Ways To Earn Money

1. No-risk matched betting
Hands down the quickest way to make a lot of money (well, without breaking the law).
Lots of students have genuinely made £100s from this technique. It’s completely legal,
risk free, tax free, and anyone can do it.
It works by taking advantage of free bets
regularly offered by betting sites through
‘matching’ them at a betting exchange. Matched
betting eliminates the risk (you are betting both
for and against a certain outcome).
This leaves you being able to squeeze out the free
bet, which can be as much as £200! Multiply this
by how many betting sites there are and you can
quite easily come away with a profit of a few
hundred pounds.
Owen walks you through how to make your first
£15 profit (using a real life example) in this gem
of a guide to matched betting . If you know of any
better way to make £30/hr sitting at home,
please let us know!
2. Online surveys
Credit: Julio Marquez – Flickr.com
An increasingly popular way for students to make
money is to fill out online surveys in their spare
time. Research companies are always recruiting
new members to answer surveys and test new
products.
For a few minutes of form filling, you can make a
couple of quid which is paid as cash or in
rewards. You can make up to £3 for some
surveys!
A few good ones to try are: Toluna ,
Vivatic , MySurvey , YouGov , SurveyBods , Valued
Opinions, The Opinion Panel , iPoll , Global Test
Market , Hiving , PanelBase , Harris Poll , Opinion
Outpost , Yourword , Pinecone , IPSOS , New Vista .
Also sign up for Swagbucks.com which rewards
you for surveys as well as simply surfing the web,
watching videos and playing games.
Update: See our new full guide to the best paid
online surveys !
3. Paid for searching the web
Interested in earning cash for doing what you
already do online? This has to be one of the
easiest methods of making money online without
really any effort or change in your behavior.
This innovative idea by Qmee.com rewards you
for searching in Google, Bing or Yahoo. You just
install a simple add-on to your browser and when
you conduct a search there may be a few
sponsored results alongside your normal search.
Each Qmee result has a cash reward attached – if you are interested in it simply click
on it and collect your reward.
The best thing is there is no minimum to cashout
– our first one was just 72p wired to our Paypal
account. You also have the option to donate it to
charity.
Sign up now for free and start earning from your
own searches! Click here to start .
4. Social Investment Networks
The historically hard-to-break world of investing
in stock markets and currencies has been cracked
wide open. Today there is no need to be a fat cat
or fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style
stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the
help of free online market trading platforms.
Having spent many hours researching this new
opportunity, I’ve been experimenting with
eToro.com which has over 4 million users
worldwide. It was recently featured in the BBC 2
documentary “Traders: Millions by the Minute”
and the Financial Times.
One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see,
follow and copy the investments of other top performing traders.
Follow George’s complete guide to trading on
eToro to learn more. I think $200 is a good
amount to get the most out of the learning curve
by trying out a few different markets. If nothing
else you’ll learn a great deal about various
investments and industries.
Warning: trading can be volatile and you can lose
money, so don’t throw your life savings into it!
5. Mobile phone recycling
Credit: CannedTuna – Flickr.com
See how much you can get for your old mobile
phone using our in-house mobile phone price
comparison tool! Maybe ask your parents if they
have any lying around too.
You can get some good money and help the
environment by recycling mobile phones with
certain companies listed on the comparison tool.
Most phones are shipped off to Asia to be
dismantled and we know of at least one student
who received a £120 cheque in return.
6. ‘Get Paid To’ sites
Similar to making money from online surveys,
GPT sites reward you in cash and vouchers for
completing various offers or activities online.
The most popular sites today are Toluna ,
Swagbucks.com , InboxPounds and PaidOffers.
Exciting update! We’ll soon be launching our own
GPT service for our readers. Invites will be limited
and UK only, please join our mailing list if you’re
interested in hearing once it’s live:
Subscribe
7. The ‘Disney Vault’ secret
To keep demand high across generations, Disney
Studios carefully restrict the supply of some home
release classics. They are locked away in the
‘vault’ for 8-10 years before being released for a
short unspecified time.
Buy them in this window at normal retail price
and you can turn a nice profit when they go off
sale for another decade or so.
For example, in 2011 you could buy Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray 3D for just
£24.99. In just a couple of years it’s now on Amazon for a staggering £74.99!
Importantly, not all Disney releases are subject to
the vault and only the true most popular classics
will maintain such demand.
Right now there are just 2 titles out of the vault
which I would recommend snapping up. They are
Bambi Diamond Edition Blu-ray for just £13.50
and Cinderella Diamond Edition Blu-ray for £14.
8. Start your own website
If you’ve ever seen the film The Social Network
then you’ve most likely had your brain spinning
as to what website you can start-up to make you
billions.
And of course there are lots of stories out there
about successful students who have started a
site while at university, or even bought a domain
name and later sold it for 1000s.
In fact, Save the Student is one such example of
a website started at university by Owen Burek in
his first year, which has since grown into a full-
time and successful enterprise.
Read Owen’s 4-step guide to setting up a website
if you’re interested in finding out more. It’s really
not that difficult to get started and there are
plenty of opportunities to make money online.
9. Write and publish a Kindle eBook
If students are good at anything, it’s researching
and writing. With the Amazon Kindle store ,
anyone can publish an eBook and make money.
And the Kindle app is now available on almost
any device (laptops, iPads, smartphones and yes,
Kindles) so your global market is huge!
List your book for £1.49 – £6.99 and you earn
70% of the sale. Considering Amazon is the
ultimate selling machine (and remember people
are looking to spend), that is a fantastic deal.
The key to success with eBooks is to create
value, and write non-fiction. Simply bundling
information you have researched and complied on
a common problem (eg. ‘secrets’ to finding a job)
and then presenting it in an easy to digest format
(an eBook) justifies someone spending a few quid
on it.
Another big tip is to have a great cover designed
so it stands out, and once your book is live on
the Kindle store (approval takes less than 48
hours) it’s really important to get some reviews
so it shows up higher in results. Encourage
readers to leave an honest review at the end of
your book.
The best thing about this lucrative idea is that
once you’ve invested the time (say 20 hours),
you’ll earn a passive income for years to come!
For a step-by-step guide to publishing and
earning with eBooks, see “How to write a
nonfiction eBook in 21 days “.
10. Affiliate marketing
If you’ve got a good presence on social media or
perhaps you even have a blog or website , you can
start bringing in money immediately by promoting
all sorts of companies, products, services and
offers online.
Sign up to an affiliate network such as Affiliate Window , check their offers blog or
browse the merchant listings to find something you think your friends would be
interested in, grab your affiliate link and share it. If someone buys (can be within up to
90 days) using your link you’ll make a nice commission.
To take it a step further, set up a website ( read
our guide ) or a topical Facebook page and invite
all your friends to join it and post your affiliate
offers on there.
11. Review music for money
If you love music, make it your business by
reviewing unsigned bands and artists online for
cash with Slicethepie.
It can take a while to build up your reputation but
some users of the site have said that they earn
£40 a month. This may not sound like much, but
if it’s something you enjoy then it shouldn’t be
hard work and is another thing for your CV .
Money you earn will be in $US but anyone can
sign up and review.
To get started, head over to Slicethepie now or
read our quick guide for more info.
12. Competitions
Entering competitions of course comes with no
guarantees, but there is a growing community of
so-called ‘compers’ in the UK consistently making
up to £50,000 a year through all sorts of
competitions.
Types of competitions available to enter range
from simple registration forms and Facebook page
liking to answering questions correctly over the
phone to being a TV game show contestant.
Imagine you made it onto Deal or No Deal instead
of just watching it!
Start by entering our very own monthly student
competition ( Like our Facebook page to see when
our next one is)!
Then head to our active competitions page to enter other free competitions that we
have found. Just note that some of these sites may send you spam so use an alias
email address and opt-out of as many of the offers as possible.
For loads more tips on achieving success and
making money from competitions, read our guide
to entering competitions .
13. Claim tax back
Many students work part-time or during the
summer months, and others will be on placements
or paid internships. More often than not, if you
are a student working during the year, you will be
overpaying income tax.
Why? Simply because few students reach the
personal tax-free income allowance each year but
are put on an emergency basic tax-code by their
employers meaning tax is being paid when it
shouldn’t be.
Use our student tax-back service to help you reclaim any tax you should not have paid.
Just enter your details in the calculator here to work out what you may be owed.
Otherwise for more information read our guide on claiming tax back here.
14. Get cashback when shopping
This is not only a way to make money but
also to save money as a student. If you look
at it in a different way then you are making
money with every purchase you would have
made anyway, whether it be 10% or 0.5%
cashback.
There are a number of cashback sites out
there which pay you the commission they
otherwise would have earned.
We recommend signing up with both Top
Cashback and Quidco.com which are free and
offer the best selection of retailers and exclusives.
15. A part-time job
A part-time job is the obvious first choice, opted
for by most students looking to supplement their
student loan. It provides a pretty steady flow of
income and can enable you to gain valuable work
experience.
However, depending on where you live, jobs are
not always easy to find. Check local classifieds,
our student job search, student job websites and
your university careers service for vacancies.
It’s also worth signing up with the Graduate
Recruitment Bureau , a free service which will
match you with both part-time jobs or graduate
opportunities.
Read our guide to finding a part-time job whilst
studying for more tips.
16. Gigs on Fiverr
Fiverr is now the world’s largest marketplace
for people to make money selling small services
(known as ‘gigs’).
What you offer could be absolutely anything,
from writing and translating , social media
posting , playing pranks and teaching to
creating music , voiceovers and short video
clips for people all around the world!
The default price is $5 (hence Fiverr..), but you
can attach extra services to gigs for more
money. Whilst it might not seem like much, it can
quickly add up and there are plenty of examples
of people making a really good living from the
site. The key is to get a system in place which
minimises the time spent on each gig.
But there is another way to profit even more from
Fiverr for potentially far less work. How? By
simply reselling gigs elsewhere. For example, find
a decent logo designer then reply to jobs on
Elance or even local classifieds. A $5 spend can
easily become $50+, and it’s repeatable!
If you’re not interested in selling at all there’s SO
much good stuff you can get done for yourself.
Have a browse and get inspired!
17. Sell second-hand course books
One great way to make money is to buy other
students’ text books at the end of the year, and
then sell them just after freshers’ week – when
the new intake of students know that they need
them!
You can either advertise on campus or list them
online very easily on Amazon.co.uk Books Trade-
In (just bear in mind they take a commission on
books sold).
For more tips on selling items online click here .
18. Sell your notes
If you don’t mind sharing your notes with other
students it’s a great way to generate a little extra
cash. There are sites out there that you can
upload your notes to, along with your price, and
then when another student downloads them you
get paid.
Sites like Notesale are free for you to list your
notes but tend to take a cut of your profit in order
to handle the marketing etc so that you don’t
have to go out there and promote your notes
yourself.
You will most likely have to upload PDFs but it’s
worth it for the return and you can submit
handwritten notes but you’re likely to make more
money if they’re typed up.
19. Become an Amazon ‘Mechanical
Turk’
Don’t ask us what this means, all we know is
that it’s an easy way to make fast cash from
your sofa. The concept is based on ‘internet
crowd-sourcing’ where businesses advertise
specific, scalable tasks they need completing
quickly.
There are a variety of tasks (known as HITS), but
most commonly they involve mindless data entry
or form filling. You are rewarded in cash (though
$USD) for the work you do, and you can choose
for what and when you work. Give it a go
[ Update: Currently US signups only, try
ClickWorker ].
20. Buy and sell domain names
A domain name is just a website address (eg.
‘savethestudent.org’ or ‘mysite.co.uk’) and
there are lots of extensions (.com, .net, .co.uk
etc).
They cost as little as £1.99 to register with
123-reg.co.uk or GoDaddy.com yet premium
domain names can fetch £1,000s if not
millions when sold on. In 2007
VacationRentals.com went for a cool $35m!
Now you’re probably not going to come across
anything like that, but you can still turn a quick
profit with a bit of searching. The trick is to find
available domain names which have some
commercial value, snap them up and then list
them for sale on a site like DomainLore .
21. Mystery shopping
Today becoming a mystery shopper is easier than
you think and you can get rewarded handsomely.
We’ve recently come across a really fun
smartphone app called Streetspotr that pays you
in cash for completing various tasks in your local
area. So definitely check that out first!
More traditionally, there are plenty of agencies
that pay you to visit all sorts of shops to
feedback on how they are performing. For more
info on where to apply see our guide to becoming
a mystery shopper .
22. Be an extra
Do you fancy yourself as a budding young actor
or just that person that walks past in the
background shot of an episode of Eastenders ? It
could be you if you apply to be an extra.
The pay isn’t bad either – £60-80 a day on
average, and you hardly have to do anything!
You can apply at Be On Screen for a number of
opportunities or 2020 casting is another agency
(just know they take a cut from your earnings).
23. Sell all your old CDs, games and
movies
If you are looking to make a very quick buck, then
selling your old bits and bobs that are cluttering
up your room is a good idea.
The best thing about it is that you can rip all the
songs and films onto your laptop or external hard
drive before selling them. This means that you are
only really selling the plastic and artwork!
You can earn anything from 10p to £20 per item,
and the earnings can really add up if you have a
large collection. Whilst you’re at it, see if your
parents have any ‘clutter’ they’d be happy to see
the back of.
You can also sell almost anything for free on
Amazon Trade-In or Preloved and sites like
MusicMagpie will pay you instantly for sending in
unwanted items.
For more tips and places to sell check out our
guide on selling DVDs, CDs and games .
24. Sell on your education!
Become a tutor to local GCSE or A-level students
( find out more about tutoring here). There are
now a few online tutor sites too, so you can go
also global without too much hassle.
You may feel as if you aren’t qualified to be a
tutor, but seeing as you are at university you will
most likely have the qualifications to tutor for
GCSE or even A-Level. Some parents may feel
that their child will react better to a younger
tutor, and it can be great experience, so why not
give it a go?
You can advertise on SchoolsTrader or sign up
with Bright Young Things & UK Tutors. You can
expect to earn around £10 an hour. However,
make sure you don’t have to do too much
tutoring around your exams!
25. Sell your photos
If you think you’ve got a good shot and a little
creativity, try uploading your photographs for free
to stock websites. A good starting point is
Fotolia or istockphoto .
Make more money selling photo subjects that
people are demanding, and there’s a great
resource to find this out here. It might be a good
idea to test them out in print first yourself ( get
free photo prints here).
26. Rent out your car parking space
Some student accommodation comes with a drive
or garage. If you aren’t using your parking space
and you live in a busy area then you might be in
luck. There are plenty of people that may work in
the city centre and are fed up of paying through
the roof for daily parking.
Advertise your space on Gumtree , Parklet or Just
Park .
Or, check out our full guide to renting out your
parking space.
27. Work as a charity collector
Ok so this job takes a certain kind of person, as
you’ll have to take a lot of rejection and be
persistent.
But if you are bubbly, personable and reckon you
could sell ice to an Eskimo then this could
actually be a great student money making idea.
You get paid commission on new sign ups
(typically around £20).
Have a look at Wesser as well as charity
websites like Oxfam.
28. Babysitting
Advertise your services locally. It’s a classic
money-maker, and for good reason. You get paid
(well) to watch TV and not very much else!
Be warned that you will need a CRB (Criminal
Records Bureau) check to look after small
children, even though some parents may not ask
for one. If you are wondering what to charge, then
look at local ads but you can expect to be paid
over £6 hour even if you aren’t trained in child
care. It really is easy money (unless you get stuck
with the child from hell!).
29. Become a freelance interviewer
Do you have ambitions to take on a career in HR?
Do you love asking questions? Believe it or not,
there are companies that will ask you to carry out
interviews for them and pay you for your time. It
couldn’t be simpler.
You could make £185 a week plus have your
travelling costs covered. The downside is that you
will have to commit to at least 20 hours a week,
so make sure that you have the time! Apply at
NatCen .
30. Dog walking
Dog walking may sound trivial but it’s big
business. Just think that as a student you’re
likely to have free time during the day when
others are out at work and worried about their
pets at home.
You could make around £7 a dog for a 1 hour
walk, and it’s also a great way to keep fit. Sign
up to and try sites like Tailster that match you up
with dog owners. Alternatively advertise your
services locally with fliers or on classified
websites such as Gumtree.
31. Rent out your house for filming
Directors for TV and film are always on the hunt
for houses to film in. For instance, a scene for
Coronation Street was recently filmed in the
student house one of the Save the Student editors
used to live in!
Not only can you make good money but it’s crazy
seeing your own place on TV. Start out by looking
at film-locations.co.uk .
32. Rent out your body
Ok, ok – this isn’t what you think. “Renting out
your body” can go as far as you want it to go.
For example we reported on a story a while back
about students who are turning to lap dancing to
make a quick buck.
If you are comfortable taking off your kit for a
more acceptable cause then why not try life
modelling. Sit there in the buff while budding
artists capture your every curve (or pokey bits) in
frightening detail! Try RAM, a website especially
designed for these kind of jobs.
You could also get involved in clinical drug trials .
If this scares you a little then you can find more
information here about what’s involved.
Warning: Do not do anything you are not
comfortable with, no matter how desperate you
are for money! There has been an unhealthy rise
in student prostitution in recent years – do not
fall victim to it!
33. Freelance work
Perhaps you enjoy writing, managing Facebook
pages or doing a little bit of graphic design in
your spare time. There are so many freelance
jobs out there that require simple skills or just
time that someone else might not have.
And the best things about freelancing is that you
can work for clients in the UK and around the
world with just an internet connection from home,
to your own hours whilst developing valuable
skills.
A great place to start is with the leading freelance
site Elance.com . Or try using our student job
search to find freelance jobs.
34. Busking
If you can sing or dance then this is your time to
shine baby! Did you know that Justin Bieber
started off busking? That’s right, with a little
work you can be as annoying as him.
There are really no tips for this except choose a
good spot with high footfall, make sure you are
good and play your heart out. Some buskers in
the past have been known to make upwards of
£20 hour.
35. Sell clothes on eBay
Everyone’s best friend when it comes to getting
rid of junk is eBay . Online auctions are a sure-
fire way to turn that sleeveless jacket (which
came in and out of fashion in a week) into hard
cash.
Some eBay sellers look at trends and try to
predict what will be big ahead of the market. If
you are good and don’t mind taking a risk then
you can buy early in bulk and sell on when the
craze hits.
For lots more tips on selling on eBay read this
guide .
36. Sell your stories and videos
If you have an interesting story then you could try
selling it to the papers. It could be anything from
sleeping with a professional footballer to getting
caught in a clothes horse!
One of the Save the Student team was
unfortunate enough to have a pigeon fly through
and smash their window at university and sold
the story to The Sun for a tidy £50.
You could also film your mates at all times and
send it into You’ve Been Framed to net yourself
£250 and a few seconds of fame.
37. YouTube videos
According to recent stats we now watch more
videos on YouTube than searches on Google. And
with the recently introduced YouTube Partner
Program you can now profit from making and
uploading videos. You will receive a percentage of
the advertising revenue collected per 1,000 views.
Depending on how successful you are (virality,
subscriber base and topic) you can make a lot of
money, and there are plenty of stories every week
of more and more YouTubers making it their
career.
For more tips read our guide to making money
from YouTube.
38.Earn from advertisement
Also known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), this
is a business model that allows you to generate
ongoing income in two ways: by making a
commission selling products and by recruiting
other members who go on to sell. The later
allows you to make money from the sales made
by those you have recruited.
Importantly, this is not a pyramid scheme (they
are illegal) because there is an end goal which
involves a customer buying a product or service of
value.
It’s also not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. You will
have to work I’m afraid! However with the growth
of social media, network marketing is becoming
easier and lots of people are now making a
decent living from it.
This is a serious way of making good money on
your own terms and it’s well worth reading up on
it. I recommend getting “The Business of the 21st
Century ” by Robert Kiyosaki.
39. Source property for wealthy
investors
We all know how much money there is in
property, but on the surface (with house prices as
high as they are) you might be thinking this
market is off-limits.
Truth is, lots of people make a great deal of cash
simply sourcing suitable properties for wealthy
investors who simply have no time.
The trick is to find properties below market value
(BMV) by avoiding estate agents and instead
flyering your area with your contact details
offering to buy houses. Then approach investors
with a no-brainer offer to pass on the details of
cut-price property in exchange for a % of the sale
value.
Most cities will have monthly networking events
for landlords and property investors. Track these
down, sign up, put on your best suit and go along
with lots of business cards. Or you could start on
LinkedIn or even Twitter to build some initial
contacts.
As you might imagine, this isn’t necessarily a
quick way to make money but once you’ve got a
few investors in your phone book it can prove to
be very lucrative in the long run. If you’re
interested, I recommend reading this book .
40. Advertise your other skills
What can you do well where others struggle? Fix
bikes, computers, write articles, create websites,
make cupcakes or fresh lemonade?!
The key is to be creative and think outside the
box. A writer at Save the Student actually made
small models out of beer cans and wire and sold
them to other students. Great idea with big
profits!
There are many other creative ways to make
money as a student, such as our 50 business
ideas. With any luck you’ll be on the road to
making millions ! Please feel free to share your
own ideas by leaving a comment below.