40 Easy Ways To Make Money Quickly

1. No-risk matched betting

Hands down the quickest way to make a lot of money (well, without breaking the law). Lots of students have genuinely made £100 from this technique. It’s completely legal, risk-free, and tax-free, and anyone can do it.

It works by taking advantage of free bets regularly offered by betting sites matching’ them at a betting exchange. Matched betting eliminates the risk (you are betting both for and against a certain outcome).

This leaves you able to squeeze out the free bet, which can be as much as £200! Multiply this by how many betting sites there are, and you can quite easily come away with a profit of a few hundred pounds.

Owen walks you through how to make your first £15 profit (using a real-life example) in this gem of a guide to matched betting. If you know of any better way to make £30 per hour sitting at home, please let us know!

2. Online surveys

Credit: Julio Marquez, Flickr.com
An increasingly popular way for students to make money is to fill out online surveys in their spare time. Research companies are always recruiting new members to answer surveys and test new products.

For a few minutes of form filling, you can make a couple of quid, which is paid as cash or rewards. You can bag up to £3 ($5) for some surveys!

3. Paid for searching the web

Interested in earning cash for doing what you already do online? This has to be one of the easiest methods of making money online without really any effort or change in your behavior.

This innovative idea by Qmee.com rewards you for searching on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. You just install a simple add-on to your browser, and when you conduct a search, there may be a few sponsored results alongside your normal search.

Each Qmee result has a cash reward attached – if you are interested in it simply click on it and collect your reward.

The best thing is there is no minimum to cashout – our first one was just 72p wired to our Paypal account. You also have the option to donate it to charity.

4. Online market trading

The historically hard-to-break world of investing in stock markets and currencies has been cracked wide open. Today there is no need to be a fat cat or fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street-style stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.

Having spent many hours researching this new opportunity, I’ve been experimenting with the two biggest platforms: Plus500 and eToro.com.

Both offer free practice accounts, and Plus500 also gives you a free £20(without depositing, terms apply) for their CFD service which is worth taking up. Overall I prefer eToro with over 4.5 million users worldwide. It was recently featured in the BBC 2 documentary “Traders: Millions by the Minute” and the Financial Times.

One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see, follow, and copy the investments of other top-performing traders.

Follow George’s complete guide to trading on eToro to learn more. I think $200 is a good amount to get the most out of the learning curve by trying out a few different markets. If nothing else you’ll learn a great deal about various investments and industries.

Disclaimer: CFD trading can be volatile and you can lose your entire capital, so don’t throw your life savings into it! Trading CFDs may not be suitable for you. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.

5. Review websites & apps for cash

Well, it seems like you’re pretty nifty with a web browser, so perhaps it’s time to turn pro and browse websites as a paid and fun job!

Introducing UserTesting.com – a new platform that pays everyday people to review all kinds of websites. Each review takes around 20 minutes and bags you $10 (£6.50) via Paypal.

6. The ‘Disney Vault’ secret

To keep demand high across generations, Disney Studios carefully restricts the supply of some home-release classics. They are locked away in the ‘vault’ for 8-10 years before being released for a short unspecified time.

Buy them in this window at normal retail price and you can turn a nice profit when they go off sale for another decade or so.

For example, in 2011 you could buy Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray 3D for just £24.99. In just a couple of years, it was on Amazon for a staggering £74.99! Importantly, not all Disney releases are subject to the vault and only the true classics will maintain such demand.

7.‘Get Paid To’ sites

Similar to making money from online surveys, GPT sites reward you in cash and vouchers for completing various offers or activities online.

The most popular sites today are Toluna, Swagbucks, and InboxPounds.

8. Start your own website

If you’ve ever seen the film The Social Network, then you’ve most likely had your brain spinning as to what website you can start up to make billions.

And of course, there are lots of stories out there about successful students who have started a site while at university or even bought a domain name and later sold it for £1000s.

In fact, Save the Student is one such example of a website started at university by Owen Burek in his first year, which has since grown into a full-time and successful enterprise.

Read Owen’s 4-step guide to setting up a website or this guide to making money as a blogger if you’re interested in finding out more. It’s really not that difficult to get started and there are plenty of opportunities to make money online.

9. Write and publish a Kindle eBook

If students are good at anything, it’s researching and writing. With the Amazon Kindle store, anyone can publish an eBook and make money.

And the Kindle app is now available on almost any device (laptops, iPads, smartphones and yes, Kindles) so your global market is huge!

List your book for £1.49 – £6.99 and you earn 70% of the sale. Considering Amazon is the ultimate selling machine (and remember people are looking to spend), that is a fantastic deal. The key to success with eBooks is to create value, and write non-fiction. Simply bundling information you have researched and complied on a common problem (eg. ‘secrets’ to finding a job) and then presenting it in an easy-to-digest format (an eBook) justifies someone spending a few quid on it.

Another big tip is to have a great cover designed so it stands out, and once your book is live on the Kindle store it’s really important to get some reviews so it shows up higher in results. Encourage readers to leave an honest review at the end of your boo

10. Affiliate marketing

If you’ve got a good presence on social media or perhaps you even have a blog or website, you can start bringing in money immediately by promoting all sorts of companies, products, services, and offers online.

Sign up to an affiliate network such as Affiliate Window, check their offers blog or browse the merchant listings to find something you think your friends would be interested in, grab your affiliate link, and share it. If someone buys (can be within up to 90 days) using your link you’ll make a nice commission.

11. Mobile phone recycling

See how much you can get for your old mobile phone using our in-house mobile phone price comparison tool! Maybe ask your parents if they have any lying around too.

You can get some good money and help the environment by recycling mobile phones with certain companies listed on the comparison tool. But be aware: you won’t always get the quoted cash since it depends on ‘condition’. We recommend Mobile Cash Mate for the fairest and highest payouts in most cases (they sent us a £203 cheque for an iPhone 5).

12. Become a ‘Clickworker’

The Clickworker.com concept is based on ‘internet crowd-sourcing’ where businesses advertise specific, scalable tasks they need to complete quickly. And for us, it’s an easy way to make fast cash from our couch.

There are a variety of tasks, but most commonly they involve mindless data entry, web research, or form filling. You are rewarded and paid in cash (via Paypal) for the work you do, and you can choose for what and when you work. Give it a go. [If you’re US-based, also try Amazon’s ‘Mechanical Turk‘].

13. Claim tax back

Many students work part-time or during the summer months, and others will be on placements or paid internships. More often than not, if you are a student working during the year, you will be overpaying income tax.

Why? Simply because few students reach the personal tax-free income allowance each year but are put on an emergency basic tax code by their employers meaning tax is being paid when it shouldn’t be.

Use our student tax-back service to help you reclaim any tax you should not have paid. Just enter your details in the calculator here to work out what you may be owed. Otherwise, for more information read our guide on claiming tax back here.

14. Get cashback when shopping

This is not only a way to make money but also to save money as a student. If you look at it in a different way then you are making money with every purchase you would have made anyway, whether it be 10% or 0.5% cashback.

There are a number of cashback sites out there that pay you the commission they otherwise would have earned.

We recommend signing up with Top Cashkaro India, Quidco.com & Swagbucks which are free and offer the best selection of retailers and exclusives.

15. A part-time job

A part-time job is the obvious first choice, opted for by most students looking to supplement their student loans. It provides a pretty steady flow of income and can enable you to gain valuable work experience.

However, depending on where you live, jobs are not always easy to find. Check local classifieds, our student job search, student job websites, and your university careers service for vacancies.

It’s also worth signing up with the Graduate Recruitment Bureau, a free service which will match you with both part-time jobs or graduate opportunities.

16. Gigs on Fiverr

Fiverr is now the world’s largest marketplace for people to make money selling small services (known as ‘gigs’).

What you offer could be absolutely anything, from writing and translating, social media posting, playing pranks, and teaching to creating music, voiceovers, and short video clips for people all around the world!

The default price is $5 (hence Fiverr), but you can attach extra services to gigs for more money. While it might not seem like much, it can quickly add up and there are plenty of examples of people making a really good living from the site. The key is to get a system in place that minimizes the time spent on each gig.

But there is another way to profit even more from Fiverr for potentially far less work. How? By simply reselling gigs elsewhere. For example, find a decent logo designer then reply to jobs on Upwork or even local classifieds. A $5 spend can easily become $50+, and it’s repeatable!

If you’re not interested in selling at all there’s SO much good stuff you can get done for yourself. Have a browse and get inspired!

17. Review music for money

If you love music, make it your business by reviewing unsigned bands and artists online for cash with Slicethepie.

It can take a while to build up your reputation but some users of the site have said that they earn £40 a month. This may not sound like much, but if it’s something you enjoy then it shouldn’t be hard work and is another thing for your CV. The money you earn will be in $US but anyone can sign up and review.

18. Sell your notes

If you don’t mind sharing your notes with other students it’s a great way to generate a little extra cash. There are sites out there that you can upload your notes to, along with your price, and then when another student downloads them you get paid.

Most of these sites like Stuvia & Notesale are free for you to list your notes but tend to take a cut of your profit in order to handle the marketing etc so that you don’t have to go out there and promote your notes yourself.

You will most likely have to upload PDFs but it’s worth it for the return and you can submit handwritten notes but you’re likely to make more money if they’re typed up.

19. Sell second-hand course books

One great way to make money is to buy other students’ textbooks at the end of the year, and then sell them just after freshers’ week – when the new intake of students knows that they need them!

You can either advertise on campus or list them online very easily on Amazon.co.uk Marketplace (just bear in mind they take a commission on books sold).

20. Competitions

Entering competitions of course comes with no guarantees, but there is a growing community of so-called ‘compers’ in the UK consistently making up to £50,000 a year through all sorts of competitions.

Types of competitions available to enter range from simple registration forms and Facebook page liking to answering questions correctly over the phone to being a TV game show contestant. Imagine you made it onto Deal or No Deal instead of just watching it!

Then head to our active competitions page to enter other free competitions that we have found. Just note that some of these sites may send you spam so use an alias email address and opt out of as many of the offers as possible.

21. Buy and sell domain names

A domain name is just a website address (eg. ‘savethestudent.org’ or ‘mysite.co.uk’) and there are lots of extensions (.com, .net, .co.uk, etc).

They cost as little as £1.99 to register with 123-reg.co.uk or GoDaddy.com yet premium domain names can fetch £1,000s if not millions when sold on. In 2007 VacationRentals.com went for a cool $35m!

Now you’re probably not going to come across anything like that, but you can still turn a quick profit with a bit of searching. The trick is to find available domain names that have some commercial value, snap them up and then list them for sale on a site like Sedo.com.

22. Mystery shopping

Today becoming a mystery shopper is easier than you think and you can get rewarded handsomely.

We’ve recently come across a really fun smartphone app called Roamler that pays you in cash for completing various tasks in your local area. So definitely check that out first!

23. Be an extra

Do you fancy yourself as a budding young actor or just that person who walks past in the background shot of an episode of Eastenders? It could be you if you apply to be an extra.

The pay isn’t bad either – £60-80 a day on average, and you hardly have to do anything!

You can apply at Be On Screen for a number of opportunities or 2020 casting is another agency (just know they take a cut from your earnings).

24. Sell all your old CDs, games, and movies

If you are looking to make a very quick buck, then selling your old bits and bobs that are cluttering up your room is a good idea.

The best thing about it is that you can rip all the songs and films onto your laptop or external hard drive before selling them. This means that you are only really selling the plastic and artwork!

You can earn anything from 10p to £20 per item, and the earnings can really add up if you have a large collection. Whilst you’re at it, see if your parents have any ‘clutter’ they’d be happy to see the back of.

You can also sell almost anything for free on Amazon Marketplace or Preloved and sites like MusicMagpie will pay you instantly for sending in unwanted items.

For more tips and places to sell check out our guide on selling DVDs, CDs, and games

25. Sell on your education!

Become a tutor to local GCSE or A-level students. There are now a few online tutor sites too, so you can go global without too much hassle.

You may feel as if you aren’t qualified to be a tutor, but seeing as you are at university you will most likely have the qualifications to tutor for GCSE or even A-Level. Some parents may feel that their child will react better to a younger tutor, and it can be a great experience, so why not give it a go?

You can advertise on SchoolsTrader or sign up with UK Tutors. You can expect to earn around £10 an hour. However, make sure you don’t have to do too much tutoring around your exams!

26. Sell your photos

If you think you’ve got a good shot and a little creativity, try uploading your photographs for free to stock websites. A good starting point is Fotolia or istockphoto.

Make more money selling photo subjects that people are demanding, and there’s a great resource to find this out here. It might be a good idea to test them out in print first yourself.

27. Rent out your car parking space

Some student accommodation comes with a drive or garage. If you aren’t using your parking space and you live in a busy area then you might be in luck. There are plenty of people who may work in the city center and are fed up with paying through the roof for daily parking.

Advertise your space on Gumtree, or Just Park.

28. Become your own bank

‘Peer-to-peer’ lending is the future of banking. It cuts out the middleman, passing on higher interest rates to you and cheaper loans to borrowers. And it’s all managed online from the comfort of your sofa.

Founded in 2005, Zopa.com is the most established site lending around £1m every day. Right now you can expect to achieve up to 5% fixed return (before tax), depending on how long you choose to lend for.

As with any traditional bank, there is some risk attached to peer-to-peer lending. Zopa has gone a long way to mitigating this with its Safeguard feature, which effectively spreads your money across a wide range of borrowers (who are also credit-checked).

29. Work as a charity collector

Ok, so this job takes a certain kind of person, as you’ll have to take a lot of rejection and be persistent.

But if you are bubbly, personable and reckon you could sell ice to an Eskimo then this could actually be a great student money-making idea. You get paid a commission on new sign-ups (typically around £20).

Have a look at Wesser as well as charity websites like Oxfam.

30. Babysitting

It’s a classic money-maker, and for good reason. You get paid (well) to watch TV and not very much else!

Be warned that you will need a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check to look after small children, even though some parents may not ask for one. If you are wondering what to charge, look at local Gumtree ads, but you can expect to be paid over £8ph even if you aren’t trained in child care.

Aside from advertising yourself, you might want to try creating a profile on Findababysitter.com. It really is easy money (unless you get stuck with the child from hell!).

31. Dog walking & sitting

If babies ain’t your thing, then maybe canines are… looking after other people’s dogs is big business. Just think that as a student you’re likely to have free time during the day when others are out at work and worried about their pets at home.

You could bag around £7 per dog for an hour’s walk, and it’s also a great way to keep fit. Join Tailster who will match you up with dog owners. Alternatively, advertise your services locally with fliers or on classified websites such as Gumtree.

32. Rent out your house for filming

Directors for TV and film are always on the hunt for houses to film in. For instance, a scene for CoronationStreet was recently filmed in the student house one of the Save the Student editors used to live in!

Not only can you make good money but it’s crazy seeing your own place on TV. Start out by looking at this site.

33. Rent out your body

According to our recent survey, 7% of students use their body in some way to make a buck.

If you are comfortable taking off your kit then why not try life modeling? Sit there in the buff while budding artists capture your every curve (or pokey bits) in frightening detail! Try RAM, a website especially designed for this kind of job.

You could also get involved in clinical drug trials, but be sure you fully appreciate any risks attached.

Warning: Do not do anything you are not comfortable with, no matter how desperate you are for money! There has been an unhealthy rise in student prostitution in recent years – do not fall victim to it!

34. Freelance work

Perhaps you enjoy writing, managing Facebook pages or doing a little bit of graphic design in your spare time. There are so many freelance jobs out there that require simple skills or just time that someone else might not have.

And the best thing about freelancing is that you can work for clients in the UK and around the world with just an internet connection from home, to your own hours whilst developing valuable skills.

A great place to start is with the leading freelance site Upwork.com. Or try using our student job search to find freelance jobs closer to home.

35. Busking

If you can sing or dance then this is your time to shine baby! Did you know that Justin Bieber started off busking? That’s right, with a little work you can be as annoying as him.

There are really no tips for this except to choose a good spot with high footfall, make sure you are good, and play your heart out. Some buskers in the past have been known to make upwards of £20 an hour.

36. Sell clothes on eBay

Everyone’s best friend when it comes to getting rid of junk is eBay. Online auctions are a sure-fire way to turn that sleeveless jacket (which came in and out of fashion in a week) into hard cash.

Some eBay sellers look at trends and try to predict what will be big ahead of the market. If you are good and don’t mind taking a risk, then you can buy early in bulk and sell on when the craze hits. Sell your stories and videos

37. Sell your stories and videos

If you have an interesting story, then you could try selling it to the papers. It could be anything from sleeping with a professional footballer to getting caught in a clothes horse!

One of the Save the Student teams was unfortunate enough to have a pigeon fly through and smash their window at the university and they sold the story to The Sun for a tidy £50.

You could also film your friends at all times and send it to You’ve Been Framed to net yourself £250 and a few seconds of fame.

38. YouTube videos

According to recent stats, we now watch more videos on YouTube than searches on Google. And with the recently introduced YouTube Partner Program you can now profit from making and uploading videos. You will receive a percentage of the advertising revenue collected per 1,000 views.

Depending on how successful you are (virality, subscriber base, and topic), you can make a lot of money, and there are plenty of stories every week of more and more YouTubers making it their career.

39. Network marketing

Also known as multi-level marketing (MLM), this is a business model that allows you to generate ongoing income in two ways: by making a commission selling products and by recruiting other members who go on to sell. The latter allows you to make money from the sales made by those you have recruited.

Importantly, this is not a pyramid scheme (they are illegal) because there is an end goal that involves a customer buying a product or service of value.

It’s also not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. You will have to work I’m afraid! However, with the growth of social media, network marketing is becoming easier and lots of people are now making a decent living from it.

This is a serious way of making good money on your own terms and it’s well worth reading up on it. I recommend getting “The Business of the 21st Century” by Robert Kiyosaki.

40. Source property for wealthy investors

We all know how much money there is in property, but on the surface (with house prices as high as they are) you might be thinking this market is off-limits.

Truth is, lots of people make a great deal of cash simply sourcing suitable properties for wealthy investors who simply have no time.

The trick is to find properties below market value (BMV) by avoiding estate agents and instead flyering your area with your contact details offering to buy houses. Then approach investors with a no-brainer offer to pass on the details of cut-price property in exchange for a % of the sale value.

Most cities will have monthly networking events for landlords and property investors. Track these down, sign up, put on your best suit, and go along with lots of business cards. Or you could start on LinkedIn or even Twitter to build some initial contacts.