How to Earn Money as a College Student in India 2024?

How to Earn Money as a College Student in India? Let’s Find out. But before we begin I just want to clarify that, this article is mainly for those who are studying in their 11th to graduation, and not for school students. But if you want to follow this, just remember that school education is important and you must focus on your studies along with this side hustle.

Let’s begin.

I’ll share my point of view, as to Why you need to have your side hustle while studying, and I’ll let you know about my past journey, and how I got earning through genuine means of side income.

Why Side Hustle is important?

While we are students in the class 11th or 12th or graduation, We generally have much time for some additional activity. Generally, we tend to spend that time going to the movies or playing games, spending time with our friends in the hostel or watching TV or OTT at home.

But for those casual expenses like buying a T-shirt, shoe of your choice in your budget, of your favourite brand, or getting a ticket for a movie of your favourite actor without asking your parents is all you need while you are in college.

And if you are like me and don’t like to ask your friends for help financially, you need to have some kind of side hustle. But working aside from your studies, generally in a cafe or a small corporate company, is not a good idea at all.

I’ve worked in many companies and have done all sorts of odd jobs for a few bucks every day less than Rs.100. Trust me, this thing has not changed at all in India right now as well.

Right now, the opportunity lies in the Digital. Working on a laptop is the ultimate choice you should opt for to make some side income.

While it seems easy to work on a Laptop on a desk, it’s not that easy at all.

The purpose of this article

Generally, while we are students our thought process is like to get some easy money in our bank account. But easy money always goes out easily. Even most of the time, you get caught in some kind of cheating or deceit by the fraud companies to do part-time jobs like form filling, captcha verification etc.

But don’t fall prey to them. I’m talking about legally earning money, a decent amount, which can cater for your monthly food, clothing and other expenses besides your study expenses as well.

Ways to earn online

Online Freelancing

I’ve kept this under the first point. Why? Because I’m a Freelancer. I work online for my clients to get things done for them and get earnings out of it.

Freelancing is a democratized version of a job. Where you can complete the individual tasks at the price, place and job of your choice.

In Freelancing, you can do various tasks online, such as Graphic Design, Online Consultation, Sales, Web Design, Web Development, Online Assistance, Video Editing, VFX and a lot more.

Generally, you can earn a handsome amount for your daily expenses as a student.

While I was a student back in 2012, there were many platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, they’re still there, but now things have changed. I don’t recommend them in 2024 at all. I would tell you to directly approach potential clients on social media, email, WhatsApp, or call any way you are comfortable with.

Try to find out a problem about them or their company, If you can deliver the solution, then you can charge for it!

isn’t it amazing? It’s kind of an outbound consultation. Manier cases initially you’ll get rejections, but don’t put any high-end expectations, Just go with the flow and keep completing all the small to big tasks. Become the master of your craft, Trust me while you leave your college with a degree, you’ll have a side business ready to take over and continue with a much better pay scale than your friend’s campus placement CTC package.

For Online Freelancing, you need to have a skill. And there’s no better place than learning those skills free initially from Google and YouTube.

Generally in the beginning, you can earn somewhere around 10000 rupees every month which can go up to 100000 or 1500000 a month, if you become the master of your craft and start working for international clients.

While I was starting, I initially started by watching YouTube videos and reading blogs on the internet. They shape your path and give you a clear direction.

And one more important thing, don’t take advice from those who are not related to freelancing, have never done it, your college seniors, or someone from your friends, family or relatives, Just keep it secret. Work in silence, or else you could get demotivated.

As of 2024, the in-demand skills that I know are Graphic Design, Video Editing, Content Writing, Photography and Videography. If you know about this stuff, you can survive now and in the future.

Keep a deadline of 3 months to 6 months, watch the tutorials, and practice on a PC or laptop. Make a portfolio on Instagram your website, or platforms like Behance and start searching for clients. That’s it. I know it’s not easy, time time-consuming, but there’s no other way to do freelancing.

Online Content Creation

Yes, This is the skill, that requires consistency, consistency in writing, posting, editing and distribution and brand building.

Initially, you can start with YouTube and Instagram. If you are better at speaking These two are the best platforms to begin with.

But if you are shy of the camera, but good at writing, or speaking then you can start your podcast or your blog, but growth in a blog requires patience and consistency.

Generally, you can create Content in 4 ways: Videos, Written content as blogs, images as posts for social media, and audio as podcasts.

Try to find a niche, that excites you, that you have experienced since your childhood, that you like to watch on your phone, and find out the future potential of it, and work on a thing where you’ll not get bored doing it for multiple hours every day.

While YouTube and Blogging are direct sources of monetization Google Adsense, Instagram or other social media platforms may offer sponsorship through various companies after you get substantial followers or subscribers on your channel or platform.

Find other content creators from your niche try to replicate them in the beginning and take inspiration from them, you’ll get traction in the beginning few months.

To begin your content creation journey, you can start with your mobile phone camera and your laptop, and if you grow then you can upgrade your equipment and tools with professional tools and all.

Those above two methods have worked for me, and I'm still doing those two as my primary source of earning, but the below ways are the ones, that I've done in the past or generally available as an option to go for.

Online or Offline Tutoring

I’ve taught as an offline tutor in the past for digital marketing students at a local technology institute in my local city for a few months. Although the scope is very low, you can try to get an opportunity if you are good in any subject or any skill and can put time and effort for it.

But this is a very hectic job, teaching requires a lot of patience in the first place. But for Online tutoring, you can do webinars, and live classes on Zoom, or Google Meet, or even you can launch your prerecorded courses on a website and sell them through paid advertisement campaigns.

If you ask me whether to choose offline tutoring or Online tutoring, I’ll suggest Online, because it’s a dynamic way to teach online. The payments you get in advance, You can teach from the comfort of your home. You can grow your audience and network easily with online tutoring.

Part-time jobs

This one is for those who can’t start something for themselves or don’t like to work online. You can start with a part-time job in your local city, local schools, colleges, or offices in an administrative or office executive or sales executive role.

Don’t just do the part-time job to get a salary in the mind end, rather try to observe how things are working, how you can start a similar business of your own, Try to cultivate an entrepreneur mindset.

You can even work in a hospital, travel and tourism sectors to get more exposure to the real world and trust me the reality will hit you harder.

Sell Digital Products

If you see here on my website, there’s a store section, where I sell all kinds of digital products. Digital products can be simple pdf, e-books, excel files or cheat sheets, but they should be problem solving digital products that customer should be interested in buying to solve their problems.

if you don’t have a website, you can sell them with external e-stores such as Gumroad or topmate.io etc

Affiliate marketing

If you are an avid reader of my blogs, then you must have seen that I’ve been promoting some products on my blogs which are may be related to Amazon products or something related to hosting or payment gateway or something like Adobe software, which I use to generate some extra income, if someone purchases the product through that link then I get a small commission out of that.

Other Online Opportunities

If you are coming from a well-to-do background, then you can start trading in the stock market. But for that, you must have an in-depth knowledge about it.

For a smaller side income, you can work with online apps such as Zomato, Ola, Rapido, Swiggy, Zepto etc to get work on commission-based deliveries.

Offering social media and digital marketing services to businesses in your nearby city can also give you a decent amount of money. You can help them in regular posting, and promoting their business, you can promote them as an influential content creator in your local city in the local language or even you can try to do that with their social media handles.

You can do campaigns for them on social media, to get more reach and generate leads for their business.

You can write for other platforms as a freelance writer. For eg. in my blog, sometimes I hire writers to write on specific topics that they are experts in, or if they have ample amount of content writing experience, then that gets much more beneficial for me, saving me tons of time.

if you are good at presentation skills, you can try to work as an event planner or a host at multiple events in your local city, for that you can consult with big event companies in the city.

Starting a small side business

After your college is over in the evening or morning time you can try some side gigs, like selling fast food, or some other selling stalls, which can drive multiple footfalls and generate you a good income. But try to do it as a brand. Promote on social media and try to get exposure as a business owner.

conclusion

Always remember to keep a healthy balance between your studies and work, and make a distinct time for your own life as well. Try to explore, travel and entertain yourself. As only working or studying can get you bored. So enjoy the college days, but part-time, or in some leisure time try to make some extra gigs for an extra income.

Thank you.