How to Effectively Make and Sell Your Study Notes

Studying can be hard, especially when you find yourself trying to maintain your social life, earn some money and still get good grades in school. But there is a way to combine earning money and getting good grades in school, and that’s by selling your study notes.

Getting better grades

Before you even think about selling your notes, you need to understand why making them is so important. Making study notes during classes is the best way to remember the essential things you need to know to ace the exam, because writing is proven to be the best method to remember things.

Also, after class, you probably check whether everything in your notes is written down clearly, which means you have already repeated the curriculum twice.

Why sell my notes?

Selling notes is an excellent way to earn some extra money. Basically, you get paid for the hard work you already executed. It’s more fun than the average student side job. If you become a top seller, you might even be able to quit your side job!

On Stuvia, top sellers of study documents earn around $400 each month. Sounds good, right? Besides this, selling notes can teach you some entrepreneurial skills, and if you’re up and running making money, you can always use it to buy notes for that one specific course you really dislike.

How to effectively make study notes

Digital or handwritten notes?

First, you have to decide for yourself whether you’d like to use your laptop or you prefer using a notebook. Note, however, that selling handwritten notes can be harder than selling well-structured digital notes.

Digital notes are easier to restructure in terms of layout, structure and chronological order. Digital notes can also be uploaded more easily in order to sell them. Handwritten notes can be convenient if you want to use them yourself to study for the exam.

Focus on key words and concepts

Only the most important details should make the cut. This applies to taking notes during college as well summarizing books. In the end, only the key points – such as names, theories, definitions and dates – should be included. Keep in mind what you want to learn and what you need to remember. This helps you get a grip on the information.

Taking notes from a textbook

After your class, you want to combine the information that you received from the professor with the information from the textbook. It’s also handy to scan what you’re about to read. Now start reading and search for bold words, colored words and bullet points. Use a marker to highlight these, and start highlighting pieces of text that are important as well.

Make the document as clear and appealing as possible

If you are writing the notes, make sure you write clearly and start a new page after each subject/chapter. Often it also helps to use symbols and diagrams. The final tip is to use the method of color coding. Your brain will link color to memory, which makes it easier to remember the notes for your exam.

How to become a top seller

To really stand out from the crowd, there are a few more steps you can take.

1. Offer a document for free
People love free stuff, so make sure to offer at least one document for free. This way you give them a reason to take notice, and it will definitely boost your ratings!

2.Keep your prices affordable
Most Stuvia users are students. It’s a well-known fact that students have a low budget, so keep this in mind when setting your prices. You can always raise your prices at a later stage if the documents turn out to be very popular.

3. Inform your audience
Great examples of places to share links are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, GroupMe, email, and posting on your student noticeboard. As well as social media, word of mouth is a very valuable tool to promote your documents.

4.Get creative
Our top sellers are super creative! For instance, some of them add benefits, such as additional help with assignments, to distinguish themselves from other sellers. Try to come up with your own personal strategy.