Whether you’re a busy high school student or you’re in your first year of college, you’re probably looking for new ways to earn money while you’re still in school. Luckily, there are plenty of options available that don’t involve leaving your dorm room! To find out more about these eight ways to make money with your phone as a student, keep reading below.
8 Ways to Make Money With Your Phone as a Student
If you’re looking for ways to make money online as a college student, you’re in luck. If making extra cash while in school is important to you, it’s time you start considering these options.
1) Get Paid for Signing up Friends
Think back to your days in high school and college, when you signed up for every credit card offer you could find. Many of these offers will still send you small gifts or Amazon credits if they’re approved, which is basically free money. Sites like Swagbucks can help you do that. If you can get 5 friends signed up for things like cash-back credit cards and gift cards, you can get $75-$100 a month from each friend—that’s $600-$800 extra per year! Bonus: If your friends open new accounts through your link, it’ll help boost your score. Who doesn’t want that? It also never hurts to ask family members and co-workers if they have any reward points sitting around collecting dust; those can be converted into cold hard cash too. You might be surprised how many people will say yes!
2) Create an Online Brand
There are so many ways you can make money with your phone, but it’s important to get started by having an online presence. As a college student, you likely don’t have much room in your budget for marketing costs. Instead of spending money on ads and fancy packaging, consider getting started with an online brand. It won’t cost you anything upfront—and could end up making you more money than if you had spent thousands on paid advertising campaigns.
3) Use Swagbucks to buy Gift Cards
The first step in how to make money with your phone as a student is to find an app that pays you for things you already do. One of my favorite ways to make money is through rewards apps, especially Swagbucks. For every app or game check-in at places I’m going anyway, and shopping at retailers I shop at already, I earn points that can be used toward gift cards. An easier way? Refer friends and family who want free gift cards too! It’s quick, easy cash. As far as making money with your phone goes, it doesn’t get much easier than that!
4) Participate in Surveys
Though participation may be slow, at around 1-2% in most cases, there is money to be made from surveys. The downside is that you need a good internet connection and decent typing skills if you want to make any sort of reasonable income from them. And don’t even think about getting rich doing it unless you’re willing to invest many hours into it. The first company I recommend trying out is Ipsos-iSay. Ipsos is considered one of the world’s leading market research companies, with offices all over America (including at least ten in California) and several dozen more across Europe, Asia, and Australia; they are also responsible for GfK and NOP Worldwide.
How to Make Money Online as a College Student
5) Use Your Social Media Presence to Earn Cash Back on Shopping
This is a win-win for everyone. The best way for college students to make money with their phones is by selling what they already have. If you need money, then sell your books and clothes on sites like Amazon and eBay. (Don’t worry: As long as it’s in good condition, there will be buyers.) And if you don’t need money, then go ahead and sell those books anyway—the cash you get from them will pay for next semester’s textbooks! Selling items online can help you make some extra cash without breaking a sweat; sometimes all it takes is putting up an ad online or asking friends if they’re interested in buying something specific.
6) Earn extra cash on Shopkick
If you’re in college and looking for some extra cash, there are plenty of apps and programs that pay students for everything from taking selfies to going shopping. If you have friends who are also in school or looking for some quick cash, it never hurts to split your earnings! The app Shopkick can be used at certain retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Old Navy (if you’re into that sort of thing) so check your local stores if you want an easy way to make a little money. It takes just one minute of walking through a store with your phone turned on and Shopkick will reward you with kicks which can then be exchanged for gift cards at various retailers or simply donated back to select charities. Join free here.
7) Try Out New Apps and Services
Are you looking for quick ways to make money online? If so, it’s important that you experiment with different apps and services—and see what works. We recommend signing up for apps like TaskRabbit or Fiverr. Try selling your random stuff on eBay, Etsy, or Amazon FBA. Or maybe you want to get paid by doing some manual labor on TaskRabbit or Mechanical Turk. These options are all viable ways of making money with your phone as a student; even better, they don’t take much time! The hard part is figuring out which path is best for you.
8) Sell Old Books and Clothes
We’ve all got old books, electronics, and clothes lying around in our rooms—and it’s time to find new homes for them. Sites like Campus Book Rentals and ThredUp allow you to rent out your old stuff or sell it online easily. If you really want some quick cash, there are even apps that let you see how much your stuff is worth—like Decluttr, Poshmark, and Gazelle. In fact, there are so many ways to make money from your old things that we’ve put together a list of 20 of our favorites. But remember: not everything has value! Before you decide to sell something, ask yourself if someone else might be able to use it. That sweater might be great for a family member (or yourself) down south where it’s cold now but can still work next year when winter rolls back around. Donate what you don’t need and then pick up an extra shift at work or start looking on sites like TaskRabbit or Fiverr for some part-time work. And don’t forget about local Facebook groups; sometimes your neighbors will buy used items off each other instead of spending money on Craigslist ads. The more creative you get with making money, the easier those student loans will seem!
Conclusion
At first, it may seem hard to make money with your phone since so many other people are doing it; however, by using these eight tips you will be able to see how much fun it can be. The great thing about making money with your phone is that you can do it anytime, anywhere. No matter what time of day or night, if you have your phone with you then you can be working on earning some extra cash. When saving up for college try some of these ideas and hopefully they will help earn you some extra spending money! Have fun working at home and remember: never pay full price!