Passive income is money you don’t have to spend so many hours working on to generate. It is the perfect income stream for college students.
You probably have a hectic schedule, the last thing you’d want is for your business to get in the way of your studies. This article will have a look at 21 passive income side hustles that can make you money while in college.
Since you’re likely not very experienced in business, remember that you can easily acquire any additional skill by taking short courses on platforms like Domestika and Udemy. You can sign up for courses on topics such as digital marketing, artificial intelligence, finance, etc.
21 Profitable Side Hustles for Students
1. Crowdfunded real estate
For a long time, real estate has been a means to accumulate wealth. But it had such a high barrier to entry that the average person couldn’t dare come close.
Crowdfunded real estate investing apps like RealtyMogul and Fundrise have made it possible for anyone to get into the sector, even with little capital. This makes it much easier to make passive income with little investment and no work.
Whenever you invest in a project, you get paid a commission from the revenue it generates once it’s complete.
2. Buy a blog or website
Every year, thousands of blogs are abandoned and forgotten by their owners. It could be a great passive income source if you are able to buy blogs that have a decent amount of traffic and then monetize them through ads and affiliate marketing.
You can also get into the website flipping business, where you buy a website through Flippa, improve it, and then resell it for a quick profit. It’s such a fantastic side hustle for students.
3. Invest in small businesses
Almost every small business could do with some cash injection to help improve its operations. If you happen to have some extra cash sitting in your bank account, a great way to put it to use would be by investing in a small business.
In exchange for your investment, you can get a small percentage of the sales the business generates. You can use an app such as mainvest.com to find businesses to invest in for as little as $100.
4. Start a blog
You should consider starting a blog if you are looking for a low-cost, but highly scalable, way to make passive income as a student.
The blog can be on any topic you’re passionate and knowledgeable about. For instance, if you’re into fitness you can start a fitness blog. The more traffic you’re able to generate, the more money you’ll make passively through ads and affiliate sales.
5. Create an online course
A lot of people have developed a craving for new knowledge. If you’re an expert in anything, whether that’s art, music, web design, accounting, etc., you can create a course and upload it to platforms such as Udemy.
Most of the work will go into actually creating the course content, but once it’s uploaded, you won’t spend any time actively teaching. People will be able to enroll and pay your fees without much work from you.
6. Write an e-book
If you are a good writer, this is another fantastic way to make money online. Yes, writing an e-book can take a lot of time, but you’ll make back that time investment in passive income for the rest of your life.
You can publish your e-book through Kindle Direct Publishing to get access to the millions of Amazon’s customers.
7. Sell stock photos
Do you enjoy taking pictures? Are you good with editing tools like Photoshop? If so, then you could sell your photographs as stock photos on sites like Shutterstock and Adobe Stock.
This is one of the easiest side hustles for college students. It doesn’t take much to get started. You don’t even need professional equipment, your smartphone camera could be good enough.
8. Build an app
Do you have an idea for the next Uber? If so, you can use no-code app-building tools to bring your ideas to life. You can create an app that helps solve problems that students on your campus often face.
Apps can be monetized through ads, by charging a subscription fee, or by charging a small fee to download.
9. Become a social media influencer
If you’ve had your social media accounts for several years, chances are you have a decent following.
If you’ve got anywhere between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok then you are considered a nano influencer.
Many companies work with such small influencers to help promote their products and services and pay a decent fee for it.
10. Affiliate marketing
This is another outstanding way to make money online as a student if you’ve got a decent social media following. This time around you’ll be promoting affiliate products in exchange for a commission for the sales you generate through your link.
You can find products to start promoting through affiliate networks like Clickbank and CJ Affiliate or even become an Amazon affiliate.
11. Deliver for Instacart
This is a great way to make money on weekends or on days when you don’t have classes. Your job will simply be to pick up groceries and deliver them to people in their homes.
This is a great side hustle idea for students because you won’t need to worry about the headaches that come with running your own business.
12. Deliver for Postmates
This is another great way to make money on your days off. Postmates allows people to place orders for almost any item, including personal items, groceries, and even restaurant meals. Your job will be to deliver the products they ordered, and get paid 100% of the delivery fees.
13. Student hostels
Although this can be quite a capital-intensive idea, you will be able to recoup your investment in just a few months.
You can rent a house near your campus, furnish the rooms, and then sublease them to other students. It’s a great way to make passive income through rental payments. If you’re keen on getting into real estate in the future, then this is a great way to start.
14. Rent out your car
If you have a car and don’t plan on using it for a while, you can make money by renting it out to other people.
15. Get paid for your opinion
Did you know that you can earn money by taking online surveys? You can find tons of excellent survey sites online, some of which offer a bonus for signing up.
16. Become a part-time rideshare driver
Although it’s not passive, becoming a rideshare driver is a great option because of its flexibility. Uber allows you to set your own schedule and earn extra income by driving other people – whenever you feel like it.
Let’s say you’re down on cash and urgently need to make a hundred bucks. You can just turn on the rideshare app, drive a few people around, and you’re set.
17. Advertise on your car
Did you know that you can earn up to $1200 per ad campaign on platforms such as Wrapify, Vugo, and Carvertise?
Placing ads on your car is a great way to make money without doing much really – besides just driving around and going about your usual business. It doesn’t get more passive than that.
18. Flip Goods on eBay
There are many places to find items you can flip online, such as Cragislist’s “free” section or eBay. You can search for valuable products to acquire cheaply, and simply relist them at a higher price point.
19. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is the direct shipment of goods from a manufacturer/wholesaler to a customer, instead of the retailer who placed the order.
It’s such a great way to make money without having to keep stock of the products you’re selling. Whenever somebody places an order, you then buy the item from your supplier and have it shipped directly to them.
The key is to sell at a higher price point than you bought. Dropshipping is one of the most profitable side hustle ideas for students.
20. Sign up to receive online rebates
This one should be a no-brainer for people who are addicted to shopping. Rakuten allows you to get a rebate when shopping from a wide range of online retailers.
All you need to do is create an account on the platform and then install its browser extension. Every time you shop online, you can get anywhere between 1% and 22% cashback.
21. Invest in the stock market
If you have a good understanding of the stock market, or are willing to learn it, then you can make passive income investing in ETFs or index funds with low fees. A lot of millionaires and billionaires around the world made their fortunes through the stock market.
