One of the big concerns of university life is the constant worry of balancing the need for money to maintain a healthy social life and university commitments. The obvious solution is to get a part-time job, but this cuts in to both social and study time. There are other choices, so read on to see five top tips to balance the books:
Sell your photos
If you’ve got an eye for a great image and think that something you’ve photographed might be useful to someone online, you can sell your images. Stock photography agencies like iStockPhoto offer contributors cash for the use of photos sold on their site on a per-download basis. On the iStockPhoto website the royalty rate is between 20 and 40 percent on each image and there is a real potential to make a reasonable profit.
Become an extra
Although this one might require a bit of travelling, it’s also a great way of earning some extra money for hanging around in the background. This is also a way of impressing friends if you end up in a scene of a major TV show or film. The average wage for this sort of work is around £80, and you should get all your expenses thrown in too. Find out more about making your move in the entertainment industry and join an agency by visiting UKscreen.
Online surveys
Although this option can be extremely dull and sometimes time consuming, there is the potential to make real money without leaving the front door. The benefits of this kind of money making scheme also include the fact that you can do it whenever you like and as frequently as you choose. One of the best known sites for taking paid surveys is YouGov, where you can earn around £0.50 to £2.00 per survey, depending on length and difficulty.
Set up a sponsored blog
A profitable but possibly morally corrupt way of raising funds through a blog is to set up a sponsored blog on a site such as Blogitive. A site like this basically invites companies to contract bloggers to advertise their products by way of capitalist blog propaganda. This kind of blogging activity is very ethically questionable, but also has the promise of being quite profitable too.
Write reviews
Websites like Schvoong allow members of the public to write reviews about a number of different products like books and films. The reviewer earns 10 percent of Schvoong’s advertising income on every advert clicked on the review’s page. Reviews on Schvoong also have the added bonus of being relatively easy work, simply writing about something you’ve watched, read, or listened to.
Do you have any tips on how to make some extra money to help you through your course? If so, please share them in the comments.