Working from home is surging in popularity, and thousands of people are earning money in their place of residence. Some are full-time employees with jobs they can do at a distance; some have a part-time sideline, some are freelancers, some are inventing entirely new types of work. As the internet becomes a daily part of life, almost any job that you do on a computer can be done at home. That’s a lot of jobs!
What this means for you is that as long as you have a computer and access to the internet, you can make money from home. Don’t let the “from home” part limit you. Working from home just means working from wherever you can find an internet connection. That could mean your local coffee shop or even the public library. As long as you have a computer and connection, you have access to everything you need to make money.
Can You Make Money From Home?
Yes! There are a growing number of websites and services that allow you to not only make a part-time income but also let you ultimately leave the regular workforce and work from home full time. You can do this slowly, or you can take a deep dive right into it. Even in your spare time, you can earn a good amount of money.
Don’t expect miracles overnight, though. There’s no “get rich quick” magic involved here. Effort and patience are needed, just as they are for any career.
How Much Can You Earn?
Many factors go into that. Tentatively, we’ll say that there is no limit, but you need to be realistic. Some jobs are simply not going to make a lot of money. For example, some companies let you earn money by adding captions to videos. It’s tedious, and you aren’t going to earn a lot doing it as the task does not require a lot of skill or talent. As with most careers, the more skill a job demands, the more it will likely pay. That’s true of all jobs.
You should also think about how much you save. Working at home means no more money and time spent on commuting, or an office wardrobe, or lunches out. You can earn less but have more once you factor in those savings!
Do I Need A College Degree?
As with how much you can earn, whether you need a degree depends on what you’re hoping to do. Many jobs do not require you to have a college degree. Sites like Freelancer and Upwork, which connect freelancers to people looking for workers, leave it up to the employers to decide what kind of education they want. If you have a great portfolio and resume, there’s an excellent chance that someone will hire you even without a college degree. Many companies hire at-home workers for jobs like transcription and voice-based customer service, which often do not require a degree.
As you build a positive work history, employers become more likely to hire you, with or without a degree. You may even get to a point where the employers are sending you invites and asking you to do jobs for them, instead of you filling out applications and submitting proposals!
Is Work Guaranteed?
Sadly, no. There’s a good chance that if you put in enough effort, you’ll make some money, but there’s never a guarantee that you will always earn. Unless you manage to find a job with a dedicated company, working a regular schedule from home, you’ll have to accept the possibility that jobs can be inconsistent, especially if you’re in a field with a lot of competition.
Where To Find Opportunities
Let’s get down to the good stuff! Where can you find work-from-home opportunities? Here’s a breakdown.
Freelancing Opportunities
Most freelancing jobs require a particular skill set, and most people who do become freelancers do so after working full time in a specific industry. Most start out by offering their skills or talents to others on a part-time basis. The following websites are great places to start if you have a specific skillset that you can deliver online.
General Freelancing (Multiple Industries)
Upwork is the largest site of its kind. The benefit here is that there are thousands of jobs posted daily, and dozens of different categories. Upwork also has some of the highest fees, 20% for newer projects with new clients. Once you do more jobs for a client, that eventually goes down to 10%, and then 5% after you’ve earned more than $10,000 with a customer, making long-term work more lucrative here.
Freelancer is similar to Upwork but has some different features. For example, there are contests you can enter that can net you rewards. Freelancer splits projects into hourly, fixed price, and “services.” Freelancer charges 10% for hourly and fixed priced projects, and 20% for repeat “services” jobs.
Guru has a slightly different design and focus, with fewer job categories. However, Guru offers lower rates as well, all under 10%. Guru makes some of its money by selling skills tests for freelancers who want to prove their worth to potential clients.
Outsourcely focuses on long-term freelancers. Many of the jobs here are much lower paying than some of the other freelancer outlets.
PeoplePerHour is similar to Upwork, and with similar service fees as well. PeoplePerHour specifically focuses on hourly jobs, and not as much on fixed-price labor, while charging 15% for projects that exceed a certain amount.
ZenDesk is a bit different. Instead of using the site as a gateway, you work for ZenDesk, which sends you different assignments based on the area you’re working. ZenDesk workers do everything from blog writing to customer service.
Fiverr is very particular, in that every job is worth five dollars. The jobs posted here are small and don’t require much time. In fact, it’s almost expected that you’ll do the job quickly and not necessarily with close attention to detail. After all, it’s just five dollars.
FlexJobs allows you to use their database to search for work-from-home jobs, for a monthly fee. The focus here is specifically on long-term or part-time employment, not on freelancing, although many freelance jobs do exist here as well.
