If you’re a student, then a summer job is a great way for you to develop skills, boost your resume and most importantly, earn money to pay for college supplies, tuition and anything else that you might need in the coming academic year.
Unfortunately, finding a job isn’t very easy these days. Especially between the months of April and July when millions of students enter the job market during the summer break.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the youth labor force grew by 13.5 percent (that’s 2.7 million) from April to July 2015.
With all these people looking for summer work out there, good luck finding one!
Thankfully, you don’t even need to leave your house to find a summer gig. There are plenty of online summer jobs near you and online that you can do from the comfort of your own home.
Here are some of the best online summer jobs for college students to earn money. Consider giving one of them a try this summer.
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Table of Contents
1. Transcriptionist
If you’ve got some quick typing skills, then consider working as a transcriptionist.
As a transcriptionist, you’ll need to listen to audio, like an interview or a podcast for example, and then type or “transcribe” what you hear.
Next, you send what you’ve typed up back to the client in whatever format they request – usually a Word document.
It’s incredibly simple to do, and you don’t need formal training or prior experience to become a transcriptionist.
It’s a flexible job that allows you to set your own hours and choose how little or how much work you want to take on.
While being a transcriptionist is a fairly simple job, it does require a lot of focus and attention to detail – so keep that in mind!
The pay varies from client to client and from industry to industry. The average transcriptionist earns $15 per hour. But, you can earn more, especially if you work in a more specialist industry like, medical or legal.
Where to find transcription work?
Here are a few legitimate places you can find work as a transcriptionist:
2. Survey Participant
Would you like to earn cash just for sharing your opinion?
Well, you can!
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Online, there are tons of survey sites that will pay you cash simply for filling out surveys.
One of the most popular survey websites is Swagbucks.
When you complete surveys on Swagbucks, you earn SB points. You can then redeem these points for Amazon Gift Cards or for cash via PayPal. Currently, 450 SB points gets you a $5 Amazon Gift Card.
Other legit survey sites
A few other websites that pay you to complete surveys include:
While you do need to complete a lot of surveys to earn a decent income, they are very easy and take very little effort to do.
3. Freelance Writer
If your spelling and grammar skills are at a good level, then you could make some pretty good money as a freelance writer.
Websites, blogs, and businesses are always looking for writers to create content for them, from short blog posts to press releases.
As a freelance writer, you can set your own schedule, choose the jobs you want and set your own rates.
The pay varies, so you could earn anything from $5 to more than $100 per article.
Where to find freelance writing work?
Here are a few best sites for finding writing gigs:
4. Virtual Call Center Agent
While customer service agents used to be located in offices, now they often work from home in a virtual call center.
So, if you don’t mind answering questions and advising people over the phone, then consider a job as a virtual call center agent.
And normally, you can work for some pretty big name companies. For example, you can work for Apple from home as an At Home Advisor earning between $9 to $12 an hour.
They pay is competitive, and you often get to set your own hours.
The pay varies, but on average, a virtual call center agent in a customer service position earns from $7 to $15 per hour.
Where to find Virtual Call Center jobs?
These days, most big companies either hire call center staff directly or through third-party companies specializing in call center jobs.
Here are a few places you can try:
5. Search Engine Evaluator
Would you like to get paid to surf the web?
Well, you can!
If you don’t mind testing out a few search engines and providing feedback, then you could make money as a search engine evaluator.
As a search engine evaluator, you will work with search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to test and evaluate their search algorithms.
While search engines put a lot of effort into creating and updating their algorithms, they still need real humans to check for errors and issues.
The search engine will generally assign you a certain keyword, or a list of keywords, and ask you to perform a search query on those words. All you need to do is look at search results and offer feedback on quality, relevancy, accuracy and usefulness.
You don’t need any prior experience or training to be a search engine evaluator – you just need to be proficient with searching the web.
As a search engine evaluator, you can earn from $12 to $15 per hour.
Where to find Search Engine Evaluator jobs?
Check out websites like:
6. Virtual Assistant
Become a virtual assistant and get paid to use the organization, communication and writing skills that you’ve already learned as a student!
Many website owners, business owners, and bloggers are searching for assistants to help them lessen their workload. But, now most people hire an online, or virtual, assistant.
As a virtual assistant, your duties will include things like scheduling appointments, making phone calls, writing emails, and social media management.
The pay varies from client to client, from $5 to more than $60 per hour. But, the average pay is $16 per hour.
Where to find Virtual Assistant gigs?
Check out places like:
7. Online Tutor
Why not use what you’ve learned in school to teach others?
Whether it’s English or history, you can make money as an online tutor.
You just need to have good communication and organizational skills and be knowledgeable about the subject you’re teaching.
And, you don’t have to just stick with academic subjects like math and science either – if you’re a skilled musician or artist, you can teach those subjects.
You can set your own hours, and rates, and take on as much or as little work as you want.
Some sites require qualifications, but many don’t, so you can get started right away.
The pay does vary. As an online tutor, you can earn anything from $12 per hour to more than $25 an hour.
Where to find online tutoring gigs?
Check out websites like:
You could also consider creating an online educational course and selling it on a website like Skillshare, Udemy or Amazon.
8. Website Tester
Having a great website is essential today. So, companies, bloggers, startups and other individuals and organizations need feedback on the quality and user-friendliness of their sites.
And they’re willing to pay you to test websites.
Website owners will pay you to simply check their sites for simple things, like the ease of navigation, and share your experience. Often, they’ll also ask you to take some screenshots to document your experience on the site.
You don’t need any qualifications to be a website tester either, so anyone can get started.
On average, each test pays about $10. But, you can earn more or less depending on the site.
Where to find user testing gigs?
Website or user testing gigs can be found on sites like:
9. Data Entry Clerk
One of the simplest online summer jobs for students is data entry clerk.
There are a lot of legitimate companies that pay to do data entry from home.
It’s a pretty easy gig that requires little to no experience. All you need is a computer and a good Internet connection!
As the title suggests, as a data entry clerk, it’s your job to enter data into a document, spreadsheet or database management system.
The pay for data entry clerks really does vary – but, the average compensation ranges from $9 to $15 per hour.
Where to find online Data Entry jobs?
You can find online data entry jobs through sites like:
Other Work at Home Jobs for College Students
The online money making ideas and options we listed above aren’t really the only way for students or teens to earn money.
Thanks to the technology and internet, these days there are an endless number of ways ANYONE – whether you’re a high school or college student, stay at home mom or day, retired person, or a person looking for an extra source of income – to bring home the bacon without actually leaving the house.
Here are a few more ideas to consider:
- Get paid to research the web for answer via sites like AskWonder: $8 per hour
- Work for U-Haul as a reservation agent/customer service rep: Minimum pay of $8 per hour
- Use your voice to make money with VoiceBunny: Set your own rates
- Get paid to write for these sites: $20-$500 or more per article
- Make an online store with drop shipping: Pay varies
- Sell stuff with these apps: Pay varies
- Participate in online focus groups: $40-$300 or more
- Become a social media manager: $15-$40 per hour
- Get paid to test apps: $10-$30 per app
- Start micro investing with apps like Acorn: Pay varies
- Start a niche blog: Earn for a few $100 to $$1000s
- Sell on Amazon through their FBA program: Earning varies
- Make money writing resumes on sites like Resume Edge: Earn$50-$75 per resume
- Do micro freelancing on sites like Fiverr: $5-$50 per gig
- Become a graphic designer on sites like 99Designs: $25-$50 per hour
- Become a web developer on sites like People Per Hour: $20-$75 per hour
- Listen, review and categorize phone calls for companies like Humanatic: $1-$4.50 an hour
- Listen and review music on Slice The Pie: Pay varies
- Moderate forums through companies like Mod Squad: Pay varies
- Become an SEO consultant: Earn up to $75/hr
- Become a Captioner on Vitac: $0.40 – $0.75 per audio minute
Obviously, with some of these options you need experience and technical expertise, but the majority are fast money making options that any student with a phone and internet connection can do.
And the best part?
You can make money from home without investment!
You don’t even have to be at home to make it work. As long as you have your internet connected device (phone, laptop, tablet, etc) with you, you can earn money with these options from anywhere in the world and any time, even at 3 AM!
The Bottom Line
Before the new academic year begins, consider taking up one of these online jobs this summer. By doing so, you could give your savings a real boost and reduce some of the financial stress of being a student!
Vicky wealthy
A lot of teenagers are really 7n need of job online to balance there financial life support