Why should you trust the information on this web page?
What do work-from-home jobs / remote jobs really
look like?
& how do you avoid scams?
credits and disclaimer
I'm writing this as someone who has worked from home, off and on, since
1998. And note my comment: "off and on." Most people who work from home do
not do it for decades - they do it as positions they hold allow, and as
positions change, so do work from home arrangements. Most people who work
from home do a mix of onsite and remote work - for the same job, they may
work from home some days in the office some days.
To get paid for any of these activities, you have to have the expertise
necessary and you have to find a company or individual willing to pay you
to do so. Most employers advertise for such jobs just like they do onsite
jobs. It's possible to find many of these jobs via indeed.com.
For some jobs, you can just google keywords and web sites will come up
that advertise these jobs specifically.
Some people create their own web sites to advertise their services, and
hope that potential clients will contact them (clients find them through
web searches).
Some people advertise their professional services via TaskRabbit or
Thumbtack or Fiverr.
Jobs where you will work talking with clients via audio or video may
require that you can prove you will work in a space where you can close
the door, where your children and your pets will not be in the same room
when you are talking with a client, where no one else will be working,
etc. They may require you to have a neutral background on any video that
shows only a blank wall - no books, no posters, nothing visible that has
any words on it. MANY require you to plug your computer directly into a
device that is wired to the Internet - they do NOT allow you to use a
wi-fi connection to work. Some require you to already have noise-canceling
headphones and an external microphone.
There are some non-computer related work-from-home ideas near the end of
the list.
Warning
Whatever you do: NEVER pay for an online or remote job. NEVER. Never pay
a registration fee, a subscription, a deposit, NOTHING. Any job that asks
you for money is a scam.
Credible jobs will NOT ask you to buy or rent equipment - but many may
expect you to already have such (laptop or desktop, video camera,
microphone, headset, etc.). If you are asked to buy equipment from the
employer, it's a scam - DON'T DO IT.
Do not write me and say, "I got this offer for a job. Is it a scam?" I've
told you everything you need to know if it's a scam. If you write me and
ask me this I'm not going to reply.
Do not write me and say, "How do I get to be an online tutor" or psychic
or whatever. Search through indeed.com,
go to the web sites of companies where you want to work, do Google
searches - but don't ask me on how to find an online job.
If you are in a developing country
Most remote jobs for people in developing countries do NOT happen from the
person’s home - you work from the office of a company that has contracted
with a business or agency in the USA. If you want to work remotely for a
company in another country, MOST of the opportunities will NOT be from your
home - you will have to go to an office and work from their workspace. Where
to find these jobs? Wherever there are legitimate want ads for any jobs
posted, online or onsite.
A work-from-home job, using a computer, is RARE in these countries. Yes,
there are people who do it, but you have to have an incredible amount of
skills and expertise and you need to have a deep portfolio of clients -
former employers who trust you to work from home for them.
Examples of Roles & Tasks By Remote, At-Home
Workers
- staffing a customer service phone line
or email in-box. Maybe you'll take calls from U-Haul customers who
encounter issues with their rented vehicle, maybe you'll verify
information submitted by new customers to an insurance agency, maybe you
will take orders or schedule appointments or book reservations - so many
possibilities. For these jobs, you may be required to live in a certain
time zone, have a landline, complete extensive training, have excellent
written communication skills (free of grammar and spelling errors), a
very clear speaking voice and the ability to stay calm.
- providing technical assistance to
customers (see the previous bullet for what this might be like and
qualities you will need).
- processing insurance claims.
- transcribing scanned documents.
- translating documents from one
language to another, or proofreading translations by others.
- researching topics and gathering
information for a newsletter article, a new web site section, a business
plan or proposal, an upcoming software purchase, a program or project,
and on and on. Many writing and editing jobs for experienced
writers and editors in the USA are advertised at mediabistro.
(meaning you have a portfolio of your PUBLISHED writing and job
references for your editing).
- designing web pages and developing
entire web sites.
- editing or writing proposals, press
releases, newsletter articles, video scripts, web pages, term papers,
news articles, white papers, etc.
- designing any publication, for print
or for online.
- developing material for a curriculum.
- designing a database.
- designing graphics.
- providing legal, business, medical,
agricultural, financial or any other donated professional expertise
(answering questions, creating a strategy, commenting on a strategy,
reviewing or evaluating data, evaluating a policy, tax preparation,
financial audit, etc.).
- serving on a focus group for a product
or service.
- counseling people, as a professional,
fully-licensed counselor.
- tutoring students.
- training people.
- moderating or facilitating online
discussion groups groups or live online events, to answer questions, to
refer people to FAQs, to facilitate disagreements, to address harassment
and cyber bullying, to counter fake news/misinformation, offer technical
assistance, etc., or to provide technical support during live events.
- managing social media accounts
(providing content, or even just replying to people who DM the company
account.
- populating a database with
information, such as recipes for people with diabetes, or recycling
ideas, or information about access points into a mass transit system
accessible for people with mobility issues, or wheelchair-accessible
music venues, and on and on.
- interviewing and recording clients or
community members for a project or survey.
- analyzing survey data and providing a
report on this analysis.
- interviewing candidates for a job.
- creating a podcast for a
company or individual (writing the script, editing the audio, adding in
intro and exit music, reading text, etc.).
- creating a video for a company or
individual.
- editing a video for a company or
individual.
- captioning
a video for a company or individual.
- transcribing a podcast or meeting so
that people can read it (not everyone can listen to such - some prefer
to read it as well).
- putting in short descriptions of
images on a web site or community, or transcribe images of text that is
on a web site or online community, so that people that rely on
text-to-speech or other assistive software (mostly these are people with
disabilities) can access the information as well. This makes a web site
or online community more accessible.
- redesigning or redesigning a web site
so that it is accessible for people with disabilities, such as getting
rid of all "read more" and "click here" links on a web site, replacing
them with descriptive links, so that the web site is more accessible for
people with disabilities, adding alt texts to all images and graphics on
a web site, so that the web site is more accessible for people with
disabilities.
- making
all PDFs on a web site accessible for different screen readers
(and therefore for people with disabilities), or converting key
information in PDF files to HTML to be shared as web pages.
- evaluating a web site and offering
advice on text changes that can improve its search engine optimization
or improve its accessibility.
- teaching
language classes for your native language on Duolingo
(once you have completed at least two sections of one Duolingo course
and logged in for at least one lesson every day, you will get an
invitation to apply to do this). The company prefers that you have taken
some of these classes yourself on their platform, in a language
different than your own, before you attempt to do such a class yourself.
- monitoring the news to look for
specific subjects or mentions of a person or organization.
- monitoring Quora, Reddit or other
popular online communities on behalf of a company, to answer questions
on a particular subject or about a particular organization, to refer
people to a web site that will answer their questions, to counter fake
news/misinformation on a particular subject, etc.
- tagging photos and files
with keywords (so that they can be more easily found by internal staff,
search engines, the press, etc.).
- managing other employees or
consultants.
- taking in laundry (washing other
people's clothes).
- home-based childcare.
- in-home pet sitting.
- making something and then selling it
online (such as via eBay or Etsy - though you can also sell it out of
your garage.)
- psychic services. Go look at online
psychic sites and look under "jobs" or "careers" - many of them are
actively looking for psychics. Or, just use your psychic powers to know
who is looking and contact them accordingly.
- life coach. This is where you promote
yourself as someone who can help others improve their lives, by advising
them on relationships, social activities they should pursue, hobbies
they should undertake, classes they should take, etc. Life coaches are
"self made" - they promote themselves as such (no company is recruiting
life coaches).
- online influencer - this is where you
have thousands and thousands of followers and subscribers on Instagram
and YouTube, so many that advertisers send you money to advertise on
your channel. How much have I made as an online influencer? $100. Yup,
enough to almost pay for a week of groceries one time.
Reminders
This document may, unintentionally, have incorrect information in it. Please
see these other disclaimers.
If you want to translate this document into another language and post it
on your own web site, feel free - however, please do not use the author's
name anywhere on the site.
Quick Links
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have incorrect information in it.
The author assumes no responsibility for the use of
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page links.
No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the
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Credits & Copyright
© 2010-2023 by Jayne
Cravens, all rights reserved. No part of this material
can be reproduced in print or in electronic form without
express written permission by Jayne Cravens.
Please contact
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