10 Work From Home Jobs For College Students

College is EXPENSIVE, so how can you get by without going broke or drowning in student loan debt?

Well, there are two obvious answers:

1. Get a part-time job on campus.
2. Work your ass off in the summer.

They're both decent options, but they have their cons. On-campus jobs can be hard to find, and if you do manage to get one, you're going to have to juggle your work schedule and school schedule at the same time. Working in the summer sucks, plain and simple.

Don't lose hope though; there's one more option: learning how to start working from home (or the dorm in your case)

Now you may think it's impossible to find a work from home job as a college student, but it's becoming more and more common for folks to work from home. This Forbes article even claims that one in five Americans works from home.

So, where do you look to find these elusive work at home opportunities?

Well, lucky for you I've come up with this list of work from home jobs perfect for college students.  These jobs are super flexible so that you can work when you want, where you want, and however often you want.

1. Survey Sites

You won't get rich with survey sites, but they're easy to get started with, and the money starts coming in the day you start. They're perfect for college students because you can do them anywhere, at any time.

If you've never heard of survey sites before, they're sites that pay you for answering questions. These questions could be related to where you shop frequently, what products you've researched in the past, and other general consumer questions. You may even have the opportunity to test products.

Now:

Your demographic will affect how many surveys you get and how much you can earn, so it's best to sign up for multiple survey sites. That way you always have surveys coming in, ending up in more revenue for you.

Here are my top six survey sites:

1. SwagBucks ($5 Sign-up bonus) (full review)
2. MyPoints (Earn $5 after you take 5 surveys)
3. Toluna (Awesome community)
4. InboxDollars ($5 Sign-up bonus)
5. Vindale Research ($2 Bonus)
6. Pinecone Research ($3/survey, no minimum payout!)

Related: Top 13 Survey Sites That Pay Cash

2. Freelance Writing

You're a college student which means you've probably done your fair share of writing. Getting paid for it would have been nice, am I right?

Freelance writing is a popular work-at-home gig that anyone (not just professional writers) can earn a living from.

You just need to know where to find online writing jobs. Once you know that, it all comes down to you putting in the work required to land new jobs and clients. As a college student without much free time, this is going to be a challenge.

But:

Because of this challenge, freelance writing can be extremely rewarding. Once you start finding clients and building up your portfolio, your pay will increase, and you can start getting paid $100+ for a single 800-1000 word article. Not too shabby right?

Learn more about how to become a paid freelance writer here.

3. Transcription

Transcription is the art (yes, it's an art) of turning audio or video into written text.

Why would anyone need this?

Well, think about TV shows, podcasts, interviews, etc. They all need transcriptionists! This is why transcription is in such high demand.

High demand means there's money to be made, but transcription isn't for everyone. If you don't like the sound (ha, literally) of listening to people talk for hours and trying to type out everything they say (while following specific style guidelines) this may not be the job for you. I did a journey to earn $1 transcribing, and listening to interviews got boring FAST.

Don't get discouraged though; there are a lot of positives that come from transcription:

You can set your own schedule, work from the dorm, and you're typing skills and attention to detail will improve massively. If you can overcome the learning curve, this job is a perfect fit for college students.

If you'd like to learn more, I recommend this free mini-course offered by TranscribeAnywhere. The mini-course will teach you everything you need to know if you're just getting into transcription.

If you want to get straight to transcribing, I recommend Scribie to all beginners, as it's how I made my first $1 transcribing with no experience.

Related: Transcription Jobs From Home No Experience Required

4. Blogging

Tons of bloggers make thousands of dollars a month through ads, affiliate marketing, courses, and more. It is one of the best ways to establish your own brand and start making a full-time income online.

However:

If you start looking for guides on the internet, you're going to get completely overwhelmed.

I know I did.

You get stuck in this “analysis paralysis” phase where you keep learning more and more about how to start a blog, how to monetize your blog, what the best blog niche is, etc. that you never actually start a blog.

Since you're a busy college student and your time is limited, you don't have time to mess around. That's why you should just check out my post:

• How to Start a Blog That Makes Money in 6-Steps

5. Virtual Assistant

As a virtual assistant, you have the opportunity to work remotely offering various services to clients and businesses.

This is a pretty awesome gig for a college student. You'll be getting paid while learning how a business runs!

Why do people hire virtual assistants?

They need help! Businesses have to deal with customer inquiries, emails, blog comments, keeping ALL their social media profiles updated, and more. Hiring someone to simply manage all their social media profiles frees up a ton of their time. Everyone can use some more time.

So, start thinking about what skills you could offer, maybe you're an expert on Instagram or you're really good at researching. If you can't think of any services you could offer, check out these 150+ services you can offer as a VA.

6. Online Tutoring

If you are a good student who excels at a certain subject and you like to help/teach others, tutoring is a fulfilling job that also pays quite well.

As a college student, you may be able to find local work tutoring high school students or other students on your campus. The great thing about this is you can set your own rates based on your skills, and if you're tutoring a high school student, most parents will have no problem paying a premium price to improve their child's education.

Here are some places you can become an online tutor:

• Magic Ears (Teach English online)
• Chegg Tutors (All subjects)

7. Start a YouTube Channel

As a YouTuber, you can expect to make an average of $1-5 per thousand views.

Keep in mind there are a lot of other ways you can monetize your audience beyond Adsense (such as affiliate marketing, product reviews, selling your own products, etc.).

There are two main reasons people go to YouTube:

1. They're looking for a solution to a problem.
2. They want to be entertained.

So as a college student, you should be able to find something you can make videos about that lands in one of those categories.

You could make funny videos messing around on your campus; there's already proof this works as tons of other channels have millions of subscribers doing this.

Or maybe you're really passionate about what you're studying, so you want to teach other people. Find problems people are having in your niche and make videos of the solutions.

8. Test Websites

If you have a microphone (most laptops have one built-in), general knowledge of computers, and you can speak and write in English, you can get paid to test websites!

I really love the web testing side hustle because it's super easy and the pay is really nice for the work you'll be doing.

What will you be doing?

First, you'll go through a screening process, because each customer will want certain users testing their website. If you qualify for the test, you'll be given a set of tasks, a website to visit, and your screen and microphone will be recorded once you accept the test. You'll have to speak your thoughts out loud (providing high-quality feedback) while working through all the tasks and at the end, you'll typically provide a short written response to one or more questions.

That's it. The process usually takes 10-20 minutes and pays out $10.

The only downside to testing websites is that since so many others are doing it as well, you may only get a few tests a month.

Personally, I made $60 last month testing websites, and that was only from one site: Usertesting.com (full review).

9. Search Engine Evaluator

There's so much going on with search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo every day that they need people to make sure everything is running how it's supposed to. These people are called search engine evaluators.

As a search engine evaluator, you'll have a flexible schedule (perfect for college life) and a fair pay of $12-15/hour.

If this sounds interesting you can learn more and possibly apply for a job on these sites:

• Leapforce
• Lionbridge
• Appen

10. Proofread

You're in college so I'm sure you've done your fair share of reading, but how good are you at spotting grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other mistakes in a text?

If you're one of those people that are always correcting others' grammar, then you may have a profitable skill that you haven't even realized. Best of all, being in college opens you up to A LOT of proofreading jobs that others don't have access to. 

If you want to learn more, read my guide on becoming a paid proofreader online, or sign up for this free webinar.

Once you're through those, check out this list of online proofreading jobs – many of the opportunities are perfect for college students!

Conclusion

If you put in enough work on these online jobs, you can make some good money sitting on a computer in your dorm room. Soon all your friends will be asking you how they can hop on the work from home train (feel free to share this post with them *wink wink*).

Seriously though, online side hustles are getting more and more popular, so don't get left in the dust. You're in college so it's a great time to test new things, find out what you like, and you may even find a career through one of these awesome work from home gigs.

Before you leave this post, I want you to just look into at least one of these side hustles and give it a shot. A real shot. Don't give up because it seems like it will be hard, persist until you succeed.

I know you can do it. Good luck!

Related posts:

• 20 Superb Ways to Make Extra Money on the Side
• 15 Legitimate Work From Home Jobs That Pay Good Money
• 20 Passive Income Sources to Make Money While You Sleep