On this page you'll find all the best ways to make money in your
spare time whilst at university based on our own experience. We'll keep
adding new ways to this page so go ahead and bookmark it. And please do
share your own ideas in the comments!
Top ways to make money online and offline
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No-risk matched betting
Hands down the quickest way to make a lot
of money (well, without breaking the law). Lots of students have
genuinely made £100s from this technique. It's completely legal, risk
free, tax free, and anyone can do it.
It works by taking advantage of free bets regularly offered by
betting sites through ‘matching' them at a betting exchange. Matched
betting eliminates the risk (you are betting both for and against a certain outcome).
This leaves you being able to squeeze out the free bet, which can be
as much as £200! Multiply this by how many betting sites there are and
you can quite easily come away with a profit of a few hundred pounds.
Owen walks you through how to make your first £15 profit (using a real life example) in this gem of a guide to matched betting. If you know of any better way to make £30/hr sitting at home, please let us know!
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Online surveys
Credit: Julio Marquez – Flickr.com
An increasingly popular way for students to make money is to fill out
online surveys in their spare time. Research companies are always
recruiting new members to answer surveys and test new products.
For a few minutes of form filling, you can make a couple of quid
which is paid as cash or rewards. You can bag up to £3 ($5) for some
surveys!
A few good ones to try are: Toluna, Vivatic, OnePoll, MySurvey, SurveyBods, Crowdology, Valued Opinions, YouGov, PopulusLive, Global Test Market, The Opinion Panel, Pinecone, IPSOS, Hiving, PanelBase, MintVine, Opinion Outpost, Harris Poll, Mind Mover, New Vista, iPoll.
Also sign up for Swagbucks which rewards you for surveys as well as simply surfing the web, watching videos and playing games.
Update: See our new full guide to the best paid online surveys!
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Paid for searching the web
Interested in earning cash for doing what you already do online? This
has to be one of the easiest methods of making money online without
really any effort or change in your behavior.
This innovative idea by Qmee.com
rewards you for searching in Google, Bing or Yahoo. You just install a
simple add-on to your browser and when you conduct a search there may be
a few sponsored results alongside your normal search.
Each Qmee result has a cash reward attached – if you are interested in it simply click on it and collect your reward.
The best thing is there is no minimum to cashout – our first one was
just 72p wired to our Paypal account. You also have the option to donate
it to charity.
Sign up now for free and start earning from your own searches! Click here to start.
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Online market trading
The historically hard-to-break world of investing in stock markets
and currencies has been cracked wide open. Today there is no need to be a
fat cat or fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.
Having spent many hours researching this new opportunity, I've been experimenting with the two biggest platforms: Plus500 and eToro.com.
Both offer free practice accounts, and Plus500 also give you a free £20 (without depositing, terms apply) for their CFD service which is worth taking up. Overall I prefer eToro with over 4.5 million users worldwide. It was recently featured in the BBC 2 documentary “Traders: Millions by the Minute” and the Financial Times.
One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see, follow and copy the investments of other top performing traders.
Follow George's complete guide to trading on eToro
to learn more. I think $200 is a good amount to get the most out of the
learning curve by trying out a few different markets. If nothing else
you'll learn a great deal about various investments and industries.
Disclaimer: CFD trading can be volatile and you can lose your entire
capital, so don't throw your life savings into it! Trading CFDs may not
be suitable for you. Please ensure you fully understand the risks
involved.
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Start your own website
Interested in generating passive income? You need a website. It's THE way to make money while you sleep.
Starting a website with Bluehost takes less than 20 minutes, costs hardly anything and can be done by an 82 year-old.
It only takes a bit of plugging on social media to get your first
visitors, and there are plenty of ways to monetise your site.
Save the Student is just one example of a successful
website, started at university by Owen Burek in his first year, which
has since grown into a full-time and sizable enterprise.
Read Owen's step-by-step guide on how to start a website in 20 minutes. It's really one of the best assets you can have.
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Review websites & apps for cash
Well
it seems like you're pretty nifty with a web browser, so perhaps it's
time to turn pro and browse websites as a paid and fun job!
Introducing UserTesting.com
– a new platform that pays everyday people to review all kinds of
websites. Each review takes around 20 minutes and bags you $10 (£6.50)
via Paypal.
Simply sign up here, complete a test review and look forward to receiving websites in your inbox.
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The ‘Disney Vault' secret
To
keep demand high across generations, Disney Studios carefully restrict
the supply of some home release classics. They are locked away in the
‘vault' for 8-10 years before being released for a short unspecified
time.
Buy them in this window at normal retail price and you can turn a nice profit when they go off sale for another decade or so.
For example, in 2011 you could buy Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray 3D for just £24.99. In just a couple of years it was on Amazon for a staggering £74.99!Importantly, not all Disney releases are subject to the vault and only the true classics will maintain such demand.
Right now there are just 2 titles out of the vault which I would recommend snapping up. They are Bambi Diamond Edition Blu-ray and The Lion King Diamond Edition Blu-ray.
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‘Get Paid To' sites
Similar
to making money from online surveys, GPT sites reward you in cash and
vouchers for completing various offers or activities online.
The most popular sites today are Toluna, Swagbucks and InboxPounds.
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Become a delivery rider
Got
a bicycle, motorbike or car? What about a Smartphone? That's all you
need to make some extra money working as a delivery driver whenever
you've got some spare time.
Sign up to delivery specialist companies like Deliveroo
who are always on the hunt for new riders. They allow you total
flexibility to work when you want, delivering food from restaurants to
the customers' door. You can make up to £16 an hour.
Double-up your opportunities by directly contacting local takeaways and bigger chains like Dominos to see if they have any delivery jobs going.
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Write and publish a Kindle eBook
If students are good at anything, it's researching and writing. With the Amazon Kindle store, anyone can publish an eBook and make money.
And the Kindle app is now available on almost any device (laptops,
iPads, smartphones and yes, Kindles) so your global market is huge!
List your book for £1.49 – £6.99 and you earn 70% of the sale.
Considering Amazon is the ultimate selling machine (and remember people
are looking to spend), that is a fantastic deal.
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key to success with eBooks is to create value, and write non-fiction.
Simply bundling information you have researched and complied on a common
problem (eg. ‘secrets' to finding a job) and then presenting it in an
easy to digest format (an eBook) justifies someone spending a few quid
on it.
Another big tip is to have a great cover designed so it stands out,
and once your book is live on the Kindle store it's really important to
get some reviews so it shows up higher in results. Encourage readers to
leave an honest review at the end of your book.
The best thing about this lucrative idea is that once you've invested the time (say 20 hours), you'll earn a passive income for years to come! For a step-by-step guide to publishing and earning with eBooks, see “How to write a nonfiction eBook in 21 days“.
earn money