16 Best Ways to Make Money Online as a Teen

Whether you're a high schooler or a college student, there are plenty of opportunities to make money online as a teenager. While it may seem like most online jobs require some advanced degree, that's not always the case.


Finding ways to make money online can be challenging if you're a teen, as most opportunities and jobs are geared toward adults, not teens. But there are still plenty of opportunities for teens to make money online.


When I first searched for 'Make money online as a teen' on Google, I found multiple articles recommending weird and short-term ways to earn money online.






Like doing surveys, watching ads, or writing useless reviews. Honestly, these short-term jobs can make you money. Still, it isn't sustainable, and you don't develop any skills doing those at the end of the day.

16 quick and easy ways to Make Money as a Teenager. 

Hence, I sense if you're that teenager who wants to make meaningful money that requires some skills, and here, I have come up with 16 Best Ways to Make Money Online as a Teen.

Don't worry - none of them requires selling your personal information or posing in your underwear.

1. Ghostwriting

Being a ghostwriter can be an altogether different field of play when compared to being a writer. However, you’ve to be a good writer first, no matter what.

If you're a writer and you can put words together in a way that captivates readers, then you have the potential to be an excellent ghostwriter.

There are plenty of people who may not have the time or energy to sit down and write their books. But they do have an idea that could potentially be a fantastic book. If you can help them, and bring their ideas to life, it's always worth your while.

As a ghostwriter, the best part is that you can charge whatever price you want for your services. Ghostwriting clients can pay you upwards of $2 per word. Assume you write one piece of 2500 words each month; with that, you make $5k every month by ghostwriting.

It’s not guaranteed, but it happens a lot.

2. Starting a paid newsletter on Substack

The Substack is a free service that lets you create your newsletter. You can use it to promote your blog or website. It's easy to use, and you can have your first newsletter up and running in less than 5 minutes.

Many writers, bloggers, and influencers write their own paid newsletters, which are exclusive to their subscribers. On Substack, you can charge people as low as $5 per month to $75 per month to subscribe to your newsletters.

We’ve seen writers getting paid on Upwork $500 per month just by sending out a few emails per month.

The best part about this is that you get paid for every new subscriber. And you can use it to build a list of email subscribers that you can later use for affiliate marketing or other business purposes.

3. Live Stream Gaming

This is the perfect side hustle if you're a gaming freak because you can earn money by streaming your video gameplay on Twitch TV (or) YouTube.

The best thing about this job is that it's a fun way to make money from home, and if you're good at what you do, there's the potential to earn quite a lot.

Here are some of the best sites where you can start streaming: -

• Twitch - Twitch is one of the most popular live-streaming platforms online, allowing gamers worldwide to stream their video games. One of the most important things you need to do to become successful at Twitch is to build an engaged community around your channel, so make sure you interact with your followers and grow your audience every day!
• YouTube - YouTube has been around since 2005, and they are considered one of the most popular live-streaming platforms online. Like Twitch, they also allow gamers worldwide to stream their video gameplay on their platform for free! Some of the most popular streamers who use YouTube include PewDiePie, VanossGaming, and Jacksepticeye, among others who have also built strong fan bases across various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

However, not everybody who streams will earn money. First, you need to attract views and build that audience to monetize your streaming later. It is so lucrative that there are actual streamers who make millions and make a living out of it.

4. Selling designs on Redbubble

Redbubble is a print-on-demand service where you can sell your designs and get paid for them. There are more than 300,000 artists who are selling their t-shirts, phone cases and other products on redbubble.

Redbubble has more than 2 million visitors per month, and they have over 1 million products listed on their website, so this is a great place to sell your designs.

There's barely anything you need to do. The only things you have to do is: -

1. Upload your unique designs on Redbubble
2. Share that designs and merchandise to as many people as you want to generate sales

That's it! You don't need to worry about printing, inventory, shipping etc. Everything is taken care of by Redbuble, you upload your designs and you take your profits.

You can also upload your designs on TeePublic, another similar platform that allows you to upload your design, and people can buy them from there.

5. Writing on Medium.com

Medium is a top-rated blogging platform, and the best part about Medium is anyone can publish anything on that platform and still get paid as your content gets more reads.

Medium has over 40 million users, and there are only a few teenagers who write on it regularly. So, you will need to be consistent with your articles and start building up your audience. Once you have enough of an audience, you have a chance of getting paid for your articles.

Also, Medium doesn't pay their writers up front, instead, they have a program where they share the revenue with their writers as they bring in more views and reads.

If this is not enough, then there are multiple other ways of making money from Medium, like writing sponsored posts where companies can pay you for writing about them, or writing for them every month etc., but it takes time to get started with it, so patience is needed here as well.

6. Tutoring

The tutor is one of the best ways to make money online as a teenager.

You can choose to tutor students at your local schools (if you're in a country where it's legal) or online.

There are numerous websites available online offering tutoring jobs. These sites have customers looking for tutors in virtually every subject area and skill level.

A few of them are listed below:

• iTalki - This is one of the best websites to find online tutoring jobs. They have over 1,000,000+ registered users and more than 1,500+ tutors who provide their services on iTalki. You can sign up for free and start working immediately.
• TutorVista - TutorVista has been around since 2005 and is probably one of the most popular places to find online tutoring jobs in your local area or anywhere around the world. They have students from over 190 countries registered on their website. The price per hour ranges from $10-$25 depending upon your subject expertise and the teaching methods.
• Chegg - Chegg is another excellent place that connects students with teachers for homework help, test preparation, project assistance, etc. You can create a free account on their website by providing your basic details and then searching for opportunities via the search bar provided on their homepage. You can also fill out a form to create your profile and start working immediately.

7. Stock Photography as a Teenager

If you like photography and want to make money online as a teenager, this is the best option for you.

Many photo websites are looking for stock photos, and if you have some excellent skills in photography, then there are chances that you can become a part of it.

Most of the time, stock photo websites pay per image or per purchase, or else they will pay monthly or weekly in some cases.

The best part about being a stock photographer is that there is no age restriction. So even if you are 13 years old or 17 years old, or 19 years old, you can register yourself on the website and start uploading your photos.

Also, most websites don't require any hard skills to register yourself, so anyone can start doing it once they have good command over their camera and editing.

If you don't know where to start looking, then I recommend you check out some of the websites listed below:-

• Shutterstock
• IStock
• Adobe Stock
• Freepik
• Alamy
• Depositphotos
• Crestock
• Unsplash
• Vecteezy
• 123RF
• 500px
• Dreamstime

You can check 50 Amazing Sites With Breathtaking Royalty-Free Stock Photos. 

8. Blogging

Blogging has always been a powerful way to express your thoughts and opinions online. It is one of the most popular ways to earn money from home because you are your boss and you can choose how much you want to make in a day.

It's pretty irrelevant if you're a teenager (or) an adult when it comes to blogging. Anyone can blog, and anyone can make money with a blog.

However, to start a blog, you would probably need:-

• A niche/topic idea around your blog
• A domain name and a hosting provider
• WordPress to create sleek websites from scratch using templates
• Ability to understand SEO and write optimised pieces of content to rank
• Last but not least, all you need is the plan, patience, and persistence to keep blogging

There are many ways to monetize your blogs, such as through Adsense, affiliates, sponsorships, etc.

Although the best thing about blogging is that it gives you time flexibility.

9. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money from home because it involves promoting products or services of other companies online without having to own them. This is one of the best ways to make money online for teenagers because it doesn't require a lot of investment, and most importantly, anybody can do this.

Thousands of companies offer affiliate programs that allow anyone who joins their plan to promote their products or services through different marketing strategies such as email newsletters, social media posts, banner ads, and many more!

It helps if you have an existing audience on social media (or) on your blog to convert them into affiliate sales and make money through commissions.

10. Becoming a Tiktok (or) Instagram influencer

Tiktok and Instagram are probably the most used apps by Teens, and probably when you hear about the word 'influencers', you think about either of those two platforms. Honestly, being a mainstream influencer with millions of followers and consistent 7 to 8 figures is tough to happen with everyone.

However, social media is a world full of opportunities, even if you can't get millions of views to your content and can't land large brand deals. There's always an opportunity to land deals with minor to medium-sized brands who would be happy to pay for the few hundred clicks you can generate.

Influencers with less than 50k (or) 20k followers who make upwards of $10k on Instagram and Tiktok exist. However, even to get to that point, you have to push your content consistently and build that virality over a period.

11. Selling DIY Crafts on Etsy

If you are good at DIY crafts such as crocheting, sewing and knitting, this is a great way to make money from home. Etsy is the home to the world's largest online marketplace for handmade goods and crafts, and it is an excellent place for you to sell your DIY crafts (among other things).

To sell on Etsy, you will need to set up an account and fill it with pictures of your items. It is important to take clear pictures of everything that you plan to sell. Take several photos of each item so that buyers can get a good look at the product that they are considering buying.

The goal is for the customer reading your description to understand what it is about the product that makes it worth buying. If they cannot understand what makes it worth buying from just reading your description, then they probably will not buy the product in question even if they happen to like what it looks like in the picture(s).

Once everything is set up on Etsy, all that remains is for you to wait for buyers who are interested in buying your products at retail price (or slightly above). Once you have sold your first 5-10 items, get positive reviews, sell more orders, and keep it rolling!

You will also need to create descriptions for each item that you are selling. Keep in mind when doing this that you want to write in a way that appeals to customers. In other words, keep the descriptions simple and avoid using too many unnecessary words or phrases.

12. Building WordPress Websites

Nowadays, people at an early age are learning to code, but if you hate coding and also at the same time if you want to make money online building websites for people without writing a single line of code. Then WordPress is the answer.

You don't need to have any coding skills to build WordPress websites for people, just using templates you can build some amazing websites and businesses around the globe would be pleased to pay you thousands of dollars per website and if you don't believe me, then please check on Upwork and Fiverr, where WordPress websites sell for crazy.

However, if you want to start learning about WordPress today, then follow YouTube channels like Darrel Wilson, where you can go through WordPress tutorials and start building WordPress websites on your own within hours of watching it.

13. Being a Virtual Assistant

Being a virtual assistant could be anything. Like handling someone's schedule, taking calls, writing emails, doing data entry, and anything that business owners want to outsource. However, many virtual assistants are around doing administrative work, which might not require any such hard skills to ace.

But, you can help people with anything using your existing skills.

For example, If you have technical writing skills, you can become an editor for any business that writes articles. You can also help with SEO work or do anything that requires writing skills.

In the same way, if you have data entry skills, you can become a virtual assistant who takes data from one format to another or even from the web to an excel sheet.

The best part about being a virtual assistant is you can be a teenager and, at the same time, can be making money online by doing this. Also, in the U.S alone, VA's get paid $20 per hour on average depending upon the work, which is damn lucrative.

14. Selling logos on Fiverr

Fiverr is a great platform where you can sell your logos and graphics to different customers. You can create your logos and sell them for as cheap as $5. You don't even have to be a pro designer who uses Photoshop to design logos, although Photoshop is a better option for creating the best logos.

On Fiverr itself, there are tens of thousands of graphic designers out there who sell logos and make upwards of $5k per month just doing that.

I know it doesn't happen for every designer, but it tells you there's a good chance for you to make consistent, lucrative, and sustainable money online.

15. Starting an eCommerce store on Shopify

For some reason, if you don't like the idea of selling your design for commissions on RedBubble. Then you might need to consider starting a full-fledged eCommerce store on Shopify where you can take the more significant piece of profits, but this requires a hefty investment and a lot of your time to keep churning because it's a proper business.

To start an eCommerce store, Shopify is a great platform. You can sell your products there or sell other people's stuff there. There are over 300,000 stores on Shopify, and plenty of those stores make millions of dollars in sales every month.

You too can get started with Shopify for free and sell your t-shirts, phone cases, and other accessories. You can use their themes to design your website and then add the products.

Starting an eCommerce business is one of the life-changing ways to make money as a teen. If you're someone who has money to invest and is keen on making it big. Then giving Ecommerce a try is worthwhile.

Starting as a teenager can keep your dice rolling. For example, look at Kamil Sattar (aka Ecomm King); he makes millions each year through dropshipping, and he started doing this while he was a teenager.

16. Becoming a Vlogger on YouTube

YouTube is the most incredible way to make money online. Depending on your channel's success, you can either do it full-time or part-time.

There are probably tens of thousands of teenagers who own YouTube channels and make money. Also, there's no denying that crushing on YouTube isn't like a walk in the park, and it takes time, consistency, and quality content.

However, starting a channel focusing on one (or) two specific topics may seem narrow, but it works. But what if you don't know what topics to focus on?

The answer is 'Vlogging'.

As a vlogger, you can record your whole day and present it to the public unfiltered. Doing this for 100 days (or) even for 1000 days doesn't guarantee any success. Any YouTuber’s success will depend upon many factors, such as timing, virality, SEO, and much more.

However, giving YouTube a try should be on your to-do list because you will never know what will happen if you do it consistently for two, three, (or) five years.

Also, in the meanwhile, you are gonna learn a ton of stuff that can help you grow as a content creator, create a brand, and later an opportunity to monetize your videos with money.

Wrap Up

I hope this article has provided you with the best online job suggestions for teens. Honestly, across the internet, there are articles recommending such pathetic and short-term ways to make money online as a teen, which are neither sustainable nor could bring any meaningful income if you kept doing it.

Thus, the above list of '16 Best Ways To Make Money Online as a Teen' puts more emphasis on directing teenagers in a way where they only make money if they acquire skills (or) if they are persistent enough to make money.

That's it from my end! Let us know if you have any existing ideas to add to this list?