25 Ways To Make Money As A College Student

College is a time for learning. It’s a season of growth. It shapes our understanding of business and life. We form bonds and make connections that often last our entire adult lives. But college is also a period of struggle. We struggle to survive the chaos. A torrent of classwork. Lectures. Assignments. An overwhelming expectation to get good grades and make our families proud.

But it’s not just the work. Most college students don’t have well-off families. They can’t afford to throw caution to the wind. Some have second jobs. Others live entirely off scholarships and barely get by. It’s a tough balancing act. After all, you need to make money, even as a college student. You can’t just get by on fumes, right?

So how do you do it? How do you make money as a college student without sacrificing your grades? How do you balance all of this together? Look, I won’t sit here and tell you it’s easy. It’s not. College is hard. And depending on your major, you could be in the midst of the most difficult season of your life. I feel for you. I really do. But there are pathways forward. Ways to earn. You just have to know where to look.

How To Make Money As A College Student

Decades ago it was way harder to make any extra cash while working in college. After all, we didn’t have the conveniences of the internet. We couldn’t make money from our phones. After all, smartphones didn’t exist back then. But they do today. And that is a major advantage that you have. All you need to do is pick one of the many ways you can make money and go all in.

Right now, if you take a step back and look at it, you could come up with so many creative ways to make money. But there are ways you can do this without sacrificing your grades. The truth is that your performance in college is important. Meaning that you may not have the time to run around doing local services or doing rideshares while still trying to maintain good grades. It doesn’t work like that.

What you need to find are easy ways you can make money fast. And to do it without running around the entire city. No. It’s not a pipe dream. You can do that. You can even make money in your sleep. Meaning that you can find passive income methods that will pay you while you’re in class or studying for an exam. I won’t sit here and tell you that it’s easy to do that. But it is possible. You just have to work for it.

1—Sell Your Old Textbooks

College textbooks are expensive. They can cost hundreds of dollars. Sometimes thousands for a whole semester. That’s a lot of money, right? But did you know that you can sell your old textbooks? You can sell them on Amazon and many other places. You can even rent them out to other students. By renting them, you’ll make a little less money but you can make money for longer.

2—Design Sales Funnels

In business, sales funnels are the most important concept everyone should know. And if you’re serious about making money while you’re still in college, get a deeper understanding of sales funnels by reading this book. The best part? You can make money by designing sales funnels. You don’t need any technical skills. And you can either do this as a paid gig using freelancing websites. Or you can sell those designs on our marketplace to generate passive income.

3—Become A Resident Assistant (RA)

One of the best ways you can make money as a college student is just to become a resident assistant (RA). The RA is in charge of a dorm. They have certain obligations and tasks they need to perform every single day. However, being an RA isn’t hard work. Plus, if you’re already living in a dorm, this makes a lot of sense. You’ll need to fill out an application to do this but you could easily make some extra cash on the side.

4—Create Online Courses

In college, you’re in a season of learning. You’re absorbing knowledge and wisdom. Gaining deep insights into the world and business. But instead of just learning why not help others by creating online courses? You could even turn certain subjects into online courses. Have another skill? Share it with the world by building an online course. Create your online course here using simple premade templates and a drag-and-drop editor. You can also build it on platforms like Udemy, Teachable and many others.

5—Make Money In Network Marketing

Network marketing allows you to make money without running around town trying to sell stuff. But to really succeed as a network marketer, you can’t take the same approach as others. Instead, you have to build a network marketing sales funnel to set yourself apart. Sales funnels are like magic little money-making machines. They’re the secret behind the success of many of the world’s most profitable businesses.

6—Do Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another way to make money while still in college. It doesn’t require you to build a business, create a product, or manage employees. As an affiliate, you are helping others make money. In turn, you’re paid a commission. How? By promoting affiliate links. To succeed, you’ll need an existing audience or you’ll need to learn how to run ads to bridge funnels.

7—Work As A Campus Tour Guide

If you live on a campus at the college you attend you should consider working as a tour guide there. Campus tour guides give other prospective students tours of the grounds and facilities. You’ll need to be an excellent communicator and put in an application. They don’t accept everyone. But if you do get accepted, it’s a low-friction way to earn some extra cash.

8—Tutor Other Students

Why not tutor other students to earn some extra cash? Every student needs help with something. Especially when you’re really good at a subject, you can help others. And make money while doing that. This isn’t complicated. It doesn’t require a lot of your time. But it is something you can easily do on the side without interrupting your school work.

9—Do Copywriting

Copywriting is a skill held by few but desired by most. If you do have copywriting skills, consider helping others by writing drool-worthy copy. Copywriting comes in many forms. You can write copy for ads, email campaigns, sales letters, and more. And the best way to make money as a copywriter is to help other businesses increase their sales and their revenue by writing high-converting copy.

10—Create A Membership Funnel

Membership sites allow you to generate recurring revenue by selling information to others. That information is updated regularly. It could be updated daily, weekly or even monthly. A membership funnel is just a way to present and sell that information to others. It’s not difficult to build. You can build the whole thing using our sales funnel software.

11—Sell Class Notes At The End Of The Semester

One way to make money is to turn your existing class notes into a product you can sell. It can be a physical product or a digital product. You can market those notes to other students. If the notes are excellent, people will happily pay you for those notes. Organize them properly and create a table of contents. Then, set up a payment gateway for people to pay you.

12—Do Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing allows you to make money from anywhere. It doesn’t require your physical presence to help others with social media. After all that’s exactly what you’re doing. And you don’t need to start an agency to do this. Just start reaching out to small businesses on social media offering to help them with their content.

13—Get A Job At The IT Center

If you enjoy computers try working at the campus IT center. The campus IT center always needs students to help out. Especially if you’re technically inclined, you can work at the campus IT center by just by visiting them and putting in an application. It doesn’t guarantee that they’ll give you a job, but it’s worth a shot.

14—Work At The Campus Cafeteria

The campus cafeteria is another place where you can make money while still going to college. Although it might not seem like the most glamorous work, money is money, right? Especially if you’re in dire need of money, this is one option. This can mean preparing meals, serving them, cleaning up the tables after other students eat, and so on.

15—Sell Print-On-Demand (POD)

Selling print-on-demand (POD) is a low-friction way to earn money. Why? Because you never have to create the products. Meaning that you don’t need to screen print shirts, embroider hats, or do any printing yourself. POD companies like Printful and Printify do everything for you. All you need to do is create the designs and sell them. They will make it, store it and ship it for you.

16—Do Translations

If you speak a second language, you can help others by doing translations. You can either help people on campus do this or you can help people online. Many sites allow you to make money from translations such as Rev or Translate. While many are turning to AI for translations, there’s still nothing as good as a human translator. You won’t make a lot of money doing this, but you can earn a bit of extra cash, which always comes in handy when you’re a student in college.

17—Get A Paid Internship

Paid internships allow you to gain experience while still making money. Paid internships do not pay that well. But if you’re passionate about a field, consider getting an internship no matter what it pays. Most internships don’t pay a wage. So if you can find a paid internship, take it. Especially if you can find something close to campus.

18—Make Money On YouTube

YouTube has long been an excellent way to make money online. You can create videos from anywhere and if you build up enough subscribers, those videos can provide you with a substantial income. You can also create faceless YouTube videos if you don’t want to personally appear in them. One popular YouTube channel that is faceless is called Be Amazed. But there are many more.

19—Do Online Surveys

Online surveys are easy to complete and don’t require much time. It’s the perfect thing to do in your spare time. All it requires is giving your thoughts and opinions on certain things. It’s not difficult. But depending on the survey, it may take time to complete all the questions. You can do online surveys using SwagBucks, InboxDollars and other platforms.

20—Build Custom Fortnite Maps

If you’re a gamer you know about custom Fortnite maps. But did you know that some people are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year just by building custom maps on Fortnite? Yes. I know. It sounds outlandish, right? But it’s true. You can learn more about how you can make money by creating custom Fortnite maps here. You’ll need a game console to do this.

21—Get Paid As A Teaching Assistant (TA)

Most college classes have a teaching assistant (TA). The TA assists the professor in many ways. They lend a helping hand in lots of situations. They help with the class itself, the students, the organization of the material, grading the tests, and so on. Every college has different rules on how to become a TA. Simply ask yours and if you qualify, put in an application with the professor.

22—Sell Your Old Clothes

You can sell your old clothes to make a bit of extra money. Many platforms let you sell your clothes. For example, you could use ThredUp or Poshmark to do it. Some platforms require you to take pictures, create the listing and ship the product. Other platforms will do all the work for you. Pick the one that works for you. It’s entirely your choice.

23—Do Freelancing Gigs

If you prefer to chase higher-paying work, consider doing freelancing to make money on the side. Freelancing means that you’re performing some type of remote work for others. You can find freelancing gigs on Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr and other sites. If you know graphic design, web development, photography, video editing, or have other skills, consider doing some freelancing on the side.

24—Wholesale Real Estate Virtually

Wholesaling is a great way to make money in real estate. And the best part? You can do this entirely virtually. Meaning that you don’t have to be in the city that you’re wholesaling real estate in. All you need to do is find distressed properties and make deals with sellers that are far below market value. Then, you turn around and flip those contracts to cash buyers. That’s the process.

25—Make Money From Your Phone

Can you use your phone to make money while you’re still in college? Many of the ways outlined above allow you to do just that. But there are so many other ways to use your phone to make money. If you’re enterprising, you can consider doing cold calling, live streaming, doing ride shares, local food deliveries, and so much more.