How to Make Money Online in India for Students 2020: Step by Step Guide to Skills-Based Earning [With Infographic]
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If you found this page on Google, then you searched for the latest guide on “how to make money online in India for students” and I am glad you are here.
We have written many guides on how to earn from the internet working from home.
You can read the latest guide Fernando Raymond published about the best ways to earn money online in India in which he shows the most important thing to do when starting online by sharing examples of college students creating sustainable skilled based work that helped them get paid online.
There are many online income generating ways which will help you earn initially, but also over a long-term period in the future if chosen wisely.
Learn the digital skills to make a living online
In this guide, we will show you what to do and the best ways to earn online as a student. It will take some time for you to learn some of the skills and become good at it, however, everything is freely available to learn online at SeekaHost University and you can access this easily from India.
Our team of experts have created the courses teaching the most important skills to get online and create passive income streams.
As a student, you should aim to learn the skills to work online as most of the work you can do flexibly and remotely from anywhere if you have an internet connection and computer.
As you are reading this guide, we assume you have access to a laptop and internet connection or a smartphone.
When you read Fernando’s story or Aslam’s article that also discusses the 21 ways to earn online in India, you can see they emphasise the digital skills you need to get started. I have therefore also published an article highlighting the transferable digital skills required for any online job.
In fact, the whole ClickDo and SeekaHost team have published articles about how to make money online or get online, because they learned how to do it and want to share their experience and knowledge especially with students as that’s the perfect time to get started on the right track.
Dinesh and Gowdham for example, who both work remotely from India for both companies, have learned digital skills after leaving school and working for at ClickDo and SeekaHost. Fernando and other past senior consultants have taught them the SEO and marketing skills required to help other business owners get their enterprise online successfully.
Initially, they learned step by step how to start a blog, how to host a website or how to write a high-ranking blog post.
They have worked their way up to become experts in the field of online marketing and web technologies.
Dinesh helps hundreds of business owners in the UK with SEO services, Google AdWords and Facebook marketing. While a student he has gained great skills in online marketing that have helped him work from home and earn money while studying in India.
Gowdham currently manages the SeekaHost India operations and many people under his guidance.
Aslam has done the same as a student and earned online while he worked from home. So, if you want to know how to earn money online in India working from home they are the people you should speak to.
If you read one of their articles now, you can see how far they have come and their expertise and knowledge shines through:
Website for Business: How a website helps your business grow?
You can go on a similar journey as a young student in India and build a career generating a good online income and possibly a passive income from online assets.
Learning to work online will open your doors to get work from home jobs and surely it will be fun to work from your laptop and do it over the internet.
I will show you the exact steps and what jobs you can do online and how to get the skills to work online form home.
With the current situation in India it’s best you learn everything about the digital economy and gain the skills to offer some services to business people.
Because there are over 28 million businesses in India with an online presence, over 5.6 million in the UK and over 29 million in the US. Those 3 markets alone offer massive online work opportunities.
What online jobs generate money and which skills are required?
Now, because there is such a wide variety of online jobs generating different levels of incomes, we have decided to focus this piece on you as a student in India. However, if you’d like to explore more common remote jobs, you can read through some of our previous make money online guides to get a better picture of what is out there at the moment all around the world and how well it is paid:
Articles covering full- and part-time online jobs:
Guides covering mainly full-time online jobs:
The 21 Best Ways to Earn Money Online in India from Home doing Genuine Work that Pays
ClickDo Make Money Online Guide:
And feel free to also check out our latest Kindle books covering this topic:
Articles focusing on blogging as a way to make money online:
Top 10 Tips to Start A Blog and Earn Money Online Fast Blogging from Home
https://www.seekahost.com/how-to-start-a-blog-and-make-money/
Top 10 Affiliate Programs to Promote with your blog and earn commission
Yes, we do cover this topic thoroughly as we want thousands of people to smell the coffee and get started earning online NOW!
Most of what our expert team covers in our blog articles and guides is also taught in our SeekaHost University courses, so we’ve got you covered.
You can see in our make money online guides that there is something ANYONE can do on the world wide web, no matter your previous knowledge, experience or skills. You won’t earn a fortune right away, but you can make a start even as a student.
Each of the ways we discuss can be done via the internet where you will most likely get paid via online payment platforms like PayPal, TransferWise, Payoneer or directly to your bank account via online banking. If that is not easy and quick, then we don’t know.
You can read the TransferWise review Fernando has written, that explains how he uses it to pay teams in India, directly to their bank account.
Best ways to earn money in India for students: Breakdown
As you can see there are thousands of ways to make money online. Therefore, we want to break it down for you as a student in India.
Students tend not to have all the time in the world to devote to their online work besides their assignments, lectures and internships.
However, many may not be aware of virtual internships which are a fantastic way for a student in India to have their first experience of doing an online job for an international client.
Not all of them may be paid, but you can learn vital digital and English language skills you can utilise for later paid remote jobs. Read more about the benefits here.
So, in our extensive list of online jobs for students in India we focus on task-based, flexible jobs where you would be paid hourly as this will give you the opportunity to plan your additional online work around your student schedule.
However, we specifically want to cover online work opportunities that can generate a passive income without you having to invest much time after everything is set up and running successfully.
These are really what we ultimately recommend working towards and they require to learn digital skills that you can easily gain as we explain.
Before we begin, we want you to understand that knowing how to build a website or blog, how to blog and manage a blog and how to do SEO and content writing as well as marketing online properties are key factors for online success and prosperity.
So, while flexible and easy jobs may give you a quick cash infusion, building a skillset for the future will give you a higher return in the future.
Let’s get started.
1. Flexible online jobs earning a quick Dollar or Rupee
1.1 Data Entry
Do you enjoy adding and entering data in Excel sheets? Are you good and quick working with Excel? Then data entry jobs may be for you as not much prior experience is required and it’s a good starting point.
It’s not a high paying remote working job, with an average pay of about $10* per hour, but it’ll get your foot in the door and you may work for a company or freelancer that may give you more responsibility with time, if you work well. And you may receive free online training.
1.2 Product Reviewing
You don’t have to be a star or influencer to be paid by brands to try their products and share feedback. You can earn money reviewing a product and sharing your experience with the company or on review platforms.
It could be in the form of a short video or a written post, but every brand will have their own review process and requirements. Usually, you get to keep the products you review for free, which you could sell on, and you may be able to grow your online presence by posting your reviews on YouTube or social media.
Later in this article we will cover why social media marketing is a key component of making money online, so read on.
1.3. Taking Surveys
This is one of the easiest paid online jobs as a good starting point to earn a little cash on the side. You can sign up to various sites like Swagbucks, Prize Rebel or Survey Junkie just to name a few and start cashing in immediately. You may be asked to watch a video or TV show, test a website, or become a mystery shopper. Just do your research and you can choose whatever you fancy.
These tasks are easy and don’t take much time to accomplish and many Indian companies will pay you to answer a few questions about their products or services. Reviews can cover anything from watching TV shows, testing a website, becoming a mystery shopper, sharing your opinion about music or online games – you name it.
You can find specific top rated paid survey sites for India here.
Ensure to read the terms and conditions with every online survey website as they often don’t reward you with plain cash, but rather pay you in the form of vouchers or points you can redeem with their partners.
You should always check how much your time is worth. Swagbucks for example may pay you $4* for a 10-minute survey whereas Toluna might only give you a return of $3* per hour. For safety reasons and to protect your privacy, it is advisable to use an “alibi” email account for such survey websites.
1.4 Transcription
If you have a very attentive ear rather than being a talented wordsmith, providing a transcription service could be the right career path for you. Transcription basically means that you’ll listen to an audio file and write up what you hear. Freelance transcription enables you to work flexibly, providing this service from your computer or laptop wherever you are.
It could be a lecture, a doctor’s prescription, a speech, and so on. Transcription jobs are easy and don’t require any particular qualifications per se. Just a keen ear, and an ability to type fast and basic ICT and digital skills like using Microsoft Word and Excel. Transcribers on freelance job platforms like Upwork can earn on average up to $20* per hour.
If you develop a passion for this work, you can obtain a certificate or degree in legal or medical transcription. Get started via online platforms like TranscribeMe to see if this is for you by obtaining your first few projects before jumping into starting a transcription business of your own.
1.5 Micro Tasking
Make productive use of your time and go to sites like Craigslist to find micro jobs or so called micro tasks, which are rising in demand as many companies outsource them and rather hire on a project base. They are perfect opportunities for students as they can range from very quick to medium-term tasks where you’re flexible with allocating your time.
Clickworker and Amazon Worker or Amazon Mechanical Turk offer flexible and simple paid online tasks such as processing images and videos, cleaning up and verifying data or processing data. Some of the skills required include correcting spelling, reviewing products, finding item numbers or images, answer questions about products, categorize products, and so on. On average you can expect to make $7* per hour.
1.6 Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants support a person or company with administrative tasks. You need to be very organized and able to pay attention to details at all times. Most of the roles of a virtual assistant can be done remotely from the confines of your house or university.
You might work for a busy business owner or doctor setting up appointments, scheduling their meetings, and arranging their travels. Other tasks might include checking and answering emails, preparing PowerPoint presentations, doing research or helping plan events. All the work is done online through collaborative software such as Zoho. This is a great opportunity for any student to become more organised with their own life.
Read this article to learn more about the 10 best student management apps:
Get on sites like Elance, Virtalent or Zirtual to find out what kinds of flexible VA jobs are available. You could expect to earn an average of $12* or more per hour initially. But if you deliver great work and a company wants to keep you on board then this could be a great side hustle until you complete your degree.
At ClickDo Ltd. and SeekaHost Ltd. we work with VAs in India remotely and we also train them to European standards, giving them access to our online courses at SeekaHost University for free. Additionally, they improve their English while working with us and our clients.
1.7 Software, Website and App Tester
App or website developers or companies will pay you if you install their app on your phone and use it for testing purposes. A company like Google will pay you a monthly fee and other sites offer you prizes or rewards for simply downloading and testing their app.
You can find such jobs on sites like MobileXpression or ShopTracker. You may have to answer questions about the functionality and aesthetic appeal of websites, whether they’re easy to navigate or what changes you would recommend to improve the user experience.
If you have an interest in testing websites and apps or you already study within this field and you have analytical skills to scrutinise the designs, themes, and functions, then you can surely find someone who is more than willing to pick your brain and pay you for it.
The average salary for a full-time Website Tester in India is ₹175,000*, so surely you can earn sufficient funds while studying to support yourself. Learning more about web design and development will certainly pave the way for future online success where you can possibly build your own blogs, websites or apps like the ClickDo Web Development team do under Kasun’s leadership.
Blogging can be very lucrative and at SeekaHost University we offer a Blog For Profits Course, teaching you step by step how to start a blog and run it so that it eventually generates a passive income: https://university.seekahost.com/courses/blog-profits-blueprint/.
You can also read our article about websites that made millions to learn more about how to monetise online properties.
1.8 Academic Writing
As a student in India you’re already familiar with academic writing and have learned how to do this to a good standard. So, why not write essays and dissertations for yourself, but for other university students struggling with it? You must be really knowledgeable on the subject, but some may pay you $20* for a 250-word page. There’s certainly a huge demand as thousands of university students need to write essays, research papers, and dissertations each year.
If you can’t find projects in your own university or college then check out numerous academic writing platforms like WriterBay, Essay Shark, or Writerslab where academic writers can initially get paid $10* for a 250-word page.
As you won’t really have any expenses for writing academic essays apart from your Wi-Fi cost and maybe some software subscriptions, this online student job provides a decent return for never having to step out. However, you must demonstrate excellent academic writing, grammar and spelling skills that you can prove to have been graded highly in your native language or ideally in English.
If you want to take an English Language Exam, read our articles about how to prepare best to ensure you pass with the best results:
1.9 Proof-reader and editor
If you’ve passed your language exams and you have established yourself as a great academic writer in India or even internationally, you can start out as a proof-reader and editor, going through other writer’s content, looking for grammar, factual, and other errors. Students and writers benefit a lot from proofreading and editorial services, which are high in demand especially as more people consider self-publishing.
Magazines, newspapers, bloggers, authors are other examples of people in need of such services. GreatContent is just one of the many places you are guaranteed to find plenty of people looking to pay for editing and proofreading services.
This online work option offers you flexible hours and hardly any extra expenses and you can earn anything between $10-$30* per hour, depending on your expertise. Some freelance platforms might ask you to pass some tests first before being able to advertise your editing services.
At SeekaHost University we strongly recommend blogging as a fantastic tool to improve language and writing skills. Read our article about learning English at school or through blogging to see why.
To get you started with content writing and blogging you can take our Ultimate Blogging Course: https://university.seekahost.com/courses/blogging-course/.
1.10 Translator/Interpreter
Living in India may have given you the opportunity to grow up speaking at least two different languages fluently as a native speaker. You can use this as an advantage and become a translator or interpreter. To start with you can register with online job platforms or agencies like LanguageConnect or TranslationServices24.
If you are given your first projects like survey translations, website translations, SEO language support, social media content translations and so forth, you can improve your translation skills and extend your portfolio. Interpreting might cover tasks like voice over services in a foreign language or audio translation services.
On average a translator can earn anything from $11 – $40* per hour, depending on their qualifications and expertise as well as the workload they can cover.
1.11 Online Tutor
While you are a student yourself in a certain subject area, you can offer your skills to online students located thousands of miles away or on campus. Some e-tutor sites will pay you handsomely to teach students via distance learning.
You can earn around $20-$30* an hour as an online tutor, depending on the online tutoring service. Most of your tutoring lessons often require video conferencing and voice calls via Skype or Zoom, so ensure you have good IT equipment available at home or university.
Online tutoring services like Tutor.com provide their own whiteboard and tutor management systems. Demand for e-tutoring of subjects like Maths, English, coding, and science is growing around the world and you can offer private tutoring as well via sites like Chegg Tutors.
You can create an additional income by creating online courses in your field of studies and share them on e-Learning platforms like Udemy, where more people can find you. A well-packaged course or e-book serves as another stream of passive income and would give you more passive income. See how you can become an online instructor at the SeekaHost University.
1.12 Animation
If you have a thing for design or animation and can design nice logos, graphics, animated characters, Gifs, cartoons or emojis then you can start making money online with such skills. You can also create visual effects for music videos, TV shows, video games, and a plethora of other media platforms.
Freelance animators are some of the highest earners in the remote working world; you can earn anything from $25 to $106* hourly on popular job sites like PeoplePerHour with the right set of skills. So, you might consider getting a degree or an HNC/HND in animation if you’re not already studying this subject.
Many universities, colleges or e-Learning platforms in India and worldwide offer courses in animation and other relevant art and design courses. You would invest in your future as possible projects could include working for the motion picture industry or computer systems design companies.
1.13 Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketers make money by earning a commission each time they refer someone to a given product or service. Let’s say you have a site, social media profile/page or YouTube channel and recommend a certain product.
When the visitor clicks on the link you’ve shared and proceeds to make a purchase, the product manufacturer or seller gives you a commission. You agree on the percentage you’ll earn for every click or successful purchase.
Some scammers have misused affiliate marketing but it’s still one of the easiest, smartest ways of earning money without owning any business or product while generating a passive, automated income to support you while studying.
To make the most of affiliate marketing you should use your own websites, blogs or online/social media profiles to refer products or services for a commission.
For this you will need skills like knowing how to start a website or blog, how to write content that ranks on search engines to gain more traffic and how to advertise your online presence on search engines and social media channels.
Read this blogging guide to get an idea: https://www.clickdo.co.uk/blogging/ and then join the blogging tribe created Fernando Raymond to learn everything about blogging.
Go through all the videos and learn how to become one of the top bloggers in India.
You can learn all the vital skills and more at SeekaHost University at your own speed and leisure.
The online courses we offer contain step by step tutorials to guide you through everything slowly and carefully.
Read some of our expert articles here for more info about how to monetise your blog:
Top 10 Affiliate Programs to Promote with your blog and earn commission
2. More time-consuming online jobs with possible higher ROI in the future
2.1 Social Media or Ads Manager
Celebrities, small and major brands all usually have a robust social media presence. They often employ agencies and individuals to manage these social media accounts. That’s why skills like managing Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts, running paid social media ads and boosting posts can help you offer such services to clients to make an extra income. Employers on sites like CareerBuilder and Flexjobs are continually looking for individuals that can work remotely as social media managers, so this could be a great starting point.
At SeekaHost University we understand that such skills are in high demand and have therefore created a Facebook Remarketing Course to teach you how to run paid ads on the platform, how to track and analyse the data and how to manage effective campaigns.
Check out the full course outline here: https://university.seekahost.com/courses/facebook-remarketing-training-course/
Many businesses expect to see proof of your skills via other social media profiles you have managed. Most employers will also ask for experience with social media management systems like Hootsuite and creating and running paid ads. We therefore recommend you take our course and then test it via your own social media profiles or by offering to work for free initially to build a portfolio.
With approximately 3.484 billion social media users in the world and a growing number of registrations by 9% every year, there is an obvious future demand for social media managers and learning the skills now is more important than ever, especially if you’re already using social media yourself as a student.
In the future you could advise a business about how to create a social media marketing campaign as a social media consultant. You may train or advise others to set up social media accounts, plan a regular number of posts, design types of posts, the nature of the content, keywords, and other details to lead a business to more online success.
To be successful online in almost any domain you certainly require SEO and content writing skills. There’s no escaping from that as all major online platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. use keywords, so knowing how to find, analyse and use keywords is key to online success.
You can learn all you need to know about SEO and SEO-friendly content from our SeekaHost University digital marketing experts. They explain step by step in their tutorials what you need to do and learn to outdo your competitors online and run successful ads, marketing campaigns and boost online businesses and their websites.
Have a look at our course offerings. We recommend to start with the SEO Training Course to learn all the must-knows of SEO: https://university.seekahost.com/courses/seo-training-course/
You can then take the SEO Content Writing Course to compose the perfect ad copy or marketing text: https://university.seekahost.com/courses/seo-content-writing-course/
We also offer an insightful Google Ads Course, which will teach you how to set up, run and manage Google Ads successfully and effectively to increase traffic and exposure online. https://university.seekahost.com/courses/google-adwords-course/
Starting at the bottom, you could earn around $10-$15 per hour, but there’s no limit to what you can earn at the top as big companies will pay huge sums for top-notch social media marketing plus you can use those skills to promote your own blogs and websites.
2.2 Virtual Consultant
Virtual consulting is a lucrative career solution for students and professionals in different niches and industries. If you study or are an upcoming professional in different fields like accounting, finance, management, medicine or SEO/digital marketing, you can offer your expert services remotely to businesses.
Software, web developers and app developers are reaping the benefits of virtual consulting. Whether you go for an online gig job, or a part-time employment, the growing global demand for freelancers is sure to offer bountiful opportunities to you in the virtual world. As you already saw in the above examples, the pay can greatly vary, depending on the industry, demand and expertise level.
But you can have a look at how our web designers and developers at ClickDo work remotely from Sri Lanka, India or the UK to create the best business websites:
ClickDoers Design & Develop A Shiny New Jewellery Website For CM Jewellery
Taking one of our Blogging courses at SeekaHost University, you will learn how to set up a nice website using WordPress step by step. This will help you create your first portfolio of WordPress blogs or websites you can use to further develop your web design or development career to earn money online in the future.
2.3 Blogger/Influencer
Blogging is the ultimate gateway to earning money online.
As a successful blogger you build an amazing blog first and then regularly write and post content on trending topics, you’re passionate about.
The challenge is to build a robust following and have your blogs read or shared as much as possible. Only then can you earn money via affiliate marketing, product promotions, hyperlinks, guest posting, and so on.
At SeekaHost University we know the techniques and strategies to go about this and can help you learn and hone such skills to build a web presence that generates a passive income.
You can see how our top course instructor Fernando does it daily and how he provides all the vital knowledge and skills to get to the top, just check out his blog:
https://www.clickdo.co.uk/starting-a-blog-on-wordpress/
https://www.fernandoraymond.com/what-is-a-blog-and-how-does-it-work/
In his SEO Training Course and Blog Profits Blueprint he gives you exclusive access to the secrets of building and ranking a blog that earns you money within a few months. If you follow everything, he teaches you, success is guaranteed.
You can also see how SEO content course instructor Manuela uses her content writing and SEO skills to create blog posts and web content that rank well and generate more leads and traffic to a blog to monetize it better:
https://www.manuelawillbold.com/portfolio/
https://www.manuelawillbold.com/create-readers-friendly-blog-post/
Again, I cover this in my SEO content course step by step just like Fernando in his courses.
Because at SeekaHost University we only teach strategies and skills we have tested ourselves and believe truly give you value.
You can also check out our YouTube videos and tutorials to see what else we cover in our daily work and to learn additional skills or tips. Just visit or subscribe to our SeekaHost University Channel to never miss any updates.
Blogging has been around for twenty years and produced several millionaires that might have just spent a month or so creating a top-notch WordPress site (obviously building it takes longer but getting started doesn’t).
Setting up your own YouTube Channel is recommended, and it is very easy, just check YouTube channel set up tutorials and get started. You can link your videos to what you blog about and if you manage to get over a thousand followers/subscribers you receive an income from YouTube. A total of 4000 hours of view time in a year is a must before you can get significant pay-outs regularly.
You may also get companies to endorse you in exchange for a few mentions or adverts on your YouTube channel. There are billions of people watching all kinds of YouTube videos each day and they can spread extremely quickly via social media channels.
Again, it is hard here to estimate an income amount as it varies hugely and very much depends on how you utilize your blog or vlog. As an Amazon Affiliate you can earn 4-8% commissions for every sale through your website for example and there are many other ways you can monetize a website. You can also find listings of top bloggers in different countries on the SeekaHost Blog to be inspired.
Start earning online as a student in India now
As you have seen in our guide there are multiple ways to earn money online in India as student and you hopefully feel ready to start your online earning journey today.
Remember, you are not alone, and our SeekaHost University instructors will guide you all the way to success.
Our comprehensive courses and all the additional information via our websites, blogs and video channels will give you a wealth of knowledge, expertise and inspiration to plan and execute making money online while studying in India.
Use your time, resources, and connections wisely now while you are still at university or college. Most online entrepreneurs like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started out as a student in the online world and see where he ended up.
Nothing is impossible and with a mission and vision, you can begin to generate an income on the world wide web.
If you have any question about how to start making money student, email to me and ask me for further tips or clarification.
All our experts work online and done it themselves and knows how to help you get started online and create a lucrative career.
I wish you all the best and hope to hear your success story soon.
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- Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. & SeekaHost Ltd. | Fascinated to Write, Blog and Teach, I have completed a journalism summer course at the London School of Journalism and manage various WordPress blogs.
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