Clever Side Hustles for College Students

Start earning money as soon as today.

College isn’t cheap, but sometimes working a traditional job doesn’t fit in to a busy student’s schedule. Side hustles – short-term work you can do in your spare time – are perfect for college students. Learn how you can leverage side hustles to put a little extra cash in your pocket and ease the burden of being a starving college student.

1. Drive for a Ride-sharing Service

A ride sharing service involves getting people to where they need to be. You will often be required to have more than one passenger in the car at a time. It’s more convenient if you have your own car and a license.

This is a great way to utilize the 2–3 hours breaks in between lectures. You can make about $45 an hour driving for a company like Lyft.

2. Take Online Surveys

If you’re looking for a hustle that wouldn’t drag you off your bed, then online surveys is your pick.

What Is a Survey?

An investigation of the opinions, behavior, etc. of a particular group of people, which is usually done by asking them questions.

Many sites offer cash rewards, coupons, etc. as payment for taking part in a survey. For example, Survey Junkie pays $5 for completed surveys.

Popular sites that offer paid surveys include : Swagbucks, Mint Vine and Toluna.

3. Data Entry Work

Sounds boring, doesn’t it. But it is a well paying side job. You can earn quite a lot from filling in data into a spreadsheet or website.

The job will require you to be efficient at typing and doesn’t necessarily need you to leave your comfort zone. Some popular sites where you can get a data entry gig are Smart Crowd and Clickworker.

4. Get Paid to Go Shopping

This is made possible by what we call cashbacks. You buy a watch from Walmart at $150 and you get a 50–200% return on your purchase.

How? Swagbucks gives you SB which you can use on many stores depending on the exchange rate that you find most suitable but you’ll have to pay make the payment first and then you get paid.

5. Web Searching

As a web searcher, you monitor social media accounts of your clients. This is a side job that is convenient for any college student with a little knowledge of social media marketing.

You could also work as a social media evaluator with Appen or search engine evaluator with leapforce.

6. Serve as a Virtual Assistant

Creators from around the world are looking for someone who can help ease the burden of doing paperwork, managing their social media accounts, etc. You might just be that person if you’re willing to give it a try.

You can find work on PeoplePerHour.com, VA Networking and Zirtual.

7. Sell Old Textbooks

Do you have some old high school textbooks that you’re not using anymore?, you can sell them on Textbookrush, Cash4books or Chegg.

• Register for any of these vendors.
• Submit the book’s ISBN.
• Get a price quote for the book.
• Sell the book.
• Ship it using free shipping labels offered by the vendors.

The gig economy is open to college students and you can start making up to $1000 per month from flexible side jobs that don’t require you to leave your dorm room.

Owen Coffey is a developing writer and a student of game design support what he does on Medium by tipping him on BMC.