Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #1: Create and sell an E-Book
Do you have expertise in a certain field? Do you know information that others don't know? Do you want to make money?
You can easily begin making money online by creating your own E-Book. An E-Book is an electronic book that you can create with a simple PDF document. You write your e-book on a topic that you have knowledge in such as making money, cooking, sports, fashion, fitness, finance...the list goes on. Pick a topic, write 5-10 pages on that topic, create a PDF, package it up and sell it online. Here are some E-Book Examples to generate some ideas:
The Paleo Recipe Book
Over 370 easy Paleo recipes divided into 18 food categories.
Enough options to cover everything you will ever need to eat the healthiest and tastiest food.
This author simply gathered his best recipes, packaged them up by making a killer website, and an awesome book cover
and is now earning money by writing about what he loves. It's easy if it's what you love...
I Phone Dev Secrets
How YOU Can Create an iPhone or iPad App or Game in 4 weeks
And Hit Pay Dirt With It In The App Store With No Programming Skills.
This author created an e-book to teach a skill. He teaches users how to create their own I Phone application and submit it to the App Store.
If you don't know a specific skill you can always outsource the writing of the content to a skilled professional and pay them a flat fee or split revenue on each e-book sold.
Getting Started:
1. Create Content
From:Own Personal Knowledge or Skilled Professional's knowledge
2. Package it Up
How:1. Use Adobe Photoshop/Photo Editing Software to design the cover, if you don't know how to design...Outsource it.
2. Use Microsoft Word or similar software to design the pages of the E-book with cool borders, fonts and images.
3. Create a simple one page website to sell the e-book. If you don't know how to design a website...Outsource it.
3. Market It
How:1. Google Adwords: A good and proven advertising method for getting traffic to your website. See Pay Per Click Advertising for more information on this advertising method.
2. Social Media Marketing: Use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create a huge social empire filled with passionate people talking about your e-book.
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #2: Create websites for local businesses
An easy way to earn money as a college student would be creating websites for local businesses in your area. The secret is that you don't need to know how to build websites! WordPress is a very popular blogging platform that you can use to create professional blogs and/or e-commerce websites to sell products. There are also tons of websites that sell templates for Wordpress, meaning you don't need much if any design skills to created websites you can use to MAKE MONEY or sell to MAKE MONEY There is a lot of money to be made in building websites for clients. Say for instance you create a website package that includes a fully functional website for a local business. A fully designed website from a web development firm can cost well over $2,500. You create a proposal for a client with a price around $250-$500 for a complete website and you'll sell website like hot cakes on a Sunday morning! : )
Getting Started:
1. Create a proposal that outlines 3 different packages at three different price levels.
Huh?: Example:Bronze Package includes fully functional website. - $249.99Silver Package includes fully functional website and social media account activation. - $399.99Gold Package includes fully functional website, social media account activation, Search Engine Optimization and free logo design. -$599Make sure your proposal is detailed including time line for the project and a signature on the page that will seal the deal with you and the business.
2. Gather resources that will be needed for the website
What resources?:If a customer orders a package that includes a logo design or special design place an ad on Craigslist to find a graphic designer who will be able to design your clients logo for a price that still allows you to earn a profit.
Download Wordpress: You're going to need to download Wordpress to install your selected theme.
Knowledge: When creating your timeline, include 7 days for research and development. Spend 7 days researching applications or widgets that will be needed for the clients website.
3. Show your client mock-ups of their website
How with no money?:1. Find Wordpress E-Commerce templates by searching Google or Yahoo
2. Print each Wordpress theme
3. Show your client your recommended wire frame
4. Request deposit on approval of wire frame template
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #3: Car Washing with a Twist
Car washes are cheap to get started. Grab a pail some soap and you’re ready to go. Haha. No. We’re going to put a spin on this opportunity and hold scheduled Car Wash Days at local businesses, organizations, schools, mini malls etc. These organizations will know that on a specific day you and your friends will be there to wash their cars. People need their cars washed but are lazy! Go to them, go to where they work and create a mini event out of it, so they can be assured that their car will be washed every week. You can also do this around your local neighborhood. I recommend targeting organizations with at least 10+ employees. To make it convenient for them, wash their cars while they're working.
Getting Started:
1. Create a proposal that you'll send to local businesses around the area.
How?:If you don't know how to write a proposal do a search online... Google "How to write a proposal" and figure it out. There are templates online that you can download and use as a template for your proposal. It's not as hard as you may think.
2. Hit the streets and give your proposal to business owners and managers in the area
Who to pick?Make a list of businesses in the area you want to visit that have many employees. The bigger the business the better. Imagine if you get an account with an office building that has 500 workers and they use you and only you for their car washing every Monday.
5. Start washing cars
This is an easy way to make money as a college students, this could even be applied for a campus. Think outside the box with this opportunity, twist it your way and hustle hard! Go down the yellow pages and look up potential clients, give them a call schedule a meeting and repeat everyday.Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #4: Drop-Shipping
Dropping is a technique in which the retailer does not keep inventory, but instead sends customer orders and shipment details to the supplier, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. This method is an easy way to make money, because it requires no up-front investment for products and there are thousands of products to choose from online that you can sell.
Getting Started:
1. Research
How?:Use the guide on CMME to pick a hot selling product. Is there a need for my product?
Once you have determined if there is a need in your industry pick 3-5 products that you would like to sell.
2. List Buyer/Seller Relationships
What?!:
Syncing Products that sell with suppliers.Example Below:
| PRODUCT | SELLER |
| Brightly Colored Strollers | |
| Stroller Accessories | |
| Stroller Wheels |
Once you’ve chosen the products you want to sell it’s time to find the supplier that will supply the product.
Search Engine:
I’ve been extremely successful with searching for suppliers through search engines. You can simply type in “Wholesale XXXXXX” and you'll be able to find suppliers for any product you want to sell! Try it! Go to Yahoo.com and type in Wholesale Baby Strollers and see what pops up! Don't stop at pg.1 either, at least go to the 10th
| PRODUCT | SELLER |
| Bright colored strollers | xxxxxxx@gmail.com |
| Stroller Accessories | xxxxxx@yahoo.com |
| Stroller Wheels | xxxxxx@bei.com |
Now it's time to contact them!
Introductory Email:
To initiate the business relationship start off by sending an introductory email to break the ice and show that you are a person that they would LIKE to work with. Don’t send a bland, boring email with no flavor. If they are another native, its cool to include a word or phrase of their language. You also don’t want to seem small, because they won’t want to work with you. You also want to make sure that you’re interested in a long term relationship, this could help with negotiating favorable terms when ordering your products.
Second Email to Introductory Email:
The secondary email will usually include a price catalog. You want to respond letting them know that you will review their prices along with your “Board of Advisors”, which could very well be your parents, supportive friends or counselors. This catalog should include MOQ which may be greater than 10-12 pcs. Don’t worry, we’ll get them Here’s an example:
Feasibility: Can this relationship make money?
Is it feasible?
Once you have reviewed pricing from the manufacturer, you need to determine if its feasible to drop-ship your product to your customer. The biggest question is will it make you money right?
Third Email: Drop-Ship request to supplier
The next step is to request a drop-ship relationship between you and your selected manufacturer. If they have a Minimum Order Quantity of 1, we’re good! Most manufacturers will now let you order one product, but the price will be substantially higher then if you purchased 25-50 units. Take the Min order quality at 1 with the higher cost and sell as many as you can. If they for some reason are not interested in the drop-ship relationship just order a product every time a customer orders, have it shipped to your home repackage it and send it on its way to your customers home.
3. Selling the Product
Once you and your supplier have agreed on a Drop-Ship agreement, price and delivery time to customer, it’s time to sell this product! The post should be sweet, simple and straight to the point is posting on a classified or auction site. If the product however, includes technical details such as a camera, laptop or celluar phone, research the details and include them in your listing. Check out my listing below.
Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera- $99Panasonic Lumix DMC-S1 12.1 Megapixel Compact Camera - 5 mm-20 mm - Black DMC-S1K Digital Cameras
- Brand: Panasonic
- Shipping Weight: 0.900 lb
- Mpn: 00885170032286
- Gtin: 00885170032286
- Availability: in stock
Sales Channels:
You’re going to sell your products through multiple sales channels including online auctions and classifieds websites. Below is a listing of Auction and Classified sites that you can list your product on. Take a look at them, browse their websites see how they work and when you’re ready start listing!
| Auction/Classified | Website | Notes |
| Ebay | www.ebay.com | High Competition, Low margin but fast moving if the correct product is chosen |
| Ebay Classifieds | www.ebay.com | High Competition, higher margins can be made, but moves rather slow |
| Craigslist | www.craigslist.com | Conservative buyers, will have to ship and some buyers will reject your offer |
| Back Page | www.backpage.com | Local Classifieds |
| OLX | www.olx.com | Local Classifieds |
| Us Free Ads | www.Usfreeads.com | Classifieds |
| Sell | www.sell.com | Great site for selling, offers featured positions starting at $1 |
| Bonqo | www.Bonqo.com | Great classifieds website that is becoming more popular |
| Claz | www.Claz.org | Local Classified |
| Penny Saver USA | www.pennysaverusa.com | Local Classifieds |
Customer response to your listing:
Once you post your product on the above sales channels you’ll be sure to get some response from customers. Once a customer bites onto one of your ads, you want to make them feel as comfortable as possible when discussing pricing, shipping or product information. Make sure to let your personality shine, and don’t be afraid to throw in an LOL or a smiley face to loosen things up. Check out my example:
Hey Bob.
Thanks for your interest in my digital camera. We’ve got a couple left available both brand new. I can get one out to you as soon as tomorrow morning if ya want it!
P.S: I see that you’re from Georgia, I’ve had a lot...a lot of fun times down there! ha ha
Talk to you soon!
David
You’ll be able to repeat this process time after time and earn hundreds if not thousands of dollars online from multiple products. The sky is the limit, the amount of money you earn will be based on the amount of ads you post on the above auction and classified sites, the profit you make from each product and your willingness to proceed even if you have a bad week in business. It’s all about consistency.
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #5: On Campus Rental Service
If your area doesn't have a rent-a-center, pick a product to rent to students. It could be appliances, electronics or furniture. This method will require some investment but has the potential to generate thousands of dollars per month. If you don't have any money to purchase the initial inventory, use some other money making techniques and save for your initial investment or take per-orders for the product that you'll use the purchase your initial inventory. Kick off your rental service by allowing people to have 2-3 months free if they pre-order with your company, they may pick your business over other major competitors if they get 2-3 free months of rent. If this is done on a big scale, and you market like crazy on campus you will be able to pay for your initial 25-50 products you can rent to your classmates.
Getting Started:
1. Do your research and pick a product:
How?:Survey Monkey is perfect for this opportunity because you can post the survey in your campus online marketplace/classified. Ask your classmates questions that will help you pick the right product to rent. You'll be surprised at the responses you get. Bicycles may just be your thing.
2. Taking it to market:
How?:Craigslist and your Campus Classified could both send you tons of interested buyers. Post an ad in your college town and watch how many inquires you get. Setting up a booth can also be very efficient in the student center or main purpose room on campus.
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #6: Start a tutor network
In college, there are many majors and minors that are taught and not every student gets those lessons when taught initially in class which leaves hundreds of students seeking additional information and support on topics they don't understand clearly. This method is a way take advantage of that opportunity without being a genius in each topic. Your service will link tutors with students who excel in their major or minor. The students who aren't so good at business but are rocket scientist in psychology, mathematics, nutrition or any other field of study. The key to this method is finding the top students in each field of study and get theme excited about being apart of your network. Create a proposal, and show them how this can benefit them and how much money they can make if they become affiliated with your company. I suggest offering the tutor 50% on each client. You'll market and get the helpless students and your contract rocket scientist will teach them everything they need to know on the selected topic.
Getting Started:
1. Find the tutors:
How?:1. Post a "Tutors Wanted" ad on Craigslist and on your college marketplace. Print the flyer also and post around campus in areas where these rocket scientist hang out.
2. Lock the tutors in:
Huh?:There would be nothing worse then a tutor not being available to a helpless student who needs help on a topic who has money to give you for the service. That would suck. Establish an agreement with the tutor so that you know when and where he/she will be so you can plan accordingly with the helpless students.
3. Take it to Market
How?:
Student Center Booth
Craigslist
Online Campus Marketplace
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #7: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you sell another companies products for a commission, this is similar to drop-shipping because you don't need to purchase the product prior to selling it. You are pretty much a marketing machine marketing that companies products. Many affiliate marketing companies offer great commissions on their products and some even offer residual income to their affiliate marketers. The great thing about affiliate marketing is that once you sign-up for an affiliate program they give you all the tools you need to get started such as links, templates banners making it easy to get on the web fast and begin making money. There are many affiliate networks, but I've had much success with Click Bank, Click bank is one of the top affiliate networks that offers it's affiliate marketers products in pretty much every category. It's very easy to get started with them, you just visit their website and sign-up. It's about taking action! If you are looking for a way to make quick money, this is definitely your answer because you can leverage a proven business model and a proven product and make money. Major companies such as Macy's, Target, Circuit City and Amazon.com even have affiliate programs. This opportunity is all about trial and error, you create a simple Wordpress site as shown above, pick a topic and pick affiliate products to sell to earn commissions. There are many strategies for driving traffic to your website such as Pay Per Click Advertising, Social Media, Search Engine Optimization and more, but you're going to need to try a little bit of each of those to see what works for you.
Affiliate Networks:
1. ClickBank.com
Click Bank primarily focuses on digital download products such as e-books, but don't let this scare you away if not interested in the whole e-book thing. Check them out, sign-up and see what they have to offer. It's all about trial and error! Take Action!
2. Amazon.com
Amazon.com is very easy to work with, links are easy to create and place and they have a wide selection of products and books to select from. Build a website around teach a specific skill like computer repair, slap some Amazon.com books on the side showing books related to computer repair and you could have a site making you a couple hundred bucks a month.
3. Commission Junction
Commission Junction is an international powerhouse, a little harder to get accepted into their programs but still an amazing program with a back end that makes it easy to get set-up in a couple of hours. Check them out. Take Action!
Getting Started:
1. Sign-up for the affiliate networks
How?:Visit the links above and sign-up for their affiliate program or you can do a google search for affiliate programs and start applying to the many affiliate programs out there. Check out major retailers, even Walmart has an affiliate program.
2. Research and Take Notes
How?:Take a day to browse the internet looking at only Affiliate Networks and the products they have available. Take notes on products that interest you and begin thinking of ways you could sell them online. There are many strategies out there to marketing such as building a review site to review 3 or more affiliate products, a single page website with a long sales letter selling the product or gathering emails and launching an e-mail marketing campaign, sending e-mails to your target market featuring the affiliate product your offering. Take notes on products available and the strategies you could use to sell them.
3. Market It
How?:1. Build a Wordpress site around the product
2. Create social media pages around the Wordpress
3. Gather emails from your Wordpress website
4. Send E-mail blasts to interested members of the site
5. Hustle hard to get your affiliate product in front of as many eyes as possible online
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #8: Make Money Taking Surveys
If you are a busy college student this is for you. There are companies that pay for opinions and you can make a nice amount of money from home taking surveys, while helping companies and organizations. Sometimes they offer up to $10 per survey which is a lot for only filling out 5 questions right? I suggest signing up for a couple of these survey companies to get started today. All of the below companies are free to sign-up for and they'll send you surveys periodically to fill and earn money. Seems to good to be true? Well it shouldn't the reason I created this post was to show everyone that there are ways to making money other than sitting at home putting a product on E-Bay and hoping it sells only to be discouraged when you onlly get $1.25 for the camera you posted. This is a proven method of making money online, and the sky is the limit there is no limit to how many survey networks you can sign-up with so if you sign-up with 10-25 of them you should have surveys hitting your inbox everyday making you money everyday. Try it out sign-up and take action, because this can get definitely get you money in your pocket.Paid Surveys at Home is a great opportunity requires a small initial investment and they have connections to companies who pay between $10-$40 per survey. Check them out, if you have a little money to invest this would be my selection. If you are looking for a free company to sign-up with check these guys out, they will help you pair up with the correct paid survey opportunity and all that is required is an e-mail, so check them out and get to taking surveys Work at Home Surveys.
Getting started:
1. Sign-up for as many networks as you can
How?:Check out the links above to get started, free or not free- there is a way for you to get started today.
2. Fill out surveys
How?:Open your email click on a survey and fill it out.
3. Cash your check
How?:Go to your local bank and cash your check :)
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #9: Be a Wholesaler (Drop-Shipping Method)
Entrepreneurs need products to sell, why not be their supplier?
You can be an entrepreneurs supplier and sell in bulk to them with each order. This is similar to the Method on Drop-shipping because you won't need to carry any inventory when launching your business, only product samples. Let's just get started!
Suggested Businesses to target:
Hair Salons: WeaveBarber Shops: Hair Clipper Accessories
Pet Shops: Feed
Computer Repair: Parts
Pet Grooming: Pet Shampoo Products
and the list goes on and on...
Getting Started:
1. Research
What?:Research what local businesses and entrepreneurs are in your area and document what type of products they sell and how often they sell them.
2. Contact Them
How?:
Go to the Yellow Pages or Google the company get their phone number and schedule an appointment to show them how you can save them big money on the products they sell.
3. Once you get a bite, research online to find a manufacturer who can supply you with these products
Where?:See above. Visit TradeKey and Alibaba as a start, I often find suppliers on the first search when browsing through those two websites
4. Present them a catalog of the available products and a term sheet that includes pricing and lead times for delivery
How?:Open up Word Document and create a catalog using pictures that your supplier will provide to you when you establish a relationship.
Top 10 Ways to Make Money as a College Student Method #10: Think of something crazy and out of the box
The internet loves when people create products or services that are either very funny or stupid. There have been countless entrepreneurs who have thought of creative ways to make money online, one being the Million Dollar Homepage. This entrepreneur thought to put 1 million pixels on a homepage and charge $1 per pixel, and is now a millionaire! Think of something that is so creative that you'll have people sharing this "Thing" like crazy when you launch. Here's a crazy idea that I hope will stir up some ideas. Create a website called the Puzzle Piece that lets people purchase shirts with a single piece of the puzzle on their shirt and once they've purchased the shirt they'll need to upload the picture into the Puzzle gallery where they will fill in their section of the puzzle. Imagine a screen full of people from around the world with a piece of a puzzle on their shirts. Once the puzzle is complete on this page, you'll have an internet landmark that will get tons of views which will make your page a hot spot for advertisers.
Getting Started:
1. Close your eyes and think HARD and ask yourself some serious questions
What questions?:What will spread like wildfire on the internet?
What is so crazy that it will make people open an email?
What will people laugh at?
What will make people take out their credit cards and purchase?
What do I already know how to do?
How can I put a spin on what I already know how to do?
2. Take out a sheet of paper and begin writing down some of these thoughts
Why?:Because you'll forget...
3. Take Action
Why?:Once you have thought of a crazy idea run it by a few people and begin taking action. Get your Wordpress site built. Submit an Online Press release, submit your website to blogs and websites in your niche to get people posting about you. Create a YouTube video and share the video on all social networks. Write an article about your new website and submit to the E-Zine article directory. Get hungry for your online success and don't let anyone tell you that your idea is stupid, because more than likely they are jealous or scared that you will do better than them if this crazy idea or any of the above ideas work. Entrepreneurship is all about trial and error, try something to the fullest if it doesn't work now you know never to try it again. I hope this was helpful, and I hope it get's you thinking outside the box about making money online, because it is possible and only YOU are holding yourself back from making $1000, $2500 or even $10,000 or more online PER MONTH. Yes it can happen, so get started today...
College Money Made Easy
www.collegemoneymadeeasy.com
