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Wondering how to make money as a teen?
You are not alone, nowadays, most teens want to earn their own money for various reasons.
Maybe you’d like to earn some extra cash to have a bit of your own spending money, save for your first car, or to save up for college.
Whatever the reason, there are plenty of ways you can learn how to make money as a teen today. You can make money at a traditional job, find ways to earn money online, or even start your own small business.
In this day and age, the sky is really is the limit to how much you can make if you work hard and are dedicated to whatever you do.
Benefits of Making Money as a Teen
Besides having cash of your own, there are many benefits to learning how to make money as a teen.
You get to buy whatever you want since you earned the money
It’ll teach you how to manage money as a teen
You’ll learn how to be responsible
It’ll teach you the value of money
You can save up for things that are important to you
The earlier you learn these money management skills, the better off you’ll be financially later on in life.
So, if you have decided that you want to have your own money, here are some ways you can make money as a teen both off and online.
25 Ways To Make Money As A Teen
Data Entry
Data entry jobs can be a great job for teens who are looking to earn some extra cash from home.
Legit online jobs are available in various roles like a data entry clerk, data entry operator, and more depending on the employer.
A data entry clerk usually inputs information into their clients’ computer systems using a spreadsheet or database program. If you can type fast and accurately, this job is for you.
Here are some of the best places to find work from home data entry jobs for teens:
Proofreader
Teens with an eagle eye for spelling, punctuation, and grammar can get work as a professional proofreader.
As a proofreader, you will read over your clients’ work and check for mistakes, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and more.
You can earn anywhere from $5 to $20 per hour, depending on your skills and the client or site you work with. Check out these places for proofreading jobs.
You can also reach out to the owners of different blogs and websites to see if they would pay you to write for their sites.
You can earn anywhere from $50 to a few hundred dollars writing articles for clients depending on the site and your writer level.
Become a Graphic Designer
Do you know how to use photo editing and graphic design applications, such as Photoshop, InDesign, Canva, and PowerPoint? If so then working as a graphic designer might be the perfect job for you.
Depending on your skills, you can create logos, flyers, t-shirt designs, infographics, and book covers as a graphic designer.
Some popular places to look for graphic design jobs include:
You can also consider creating your own website and display your work there to showcase it to your potential clients.
As a new graphic designer, you can earn $15-$20 per hour depending on your skills. If you can design web pages, you can earn more money.
You could also sell printable online using your graphic design skills. Learn everything you need to know about selling printables in my Ultimate Guide To Make Money Selling Printables here.
Become a Photo & Video Editor
Are good at editing photos and videos? If so, you can make money finding photo & video editing gigs.
Many businesses and individuals need help with photo and video editing work. They outsource this work to freelancers with knowledge in editing skills.
Here are some popular sites where you can find a photo and video editing jobs:
You should consider creating your own website to showcase your work to your potential clients.
You can expect to earn $15 per hour as a photo editor and $20 per hour as a video editor.
If you are interested in this work, there are many photo and video editing apps and software you can use such as Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe, Corel, and Apple’s iMovie.
Website Designer
Tech-savvy teens who have some web design and development skills can make money by building new websites for others.
You can design and build websites without coding skills by using CMS such as WordPress and learning how to use template-based editors and WYSIWYG editors.
But having some knowledge of coding skills such as HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap is essential if you want to design and develop a website. You can also learn JavaScript to be able to create more advanced websites.
If this is something you’d like to try but don’t have all the skills needed, you can learn these skills by doing research and participating in online courses – both free and paid courses.
If you choose this route, you should consider creating your own website to demonstrate what you can do for your potential clients.
Some popular places to look for graphic design jobs include:
Make YouTube Videos
If you know how to create and edit videos, then you can make money from your videos by uploading them on YouTube.
There are many ways to monetize your YouTube videos. For example, you can make money from affiliate programs using video. This is where you promote other companies’ or people’s products or services via affiliate links.
When someone clicks through one of these affiliate links to go to the relevant company’s site and buys something or performs any other desired action, you earn some money.
To be successful with this money-making idea, make videos about something you know a lot about or enjoy doing to share with others.
Once your channel reaches 1,000 subscribers and your videos have reached 4,000 watch hours over the last 12 months, you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program to monetize your videos.
If you are accepted into YPP, you can make money from your videos via Google ads. You can also make money from your videos via sponsorships and selling your own products or services.
Provide Tech Support
Today’s teens are computer and tech-savvy and there are many adults that just aren’t and are willing to pay someone to fix or set up their computer, create a social media account, or even just install some software.
You can even make money teaching people who don’t know much about technology learn basic computer skills, which in this day and age is a must.
Advertise your services with flyers, via word of mouth, or on social media.
Sell Your Unwanted Items
Selling unwanted goods is a great way for teens to make money fast. You can sell things like old toys, clothes, textbooks, used cell phones, video games, and more both online and offline.
Some of the best places to sell stuff online are eBay and Amazon. You can also sell your stuff locally by having a garage sale, listing your items in the classifieds, or on Facebook Marketplace.
You can also use the Decluttr app to sell your stuff. What’s nice about Declutter is that you’ll get an instant price for your old items and if you accept the price, you simply ship your items to them.
Once they receive your stuff, they will make a payment the next day via PayPal, direct deposit, or check.
Start a Reselling Business
Many teens can make a decent income reselling products both new and used. For instance, you can find new low-cost clearance items at your local department stores and resell them for a profit online on sites like eBay or Amazon, which is known as retail arbitrage.
You can even make money flipping used items you find at thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales both off and online.
Reselling on is a great online start-up business idea for the real teen entrepreneurs to make money but does involve some upfront investment.
The more you invest, to begin with, the better but you can still get started with as little as $20 to $50 and work your way up.
If you’d like to try flipping stuff or profit, check out this free workshop to learn how to start a flipping business.
Selling Handmade Crafts
If you are creative and love making crafts, then you can earn money selling your handmade creations online on Etsy, eBay, and Amazon among many other places.
If you are thinking about this, you’ll need an adult to set up a shop in their name and give you permission to post your items for sale.
You can also sell your handmade goods at local craft fairs and flea markets in your area or ask store owners to carry your products on consignment which means you will only get paid when your items sell.
Of course, most store owners will keep a percentage of the sale in exchange for letting you display your product in their shops.
Sell Your Photos
Teens who love taking pictures can sell their photos online to make money. If you can take photos of popular subjects, then you can make money as a photographer.
There are many stock photography websites where you can upload your photos to sell online. Each photo that you upload to a stock photo agency must be approved by the agency before it is made available for anybody who wants to use it to buy.
If you can build a large bank of photos to sell if you upload high-quality photos to a reputable stock photo site.
Here are some reputable sites teens can sell their photos online:
Typically, you will earn anywhere from 25 cents to 45 cents per image that is downloaded by a buyer. This doesn’t sound like much but if you take and upload loads of high-quality photos, you can earn a decent income selling photos online.
Plus, you can sell the same images over and over again creating a nice stream of passive income. Many of these site also allows people to buy commercial licenses for images and videos which can earn you anywhere from $25 – $100 or more.
Make Money as a Virtual Assistant
Being a virtual assistant is one of the best ways for tech-savvy teens to make money online. A virtual assistant is someone who completes a variety of tasks online.
Typically, small companies, website owners, influencers, and busy professionals hire virtual assistants to keep their overhead down.
As a virtual assistant, you can do tasks like email management, social media management, data entry, blog management, scheduling appointments/meetings, transcription, and translation, and more, depending on your skills and clients’ needs.
You can specialize in an area of your expertise, like bookkeeping, Pinterest management, photo, and video editing, etc. to earn more money as a specialized VA.
Some sites for teens to find virtual assistant jobs include Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, and Fiverr.
The pay for virtual assistants varies depending on your skills and who they work for. Teens can earn anywhere from $10 to $30 per hour as a general VA.
Babysitting
If you are thinking about how teens can make money, babysitting is a classic. If you enjoy spending time with younger kids, then you could get paid to watch kids for family friends and neighbors.
If you are a certified babysitter, or have taken babysitting classes, or have experience from caring for your younger siblings, it will be easier to market your babysitting services to your potential clients.
The American Red Cross offers a babysitting certification course that you can take online or in person.
You can offer your services to parents and neighbors with kids in your neighborhood or find babysitting jobs online on sites like Care.com, Sittercity, UrbanSitter, Babysits.
You can expect to earn anywhere from $7 to $15 per hour as a babysitter, depending on your experience and who you babysit for.
Pet Sitting and Pet Walking
Love animals? If so you can make good money walking dogs or pet sitting. Many people pay to have their pets walked while they are at work or to have someone take care of their pets when they go out of town.
Doing this could earn you some extra cash or even turn it into a small business. You could advertise your pet sitting services to potential clients in your area with flyers or via word of mouth advertising.
You can also find pet sitting or dog walking jobs on various online sites, like Care.com, UrbanSitter, Petsitter, Rover, and Wag among others to see if there are any jobs in your area.
As a teen pet sitter, you can earn anywhere from $5 to $30 per hour, depending on your experience, location, and the client. Typically, dog walking pays more than pet sitting. Dog walkers can expect to earn $20 to $30 per 30-minute walk.
Online Tutoring
Do you excel in certain academic subjects? If so then you can tutor others who are struggling in a subject that you have extensive knowledge of to make money as a teen. You can have students come to your place, meet up at a library, or tutor them online.
There are some online tutoring agencies or sites that hire teens to work as online tutors depending on the subject and expertise.
Some popular online tutoring sites that hire teens to work as online tutors include:
The pay for tutoring jobs online varies, you can expect to make anywhere from $10 to $15 per hour as an online tutor depending on the subject taught and the client or the company/site you work with.
Social Media Manager
If you spend a lot of time on social media and you know how to engage people and gain a following on various social media accounts, you can work as a social media manager for small companies and individuals to make money online.
Your tasks can include creating engaging social media posts to share on behalf of your clients engaging their followers by replying to comments and questions, gaining more following and increasing online visibility, uploading images or videos, etc. tasks, depending on the client and your skills.
Here are some of the top places where you can find social media jobs online:
You can also reach out to local businesses in your area to offer your services. The pay range for a social media manager is anywhere from $15 per hour to $45 per hour depending on the job and your skills.
Start a Blog
If you have a knack for writing, then you can start a blog and earn money with paid ads, affiliate income, or even selling your own products.
It is very easy to build a blog even if you are not tech-savvy. But if you want to make money you must be dedicated to it long-term enough. The key is to write high-quality content on a regular basis to attract enough traffic.
Mow Lawns
Teens can earn money mowing lawns for neighbors who are too busy, unable due to physical restrictions, or just simply hate doing it themselves. It is a classical way to make money as a kid or teenager.
You can offer your services to people in your local area. Advertise your services with flyers, via word of mouth advertising, or knocking on the doors of the neighbors.
You can expect to earn anywhere from $20 to $45 per lawn, depending on the size of the lawn and there are plenty of people who need and want this type of service and would gladly hire anybody who is capable of doing the job.
Shovel Snow
Shoveling snow is a seasonal opportunity for teens who live in a cold area where it snows a lot to make some extra money.
Many people are unable to or do not want to clear the snow on their property themselves and are happy to pay others to clean the snow out of their driveways and walkways. Reach out to your neighbors to see if they would be interested in your services.
Become a Personal Grocery Shopper
Love shopping? Why not get paid to shop for others? Offer your services to busy people or the elderly in your neighborhood who may not be able to go shopping for themselves or just don’t like to.
Once you get a handful of clients, you can earn recurring weekly or monthly income from the same customers since this will be a regular service that they’ll want or need.
You can also become a shopper via several online companies like Instacart and Shipt.
Start a Cleaning Service
By now you should know that you can make money as a teen helping people do things that they don’t have time for, can’t due to physical restrictions, or just don’t want to do if they could pay someone else to get the job done.
This is why starting a cleaning service is a great way to earn money as a teen. You could offer to do people’s regular cleaning on a weekly basis which many people already pay someone to do which makes this the perfect start-up for teens.
Work at a Restaurant or Retail Store
A traditional way for teens to make money is by working at a restaurant, grocery store, or retail store. Fast-food chains, restaurants, and supermarket chains are always in need of extra help, especially during busy periods of the year.
Teens can work as a cashier, customer assistant, shelf stocker, cook, waiter or waitress, etc. You can also work for entertainment venues in your local area. Check out with your favorite local grocery stores or retail stores to see if they have jobs available.
How to Make Money As A Teen Conclusion
As you can see, there are so many ways for teens can make money. All you have to do is to figure out what skills you already have and then a choose job or business idea you can start based on your interests.
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