitlin Pyle made $43,000 a year proofreading part-time in COLLEGE! You’ll have to check out her interview in my article on How to Become a Proofreader.

How to get started: If you want to learn the skills needed to start your own freelance proofreading hustle or see if this is the right career for you, check out this FREE introductory workshop.

5. Graphic Designer

Do you have an eye for design and experience in Adobe Creative Suite/Adobe Creative Cloud – including InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop? If you do, there is a profitable market out there for you.

If you don’t, all you need is a desire to learn. You can check out this highly recommended course Learn Photoshop, Web Design & Profitable Freelancing to teach you the ins and outs. (VERY AFFORDABLE)

I know, not another class but this may allow you to make money sooner before you graduate.

How much can I make? You can charge $25-$300 per hour, depending on your experience.

How do I get started: Promote your services to your social network and create a website showcasing your services and work. The more people see your work the more they will be reminded of you when a project/need comes up.

Related: How to Make Money Fast as A Kid

6. Web Designer

I recommend starting a website now even if it’s just for fun because this is an excellent way to make A LOT of money and age does not matter. You just need to know what to do.

You could be a front-end developer like I, which basically means I buy a theme like this website template (this is the template of the website we’re on right now) and I customize it to my liking. I’m COMPLETELY self-taught aka I Google everything.

When it comes to building a website people think it’s really hard and they would rather pay someone else to do it than do it themselves, and that’s where you would come in.

I volunteered to do my church website because I wanted the experience. I knew nothing about starting a website or the complicated backend stuff, which is okay because all premium themes come with backend developer support so you won’t need to learn that (I still don’t know it) AND you get to ask them for help on the front-end stuff.

Doing my church website was a huge learning curve but so valuable, I learned A LOT. After learning how to create my church website and also the website we’re on right now, I became really good at it.

I charged $800 for doing a friend’s website, and now any other site I do will be $1,000 or more. I could do a website in a day or two if I know what the client wants on the site.

I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to start a WordPress website that can help you get started.

Related: 15 Best Paying Jobs for Teens

7. Start a Blog

Blogging is a GREAT online job for students to make money because a lot of it is passive income. I make money from ads that come up when people are reading my posts.

I can assure you, I did not write this article today and yet it’s making me money.

When you get a nice amount of people reading your articles it brings in a nice income. Here’s a screenshot of my earnings from one day.

I made $400 in one day just from ads, and I also make a lot of money in Affiliate sales. You can see how I make money blogging.

You DO NOT need to be an excellent writer to become a blogger, you just write like you talk.

To make money blogging you’ll need to be able to help someone and give valuable information that people are looking for, I talk a lot about how it all works in this article about consistent income from blogging.

I spent a lot of time working on my blog the first year while pregnant with a full-time job, busy toddler, and husband. So if I can do it, you definitely can.

Now I work VERY part-time on my blog (Currently 15 months in) and I’m making more money than when I was at my corporate job.

If you like to travel, you could definitely start a travel blog. You can see how to get started here.

If you want to start a blog, I’ve detailed all the steps in my How to Start a WordPress Blog article from scratch! I also mention the most popular niches that make the most money and get the most traffic.

8. Freelance Writer

Not interested in starting a blog but like to write? You should consider becoming a Freelance Writer.

You can make a lot of money as a writer, I know because I interviewed Holly Johnson who makes OVER $200,000 a year as a Freelance Writer.

Holly Johnson found the secret sauce when it comes to writing and charging the right rate for your work. She created a free introductory training on how to build a six-figure writing career if you want to check it out.

How to get started: I highly recommend taking Holly’s course if you want to work from home writing and follow her path to success. I also have a number of ways to get writing gigs at the end of this article.

11. Transcribe

Type what you hear (recordings), that’s what a transcriber does. If you can type fast, this may be an ideal job for you.

How much can you earn? You can make $7-$21 per hour with the companies hiring for transcribing here or more if you build your own business.

How to get started: Consider a side hustle in Transcription with this Free Mini-Course

Sell Products Online

12. Print on Demand

Print-on-demand is one of the best ways to make money from home because Cassiy Johnson made over $26,000 in ONE MONTH! Yes, we said one month.

Cassiy was watching a YouTube video on different side hustles and they said print on demand was an easy way to make money from home and she ran with it.

Print on Demand is a process where you create designs for products like shirts, mugs, and tote bags for example digitally online using software like Canva.

Then you post them for sale on Etsy using digitally made mockups of the products to show what they will look like once they are printed.

It’s easier than this sounds, check out how Cassiy explains how she does this in our article on How to make money with Print on Demand.

13. Create Printables and Sell on Etsy

This is a good job for college students because you make a printable ONCE and can earn money from it over and over and over again.

It’s a great form of passive income that will allow you to make money while you focus on school work.

How much can I earn? Expect to earn $500-$8,000+ per month doing this PASSIVELY. See how much others are making here.

How to get started: Check out my interview with two women who do this successfully and how we can do it in my article How to Make Money Selling Printables on Etsy.

14. Selling low content books on Amazon

I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about, but that’s good because that means there are more opportunities for you. 

This is a great form of passive income where you can make a book once and sell it over and over again.

You create a cover of a book and one interior page (no graphic design experience needed). Post it to Amazon KDP and let your work sell. 

This may not make a lot of sense but we break it down in our article How to make 1000s selling low content books, or you can just watch as we show you how to do this in minutes.

15. Flip Items from Flea Markets and Thrift Shops

Rob from the Flea Market Flipper is the MASTER flipper. He made over $130,000 flipping items from Flea Markets and thrift stores PART-TIME, mostly on eBay.

And, you don’t need to have a lot of money to start either. Rob recommends his students start with a budget of $20-$50 to find items. Based on that, they should be able to make $100-$300 (mostly reselling on eBay) and then take some of the profit and do it again.

How do I get started? Rob created a free workshop to turn your passion for visiting thrift stores, yard sales, & flea markets into a profitable reselling business – in as little as 14 days. You can click here to sign up for his free workshop.

Drop shipping is a method where you can sell third-party products from a Drop Shipping Company without ever seeing or shipping the item. When you make a sale, the product is shipped directly to the customer from the drop shipper.

Your profit is the difference between what you charge your customers and what the drop shipping company charges you.

Here is a great infographic to show how it works:

Theo McArthur has great success with drop shipping and created a drop shipping course that teaches you how to launch your first profitable Dropship Website in 14 Days or less and grow your Income to $10,000 per month in profits.

Online Jobs for College Students Without Investment

17. Search Engine Evaluator

18. Sign up for Research Studies – Up to $400 per study

This is a great online job for students because you can make quick easy money by participating in research studies. Below are the best-paid companies to sign up for

• Respondent – $50-$400
• User Interviews – $50-$100 per hour

19. Get Paid from Online Surveys

Share your opinion on your phone or computer to help brands deliver better products and services and get paid in the form of gift cards or cash. These are very common online jobs from home.

I only recommend signing up for Survey Junkie,  Swagbucks, and PrizeRebel. The more survey sites you sign up for, the more you’ll make! I only recommend this online job for high school students if you are old enough to meet the age requirements for the survey site.

Tip: Open a separate email account solely for surveys. You’ll start to get inundated with emails and it will be more manageable in a different account.

20. Get Paid to Test Apps and Websites

You already take tests all the time, why not get paid for some? This is a great online job for students because companies need feedback on the user experience of their websites and they’ll pay you to get it. This is one of the easiest ways and quickest to make money online.

Here are two companies to work with that will give you $10 per test and they take around 15-20 minutes. You can make up to $60 with User Testing.

• User Testing
• UserFeel

More Money Tips for College Students

Start Investing (In Change!) – FREE for College Students!

Acorns is a neat way to start micro-investing. It rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the difference on your behalf.

You can link as many credit or debit cards as you like and put your “change” to work for you in a low-cost ETF. The service costs $1 a month BUT for College students it’s FREE!

Acorns monitors your bank account and automatically invests the change from your daily purchases. For example, if you buy a coffee for $1.75, Acorns will round up to $2.00 and automatically invest $.25 in “smart portfolios”.

I can’t wait to see how much I’ve earned with this; I’ll definitely report back.

Bonus: Sign up with my Acorns link and get $5 to invest and plant an oak tree to help the world around us grow.

Use Rakuten

If you shop online, you are doing yourself a disservice if you are not using Rakuten.

Your online shopping experience will be the same except you just log-in through Rakuten first to earn cash back rewards.

I really rack my points up in December around Christmas time because I do a lot of shopping online.

$43 isn’t a whole lot of money, but it’s certainly better than nothing for something I was already going to purchase.

Check out Rakuten here and earn $30 if you spend at least $30.

Have you ever heard of Honey? Same type of deal but it takes more money off your total. You’ll no longer need to search for coupon codes and sales again! Click on the button during checkout and Honey will automatically apply coupon codes to your shopping cart. If you are an Amazon shopper this is GOLD!

This is a great way to save money and find deals without doing the work yourself.

Students Really Can Make Money Online at Home or In a Dorm