Teen Talk: Make extra money with side hustle

BY Spencer Massicot

Side hustles are very accessible and easy for teenagers to get the hang of because the majority of them are on the internet. Growing up in the time period we have, most teens are capable of understanding the internet and becoming successful on it, so having an online business is a great opportunity for us that we need to take advantage of.

One online side hustle that is very simple and worth the effort is eBay. I have been doing eBay for a while now and I have definitely had success with it. All you need for eBay is a phone app and anything you feel that you don’t need anymore.

When I first started selling on ebay, my mom and I went through our garage and made a pile of items that we could sell. eBay allows fifty free listings each month, so we started listing everything we could. When you list something on ebay all you need to do is take pictures of it, come up with a title, write a description and let eBay do the rest. eBay will give a suggested price that items similar to yours have sold for and a suggested shipping form. The price and shipping fees can be adjusted by the item is listed. If you have your item up for auction, it will be up for a week and people can bid on it as they choose. The first bid will always have to be the price the seller sets, but after that, the bids can bring the original price up. Once the auction ends, the highest bidder will be the winner. ebay will generate a shipping label for you to print and put on your package. If no one bids on your item, you have the option to re-list it for another auction.

If you don’t want to do an auction, you will have the option to set your item for a fixed price. Fixed price items will remain on ebay for a month. Overall, eBay is very simple. My mom and I have made $150 since we started selling on ebay about a year ago. It may not seem like much, but if you keep in mind how little time we spent total to list all of our items, that money made is far above a minimum wage paying job.

Another app that is similar to eBay is Letgo. The only difference is that Letgo only sells to people near you.

A simple side hustle that does not involve selling stuff is called Fiverr. Fiverr appeals to all talents. The minimum signup age is 13. On Fiverr, you write out a profile listing your skills and then put flyers out on the site to get paid for some sort of service. Say you are really talented at proofreading, you can charge someone $5 to proofread their essay. If you are good at graphic design, you can do banners for someone’s website. You can set any price you wish for any service that you can provide. I have not used Fiverr as much as ebay, but my mom has and I know from her that you can make money through it.

Letgo ebay and Fiverr are all simple online platforms for teenagers to make money through a side hustle. Like my mom says to me, “Just get on it.”