8 Websites Every College Side-Hustler Should Know About
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It’s no secret that college is expensive. In 2017, 43% of all undergraduate full-time students worked a job (Source). However, don’t think you’re limited to working the night shift at the library or long hours at Chipotle. We live in an age when working college students can have flexible hours, be their own boss, and develop resume-worthy skills, with only a laptop and an internet connection.
These are the websites I wish I would’ve known about during college. They cover everything from affiliate marketing, freelancing, proofreading, to playing video games. Explore the list below and find out which ones are right for you!
1) Acx.com
Acx.com is a fantastic website where authors can find narrators for their audiobooks. As an actor or producer (that’s you!), you can easily create an account, browse titles, pick a book suitable for your voice, and send a short audition video to the author! If the author chooses you to narrate the book, you will be able to narrate the entire audiobook and start getting paid! There are two types of payment that Acx offers. You will either receive a flat commission for your services or sometimes authors will choose to split the royalties with you. Either way, narrating audiobooks through this site can have a great payout. When browsing titles recently, I found a children’s book that was a half-hour read and paid $100-$400!
At ProofreadingServices.com, you can make between $19-$46 per hour depending on turnaround time! All you have to do is apply and take a 20 minute preliminary test to verify your English grammar skills. Then you can work flexible hours and start earning!
3) Rev.com
I’ve been hearing a lot about this website lately, and it’s no surprise. At Rev.com, you can get paid to be a Transcriptionist, Captioner, or Subtitler for thousands of jobs posted on the site. Transcriptionists are paid $0.30-$1.10 per minute, while Captionists are paid $0.54-$1.10 per minute. If you know another language, get paid up to $3.00 per minute to translate subtitles! Plus, freelancers are paid weekly through Paypal, so there’s no waiting until the end of the month to get your payout!
4) Upwork.com
Upwork is an expansive marketplace to sell a variety of freelancing services. Are you skilled at graphic design? Article writing? Social media marketing? Customer support? Upwork is a great place to get started as a freelancer, selling your services to customers looking for people like you with the skills they need. Just create a profile and start taking jobs! You can search for work that matches your skillset or wait for the clients to come to you. With a free account, you can create your profile, upload an introduction video, and use 10 free connects to apply for jobs. After that, you’ll have to pay a small fee if you want to apply for jobs directly. Upwork takes a commission of between 5-20%, which decreases as you make more money.
5) Fiverr.com
Fiverr is very similar to Upwork, and arguably more popular. Fiverr is completely free to join, with no limit to the number of jobs you can apply for. They simply require a flat 20% commission for each job. Fiverr also provides you with complimentary ads!
If you love to play video games, check out PlayTestCloud! Video game producers are always looking for feedback on how to improve their games, and using human players is the best way to do that! Just take a short qualification test and make approximately $9 for a typical 15 minute test and survey!
If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it can be one of the easiest ways to make passive income. Basically, when you sign up to be an affiliate of a brand, you receive a custom link to the product. When a customer clicks your link and buys the product, you receive a commission at no extra cost to the customer! This method can be very profitable if you have a large social media following or run a blog, and it’s awesome to be able to make a commission from recommending items you already love! However, you don’t need a giant social media following to get started with affiliate marketing. I’ve even seen someone hire a freelancer from Fiverr to create a TikTok account to promote a product, placing the affiliate link in the bio. It’s super easy to join Amazon’s affiliate program, so this is a great place to get started if you want to make your debut in the world of affiliate marketing!
8) Clickbank
Clickbank is another great resource for first-time affiliate marketers. It has a library of affiliate programs from thousands of brands, and gives you stats on the profitability of the program, as well as if there are any recurring commissions (from subscriptions, etc). Clickbank also has a variety of affiliate resources to help you get started, and it’s a great place to find any product to promote since they host a range of different brands. Plus, it’s easy and free to join!
Try picking one of these side-hustle sites to join today, and tell me how it goes at hello@autumnhunter.co! I’d love to hear your successes as well as your hiccups, and be sure to let me know about any other side-hustle that you’ve found profitable!
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Related: 7 Money Saving Strategies to Help You Graduate From College Without Debt
