Working from home is a dream for many people; the chance to choose their own working hours, to be their own boss and to do it all in comfort, without the need for the daily commute. Whilst this may once have been a most distant and unlikely career path, dramatic advances in technology in recent years have made working from home a much brighter and more accessible prospect. Whether seeking an opportunity to make a living from online work or simply to earn a little extra money on the side, working from home has never looked so attractive.
Writing: The Traditional Home-based Career
Prior to the 21st century technology explosion, working from home was limited almost exclusively to one profession in particular; the writer. The traditional view of an author spending hours hunched over a writing desk with nothing but a candle stump to light their office is known to all of us. Whether producing epic novels for the wider public or more academic pieces for journals and periodicals, the writers held the monopoly on home-based work.
The New Writer
Moving into the new millennium, writing is still one of the foremost ways that people can make money without stepping out of their front door. Its scope, however, has drastically increased. Freelance authors are now employed in a wide variety of online tasks. From highly-trained technical authors to the casual writer who has chosen to monetise their blog, the Internet can be a most lucrative arena for budding authors to make money from their work.
Below there are a few examples of how many can be made from writing online:
Blog writing: often the first place that new Internet writers begin. An interesting and well-subscribed blog can be ‘monetised’, where the blog’s host website places targeted advertising around the blog page. The blog’s author is then paid small amounts every time a reader clicks on one of the advertisements.
Copywriting: invariably linked with marketing, this is a good place for those with sales experience to start. The art is in creating a piece of writing that imbues a potential customer with the sense that they need a product or service.
Technical Writing: with the increasingly complex technology, companies often require writers with technical expertise to produce everything from fairly basic product descriptions to full, multi-page technical manuals for use. A specialised field in which relatively few are qualified, technical writing can be one of the most highly-paid areas of online writing.
These examples barely scratch at the surface of online writing but they serve to demonstrate the breadth of opportunities to be found.
Branching Out: New Home-based Opportunities
Although writers may still account for a significant proportion of home workers, the technological age has provided the means for a wide variety of new home-based options. As above, the real decision about working from home is whether the worker is seeking a career or a small earner.
New Home-based Careers
There are now a number of careers that can be undertaken from home that were once the sole preserve of offices. As companies begin to realise the not inconsiderable advantages of employing home workers, there has been a marked increase in the types of role being offered.
Data Entry: for adept typists, this career can provide a reasonable hourly rate of pay for transcribing documents. Previous experience in legal or medical notation could set one applicant apart from others as competition for these roles can be fierce.
Virtual Assistant: performing an almost identical role to an in-house secretary or administrative assistant. The only real difference is that communication with their employer is conducted via Internet chat, email or phone.
Online Tutor: whether explicitly teaching another about a subject or simply guiding them throughout their own learning, online tutoring is becoming evermore popular. There is no strict requirement to have QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) or large quantities of paper qualifications in the area they wish to tutor but prospective tutors should consider that these things do lend significant credibility and therefore pricing power.
Home-based Work for Additional Earnings
The options listed below are unlikely to yield large earnings but as an opportunity to add a little more cash to the pot, they can be very useful.
Online Surveys: with the precise targeting of advertising and marketing becoming an increasingly important part of any business, many online survey website can provide small cash incentives. By registering with as many sites as possible and providing as much detailed information as possible, users can greatly improve their chances of being offered surveys and therefore money.
Mystery Shopping: in the same bracket as online surveys, mystery shoppers have become a vital part of sizeable companies’ research. The companies need to know how their staff operate on a day-to-day basis and thus mystery shoppers can be paid reasonable sums for little more than their time and their honest opinions.
Online Auctions: the most difficult of home-based earners to categorise, online auctions have a wide range of users. The majority use them to source online bargains but there are a number of individuals and small businesses that have found them to be incredibly lucrative. Only requiring a fairly minimal amount of capital and an Internet connection, beginning an online auctioning ‘career’ is extremely simple.
Why Wait…?
Working from home has never been easier, more lucrative and thus more attractive than it is today. The flexibility and control offered by self-employment coupled with the obvious monetary advantages that come from not having to commute has left many that now work from home wondering why they ever worked anywhere else.