Are you a high school student? How are you paying for the things you want? Think of combining the benefits of earning money and acquiring skills that will help you build a career, start your own business, or even get to college.
Here are some great job possibilities for teenagers that will allow you to acquire significant experience and high-demand skills. These jobs are organized from the highest-paying to the lowest in terms of speed.
No matter how much time and energy someone has to put in, they should be able to find something on this list to do! All these jobs can bring you real-life experience and skills.
Affiliate Disclosure: The Smart Parenting Guide is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we get commissions from qualifying purchases.
1. Freelancing.
How can you make money as a teenager? What about freelancing, which is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers? Freelancing is a two-in-one opportunity to make money while gaining significant job experience. And it's not just for older folks; you could be a teen freelance worker! Here are some ways you might try to start earning cash through freelancing:
- Creating content for someone else's blog or website;
- Writing technical documents related to computer science, math, engineering, law, etc.;
- Designing graphics for promotional materials like flyers or posters;
- Developing video games with programming knowledge (game design).
The most straightforward approach to getting started is Fiver, because they don't have the same high threshold as, say, Upwork. You may also use Craigslist to offer your services. However, there are far more scammers on Craigslist than other sites, so that we wouldn't suggest it.
Learning a high-demand skill, such as copywriting or SEO, may assist you in finding well-paying online employment. To acquire the knowledge, you'll need to spend some time (and money) learning the skill, but it is worth it. Copywriting, SEO, coding, content production, social media account administration are just a few of the in-demand skills that you can learn online.
RELATED: Financial Literacy for Teens: 8 Resources to Start Financial Freedom
2. Virtual assistant.
With the growing number of digital entrepreneurs, demand for high-quality virtual assistants is increasing. Because of its quality: cost ratio, many businesses seek VAs from the Philippines. Employers do not usually demand any particular talents from VAs that are just getting started.
However, if you are a responsible person who wants to gain a lot of valuable experience, you might be able to work as a VA for a digital marketer, blogger, or e-shop owner. Moreover, they can teach you a whole bunch of practical and valuable skills. And being a native speaker might be your most significant advantage, especially if combined with responsibility and a fast learning pace.
You may also learn the basics of this profession on Udemy in short training to boost your self-esteem. There are several courses on Udemy to choose from; just pick the one you like.
3. Online tutoring (Italki, Vedantu, TutorMe, TeacherOn).
This is a fantastic way to make money while also understanding your target audience's challenges. You can learn the most challenging issues in the field, what people typically struggle with, and even devise your own method to assist individuals in overcoming their difficulties or making their lives easier based on what you teach. Use this information to start a profitable information business. You can develop a course on one of the educational platforms (such as Udemy; for more information, see tip # 12) or produce author info products utilizing your knowledge of the subject and your audience's requests.
4. Children's entertainer.
Working with kids is hard. Especially when you try to entertain them and the answer is the silence at best. But if you'd like to become a public leader, a speaker, a politician, a comedian, or even a lawyer, working as a kid's entertainer can bring you invaluable experience. You'll learn how to manage people, grab their attention, extend the attention span, as well as build resilience, stress and humility tolerance, etc.
5. Photography.
Do you enjoy taking photographs? You could sell your photos on sites like Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Adobe Stock. However, you'll need to go through some training on how to pick which pictures are in highest demand, how to make SEO for photo stocks, and of course, learn more about photography. There is plenty of training online for free if you are intended to learn how to earn money on photo stocks.
If you already have experience making portrait photographs, you could become the yearbook photographer for your school. Moreover, you might provide your services to other schools in your area.
You may also offer photoshoots for local Instagrammers. However, to clarify, influencers, even the smallest ones, are frequently feeling entitled, so they will expect you to take their photographs for no compensation. Unless you're confident you'll get a decent shout-out from such a collaboration, do not go for it.
6. Sell handcrafts on Etsy, eBay, or Facebook marketplace.
Consider what you may make: Perhaps you're a decent woodworker, gardener, or weaver. Maybe you can produce candles, soaps, bath bombs, customized t-shirts, and other similar goods. Make use of these marketplaces to advertise your talents as a craftsman.
What skill will you develop? A substantial skill set that may be very useful when you decide to pursue an adult profession in the future. Aside from handcrafting, you will know how to set up a marketplace account, how to optimize your listings for SEO, how to position and promote physical products, how to handle shipment and delivery. If done correctly, it may even become a full-time business itself.
7. Cooking.
What about selling baked items like cupcakes or cookies on Facebook, for example, through groups or on the marketplace? If your baking is well-decorated, consider selling it on Instagram. You may also develop your own YouTube or TicToc channel and post recipes, demonstrate muffin decorations, lifehacks, and other similar things. If you want to be a marketer, SMM specialist, or start your own bakery in the future, this is an excellent way to gain experience.
8. Sell coffee in your neighborhood, at the park, etc.
You won't need a fancy coffee machine for that. A glass jar and cold water are all you need to make a trendy cold brew coffee. Make and sell iced cold brew coffee in the summer and heated cold brews in the winter. In addition, this coffee is much healthier for you and tastes fantastic.
This one is tough because you'll have to go into the real world and deal with many problems while selling coffee. However, if you see yourself in the future as a business owner, salesperson, MBA, etc., this may be one of the most invaluable experiences of your life. You'll discover how to select the finest site for your business, communicate with consumers, find suppliers, and how to manage and obtain all of your permits—the greatest experience ever for a future start-up CEO.
9. Influencer.
In today's world, many kids aspire to be bloggers or influencers. To become an influencer, you must produce exciting and engaging material for your followers. In my opinion, providing helpful information is one of the most effective methods to demonstrate your expertise in a particular area. The more high-quality material you produce, the more people will want to follow you and see what you're doing, thus increasing your authority.
If you have a unique set of skills or expertise, consider starting a website, YouTube channel, Instagram account, or TickTock business where you can share your knowledge and mastery with others.
For example, you might have been collecting stamps for the last 10 years and know all about it. Or you play basketball three times a week and would like to share your special warm-up techniques that impact your performance. There are endless opportunities to become an influencer in a narrow niche.
By the end of the day, such niche influencers can earn as much money as Instagram celebrities with millions of followers. If you create a small audience that knows you and trusts you, people will gladly follow your expert advice and buy products you promote.
However, even if you aren't yet an Instagram celebrity, being a micro-influencer may help you gain valuable SMM abilities that you can use when working for a company and turning your Instagram account into your portfolio.
For example, If you really have valuable knowledge to share with the world, you can start your blog. Remember, your blog is your real estate, compared to creating content for other platforms like Instagram or TicTock, which can kill all your efforts at once simply by canceling your account for some crazy reason.
If you're interested in learning more about developing an online business by becoming a specialist in a specific area, go now to Miles Beckler's YouTube channel and watch his videos. He is indeed a digital marketing guru. You'll learn from him one of the most straightforward and inexpensive methods to start your own internet business.
10. Streaming games.
Twitch is the most popular platform for live streaming video games in the world. This is a website where individuals may broadcast themselves playing video games and earn money by displaying advertisements on their profiles. Thousands of gamers make hundreds of thousands of dollars each month from Twitch TV. It is the leader of video game streaming, with an average 100 million views per day.
Before becoming a partner, it is necessary to hit 10000 followers or hit 12000 hours streamed. You will be able to get help from other players on Twitch by using chat, direct messages. Also, you can earn money by receiving donations, Amazon gift cards, even crypto coins.
This is an excellent example of when a hobby can help you get ahead. You may learn the abilities of self-presentation, commentating, public speaking, emotional resilience, and collaboration while playing and streaming games.
11. Print-on-demand programs.
If you have graphic design skills, consider starting a POD business. Simply upload your design, and the service will take care of everything else! One of the most well-known PODs is Merch by Amazon. This is a huge marketplace where you may sell your designs to millions of customers. However, this is a very competitive industry, so you'll need to learn how to sell your items on Amazon.
There's a lot of information out there on how to get started making money through Merch by Amazon. To kickstart your business, you could suggest designing T-shirts for your local event at school or neighborhood. They may order T-shirts with your design from Amazon. But still, you need to learn the SEO and promotion tactics of your designs on Amazon.
Another strategy is to market your designs on your Etsy store, Instagram account, or TicToc profile. For this, you can use any POD service that appears suitable since the quality of goods utilized for manufacturing designs varies considerably. Make inquiries and read reviews of these services before beginning to work with them.
12. Create and sell your course on Udemy, or Linda.
What will you gain? The ability to produce information products is a highly in-demand skill. You can later use this expertise in your own info business (sell this course as a 1-click upsell within your funnel, for example). Or you can sell your knowledge to any interested marketing company.
READ NEXT: