Everyone knows that it’s difficult for teenagers to earn money in today’s world, as they are usually tied up in school and extracurricular activities such as sports. If you are a teenager under the age of 18, it can be difficult to find a job, however this does not mean it is impossible.
You may seek working papers, go to your school, and with permission you can apply for jobs at places that are okay for young workers under the age of 18, such as fast-food restaurants (McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s Taco Bell, etc.).
Although not everyones’s cup of tea, and not many hours, at times that is all you will be able to do at that age to earn you money, and your school schedule will limit your hours of work.
If you are one of those teens who want to stay home and possibly develop a certain amount of income from the internet, we will explore some great ways to start earning extra money from home and avoid many of the internet scams.
Why should you work online?
For teenagers who may have trouble finding employment during their teenage years, working online is a great way to make money. Let’s face it we are in a tough economy and since most place would prefer someone over 18 years old with customer service/sales experience, it can be tough to find your standard retail or customer service position as well. Online work is something you can mold into what you want, put on your resume, and take full reign of.
Here are some of the ways you can go about making money online:
Making YouTube tutorial videos
This is a very popular way of making money and there are some fairly popular YouTubers who are not making thousands, but millions, of dollars from their activities on YouTube. Have you ever watched a YouTube video and had to sit through a video advertisement right before the video starts?
Yup, we’ve all had to do that and that is the exact way that you are making the person who uploaded the video money. YouTube users earn money per every 1,000 views on their videos, so let’s assume that a YouTube user earns $6.00 for every 1,000 views he receives; then if that video receives 5,000 views he would earn $30 dollars with that video. There are some users who get millions of views and make very good revenue per year from their activities.
If you’re subscribed to any sort of YouTube prankster, etc then they make their money by putting ads before their videos. If you’re interested in making money from YouTube, then what you need to do is start a YouTube channel and find a niche that you are comfortable with and can make videos about.
Some of the most popular niches are drawing tips, make-up instruction videos, foreign language classes, video game playthroughs, movie reviews, cooking guides, pranks and even more, and even better if you find something no one else is doing.
Just check with your parent to make sure they are okay with you putting yourself online as well as the risks, good and bad about putting your name and face on the internet. Once you have videos on your YouTube channel for people to watch, then definitely get the videos out on Twitter, Facebook or any social network you want, because if other people like it then it can go viral and that can be your big break.
Create your own website or blog to earn money
One of the most common ways for almost anyone to make money online is to start your own website or blog. It may sound complicated, but it is really quite easy. If you want a more advanced website, you will certainly need to have some coding experience, etc.
But relatively if you just want a basic website or blog that allows you to post your entries, you can go to wordpress.org or blogger.com, which are websites that will allow you to create your own free blog where you can post any videos, entries, stories, tutorials, or whatever else you want (as long as it is legal and doesn’t break their terms of service, of course).
A blog is essentially like a website where you can publish personal entries and people can interact with the stories by leaving their comments. Before you sign up and start a blog, you should take some time to think of a niche to write topics about. Writing about things you are familiar with is highly recommended because it will require less effort and less likely you will get bored or tired of searching for the information needed to write about something you have no knowledge about.
Once you have a niche, it is important to also choose a keyword for the name of the blog. For example, you signed up at blogger.com and you want the blog to be about computer chairs, then you will have to choose a keyword related to the topic “computer chairs,” for example, comfortablecomputerchairs.
If you decided to go with the name “comfortablecomputerchairs,” then your blog name would be comfortablecomputerchairs.blogspot.com. After you set up your blog, you can customize the theme, colors, etc. Once you have your blog set up with a few published articles, you can apply for Google’s revenue program, AdSense, that will allow you place ads on your website/blog, and earn money every time a visitor clicks on the ads.
Get paid to take surveys online and Paid to click
Numerous websites will pay you to click on advertisements, sign up for accounts on affiliate sites, or complete surveys for them, and once you accumulate sufficient points you can redeem your money, gift cards, and store credit with certain online retailers.
You must be cautious in finding Survey or Paid to Click sites as there are many scams online trying to recruit e-users by claiming you can “get rich overnight”, but let’s be honest, no one gets rich overnight, everything takes hard work this just the way it is… unless you happen to just win the lottery, and let’s be real, your chances of that aren’t too great, it’s not likely. Completing online surveys and paid to click sites take time and effort in order to have decent long term outcomes.
Publish your own eBook
In case you’re a writer or love to write (or want to write) then this might interest you. There are popular websites (I’m sure you know some too) like amazon.com which allow you to publish your own eBooks on their site and you will get about 70% of the proceeds from the eBook you market.
If you have interesting stories that you can write, then give it a shot and write an eBook. If you don’t have a story to write about, don’t worry, you can always write tutorials or anything that might engage your audience.
If being a novel writer is a dream you have, you can get started writing some eBooks and publish them online and see how that goes! If you surprise yourself and surprise an audience, your eBook may be able to go far! You could search in Google on how to get started writing your own eBooks.
Good luck and much success on whichever option you choose to go with. If you enjoyed reading about this topic, please share this article with your family and friends and your social networks!