13 Side Hustle Ideas to Make Money as a Medical Student

Are you a medical student who is looking for ways to make some extra cash? 

Do you have a passion but do not know how to monetize it?

What if I tell you that you can make money with your passion and skills with just a little effort.

Sounds great, right?

There are a number of ways to make money just by spending 1-3 hours a day. All that matters is the passion and the right strategies for doing it.

It doesn’t matter if you are looking for non-medical or medical side hustle ideas, how much time you have, or what skills you possess. You must be able to find one side hustle out of the list that suits you. And you can go with any idea according to your preference.

You ask WHY?

Oh, come on! We are in the 21st century. Having a passive income is the need of the hour. It not only gives you financial stability but also helps you get exposure to the digital world of like-minded people who learn and grow together.

You may not see success in the very beginning. But always choose a side hustle that you truly love. Doing this will help you stay motivated even if you are not making money in your initial days.

The next important thing is to decide how much time you will give for your side hustle. Whether you are going to do it every day, or twice a week, or only on weekends. This will make your work less stressful. Create a plan or to-do list on what you are going to do in that week. For example, shoot a YouTube video or design an Instagram post. It can be anything related to your side hustle.

All these side hustle ideas that I am going to list below will require low capital, i.e., you don’t need a fancy amount of money to start these side hustle, and also, you don’t need any prior work experience to start in these fields.

Instagram content creator

All you need is to create an Instagram account and start creating content based on your interest. You can create content related to any niche in your medical school. You can share the knowledge gained in your medical school with the public through infographics, carousels, reels, etc. Post consistently, engage with your audience, and build a community. Once you reach a good number of followers, there are a number of ways to make money. You can collaborate with brands in your niche, organize workshops, paid partnerships, etc. The earnings depend on the number of brands you collaborate with and the services that you offer.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 1K-2K /month

YouTube

If you are someone who loves making videos and talking to people, YouTube is the place for you. Choose a niche you know and love to talk about. You can give educational information, talk about your medical school experiences or your study tips, or anything that you want to share. You can record your videos with your phone and edit them using apps like Inshot or Kinemaster. Once you get a fair number of subscribers, you can invest in a good quality camera and a microphone to enhance the quality of your content. You don’t need a big investment to start a YouTube channel. All you need is to allocate some time in your schedule to shoot and edit your videos. Once your youtube channel is monetised, and you have a good number of views, you can even earn up to 1-2 lakhs/month.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 2K-3.5K /month

Freelance content writer

If you are good at writing and have a good command of basic English, you can become a Freelance content writer. This is one of the quickest ways to start. You may not make big numbers in the beginning, but you just need to start. Once you gain some experience and testimonials, you can charge how much ever you want. You can look for clients on websites like Upwork.com, Fiverr.com, Linkedin.com, peopleperhour.com, etc. See how your fellow writers pitch to their clients, do your research, and start pitching to your potential clients. One important thing to remember is to niche down. There are a lot of content writers around the globe. What makes you different is your niche. Clients prefer a writer who is more specialised in their niche rather than a generalist.

As a medical student, you can be a medical content writer. To establish authority and gain experience, you can publish a few papers with the help of your professors from your college. You can build a simple portfolio by listing these papers. Your portfolio can be as simple as a Google Docs document to even a WordPress site. A lot of Health informatics companies, healthcare startups are looking for medical content writers for their websites and blogs. If you are a certified professional in the medical field, or even if you are interested and ready to learn, this is a great option for you.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 3K-5K /month

Tutoring

While in Medical school, you can become a part-time tutor ( either offline or online ). For example, You can be an anatomy tutor/physiology tutor and help students who are weak in these subjects and charge for the same. Trust me, there are thousands of students all around the world who would pay you to learn what you already know. You can also teach medical aspirants/ NEET aspirants in your city and help them with their entrance exams. By spending a few hours each week, you can make a decent sum of money. You can also do online coaching with the help of online platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, etc. If you can spend some more time, you can also launch some Mini-courses on specific topics and charge for the same. Thinkific and Kajabi are some of the platforms where you can host your courses.

Apart from medical subjects, if you have a passion for teaching, you can also teach any skill of your expertise or even a foreign language and charge for the same. 

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 5K-10K /month

Blogging

A blog is basically a website where you post your writings to attract your target audience. To start a blog, you need to invest a small amount to buy your domain and hosting services. You can create your blog at blogger.com, or wordpress.org, or wix.com. These are some of the websites widely used by bloggers. Like Youtube, blogging also takes time to monetize. You have to be patient and consistent. Once your blog gets a good amount of views, you can apply for Google Adsense and earn from advertising.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 1K-5K /month

Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is a person who supports entrepreneurs with their business from a remote position. A VA should be in a position to perform multiple tasks as per the client’s requirements. Some of these tasks include social media management, email management, helping with lead magnet generation and sales, etc. You need to figure out what kind of skills you will offer your clients and prepare a portfolio based on that. Being a virtual assistant is always about handling multiple tasks, so keep upskilling yourself by learning new skills through online resources. Your pay generally depends on the number of services that you are offering to your client. You can also combine 2-3 similar skills and offer them as packages. You can look for clients on social media platforms like Instagram and Linkedin or on websites like upwork.com or fiverr.com. 

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 250-2000 /hour

Selling Stock Photos

Are you someone interested in Photography?

Do you click a lot of pictures every now and then?

Then why are all these photos sitting idle in your mobile phone?

You can actually make money by selling these photographs online. There are several websites where you can upload your photos and videos and make money from them. Some of them are shutterstock.com and istock.com. There are tons of other websites too. Make sure your images are clear and edited without any flaws before uploading. All you need are relevant descriptions, keywords, and tags to make your image searchable.

Your earnings depend on the number of images getting sold. 

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 100-1000 /sale

Sell your own digital products

There are many types of digital products that you can sell online, like templates, ebooks, checklists, journals, magazines. It takes some time to set up a store but once done and listed, that can generate a constant income as soon as you start getting sales. Launching a digital product is a superb source of passive income. You can go on etsy.com to create your own store. If not, you can also sell your products through your own site. Your earnings depend on the sales of your products.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: 15K-50K /month

Graphic designing

The first thing that you need to decide to become a freelance graphic designer is your niche. Which industry are you going to design for? (like fashion, food, etc.) Or are you going to design a specific product? (like logo, brochures, etc.) So that you can target your ideal client. You should be familiar with graphic designing software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, etc. You can also learn them with the help of Youtube or take up courses in Udemy or Skillshare. Once you master the skill, make some sample designs and list them in your portfolio. Some websites where you can find graphic designing jobs are 99designs.com & dribbble.com. 

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 2K-6K /project

Social Media Manager

To be a social media manager, you need to have a good understanding of how social media platforms and their respective algorithms work. A social media manager is a person who looks after a client’s social media account, creates posts, uploads them, markets them, manages their social media campaigns, replies to DMs and comments, etc., to attract the target audience and increase sales. You can offer your services for just one social media platform or multiple platforms. Choose only those platforms that you are comfortable working on.

Once you choose the platform, pick the services that you are going to offer your clients. It can be content creation, or marketing and lead generation, or even both. Once you have decided these, you need to put out yourself first to get clients. Create valuable content showing your clients how they will benefit from choosing you for that social media platform. Use all the strategies that you would do in your client’s account, in your own account. Your social media profile is the social proof for yourself. You can get clients through the same social media platform you chose or look for clients on websites like upwork.com or fiverr.com. 

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: 3K-6K /month

Freelance Web developer

The first step towards becoming a freelance web developer is learning to code. You may not need to be a pro at coding but knowing the basics is crucial to get started. Learn HTML and CSS for sure, in addition to the basics of PHP, javascript, and some WordPress knowledge would be helpful in getting freelance projects. You can learn them easily by watching Youtube tutorials, or you can also take courses at Udemy. Practicing what you learned is very crucial as a beginner. So once you learn these languages, try to create a website showcasing your client about your skills and capability. Once you are done with your portfolio, you can start looking for clients on websites like freelancer.com or upwork.com. In the beginning, take any work that comes your way to gain experience and expertise.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 10K-50K /project

Affiliate marketing

If you are a blogger, Youtuber, or even Instagram content creator you should consider starting affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is promoting other brand’s products and getting a commission against any sale that you make. You can promote products that you use in your day-to-day life so that, you won’t sound too sales-y and people will relate with you too.

For example, being a YouTuber, you can sign up with Amazon’s affiliate program and promote your camera, microphone, ring light, etc. by giving your affiliate links in the description of your Youtube video. This is one of the most common methods used by affiliate marketers. The same strategy applies to bloggers too.

Other popular affiliate programs include getresponse.com and semrush.com.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 10K-20K /month

Selling Canva templates

Canva is an open-source graphic designing platform to create presentations, posters, posts, and almost everything visual. You can create your own templates easily using Canva and sell them online. These templates can be your Facebook/ Instagram post templates, ebook cover templates, presentation templates, etc. Some websites where you can sell your Canva templates include etsy.com and creativemarket.com. Your monthly earnings depend on the sales of your templates.

Difficulty level:

Beginner earnings: INR 250-1500 /sale

Did you find your interest?

You don’t need to be an expert to do any of these. You have to just find your interest, learn about it, and upskill yourself. 

Don’t forget to do your research!

Once you know what the audience wants, you can perform better as well as deliver better.

Hope you guys found this article useful. Let me know in the comments below which side hustle you are already pursuing or going to pursue.

Written by – Barghavi (Her instagram link)

Edited by – Arafat Hussain

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