Work at Home for College Students

Throughout college, my roommates and I had some interesting hunts through our couch cushions, my roommate was reunited with a favorite childhood toy missing for 15 years, we laughed over embarrassing garments left behind, but somehow we never did find enough change to finance a night out. College is a time of constantly looking for ways to make it through one more semester.

I had plenty of experience. I liked college so much, I managed to stretch my time there into a seven year journey, or as I like to say, I took three victory laps.
From the bizarre, I was rejected as an egg donor, they didn't like my nicotine addiction, to my nights waiting tables at the local Denny's, somehow I made it.

Eventually, I started a work from home search and learned possibilities were endless. Telecommuting is great for college students because of their expert computer skills (thanks Facebook) and schedules with chunks of time available at odd hours (I never scheduled classes before noon).

Ways college students can easily make money online-

• Tutoring. Several sites offer up tutoring, but my favorite is brainfuse, apply at www.brainfuse.com. . There are other online tutoring companies out there, but most require a degree. Pay is decent, and you can schedule yourself for as little as an hour at a time. So, you can schedule an hour between classes, or a few hours in the evening.
  
• ChaCha and other human-powered search engines, apply at www.chacha.com. Answer questions sent in via text message from your home computer. It can take awhile to build up a lot of cash, but you can log in for one question, or stay logged in for hours. Perfect for classes in a computer lab when your graduate student teacher rambles. ChaCha also offers a "pay me now" feature allowing you to automatically transfer funds to a ChaCha debit card.
  
• Trash to treasure, sell on Ebay and Craigslist. I had very clean closets in college, because I was always digging for something I could sell. College campuses are a great place to find random "junk" to sell. College students seem to throw away tons of good items, check dumpsters for working televisions, electronics and other barely used clothing and household goods. I also always seemed to have friends who gave away good finds. Take anything offered and find a way to market on Ebay. An old lamp can be coined as "shabby chic." Be creative! I found I loved inventorying all my belongings every few months and really learned what I needed and what was just clutter.

Words of caution-

• Scams, how to avoid them. College students seem especially vulnerable for scams, less real world experience under your belt, and hazy memories of filling out an online form with all your personal information during a tipsy job search mean you could end up losing money rather than gaining. Follow common sense tips, don't drink and job hunt, never pay money for an opportunity, check out the Web site to see if it looks professional, and if the offer seems to good to be true, it probably is.
• Don't blow off your new WAHJ position, treat it like a real job. An important test, the party of the semester, or calls from friends begging you to watch Project Runway might seem more important than your new position. But, when the electric bill comes you'll regret ditching your new responsibility for a night of debauchery. Take time off during finals and other test times, turn your cell phone off, and leave time for friends and fun. This is also why I suggested positions with set times like those above. Most people I knew in college mastered procrastination, so anything without set hours that requires large chunks of time, like blogging for money or freelance writing, might be off limits.