Years ago, Jessica Ekstrom was a college intern at Disney World. There, she encountered many seriously ill children whose wishes were being granted by charitable organizations. She returned to college with a business idea. Make headbands, and sell them online, and for each one sold, one would be donated to a child with cancer, and $1 would go to cancer research.

Here is why her company turned into a million-dollar business. First, she filled a need for her target audience – the need to “do good” in some way. Second, she had a product that females of all ages want and use. Her marketing strategy is clear on her website – check out the website, headbandsofhope.com.

As a college student, you may have an entrepreneurial spirit too. And, you may need to make extra money while in school. Rather than take a boring and uninspiring part-time job, take a look at the talents and skills you have, and how they can be of value to someone else, and start your own online business.

As you consider what you might want to do, here are eight ideas. One of them may just “strike a nerve” with you.

1. Freelance Writing

Students all over the country struggle with writing assignments, high school, and up. If you have strong research and writing skills, you have an opportunity to grow a business via plagiarism free essay writing. It will involve designing a website and an order form, setting up a payment portal, and then marketing yourself – something that will be addressed shortly.

Once you’ve established your freelance writing business, you’ll be a few steps closer to earning some side income. Unlike other online businesses, becoming a freelance writer can be a great way to make money without compromising your studies. You can get the writing job done during your free time or when you have no classes. This can be a good start for your freelance writing business.

2. Online Tutoring

Perhaps you’re a math savant. There are high school and college students all over the country struggling with math. You can start locally until you build your reputation, collect glowing testimonials, set up your website, and, eventually, hire other tutors for a variety of subjects.

Like freelance writing, online tutoring can also be a great opportunity to build a profitable online business while you excel in your academic endeavors.

3. Sell Your Art

Whether it’s photography, painting, metal sculpture, etc., you can sell your pieces online with a stunning website and an amazing portfolio of your works. If you don’t have a website, you can also post your beautiful artwork pieces to a reliable digital marketplace. This can be one of the fastest ways to sell your art even as a student. 

4. Get Crafty

Do you make jewelry or great holiday decorations for family and friends? Turn that talent into a web-based business.

5. Remote Computer Repair

This is a matter of trust, of course. Customers have to “let you into” their computers to conduct repairs. You can begin by getting yourself bonded, which is a good marketing tool, and then collecting testimonials from local repair jobs before you go national.

6. Online Fitness and Nutrition Training

If you are a PE (or related field) major, turn your gained expertise into an online business. Create videos of a wide variety of fitness workouts, cooking healthy meals on a low budget, etc. You can begin by selling them to other established online fitness sites.

You can also create good webinars about fitness and nutrition as part of your online business. You can invite some people to participate in your webinars in exchange for a reasonable fee. This can be a perfect way of making sales without selling hard. With engaging, relevant, and useful content, you can use the webinars to position yourself as an expert in the field, thereby building trust and good relationships among your audience. Consequently, you can make your online business more profitable while keeping your audience engaged. 

However, if you’re still unsure how webinars can be great for your online business, you can check out some product websites and other online resources to get familiar with some webinar benefits.

7. Website Design and Development

This is a tough business for a go-it-alone entrepreneur. But, again, you can create some amazing designs and present your portfolio to established design firms, and work as a freelancer for them.

8. Blogging

There are two options here. If you understand the “rules” for successful blogging that engages audiences, you can freelance for writing services or sell yourself to individual companies that sell in areas of your expertise. Barring that, you can establish your own blog on a major topic of interest and monetize it in a number of ways. You might want to check out some of the short online courses offered by Market Business News. They are designed for budding entrepreneurs and cover everything from finding your audience, to marketing your business, to handling the finances of your endeavor.

Are There Costs Involved in Such a Project?

Of course, there are. But consider this: Setting up online businesses and marketing those businesses has been made so much less expensive than it used to be. You have social media platforms; you have low-cost ways to establish your website and promote it; and you can start locally at first, building your business as you expand to a larger audience.

Are You Ready?

What are your skills and/or talents? Turn them into an online business!