Start a Kickstarter campaign

What the hell is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a crowd-sourcing platform where you can support people's projects with your money. Here's a brief explanation of Kickstarter:

Sounds interesting, huh? 

To keep it easy for a Friday, I'll give some brief tips to earn money with Kickstarter:

1. Do your research
2. Define your goal
3. Consider your rewards and costs
4. Prepare your pitch
5. Market the hell out of it
6. Keep it alive
7. Listen to your backers
8. Be patient
9. Be flexible and creative
10. Have fun

You want some more information? Then you should visit these website:

- Mashable

- Kickstarter tips for students

- Kickstarter

Repair Cars

The majority of college students who have a car don't know how to make minor repairs on their own or how to deal with sudden situations that might face them. If you do, you're in luck. Consider making a small investment in tools and supplies and then advertise for reasonably-priced onsite repairs and maintenance work like oil changes.

Focus groups

Find local market research companies and ask to register as a possible focus group participant. You could make a few dollars in exchange for offering your opinion about a new ad campaign or sampling food.

Source: www.fastweb.com

How to make money online fast - Extra Easy Money From Home

                                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig3vDRx3noQ

Creating Cash from your Musical Instruments

If you know how to play any instruments (guitar, drums, piano, etc.) you can teach others for £5-£10 a week.

Make Money Online by Making Use of Internet

                                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cTij27fjzs

How To Make Money Online - Top secret, Fast & Easy Method!

                                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCROxv_Wov0

How to make 3-D cards in 5 minutes

                                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdHFLoJJ8V0

Students can take advantage of seasonal occasions such as: birthdays, Easter, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and New Years to create amazing handmade cards which can be priced lower than the market. Cards can be 2-D, 3-D, colored with different sizes. 

Students Save Money By Renting Textbooks

                                               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdxuJRTraHU

Filling in surveys

Hardly the most inspiring and exciting idea, but it pays. The only problem with this idea is that you need to be committed. Most sites won’t start to pay you until you reach a certain amount of ‘points’, accumulated through sitting through hours of mind-bogglingly boring surveys about anything from ‘how did this advert make you feel?’ to ‘use a word to describe the positioning of this word’. To the latter, ‘earth-shatteringly tedious’ doesn’t tend to feature as an answer, unfortunately.

Still, when you do reach those milestones, there aren’t too many greater feelings than that lump-sum windfall.

source: Studentbeans.com

Create and Sell your own Accessories

MONEY MONEY MONEY! Students are always concerned about money, how to allocate their money on their daily activities? How to earn extra income? How much to invest? What about a part time job? All these questions are rolling your life in a coaster. Let us direct you towards the easiest ways of making money. 

In many cultures handcrafts are considered the main source of income and living. It is perceived by those who have this ability as a relaxing, enjoyable, pleasant lifestyle that requires them to have patience and creative characteristics.

If you are interested in making extra pocket money and have the skills to make handmade accessories, we will provide you with the easiest ways to do this. Handmade accessories have a wide range of products such as bracelets, earrings, key chains and many others.

The most common handmade accessories are bracelets. They are the simplest type to be done, they don’t need as much time, effort and even raw materials. Usually bracelets are made of threads and each 10 meter thread costs you approximately £7.

Let us say that you have bought three threads with three different colors with £21, and from a personal experience these three threads easily make 50 bracelets. So your total cost is £21 and the time taken to make three of them is one hour.  If each bracelet is sold for £ 3 then your profit is £ 129. Any additional beads can be added off course the higher the price of the bracelet become.

Moreover, Fimo is a kind of clay that it’s widely used; you can shape it in any form then after it dries it can be colored as desired. What is unique about Fimo is the low price where you can get each package for £ 3. With the fimo you can create earrings, brooches, rings and other “jewels”.

Furthermore, each one of us has unwanted T-shirts and trousers in his/her closet. Those not any more used clothes can be used to make bags and additional accessories for the clothes we usually wear. Technically, those cost NOTHING.

Last but not least, every house has numerous numbers of buttons with different sizes, shapes and colors. Have you ever thought of using them? Yes, they can be used as accessories on bags, T-shirts, trousers and even shoes. There are specialty stores who can provide you with larger variety with very cheap prices.

Become a Human Intelligence Provider

Even in the age of computerised this and robotic that, there is no denying that certain tasks are still best left to the good old fashioned human brain. These tasks are known as Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) and include little jobs that computers and programmes simply can’t do. This includes things like writing product descriptions, identifying elements within a video or answering FAQs.

These HITs are very simple, easy and quick, and you can get paid a good enough amount once you have gotten used to doing them. There are basically no requirements needed to fulfil a HIT as long as you read the request and do the job properly as described. You can easily do multiple tasks at a time if it makes it easier and turnaround time is extremely quick. Perhaps the most attractive thing about HITs is the ease of fitting it into your schedule. You can do them at any time and many of them take only a couple of minutes. You can do them when you wake up, before bed, or even at 4:30am when you’re having difficulty sleeping! It really is up to you. What you lose in steady income, you make up in complete freedom. Then, the money goes into your account after an allotted time (dependent on the organisation subscribed to) for you to spend as you wish!

Although a fair amount of money can be made after some time of getting used to how it works, and managing yourself in regards to working efficiently, initially it can seem like you are working very hard for next to nothing. It is very important to remember that the requesters (who offer the HITs) aren’t looking for masterpieces. Simply do what is asked and then quickly move on and forget about it!

We recommend Amazon’s Mechanical Turk as the most reputable marketplace for finding HITs. You can sign up at www.mturk.com and get straight to work!

Start an Ebay Shop

Ebay is an amazing platform for people who want to start to manage their own e-shop but don’t have the time, finances or skills to create a website from scratch with big orders on products they want to sell. If planned properly, the risk of losing any initial investment is seriously low. All you need is an Ebay account (and a Paypal account is recommended) as well as something to sell! Initially, this can even just be things cluttering up your room that you want to get rid of.

Our main advice as we mentioned is to plan. You don’t have to have a plan to make some money, but if you want this to be a source of real income without wasting hours and hours making pennies, it is important to have a think about what you want to do and how you’re going to do it.

First, you might want to decide on a product category you’re quite familiar with. This is so you know when to spot a good deal when it comes to buying your stock! Next comes the acquisition stage. Basically, you need to get things to sell. There are lots of ways to source products. Websites like Freecycle and Craigslist or the local newspaper will have classified ads put up by people getting rid of things. Sometimes this will include things you’re looking for so it’s important to keep looking. Another great source of products are charity shops and second hand shops but it is important to always think what sort of profit you’ll be able to make on it, if any at all.

Apart from the costs of the items you wish to sell, you also need to remember other hidden costs, in particular Ebay’s listing fees which vary item to item but must be acknowledged if you’re sure to make a profit. Also, the postage costs must be thought about! You can either let that eat into your profits a bit more or let the buyer take them on, but that may put them off slightly. Both of these will be very dependent on the size of the product. Things like books and DVDs are the easiest to sell (but that is why there are so many people selling these too!) But always remember – persevere! Someone will always buy what you’re selling sooner or later. Think about who will buy it and when and plan, plan, plan.

Mystery Shopping

Mystery shopping is the perfect solution for students who force themselves to shy away from the city centre for fear of spending money they haven’t got. In fact, even if you simply love to shop and want to earn money doing it, this is for you. As the Joker says; if you’re good at something, never do it for free!

A mystery shopper’s job is to go under cover into a predetermined shop, restaurant, bar, hotel etc. and act like a normal customer. Afterwards, it will be your job to write a report on the experience; whether it was positive or negative and why (reporting on things like staff friendliness and cleanliness of the building.)

It is great if you don’t mind writing reports and even if you do, is good practice to get into the swing of it to help your academic work to improve.  Tasks are usually very simple such as go into a fast food restaurant, and order a burger and a milkshake. Even better, you get to choose what tasks you do and the benefits of the task are usually free! So, if you fancy a free pizza, look out for tasks requiring you to go into a pizza restaurant. If pampering is more your thing, look out for any spa related tasks!

However do bear in mind that the report writing can be time consuming, especially if English is not your first language. Also, many websites require you to pass their own English language test before you can sign up. It is very casual and you may be able to retake the test but it can be daunting at first. Another thing to consider is the time. The best paying tasks take a lot more time and can require 2 or 3 days, especially hotel stays which can be difficult to plan alongside coursework (though if you have the time – free hotel stay!)

To become a mystery shopper, it is very simple to start doing. Just sign up to a mystery shopping company’s website and the tasks will be available online. We recommend the following sites as reputable mystery shopper firms:

www.retaileyes.co.uk

www.tern.co.uk/

www.grassrootsmysteryshopping.com/

5 things that students should know about money

Before we start discussing how to earn some money, probably we should mention ways of how to save money or in other words how to not lose money. Since the start of university is the first step to financial independence, here are five things that one new student need to know about money. 

1. Banks are not your friends

Often bank staffs’ primary aim is to sell you their products, and they will only do it from their own, usually poor range. Often the person you're talking to is paid based on how many things they can tie you into. Ask yourself: do you want to be the loyal customer whose business is taken for granted, or the customer whose business is hard won with better deals? Do your own research before getting any financial product. Ask yourself whether you need it, is it worth it, and have you checked whether it's the best deal on the market.

2. Be boring - stick with the monthly budget

Yes, it's boring, but if you're going to live on the money you've got, and afford a social life too, you need to learn to budget. Make a weekly or monthly budget and stick to it. Try using an online student budget calculator, such as the one on the Ucas website, which allows you to key in all your income and outgoings. Other tips:

• Try not to use your debit card to pay for things. It's easier to keep track if you pay cash. When going out drinking, only take with you the amount you're happy to spend that night, and no plastic cards.

•   Before you buy something, ask yourself: Do I really need it? Can I afford it? Can I get it cheaper elsewhere? If any one answer is no, think again.

•   Don't use cash machines that charge for withdrawals. Find out which ATMs charge and which don't.

3. Mobile phones are another expense
Don`t waste money for nothing – if you've already got a smartphone, or can get hold of one from a sibling who is upgrading, you can save by switching to a sim-only tariff. You can get free call minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data for less than £20 a month from almost any mobile company. 

4. …and travel bills also
One of the biggest surprises students report is how much they have to pay on trains, buses and tubes. So get a 16-25 Railcard – it costs £28 for one year, or £65 for three, and gives you a third off UK rail fares. Sadly, NatWest has made it harder to get one for free on its student account… or take the bus – check Megabus for low-cost deals.

5.  Pre-loading to save on a bar cost

We're not endorsing this, but we can't deny that it`s “profitable”. Pre-loading is about buying cheap alcohol from the supermarket or off-licence and drinking it at home before you hit the pub/club. "Drinking while getting ready with your mates might seem normal, but drinking a lot of alcohol before you go out could make your night take a different direction from what you've all got planned..you might be too ill to get in the taxi or even worse – in the club!

source: The Guardian