Paid Online Jobs
They do exist! While some online job prospects are scams, there are legitimate, well-paid opportunities available. The key is to think creatively about how you can adapt your skills for them. All they require is a computer with a high-speed Internet connection, a telephone and your skills. Follow this guide to discover the best online jobs to pursue, what you can expect to earn, and how to land an online job that's right for you. The payoff is a flexible workday that fits your schedule—and a job that might just afford you a better lifestyle.
1. DISTRIBUTOR/BEAUTY CONSULTANT
Do you love makeup? Consider joining Alcone, Avon, Mary Kay product, at Home to earn extra money by selling their products. This program has a great reputation in the beauty industry and provides those who join with tools that can help them become successful.
What you bring to the table: A love of beauty products and a social network that's interested in purchasing them.
How to get started: Create your own personalized website to sell products or buy a starter kit, which is essentially a "business in a box" and includes marketing materials, makeup samples and more.
Expect to earn: As a seller you receive 10-30% sales commission, making this a potentially lucrative way to earn additional income.
2. REPRESENTATIVE/RESELLER
You can earn large sums of money selling items online by reaching out to people who want to get rid of their stuff but are too busy to do it themselves.
What you bring to the table: Experience selling goods through auctions on eBay and Carousell, the business savvy required to promote your services.
Expect to earn: Sellers determine the price by the market and the value of items they sell. Some charge a flat per-item fee (often $5 to $25), or take a percentage (20 percent to 40 percent) of total sales. Depending on the volume of your business, reselling on eBay and other sites could become a lucrative full-time job.
How to get started: You need to be a self-starter who knows how to spread the word to friends, family members, acquaintances and strangers.
3. PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE
Many websites offer how-to advice on just about everything. After registering as a guru on a specific topic, you answer questions from the public.
What you bring to the table: Documented professional expertise (or you can take a test to prove your knowledge).
Expect to earn: You won’t work full-time answering questions, but you can get more inquiries over time. At sites such as justanswer, more experience and positive feedback earn you more money per question, within a range of $2.50 to $25. Other sites, including ether.com, take a commission on the rate you set.
How to get started: Go to justanswer.com and ether.com
to find out whether you are qualified to be an expert at their sites.
4. TEACHER/ONLINE TUTOR
Tutoring centers have been around for years, but many busy families prefer the convenience of online coaching. That makes this field a great work-from-home option, especially if you love a particular subject math, science, mother tongue, say, or reading—and have a gift for imparting that knowledge.
What You’ll need: Most tutoring firms want you to have a college degree or at least two years of completed study in the subject you wish to teach. But you typically don’t need to have experience as an instructor.
How to get started: Create an ad or flier with your credentials and contact information and put it up in your own social media on and community bulletin boards. Ask the administrative assistants at schools in your area if they will place your flier in teachers’ mailboxes. You also can register with a company such as Tutor.com or Tutor City which assigns students to you based on your schedule. Keep in mind that most of the work will occur in the afternoon or evening, when pupils are out of school.
Expect to earn: $10 to $40 per hour. Certified teachers and those with expertise in advanced math or science might command more.
5. DATA ENTRY
Companies are always on the lookout for people to help them “go digital” by typing paper documents into a computer. Many outsource the task of inputting data to update their records on a regular basis.
What you bring to the table: A computer, typing accuracy and speed. Expect to earn: $6 to $20 per hour.
How to get started: While jobs exist, demand is high and scams plentiful. The Work at Home Jobs page at homewiththekids.com lists companies that hire regularly. Also search Craigslist and Google (type in “online data jobs”) to apply.
6. VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
Someone who juggles her family calendar without breaking a sweat might have what it takes to become a virtual assistant. Clients could include a business owner looking for someone to handle e-mail, scheduling and travel arrangements or a busy executive who wants you to schedule her children's doctors appointments.
What you bring to the table: Administrative experience; excellent organizational and time-management skills so you can juggle a multitude of tasks and a pleasant phone manner. It also helps if you know Microsoft Office.
What you can expect to earn: About $10 per hour at a staffing agency; up to $30 per hour if you work directly with clients. Top earners can reach $60 an hour.
How to get started: Contact businesses in your area or advertise on Craigslist. Or register with an agency such as eaHelp.com or Zirtual.com, which assign clients to you.
7. CALL CENTER REPRESENTATIVE
Customers used to call a company to complain or order a product, and they’d reach the main office. Now virtual call centers route incoming calls to a home agent’s phone; agents receive a script on how to answer possible questions so they can respond to routine customer-service inquiries or sell products.
What you bring to the table:Professional, pleasant phone presence, the ability to read a script and make it sound natural, a quiet area in which to work and perhaps a headset attached to your phone.
Expect to earn: $7 to $15 per hour, with some jobs offering incentives for high sales.
How to get started: Enroll to become an agent at a call-center company website—such as workingsolutions.com, liveops.com or alpineaccess.com that offers extensive training.
8. CONTENT WRITER
Companies often don’t have the staff to create content for their websites, so they outsource the job to freelancers. With new sites springing up every day, writers are in huge demand.
What you bring to the table: A talent for expressing yourself concisely, putting an idea into words and meeting deadlines reliably. Companies often want content pertaining to a specific field of expertise, so it helps to sell yourself in your areas of strength.
Expect to earn: There is a vast range of pay for writing Web content, from nothing up to hundreds of dollars per assignment. The median pay for a full-time content writer is $35,200. You can earn as much as $66,000.
How to get started: Check listings at indeed.com. If you think you're a fit for a specific company, e-mail a sample post and offer your services.
9. TRANSLATOR
As businesses expand globally, they need to communicate in more languages. That's great news for bilingual people who are interested in entering this flexible, fast-growing profession. From a virtual office (using Skype to join conference calls, say), people in this field participate in live conversations and translate documents and recordings. Spanish is the most in-demand tongue, followed by Japanese, Korean, Chinese and French. Deadlines are tight at times, but you are free to turn down anything. Gengo and similar agencies have a global client base—which means you can work in the middle of the night if that suits you. What you bring to the table: The ability to read, write and fluently speak more than one language. You can find plenty of work in Spanish, French and Chinese, but the more obscure the language, the higher the demand.
Expect to earn: About $12 an hour. Translators working with technical or scientific content can earn up to $40.
How to get started: The website Translatorscafe.com contains a free online directory of translators and translation jobs. Just upload your resume and list your rates and services. Jobs, which are posted daily, might include translating a tourism brochure or subtitling a movie. You apply directly to the hiring company. Or enlist an online agency such as the ones at gengo.com and verbalizeit.com. You select projects that fit your calendar and abilities.
10. BLOGGER
If you have a blog that attracts numerous visitors, many companies will pay you (or give you merchandise) to run advertisements that link to their websites. What you bring to the table: An audience that has a connection with the potential affiliate. If your blog centers on parenting issues, it's a perfect match for companies selling children’s clothing or toys, for example.
Expect to earn: The pay scale depends on the number of hits the ads on your site generate, often between $10 and $50 per 1,000 hits.
How to get started: Learn Better Blogging from Pat. As he offer many ideas and resources for the aspiring blogger.
Is This Online Job a Scam?
Even though there are many legitimate work-at-home opportunities, the scams of years ago still exist. But it’s up to you to find them and steer clear, and it’s not always easy to tell the real deal from a scam.
According to the National Consumers League and Fraud.org, there are some steps to take and signs to watch out for when you’re starting your search for a work-at-home job:
Research, research, research: It’s important to know exactly whom you’re working for. When you find a job posting you’re interested in, take special care to research the company that’s hiring. Check them out with the Better Business Bureau and conduct a Web search for any complaints or less-than-stellar reviews.
Ask for references: Any company that’s hiring workers to work at home might have other people working for them as well. Ask how many and find out if you’re able to contact any of them. If they are unwilling to provide references or contact information, it might not be a good sign.
Think long and hard before shelling out any money: Some work-at-home jobs will require you to purchase materials or equipment to get started, and while that doesn’t mean they’re not legitimate, it should be a red flag. If you are asked to pay for equipment, make sure you understand what you’re buying, and from whom. Also ask about the return policy for your equipment if your new gig doesn’t work out.
Many online job platforms such as Upwork.com also have their own system for recognizing and removing job scams. According to the site, many of them involve “employers” who try to pay workers outside the site’s payment system, and engage in some sort of check or money order fraud.
Working at home is a dream of many, and thanks to technology, that dream is coming true for more people than ever. But if you want to work at home, you’ll need to research the possibilities and develop the skills required for many of these jobs.
So what are you waiting for? With the right skills, you could be working at home this year. Continue to read more listing under OnBiz Job page.
