How to online business in 2017 Step II

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.

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 which pay you the commission they otherwise would have earned.

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

A part-time job

bar jobsA part-time job is the obvious first choice, opted for by most students looking to supplement their student loan. 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.

Gigs on Fiverr
Fiverr pranksFiverr 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. Whilst 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 which minimises 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!

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. Money you earn will be in $US but anyone can sign up and review.

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.

Sell second-hand course books
One great way to make money is to buy other students' text books at the end of the year, and then sell them just after freshers' week – when the new intake of students know 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).

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!

Start by entering our very own monthly student competition (Like our Facebook page to see when our next one is)!

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.

Buy and sell domain names

domain-for-saleA 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 which have some commercial value, snap them up and then list them for sale on a site like Sedo.com.

Mystery shopping

Be A Mystery Shopper, Its Easy!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!

More traditionally, there are plenty of agencies that pay you to visit all sorts of shops to feedback on how they are performing. For more info on where to apply see our guide to becoming a mystery shopper.

Be an extra

Do you fancy yourself as a budding young actor or just that person that 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).

Sell all your old CDs, games and movies
cds and dvdsIf 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.

Become your own bank

'Peer-to-peer' lending is the future of banking. It cuts out the middle-man, 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 with peer-to-peer lending. Zopa have gone a long way to mitigating this with their Safeguard feature, which effectively spreads your money across a wide range of borrowers (who are also credit checked).

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 commission on new sign ups (typically around £20).