Being a teenager comes with its benefits and plenty of challenges. In addition to doing school work, homework, helping at home, and trying to fit into social circles, You rarely have enough money. You are always searching for ways to make that extra cash to impress the girl, eat out with friends, and buy a flashy cell phone among other desires. In today's world, it's quite easy to find easy side hustles for teens that pay handsomely. Apart from making the extra cash for a given purpose, you also learn essential skills and gain financial literacy. According to Zapier, 45% of Americans have a side hustle with an average monthly earning of $483 and the trend is growing every passing year thanks to the expansion of the online space. These side hustles don't take up much of your time so won't interfere with school, social life, or sports activities that you may already be engaged in.
As a teenager, side hustles can be a great way to make money and even start a business. No one said you must be 18 to begin expressing your dreams and make some money too. There are so many different ways to make extra cash and buy the things we desire. Here are the ten best options to pick from.
In this article
1. Taking Online Surveys
Many online survey sites out there require users to be over 13 years. This naturally covers all teenagers desiring to make some money doing simple survey jobs. With just a valid email address, you can start offering your opinion and get paid for it.
Survey sites like Survey Junkie pay between $5-$18 per hour and pay in cash and gift cards for your work. Swagbucks on the other hand pays between $0.25 - $4 and will give you a $5 signing bonus. You can also earn extra cash by shopping online, playing video games, and watching videos right from their iPhone and Android Apps.
2. Creating videos
Kids as young as preschool age are into this and are making serious money on YouTube. Creating videos is one of the good side hustles for teens and anyone can do it. The easiest ideas are unboxing or assembling toys. These how-to videos help many kids out there and have plenty of views that in turn translate to money for you. You can start without any help or tools except for your smartphone. Join YouTube for free and start posting your awesome videos, in a few months to a couple of years, even you won't believe how far you'll have come.
There has been a lot of development in the video production industry in the past few years. The players are constantly researching and adjusting to the market needs, making it a field to watch keenly if you want to make money as a video creator. A report by The Hustle indicates that 81% of side hustlers are graphic design professionals, including video creation and photo manipulation, followed at 73% by online media and photography at 60%.
The most prominent change is businesses increasingly utilizing video marketing techniques to increase their online presence and grow their customer base.
Major trends about video creation:
- Streaming Television Services: Online streaming entertainment has significantly affected how viewers consume their media. The advent and growth of streaming services like Hulu, Apple TV, and Netflix have changed how we watch TV.
Their subscription model allows the consumers to watch ad-free content whenever and wherever they desire. This trend has given advertisers some freedom to create videos focusing less on sales and more on brand-building as compared to TV ads.
- Mobile devices: Since consumers view content more on their phones these days, advertisers and video creators tend to target this avenue more. Video creation for mobile devices makes for easy side hustles for teens since they can relate to their peers who spend most of their time glued to their phone screens.
- Social media: Other than desktop streaming and smartphone videos, more people are creating short videos using their smartphones. With just your smartphone, it is now easy to create videos and edit them with easily available tools right from home. This is the definition of online side hustles for teens and those with regular jobs.
Nowadays you can't browse the internet for a minute without meeting a video or two, there is always a video waiting to be clicked. This makes video creation one of the easy side hustles for teens seeking to make some extra cash or just for fun.
Examples of video types include:
- Explainer videos
- Company culture video
- Tutorials/ how-to videos
- Events videos
- Feature/product videos
- Onboarding videos
- Vlogs/ personal videos
- Whiteboard/ creative videos
How to Choose the Right Type of Video
Before you start creating your videos, you must choose the right type to effectively reach your target audience. The major factors to consider are:
1. The goal of the video
Are you targeting a specific audience or a given social media? For example for educating people, you may consider an explainer or tutorial video.
2. Where will it be hosted
For a website homepage, a short introduction about your company will be adequate and will serve its purpose. An explainer video will work best at a trade booth or show to clearly explain how your product works.
3. Budget
The cost of creating videos varies depending on many factors. You must determine the budget before beginning of work on the video. High-value videos like brand videos may cost more than demo videos.
How to Use Video to Make Money - DemoCreator
Perhaps you had not known that you can use available video creators like DemoCreator to make stunning videos and earn some bucks.
As interest continues to grow in online videos, so does video creation grow into one of the best side hustles for teens. One of the best video creation tools I know of is Wondershare DemoCreator with so many great features that any amateur can create professional videos. DemoCreator makes it so easy to produce professional videos in a very short time and you don't even need prior experience to use it
This essential demo-making tool has helped video creators including freelancers, learners, gamers, and educators to actualize their ideas in the video. It can be used to create educational videos like tutorials, make company presentation videos, and create informational video content for example in vlogs and explainer videos.
Its awesome features include:
- Recording
- A screen drawing tool
- Multi-track editing
- Media Import
- Annotations
- Supports sharing of the screen, PPT, images, and video
As a new user, you may be at a loss in how to sync audio to your video source for a perfect project output. To get the best results, you may have to record video and audio separately using an external shotgun microphone and then sync them. There are two methods, Voiceover Function and XLR Audio Recorder.
An essential demo-making tool that helps learners, educators, freelancers, and gamers to take idea-sharing to the next level.
In the voiceover method simply record your voice after connecting the mic to your PC and hitting the "voiceover" button. You can then sync with a pre-recorded video or go with a fresh screen. Follow these steps:
Step 1From the Wondershare DemoCreator site, download the free trial app to your PC. Once installed, launch it and begin syncing.
Step 2Connect your mic and wait for it to be recognized after which you’ll see a “Record Audio” window.
Step 3Proceed to record a new screen. Select a file from your computer then click “open” to load it to the timeline.
Step 4Add transition effects from the template of over 50 built in effects. These include box turn, dissolve, among other effects of choice.
Step 5Save and export your video. DemoCreator supports several output formats like MP3, MOV, WMV, GIF, and MP4 among other formats. Likewise, go on to upload your videos to YouTube directly.
3. Get paid playing online games
According to datapro, at least 21% of serious gamers are under 18 with at least one gamer in 75% of American households. This means most teenagers are already playing games for fun. Why not make some extra cash doing what you like doing?
Games like VeryDice will pay you a certain amount of money each time you roll the dice from your phone. Anyone can join for free and play.
4. Freelance Writing
Do you love writing whatever comes to your mind about a given topic? This is your chance to enjoy it and get paid for it. Here’s the deal, find a magazine that interests you and present your case to write for them regularly for a certain amount per piece. Once they have reviewed your portfolio and accepted your offer, it is time to write away.
To start with, CBAY Books encourages teens to submit texts on any interesting topic and if accepted, they get paid well. The other option is Bumples Magazine, an interactive magazine that prefers Christian authors for topics geared towards children aged between 4 and 10 years. Have you picked your niche yet?
5. App/ website tester
Just like game testing, web or app testing requires you to sit and use the app on your phone or PC. You then provide feedback on user experience, bugs, and other issues. My favorite one is UserTesting which pays up to $10 per task and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Is there a better way to spend your evening or weekend than this?
6. Vlogging
You will find yourself browsing through social media, consuming what others have created without giving a thought to how they do it or why. A good number of teens have found their calling in creating entertaining and informative video blogs for their audiences.
When she started Teens Got Cents, Eva Baker was just 16, she now makes more than $5,000 a month from her blog alone after working at it for five years. Use your social media presence to spread the vlog and grow while commenting about your favorite celebs.
7. Social media influencer
In contrast to a content creator, as a social media influencer, you need to have obtained a cult-like following with fans who can be swayed to make a purchase when you recommend it. From this vantage point, sponsors will pay you to promote one of their products to your fans. Other than the cash, you can get to sample their products before talking about them. What better way to make use of your wide fan base on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube?
8. Social Media Manager
Teens have immense experience with most of the social media sites out there. When someone requires a manager for their social media accounts, the best guys to hire are teens. Get yourself out there and make some cash on the side doing what you already have experience doing. Some pay as much as $50 per hour! The tasks require that you post regularly and respond to comments on sites like Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.
9. Creating art or craft
Most hobbies are craft-related and you too may have something you love creating in your spare time. Some teens create digital art, knit scarves, or design coffee mugs at home. It's easy to turn the craft into a teen side hustle or even a business. Sites like Etsy have made it that easy, just create, post and leave the rest to them.
10. Tutoring
This is one of the great side hustle ideas for teens worth considering. Let's start with your classmates, someone is struggling with a subject that you easily understand. Help them cope and achieve their academic goals while making some cash for the weekend. It is flexible and can help you gain great communication and tutoring skills.
Conclusion
If you love doing something, it's time you consider monetizing it for extra cash. You don't have to invest much into it, but just continue doing what you love and the money will come. If you have patience and are willing to put some effort into it, you surely will see success.
Video content has become the most preferred source of entertainment. And with the ease of creating videos with tools like DemoCreator, it is one of the best online hustles for teens. Anyone with an idea can get down and create a stunning video in minutes even without any professional background in video production.
