Especially due to the pandemic and quarantine, people are now looking for online jobs more than ever. However, it is very difficult to find an online job that pays enough to make both ends meet. It requires great research. Where do you even start such research? And that question is exactly why we have prepared this list. If you are in search of a genuine work from home job, these options may help you start.
FREELANCE WRITER
When you become a freelance writer, you may do writing or editing jobs for online and offline publications. You may be requested to write a text for websites, blogs, magazines, or adverts. Since there are so many writing jobs, you may be writing for many different industries. Therefore, you may want to specialize in one area or cover many kinds of topics.
Another important thing is that you do not need to have any special training, so, no GCSEs are required. However, as you can guess, people need to be sure of your ability to use perfect English and your knowledge of grammar. And if you are worried that some grammatical error may have escaped your notice, then maybe Grammarly, which is a free app that detects the errors in text, can help you proofread. Also, you will need an internet connection and a laptop or PC.
There are two main ways you get paid if you are a freelance writer. You may either get paid for every article you deliver, or your payment will be determined by the number of words you used. Generally, you start by earning £10-£20 for more basic commissions and when you are established and start to write more in-depth and longer articles, you can even earn hundreds.
You may take a look at some things in order to start earning more quickly. First of all, we suggest you proofread your article at least twice before sending the final product because satisfied customers can offer you jobs more than once. Another thing you should do to become a more prominent figure among other freelance writers is to showcase your work by starting a blog. In your blog, you may display your portfolio which includes the text you wrote and links to your published pieces. Having a blog is the best way to do that but you may also create a Fiverr account which will also help you advertise your work. Also, you may be in collaboration with people who sell stories to the press by becoming the middle-person. You can pitch these real-life stories to publications and use case studies.
So, if you love to write and you want to earn a little extra, freelance writing may be very suitable for you.
VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
If you decide to work as a virtual assistant, you will be expected to support another person’s businesses and tasks, all remotely of course. It can easily become a really complex job though. Just to give you a sense of what does a virtual assistant do; organising people, their diary, finances, social media channels, data entry, or acting as a proofreader are only some of the things that can be expected from a virtual assistant.
In order to organise that many things, you should be extremely organised yourself. Another thing you absolutely need is great communication skills since you may never meet your employer in person. Very fast broadband will absolutely help as well. Most of the clients will also expect you to be able to use file sharing tools like Dropbox and Google Drive.
If you are a full-time virtual assistant, eventually you may expect to earn up to £25-£30,000 a year. Based on your services and abilities, you may charge about £25+ an hour. In order to earn more money, there are two main things you may do. First of all, you should always try to improve your skills. The more skills you have, the more money you earn. Second thing is to specialize in one area like newsletter marketing, SEO research, transcribing. If there are fewer people with the same skill set as you, you can attract higher pay.
AUDIO TRANSCRIBING
As a transcriber, what people will ask you to do is pretty straightforward. You are going to type up what has been said in a video or audio. There is no limit to the topics you may need to type up. You can subtitle YouTube videos, movies, or even a brand’s marketing video with both spoken words and describing sound effects, or you can transcribe notes.
All you need is a laptop or a desktop and access to the internet. As for your skills, being able to type at a fast pace and having great grammar skills will help you become a successful transcriber. What is meant by typing fast is generally about 45-60 accurately written words in one minute. Also, in order not to be distracted by outside voices while you try to transcribe an audio file, having a set of headphones may come in handy. Another thing that can help you earn a little extra is to be able to write in a foreign language.
The most common way transcribers are paid is by the length of the video or audio they have transcribed. They may also get paid only based on the number of audio files they transcribe. You should also keep in mind that typing up a one hour audio will take you about two or three hours minimum. An average transcriber who prepares subtitles for videos generally makes about $958 a month whereas by captioning and transcribing you get to earn about $245 a month.
In order to start getting paid, you should create a PayPal account if you already don’t have one because PayPal is the main medium transcribers are paid.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
A graphic designer is expected to design and create all kinds of images, typography, and graphics. Your clients may want you to create new logos for their company, brochures, packaging designs, website design, posters or banners, newsletters, social media posts, and even GIFs.
You should keep in mind that you have to follow the brief of your clients and you will probably have to work on a deadline. In order to be able to create any requested image, you should have a passion for design. Also, it is not cheap to become a graphic designer. A basic computer may not be able to create the image that is in your head and you are going to need a software like Photoshop which is not cheap at all.
The amount of money graphic designers make really alters depending on many things. However, we can say that a successful graphic designer who has been doing it online for quite some time can earn about £30,000 a year. The main things that affect your payment are your own experience and your client profile.
When you are a graphic designer, the main way you can attract clients is by your portfolio. So, the first thing you need to do is to prepare yourself a portfolio that includes your best work. Also, be careful to create a versatile portfolio to catch the attention of more potential clients.
SURVEY TAKER
The only thing a survey taker needs to do is giving their opinion on a variety of topics. The topics of the surveys can be pretty much everything such as the branding and design of a new savoury snack that is going to be launched or your views on banking. Companies ask you to do that because they want to have the customer’s opinion before taking another step. Your feedback will be used to shape the future of many businesses, governments, and community groups.
The most important thing you need to do is to give your honest opinion without filtering anything. Also, you may be asked to keep the information on a survey a secret. This generally occurs when you take a survey about a coming product.
Of course, being a survey taker requires an internet connection. Most of the surveys can be taken through a decent smartphone but for some of them, you need to have a laptop or a desktop computer.
Your payment is based on the number of surveys you take and with a good number of surveys, you can earn up to £200+ a month. However, if you sign up to only one survey site, it is almost impossible to reach that number. You should sign up to various sites such as Swagbucks which is a great place to start.
TECH SUPPORT
If you are working in a tech support job, your job is to help with the software or hardware of products. You may help businesses with their technological problems or assist the customers of a product.
When you try to help people with a problem, the first thing you need to do is determining the question by asking the right questions. After that, you are going to use your knowledge to solve the problem and your communication skills to explain to people how to apply the solution as well. You may be asked to use a problem over the phone, via email, or using live chat. You also need to know technical jargon to help with your communication skills. Of course, there will generally be a training programme, but you still need to have a good understanding of the software and hardware of the products you are going to provide support for.
As for the salary, the average is £9-£15 per hour but if you specialise in a certain area, you can always charge more. In order to keep on earning a decent amount of money, you should always keep the latest software and keep your knowledge up to date.
For a starting point, you may advertise yourself through Fiverr or take a look at Apple for their At Home Advisor jobs where you support their products, service, and accessories.
ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICES
If you begin to work in online customer services, you get to work for leading brands and provide advice and guidance on behalf of them. Most of your job is to answer inbound calls and as you are speaking to the customer, record notes from the phone call. In addition to phone calls, people may also ask you to provide the same service via a chat facility or email.
In order to get this job, you should have a working space where no interruptions will occur during a phone call. Because you will be the voice of an important company, most of the employers will want to make sure that you have a suitable working area. Other technical things you will need are a Windows PC, corded phone, headset, and phone line with broadband. Keep in mind that the company you are going to work for may ask you to plug your broadband in because they don’t trust Wi-Fi connections. Also, you should be somewhat flexible with your time as well because depending on the other employees, some companies may ask you to work weekends too.
You will most probably get paid based on how many hours you work. Don’t worry though, the time you spend waiting for a call, updating a system, or actually talking to a customer are all included in the count. Depending on the company, you may be taken as an employee or you can stay as self-employed. The payment you can expect is about £9-10 per hour.
In order not to fail a phone call, you should always revise the notes you took during the training. And when you are looking for a job like this you should generally directly apply to the companies, but you may also use third party sites like Sensee or Arise.
BLOGGER
As a blogger, you get to share all kinds of information on your website. The things you share can be personal or they can be objective information as well. However, the downside is that you need to take care of many things such as managing social media channels, business development, graphic design, and SEO.
Just after you decide on your blog’s name, you should create social media channels and start uploading. The main disadvantage is that you will not get a payoff immediately. So, you will probably need to work at another job while also keeping momentum with the blog.
The main way you are going to make money as a blogger is by finding sponsors. And on social media, you earn through affiliate marketing and display advertising. There is really no guarantee of how much you are going to earn. However, bloggers are now earning more than ever. There are a lot of full-time bloggers who make £100,000 annually. Some even extend their business by becoming published authors, TV presenters, and even major celebrities! Another thing you can do to maybe get to that level is joining the Mediavine advertising network as soon as you’ve reached 25,000-page sessions in order to increase your potential of making more money.
IRONING SERVICE
We can all agree that ironing is a time consuming chore and many people try to avoid it because it is not a pleasant job or because they just don’t have enough time. If you are interested in ironing people’s clothes in exchange for money, you have to options to start that jobs. First of all, if you are confident that you can find customers yourself, then you can start a business by yourself. However, if you prefer to have an agency supporting you, then you can find agencies that will take you on. Once you start your job, you can begin to iron clothes within an agreed timescale.
It doesn’t take much to initiate an ironing service from your home. Obviously, your prime needs are a decent ironing board and an iron. If you are looking to participate in the ironing service, you probably already have those. In addition to that, in order to look more professional to charge more, it may help to purchase high-quality hangers to return the clothes. Probably the last important thing you need is indemnity insurance in case you burn something by accident.
In order to attract more clients, you may want to set up a Facebook page and through that Facebook page, you can join local selling pages and advertise your services. Gumtree is a site you can use for the same purpose as well. Another thing you can do is offering your friends and family free service and ask them to bring some testimonials. Also, you can start an offer that gives the client a discount if they refer you to someone else in order to build up a client base. You should keep in mind that even if you smoke you should be careful not to expose the clothes to smoke which can make you lose some clients.
The number of your customer will determine the amount of money you make. There are two main ways of charging your service, you can either per item or by the weight of a bag. If you choose to charge per item, the amount also changes by the type of item as well. The average price for a t-shirt is about £1.50. As for the weight, people generally charge £5-£5.50 per kg. Of course, you should keep in mind the competitive environment in your local area; but if you can, you should charge more for items like shirts or blouses even if you are charging by weight because they are going to take more of your time.
ESL TEACHER
ESL is short for English as a Second Language; therefore, an ESL teacher teaches adults and children who want to improve their English skills as a second language. As you can guess, you are expected to be fluent in English in order to become an ESL teacher. People also may want you to have a degree. Also, since you are going to teach online, you should have access to high-speed internet and have Skype in most cases.
In order to get more students, you should plan each lesson beforehand and think of a way to test and give feedback. Because your students will be genuinely trying to learn a language. Another thing you can do to improve as an English teacher is to take a CELTA or TEFL training course. After all these, you can easily get students if you charge about $25 per hour.
TRAVEL AGENT
If you want to become an online travel agent, most of the work you do will be finding people good campaigns for their dream holiday and working for a host agency. You may assume that people generally book their travels online by themselves, but especially for bigger holidays, they generally like to consult a professional.
There are a few things you need to have before starting to give agency service. First of those is a strong internet connection. After you will also need a phone line, website, printer, and knowledge of travel business. You can choose yourself an area of expertise like business travel or you can decide to do a little bit of everything. Even if you decide to be more generalized, you still need to be very familiar with the types of holiday you sell in order not to miss a client. Even though it is not essential, having studied a BTEC in Tourism in the past can help you get more information and clients.
The way travel agents make money is by getting a commission on each holiday they sell. If you decide to go self-employed and work full-time, you can look to make about £32,000 per year.
If you want to be self-employed, then you should definitely take a look at the host agencies with low commission and if you are working in a franchise, look how much training and support they provide.
ONLINE USED CLOTHES SELLER
The money you make by selling your used clothes alone is most probably not going to be enough for you to get by. However, it can be a very nice extra. Also, if everything goes well, it may eventually turn into a little business as some people have done before.
ONLINE TUTOR
Becoming a tutor used to require a degree, but nowadays, there are many online tutors that are not qualified teachers. Of course, having a degree would help but it is not really a necessity. Also, there are many people who took online tutoring as a full-time career.
You get work with students from all over the world, which is a great thing. However, especially at the beginning of your tutoring career, this may result in you having to work at unreasonable hours of the day because of the time difference. No matter what the time is, you still have to commit to classes you have already arranged.
PROOFREADING
If you are already careful about grammatical mistakes or typos or you are keen to learn about them, then proofreading may just be the job you are looking for. This is the perfect job for those who love reading and have a great understanding of the language they are working in. Another good this about proofreading is that there is always content that needs to be proofread before publishing. People can come to you with all kinds of texts like blog posts, novels, press releases, and legal transcripts. Also, you get a good amount of money for every reading you have done. And your income just keeps on increasing as you become more well-known.
BOOKSELLER
If you read a lot of books and don’t know what to do with some of them after you read, becoming a bookseller may really come in handy. There are money options you can choose when you decide to sell your books. For example, you can create an Amazon seller account and by using their scanning app, you can learn the prices of your books and send them off. The books you can sell don’t have a limit; any category will be fine. Used college and school textbooks are all examples of the unusual books you can sell.