Whether you are looking for ideas on how to make money from home as a kid or online jobs for 15-year-olds, this post will give you more than enough ideas on how to make money as a teenager online.
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected employment rates among youths and teenagers. Pew Research noted that in 2020, teen employment rates plummeted to their lowest in the United States since the great recession because of the pandemic. If the COVID-19 pandemic or any other reason has forced you to remain indoors and you can’t hang out with your friends, then I have you sorted out.
Making money as a teenager online is not a straightforward process for many teenagers, but more and more teens are entering this world. The internet has become a tremendous tool that has helped many teens find ways to make money online.
When I was a teenager many years ago, all I was thinking about was the next movie to watch, playing games or when next I was going to hang out with my buddies. Life has changed and more and more teenagers are looking for ways to make money online, which is a great way to prepare you for the future world of work.
Before we dig in, you need to know why you should make your own money as a teenager.
Benefits Of Teenagers Making Money Online
There are many benefits of you making your own money as a teenager and I will just highlight a few here.
Independence
Now that some of my kids are now teenagers, I realize how important it is for teenagers to earn their own money. It is so liberating to know that you can buy whatever you want with your money instead of having to beg from your parents anytime you find a nice game online.
What about that fashionable piece of clothing that you know your mom will never buy? Well, guess what; you can use your own money to buy it. That independence is worth your while to read this post to the end.
Discipline
Mom, I’m not using my money to buy that piece of junk. This is a common statement I hear from my kids when they are deciding how to spend their hard-earned cash. When you have earned the money yourself, you are very careful about how you spend it.
Budgeting
Now you understand why your mom always carries pieces of paper with lists of what to buy. You no longer go throwing everything into the shopping cart when you are in the mall doing some shopping. Earning your own money teaches you to budget and prioritizes your purchases.
Responsibility
If all the above things do not teach you how to be more responsible with money, then I don’t know what will. Handling your own money brings a level of responsibility that is hard to get otherwise.
22 Ways To Make Money Easily As A Teenager
I will now take you through the ways of how to turn your time on the computer into cash. I’ll provide tips and ideas on how you can start a side hustle online and offline.
Make Money As A 15-Year-Old Online
There are many ways for teens to make money online without sacrificing their time. Here are a few of the most popular ways for teens to make money online during their downtime or over the weekend.
1. Serve As A Mystery Shopper
As a mystery shopper, you share your shopping experiences with brands showing them where they can improve the customer’s journey. Mystery shoppers anonymously visit stores and report their findings to the companies who hired them to shop. This position requires little training.
Teens can serve as mystery shoppers at places where they frequent, such as coffee shops, supermarkets, clothing stores, movie theaters, or retail establishments, as long as they are at least 18 years old and have access to a vehicle. A valid driver’s license is also required. Most companies will reimburse mystery shoppers for gas expenses, but the company will not cover the cost of eating out while completing the assignment.
2. Review Products On The Internet And In Stores
Reviewing products and services on the internet is another great way to make money online for teenagers. Companies often need people to write small reviews or articles for their products and services.
Online retailers are looking for teen reviews and surveys more than ever before because they want to maintain their customer’s trust that they are getting what they pay for. Writing reviews for products you have purchased is one of the easiest ways to make money online.
3. Become An Affiliate Marketer For Companies
Affiliate marketing is the practice of earning a commission by promoting someone else’s product. The affiliate marketer promotes the product to potential customers. The customer then purchases the product through one of the affiliate marketer’s links with the affiliate receiving a commission from that purchase.
If you do not have a blog, you can use your social media accounts to post your affiliate links to your followers. Affiliate marketing programs pay teens a commission each time they refer someone to the product or service provided by the affiliate marketer.
There are several kinds of affiliate programs, but most teens will be involved in retail where they can find a lot of things of interest to their peers.
4. Complete Short Tasks Or Offers Online
Teens can do a variety of these mini jobs for websites like Amazon Mechanical Turk, Crowdflower, and Gigwalk. These platforms pay teens per task completed, which ranges from $0.02 to $0.10 per task depending on the website and type of job performed.
For example, Amazon Mechanical Turk has tasks such as image transcription for as little as $0.02 per image. Many of these sites will also grant teens access to their software where they can perform similar tasks without having to complete additional training. Files are uploaded to be reviewed by a human reviewer just to check if the work was done accurately.
Other simple tasks include writing product reviews, visiting a website and filling out online surveys, etc. Paid surveys can be completed on the phone or by computer.
5. Write Articles For Websites And Blogs
I recently read about a teenager who is earning a fortune through freelance writing. Many websites give youngsters the chance to write brief articles for free to gain experience or even offer money to teenagers after submitting blog posts.
Teenagers interested in writing quick facts about products or services can also start their own blog on Teen Ink a magazine by teens for teens which offers a list of free topics about culture and entertainment.
Some teens choose to become professional writers and have their own websites dedicated to their interests. Writing for free is the best way to get started as a writer if you do not want to invest any money at all on software or training.
6. Get Paid To Do Online Surveys
Surveys pay well and you can complete surveys online for cash. They’re generally a great, easy way to make money and take little time to complete, so why not give it a try? Of course, it helps if you are interested in the survey company’s products or services to allow you to do the job effectively. It also helps if the questions are related to your habits or experiences.
7. Become A Tutor
Teens can offer tutoring services to students in different subjects. A good tutor offers one-on-one tutoring services and works with the students to get them on track for success in whatever subject they are learning about. Teenagers who are good in certain subjects like maths and the sciences will not lack online tutoring work.
8. Do Simple Tasks On Websites Like Fiverr Or Upwork
Fiverr is one of the most popular companies for teens and younger people to make extra cash. The site allows you to advertise your services, and clients who are in need of such services can approach you to do their project. Most projects cost around $5 and hence the name Fiverr.
Other freelance companies like Upwork or Guru hire young people to create content for them or do other simple tasks for a few dollars per hour in areas they’re not skilled in, such as writing, animation, editing videos or graphic design.
If you have some experience in such tasks, you can create a killer profile and start with simple tasks, after which you can increase the amount you charge for more complicated tasks. You will be surprised that there are many opportunities on such freelance websites for teens to make money online.
9. Start And Run A Blog
Blogs are collections of people’s thoughts, opinions, and experiences collected together on the Internet on a particular subject. You can create and run your own blog on any topic. The best part is that you don’t need to have any technical skills, you can start from scratch.
Blog posts are generally written by one person and submitted to an online blogging platform. There are many platforms available for blogging, with some being more popular than others. Some examples include Blogger: www.blogger.com; WordPress: www.wordpress.com; Tumblr: www.tumblr.com; LiveJournal: livejournal.com.
Many blogging platforms are free to use, but you can later pay for a self-hosted blog, which gives you many options to monetize your blog.
10. Create A YouTube Channel
Create a YouTube channel and start uploading your video content with a link back to your blog or website if you have one or social media account. Accomplished Youtubers earn thousands of dollars each month by working with YouTube to have advertisements on their channels.
With YouTube, there are no limits to how much you can earn with your channel or how many subscribers you can have. The beauty of having a YouTube channel is that if people are interested in what’s on your channel, they will subscribe and become loyal consumers of your content. The more people consume your content, the more you can earn as a teen YouTuber.
11. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) refers to using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to build a base of followers, fans, or subscribers for a business. You can make money as a teenager online if you are savvy on social media as most teens are apt to nowadays. You can manage TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media accounts for businesses and get paid for it.
12. Sell Books, CDs, DVDs, Video Games On eBay Or At Yard Sales
Teens may also consider selling unwanted items online at sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or eBay. Selling unwanted things on eBay is a great way to clear out clutter from around the house as well as earn some extra cash.
How to Make Money As A teenager Offline
Not exactly online oriented or lack the necessary resources for online work? Here are bonus tips to make money as a teenager which do not require you to be online.
13. Assist Kids With Homework
Younger kids usually have problems doing their homework, especially if their parents are still away at work. You can offer to assist with their homework and even teach some of the things they are yet to grasp in their studies, after all, you are further ahead in your own studies and this should not be a problem.
14. Baby Sitting Or Pet Sitting
Many people would use and pay for your services to sit their children or pets while they are away on errands and earn an hourly rate for your services. You may even house sit for people when they are away on holidays or visiting distant relatives.
You can start by providing the services to your family or friends and later if you have your own means of transportation and some spare time on your hands, you can sign up for sites like care.com or sittercity.com and start getting some job offers in your inbox to help you earn some extra cash on the side.
15. Teach Musical Instruments
A lot of people would love to learn how to play musical instruments, but lack people to teach them. If you know how to play an instrument, this could be a great way for you to make extra money. You can go on sites like Craigslist or search for local music lesson opportunities online, and if you have spare time, this could be a great way for you to earn some significant cash on the side.
16. Lawn Care
Chores like mowing, removing weeds from lawns, watering, dressing and other lawn care activities can be quite hectic for elderly people and stay-at-home parents with small children. This is where you come in as a teen. Provide families in your neighborhood with such services and get paid when your school schedule allows.
17. Lifeguard Services
If you love swimming and being around water, why not be a lifeguard at nearby swimming pools over the weekends when many more people have the time to go for swims?
It can be overwhelming for lifeguards, especially in the hot season when children are on school breaks. Offer your services at peak hours to watch over the kids as they swim and earn handsomely.
18. Food Delivery
Another simple job for teenagers to make money is food delivery. Discuss with local restaurant managers to put you on call when they have food delivery jobs at night or on weekends when you have no classes. Besides that, you can download and use popular food delivery apps like Uber Easts, GrubHub, Instacart and others.
As you deliver food, you may also realize that your neighbors need groceries delivered in their homes, which you can also add to your services. A simple bike can carry out these delivery services.
19. Wash Cars and Homes
Teenagers can also make a fortune just by washing people’s dirty cars and homes. Instead of taking their cars to a car wash, approach your neighbors to give you the job and then do it right at their homes as they supervise you.
Start with a few, and with time, if your work is great, you will start getting referrals from other people who hear what you are doing.
Besides cars, look for anything else that needs cleaning, like carpets and even their homes for a fee. With time, this can actually grow into a full-fledged cleaning business in the future.
20. Be A Sports Coach
If you enjoy certain sports like soccer, basketball, tennis, why not coach other kids in your neighborhood for a fee. Parents who are passionate about sports will pay a fortune to have their children trained and coached in specific sports.
21. Make And Sell Crafts
Teenagers who are great at handmade artistic items can make and sell them to friends, relatives, and their own peers. Find out what is popular with other teens and offer to make for them.
Eventually, you can open an Etsy store and start selling your items there.
22. Be A Receptionist
Imagine the many salons, barbershops, and ice cream shops in your neighborhood that could do with a helping hand of a receptionist in their shops. Many have no people to use as relievers when their receptionists have to take time off or go on leave. Approach the owners and let them know you are available in case they need your services.
Final Thoughts On How To Make Money As A Teen
There are many ways to earn money as a teenager. Teenagers today have a world of opportunities waiting for them if they can start working on them early.
If you have some free time, it is important to look for online work or other opportunities to make some money on the side so that you are working towards your goals and moving forward with your agenda rather than wasting your time in between classes.
An ordinary teenager like yourself can earn a decent income online or offline, even without a high school diploma or a college degree. Pick one idea discussed above and get started today. A lot of the jobs discussed require little to no experience to get started.
You can also join an online community of like-minded people who want to make money together. Teenagers looking for profitable online work can join online communities that cater to people looking for online side hassles. Examples include Facebook groups, Reddit, forums, etc. Many teenagers have managed to earn a decent income online from such communities. Let me know what you would like to start with.
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