Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
8 ways students can make money in their spare time
Sylvia Marshall
24th Sep 2024
Happy freshers week to all the new students out there! As a student, you tend to have quite a bit of spare time. However, it can be pretty sporadic – you never know which days you’ll have off!
Regular paid work can be tricky to maintain alongside studies. But, if you are still in need of some extra cash, there are plenty of ways you can make the most of your spare time when it comes up!
Take a look at these 7 ways that you can make money in your spare time as a student. And, if you need more ideas, take a look at the A-Z Guide to Making More Money.
- Become a tutor
- Test websites
- Sell photos
- Get crafty
- Take up odd jobs
- Use your car
- Write a book
- Become a promoter
Put your student skills to work!
As a student, you’re always acquiring specialist skills on subjects others might want to know about.
Earn back a bit of extra cash with tutoring, or offering your skills to teach online for sites like Coursera or Udemy. If devising a whole course sounds like too much, you can always help school students with particular subjects. Maybe you can help with their maths or English homework. Parents are always looking for extra study help for their children, and it’s a flexible job you can start right away.
Test out websites
Whenever you’ve got a spare 20 minutes, sites like What Users Do or UserTesting can earn you great money for just trying out a website and reporting back on the user experience. You’ll need to complete a trial run, have a good microphone, and clearly narrate what you do as you do it.
Once you’re approved, sites contact you to arrange assignments. You can take these assignments when you need some extra cash!
Sell stock photography
If you have a camera that can take decent quality images, capitalise on the chance to keep a little income trickling in. Sites like iStockphoto are always looking for contributions. Every time someone purchases one of your photos, you receive a small royalty fee.
Take clear, quality photos and submit them. The site itself will often let you know what sorts of themes and content they are requiring.
Get crafty!
If you’ve any talent for handicrafts, Etsy was made for the craft enthusiast at home. It’s easy to get started, and once you have some intriguing trinkets, you can advertise them online and start making sales.
Alternatively, you can flip items at home. Gumtree or eBay are perfect for these kinds of sales, and will allow you to make a tidy profit on unneeded goods.
Or, get into ‘flipping’: purchase items at low cost from car boot sales and sell them on for profit. Show off your newfound treasures online and get the best price. Learn how to be “amazing at selling on Ebay” with this article.
Take up odd jobs
Whether you’re handy around the house or a willing babysitter, whatever odd jobs you can help out with are available to view on sites like Fiverr or TaskRabbit.
If you’d rather not do odd jobs around the house, you might consider other kinds of jobs as a freelancer. Sites like Upwork and PeoplePerHour make it easy to list your skills, find jobs that people from across the globe need doing, and get to work! They do charge fees for every successfully completed job, but you can still find yourself taking on work which is interesting, and pays you a little extra.
Use your driving skills
If you have regular access to a vehicle, why not get paid as you travel round town?
Uber takes a little bit of time to become fully registered with, but if you’re a good driver with a full licence and no issues on your record, you can make extra money from just driving people around. This leaves the earning potential up to you, as you can agree to take passengers whenever it suits you.
Sell a book online
Are you passionate about any particular subject? Is there a large audience for it? Do you have a flair for fiction? Put it to use and write a great eBook!
There are lots of great ways you can get your book out there and sell it. Even for a few quid a pop, these things can add up! If your book becomes popular enough you never know what it could lead to.
BECOME A STUDENT NIGHTCLUB PROMOTER
If you love a good party (and as a student, you just might!) then why not make some extra cash from promoting events?
Being sociable and forging strong connections with DJs and nightclubs is crucial to make this work. You will need to convince people that this event is the right one for them, and that starts with your fun personality.
Interested? Read more with our article on how to get paid to party.
Make the most of your spare time as a student, and use these ideas to get started!
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Some great money making tips for students.
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