What Students Can Do To Earn Money In Free Time: 5 Solid Options

As a student you can use your free time in non paying activities and you can also choose paying ones to help with your college debt for example or to be more stable financially

This will have a huge impact on your financial wellbeing but also will cascade the positive impact to the rest of the wellbeing dimensions.

There are 5 powerful options students can choose from to earn money in their free time. They are blogging, Youtube, providing services, selling, and part time jobs. 3 of them can be done online and physically and 2 of them can only earn you money online.

There are other ways students can make money in their free time, but the following are the main ones I recommend.

They will help you make money while at the same time improve your overall wellbeing and are more sustainable over the long run as you’ll see.

In each of the 5 basic activities I’ll cover the following:

• What they are
• Their benefits
• How can you earn money from each
• What are the special requirements for each
• My personal recommendation as a coach.

Below is a handy table summarizing these activities that you can do as a student to earn money in your free time

1- Blogging

What is blogging?

Blogging is having access to a platform where you share the ideas of yourself and others on a particular topic to everyone interested in that topic.

You can write in your own blog, and you can contribute into other blogs. You can have your own blog, or you can use other platforms like medium.

That’s why I said “having access to a platform” cause not having skills or money to build your own blog shouldn’t be a showstopper and now you know how an alternative.

It’s one of the 2 things you can only do online obviously.

Benefits of blogging

1. Blogging is a great opportunity to share interesting ideas with the whole world whether it’s your ideas or someone else.
2. When you share valuable content, you start to build an audience that is interested in the content you’re providing or the way you present it.
3. When you build an audience, you improve your social network, your influence, and your revenue.
4. Having a blog provides you with a platform where you can integrate with all other earning money options mentioned in this article

How to make money from blogging

There are 4 ways students can make money from blogging in their free time

1- Ads

Websites in general including blogs can earn money from the ads published in them.

Once you create your own website or blog you can apply for any number of advertising agencies like Google Ads, or Ezoic, etc.

When you’re approved, they’ll start showing ads on your website and you’ll start earning money according to the number of visitors you have and ads viewed, etc.

2- Sponsorship

In sponsorship, companies reach out to those who have large audience and have them advertise their products by mentioning it or talking about them in exchange for money.

So you can have a tech blog for example, and when you have a large audience, a company like Samsung may approach you to mention their new phone and they pay you like 1000$

3- Affiliate

This is where you promote to other products and only gain money when your referrals buy or subscribe to that service or product.

For example, you can join Amazon’s affiliate program and when you refer people to buy books from Amazon, you gain small % when a book is actually bought.

Other companies pay you for anyone subscribes to their service via your website

4- Selling

You can sell products or services via your blog and through the content you’re writing even if it’s not on your own blog or website.

Maybe you provide coaching services, so when relevant in your article, you mention that you’re providing that service and let people know how to reach you.

How long to make money from blogging?

On average, making money from blogging starts around 12 months later, and the real money making can start after the 18^th month.

Sometimes it’s way earlier than that but also sometimes it can take longer than that to start generating income from blogging

What students need to have to start blogging?

To start a blog as a student, you need to have the following 4 requirements:

1. Platform: You’ll need a space on the internet to write on whether it’s your own or a shared space.
2. Skills: of building sites, writing content, making money out of it, etc.
3. Time: to invest in blogging before it starts generating revenue
4. Money: while you can build your website totally for free like with Blogger, you still may need to purchase very few cheap things that will add to your success, like a domain name.

My recommendation

• When it comes to blogging, I always advise to have your own blog or build your own website so you can have:
• Total control when it comes to making money with ads or sponsorship
• Building your own audience that you may count on later when you need to promote for your services, products, and information
• If you can’t afford building your perfect website now with your own domain and hosting, that’s fine. Don’t let that stop you
• You still can build your website totally for free using Blogger for example or you can use websites like Medium where you can write there for free.
• There will be very few limitations but overall, the money making won’t be affected hugely.

2- Publish on Youtube

Youtube has become one of the popular ways of making money online nowadays. This is the 2^nd option you have that only can be done online obviously as well.

Youtube and other similar platforms operate just like blogging when it comes to making money. The only difference is that this is for videos only while blogging rely mainly on text.

Just like selling, this is also can be integrated with blogging where you share your videos inside the article and people can watch it from there.

This way, you’re benefiting twice from the same visitor. He’s being counted for the ads shown in the blog and the ones shown on Youtube.

Benefits of publishing on Youtube

1. Share ideas and content generated by you or others
2. Building an audience
3. Generating side income
4. Starting a Youtube channel is totally for free. No money is required at all.

How to make money from Youtube?

Just like Blogging. Through ads, sponsorship, affiliate, selling

How long to make money from blogging?

For the most hard-working people on Youtube, it can take between 12-18 months to start earning money on Youtube.

Notice the keyword I mentioned above “hardworking”. This is because with Youtube it’s not that easy to satisfy their requirements of having 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watched.

Very few people started generating income earlier than that and so many spent more than 18 months without fulfilling the requirements and there for not making money.

What students need to have to start on Youtube?

1. Technical skills of making videos, editing, creating thumbnails, editing audio, etc.
2. Creation or writing skills for the videos
3. List of topics to present
4. Content to be shared

My recommendation

• Youtube and blogging require considerable efforts to manage and keep alive. That’s why most of us can’t manage both successfully and we often choose one over the other.
• If you’re faced with this situation then my recommendation is to choose one and ignore the other, at least temporarily.
• But you have to have either a Youtube channel or a blog because it’s the foundation for building an audience and all other earning money options can be integrated with both of them.

3- Provide services

Another option you have as a student to make money online is to provide your services to others and it can be done online and physically

Examples may include, teaching math, translation, babysitting, walking dogs, fixing things, etc.

This is one of the easiest and most interesting choice in my opinion. Why? Because you provide a service you already how to do and you get paid instantly.

Benefits of providing services

1. Making money is obviously the main benefit when you provide your services to others
2. Another benefit can be building an experience when you choose to provide a service that you’re planning to hold on to even after college.

An example would be if you’re going to be a translator. Starting to provide translation services for others wen still in school or college will improve your practical experience and will strengthen your CV when applying for jobs later on.

How to make money from providing services?

You get your money when you finish providing that service.

Like I said, you can provide these services online or physically.

Online can be done through sites like Fiverr, and Upwork for example.

You simply create your account and choose what services to provide.

It can be integrated with blogging or Youtube where you can showcase your services and link to them

It can also be done physically like providing translation services as a freelancer to a certain office or walking the dogs in your neighborhood.

How long to make money from providing services?

Most of the times you earn money just after you provide the service.

This differs from the part time job as the latter usually pays you at the end of the month.

What students need to have to start providing your services?

1. List of all the services that you can provide others and get paid.
2. List of platforms or places to offer your services
3. If you chose to provide your services online on sites like Fiverr, then a little learning might be required in understanding how to create your service, how to get paid, etc.

My recommendation

• I recommend that the services you’re going to provide, to be:
• Things you already know how to do, or need very little learning
• Things you love to do or at least don’t hate to do.
• It’s better if they are in sync with your future plans, but it’s not a must. You can start anything now and add or change later.

4- Sell products

Another common way of making money as a student is through selling stuff either online of physically, and there are 3 things you can sell

1. Other’s products
2. Your own products
3. Your personal belongings like phone, tablet, watch, games, books, etc.

You can choose to sell these products physically or face 2 face or door to door. Or you can choose to do it online via websites like Fiverr, or through email marketing, etc.

Benefits of selling products

Like providing services. It will improve your income and if this is going to be your future career (like sales), then it’ll add to your experience and strengthen your CV

How to make money from selling?

You can choose to sell products owned by others whether it’s physical like devices or digital like apps.

You can sell products you own yourself. If you designed an app that you think is good enough, you can sell it. Maybe it’s a course you designed.

The above 2 points can be integrated with blogging or Youtube as well.

In your article or video, you can link to the products you’re selling and now you’re making money from 2 ways, ads on article, and people buying these products through your links.

Finally, you can make money as a student by selling your own stuff that are getting older or you don’t need them anymore.

How long to make money from selling?

Instantly

What students need to have to start selling?

1. List of products to sell, whether they are yours or not.
2. List of platforms or places to sell these products. If it’s online then these can be a website, blog, email, social media, groups, forums, etc.
3. Minimal selling skills

My recommendation

• I recommend making “selling your own products” a priority. Spend time as a student to come up with a product you can sell to others.
• You can do a simple 3-5 videos course on how to do anything you can and really good at.
• This can be a subject you can teach, or a body movement you can do, or a skill you have.
• Once that out of the way or can’t figure something out, then shift to selling others’ products, and make selling your own stuff the last resort of making money as it’s not sustainable.

5- Part Time Jobs

The 5^th way you can make money in your free time as a student is to have a part time job with one condition:

Examples of part time jobs include working in a fast food company, part time translator or sales, a cashier, etc.

You can find part time jobs either online or physically with offices.

Benefits of having a part time job

1. Earning money while studying.
2. Building a career if this is what you’re going to work on later.
3. Exploring your dream job: Applying for a part time job in one of your dream jobs is a great opportunity to earn money while exploring it on reality.

One of the activities we mentioned that you can do in your free time as a student is to explore your dream job. Once you identify the potential jobs, you can apply for an internship or a part time job that allows you to explore it better.

How long to make money from part time jobs?

For the most part it’s going to be on a monthly basis, some on a weekly or biweekly basis.

The difference between part time jobs and freelancing jobs is that the latter usually pays once the job is done.

What students need to have to start part time jobs?

• A list of all potential part time jobs that you can work
• Meeting the minimum requirements of that job.

My recommendation

• If you have time to choose your part time job and you’re not in a hurry to make money, then I suggest you work on identifying your 1-3 dream jobs first
• Once you have the potential 1-3 jobs you may work on later, you can look for any part time opportunities within these jobs if available.
• If such option isn’t available or not applicable for those jobs, then that’s okay and you can move on to the next potential part time job on the list

Notes to Consider

• Students do have the chance to earn money in their free time and they should take advantage of it. It’s not just for their financial wellbeing, but also for their social, emotional, and mental wellbeing as well.
• The minimum you can have if you’re going to start your earning money journey is either a blog or a Youtube channel.
• Having a blog or a Youtube channel can also facilitate promoting one another, as well as your services, and products. That’s how you can increase your income strategically.