Despite the fact that education should be the main focus of students during their time in college, many wind up having to work in order to pay their way. Even with help from parents, federal financial aid, scholarships, and grants, the expenses associated with earning a degree can require students to work if they want the privilege of attaining a higher education. As a parent, you’re likely doing everything you can to ensure that the kids in your household are able to attend college, but you still have your own bills to pay and you might not be able to carry the whole financial load. However, you don’t necessarily want your kids wasting their time and talent at minimum-wage jobs. So here are five virtual jobs for college students that could net your kids a higher salary and offer a flexible schedule, to boot.

1. Tutor. While college students can certainly offer assistance to peers on campus by tutoring at the learning center (often for pay), they might be better off providing younger students (K-12) with academic aid via the online arena. Websites like Tutor.com, TutorVista, and SmartThinking.com, just to name a few, can give your student the opportunity to provide tutoring services while working as much or as little as they want and probably earning a lot more than they’d make on campus.
2. Freelance writer. Any student who is accepted into college can obviously write since the essay is a big part of the admission process. And sites like ODesk, Elance, and FreelanceWritingGigs.com offer all kinds of opportunities for writing and editing jobs. Students can also check out the job board at ProBlogger.net if their real interest lies in writing content for blogs.
3. Social media consultant. Believe it or not, college students are a valuable commodity when it comes to social networking these days. Most have grown up with computers, cell phones, the internet, and mobile service, so they are familiar with both the hardware and the social landscape. And college kids in particular have their finger on the pulse of pop culture. Consider that Facebook started as a way for college students to connect with friends. The point is that corporations looking to utilize social media as a vehicle for marketing campaigns can use both the technical know-how and the social savvy that many students harbor, and in some cases they’re willing to pay for it.
4. Game developer. For students that love to use their programming prowess to create mini-games for fun, turning their hobby into a paying gig is not that hard. With a $99/year developer license from Apple they can start posting their mobile games to iTunes. And if they want to offer free downloads in order to boost their popularity, they can still make money through advertising and in-app purchases (like the ability to pay a one-time fee for an ad-free experience). Over time, they could make a fair amount of money, especially if rival companies want to buy the rights to their games.
5. Virtual assistant. Most students these days enjoy rapid typing speeds thanks to a childhood spent on the computer, and if they can handle screening phone calls, fielding email correspondence, and performing data entry, chances are good they could snag a job at a virtual office in New York, Los Angeles, or anywhere in the world. The remote workforce is growing by leaps and bounds, and even students with little skill or experience can become virtual assistants.

With so much of today’s business being conducted online, finding a virtual job during college will allow you to work around your own schedule and put some extra money in your pocket.