Work While Earning Your Design Degree – Part-time Jobs for Design Students

Getting a web design degree is a great choice because it opens up all kinds of possibilities in today’s digital economy – from making and selling digital products to teaching others. The best part is, all of these potential part-time jobs can be done from wherever is most convenient for you. With that in mind, below are part-time jobs and side hustles for web design students.

Part-time Jobs – Blog on Medium

One of the best student jobs that can earn you decent extra money is writing on Medium and having your work published in big publications thanks to the Medium Partners Program and pay-wall. If you’re a web design student, you might consider writing about trending topics like design, applications, cybersecurity, and SEO. If you’re in school, you are already on your way to becoming an expert and likely have valuable knowledge and insight to share.

Use your social media networks to share and let people know about your new content, and see what kind of traction you get. You might consider trying to pitch your Medium articles to tech and design blogs and publications and generating some freelance writer income for yourself as well. If you have a hot take on a trending topic and you are first to it, you might find yourself widely syndicated and perhaps with offers on the table from people who want you to write for them.

Teach an Online Course

Online learning has been around for a while, but with the rise of remote working, work from home, and social distancing, it has grown in popularity and become the preferred medium for knowledge transfer. There are plenty of places you can sign up to teach online courses. You are responsible for creating the material, but if you are good at explaining the various aspects of web design, you could use your skills to teach people how to do various things on their own.

You can teach your technological talent using well-known education platforms like Coursera, Udacity, Skillshare, and Udemy. One of the major benefits of teaching others is that it helps reinforce what you have already learned, which is great if you’re a student.

Start an Affiliate Site

Almost everything on the internet has an affiliate program. For developers, collaborating with suppliers of domain name registration, web hosting, site design, template design, and WordPress themes are good options. Once you’ve joined up and become a partner with one of these suppliers, you’re free to talk about them, promote them, and provide your honest opinion about them. However, make certain that your recommendation is truthful.

The best part is that you will already likely have had experience with many of these products, so you can speak sincerely and with first-hand knowledge. Web design is a great affiliate niche because so many people are trying to start their own businesses online right now.

Part-time Jobs – Create Digital Assets

When beneficial, digital assets such as a widget, utility, WordPress theme, or WordPress plugin are worth paying for. This is a great way to supplement your income or make extra money on the side while also allowing you to experiment with new programming languages and frameworks. You can even end up picking up ones that you haven’t been exposed to as much during your education. When you’ve made something helpful that others are ready to pay for, you may sell it on marketplaces such as Envato, Gumroad, and e-Junkie. Some good advice is to use a platform with a marketplace to increase the exposure of your products.

WordPress themes, website templates, plugins, ebooks, PDFs, tutorials, and ready-made code are examples of digital products that developers can build very easily. If you build something that people find useful and you know how to market it well, there is a good chance you can expect to receive a steady stream of income from it over a very long time–provided you maintain your creations regularly and make yourself available for customer service-related inquiries.

Contract and One-Off Work on Fiverr

Companies and individuals are constantly seeking for contractors to accomplish little projects such as upgrading their websites, starting a blog, maintaining a Shopify website, and so on. As a developer, you have the knowledge and abilities to perform these tasks almost effortlessly and get compensated for your efforts.

Part-time Jobs – Start a YouTube Channel

You will need a sizable audience and consistent view hours before you can join the YouTube Monetisation Program, but don’t let that deter you from using YouTube as a platform to earn extra money on the side. Your watch hours and subscriber numbers will progressively increase if you release a few videos of 7–10 minutes in length on commonly explored topics such as coding interviews, diagnosing common programming bugs, bootstrapping a web app, and so on.

Furthermore, you can utilize YouTube to route traffic to other digital properties that you own. Being a YouTuber is an excellent way to supplement your income.

Write Technical Blog Posts/Tutorials

There are a few technical blogs and websites that will pay you per word or per piece for writing articles on topics picked by them. It’s similar to writing for Medium, but the difference is that you’ll get paid right away, and it’s a guaranteed income. However, you may not be able to add value to your own brand and recurring income as easily as you can with Medium. Either way, the best way to get the payment for writing is to write as much and as prolifically as possible to see what sticks.

Part-time Jobs for Design Students – Conclusion

Being able to make money on the side while you study isn’t just nice; for many students, it’s a requirement. As a web developer (even if you are still in the middle of your education), you have in-demand skills and knowledge that people are willing to pay to access. You also have the skills to create and provide digital goods that are necessary for the development of any and all websites. Keep the above side hustles in mind while you study, and you will not only help ingrain the knowledge you are receiving on a daily basis but build a portfolio and fund your education at the same time.