How To Make Money As A Teen Without A Job

How to Make Money as a Teenager Without a Job

Do you want to know how to make money as a teenager without a job?

I was a teen once, and there were a million things I wanted to buy but couldn't afford! Or if you are a parent reading this, maybe you want your teen to have their own pocket money and learn important money making skills.

It can be tricky to find easily accessible routes into how to make money as a kid without a job (especially as a younger teen), but I've done the research for you and I'm here to point you in the right direction to get started.

Some of the ideas are suitable for all teens, even younger ones. Some are for 16 plus or 18 plus only. So, make sure you check the age limit, before you try to sign up!

How To Make Money as a Teenager Without a Job

Create your own business walking other people's dogs
Do odd jobs during the weekends and holidays
Offer a babysitting service
Do jobs around the house in exchange for cash from your parents
Sell things you no longer want or need

Sell stuff at school

Sign up for online survey sites

Sign up for passive income apps

Get a part-time job

Become a tutor

Start a YouTube channel

Write and self-publish books on Amazon KDP

Start a blog

Sell your designs online

Create an Etsy shop if you have creative products to sell

Create an account to sell your photos

Sign up for Amazon M-Turk

Become a mystery shopper

Freelance online through Fiverr or Upwork

Play video games

Listen to and rate music, fashion, and commercials online

Become a freelance make-up artist

Become a social media manager

Help people with technology

Learn a new skill that you can use to create income

These first few suggestions are great ways for a 13-year-old to make money. It's not always straightforward when you're a younger teenager and you want to start making your own money.

Many places won't accept you until you are 16 and numerous online platforms are closed to younger teens. Why not find jobs that allow you to earn money doing the things you love?

Let's have a look in more detail at each option.

DISCLOSURE

Some of the links on here are affiliate links and I may earn if you click on them, AT NO EXTRA cost to you. Hope you find the information here useful! Thanks.

25 Ways to Make Money as a Teenager Without a Job

1.Create your Own Business Walking other People's Dogs

Walking dogs is big business in today's world of long working days and incredibly busy lives. Many people need someone to walk their dog during the day when they are out at work, or in the afternoon (after school time) when they are not able to get home.

Some elderly people need someone reliable to call round each day and help with walking their dogs. This is a great opportunity to not only make some money but to serve the people living in your community.

You can advertise by word of mouth, print off flyers and post them around your neighborhood, or sign up for online dog-walking platforms.

Many people who use dog walkers will pay good rates to have someone reliable look after their dogs for them!

Here are some useful websites:

Pawshake
Rover
WagWalking
Fetch Pet Care
The Spruce Pets is a great site for all things pet-related!

2.Do Odd Jobs During the Weekends and Holidays

Doing odd jobs is a great way for how to make money without a job as a teenager. Slightly more traditional than many of the online suggestions compiled here, but still as effective.

There are so many jobs that people would rather pay to outsource than spend time doing for themselves. Some examples are:

Mowing lawns,
cleaning houses,
doing yard work,
helping with grocery shopping,
painting fences,
dropping off, or
picking up dry cleaning

These are great jobs for teenagers, as they are often quick and simple and will pay quite well.

Even better if you live in a busy area close to shops and other amenities. You may be on to a winner!

3.Offer a Babysitting Service

Babysitting is another timeless way of earning some money when you are a teenager. If you enjoy the company of younger children and are confident in how to take care of them, this could be an ideal way to make some extra money through your family and friends.

Some babysitting jobs will be easier than others, as it depends very much on the age of the children you are taking care of and whether they sleep well!

It will also be worth having an up-to-date first aid and CPR qualification.

Here are some online babysitting services.

Care.com

Care.com is a great site if you're interested in being listed more widely than your circle of family and friends.

You can have a legal guardian sign you up for the site if you are between 14-17 and you can sign up for your own account once you turn 18.

Sittercity

Sittercity is another great site, both for information and for advertising your services. They do require you to be over 18.

4.Do Jobs Around the House in Exchange for Cash From Your Parents

When you are looking for ideas on how to make money as a teenager without a job, there's no better place to start than at home!

Offer to do chores for your parents and wider family. Cleaning, vacuuming and washing the car, doing laundry, tidy cluttered spaces, reorganizing the kitchen cabinets, cleaning the windows.

The list goes on and there are bound to be some chores that your parents will be more than happy to pay you to complete!

5.Sell Things You No Longer Want or Need

We all have so much stuff lying around that we no longer need or use, or that we didn't want or need in the first place!

Sites such as:

Depop and
Decluttr

have been created for exactly these points in our lives.

Depop

Depop has fast become the go-to site for buying and selling second-hand clothing. There are no fees to list items, but you pay Depop a 10% fee when you sell an item.

You do have to be 18+ to open a Depop account, but you could sell through an account monitored by your parents.

Depop allows users as young as 13 to sell through their parents' accounts and payments are made via the parents' PayPal.

Decluttr

Decluttr is similar in principle to Depop (also with its age restriction of requiring account holders to be aged 18+).

Decluttr specializes in the sale of second-hand cell phones, CDs/DVDs, gaming tech, Lego, and books. The key difference to Depop is that you are selling to the company themselves, rather than to other users.

6.Sell Stuff at School

One of the best ways to learn how to make money as a teenager without a job is to sell stuff at school.

You have a captive market that adults can't access, as well as the trust of your clients (other students), and an insider's knowledge of your market!

Top products that sell well to teens include:

School supplies – this is a no brainer as high schoolers are always losing their pencil, eraser, pen, ruler, notebook!
Candy/sweets
Energy drinks
Canned drinks

Make sure to try out products on your peer group before you buy too much in bulk, otherwise you could be stuck with a closet full of energy drinks!

7.Sign up for Online Survey Sites

This is a simple and effective route to move towards how to make money as a teenager online. Online survey sites provide a wealth of ways to bring in some dollars without needing to move off the sofa!

Teen opinions are highly sought after for companies seeking to succeed in that marketplace. Hence many are using online survey sites to find out what teens want, love, and spend their money on!

These are some of the best sites for under 18s:

Cashcrate
Swagbucks
Treasure Trooper

Cashcrate

Cashcrate is a brilliant site that started in 2006 as a rewards site but has recently evolved into the top catalog site detailing different legitimate ways to make money online.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is one of the most well-known and trusted survey and rewards schemes. You get credits for playing games, filling out surveys, watching videos, and more.

They accept applications from teens aged 13+ and reward teens by exchanging their points for gift cards.

Treasure Trooper

Treasure Trooper is another similar site that accepts people who are 13+. You can play games online, watch videos, complete challenges, and much more in exchange for cash deposited in your account.

8.Sign up for Passive Income Apps

Passive income is when you have an income stream established but it doesn't require much of your attention to keep bringing money in. For many adults, this can be real estate or a blog.

For teens, a great way to create a passive income is by using your cell phone. You won't make a ton of money using these apps, but you don't have to do anything other than use your phone to earn. Simple.

There are three main types of passive income app:

cashback apps
video rewards, and
data collection.

Cashback apps are a great way to earn a little extra cash on the side if you like to shop!

Rakuten
Dosh

Rakuten

Rakuten is one of the best cashback apps and offers you the chance to earn by shopping at your regular stores through their platform.

Dosh

Dosh works similarly (but is only available in the US). You shop at your regular places logging in via the Dosh platform first.

Video rewards apps will pay you for watching videos:

Swagbucks
Twitch.tv

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is the most popular of these types of sites.

Twitch.tv

Twitch tv is huge right now. People login and pay to watch your gaming livestream.

Data collection apps harvest data in the background on your phone as you use it. Examples are:

MobileXpression
SavvyConnect

9.Get a Part-Time Job

This more traditional approach to learn how to get money without a job as a teenager is as popular as ever!

Take a waitressing job or serve in a local coffee house. Apply for retail jobs – these often come with a staff discount, which can be handy if you work on a cosmetics counter or in your favorite clothing store.

Some areas still offer paper routes to their local clients. It's an oldie but a goodie! Contact your local newspaper offices or check out your local paper's job ads section.

I used to work as a cashier at an african-american barber shop when I was a teen and it was good fun!

10.Become a Tutor

Tutoring other students is an excellent and tried and tested way for teens to bring in some extra money.

Even if you don't feel you excel in a subject, you just need to be a couple of steps ahead and willing to learn as you go! Patience is more important than knowledge.

You could:

teach someone to play an instrument
coach them in a sport
tutor them in a subject as they work towards an exam, such as Math or English
help them as they prepare for an oral exam or public speaking event.

Private tutoring is one of those jobs that can work well using a word-of-mouth advertising network. Once you are ready, tell your family and friends and even your classmates.

You can also sign up for online tutoring sites such as Tutorful and TutorMe (minimum age for these is 18 years).

Here are some other great articles about tutoring online:

How to Become an Online English Teacher
Teach English Online with No Experience

11.Start a YouTube Channel

It's not difficult to find stories online about teens who started their YouTube channel very young and are now experienced and teaching other teens how to make money without a job in high school.

YouTube is an incredible tool for this visual generation who consume visual media as if it's going out of fashion! It's also an awesome and simple way for teens to showcase their talents, interests, and hobbies.

The number one earner on YouTube is an eight-year-old boy called Ryan Kaji, who posts videos of himself reviewing toys for other kids. His YouTube channel, Ryan's World, has 27 million subscribers at the time of writing this. He made $26million in 2019!

To get started, all you need is a camera (a phone camera will do) and an idea of what you want to talk about or do on your channel. It really is that simple.

Obviously, the more involved you get and the more you want to refine your content, the more there is to adjust and progress (time, content creation, equipment, software, etc).

Most YouTubers make their money by:

selling their own products (merchandise, downloadables),
advertising revenue, and
Sponsorships.

12.Write and Self-Publish Books on Amazon KDP

This one isn't always listed in those articles on how to make money as a teenager without a job, as it isn't something that many teenagers know about.

Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (or KDP) opened its doors to self-publishing authors in 2007 and made it possible for pretty much anybody to publish their writing.

The books can vary in length from a few hundred words to a full-length piece of fiction work!

They have templates for you to upload your work into, sales pages for you to use for marketing, and even a FB group run by the people who created and manage the template, so you can ask for advice and support as and when you need it!

If you're interested in writing, check out NaNoWriMo's site. It started in 1999 as a writing challenge through the month of November and has evolved into something much bigger.

They even have a NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program for younger teens and children to be part of.

13.Start a Blog

Blogging is a long-game potential income stream. It won't make you quick bucks within the week. But it's a great investment that, if you learn how to write for SEO (Google Search Engine Optimisation) and love to create content, is a great option to look into.

The strength of creating your own blog is exactly that: unlike sharing your content via social media channels, you own the website and any content you create.

As with YouTubers, bloggers make most of their money through:

ads networks,
sponsorship, and
selling their own products.

Another income resource linked with blogging is becoming an affiliate. This refers to signing up for an affiliate program with a company such as Amazon and making recommendations for their products.

Each time a reader clicks on one of your affiliate links and buys the product, you receive a small commission that doesn't cost your reader anything.

Click here to read my article on how to start your own blog and also to learn the simple ways to make money blogging.

14.Sell your Designs Online

If you have an eye for design and find it easy to create digital designs and images, you can definitely sell your skills.

Cafepress
Etsy

CafePress

CafePress is a site that you can upload your designs to and they in turn sell them on products. You receive cash for your designs.

Etsy

Etsy is similar, though you can also sell physical products. See the point below for more info on Etsy.

Similar sites to Cafepress and Etsy are:

Artfire
Redbubble

These sites create the products that carry your designs and cover everything from advertising and product creation to postage and shipping.

You get paid a commission each time a product is sold bearing one of your designs.

You could also create your own website and social media accounts to build a fan following of your work, selling online with minimal advertising.

15.Create an Etsy shop if you have Creative Products to Sell

Etsy is an online marketplace for people to sell their mostly homemade creations. It is crammed full of high quality, often unique, products that people are making and selling from their homes.

2020 has seen a boom in fabric face mask sales through Etsy due to the pandemic and teens with sewing skills would have no problem cashing in on this booming market!

Do note that under-18s need an adult to set up their Etsy account.

Here are a couple of other articles I wrote about selling on Etsy:

Selling Printables on Etsy: An Epic Guide to Make Your Passive Income
Best Things to Sell on Etsy to Make Money

16.Sell your Photos

It is estimated that just one-fifth of all people using the internet read through entire webpages and blog articles. Most people hop straight to the section of an article they are looking for, rather than reading through the whole piece.

This increases the value of visuals on a blog or website. Somebody needs to supply those visuals and many online businesses and individuals make use of stock photo sites. These are sites where people can upload and make money off their photos.

Cell phones have the hardware and software to take some incredible photos and teens can easily cash in on stock photo sites, uploading photos in many genres and categories, getting paid each time their image is downloaded and used.

I curated a list of the best online places to sell your photos here:

21 Best Places To Sell Your Photos Online

17.Sign up for Amazon M-Turk

Amazon M-Turk is basically a crowdsourcing website that links workers with companies or individuals requiring someone to complete tasks for them.

It focuses on tasks that computers and tech software are currently unable to complete.

You must be over 14 to sign up, but as soon as you are accepted, you can start work!

Tasks can include anything from:

administration
data entry
survey completion
audio transcription
Google search descriptions

Thousands of job items (or HITs as they are called) are available at any time and it is an increasingly popular way of making money online without leaving home for thousands of people.

18.Become a Mystery Shopper

For those of you who love to shop, becoming a Mystery Shopper is a wonderful way of how to earn money without a job as a teenager, as it won't even feel like you're working!

You shop as usual, but you report back to the company you work for on your entire experience in a store. That feedback will cover such as the cleanliness of the store, the stock available, and the customer service you experienced.

These are some of the companies offering this type of work:

Marketforce
Confero

19.Freelance Online through Fiverr

While creating an account and offering your services on Fiverr isn't an obvious way for how to make money as a teenager without a job, it's a great shop front for skills you may already have, such as graphic design, proofreading, content writing, or website design.

Fiverr is an online marketplace that facilitates the sale of skills that people want to buy, such as logo design, voice-overs, or proofreading.

You only have to do each job as a single piece of work, there are no contracts and you will get paid straight away.

It's worth working on creating a portfolio of your work, regardless of which service you will be offering, as potential clients will want to see the quality of your work before they hire you.

This is simple to create within Google Docs and you can send them the link to your portfolio on request.

Check out my article about finding proofreading jobs online, including on Fiverr:

27 Best Proofreading Jobs Online No Experience Required

20.Play Video Games

Do you love to play video games? This one is a no brainer for you on how to make money from home as a teenager!

If there's a game that you are particularly experienced with and excel at, you can set yourself up as an online gaming coach via a platform such as Fiverr.

Or you could establish yourself with a YouTube channel dedicated to the game, with hacks and insider knowledge.

21.Listen to and Rate Music, Fashion, and Commercials Online

If you're a music lover and fancy yourself as a critic, you might want to sign up to Slice the Pie.

Anyone over 13 years old can sign up to listen to music and then leave a review. The more music you listen to, rate, and review, the more your rate increases!

Slice the Pie also offers you the chance to watch preview commercials and provide feedback to the people creating and producing them.

You also have opportunities to review fashion items and accessories. A big plus for teens into music and fashion!

22.Become a Freelance Make-up Artist

If you love makeup as much as the next teenager, there is money to be made, both online and offline.

YouTube is an excellent option for those teens who love to give makeup tips and advice, from the more routine skincare and makeup reviews, to the incredible transformations of artists who become lookalikes for celebrities!

Other teens make money doing makeup off-line for family and friends when they are going to formal events, weddings, or prom.

Here is my crazy simple guide to excelling in this field:

How to Become a Freelance Makeup Artist- A Crazy Simple Guide

23.Become a Social Media Manager

This is an awesome job for an age group that spends hours a day using social media!

Targeting businesses local to your home may yield the best fruit as you get started – offering to create, refresh, or run on an ongoing basis a cafe's social media accounts.

Or a newly launched online entrepreneur's accounts could be a great place to start.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest…many small businesses simply don't have the time to create and post content and engage with their followers daily, so they would probably welcome your advice, know-how, and support.

Social media management pays good money, so get started and build up your portfolio of clients to increase your earnings.

Here is a quick guide to get you started:

How To Become A Freelance Social Media Manager

24.Help People with Technology

So many people are frightened of technology and don't know how to carry out simple tasks, such as web site design, coding, even setting up their smartphone or new laptop! As a teenager growing up with technology, you are often more familiar with how it works and how to use it than many adults.

Put that to good use and start charging your family and friends a small amount for your help. Keep practicing and increasing your skills, adding to the repertoire of tasks that you can offer.

You could put an advert in your local library or contact senior centers in your area to offer weekly tuition on how to use tech that helps them to keep in touch with their families. Ta-da! You have a business in the making.

25.Learn a New Skill That You Can Use to Create an Income

This final suggestion is one that will align with your plans and dreams, especially if you are looking for how to save money as a teenager without a job.

You don't just want to earn money, you are actively looking to save it.

I wish that someone had told me to start doing this when I was a teenager!

The earlier you begin to develop skills that can earn you money and support your lifestyle, the sooner you can start to bring in that money.

Have a look online, find free courses teaching topics and skills that you can monetize. These can include niches such as:

freelance writing
social media marketing
coding
website design or management
tech support
logo design
graphic design

All of these are skills that, once you have reached a good level of proficiency, will bring you in a good income!

Conclusion

It isn't an exhaustive list, but hopefully, it's a useful list with multiple ways you can investigate to decide how to make money as a teenager without a job.

Here are a few of my other articles that will give you more ideas for how to make money as a teenager without a job:

61 Best Side Hustles For Teenagers
Best Freelance Jobs for Beginners: All You Need To Know
Best Stay At Home Jobs
11 Hobbies That Can Make Money
I Need Money Right Now! 25 Quick Ways To Make Extra Money

Let me know in the comments which options you have tried and any other suggestions that you can add to my list. Good luck!