Online jobs for students can be lucrative, pay well, and set you on a successful career path… if you choose them well & you’re willing to do the work.
Updated: January 29, 2024
Published: January 16, 2017
We live in a wonderful time, where you can get an accredited university degree from home, and make a living from home. Finding a job you can do online, will give you great flexibility, so if you’re up for the challenge, we have created this list of the best “work from home” jobs:
Work From Home: Online Jobs For Students To Get Your Professional Life Started
The following online jobs are not always easy to get, but once you find your way, you’ll be able to build long-term skills, that you can turn into a career or a business.
1. Online Tutor
If you’re doing well in college, it’s easy to think everyone else is too, but the truth is that many people struggle with passing their courses. You could make a living by helping them out and teaching them what you know.
But don’t stop with fellow college students. You can also teach kids – from elementary school to high school, there are plenty of kids who could use your help.
Thankfully, with the Internet, you don’t have to be limited to your local geographic area. You can teach kids and people from all over the world.
2. Search Engine Evaluator
Search engines like Google and Bing rely on user feedback to update their algorithms in ways that serve people better.
You could be one of the people who fill out feedback forms and lets them know what they need to do in order to improve.
- Average US Salary: $12-15/hour.
- Where to find work: Leapforce and Lionbridge.
3. Social Media Manager
We all spend a lot of time on social media every day – Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and the list goes on. If you’re used to getting a lot of likes or comments, or if you’re great at motivating others through your posts, you might want to consider turning this into a profession.
Social media managers build communities for companies on social media, engage these communities in conversations (for example, getting a lot of comments), and encourage them to take some sort of action (like reading a blog post, signing up to an email list, or buying a product). Social media managers also play a vital role in building brand awareness for a company.
- Average US Salary: $62,000/year for employees, according to Indeed. If you’re a freelancer, it depends on your marketing and negotiation skills.
- Where to find work: The best opportunities in this field come from networking and pitching companies directly. To get started, try Googling marketing agencies and see if they need help handling the clients they’ve already landed.
4. Freelance Writer
Social media managers promote content that builds relationships and promotes sales for companies. Freelance writers write the content. There’s a huge need for writers now, as more and more companies want to build long-term trust with their target audiences, and they do that by providing top-quality content.
Great freelance writers stay up to date on marketing trends and research, checking for content errors, and know which content types work best when. They use paraphrasing tools to optimize content for marketing and stay current with technology. Also, they’re not only skilled at conveying complicated ideas, but they know how to do it in a way that best converts in a particular content format, while constantly checking for content errors.
Well-fed freelance writers stay out of “content farms” and bidding sites, where you compete with hundreds of other writers for the same projects and get the gig if you under-quote yourself enough. To be a well-fed freelance writer, you need to go out there and market yourself to your target audience – usually, marketing managers – like any other business owner.
- Average US Salary: $61,000/year for employees, according to Indeed. If you’re a freelancer, it depends on your marketing and negotiation skills.
- Where to find work: The best opportunities in this field come when you network and proactively pitch to companies, but the Freelance Writers’ Den, a $25/month membership site, is a great place to start if you’re looking for high paying projects.
5. Resume Writer
Writing resumes may seem simple, but most people often find it hard to talk themselves up. If you’ve had success getting a lot of interest from great companies based on your resume, offer your services to others.
You can help them ensure their resumes shine a light on their accomplishments and the value they have to provide companies, in a way that speaks to recruiters.
Similarly, you can offer LinkedIn profile writing services, as many recruiters look for potential employees on this professional social network.
- Average US Salary: $15-25/hour.
- Where to find work: ResumeEdge.
6. Transcriptionist
Transcriptionists are required to listen to audio recordings and write them down. The key here is to be extremely accurate, so you need to have great attention to detail.
This job also requires you to type fast. It works in your favor: The faster you type, the more you earn per hour.
- Average US Salary: $15-25/hour.
- Where to find work: TranscribeMe and Rev.
7. Freelance Web Designer
Like freelance writers, freelance web designers need to market their services if they want to make a sustainable living. Websites that supposedly do the marketing work for you often come with a high price, as you’ll be expected to work for very cheap, and might end up losing money on the deals you take on.
To stand out of the crowd when they market themselves directly to prospective customers, freelance web designers need to prove more than their ability to design beautiful websites.
While companies care about image, they often care more about results. Therefore, well-fed freelance web designers are often the ones who understand what works in user experience and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). They learn how to create websites that drive visitors to download something or buy a product.
- Average US Salary: $61,000/year for employees, according to Indeed. If you’re a freelancer, it depends on your marketing and negotiation skills.
- Where to find work: The best opportunities in this field come from networking and pitching to companies directly. To get started, try Googling marketing agencies and see if they need help handling the clients they’ve already landed.
8. Micro-Freelancing At Fiverr
Fiverr is the world’s largest marketplace for digital services, where you can offer almost anything, from graphics & design, digital marketing, writing & translation, video & animation, music & audio, programming & tech, advertising, business, fun & lifestyle. This is the place to make money out of your creativity and profession.
- Average US Salary: Starting at $5/gig.
- Where to find work: Fiverr.com.
9. Virtual Recruiter
Recruiters post jobs online and look for potential employees on LinkedIn. They read LinkedIn profiles they find and resumes that get sent to them, and decide who could be a good candidate.
They often conduct the initial phone interview, then pass the best ones to the relevant manager at the company to continue the screening process.
Recruiters used to only work offline, but things have changed, and now you can do this job from home.
- Average US Salary: $20-30/hour.
- Where to find work: SimplyHired and CareerBuilder.
10. Become An Online Influencer
Do you have a hobby, a passion, or an interesting life? Are you knowledgeable about something many people struggle with?
If so, you might want to start a blog, a podcast, a vlog, or be active on one of the major social media networks. Sometimes it could take years to build a big enough, engaged enough, audience, but if you’re already used to sharing with people online, and have an audience that trusts you, it might be worth treating it as a business.
As your audience grows, you’ll be able to sell them services (like coaching or consulting) and products, but you’ll also be able to make a living by recommending other people’s products like thingsfrommars – and getting a sponsorship or commission in return.
- Average US Salary: It changes from one person to another. According to this guide, you can charge $5-10 to post something on Instagram for every 1,000 followers you have. In other words, if you have 30,000 followers, you can charge $150-300 for every sponsored post you publish.
- Where to find work: There are a lot of ways to connect with brands once you’ve built an audience. For example, if you already have a large following, you could apply to join influencer talent and marketing agencies, like Viral Nation, or platforms like Whalar, which connect Instagram influencers with relevant brands.
Some Frequently Asked Questions
Remote work is complicated to navigate, so you may have quite a few questions as you are exploring your options. Let’s dive in!
WHICH REMOTE JOBS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND RIGHT NOW?
There are actually quite a few remote jobs that are in high demand right now.
These include:
- Web Designer
- Web Developer
- Graphic Designer
- Teacher
- Virtual Assistant
- Freelance Writer
- Editor
- Accountant
- Financial Consultant
- Social Media Specialist
- App Developer
- Content Creator
All of these jobs can be quite lucrative if you play your cards wisely.
HOW CAN YOU WORK FROM HOME AS A STUDENT?
You actually have quite a few options: You could pitch to magazines and be a freelance writer, you could charge a fair fee for your photographs or submit them to different publications, or you could even teach English as a Second Language to students living across the globe if you earn your English as a Second Language (ESL) certificate.
WHICH JOB IS BEST FOR STUDENTS?
You will likely want to take on something part-time and scalable, such as writing for medium or selling your photographs online. These gigs are also quite flexible, so you can still get your homework done.
WHICH JOB CAN YOU GET WITH ZERO EXPERIENCE?
You can often get TESOL teaching jobs with little to no experience. The same is true for some freelance writing gigs: For instance, you need zero experience to start writing articles on Medium or posting videos on YouTube.
WHAT ONLINE WORK IS BEST?
To be frank, the type of online work that is best for you will largely depend on your personal passions and areas of expertise.
That being said, popular career paths include:
- Transcriber
- e-Book publisher
- Proofreader
- Blogger
In short, there is an abundance of options, but it might take some time to find the one which is right for you.
WHAT IS THE EASIEST ONLINE JOB FOR BEGINNERS?
Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few jobs you can land with little to no experience.
These include:
- Data Entry Clerk
- Copy Editor
- Proofreader
- Virtual Assistant
- Graphic Designer
If you cannot land a gig that pays sustainably, however, you might want to consider taking on a paid or unpaid internship in the industry of your choice to gain the experience you’ll need to be considered for more profitable gigs in the future.
WHAT JOB CAN YOU START WITH NO MONEY?
There are actually quite a few jobs you can start even if you don’t have a dollar in your pocket, which is pretty common for college kids, unfortunately. The good news is that there are plenty of side hustles you can take on.
These include:
- Writing on Medium.com
- Teaching online
- Dog Walking
- Delivering takeout
- Plasma donation
- Selling old items that you don’t need and/or want anymore
In short, there are a lot of ways to make some extra cash if you have the time and energy to do so.
Now More Than Ever: Online Jobs For Students Are Everywhere
As far as “work from home” jobs are concerned, we live in the best time there ever was. More and more companies allow people to work from home if the only tools these employees need are a computer and an Internet connection.
The careers above are just a few great examples. People also work from home as virtual assistants, translators, data entry professionals, customer service representatives, and salespeople.
If your job can be done on a computer and you want to work from home, don’t be shy. Ask your employer if it’s possible, even part-time.