Online Jobs for Your Teen This Summer
By Melissa Batai
Teens looking for a summer job used to apply at the latest fast food restaurant or babysit some local kids. Now, thanks to the Internet, there are more job opportunities than ever for your teen. Many of these jobs don't teach her to do a job by rote like a fast food restaurant would; instead, they can teach her to develop an entrepreneurial spirit.
There are plenty of places she can look for online jobs:
1. Do a gig on Fiverr. Does your child have a unique skill? She can offer to do a small job on Fiverr. Jobs can be anything from voiceover work to writing in calligraphy. Peruse the site for a few hours, and she'll get a good idea what jobs are available. As her parent, you can help her brainstorm ideas.
2. Take surveys. Taking surveys won't make a teen rich, but there are plenty of survey sites out there, and if she refers her friends, she may make even more money. Another possible job is giving feedback on websites. UserTesting.com pays $10 for a 20 minute website review.
3. Design websites. If she's computer savvy, she could design websites. Chances are she won't be lacking for customers, and she could easily make a few hundred dollars per job.
4. Write articles. If she's a talented writer, she could find online jobs writing articles. Ideally, she could write for blogs or websites that cater to teens.
Don't forget that she can also develop her own job online. SitterCity.com, for instance, was developed by a college student who worked as a babysitter. Of course, Facebook was developed when Mark Zuckerberg was a Harvard college student.
If your child can learn to search for and create her own jobs, she will be learning valuable lessons about being an entrepreneur. Best of all, an entrepreneur's next best idea just depends on finding a need and filling it.
What types of jobs would you recommend a teen do online?
Melissa, a mom to three little ones (ages 7, 3 and 1) blogs at Mom's Plans where she writes about living a fulfilling life on less and focuses on cutting expenses, budgeting, paying down debt, saving money and once a month cooking.
*Photo by Ed Yourdon via Flickr. Affiliate links are used in this offer.
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