How can I make a little bit of money online as a teenager?

To make a long story short, my friends are planning a group trip after we finish our HSC (final exams). It’s just over a year away as of right now, but my problem is that my family has nowhere near as much money as most of my friends have. That’s not to say they’re rich, but just that I’m poor. Anyway, I’m trying to find a way to save up the money to actually go, but I don’t have the time or the ability to work a classic job like Maccas or anything.

I need something I can do online with a VERY flexible schedule so it will work with my school timetable, but most things that would work great for me all require you to be at least 18. Is there anything out there like transcription, freelance writing, user testing, or literally anything that actually allows 17-year-olds to do work?

Following for my son.

Nev said:

Mason said:
Following for my son.

The side hustle discord - https://swiy.co/thesidehustle

Why’s it asking me to pay?

Tatum said:

Nev said:
Mason said:
Following for my son.

The side hustle discord - https://swiy.co/thesidehustle

Why’s it asking me to pay?

Cuz getting you to pay IS the hustle.

At this stage, you probably can’t do anything except learning high-income skills. If possible, just start a free business on your own to test your skill frequently. If you learn copywriting, video editing, or graphic designing, you can convince people to let you do a free piece of work for them or just keep practicing on your own. If it’s something like content creation, create your own social account and start posting content on it to see if you’re good enough. IMO, you can only make money when you’re at a certain level of skill and have their trust.

Spend a couple hundred bucks setting yourself up with what you need to do some form of chore for residential or commercial buildings. Window washing, gutter cleaning, trash pickup, poop-scooping - just no landscaping, that takes a lot of time and skills, more than you have from the sounds of it. It also takes a pretty large equipment budget.

Print up some cards, buy a few tools for whatever trade, and get your ass out there. Figure out what hours you are willing to work two weeks in advance, a bit longer if you can, and only book in those times, or with no set time for the appointment if that works for whatever you decide to do. Be available to work those hours, and get yourself out to do some jobs. Start small, don’t overbook yourself, bill reasonably but don’t under-price yourself, and work what time you can.

Once you get into the swing of it you can start booking more, or pack more into smaller time slots.

Do good work, offer a discount on the next service if someone gives you a reference that gets you a new client, put out a few flyers and business cards, you’ll make bank. Ideally, go to middle-wealthy neighborhoods - not the actually rich, not the middle and under-class areas. Retirees will usually be easy sales if you do good work for their neighbors, they all talk to each other and recommend people.

Post yourself little gigs on Facebook Marketplace, get a few friends to comment under it for a bit saying how nice whatever looked when you were done, even post a pic if you actually did the work for them. Expand your offered services if something gets requested often and you think it would be an easy addition.

By the time of your trip, if you aren’t spending anything you don’t need for the business, you should have quite a bit banked up by the time you want to go on this trip - easily $5000+, could be up to $20,000 if you can commit 10-15 hours a week once you have steady work rolling in.

I won’t lie, this would take serious work from you but you’ll make much more money per hour than the guy at Maccas if you do it right.

@Terryanne
I’ll add to this that churches are a good place to seek work in exchange for a few bucks.

@Terryanne
Work is always good. Working for one’s self is even better. Love to see someone suggest this to our future generations of leaders. :innocent::raised_hands:t5:. Passive income is hard but it’s out there.

Do you engage in P2Es like Legend of Arcadia? I know most people in your age bracket use that as a good means of passive income.

You can try UGC, affiliate marketing, or influencer marketing. You can also sell digital products.

Make stuff and sell it online. Or flip things you find at Goodwill for a profit.

I know you said online, but here are some other suggestions: 1. Waiter on Friday nights and the weekends 2. Yard work (cutting grass, leaves). 3. Pressure washing driveways and homes 4. Senior Assistance (sometimes seniors may need help changing light bulbs, batteries, etc.). 5. Dog Walking 6. Car Washing.

Video editing, building and selling websites for small businesses and people, dropshipping, creating your own content, learn how to create music or beats, stock market from Cash App investing, the list goes on. Lots of stuff to do but you have to learn it first. Can’t just expect a payout.

@Wyatt
How do you make money off creating beats?

Zinnia said:
@Wyatt
How do you make money off creating beats?

Selling the MP3 of a beat to small independent artists for $50. Full license for $150. Offering to do the mixing and mastering for another $50. Anything on an MP3 I get royalties for unless they purchase a full license so it’s just incentive to buy in full. Create a website where you can post your beats to that’ll allow you to link it in your socials. Make a YouTube channel for your beats. Make a TikTok for your beats. Any video over 1 minute on TikTok gets royalties. You’ll need a laptop or PC and the producer edition of FL Studio. I’ve been doing it for about 6 months and I still got a long way to go before I’m making record label studio quality stuff. Right now, I just make the standard hip-hop intro, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, outro beats. I suck at all the extra stuff; still got a lot to learn.

@Wyatt
Yeah, I used to make beats on Ableton but my mixes were kinda garbage sounding on a car stereo. I kinda got tired of messing with it.

Zinnia said:
@Wyatt
Yeah, I used to make beats on Ableton but my mixes were kinda garbage sounding on a car stereo. I kinda got tired of messing with it.

Takes a while tinkering with it. With selling beats, it’s best to just make sure it sounds good on your phone. Send the file to your Gmail then play it on your phone and in headphones; that’s what most people will be using at first. You can mess with it after.

Before all of that, you need to find or learn a skill and use that to land a gig. Do free online courses, upskill yourself.

Throw some money on Bitcoin and let it ride or die, like a true gamble. Only put money on it that you can lose, even though you might be a millionaire by the time you graduate - I’ll assume June 14th, 2025.

Website design.

Maybe make YouTube videos, monetized, 48 seconds or longer - like an introduction or making stick figure animated black-and-white silent films of Shakespeare or Pepe. Try and get a million views or hit up YouTube and talk to them about it.

Create a crypto coin for your school student body or make use of your school’s student body and sell student body cards or create an online gift/book/crypto decentralized exchange for your student body Government/Treasury.

Get involved with 3D Printing, collaborate, and put all the free 3D blueprints on a CD or DVD or USB or SD card and sell them. Maybe do a project report and some essays on 3D printing, the tools, the materials, 3D printed dollhouses or real houses or she-sheds.

A huge list of things exists - find them and do a thousand-word report on them. Sell them to your classmates and their networks.

Good luck to everyone reading this - I have the same idea - literally just need to do the homework also.

I found this browser extension like 6 months ago that said it pays to use your unused wifi bandwidth, and now I checked my browser extension and found out it had been running in the background this whole time and I got like $450. I can send you all a referral link for the signup to get bonus points if you want.