Ways to Make Money Online as a Student in Kenya

Are you a student looking for simple side hustles that can make you money? We understand that life at university or college is hard. It is even harder when you are broke.

That is why we prepared this guide to reveal some of the most lucrative ways to make money online as a student in Kenya. 

By the end of this guide, you should be able to pick a few side hustles to help you fend for yourself as you study. 

How to Make Money Online as a Student in Kenya 

There are two reasons why the idea of working online as a student is super awesome: 

• Flexibility – You can do it on your own time without interfering with school work. 
• Doesn’t require startup capital – Most online jobs are free to start. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection. Lucky for you, your university probably has both of these things already. 

Below are some ways you can make money online as a university student in Kenya:

• Freelance writing
• Data entry
• Blogging
• Youtubing
• Influencer Marketing
• Virtual assistant
• Online tutoring
• Affiliate marketing
• Paid online surveys
• Web designing

1. Become a Freelance Writer

This is one of the most lucrative side hustle for university students in Kenya. Freelance writing has become so popular among students that it has turned out to be one of the most reliable ways to earn some income on campus. 

Freelance writing comes in two ways:

• Academic writing – Doing online gigs such as research projects, thesis writing, or online exams for other students. 
• Business/Article writing – Writing articles to be published on business or personal websites. 

While academic writing seems like the perfect choice for students, it might eat too much into your school time since it is demanding with short deadlines. 

On the other hand, article writing is flexible and you can easily do it in  your free time. So if you got a knack for writing with good grammar and exceptional research skills, you will easily shine and make sizeable amount of money as a freelance article writer. 

Here are some sites where you can find well-paying freelance writing jobs:

• Upwork
• Guru
• PeoplePerHour 
• Textbroker
• Online Writing Jobs
• WritersDomain
• Write.com
• iWriter
• Break Studios
• LoveToKnow
• WiseGEEK.com
• Demand Media Studio

2. Do Data Entry Jobs 

Do you have basic computer skills and can type fairly fast? If yes, you are the perfect candidate for data entry jobs for students in Kenya. Unlike freelance writing which requires research and is time consuming, data entry is stress-free. 

All you have to do is enter data written on a paper into a computer. How easy is that!

The best part is, data entry jobs don’t require you to have any research or grammar skills. Cool huh?

The only skill you need is fast typing. 

Below are some websites where you can find genuine data entry jobs: 

• Smart Crowd
• Guru
• Sigtrack 
• Freelancer
• Clickworker
• PeoplePerHour 

3. Take Paid Surveys 

Did you know that you can get paid to simply answer questions in class? Just kidding. 

But you know what, you can get paid to answer questions online. It is called taking surveys. And am not kidding. 

Here is how it works. 

There are research companies that are invariably looking for data on different topics. To get this data, they will need people to answer survey questions. You can be one of those people.

All you have to do is create an account with a survey website and you will be notified when there’s a new survey to want you to take. 

You can make as much as Ksh 500 with each survey using your phone. In fact, this is one of the best ways to earn money online and get paid through M-PESA. 

Here are some legitimate survey sites you should try: 

• Toluna
• Branded Surveys
• Onepoll
• YouGov
• Valued Opinions
• Survey Junkie
• Panel Opinion
• The Opinion Panel,
• SurveyBods
• LifePoints
• InboxPounds
•  Opinion Outpost

4. Start a Blog

If you are passionate about a certain topic, you can easily start a blog and monetize it. Unlike other online jobs, blogging is a bit demanding and requires consistency to be successful. You also have to compete against other players who may be more experienced than you. 

The secret is to choose a topic that you are passionate about and enjoy writing on. This can be:

• Sports
• Health 
• Fashion 
• Politics 
• Business 

To be successful fast as a student blogger, we recommend narrowing down on your niche and focusing on more specific areas. For instance, instead of writing about fashion in general and competing with renowned fashion bloggers, you can focus on just campus fashion. 

Here are some ideas that are not very competitive for a student like yourself: 

• Start a campus news website. You start by covering news locally in your university then gradually move to other universities. 
• Start a blog to help students in Kenya be more successful academically 
• Write about campus hacks. That is, tips and tricks to help students have an easier time while in campus. This can be time management, dating, budgeting, money saving and so on. 

You get the point…

Just don’t make the mistake of blogging about everything. I can almost guarantee that you will fail. 

After you have enough high-quality content, you can monetize your blog with:

• Affiliate links – Promoting products from online shops such as Jumia for  a small commission. 
• Display ads 
• Promoted content 
• Your own products and services 

5. Start and Monetize a YouTube Channel 

Are you funny or have a topic that you can passionately talk about? Yes?

Then why the heck haven’t you started a Youtube Channel?

You can make real money  on YouTube if you put in enough time and effort into creating high-quality videos.

You probably know someone who is raking good cash from YouTube. Why not start your own channel and start earning?

Note that making it on YouTube is not as easy as most people make it look. Unless you are a celebrity, chances are, you will struggle to build an audience. The YouTube Partner Program requires that you have at least 10000 subscribers before you can start monetizing.

Apart from earning money from Google adverts shown on your channel, you can also partner with brands or sell your own products through YouTube.

Just make sure you are not copying other people’s content or YouTube will penalize you and pull down your channel.

Here are some quick ideas that are perfect for a student:

• Makeup tutorials
• Comedy
• Talk about life as a student
• Start a show for campus students and post videos on Youtube
• Cooking tutorials
• Review products such as phones
• Do silly things that make people laugh

6. Do Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing is where you promote other people’s products for commissions. These can be either individuals or online companies. 

For instance, you can join the Jumia Kenya Affiliate Programme, promote their products and get paid every time someone buys something through your unique links. 

You can also promote services, eBooks or courses by individual persons. Every time you direct other people to buy affiliate products or services, you earn a certain amount. 

The more products people buy through your unique links, the more money you make. 

However,to be successful with affiliate marketing, you need to be very aggressive with your marketing efforts. The best way to make more money is to create a website where you review affiliate products in a genuine and expert manner. 

To get started, you need to join a reputable affiliate marketing program. Some of our favourite affiliate marketing programs in Kenya include: 

• Jumia Kenya Affiliate program 
• Amazon Associates 
• Konga Affiliate program 
• Kilimall Affiliate program 
• Betin Kenya Affiliate program 
• Kenya website Experts Affiliate program

7. Become a Virtual Assistant 

A virtual assistant is a freelancer who provides various administrative services to businesses or individual persons from a remote location. It is like an office assistant only that you don’t work in an office owned by the business or the person that employs you. On the other hand, you will be providing your services online anywhere in the world. 

For instance, you can be in Kenya and provide services for a company in the US from your university hostel or cyber. As a virtual assistant, you are not officially employed by the business you work for. You will only be providing services on a freelance-basis. 

Virtual assistant jobs in Kenya include:

• Travel Research
• Online Bookkeeping
• Online Research
• Data presentations
• Managing emails
• Database entries
• Social media tasks
• Taking customer calls 
• Managing calendars 
• Proofreading documents 
• Website maintenance 

You do not necessarily need to have admistrave skills to do this jobs. However, it is important that you:

• Have good organizational skills 
• Be tech savvy 
• Have good communication skills 
• Be able to multitask 

Some of the most legit sites to get virtual assistant jobs include: 

• PeoplePerHour
• Fancy Hands 
• Freelancer
• Virtual Gal Friday
• Upwork 
• Belay Solutions 
• Contemporary VA
• Worldwide101

How much will you get paid as a virtual assistant? 

Virtual assistants are usually paid on an hourly basis. The income will vary depending on the kind of tasks you are doing, the number of hours you work and the person or company that employs you. 

8. Become an Online Tutor 

 Right off the top of my head, I would say being an online tutor is the perfect side hustle for students in Kenya. 

Here is why:

Being a student means that you are already knowledgeable about a certain subject. This presents the perfect opportunity for you to offer online classes and get paid on the side. There is a plethora of tutoring agencies you can join and find classes who need your services as a tutor. 

Here is how this works:

You join an online tutoring agency that will connect you with students that need tutoring on your area of expertise. Alternatively, you can set up your own tutoring agency and get paid directly by the students instead of the agency which takes a cut off your pay. 

The best part is, you can do this part time without affecting your normal school schedule. For instance, if you are working with students in a different time zone, you can tutor them at night and attend your normal classes during the day. 

Ready to start? Here are some great sites that offer online tutoring jobs in Kenya. 

• Tutor.com
• Tutors Home
• TutorVista
• HomeworkTutoring
• TutorZilla

9. Design websites

If you are a computer science student or just have passion for web design, this will be a great side hustle for you. I would say this is one of the best ways to make some extra income online if you are a student in Kenya. 

Web design is very lucrative if you are doing it professionally. You might not have a lot of time to spare from your normal school routine but still you can make good money if you strategize properly. 

To get started you will need some basic web design skills. If you are not a computer science student, you don’t need to worry. There are millions of tutorials online on web design. You can teach yourself then start looking for clients when you are ready. 

I recommend you start by designing some mockup sites to sharpen your skills and build your portfolio. 

What you Need 

• Computer 
• Internet Connection 
• Basic web design skills 

Here are some sites you can get web design jobs in Kenya: 

• Fiverr
• Upwork 
• LinkedIn 
• Myjobmag
• Career jet
• Brighter Monday
• Peopleperhour 

10. Become an Influencer Marketer

If you have a huge social media following, you can become an influencer marketer and get paid a lot of money. 

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where brands pay influential people to endorse and promote their products. In this case, brands will leverage on your massive social influence to put their products in front of potential customers. 

Apart from having a huge social following, you can also become an influencer if you are an expert on certain products. For instance, if you know a lot about smartphones, their are probably people who trust you and will aptly follow your recommendations on what to buy. 

While you might not have a lot of following as an expert, the few people who follow you might make purchases and increase sales for the brand you are promoting. 

Unlike with affiliate marketing, you get paid as an influencer whether or not people buy those products. All you have to do is endorse the products to your social media or website followers and companies will be more than happy to pay you. 

If you think this is the right part-time job for you, here are some trusted sites to get started with work: 

• Upwork
• Glassdoor
• LinkedIn
• Ziprecruiter 
• Indeed
• Simplyhired 
• Talking Influence

Bottom Line

Doing online jobs as a student in Kenya is the perfect way to earn some income as you study. However, this might not be as easy as it sounds. Most online jobs like blogging and Youtubing require passion, expertise, and consistency for you to make any viable income. 

With so many options to choose from, we recommend that you do something that you are good at and can do without giving up the next day. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do everything or multiple jobs at the same time. 

You will most likely fail.  Still to what you are good at and work at becoming even better in it. You will be surprised how much you can make without messing with your study timetable.