How to Earn Money Online For Students at Home in 2024? [30+ Legit, New & Proven Online Jobs]

I know the struggles of living a student life with an empty pocket. 

Compared to our time, today’s students are making good money through part-time online work. They’re even handling their education expenses and more.

However, many get so excited about making quick cash that they end up doing wrong jobs that are only beneficial in the short term. 

Today, I’ll share ways and jobs that, as a student, you can try from home or any location to earn a decent income and even build a career.

You just need a laptop/PC, a good internet connection, and a hard working mindset.

I’ve spent almost 5-6 days researching and compiling a list of high-earning potential jobs that are in high demand in 2024, yet not many people know about them. 

This article includes a total of 30+ jobs divided into two categories (including ones that require no investment).

So are you curious to learn how to make money online as a student?

Let’s jump into the details.

Quick Glance at Online Jobs for Students

Here is the list of the top 15 legit ways to earn money online for students:

15 Best Realistic Online Jobs for Students in 2024 [With Promising Career & Scope]

1. Become a Podcast Editor (Highly Trending)

• Average Earning Potential: 30-60k INR per month or $56 per job
• Skills Required: Video editing, Audio editing
• Daily Hours Required: 4-6 Hours
• Tools Required: Video editing software, Powerful Laptop

Podcasts are rapidly growing, with listeners expected to exceed 5.4 million by the end of 2024. To meet this demand, podcasters are continuously producing content.

Podcasts are generally long, and not many people know how to edit them. 

Learning Podcast video editing can help you secure gigs easily. 

As per Fiverr, you can earn an average of $56 per edited podcast, with top editors earning even more.

Your first earnings depend on how quickly you learn. 

Free “Podcast editing courses” are available on YouTube.

To start, you’ll need a video editing tool like Adobe Premiere Pro. (You can manage with cracked versions temporarily.)

Where to find work?

For initial projects, approach YouTubers involved in podcast creation. Later you can consider any freelance marketplace.

2. Start Blogging & Affiliate Marketing

• Average Earning Potential: $1000-$3000 per month
• Skills Required: Writing, SEO, Sales, etc.
• Daily Hours Required: 5-6 Hours

The blog you’re currently reading was launched in 2010.

In the beginning, we struggled to generate traffic and money. But now, it’s generating a full-time income.

Here is my income proof for motivation.

Blogging & Affiliate Marketing is one of the oldest ways to earn an online income. Students, employees, housewives or anyone thinking seriously about an online business can surely consider this.

One downside of this online earning method is that it is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You have to wait at least 1 year or more to see some cash flowing in.

As of today, to start a blog, you only need web hosting and a domain. Your initial expense will be $3-$5 per month for these two things. As a student, you can write articles yourself in your free time.

Here’s a detailed guide on making money blogging, which shows you different ways to make money from blogging.

You can use an affordable web host such as Hostinger to start a professional blog starting only at $2.69/mo (with a free domain!).

Before starting a blog, you need to decide on a niche. As a student, you can explore any niche that interests you. 

Just remember that your chosen niche should have different high-paying affiliate programs available to promote products and services.

In fact, the blog you’re currently reading generates over $10,000 every single month. Also, we’re one of the top affiliates for the Semrush affiliate program.

Suggested Reading: For those interested in starting a blog with no upfront costs, check out my post on ‘How to Create a Blog for Free and Make Money.’ Get started now!

3. Reels & YouTube Shorts Editor

• Average Earning Potential: 30-60k INR per month
• Skills Required: Video editing, User Engagement
• Daily Hours Required: 4-6 Hours
• Tools Required: Video editing app

YouTube Shorts have gone ahead of Instagram Reels in short and vertical videos. On average, YouTube Shorts get 76 billion views daily.

This is another type of video editing job that is very popular right now.

Most content creators know how to make and edit long, horizontal videos, but YouTube Shorts needs more than just video editing skills. Your ability to engage viewers also matters here.

In terms of earnings, you can make as much as a regular video editor with this job. The average hourly salary is $30. 

Tons of free “YT Shorts editing tutorials” are available on YouTube.

The best thing about this job is that you don’t need a special expensive video editor to learn editing. Smartphone apps like “Video Editor by InShort” are the perfect way to create YT Shorts.

Where to find work?

In the beginning, it’s best to approach any Instagram influencer or YouTube Shorts creator. Later on, you can look for jobs on job boards.

Juggling studies and a part-time job is tough. Find legit online jobs that offer flexibility and fit your busy schedule.

4. Try Thumbnail Designing

• Average Earning Potential: 20k-30k INR per month ($25 Hourly)
• Skills Required: Designing, Creativity, Copywriting
• Daily Hours Required: 3-4 Hours
• Tools Required: Canva (Free)

The demand for Thumbnail Designers is increasing on a daily basis. The reason behind this surge is YouTube videos. Nowadays, people are even starting to create thumbnails for Instagram reels.

Thumbnails play a crucial role in the success of YouTube content. Catchy thumbnails attract user clicks, leading to more views.

Due to their ability to capture user attention, graphic designing gigs in this field are somewhat different and highly lucrative. Here, your copywriting, user engagement, and artistic skills are evaluated.

Gone are the days when expensive tools like Photoshop were necessary for graphic design. 

Nowadays, you can easily create thumbnails on Canva.com.

I assume as a student, you are already familiar with Canva.com.

Earning an average of $25 per hour can be a perfect side hustle for a student.

Where to find work?

You can find Thumbnail Designer jobs on online marketplaces like Ytjobs.co, Fiverr, Upwork, People Per Hour, etc.

Students can find real money opportunities with these online job options. For additional ideas, check out our websites that pay.

5. Become a Social Media Content Creator For Others

• Average Earning Potential: Depend on the chosen niche
• Skills Required: Depends on the chosen field
• Daily Hours Required: 4-5 Hours

I am not saying to start something on your own. 

Instead become a content creator and create any type of content you like for other social media creators:

• Create a Video Content for others (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc)
• Create Linkedin marketing content for businesses.
• Create graphic content for marketers
• Create digital templates & infographics
• Create content for Instagram and Facebook pages
• Create product content for online sellers
• More

Every other business requires content to survive in their online business. 

They are already looking for you; you just need to decide what type of content you can create the best.

Businesses spend $1000-$20000 per month on content creation, and that’s why the earning scope is good. You just need an initial portfolio.

Before working in any niche, you should learn the social media platform thoroughly. You’ll find courses and tutorials for all sorts of content creation.

To gain certificates, you can also take a course. For example, you can find dozens of courses on Social Media content creation on Udemy.com.

6. Become a Social Media Influencer

• Average Earning Potential: Depends on Profile Size
• Skills Required: Social Media Content Creation
• Daily Hours Required: 4-6 Hours

Influencer marketing has become the most favored promotion technique for businesses today. The reason behind this is trust. 

According to research, 69% of consumers buy products and services recommended by their favorite influencers.

Because of this, you can see students and teenagers with influencer profiles on Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms.

Nowadays, this method has become the most lucrative way to earn money in the online world. However, the downside is that it takes time for your profile to gain popularity.

According to a 2022 report, influencers with 1-9k followers charge $1105 per post, which is huge.

Brands will approach you for product promotion only when you have a good number of followers and an engaged audience. This means that this online earning method is not a quick-rich scheme.

To become a social media influencer, you first need to find a category. 

For example, the Lifestyle category has the most influencers and models.

After choosing a category, create a page and start posting content to gain followers.

As your page grows, you will start receiving product promotion requests from brands.

7. Freelancing Option is Always Open

• Average Earning Potential: Depends on the Freelance job
• Daily Hours Required: 6-7 Hours

As a student, you can’t work full-time jobs, but by doing part-time freelancing based on your interests and skills, you can easily cover your monthly expenses and study costs.

Hands down, freelancing is the best way to make money as a student. It is one of the best ways to improve your skills as well.

Some highly demanding freelancing gigs for students are:

• Content Writing (82% USA Freelancers are Content Writers)
• Web Developer
• App Developer
• Copywriter
• Photographer
• Programmer
• Videographer
• Virtual Assistant
• Data Entry
• Voice Over Artist
• More

In the beginning, you might need to do some projects for free to build your portfolio. However, this can be worthwhile because, in the future, you will get high-paying gigs based on these initial projects.

If you are just starting out, the expected freelance earnings would be $19 per hour. 

Where to Find Work?

The biggest struggle in freelancing is to find your first project. I am not recommending trying popular freelance marketplaces including Fiverr, Upwork, & People Per Hour.

These platforms are highly crowded, and you won’t get a job if your profile is new.

The best way to get freelance work is to approach clients directly. For example, the freelance content writers who work with me approached me directly on LinkedIn.

Bonus Read: Need a list of the best sites for content writing? Check out the list of best freelance content writing websites.

8. Get a Online Internship

• Average Earning Potential: 5-15k INR per month 
• Skills Required: Video editing, Audio editing, Content Writing, etc
• Daily Hours Required: 3-5 Hours

If your luck in freelancing doesn’t work out, you can try paid internships. Here, you can earn some money by working 3-5 hours a day.

The earning potential is less, but the biggest benefit is gaining experience. You’ll learn how to work on live projects in a real job setting.

Basically, you’ll be able to prepare yourself for full-time jobs in the future. 

Another great thing about online internships is that you get certificates from businesses or companies.

No matter which field you’re studying, there will be an internship available for you.

Some of the popular subjects where you get internships easily are:

• Computer Science 
• Digital Marketing 
• Finance
• Graphic Design
• HR 
• Law
• Architecture
• Content Writing
• Mechanical Engineering
• More

Where to Find Internships?

In India, Internshala.com is one of the biggest internship job boards where you can find all sorts of opportunities, both work-from-home and office types. 

Alternatively, you can approach small companies in your area.

9. Explore Content Writing Gig

• Average Earning Potential:$0.05 to $0.10 (0.5 – 1 INR) per word
• Skills Required: Writing, SEO, Research
• Daily Hours Required: 4-6 Hours
• Tools Needed: Laptop for Writer

When ChatGPT was launched, people claimed that it would take away jobs in the content writing field.

But the opposite happened.

Recently, in the March 2024 update, Google imposed major penalties on all sites with AI-generated content, causing their businesses to nearly collapse.

So yes, the demand for real human content writers is rising again.

As per Glassdoor report of India, the average earning students can expect as a junior content writer is 6k-10k INR. It will depend on how much content you are going to write.

Obviously you need to learn a few things before trying hands for your first project including SEO, writing skills, content editing and detailed research methods.

Where to Find Work?

Your college subjects can help you get gigs. I would advise you to search for projects in niches where you have deep knowledge. 

For example, if you have knowledge of finance, you can approach finance-related websites for writing tasks. Contact information of Managers can be easily collected from Linkedin.

There are a lot of bloggers who need content writers so all you have to do is to find a few blogger communities and search for content writing gigs. 

You can also start a blog and start providing your writing services to attract more clients who are interested in your work.

Stay away from highly freelance competitive platforms including Fiverr, Freelancer, etc. Instead try these article writing services.

10. Become a Etsy Seller

• Skills Required: Marketing, Product Writing, Product Photography
• Daily Hours Required: 4-6 Hours

If you know how to make handmade, custom-made, personalized items that people especially buy on Etsy, this part-time business can be quite profitable for you.

People tend to spend more money on Etsy compared to other marketplaces. Therefore, you can expect higher earnings here as well.

You can enroll your family members, friends as well in this small venture.

These are the few items which are most selling on Etsy:

• Digital Printables
• Digital Templates
• Jewelry
• Stickers
• Gifts
• Leather Products
• Stones
• Crystals
• Vintage Items
• Party Supplies
• More

The additional skills like SEO, Product writing, Product selection, Promotion techniques, Copywriting, require you to learn before running a successful Etsy store.

The downside is competition. If your products are not unique, you may get lost among millions of product listings forever.

11. Become A Web Tutor

Are you interested in teaching others? Then try online tutoring. It gives you plenty of room to improve and money to make without putting any investment whatsoever.

Skills required to become an online tutor:

• Adequate English writing skills
• Sufficient skills to use the Internet (and the ability to use different web apps)
• Passion for teaching others online

You can use sites like Tutors.com to find tutoring jobs online.

How to earn money online for students from tutoring?

It depends on your hourly rate. Few sites pay each and every month where you have to work a min of 3 to 4 hours every day whereas few other sites pay an hourly rate. 

You can easily make around $30 to $50 every day if you are good at what you teach.

Where can you start using your teaching skills to become a web tutor and start making money as a student?

Although there are hundreds of places available online to sell your teaching skills, here I’m listing only a few sites that offer excellent features to their users. Do check out them.

• Tutor.com
• Tutorvista.com

12. Become a VA (Virtual Assistant)

Virtual assistants are required EVERYWHERE.

As a VA, you’ll have to do micro-jobs. Micro jobs are the newest trending jobs online that are helpful for anyone who is willing to put their free time to work on the services they are good at.

The great thing about micro jobs is that you don’t need expert-level skills to make a decent income every month.

Sites like Fiverr help you make money online without putting in any investment. The best thing about making money online through micro jobs is that you don’t have to be an expert. You just need the basic skills in several fields to make a decent income each and every day.

Here are a few sites that offer micro-jobs for you.

• FlexJobs.com
• Upwork.com VA Jobs

As a VA, you’ll have to do micro jobs such as;

• Commenting on others’ blogs
• Creating covers for eBooks
• Photoshop skills
• Creating banners or logos
• Rating and reviewing videos
• Writing articles
• Signing up for websites

If you don’t want to start a blog or be good at one field and still want to make money online, we recommend you do micro jobs as they give you almost instant money.

How much can you earn as a VA?

If you’ve experience as a VA, you can expect to earn over $1000 per month. On average, most VAs charge between $10 to $30 per hour, depending on the work. 

As per Glassdoor India, the average monthly salary of VA is 22k which is good for students.

The harder you work, the more money you make as a VA. It is probably the best choice for online earning for students.

13. Start Online Trading at Early Stage

Online trading offers a great opportunity for students aged 18 and above to save and invest.

The sooner you start investing your savings as a student, the greater the long-term returns you can expect.

Don’t forget there is a risk of losing money here.

So my advice is to learn about trading first. 

There are dozens of books there to learn the concept of Trading such as “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham. You can get dozens of courses or free videos on YouTube for the same.

14. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a business model where customers purchases from your online store but the supplier is solely responsible for shipping the order to the customer.

It is also one of the oldest online earning methods. I prefer Affiliate marketing though!

Good earnings are only possible if you achieve high sales on a daily basis.

I usually do not recommend this online earning method to students because:

• There is a lot of competition
• You don’t have control over the supply chain
• Building a brand requires a lot of effort
• You may need a good investment to set up an online store, run marketing campaigns, hire people, etc.
• Building trust

I am not saying this is a totally failed method of making money online. In fact, the profitability of online stores using the dropshipping business model has seen growth of up to 50%.

15. Become A YouTuber

It doesn’t matter what topic your videos are related to. 

From cooking to shooting your own bike riding videos, you can make money from YouTube. You just need to create your own YouTube channel (it’s free), you just need a Gmail account to start. 

YouTube is one of the perfect side hustles for girls.

How much can you earn from YouTube?

Once you generate more likes and views on your YouTube videos, you can start getting paid $1 to $2 for every 1000 views you get. 

Let’s say you get 1 million views on any of your YouTube videos; you will earn something close to $1000 to $2000 easily!

The more videos with the highest views you have the more money you get into your pockets. It’s how thousands of video bloggers are making thousands of dollars every single month.

Making money on YT sounds easy, but it is not.

You need millions of views and good watch time to enable monetization on your channel. Plus, the uniqueness of ideas really matters here due to the huge competition. 

Many YouTube channels don’t last long because of this.

You may also need a good camera, lighting setup, and other essential accessories, which might not fit every student’s budget.

Here’s a great video on using YouTube to earn money:

15 More Ways to Earn Money as a Student With Zero Investment

In this section, I will share jobs and methods for students to start earning online without any investment.

Worst Ways to Earn Money Online for Students [Avoid These Jobs]

I will tell you about 4 online earning methods that you, as a student, should always ignore.

Generally, scammers will suggest these types of methods, but you should avoid them all.

1. Betting Apps, Fantasy Apps, and Prediction Gaming Apps are Scam

The best example is the IPL. During IPL matches, you see ads for fantasy games everywhere. I am not disclosing any name.

They claim that ordinary people can make a lot of money by betting on these games, but the opposite happens.

These companies make money from people betting on every match. Yes, I agree that 1-2 people out of millions might win a big amount. However, most others only make $1-$2 in profit, which is insignificant.

You can also incur losses. Your time, effort, energy, and money are all wasted on these get-rich-quick schemes.

2. Only Sticking to Freelancing

I am not suggesting you avoid Freelancing. Freelancing is the perfect option to start your online journey as a student.

But don’t stick to freelancing for a lifetime. That would be like working for your clients and just taking a monthly salary.

I am suggesting you to expand your Freelance business by hiring or outsourcing work to multiple people and follow the agency model.

3. Referrals and Survey Filling

The worst way to make money online is filling surveys and by sharing app referrals. You earn pennies and in exchange your valuable time would be wasted for nothing.

4. Faceless Channels 

You might come across people on the internet who tell you to create faceless channels and use AI to write scripts on trending topics, then make Instagram reels or YouTube shorts and upload them.

Don’t waste your college time by doing such nonsense things for the sake of money.

Your content might get some views for a while, and your videos may even go viral, but you won’t have monetization options like sponsorships or product promotions. These channels appear fake, and once the trend fades, your views will drop significantly.

Recommended resources around making money:

• Top list of getting paid to blog sites
• Best Fiverr gigs to make money from home as a student
• Top real online jobs for earning quick money
• Best Side Hustles for Teens to Earn Some Income in 2024
• Top Side Hustles for College Students to Earn More in 2024

FAQs | Online Jobs for Students 2024

Final Thoughts

An unlimited number of online jobs are available right now in India and worldwide. To get those jobs and start making money as a college student, you need to build some skills such as coding, writing, typing, designing, etc.

A word of caution: Don’t make these jobs ruin your academic career. We know we all want to use it online to make money, but if you are wasting your time on earning pennies, then it might spoil your career.

Did you find the online jobs for students mentioned in this guide useful? Have any questions on online earning platforms for students? Let us know in the comments.