Being a student in London is tough. Also being an unpaid intern in Paris can be a struggle. This is why we've researched the best 12 easy (and legal) ways to make money online.
1 Surveys Online
A very popular way for students to make money online is to fill out surveys. The best part of the job is that you can do it in your own spare time.
There are lots of research companies are always recruiting new people to answer surveys and test new products. The best ones are Toluna, MySurvey, Global Test Market and many, many others.
Look around. For a few minutes of your time, you can make a couple of euros which is paid as cash or rewards.
2 Start Your Own Website
Starting a website is easy. But making money out of it isn't exactly easy. However, it is possible. You could build it on any pre-built platform like Wordpress or Wix and then start attracting readers. There are tons of ways to monetise a blog or a website. Once you've grown an audience, you can start selling sponsored posts for £200 or more. You can also look into affiliate marketing where you partner with businesses to sell more of their products or services. Amazon offers a good affiliate marketing program, but there are several others to check. Additionally, you can display Google AdSense which once it's installed creates a passive income for your site.
3 Write and publish a Kindle eBook
Nowadays, anyone can publish an eBook and potentially make money. If you are a student is likely you are good at researching and writing, why not put your skills up for sale? Pick a topic and write a book. On Amazon Kindle, you can sell your book and still earn 70% of the sale. Remember, you can't just write something, you have to think about sharing value with your potential readers. So, it doesn't necessarily be the next Harry Potter, it could simply be something you have already researched, put into a nice format and then make it stand out in the shop.
The best part of this option is that once you've done the initial job, it becomes a totally passive income for months, or even years!
4 Get cashback when shopping
This is a great way to make and save money as a student. It can be anything between 0.5% and 10%, so basically you are making money with every purchase you would have made anyway, so why not getting some cash back?
There are lots of cashback websites, just make sure they don't have any tricky commissions added to them.
5 Online Gigs
Fiverr is great if you have any sellable skills, talent or knowledge. It could be anything from logo designs, translations, writing, voiceovers and more.
You must check what's the actual task since the default price is $5 (hence the name), but you can either be very quick and pick many or only choose the once you think are fair. You can also check Upwork and Freelancers for other interesting jobs.
6 Sell Old course books
You are obviously selling your old course books. But what about buying other students' textbooks, and then sell them in bulk? You can either do it offline at uni or also advertise them online on Amazon Marketplace and similar websites.
7 Buy and sell domain names
A domain name is just a website address (for example spotahome. Some of these domains cost very little (€1.99 or less) but if you find someone to buy them, they can be paid lots of money! The secret is to find and buy domains that have a potential commercial value and then put them up for sale.
8 Sell your Knowledge
Being a tutor can be great. Or boring. But setting up and selling your own course can be much better. Udemy is a great website that allows anyone to create an online course on basically anything you can think of, from photo editing to marketing and cooking, singing and video making. Just pick your topic, this is the gig economy!
9 Sell your photos
If your friends are always amazed by your pictures, it might well be possible that you have some sort of talent at it. Start selling them now.
You can upload them for free on Fotolia or istockphoto and then get paid every time they are downloaded. The secret is to take pictures that have a real market, so maybe not sunsets and ocean beaches, but people doing things or objects.
10 Sell your Clothes (and other stuff)
Minimalism is the new black. If you read this article you already know that less is actually more (money). Now it's time to monetise your minimalistic efforts! Pick all that stuff you no longer (never) use and put them on eBay. You'll be impressed by the number of people buying second-hand clothes and other items online.
11 YouTube videos
Yes, you can actually make money by making videos. How cool is that? With the YouTube Partner Program, you can now earn a percentage of the advertising revenue collected per 1,000 views. So, of course, you need to reach a wide audience, but if you are on YouTube, you are certainly not there to only be viewed by your mum, right?
12 Don't Forget your Tax!
If you've worked during the summer or recently completed a paid internship, you've likely paid more tax than due. Simply use the tax refund calculator in the country you live in and find out how much you are owed.
Here we are! A tiny guide on how to survive as a student. Unless you are the next Mark Zuckerberg, these methods won't make you a millionaire, but surely can help you to get through your student/intern years whether you live in London, Paris or Milan.
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