5 Best Side Hustles for College Students

Whether you need some extra cash to cover your expenses, want to gain some work experience, or are looking for a way to build your skills and network, a side hustle can be a great option for a college student.

And as a college student, you have certain very monetizable assets in today’s gig economy. You have a varied social network online and offline and you interact with them on a daily basis. You can use this social network to generate a steady stream of income for yourself and start earning while you’re still in college.

And recruitment marketing through Synkdup’s headhunter program is not the only way to make $100 a day online, other methods are quite realistic as well. However, with so many options out there, it can be hard to know where to start.

So, in this article, let’s explore five of the best side hustles for college students.

Top 5 Side Hustles

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Recruitment Marketing
3. Youtube video lectures
4. Dropshipping
5. Email marketing

1. Affiliate marketing

If you have got a sizable following on social media as many students today do, affiliate marketing might be a good option for you. It works on a commission-based model allowing you to work when and how much you want without compromising on your studies.

Affiliate marketing is basically when you promote the products/services of a brand on your social media for a commission. As an affiliate marketer for a particular company, you are given a web link that redirects users to a web page of the company.

Every time someone lands on the company page using your link and takes a specified action like making a purchase or taking a subscription, you get a portion of the profit as commission.

Pretty, straightforward, huh? You just need to find an affiliate program that aligns with your interests or niche and sign up as an affiliate.

And college students can have several advantages over others in joining an affiliate program, such as:

• Access to a large network: College students have access to a large network of potential customers, including fellow students, professors, and alumni. This can make it easier to promote products and services and attract customers.
• Knowledge of current trends and interests: As a college student, you may have a good understanding of the current trends and interests of your peers. This can be helpful in choosing products or services to promote that will appeal to your target market.
• Strong social media presence: College students are often active on social media, which can be a valuable platform for promoting affiliate products. You can leverage your social media presence to reach a wider audience and attract more customers.
• Time and flexibility: As a college student, you may have more time and flexibility to work on your affiliate business than someone who is working a full-time job. This can give you more time to research products, create content, and promote your affiliate links.
• Low start-up costs: Joining an affiliate program is often free, and there are typically low start-up costs associated with promoting products. This can make it easier for college students to get started and reduce financial risk.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best passive income ideas for students except for one thing – you need to have a niche social media network. You can’t expect it to work if you just post links to random stuff that have got nothing to do with your other posts.

2. Recruitment Marketing

Recruitment marketing works on the same commission-based model as affiliate marketing except, you don’t need to have a niche network. And instead of promoting products/services, you promote job vacancies on your social media.

You can find a part-time job as a recruitment marketer on job search portals like Jobble, and Remote. co, and CareerBuilder and get a job where you make $20-$40 an hour.

However, some of these jobs may require you to go a step beyond marketing and undertake HR functions like conducting the first round of the interview process and selecting candidates for further rounds, which may be too much responsibility for a student.

With the Synkdup Headhunter Program though, you don’t need to do any of that. Your job is to just post web links to job openings on your social media and that’s it. For every legitimate applicant who applies through your link, you get a commission of around $25-$50 regardless of whether they get a job or not.

What makes it particularly appealing for students is that:

• College students know people who just finished college and are looking for a job or those looking for a job they can work alongside college. This means you are surrounded by headhunter leads all the time.
• You have no minimum work requirements or deadlines - you work when and how much you want.
• You are not expected to perform any other recruitment functions except simply giving wide visibility to the job openings through your social media reach.
• It is highly scalable through referrals. If you get 5 people to sign up to be a headhunter in a month, you get DOUBLE the number of your dues for the month.
• What is really cool about the program is that you are making money online by helping others get a job rather than pushing them to buy something as you do with affiliate marketing programs. You actually feel good about yourself for helping out your community.

Overall, the Synkdup HeadHunter Program is very suitable for most college students. It is very convenient to scale and in time, you can easily be generating a good passive income from your side hustle.

You can use the program in so many different ways to make money online while being a full-time student unless your course is not terribly demanding.

For instance, you could use your academic background to give general topics a unique perspective and submit your write-ups for guest posting to platforms that allow external links like Medium, Hubpages, Buzzfeed, Linkedin, and Quora Space.

You can include a personal link in your author bio or in the write-up itself. This personal link would land the user on your Facebook page where you constantly post links to job openings across America that you find on your Headhunter dashboard. And you would earn a commission every time an applicant applies using a link on your Facebook page.

Also Read:How To Make Money On Facebook Without Any Investment

3. Video lectures on Youtube

It is statistically proven that most people find videos more engaging than text and prefer to watch a video on something rather than read up on it.

if you know your subjects so well that you can teach them, consider online tutoring. It will help you with your own studies and be a good, steady, stream of income.

There are several ways that a college student can make money through online video lectures:

• You can create and sell your own courses on platforms like Udemy, Coursera, or Teachable. These platforms provide a marketplace for courses and offer tools for creating and selling courses.
• If you have a YouTube channel where you post video lectures, you can monetize your content by running ads. You can apply to become a YouTube Partner and get paid a portion of the revenue generated by ads on your videos.
• You can use affiliate marketing to promote products or services related to your lectures. You can earn a commission for each sale made through your unique affiliate link.
• You can set up a Patreon account and offer exclusive content to your supporters. Your supporters can pay a monthly fee to access your content, and you can earn a steady income from your subscribers.
• You can also work with sponsors to create sponsored content related to your lectures. Sponsors can pay you to create content that promotes their products or services.
• Sell You can also sell merchandise related to your lectures, such as T-shirts or books. This can be a way to earn additional income and promote your brand.

Though, as someone who has got classes and tests and extra-curricular and attendance and whatnot, you should note that making money through online video lectures takes time and effort. You'll need to create high-quality content, promote your videos, and engage with your audience to build a following you can make money off.

4. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a business model where the seller does not keep physical inventory but instead fulfills orders by purchasing products from a third-party supplier who ships the products directly to the customer.

Here are three steps a college student can follow to start a dropshipping business using their social media:

• First, choose a niche that interests you and has a high demand. Carry out some market research to identify products that sell well in your chosen niche; ask questions of your friends, Google, and ChatGpt.
• Next, you need to Look for and find a supplier who offers competitive pricing, quality products, and reliable shipping.
• And then, you just need to set up an online store. Use an e-commerce platform like Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce to set up an online store and customize your store to match your niche and brand, and you are ready to go.

Now, you can start promoting your store on social media. Use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to promote your store and products. Create engaging content and use hashtags to reach a wider audience.

Also Read: How To Make Money On Social Media: 5 Platforms To Cash In On Your Online Presence

When a customer places an order, purchase the product from your supplier and have it shipped directly to the customer. You should handle customer service inquiries and address any issues promptly.

As your business grows, you can consider expanding your product offerings, optimizing your website for search engines, and using paid advertising to drive traffic to your site.

Starting a dropshipping business using social media requires patience, persistence, and hard work. But with the right strategy and execution, it can be a profitable and rewarding business venture for college students. They can have several advantages in starting a dropshipping business like knowledge of current trends and interests.

As a college student, you may have a good understanding of the current trends and interests of your peers. This can be helpful in choosing a niche or product that will appeal to your target market.

You also have access to a large network of potential customers, including fellow students, professors, and alumni. You can leverage this network to spread the word about your business and attract customers.

And as a college student, you may have a more flexible schedule than someone who is working a full-time job. This can give you more time to work on your business and make it successful.

Moreover, starting a dropshipping business can be more affordable than starting a traditional brick-and-mortar business. You don't need to worry about the costs of rent, utilities, and inventory. This often makes it easier to get started and reduces your financial risk.

5. Email Marketing

There has never been a more vocal generation of college students than this one - you guys have a word for everything from ghosting to hangriness. You can leverage this richness of urban slang very profitably through e-mail marketing.

If you are a college student, you are likely to be very good at conveying crisp messages in writing without even realizing it simply because of how much you guys text on social media. The playful brevity you intrinsically find cool in texts and Twitter posts is very appreciated in the email industry as well.

You don’t have to have the writing skills of a blogger and can write decent promotional emails with very basic English writing and a general sense of advertisement tone.

When it comes to email marketing, success often depends on the quality of the content and the ability to connect with the target audience. As a college student, you may have a unique perspective and insight into the interests and behaviors of your peers, which can help you create content that resonates with them.

Additionally, you may have access to a network of contacts, including classmates, professors, and alumni, which can be useful for building an email list and expanding your reach. And also, email marketing would also help with your studies by forcing you to sharpen your writing skills.

However, it's important to keep in mind that success in email marketing also requires skills such as writing effective subject lines, creating engaging content, and analyzing data to optimize campaigns. These skills can be learned through research, training, and practice, regardless of your age or background.

And if you can use these skills optimally with your knowledge of trends, memes, and pop slang, you can do really well in email marketing!