If you’re in high school, and you’re wondering if you could make some money during your downtime, it’s most certainly possible.
As with any other ways to make money, you will need to put in the effort and hustle to see results.
In this day and age, there are more opportunities than ever to make money online as well as offline. It’s also highly beneficial to start making money while still in high school, other than the obvious reason of getting a head start in terms of accumulating wealth.
In fact, getting familiar with what it takes to earn money at a young age will better equip you with the right mindset and expectations when you eventually enter the workforce. The experience that you’d get from doing your own side hustle in high school will be invaluable in the future.
In this article, we’ll showcase several ways you can make money in high school, depending on the resources at your disposal, be it transportation, time, or skills.
We’re sure that you can find something here that is right for you, so without further ado, here’s a list of ways to make money in high school.
1. Make money by taking surveys
While this side hustle won’t make you a ton of money, it is by far one of the easiest ways to make money in high school.
All you have to do is to apply for said surveys on several websites and take the surveys that you are qualified for. There are a ton of companies that are looking to gather insights on particular demographics, including high school students. This is where you can come in and offer your perspective in exchange for some money. Surveys offer companies and businesses valuable insights that can then be used to better understand their target market.
These can be relatively easy and can be done quickly in your spare time. More importantly, surveys can be done in the comfort of your own home, be in on your computer, or even on your phone.
Want to get started with surveys? Check out sites like Survey Junkie, Swagbucks, Vindale Research and you will get your first survey in no time.
2. Start a blog
If you’re willing to consistently hustle to build something from the ground up and are willing to sacrifice instant gratification to potentially make a ton of money down the line, starting a blog is the perfect way to make money while in high school.
Granted, this is not the easiest way to make money, but it is one of the most lucrative once you get it up and running.
With blogging, you will need to first establish yourself in a niche, which presents unique opportunities since you are a high schooler in the blogging world.
You can use your age as an advantage to offer a different perspective on a niche since not that many bloggers out there are as young as you are.
It also helps if you are knowledgeable in that niche and have decent writing skills. Once you have established your niche and practiced your writing, there’s nothing stopping you from making money with a blog.
The key to success in blogging is to identify hot topics in your niche and offer your unique take on the subject. Being in high school will definitely give you an edge here, as there aren’t as many bloggers out there that are your age.
From there, simply get your blog set up and start writing away. For an in-depth guide on the exact steps to get your blog up and running, check out our article here that will get you up to speed on setting up your blog.
As you publish articles and grow your traffic steadily over time, there are a ton of ways you can monetize your blog to rake in some serious money. In fact, it is entirely possible to make up to 6 figures a month from your blog, provided you have a huge audience and deploy the right monetization strategies properly.
3. Start freelance writing
If you are skilled in writing but don’t like the idea of running a blog, you can still make money just for writing, even in high school.
While you don’t need to be the best writer out there, your writing quality must still be on point for potential clients to trust you with your work.
To get started, you might have to work for free to demonstrate your writing ability before you can land lucrative jobs. Consider the effort you put in to build your portfolio as an investment to secure high paying gigs down the line.
Sites like Upwork or Fiverr are a great place to start if you’re looking for quick gigs to get your feet wet in freelance writing.
Once you have built a decent portfolio, you might want to take on bigger writing jobs for publications. From here, you can start exploring dedicated freelance writing platforms for specialized, high-skilled writing jobs where you can offer your services for a better rate.
If you think your writing abilities are up for it, check out these sites to start securing writing gigs:
Depending on the type of gig that you get, you could stand to make a decent amount of money from freelance writing.
4. Start a YouTube Channel
We’re fairly certain that anyone in high school right now watches a ton of YouTube videos, but have you ever wondered how you could make money from YouTube?
Similarly to blogging, making money from a YouTube channel largely depends on the size of your channel. Obviously, the bigger your view counts are, the more money you can expect to make.
When it comes to getting started with YouTube, first decide on what type of videos you would enjoy producing. If you are comfortable in front of the camera, you can start a vlogging channel, for example. Or, you can review gadgets or products that you have opinions about – the beauty of being a content creator is that there are no restrictions on what you have to produce.
On the other hand, if you are not comfortable with showing your face on video, you have plenty of other options as well. For example, if you are good at video games and spend a lot of time gaming, you could start a gaming channel showcasing your gameplay or strategies.
If you have great editing skills, you can even make a channel out of compilations or highlights using footage from other channels.
When you have built a decent following and have consistent views, you can then start to monetize your channel using a myriad of ways.
• Google Adsense
The first one that comes to mind would be using Google Adsense, which is the easiest to implement but not necessarily the most profitable.
This is done by placing ads on your videos with ads from Google to make money whenever someone watches your videos. You do have to meet Google’s qualifications to enable this, but once you do, it’s just a matter of enabling it and letting your videos generate revenue.
• Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your YouTube channel, as the revenue generated is entirely passive. This is done by inserting affiliate links to your video description, where you get a small cut of the sale if anyone purchases products using your links.
This is commonly done in review channels where links to the products mentioned in the review are linked using an affiliate link, usually from Amazon.
• Sponsors
If you’ve managed to establish yourself as an authority in your niche, you could secure sponsorships from companies who are willing to pay you for placing their products to your viewers.
This can come in the form of host-read ads or a sponsored ad segment in your videos. Either way, these are usually very lucrative, as you’ll be paid directly from the company.
Also, some sponsors might even offer you their products or services for free to try out, provided you make some content about them on your channel. If you happen to center your YouTube channel around something you are passionate about, this can be absolutely thrilling. For example, if you love gaming and built a successful YouTube channel around it, you could receive free gaming gear from the top gaming companies out there.
5. Start dropshipping
Starting an eCommerce business is a great way to make money whether you are in high school or not, but dropshipping, in particular, might be your best bet considering just how easy it is to get started.
If you are not familiar with the term dropshipping, it’s where you build an online storefront where customers can purchase products that are sourced directly from suppliers, usually from China. That way, the physical goods are shipped directly from the supplier to the customer, freeing you from the hassle of procuring, storing, and managing inventory.
To build a dropshipping store, you’ll need a robust eCommerce platform with support for popular dropshipping apps and services. For this, the best option would be Shopify, as it is extremely simple to use and has integration with almost all of the dropshipping services out there.
From there, you’re going to integrate your store with a dropshipping service to connect your store to suppliers. There are several options for this, namely Oberlo and Spocket.
Once your store is set up, all that’s left to do is to drive traffic to your store, usually utilizing paid advertising. This is most commonly done through Facebook Ads, but more and more dropshippers are seeing success with influencer marketing as well.
Your profit margin would simply be the revenue generated from your store minus the product cost and advertising expenses. When managed correctly, dropshipping can be profitable, although you shouldn’t expect huge profit margins with this business model.
Still, dropshipping is one of the best ways to get your feet wet in the world of eCommerce, and is perfect for high schoolers to start since it requires very little capital to start.
6. Work as a virtual assistant
The idea of outsourcing has seen exponential growth over the last couple of years, with research indicating that the industry will have 8 billion active customers in the year 2021.
This presents a huge opportunity for you to work as a virtual assistant, even when you are in high school.
Best of all, virtual assistants do all of their work remotely, which means you only need to have a computer and an internet connection to pursue this side hustle from home.
As a VA, you will most likely perform a variety of administrative tasks to small businesses or entrepreneurs who are looking for some help with their day-to-day but can’t justify hiring a full-time assistant in person.
As the VA industry grows, you can make a lucrative hourly rate once you’ve proven your competence. According to Indeed, VA’s can make between $16-$20/hour, which is higher than most part time jobs.
Your pay will highly depend on what type of work you do as a virtual assistant; here is a list of the most commonly outsourced tasks to virtual assistants:
- Social Media Manager
- Bookkeeper
- Blogger
- Customer Service
- Email Marketing Assistant
This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, as there are a ton of other tasks you can do virtually to make money in high school. All you need to do is figure out which tasks you are most adept at and hone your skills to a level where you can contribute value to businesses.
If you’re ready to take on some work as a virtual assistant, there are plenty of platforms where you can start looking for clients. Here are some that you should check out :
7. Walk dogs
If you are a dog lover, this could be the perfect way to make money in high school.
According to Payscale, dog walkers can earn anywhere between $12-$19 per hour, just from walking dogs. If you are young and are able to take long walks for several hours per day, this is an insanely lucrative way to make money.
Of course, dog walking isn’t just about simply walking the dogs. You’ll need to ensure that the dogs are properly attended to, and arrange deliveries to and from their owners. Also, do consider that since you will be outdoors while walking dogs, weather conditions could affect your business as well.
That being said, there is nothing stopping you from being a dog walker! All you need to do is have some basic understanding of how to take care of dogs, and to build your trustworthiness among owners. Chances are, there are plenty of people who are just simply too busy to walk their dogs, which is where you can offer your services.
On top of that, if you can walk multiple dogs at a time, you can exponentially increase your earnings from this seemingly simple task. You also get nice added fitness benefits from walking regularly, which most people would prefer from sitting in front of a desk all day.
Want to get started with dog walking? Here are some platforms you can check out to connect with dog owners:
8. Babysitting
Do you love being around kids? Babysitting might be right up your alley; it’s another high paying side hustle that doesn’t require a lot of effort that you can easily do as a teen in high school.
Parents that are busy with their work tend to need some help with keeping an eye on their kids, which is especially prevalent in major cities where both parents are in the workforce. This presents an opportunity for you to take on that responsibility to earn some money, even in high school.
While it may be hard to be trusted as a teen in high school, you can start by first offering your services to friends and family to get the hang of it. Once you’ve gathered enough experience, you can then use testimonials from your work to land new clients outside of your existing circle.
There are also sites where you can submit an application to secure jobs from your area, though you will need to meet rigorous requirements and background checks to ensure that you are fit for the job.
Get started with babysitting with Sittercity; a platform that will connect babysitters like yourself to potential clients in your local area.
9. Become a tutor for students
If you have always had good grades in school and are capable of mentoring students who need help with homework or tests, you could be making money as a tutor in high school.
There are a lot of students who are struggling with their academics, and concerned parents are always on the lookout for tutors to help out with their child.
More importantly, being in high school means that you are more familiar with the curriculum and test since you’ve probably gone through the exact same material not too long ago.
Tutoring can be a very lucrative side hustle, especially if you are able to secure sessions with multiple students at once. How much you make will largely depend on the subjects taught and the academic level, but tutoring, in general, tends to pay very well.
Start by consulting relatives or friends to see if they have any kids that you can help out with and you’d be surprised at how much you can potentially make.
There’s also the option of tutoring online, where you can tutor students through the Internet.
For online tutoring platforms, check out these sites to see if you can meet their qualifications:
Conclusion
As you can see from this list, there are plenty of ways you can make money while in high school.
Being a teen doesn’t mean that you can explore side hustles to generate some income; all it takes is the willpower and discipline to put in the effort to see results.
You can even consider doing multiple jobs in this list if you can manage it, as everyone has different circumstances to work with.
Do you think we missed out on any ways to make money while in high school? Or, have you tried out any of these ideas? Let us know your thoughts or experience with making money in high school in the comment section below – we’d love to hear from you.
Bernard currently works full-time as a growth hacker and content researcher for HUSTLR. When he was studying in the US 2 years ago, he flipped Yeezys on eBay as a side hustle to fund his degree and living expenses. He’s currently working on his Amazon FBA business & dropshipping on the side.
