It can be a rewarding experience to do freelance work during your school years. You can earn an income to help with educational expenses and also get valuable business experience that you can use for school and future employment. In a recent survey by Upwork, 35% of the US workforce was found to be freelancing. A key benefit is that often you can work from home or anywhere, which allows you to have a flexible schedule that can work best with managing your school obligations.
If you are a beginner in this field, you will need to give some thought about the kind of work that you can do and the potential earnings from different kinds of projects. You also need to review the company and business you are considering working with, particularly if it is online to ensure it is reliable and trustworthy.
Begin by making a list of your skills and interests in order to select a job that is a good fit to your abilities. You can then try to network with others who are doing this or search for jobs through your school or online job boards and resources. Once you find a few areas of interest, put together a brief resume and fill out the job application where needed.
Below are some ideas for working from home if you are planning to make some money this semester in school.
Freelancing Services
There are numerous freelancing sites such as upwork.com or fiverr.com that offer projects or work based on your skills. These sites match companies or people looking for a particular skill on an assignment basis or for a period of time. Popular options include writing, programming requiring specific technology or language, web development, graphic design, and marketing.
You can search for opportunities on the sites to see which ones are a good fit to your areas of expertise. You will need to register yourself on these sites in order to send inquiries and or to get contacted about a particular listing/job. You can bid for work once you find an opportunity that fits your schedule and skills. Many of these freelancing sites charge a percentage for the earnings upon completion of each project.
You can also find specialized freelancing sites for the type of skill or job you want to focus on. For example, 99designs.com is a platform for freelance designers If you are interested in logos, book covers, and website design. For writing, blogging, and editing specialties, check out Freelance Writing Gigs, or offer your services to write free essay papers to learn writing as a beginner. For those who have programming and web development skills, there are many avenues for finding work on online job boards.
It is important that you do your projects with dedication and turn in quality work to get an excellent rating from clients on these sites. By building a great reputation in your field, you can gradually enhance your pay rates and build a steady list of clients.
Online Tutorial Services
For those who are good at communication and interaction with others, online tutoring can be a lucrative opportunity. You can offer your tutorial services according to your specialization. If you are good in mathematics, start teaching mathematics online by signing up at one of the online services that offers online tutoring service. You can also start your own website to teach students online, but this may require developing some marketing skills in order for students to find you. You can also begin tutoring for professional tests like PSAT, SAT and ACT to earn some money. You can earn a greater income for tutoring in a highly specialized area such as law or sciences.
Auction Sites and Garage Sale
One quick way to earn some money is to get rid of your stuff and other people in your school or community by going online to organize an auction or garage sale. You can even find apps such as VarageSale or Yard Sale Treasure Map that can help you get the word out for a physical garage sale.
Try to get the word out to people that you are interested in collecting stuff they may not need and offer perhaps an incentive if you end up selling their items. This way you can have a greater opportunity for making money from this activity.
Once you have the items you want to sell, research them on the Internet to help you in determining their value and to set a meaningful price target. You can set a fixed price for the items or use auctioning techniques for people to bid on the items. Promote your garage sale on different websites to get the attention of a maximum number of customers. You will gain more experience after you do this a few times and you will spend less time in executing a sale.
Photography Services
Some students are interested in photography and have a good eye for taking pictures. You can turn this interest into a side income by offering your services at events such as weddings, birthdays, holidays, baby showers and more. Make sure you practice your skill and take some interesting and quality shots that you can present in your portfolio for when you are asked to show samples of your work.
As a beginner, consider offering your services for free to friends or family members in order to build a portfolio of work to show. There are many online services that specialize in photography and design and you can build a portfolio there and update it as you get more experience and gigs. You can also consider creating your own website where people can go directly to contact you and check out your work. While there is a cost associated with creating and hosting a website, it can go a long way in helping your brand and for people to find you online. There are stock photography sites that also offer money for selling or licensing your photographs when they are selected by bloggers and Internet businesses.
Freelancing is a great opportunity to consider while going to school. It requires little or no investment to get started and can set you up for interesting work that lets you make money and gain experience in a variety of professions. With the rise of so many job services and communities online, students can look into these options to search for work and build their brand and portfolio.
