Top 17 legit ways to make money online in Australia | Study in Australia - Information Website for International Students

International students can find it difficult to make enough money to pay for tuition, housing and living expenses while studying in the Australia.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways that international students can get paid to do something they enjoy, like writing or coding. This article will explore some of the best ways for international students to make money on the side and how you can get started today.

So here are our Top 17 legit ways to make money online in Australia.

1. Freelancing

Top 17 legit ways to make money online in Australia | Study in Australia - Information Website for International Students - Overseas Students Australia (1)

First of all, Who is a freelancer? Freelancer is any self-employed person who provides their services to various businesses at one time.

Usually, as a freelancer, you charge your clients on per-project basis. You can charge an hourly rate or you can charge a daily flat rate for the task that you’re completing for your clients.

In short, freelancing means selling your skills and if you have some specific skills, it’s time to utilising and start monetising them.

Some of the most common freelancing work includes:

Graphic designing
Animation
Social media marketing
Digital marketing
Writing
Video editing

As an international student, you may not even realise but you already have one skill that you can start using it right away.

Most of the international students in Australia come from non-English speaking backgrounds so basically you already have an advantage that you have knowledge of some other language apart from English.

If that’s the case, then you can certainly become a freelancer for translation services where you can leverage by start translating things in English or vice versa.

Here are some platforms where you can start looking for some Freelance work:

Fiverr ► http://www.fiverr.com/s2/5bedeb0d33
Upwork ► https://www.upwork.com/
Freelancer ► https://www.freelancer.com.au/

Also, to get started with work as a freelancer you’ll need skills and an ABN.

If you need to update or get new skills, then we suggest checking the platforms below.

Skillshare (Free 1 month trial) ► https://join.skillshare.com/
Udemy ► https://www.udemy.com
Online Courses Australia ► https://www.onlinecoursesaustralia.edu.au/

To get an ABN for working as a freelancer, you can check this really popular video:

2. Online tutoring

Since many students are studying online these days, you can start tutoring online.

While many parents are deciding to keep their kids at home in Australia and around the world, getting into online tutoring right now can be really rewarding for you, especially if you already have some skill set in certain areas of study.

Depending upon your skillset, you can teach various subjects like

English
Mathematics
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
IT
Designing
Accounting

Think about any skills or knowledge you already have and you can start teaching these skills and knowledge to someone else who needs it online now.

These are the specific platforms for online tutoring in Australia:

Cluey Learning ► https://clueylearning.com.au/
Learnmate ► https://learnmate.com.au/

You can register with these websites and start tutoring online to primary, secondary and senior school kids.

Some other popular platforms include:

Preply ►https://preply.com/en/online/tutoring-jobs
Tutorme.com ►https://tutorme.com/
Tutor.com ►https://tutor.com/
Vipkid.com ►https://www.vipkid.com/
51Talk.com ►https://www.51talk.com/

3. YouTube

Now, as soon as we mentioned YouTube, some of you might be put off right away because you’ll be like: “I don’t want to be in front of the camera”.

The good thing with YouTube is that you don’t need to be necessarily in front of the camera. You can still show your skills or creating content without appearing in front of the camera.

Read our complete guide on how to become a Youtuber here

Now, if you meet these requirements, then your channel can be monetised by YouTube:

It means YouTube will pay you money for every ad that they run on your YouTube channel. You probably have come across some of these ads when watching YouTube Videos and as annoying as they are, it is really good way to monetise the content for the creators.

Some popular ideas that really work on YouTube include:

Gaming
Cooking
Funny
Educational

As a guide, it is important to understand the fundamentals of creating content including YouTube videos, which includes either you are:

4. Blogging

If video sounds too hard, then you can consider doing blogging which is about writing content on a specific topic or niche based on your knowledge or expertise.

You can create your own blog using a platform like WordPress and start writing informational content that people may need or the skill set you have.

It will be a good idea for you to learn about some search engine optimisation (SEO) skills before you start blogging, so your content can start appearing on the first page of Google.

If you don’t have any knowledge in SEO, we highly recommend you to take a free course by Google it’s known as Digital Garage – https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage-au

You can monetise your blog by using Google Ads or some other ads platform. You can also accept advertisem*nts or sponsored posts from other publishers once you start getting good traffic.

Now to start off with blogging, you most likely need a

CMS like WordPress
Hosting: You can sign up here for website hosting
Domain name: You can sign up here for your domain name.

It is important to understand that your website will not rank on the first day of launching, so creating content and monetising on the website can take time.

5. Selling physical things online

If you’re a crafty person or if you have some skills in crafts or art or you just create things from home, then you can certainly start selling things online.

Platforms like Shopify and WordPress has made it really easy to start a website and then sell them on these platform without too much of a learning curve.

You can take a short course on how to create an e-commerce website (on YouTube itself) and sell your products or services.

You do not necessarily need to be making these products. You can source them from websites like Alibaba.com or Aliexpress and start selling them online through the platforms we mentioned.

You can sell things online on platforms like:

You can also consider selling them on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree as well.

They can be a great platform to start with if you want to start selling things online.

6. Selling digital products

If you are not keen to sell physical products, then you can also become a digital product seller.

You can sell your digital products on various platforms and marketplaces online.

For example, if you have some design skills or can learn design skills, then you can create Canva templates and then sell them on a digital platform like Etsy and AppSumo as well.

If you have some software building skills, then you can sell them also on Codecanyon and AppSumo as well.

You can sell things online on platforms like:

7. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is simply recommending products from some merchants and as soon as someone click on the link provided by the merchant you get bonus or Commission.

Earlier, in point 4, we mentioned about Siteground for your WordPress hosting needs and if you click on that link and go to their website and sign up for the service, we will be compensated by site ground as an affiliate. (No extra cost to you at all for doing this)

So if you had some social media following or you got a YouTube channel or you are a Instagram influencer or just good in sales, then you can certainly start affiliate marketing.

You can start off with affiliate marketing with platforms like:

Commission Factory ► https://www.commissionfactory.com/
Brandreward ► https://www.brandreward.com/
Commission Junction ► https://www.cj.com/
Click Bank ► https://www.clickbank.com/

8. Stock/Crypto trading

You probably have heard about share or stock markets. Haven’t you?!

Stock trading or share market and cryptocurrency trading is another popular way of making money online.

You can basically become a ‘Day trader’ by investing and selling stocks on a daily basis or a long term investor.

There are various local and international platforms for trading stocks and cryptocurrency.

Please be mindful that investing money in the stock market is risky and there is no guarantee that you will make money by trading stocks. You can even lose money. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing.

9. Online Surveys

There are many companies that look to conduct market research for different products, services or brands.

You can sign up for these platforms and start doing surveys and once you have completed the survey you get compensated either in cash or through gift cards.

There are many platforms available for these surveys, and you can do research on what sort of platform is suitable to you also.

Some of the legit survey platforms include:

Askable ► https://askb.co/S1i5waceU
Myview ► https://social.myview.com.au/
Prize Rebel ► https://www.prizerebel.com/

These survey companies will let you know when the new surveys come up on the platform, and you have to complete those surveys and you get compensated based on that.

10. Podcasting

Podcasting is another popular way to make money online these days. You can find a specific niche that you are interested in or know about and then build your community by producing and marketing your content.

Just like a website, making money by podcasting can take some time but once you have built a decent size audience, then you can approach advertisers for advertising on your podcast.

You can get started with free apps to record your podcast:

Audacity ► https://www.audacityteam.org/
GarageBand (Mac) ► https://www.apple.com/au/mac/garageband/

You might consider to buy a microphone for a better sound quality. But Anchor app from Spotify, which you can download on your smartphone can help you to record, edit and upload podcasts for Free on your smartphone itself.

11. Consulting

You can work as a consultant to provide advice in your area of expertise. Many people look for various consultants to get help with their business. There is no limits on the type of consultations you can do. You can become a:

Career Consultant
Lifestyle Consultant
Digital Marketing Consultant
Social Media Consultant

Please note that some fields might require you to have a licence or a certification to provide advice to others.

12. Social media influencer

If you have lots of people following you on social media and they like what you do, then you can become a Social Media Influencer. As an influencer, you can make money by:

Getting a Sponsored Posts
Collaboration with Brands
Affiliate Commissions
Getting a Coffee from the followers

You can sign up for these platforms if you are a social media influencer:

Tribe ► https://www.tribegroup.co/influencers
Heepsy ► https://www.heepsy.com/
FameBit ► https://famebit.com/

13. Selling Your Photos

Well, we are not talking about your personal photos here (or maybe you can sell them. Hello celebrity!). More specifically, you can sell the professional photos you take for your social media. They must be of high quality though.

Your Instagram feed can actually act as your online portfolio these days. Also make sure to add a watermark to your photos, so people just don’t copy your work when posting on Instagram.

Some of the popular platforms where you can sell your photos are

Snapwire ► https://www.snapwire.co/
Mobile Prints ► http://mobileprints.com/
Twenty20 ► https://www.twenty20.com/

14. Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistants or VAs are increasingly becoming important for many online businesses. As fewer businesses consider hiring full-time employees in the near future due to turbulent times, but they still need help with the various tasks.

So they hire VAs who can help them remotely to complete these tasks. Some of the most popular virtual assistant positions include:

Customer service and support
General Administration
Financial management
Market Research
Moderating groups or Forums
Marketing

You can find work as a Virtual Assistant by

searching in various Facebook groups
reaching out to small businesses
using the platforms we mentioned earlier like Fiverr, Upwork or Freelancer

15. Create an online course

Online courses are gaining popularity and becoming a viable way to make money. If you have the right knowledge and skills, you can easily share your skills and knowledge with others and get paid for it.

While there are many online course creators who teach others to learn a skill, there are also many popular online course creators who offer their own product or service as an online course.

Again, based on your skills, knowledge or expertise, you can create an online course and sell that on various platforms. There is certainly no limit on what type of content you can teach (except obviously the illegal ones). From knitting to cooking, coding to designing, marketing to financial, the sky is the limit.

Some of the popular platforms where you can sell your courses include:

Udemy ► https://www.udemy.com /
Skillshare ► https://www.skillshare.com/

But if you want a fully integrated platform for an online course, then you can look into the platform like Kajabi for that.

16. Organise online events and activities

Ever since we have been in the lockdown, many people have been running lots of online events using zoom and other meeting platforms. You can create online events or activities where you can charge people for being part of that event.

If you are good at throwing online parties, online conferences, webinars, then this might be your time to shine. If you don’t want to charge money to the attendees, then you can look for a sponsor for your online event.

You can get started with platforms like

Zoom ► https://zoom.us/
Facebook Messenger Rooms ► https://www.messenger.com/rooms
Youtube Live ► https://www.youtube.com/

17. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is the process of importing products from suppliers to fulfill orders placed on the company’s website.

This can be a great way to make money online and it’s really simple!

Dropshipping is done by acting as a middleman between customers and suppliers. The company imports products from suppliers and then fulfills orders placed on the company’s website.

There are plenty of drop-shipping providers or suppliers you can work with and sell their products online. You can find the list of some of the dropping suppliers here. https://dodropshipping.com/best-dropshipping-suppliers-in-australia/

Well, these are the Top 16 legit ways to make money online in Australia. We hope you find this information. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

If you like this article, then you might also find this article about Top 5 Jobs of the future in Australia useful.

Disclaimer

This description may contain links from our affiliates, sponsors, and partners. If you buy these products/services, we may get compensated – but there’s no additional cost to you.

Overseas Students Australia is not a financial or legal advising company. The information presented should not be construed as financial or legal advice. Always do your own due diligence.

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Top 17 legit ways to make money online in Australia | Study in Australia - Information Website for International Students - Overseas Students Australia (2024)