The knowledge of how to make money online in Nigeria as a student is a basic skill and step to achieving financial independence and live the life you want.
As a student in Nigerian institutions, personal allowances from parents and relatives might be not enough for you.
No matter how simple your lifestyle is, less or more than #10000 per week may not be able to satisfy you.
Some of us don’t even have access to steady allowances like that; not everyone is born with a sliver spoon in their mouth.
So today in this post, I will expose you to various ways on how to make money online as a teenager or student in Nigeria.
However, if you don’t want to limit yourself to only students ways, check online business that pays daily out.
How to make money online in Nigeria as a Student
There are various opportunities available to you as a student if you are really interested in making money.
Although, you will have to create time for many of them and manage them alongside studying.
The choice of how to make your own money as a student is completely yours.
There are however some factors you have to consider when choosing how to make money online as a student, so choose accordingly and wisely.
1. Learn a Marketable Online Skill
If you want to make money online as a student in Nigeria, you need to first learn a skill that is in demand.
You don’t have a selling point if there’s no skill in you for anyone to buy in the first instance.
Learning a skill in demand gives you the edge you need to above others looking for opportunities like you but do not have a talent to monetize.
I cannot outrightly tell you what skill I think you should learn, but I will advice you to pick one or two you have interest in.
Other factors to consider when choosing a skill to use to make money online as a student are:
- your ability and willingness to learn
- availability of a learning platform
- knowledge of where you can monetize it
- the ease of monetization
- lucrativity
There are many online skills that you would enjoy doing and more importantly can fetch you cool revenue as a Nigerian student.
Some of these skills include:
- Web Development
- Photography
- Cinematography
- Copywriting
- Graphics Design
- Software Development
- WordPress
- Video Editing etc.
2. Make Money Online by Outsourcing Works
Outsourcing is a very smart and easy way to make money online in Nigeria as a student.
The good thing about outsourcing is that you don’t necessarily need to have the skill you are selling.
For example, let us say a client or customer needs a copywriter to help him write or spice his resume up or someone needs a graphic designer to craft him a logo.
If you don’t have any of these skills, you can take up the jobs and let someone that is skillful in them do them for you.
Another reason you may decide to outsource works can be if you are having to much school workloads to handle but you don’t want want miss out on the gig.
The way you will make your money from this is to charge more than what the expert who will complete the work will take.
Alternatively, you can charge your client normal price and collect commission from your expert on the job; the former is always better anyways.
Outsourcing is not only relevant when you don’t have the skill to complete a job, but if you have too much work that you cannot complete all by yourself, you can also outsource it to another professional.
That way, you will not completely lose and you will make money online by tasking someone else do your work for you.
The types of works you can outsource can be both online and offline (local); same as people you can outsource them to.
Some online spaces to outsource jobs from are:
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- Toptal
- FreelanceWritingGigs etc.
3. Make Money Online as a student from Working on Outsourced Projects
Since there are two ways to outsourcing and you can make money online as a student through both at a time.
The fact that you always outsource jobs to others doesn’t mean you cannot take outsourced jobs or be an expert for another professional.
At a time where you have more knowledge in an area than another person, or you have low school workforce than the other student.
It’s always good to have a network like minds, that is; friends that make money online in Nigeria as a student same way you do.
Outsourcing is sweeter when there are people that will readily give you jobs and that you can also give jobs to with ease.
4. Make Money Online as a Student Media Influencer
One of the easiest ways I will give you on how to make money online in Nigeria as a student is to become a media Influencer.
I said it easy because you don’t need financial or technical know-how to become a media influencer.
Well, you will need to be socially active and have a lot of following.
That’s very easy for many students as long as you are outgoing and can invest time in getting to know people and have a high number of following or followers (people that follow you) on social media.
It is more like creating or building a network of people that you can serve, and vice versa (serve you by helping you make money as a student).
You must have heard of Student Brand Ambassadors, so I would love to use OAU as a case study.
Big brands like telecommunications companies, banks and others come to institutions to choose a student ambassador year-in year-out.
Their aim is to have a student that can drive customers to them since institutions are like a whole new community and there are numerous customers.
So they organize competitions to choose the next brand ambassador(s) and judge by choosing the one with the highest number of votes.
Here, the number of people that are already following you will help you win the competition.
And you will start making money online steadily as a student by signing a deal and earning commissions on sales made through you by either word of mouth or special links.
5. Help Others Do Assignments and Projects
Another interesting method on how to make money online in Nigeria as a student is to help fellow students with their academic essays, assignments and projects.
You can either source for this kind of work online or in your school.
I have helped fellow students studying in America to write academic essays and thesis right from my phone and computer in Nigeria before and still doing that.
I started making $20 per essay and as at the time of writing this, I charge $35 per academic essay I write.
There are many essay writing websites on the internet, but most of them require you to be an expert in English.
However, you can try freelancing websites like Fiverr and Upwork, choose Writing and Translation as your category.
6. Work as a Freelancer Graphic Designer Online and Offline
I mentioned learning a marketable online skill as the first way to make money online as a student in Nigeria earlier in this article.
If you look at the list, you will see that Graphics Design is a marketable skill both online and offline (local).
This is because a lot of businesses are opening everyday and they need a design of either logo, banner or business card.
Aside that, there are also a ton of events that go on in one way or the other and graphics are always employed and automatically the need for graphic designers.
If you already have graphics design knowledge and you’re good at it, then you should get yourself registered on Freelance websites as a graphic designer.
Furthermore, you should get yourself a befitting logo and design a lot more logos and use it a portfolio to give people an insight of your abilities.
Post your portfolios on your freelancer profiles; make sure there are your best works, and also post them on social media.
You can choose a brand name and create pages on social media.
This method of making money as a student can give you recognition beyond Nigeria especially if you get yourself good profiles on graphics designers dedicated freelancer websites.
7. Work as a Freelance Programmer, Software Developer
Working as a student software developer and programmer for either local jobs or online jobs is one of the easiest ways to make your money as a student in Nigeria.
The world is now totally digital that many firms and startups are looking for programmers and software developers to help them get their businesses online.
In one way or the other, every website needs a programmer or Web developer to help them code and customize their sites according to their needs.
Thus, a need to for you to enter that market and make your money from it even as a student.
Every method you want to choose these days will require your commitment and ability to put in hardwork and time.
This will look easy for students studying computer science and engineering in the university and have taken time to learn and master some basic programming languages like HTML, CSS, C++, JAVASCRIPT and PYTHON.
But if you’re studying a course that will allow you the time to learn these programming languages, you should learn them.
Because trust me, it’s worth a fortune and will definitely worth your time.
You will be glad you did when you start making money online from it as a Nigerian student.
8. Work as a Freelance Copywriter
Aside being a Graphics Designer, Copywriting is another one of the most common ways students make money online in Nigeria.
If you are conversant enough, you must have been invited or added to groups teaching Copywriting and must have heard names like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, etc.
Those names are freelance websites and they are the easiest places for you to get a Copywriting job, although some are available offline.
Copywriting involves writing resumes, blog posts, articles, technical reports, case studies, white papers, academic essays, editing and proofreading, article rewriting or spinning, etc.
In Copywriting, you charge your clients per word, that is; for every word, you can say you will receive #4, which means you will make #4000 for every 1000 words you write or work on.
Enticing right?!
All you need to do is create an outstanding freelancer profile and start making money online in Nigeria as a teenager.
And mind you, you also require a good command of English Vocabulary and mechanical accuracy.
9. Start a Blog (Website)
Starting a blog is one of the most lucrative ways to make money online in Nigeria as a student.
Although, a blog is a long term investment and a business you have to be attending to everyday and everytime you’re chanced, if you are looking forward to achieving the best results from it.
I am a student and I blog too, and I can tell you it’s quite time consuming but it’s worth it.
To run a blog, you will need a hosting account, domain name and a Content Management System (CMS) of your choice.
All these cost money to set up and I would say at least, $100.
Although you can start with a free blog, but if you’re really interested in ways tobmaking money online as student, a free blog won’t give you that.
When you start a blog and build some audience, there are several ways to make money from it and they include:
- Contextual Advertisement: This a type ads that are managed by ad networks and they don’t give you direct contacts with the Advertisers. So when users or visitors see or click the ads these networks place on your site, you earn based on impressions, as well as clicks. Example of these ad networks are Google Adsense, Media.Net, Mgid, etc.
- Sponsored Links: When dealing with sponsored links, you are in direct contact with the advertisers and you will be able to determine how much they pay you for what services you’re providing, most of the times, it’s traffic or leads.
- Affiliate Marketing: This is probably the best among them all if you can do this well. Here, you are in direct link with your Advertisers and you make money in form of commission for helping them sell their products. So imagine selling a product with $30 commission two 3 people per day. Do your calculations!
- Sales: This method works well if you also have products to sell. Your blog gives you exposure and if you are good at what you do, you can sell products related to the content of your blog that your readers might be interested in to them.
10. Create a YouTube Channel and Monetize it (Vlogging)
Just as running a website (blogging) is a great way of making money online in Nigeria as a student, so is vlogging, that’s running a YouTube Channel.
All you have to is create a YouTube Channel and pick a broad topic that people like to learn about from YouTube, then create original videos on them to upload on your channel.
So, just find a topic you like, you can decide to be posting skits, as long as your content is unique, people would want to watch your videos.
There are thresholds you have meet to be able to monetize your videos through the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP).
11. Tutor People on Online Marketable Skills
A lot of students are looking for ways to make money online in Nigeria but they don’t have a any marketable skill.
If you are someone that has quite a vast knowledge in a or some specific areas of making money online as a student or teenager, that’s where you will come in.
Look for marketable skills you know but people still don’t know about. It will be great if you’re already excelling at it.
Sensitize people about the classes you will be holding and share links across all social media.
Post proves of the importance and lucrativity of the skill(s) you want to teach them.
If you want to make it work and make as much money as possible, don’t charge them right away for the class, just call it a free class, but break it into segments.
Let’s say you break your class into 3 segments, make the first segments free and the last two paid with a free gift attached (people like incentives or extras).
And most importantly, make sure your segment one is really interesting and makes them want to start the earning with the skills already, that’s when you cut them off to go premium.
For maximum conversion, make the first segment a full introduction with many illustrations, and you will make a lot of money as student for just teaching people a skill.
12. Make Money Online as a Student Selling eBooks
Selling eBooks can either be a standalone business or an addendum to tutoring people on a skill and it’s one of the easiest ways how to make money online in Nigeria as a student.
For example, your premium content can be just to sell the eBook to them after giving them the introduction.
Subsequently, the eBook will serve as the completion of the class which gives them full access to what the skill is all about.
Alternatively, you may not even be selling just eBooks online without organising class for people.
Although, you will still have to do the introduction into what your eBook is about, but your main purpose is to sell it.
Selling an eBook doesn’t have to be about a new skill or teaching new prospects, it can be something you discovered in a particular area in a profession that you want to expose people because of it’s beneficial effects.
What to avoid when trying to make money online in Nigeria as a student (Teenager)
Many of us see teenagers in schools living a big and luxurious lifestyle from the notorious way of making money online as a student, popularly called Yahoo Yahoo (Fraud).
This set of people should not be envied or copied as there are many legitimate ways to make your money while going to school as a student and teenager.
The money Yahoo gives you might be fast and almost seem like you didn’t work for it, but they will always hunt you.
If you are a student and choose to make money online through Yahoo, you will be pushed to do a lot of unspeakable things.
So my advice is that, you should stay away from the profession, because there are numerous reasons to avoid Yahoo as a Nigerian student when trying to make money online.
