Online jobs are a great option for teens because you don’t have to leave the house and can work anywhere as long as you have a laptop and a good Wi-Fi signal. When I was a teen, I had to ask for rides to work until I had a driver’s license, walked, or took the bus. Now, I work from a laptop at the beach if I want to or on an airplane while going on vacation.
The Best Online Jobs for Teens
The beauty of looking for a job as a teen is that you have the opportunity to experience different jobs and figure out what suits you and what doesn’t. This allows you to build valuable skills that become great resume builders as you mature. Typical jobs for teens online are selling services, filling out surveys, testing products before they hit the market, selling writing services, selling photos, promoting your audience, and selling handmade products.
Let’s discuss the different options available for teens that want online jobs!
Selling Services
SitterCity
The age requirement is 18, and teens can create a profile for babysitting, nannying, or mother’s helper. The platform is free to use, or you can upgrade to the “Featured Profile” for $9.99 per month. Background checks are done every 3 months by the platform.
PetSitter
The age requirement for this is 13 and older. Teens who enjoy spending time with pets can search the site for pet sitting jobs in your area for pets, from cats to dogs to birds and many more. Pet sitters can make their own rates, but most charge between $15 to $20 per hour. This platform charges a flat membership fee but doesn’t take a cut of earnings.
Upwork
The age requirement is 18, and teens can set up a profile to sell your services in blogging, copywriting, virtual assistant, web development, product management, and many others. Applying to gigs costs .15 each, or you can upgrade to a Pro membership for $14.99 per month.
Care.com
The age requirement is 14 and older for accounts that require parental monitoring or 18 without monitoring. Teens can set their own rates and get paid by the family they provide services to. The platform charges a flat fee monthly to keep your profile active.
Fiverr
The age requirement is 13, and gigs range from creative poems to voiceovers for businesses to logos, and lessons are offered for a fee to learn valuable skills that will improve your freelance abilities. Pay starts at $5 per gig, and Fiverr takes 20% of the client fee.
SameSpeak
The age requirement is 16, and this allows teens to tutor others in languages with half-hour coaching sessions paying $10 per session. Payments are made every Friday if tutors have earned at least $100 for that week.
Voices.com
The age requirement is 13, and teens can create a profile in voiceovers, music, translation, and audio production. Gig rates range from $150 to $3000, depending on the project’s complexity.
Skratch Gig App
The age requirement is 14, and teens can download the app to your phone to find gigs within 5 miles of your home location. Parents need to consent to their teen using the app and receive an email for every gig teens accept using the app. Teens and customers are rated at the end of the gig, and pay ranges from $10-13 per hour for most gigs.
Humanatic
The age requirement is 17, and teens can listen to recorded customer service calls and provide feedback about the quality of customer service provided on that call so companies can use the feedback for employee training and improve their businesses. Teens can expect to make $1 to $4.50 per assignment, and payments are made via PayPal on Monday/Tuesday weekly if you made over $10 the previous week.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
The age requirement is 18, and this crowdsourced marketplace outsources processes and tasks such as rewriting website copy to taking surveys. Tasks pay $3 to $10 per hour depending on experience level, and payments can be requested daily with no minimum earnings.
Product Sales
Etsy
The age requirement is 18 unless parents are willing to cosign on the account for teens that are 13 and older. Handmade items are sold on this marketplace, like jewelry, digital art, and custom clothing. Etsy charges a 5% fee for every sale made and another 3% if the vendor chooses to get paid via Etsy Payments. Payments take 3 to 5 days to reach your bank account.
CafePress
The age requirement is 13 with parental consent or 18 without it. Teens can create logos, catchy sayings, fun pictures, and designs on products like t-shirts, bags, and coffee mugs. Royalties are paid on each item sold by a product designer, with performance bonuses paid out to top-performing creators. Payment is made via check or PayPal every 60 days.
Provide Writing Skills
HubPages
The age requirement is 18, and articles range in length from 800 to 1600 words. Money is earned each time someone visits a page that you have written or interacted with an ad on the page. Writers have the option to add Amazon affiliate links to their writing to try to earn more money. HubPages charges 40% of earnings as fees, and the minimum payout is $50.
TextBroker
The age requirement is 18, and this freelance writing platform pairs writers with businesses that need great content. Content creators receive a rating for their work from 2 to 5 stars, and higher-rated writers receive priority when applying for jobs on the platform. The pay ranges from 7 to 20 cents per word, and payouts can be requested after $10 has been earned.
Monetize Your Audience
YouTube
The age requirement is 13 with parental consent or 18 without it. YouTube creators make videos on topics ranging from unboxing products while providing reviews to educational how-tos and anything in between. It takes time to build an audience and consistent efforts. Monetizing options include payment from ads in your content or selling products via links in your videos.
The age requirement is 13, and content creators work to build their brand and audience by providing unique, engaging content to followers, which encourages shares and interactions with the content. Once your audience has reached a certain number of followers (depending on the potential sponsor’s requirements, so follower requirements vary), creators can be paid through ads or business sponsorships for featuring their products on your profile. Instagram can be used to promote your business or side hustle like cake decorating or landscaping, too.
Sell Original Photos
Shutterstock
The age requirement is 18, and photographers can sell their stock photos on a global marketplace or refer other photographers to the platform for a referral fee. Contributors can earn up to 40% of the purchase fee in royalties every time your photo is purchased from the platform. The minimum payment threshold is $35.
Adobe Stock
The age requirement is 18, and the beauty of this stock photo platform is that buyers can easily integrate photos purchased here into other Adobe software to create stunning business presentations and marketing materials which makes this a preferred platform for many photographers. Royalties are earned at 33% per photo purchased.
iStock by Getty Images
The age requirement is 18, and this is the most well-known stock photo platform in the world where potential photographers can download the app and choose 3 to 6 of your best photos to submit for review. If approved to contribute to the platform, creators can earn 15% per image downloaded as a non-exclusive creator whereas exclusive creators earn 25 to 40%.
Actions and Tasks
Mistplay
The age requirement is 13, and mobile gamers can get paid for gameplay by collecting rewards and exchanging them for prepaid gift cards or retailer gift cards. Users must choose a game from the recommended list to earn rewards, and then rewards are earned based on the length of gameplay.
Swagbucks
The age requirement is 13, and this is a way of earning cash for things you do in your daily life anyway, like watching short videos or playing online games. Swagbucks pays the most for taking surveys, but not everyone qualifies for every survey. Get paid to your PayPal account or via gift card. 2200 Swagbucks can be cashed out for $25, and heavy users can easily earn at least 2200 Swagbucks per month.
Survey Junkie
The age requirement is 16, and this allows users to fill out surveys according to their life circumstances in exchange for gift cards or payments made via PayPal. Not everyone will qualify for every survey, so this wouldn’t be a great full-time income but is great for some extra spending cash. Most surveys pay between 45 cents and $3.50 per survey, and minimum cash out amount is $10. Surveys range from 5 to 20 minutes in time required.
SweatCoin
The age requirement is 13 and pays users to get steps to promote healthier lifestyles. Teens can earn 1 sweatcoin for every 1,000 steps taken up to 5 per day and 150 per month. After earning 20,000 sweatcoins, users can cash out to PayPal for $1,000. Other rewards are available in exchange for fewer sweatcoins, or sweatcoins can be exchanged for other earning levels within the app to help earn coins faster.
BoostaPal
Students ages 13 to 25 can refer family and friends and encourage them to use this online marketplace to earn small commissions from purchases that can be exchanged for gift cards, PayPal payments, or a physical check after at least $10 has been earned.
InboxDollars
The age requirement is 18, and users can complete tasks like watching videos, taking surveys and earn rewards from purchases or cash offers. New users can make $5 for signing up, and cash out can happen for free after earning $40 on the platform.
Complete Surveys
Rakuten Insights
The age requirement is 16, and users earn money by taking surveys. Earnings can be redeemed in $5 increments to PayPal or Amazon gift cards.
SurveyClub
The age requirement is 16 and ranges in payment from $1 to over $100 per survey depending on how much a company is willing to pay participants to participate in their surveys. Payments are made via an Amazon gift card.
Paid View Point
The age requirement is 13, and frequent or long-time users will earn money per survey. Once users have earned $15, payments can be cashed out to PayPal. The benefit of this particular online survey provided is that you get paid out per question answered and not per survey. And referrals pay 20% of that person’s earnings up to $25 per personal referral.
Harris Poll
The age requirement is 13, and users are invited to take surveys based on answers to questionnaires provided when you first sign up to use this survey site. Expect to receive about 5 custom surveys per month, so it may take some time to earn enough money to redeem for gift cards. Points are earned for every successfully completed survey, and 1250 points will earn you a $10 gift card.
Making money online is a great way for teens to get valuable experience to add to your resume and earn some spending cash. Use this time in your life to try out different things and see what the best fit for you is. Take time to learn valuable skills like self-promotion, customer service, content creation, marketing, video editing, website development, or audience building which can translate into marketable skills for starting a business or gaining employment after high school.
Working from a laptop means you can work from anywhere and on your own time. This means you can prioritize school, family, friends, and extracurriculars and fit your work around that busy schedule. Teens as young as 13 can earn money online without needing to ask for rides to a job or worrying about meeting the state legal requirements for what employment they are allowed to do at their age.
