This
article originally began as ‘ways for teens to make money’, but as I
have updated and added to it over the years, I have found that many of
the items listed actually work for many adults looking to make some
extra income as well.
I can remember my teenage days well. I didn’t want to work, but I
needed to make money to support my social life. So I umpired, cut grass,
and bagged groceries.
I didn’t particularly love any of the jobs, but in order to offset my spending, I needed to work.
The good news for us today is there are a wide range of
ways to make money- that weren’t around when I was a teenager.
Most of them require a good work ethic, but there are a lot of new opportunities available.
Luckily for many teens, they may already be very skilled in certain
areas that could easily translate into a nice side income for them. For
example, I remember hearing about a teenage girl who designed Myspace
backgrounds and was making more money than her parents.
So potentially, a teenager who is willing to work hard could make
considerably more than working traditional “jobs” like at McDonalds,
cutting grass, bussing tables, etc. For even more, check out these 5
legit work-from-home job opportunities.
What type of teen are we talking about?
The 7-year period defined as the “teenage years” sees a wide range of
maturity levels. I remember moments where I showed high levels of
maturity and moments that are better left unspoken. Interestingly, my
immaturity didn’t necessarily decrease as I grew closer to 20 years old.
My point is that some of these jobs are going to require a teenager who
is “on the ball” in terms of maturity. But if you have (or are) one,
these could be much better alternatives to “would you like to supersize
that?”
The 35 Ways To Earn Money
1. Make Money Online with Swagbucks
Basically this is a free site that offers you a bunch of ways to earn cash, gift cards, or other rewards.
You can earn by answering polls, taking surveys, doing simple tasks
(like giving feedback about a website), trading in old video games or
books, and even playing games on their site.
I have tried it out and have received multiple payments from them, so I can attest that it is legit.
The screenshot to the right was an Amazon gift card that I got from
them, but I have also redeemed my “bucks” for Paypal gift cards as well
when I wanted the cash.
While you won’t get rich doing this, to me it seems like a great way
for internet-lovers to make some money. Find out more in our
Swagbucks review or get started
here.
I just recently
made $2145 in one month selling stuff from around the house on Ebay and Craigslist.
You can even sell stuff for friends or family members and split the profits with them.
A couple years ago I did an
interview with a guy who made $28,000 in one year doing this part time. It is work and requires organization skills to do it well, but it is legit.
I tried my hand at it using
Project Payday and their training materials to see that it was legit.
Basically companies are willing to pay you to do trial offers for
their products. They know that many people who do the trial offer will
like their product and continue to be customers, so they are willing to
pay people to sign up for trial offers.
So one of the main ways of making money freebie trading is signing up
for offers like a Free Netflix trial, emusic.com, applying for a
Discover Card, etc. The key to success seems to be having a calendar
where you can keep track of when the trial periods end and make sure to
cancel before they end.
If you are interested in learning more I definitely recommend
Project Payday
as they have a ton of training guides (free if you complete a couple
offers) that will greatly simplify the process. Oh and they have a A+
rating with the BBB as well.
4. Take online surveys
I am not particularly fond of the whole online survey thing since I had a bad experience using
CashCrate.
But there are lots of online survey sites and people who do it
successfully. Here are a few if you want to investigate it further:
I recommend proceeding with caution and definitely not paying anything to join.
5. Raise Money Online
If you are
raising money for a community service project or missions, you might want to check out a site like
GoFundMe.com.
They make it easy for teens to raise money for any type of project.
People have used it to raise the money for everything from mission trips
to medical bills, weddings and honeymoons, business ventures, and even
college tuition.
6. Build Websites For Others
I can’t tell you how many people have asked me to
build them a website
since I started this one a couple years ago. I am not seeking the work
and people are requesting it, so if you do a little legwork and pursue
small business owners, there is a lot of work available. Teens might be
great for this, because they would be able to work for less than some
higher end website developers, which would put them in the price range
that it seems many small businesses are looking to spend. Here is a
great course to help you get started.
7. Cleaning out Foreclosed Homes
With there being as many foreclosed homes out there as there are, the
bankers (who now own the houses) don’t want to clean them up and they
are willing to pay hefty sums for those who will. So it is fairly easy
to start a Foreclosure cleanup business and get paid pretty well in the
process. If you are interested here is
a course you can take to learn more.
8. Freelance Write
As they say on the web “content is king” and everyone wants it. Places like
Elance or
Odesk have
thousands of different job openings available for freelance writers. If
you are not in a rush for receiving compensation and know how to do
keyword research, there is money to be made writing at
Hubpages and
Squidoo. For more on this method, check out
How to make money with Hubpages.
9. Start a Christmas Light Hanging business
If you aren’t afraid of heights and can handle being out in the cold, this is a pretty great business opp.
Some people earn a full-year’s salary just hanging lights for 2 months each year.
Here is
a course that I found that teaches you how to do it.
10. Sell Plasma
Not sure how old you have to be, nor how painful it is, but if you
are into that sort of thing, it can be a way to make some quick money.
You can find donation centers
here.
11. Take part in medical studies
I have a couple friends who have almost done this exclusively as a
job. They were basically human guinea pigs, but they made some decent
cash at it. Sometimes they would have be at the medical facility for up
to 48 hours, so your schedule may need to be flexible.
Just google “medical studies” + your city to find some options.
12. Fiverr
Fiverr
is a website that allows you to sell your service for $5. There are all
kinds of crazy things people are offering and getting paid for on there
– like taking a picture holding a sign, recording 2 sentences in an
irish accent, recording a video singing a certain song, and even prank
calling a friend all for $5.
So if you have a little creativity, there are some fun ways to make some money on the side.
13. Gigwalk
Gigwalk is a fairly new iPhone app that offers payment for completing simple tasks based on your location.
For example users earn by taking pictures of a restaurant’s menu, verifying roadblocks and signage, and other simple tasks.
If you are in a big city (which typically has more opportunities) there is some decent potential with this one.
14. Get paid to Tweet
Did you know that advertisers will pay you to send out tweets about their products?
As you could imagine the bigger your audience the more you will get paid, but you can find out more here –
SponsoredTweets.com.
15. Use Bookscouter to sell books from Thrift stores
Ok here is a simple business idea for you.
Start by downloading the BookScouter app on your phone.
Go visit garage sales or thrift shops and scan the used book sections to find books that you can sell for higher prices.
Many thrift stores sell all their books for 50 cents or less and some of those books are worth a whole lot more.
As you can see in the image to the right, you just scan the barcode
with your phone (or enter the ISBN #) and then the app provides the
prices that a bunch of book buyback sites are willing to pay for that
particular book.
In this case, we can make $3.60 selling this Dave Ramsey book. If I
can buy it for 50 cents, then that sounds like a nice profit.
16. Tutor or give lessons
Are you great at guitar, math, or kicking a field goal?
Why not advertise your skills to those a few years younger than you?
Many parents are willing to pay a teenager to tutor their child in an area that needs development.
Post an ad to Craigslist for free and see what happens!
17. Create Facebook Graphics or Pages
or Twitter backgrounds for that matter.
Lots of small business owners are needing help making their online
presence not so lame. If you have even the smallest amount of graphic
design skill you can help some of them!
Just set up a simple site to sell your work, get a paypal “buy it now link” and you are off and running.
18. Write product reviews
There are places like
Ciao,
Epinions.com,
ReviewStream.com that
pay for product reviews – if you have an opinion and can type quickly
this might be a good option. Another one that just popped up is called
Ukritic and
they allow you to write reviews of products and then you can earn
affiliate commissions from the sales of those products. It might not be
quick cash, but for those who like to write it may be a decent option.
Jobs for adults or uniquely mature teenagers
19. Buy and Sell cars for profit
If you love cars and aren’t afraid to haggle, you could start a car flipping biz.
We have a friend of the family who has done this for years.
He scours the classified listings for deals, lands a good deal and
then drives the car while trying to sell it for a couple grand more.
Sometimes he sells them quickly, sometimes it takes a little longer, but
he gets to drives lots of cars (which he loves) and makes a nice side
income as well.
Here is
an online course to help you get started.
20. Rent out your car for $10+ an hour
I just heard about
RelayRides.com which allows you to either rent or lend your car to others – and get paid in the process.
If you live in a big city, this could be pretty profitable!
21. Blogging
Two years ago I wasn’t sure if there was money to be made blogging,
but I have since found it to work out nicely. It isn’t something that
will provide much income quickly, but if you stick at it, it can.
Since I have been a full-time blogger for many years now, I wrote extensively about
how to make money from a blog for those who are interested in this type of thing.
22. Design Web Logos
If you have a flair for design, it may be worth trying to
make some money designing logos for small business or
blogs.
23. Social Marketing Consultant
Many companies are looking for qualified candidates who know the ins
and outs of Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter to help them with their
social marketing efforts.
Head over to a
job site and search for “social media marketing”.
24. Sell articles
Following in that same vein, you can sell articles you write at places like
Constant-Content.com,
ArticleSale.com,
Helium.com.
25. Start an eBay business
Last year I experimented with
starting an eBay business to see if there was money to be made.
While profit margins can be thin selling on eBay, there are over a million eBay businesses, so it is a viable option.
26. Sell Digital Photos
Making money as a photographer has become easier over the last decade.
There are now lots of sites looking to buy digital photos:
Shutterstock.com,
123RF.com,
Dreamstime.com,
CreStock.com, and
Fotolia.com.
As with most things, the better you are, the more money you will make, but it can be a nice passive income if you work at it!
27. Find odd-jobs on Craigslist
Some of these might be landscaping work, or similar odd-jobs, but it might be great summer-time work!
28. Sell widgets on Etsy.com
If you create any kind of arts or crafts or widgets of any sort, you should definitely be selling it on
Etsy.com.
Read our
step-by-step tutorial of how to set up your Etsy shop.
There are likely to be focus groups in your area that may be willing
to hire teens. Organizations are always looking for participants because
there are
business advantages for focus groups. Just Google “focus group” and your city to get started.
30. Make Money by Viewing Ads On Your Android Lock Screen
I’ve been trying out this android app called
Locket that puts ads on your lock screen and pays you for each time you unlock your phone.
I’ve been trying it out for a few days and have made about 3 bucks
thus far, so it isn’t huge, but at the same time, I didn’t really have
to do any work to earn the money.
Anyway, if you are interested in checking it out, I have a quick video review that you can watch here…
This is the dream job isn’t it? You get to shop and get paid! The
added bonus is that you secretly have recourse when you are treated
poorly in the store.
32. Offer to do jobs on Zaarly.com
Zaarly is a
website that connects those offering random services (like walking a
dog, being a personal assistant for a day, giving guitar lessons, etc)
with buyers who are looking for those services.
I would suggest checking out some of the ideas listed on the site and sign up and offer those services.
33. Get paid from your iPhone (smartphone)
There seem to be some apps popping up that pay you to do simple stuff
like take a picture of a menu, or of yourself drinking a starbucks, or
verifying that a road is closed – you get the picture.
Here are a few that I found:
34. Teach English (or other Language) Classes Online
Did you know that English speakers are in high demand in Asia?
As a result many are turning to freelance English teachers using websites like
Italki.com.
The site is basically a virtual online classroom for freelance teachers and students.
Anyone can offer lessons (and set their own price) and anyone can take lessons.
From a quick scan, it looks like making $15-20/hour is a fair expectation.
35. Sell Your Video Game Accounts
Are you a gamer?
Try selling your accounts, virtual gold, or virtual weapons.
You can often sell items like these on gamer forums or even on Ebay.com.
