Making money in college can be a very difficult task, especially if you've never had any job experience. But, even if you have had job experience, all you can do is work a part-time job, which at your age is typically at minimum wage - not enough to support yourself. So, at such a young age, we are forced to dig deep and pull out some entrepreneurial spirit to keep bread on the table. For some of you, this is easy and you just need a push in the right direction, and for some of you, you need me to spoon-feed it to you; either way, I'm here for you with some time-tested methods to get you some extra money.
One of my favourite ways to get money is to sell my plasma, the watery part of blood. Although not great for people afraid of shots, or blood, it is great for kind-hearted soul, as you may save lives by making money. One of the best sites to find places to where you can "donate" is BloodBanker.com, as it has a simple zip code search. Naturally, this alone will not support you, but it is definitely a good bonus to your income, being about $200 USD per month.
Another supplement to your income, although not being a full income program, is writing. Aside from making your own blog, such as this one, there are fairly popular sites that sometimes pay you up-front payments, as well as a very small amount of money per view. The most popular ones are Squidoo and Associated Content. If you want to start a blog, you have two options: use a site such as Blogger.com or use a seperate webhost that supports blog software such as Wordpress. The benefit to using blogger is that you have the ability to make money from it with minimal work. But, being open source and having a ton of addons, Wordpress has numerous advantages, with the downside of having to find a seperate host to add ads to. Squidoo and Associated Content are, arguably, better ways to make money, but what is the best way, in my opinion, is to do both at once, and give up up-front payments.
Although this next option may be seen as an actual job, it tends to be under the table, and usually pretty easy - babysitting. If you do choose this option, I reccommend trying to find children above age three, as they're usually potty trained, and makes your job essentially to play, cook, and put them to bed - easy, right? Now, if all you can find is babies, don't fret, they're typically pretty easy to take care of short-term, and changing a diaper is alot easier than you'd think - I have essentially been a father to my half-sister, and have had no problems. If I can do it, anyone can. The hourly wage is typically good, and if you do a good job, you're pretty much guaranteed to get another job with them - and you get a good job reference as well!
If you, unlike me, are musically inclined, start a band! And I don't take the excuse 'But I play the violin! No one wants to hear THAT!' - Olli Vanska is easily my favorite musician, I would pay an arm and a leg to see him on stage again! Although classical instruments are no longer popular, they can be very well integrated into more modern music genres. Naturally, I don't know too much how band economics work, but I am sure that most clubs are always on a search for good entertainment, and if you can provide it you'll both make a name for yourself, as well as getting a few bucks.
Like myself, if you like to mix things up a bit as a student, try teaching / tutoring on for size! Some people are willing to pay good money for just a few hours of help, and if it's something you know well, it can be one of the easiest and most enlightening experiences you can ever have. As far as finding students, it can be pretty easy if you know where to look - even from your own home! My personal favorite site for finding students is Wyzant, as you need to be 18 and pass tests to be approved to tutor in a subject. But, if you're not too web-savvy (you should take a class from me on Wyzant!), you can always just post flyers in grocery stores and on electrical poles, and such.
One of the more obvious things to do, though, is sell your possessions. This, of course, is something you can only do once in a while, but it does help if you're in a jam. Some of the more popular things to sell are old computer parts, game consoles, and more popularly old textbooks. Although these sites are very popular and successful, I feel an obligation to tell you about eBay and Amazon.
Although I can't say I totally agree with this final method, paid surveys seem to be prevalent throughout the web. Typically, these sites claim to pay as well as a fulltime job, or even better, but in reality, each survey pays from a few cents, to two dollars, and some you have to give credit card information to, and sometimes pay for a product. Every time you do this, remember, you must give correct information (or it won't add to your account), which then floods your email with spam. The best site of this subject seems to be Cash Crate.
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