There are many misconceptions about what work from home is. I often see questions posted on forums, online groups, and social media sites asking what work-at-home pays or if all work-from-home is just a scam, as though “work at home” were a single job title or opportunity.
Many times these questions are answered by equally misinformed people confirming that work-at-home is a scam. In general, the entire concept of working from home is blurred.
What Is Work From Home?
I first want to state that scams are everywhere, whether they are for people wanting to lose weight or people looking for ways to make money at home.
When there is a flashy website, email, or ad that seems too good to be true, it usually is. You should run away from ads that promise thousands of dollars for working from home. People who post these scams will usually teach you to post the same scam, which is not a legitimate work-at-home job.
It’s best to think of work-at-home as a reference to the location of the job rather than a single opportunity. You also need to accept that working from home is an actual job.
Types of Work-at-Home Jobs and Opportunities
When people say they work out of their home, they either run a business, have a telecommuting position, or they freelance. Here are common ways people make a living from home.
1. Home Jobs and Telecommuting Positions
There are many companies in many fields that offer work-at-home positions. The requirements, application process, and expectations are much like those you would find with a traditional office setting. For these work-at-home jobs, you’ll need to qualify for the position, and fill out an application or submit a resume.
Some of the most common telecommuting positions are customer service jobs, telemarketing, virtual assistance, data entry, sales, engineering, nursing, marketing, and online research. More professional-based positions offered at home include teaching and tutoring online, health care jobs, transcription work, translational work-at-home, accounting and bookkeeping, proofreading and editing, legal work, insurance positions, and computer professionals also can find a wide range of opportunities to work out of their home.
Independent Contracting
Sometimes these positions will be 1099 based, and you will work as an independent contractor, while other companies prefer to hire home workers as employees and sometimes offer benefits. With this type of work-at-home, it is common to be expected to work a set schedule or a set amount of hours weekly.
The most effective way to find this type of work is to do a careful search, and the best way to do this is not to search with keywords like “work-at-home” but rather by searching with terms related to the field you would like to work in. For example, if you would like to find an online bookkeeping job, you would search “hiring remote bookkeepers.” There are additional terms that can lead to a successful search. In addition to your preferred type of job (bookkeeping), you can add “needed,” “wanted,” “virtual,” or “at home.” Another helpful search term is “home office required.” You will have the most success when you search with keywords an employer would use in posting such a position.
2. Freelancing
Freelancing is a preferred way by many to make a living at home because they can set their own hours and negotiate with clients on the pay they will receive. There are many fields a person can freelance in. Common areas for freelancing are very much the same as telecommute jobs and include writing, data entry, virtual assistance (administrative assistants work-at-home), graphic design, computer programming, photography, sales and telemarketing, technical work, and much more. There are many options for freelancers.
The most common ways to gain work as a freelancer are to register with freelancing communities online or to advertise your service on forums and classified ads. Some of the common freelance communities are Guru, Upwork, and Freelancer. These are some of the larger freelance networking sites and tend to have a wide range of work available. They may offer free memberships and paid memberships. A tip for getting your foot in the door on these websites is to accept a low-paying offers early on to be accepted and gain reviews and recommendations from clients. It is also important to create a thorough and highly professional profile. Once you have established some recommendations, you can accept higher-paying assignments.
3. Writing
Writing has become a widespread and legitimate way for professional and non-professional writers to earn money from home. With writing, there are many options when it comes to how you can make money. One way to earn money online as a writer is to sign up with websites that offer to share advertising revenue for your articles based on the amount of traffic to your article(s). Popular websites that offer writers this opportunity include FlexJobs, Dash, and Problogger.
Another way to earn money as a writer is to sign up with companies that pay writers based on word count. Websites that offer writers these opportunities also offer a service to clients seeking specific writing assignments to be done. With this type of writing work, you will be given the subject matter, sometimes specific, with a set amount of keywords to be included in the article. A popular company that hires writers for this type of work is Text Broker.
4. Creating a Blog
This requires a lot of time and dedication to build traffic, but over time and with enough readers, you can earn money by promoting services and products for companies, as well as through placing ads on your blog. There is a lot to learn to become a successful blogger, so for those needing to earn money quickly, this is not a method by which you will make money immediately.
5. Selling a Product
If you like the challenge of sales and being in control of your success, you can become a representative for direct sales companies like cabi, Tastefully Simple, Noonday, and many others. These opportunities can be great for social people with a large network of friends locally or online. If you are persuasive and able to connect well with people, having a product to sell can be a good opportunity.
6. Offering an Online Service
Choosing to go into business by offering a service is great for those who are business-minded and understand the service they are offering. Starting a business is a challenge and will require start-up money, but it can be a real payoff if the service you are offering is one of high demand; you can advertise your business well and gain a good reputation.
Related Content: 22 Business Ideas for Starting Your Own Service Business
Conclusion
The examples above are only a few ways people can and do earn money from home, but they all require legitimate hard work and dedication.
Sometimes, early on, home workers decide that working at home is not the best option because being your own boss can be very difficult. It requires a lot of self-discipline and effective time management abilities. For many, there are distractions at home that are not otherwise found at an outside job, because with a job outside of the home, the environment is focused on work, while at home, the phone might be ringing a lot, visitors stopping by, or if you have kids at home, it can be almost impossible to work if there is nobody to help take care of them.
However, working at home can indeed be a dream come true for others who have a way to manage such issues. Working at home is also ideal for people with specific disabilities who would otherwise be limited to financial assistance from the government. For people living in remote locations or in areas with high unemployment rates, having a way to make a living from home can be a lifesaver.
Traci L. Dillard-Bell is first and foremost a mommy and wife. She also owns All Stay at Home, a home job bank dedicated to helping others find legitimate ways to work independently. Traci works as a Search Engine Evaluator, Freelance Writer, Courthouse and Title Researcher, and is an MSPA Gold Certified Mystery Shopper.