Who doesn’t love making extra cash? Read on to learn my top tips for how students can earn money online without compromising your studies.
Whether you’re looking for high hourly rates, flexible hours, or opportunities to enhance your personal and professional development, this guide has got you covered. Discover various income streams that can supplement your student loan or PhD stipend while making the most of your time as a student.
Let’s explore the endless possibilities of online earning!
Student Money Making Considerations
I think it is first worth saying that your time is valuable. Being a student opens up a fantastic range of opportunities that are not open once your graduate, so do make the most of them! Here is a post I’ve written about making the most of opportunities.
If you’re already satisfied with your finances then making extra money may not be a good use of your time. This is especially true with inefficient jobs which require a large time commitment at a low hourly rate.
But if you’re determined to learn how to make earn money online, read on for my in-depth student’s guide. In this post I have focused on streams of income with immediate earning potential, however if you’re feeling entrepreneurial you can of course start your own business. This tends to involve a great deal of upfront effort, but may prove fruitful in the long term.
I am going to focus on ways to earn money online which fulfil as many of the following criteria as possible:
- High hourly rate
- Flexible hours
- Contribute to your personal and professional development
- High availability
How to Earn Money Online for Students
Tutoring
Tutoring is probably the first job that sprang to mind when you considered how to earn money online as a student. The only tutoring I’ve done has been free of charge (see below*) but I do know many PhD students who do it on the side. It can be rewarding both financially and personally, as you start to see improvements in the students.
The typical scenario will see you helping students prepare for school exams but you may also find opportunities to help more junior university students. Pay will vary a lot depending on your credentials and how you market yourself, £30 per hour and above is typical.
Online tutoring is as flexible as you make it, however do factor in the time it takes for preparation.
Hourly rate: 4/5
Flexible hours: 3/5
Personal development: 2/5
Availability: 3/5
Tutoring Overall Score: 12/20
*Feeling altruistic and want to help out students who can’t afford a tutor? Universities often have volunteering schemes such as Pimlico Connection at Imperial. I did this for one term when I started my PhD. No pay but a lot of satisfaction and the potential to make a big difference to the students you help.
Matched Betting
The wildcard! In a nutshell matched-betting involves taking advantage of promotional sports betting and casino game offers: flipping the odds in your favour, massively increasing your odds of regularly winning.
You might have seen sketchy looking adverts about it, but rest assured that you genuinely can make decent cash doing it from the comfort of your bedroom. I subscribe to a matched betting service* which makes the process of finding and capitalising offers very simple.
A typical offer may see you make £20 for 20-30 minutes work, with some offers being much more time efficient and others less so. There are a series of simple sign-up offers you can begin with which got to me to a quick profit of around £1000 profit. After these sign-up offers there are usually recurring offers for existing customers too.
*This is an affiliate link, please read more about my policy relating to them here.
I started matched betting several years ago and in total have made almost £10,000. The nice thing with matched betting is that it is tax free!
You can do it as much or as little as you have time for and it’s easy to fit around your work. You won’t learn anything useful from doing it but the flexibility is almost unrivalled. In summary, provided you’re careful it’s a fantastic way to make money as a student!
If you’re interested I have now written a huge post, guiding you through matched betting:
Hourly rate: 4/5
Flexible hours: 5/5
Personal development: 1/5
Availability: 5/5
Matched Betting Overall Score : 15/20
Market Research Sessions
You’ve probably seen TV shows with a group of consumers thrown in a room to discuss their use of a certain product, with executives taking notes behind a one way mirror. The setting isn’t always like that, but the opportunities to make money as a student with market research are prevalent. It’s becoming increasingly common for virtual opportunities to be offered too.
There are agencies you can register with and they’ll regularly email new opportunities targeted at various demographics. I’ve done sessions on topics as diverse as gardening through to chocolate bars. You don’t need to be a student to apply for these but they do suit the potential flexibility of being a student.
The premise is simple: you provide an insight into your decision making process or feedback on a product to inform product development. Sometimes the work will involve going to a single one hour long session, other times you’ll be recording video diaries for a week or a month from home. Pay is often around £50 per hour or more.
Along with the products themselves I’ve received bonuses like an iPod to be able to record video diaries on which is an extra perk.
If you decide to attend a session in person make sure to factor in commuting time: earning £75 for a one hour session might sound great but if it takes an hour to get there it’s less efficient than it sounds. The sessions can be interesting but don’t really offer much in the way of personal development. Opportunities are sporadic and certainly not financially dependable so see them as a bonus.
Here are some companies which email me with market research opportunities:
*These are both affiliate links, please read more about my policy relating to them here.
Hourly rate: 5/5
Flexible hours: 4/5
Personal development: 1/5
Availability: 2/5
Market Research Overall Score: 12/20
Prolific
Prolific is similar to other online survey sites, but as well as making money you’re participating in academic studies. As of February 2021 I’ve been using Prolific for a few months now and have made just over £100 at roughly £10 an hour.
The nice thing compared to other ways of making money is that you can pick up studies at your convenience. A lot of the time the studies are actually pretty interesting too.
The worst thing about it is that there aren’t currently a constant stream of high earning surveys so the potential to earn lots of money is limited. Hopefully as the platform develops the opportunities will increase.
I wrote a whole article with my thoughts and tips for using Prolific here.
Hourly rate: 2/5
Flexible hours: 3/5
Personal development: 3/5
Availability: 2/5
Prolific Overall Score: 10/20
Bank Switching Offers
To entice customers, banks often give out free cash for you to switch to them. Usually these offers are for £50-£100. Recently I got paid £100 to switch a current account to RBS, not bad for 10 minutes work.
In 2019 I detailed some of the money I made from these here. See available offers in the UK listed here.
Switching is now really simple, with all your direct debits etc automatically carried across, so switching takes less than half an hour: making this a good hourly rate!
If you’re able to save money, the linked savings accounts associated with many of these accounts are great too. The issue is that there aren’t that many banks and you can’t do these offers that frequently so it certainly isn’t a long term solution to make money. I still recommend making the most of these very easy offers and I usually switch accounts every 12 months or so.
Do be aware that sometimes there are required minimum monthly deposits. Usually you are okay to “game” it (i.e. if deposits of £1000 per month are required, you can simply transfer money back and forth amongst several of your own accounts up to this amount).
Hourly rate: 4/5
Flexible hours: 4/5
Personal development: 1/5
Availability: 1/5
Banking Offers Overall Score: 10/20
Selling on eBay
I make money selling old belongings on eBay, and have averaged about £200 per month since starting my PhD.
This method of reliably making money only really applies if you’ve got loads of old belongings hanging around which A you no longer want and B have value. So it’s certainly not for everyone nor a sustainable long term income source. Nevertheless it’s worked great for me to both make money (over £10,000!) and give my belongings a new lease of life.
I wrote a post about it here: How I make money selling belongings on eBay.
It is great to see the rise in thrifting and reducing our demands on the planet. Even if you’ve just got some old clothes you’re no longer wearing, try selling them. As well as eBay there are loads of other platforms this applies to such as Depop, Shpock etc.
Hourly rate: 2/5
Flexible hours: 5/5
Personal development: 1/5
Availability: 2/5
eBay Overall Score: 10/20
How to Earn Money Online for Grad Students
In addition to the money making opportunities listed above, there is one additional way of making money open to you specifically as a masters or PhD student.
But before we delve into it I’ll first address whether it’s ok to earn extra money during your PhD, after all you’ll usually be receiving a stipend to pay you for your work.
The simple answer is that usually you are fine to make some extra money on the side and working as a graduate teaching assistant is often actively encouraged .
However there will normally be limits on the number of hours you can work outside of your PhD studies, so if in doubt consult your department for further details.
Consulting
Although not strictly limited to grad students, a lot of consulting roles will want you to demonstrate some expertise. Having several years of experience and a degree or two under your belt will significantly help with this.
I’ll begin by saying that I only have a small amount of experience in this area. Opportunities exist in many fields and you’ll typically hear about consulting opportunities through one of the following channels:
- Your supervisor may have a history of working with certain companies
- Department-wide emails targeted at PhD students to provide specialised help
- Adverts around campus
- Signing up to a consultancy agency
Of course you can also set yourself up as an independent consultant. Working with an external company through consulting can be a valuable experience for both academia and industry.
Recently I signed up to Kolabtree, a website connecting businesses and independent consultants. I’ve had some offers for work but haven’t yet taken on any. Be aware of the 20% platform fee. Even so I like the idea and setting up a profile doesn’t take long.
Hourly rate: 4/5
Flexible hours: 3/5
Personal development: 5/5
Availability: 2/5
Consulting Overall Score: 14/20
In addition to all of the ways to earn money online described above, I’d also encourage PhD students to keep an eye on any graduate teaching assistant (GTA) opportunities available. For more details see my full post on GTA roles.
The majority of these will be in person, but you may also find the occasional online role from time to time.
Summary: How to Earn Money Online for Students
Below is a brief summary of the key points we’ve discussed above.
- Tutoring: Offer your expertise to help younger students prepare for exams. Tutoring can be financially rewarding and flexible.
- Matched Betting: Take advantage of promotional sports betting and casino offers. Matched betting can be a lucrative way to make money online as a student.
- Market Research Sessions: Participate in market research studies to provide feedback on products or decision-making processes. These sessions can pay around £50 per hour or more.
- Prolific: Participate in online surveys and academic studies through the Prolific platform. Studies can be interesting and you can earn money at your convenience.
- Bank Switching Offers: Take advantage of banks’ offers to switch accounts and receive free cash. This can be a quick way to make money, but opportunities are limited.
- Selling on eBay: Sell old belongings on eBay or other platforms like Depop or Shpock to make money and give your items a new lease of life.
- Consulting (typically for graduate students): If you have expertise in a field, consider consulting opportunities, which can be beneficial for academia and industry connections.
As you can see, there are loads of ways for students to earn money online, each with their own pros and cons. No single one of these income streams is perfect for everyone, so which to choose will depend on your own skills, availability and priorities. However, there is nothing to stop you from utilising a mix of different income streams, giving you exposure to more opportunities to make money.
Keep in mind any limitations on the number of hours you can work outside of your studies, especially for graduate students receiving stipends.
Personally, from this list I’ve made the most money from eBay and matched betting. Then a much smaller and less dependable source has been market research opportunities and Prolific.
Best of luck with smashing both those money making and academic goals. Happy hustling!
Hopefully that’s helped to answer the question of how to earn money online for students. If you have any suggestions for income streams I should include, please do let me know in the comments.
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