24 Of The Best Work From Home Jobs & How To Avoid Scams
9:24 PMLooking to see what the best work from home jobs are?
Work from home jobs are a flexible way to work and make money. This makes them a great fit for many people. And, the number of work from home jobs has been growing.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24% of employed people did some or all of their work at home in 2015.
You can often work home based jobs along with your 9-5 job to bring in some extra income. You can also work these jobs as a full-time career, while traveling, and more. It all depends on which one you choose.
Many online jobs from home allow you to pick your own hours, the days you work, and where you work. You’re not tied to someone else’s schedule – you may be able to create your own!
While all of that sounds great, some of you might be wondering if these kinds of stay at home jobs are legitimate. I will tell you that there are some work from home jobs that aren’t. There are some scams out there.
But, the ideas I’m going to tell you about are all legitimate work from home jobs. I’m also going to tell you how to avoid these scams at the end of this article.
I know how important it is to find real work from home jobs. When I was trying to pay off my student loan debt, I looked at lots of different options that would allow me to work outside of my normal work hours.
I worked as a mystery shopper and took online surveys, and I also made money from this blog. And, I can tell you that those are all legit online jobs! They allowed me to pay off my debt quickly and eventually leave my day job.
Many people do what I did and make money from home so they can pay off their debt. However, it’s a great way to save up for a fun vacation, have money to invest, build your emergency fund, save for a downpayment on a house, to retire early, and more.
And that’s the point – work at home jobs give you the flexibility to make extra money on your own time so you can reach your goals and follow your passions.
So, if you are looking to start making extra money or if you want a new career path that lets you earn money from home, this list of work from home jobs is especially for you.
Before you’re scared off by any of these ideas, please remember that you don’t need to be an expert in any of them right now. As with any new job, you learn as you go and can find training as well.
Some examples of work from home jobs that will be discussed further below include:
- Creating a blog
- Reselling items
- Opening an online store
- Becoming an online tutor
- Teaching English online
- Helping businesses as a virtual assistant
- Running advertising for local companies
- Starting a bookkeeping business
- Beginning a freelance writing career
- Transcribing audio or video into text
- General proofreading
- Creating an online course
- Writing an eBook
- Working in customer service from home
- Mystery shopping
- Voice over acting
Related content on work from home jobs:
- 12 Passive Income Ideas That Will Let You Enjoy Life More
- 10 Powerful Lessons That Every Freelancer Needs to Know
- 15 Of My Best Working From Home Tips So You Can Succeed
- 15 Outdoor Jobs For People Who Love Being Outside
Here are 24 different work from home jobs.
1. Start a blog to work at home.
Blogging is my favorite on this list of work from home jobs.
It is an online work from home job that allows me to travel full-time, have a flexible schedule, earn somewhat passive income, and more.
Blogging changed my life for the better, and it allows me to earn thousands of dollars a month, all by doing something that I love.
I created Making Sense of Cents in 2011, and since then, I have earned over $5,000,000 with my blog.
My blog was created on a whim as a way to track my own personal finance progress. And when I first started my blog, I honestly didn’t even know that people could make money blogging or how to start a successful blog!
I did not create Making Sense of Cents to earn money from home, but after only six months, I began to make money.
Blogging is quite affordable to start too!
Related content:
- How To Quit Your Job And Become A Full-Time Blogger
- How I Successfully Built A $1,000,000+ Blog
- The Ultimate Guide To Blogging Income Sources
- 10 Easy Tips To Increase Your Affiliate Income
You can easily learn how to start a blog with my free How To Start a Blog Course.
Here’s a quick outline of what you will learn:
-
- Day 1: Reasons you should start a blog
- Day 2: How to determine what to blog about
- Day 3: How to create your blog (in this lesson, you will learn how to start a blog on WordPress – my tutorial makes it very easy to start a blog)
- Day 4: How to make money blogging
- Day 5: My tips for making passive income from blogging
- Day 6: How to grow your traffic and followers
- Day 7: Miscellaneous blogging tips that will help you be successful
2. Sell items on Amazon.
Wondering “How do I work for Amazon from home?”
Amazon has many people who sell items and earn money from home. Jessica Larrew, of The Selling Family, uses her site to explain how selling on Amazon is one of the best work from home jobs and how it may be a possibility for you. She is a friend of mine, and I am blown away by her amazing success!
In the first year that Jessica’s family ran their Amazon FBA business together, working less than 20 hours a week total, they made over $100,000 profit!
Jessica also has a FREE 7 day course that will teach you everything you need to know in order to start selling on Amazon. I recommend signing up for it now!
This is one of the best work from home jobs to work as a side hustle, and if you want more information, click on the interview link below.
In my interview with Jessica, How To Work From Home Selling On Amazon FBA, we talk about:
- How Jessica started selling on Amazon FBA
- What exactly Amazon FBA is
- How to choose what to buy and sell
- How much a person can expect to earn
- The positives of selling on Amazon, and more
3. Teach English online.
Online teaching jobs are growing at a crazy rate.
If you’re wondering “What kind of work can I do from home?” – this is an option!
Learning how to teach English online has become extremely popular, making it one of the best online jobs from home for many good reasons – it’s flexible, there’s a high need, and it pays pretty well.
Surprisingly, you don’t need to be a teacher to learn how to teach English online. You also don’t need to speak more than one language – you only need to speak English.
Those things make teaching English online one of the best work from home jobs for almost anyone.
The amount of money you can earn teaching English online will vary, but it’s typically around $14 to $22 per hour.
Because this side hustle is becoming popular, there are several great companies that allow you to teach English online. My top three picks are ones my readers have recommended and ones I have researched:
Learn more at Make Extra Money By Learning How To Teach English Online.
4. Find online tutoring jobs.
To go along with the above, you can also work from home as an online tutor.
Course Hero is a website that helps high school and college students with course-specific questions.
Course Hero was founded in 2007 and is an online learning website where students can access study resources. Students can search by their specific school to find study guides, videos, practice problems, class notes, and step-by-step explanations.
Using the website, students connect with Course Hero tutors on a wide range of subjects and classes, which makes this a great online work from home job for people with different educational backgrounds and experience.
What might surprise you to learn is that you don’t have to be a certified tutor, a professor, or a teacher in order to become a Course Hero tutor.
However, you will need to share information that proves you have expertise in the subjects you would like to help students with.
Tutors earn an average of $3 for each question they answer on Course Hero. Earning between $12-$20 per hour, Course Hero tutors earn an average of $300 a week.
Here’s how this online tutoring job work:
- You apply here to become a Course Hero tutor.
- When you are available to answer questions, you do so on the Course Hero website.
- You get paid.
Learn more at How To Make $300+ Weekly As An Online Tutor With Course Hero.
5. Become a virtual assistant to earn money online.
Virtual assisting is a field that is growing extremely fast.
It’s a relatively new term, but it’s a career path that people have been doing for many, many years – but now it’s primarily online.
Not only does the internet allow us to complete more daily tasks online, more and more people are doing work from home jobs such as running a website, social media, real estate, advertising, etc. This means there are more and more virtual assistant jobs.
Virtual assistant (VA) tasks may include social media management, formatting and editing content, scheduling appointments or travel, email management, and more. Basically, you can get paid to do any task that needs to be done in someone’s business, but doesn’t need to be done by them.
My friend Kayla is a full-time blogger, virtual assistant, and project manager who earns over $10,000 per month while working from home. She is also the founder of $10K VA, her course where she teaches exactly how you can make a consistent $10,000 per month as a virtual assistant too!
Kayla used to work a full-time job as a credit analyst, earning about $2,000 per month. She was struggling to make ends meet while paying off debt, so she started a side hustle as a virtual assistant.
I interviewed her at How Kayla Earns $10K/Month From Home as a Virtual Assistant, and we talk about:
- The amount a beginner virtual assistant can expect to earn
- How to find your first virtual assistant job
- The steps to become a virtual assistant
- Her best tips for being a virtual assistant
And more!
6. Earn money as a Pinterest virtual assistant.
Working as a Pinterest virtual assistant is a more specialized version of the job above, and it’s a growing field as more and more business owners are using Pinterest to grow their business.
This is where you help businesses improve their reach on Pinterest. This could be:
- Designing Pinterest images for a website
- Helping business owners set up their Pinterest account
- Scheduling pins because this can be time consuming for the average business owner
- Brainstorming a marketing plan
Learn more at How I Started Earning $3,600 a Month As A Pinterest Assistant After Just 6 Months.
7. Run Facebook ads for local businesses.
Did you know that you can make a living from Facebook? With Facebook advertising, you can help businesses expand their reach.
And, yes, this is a skill that you can learn!
Last year, business owners spent over $88,000,000 per day on Facebook ads. This is expected to continue to grow, and it is one of the largest advertising spaces that exists.
My blogging friend Bobby Hoyt knows a lot about this topic. Bobby is a former high school teacher who paid off $40,000 of student loan debt in a year and a half. He now runs the personal finance blog Millennial Money Man full-time, as well as a digital marketing agency for local businesses that he started in 2015.
I interviewed Bobby about running Facebook ads, and in our interview, you will learn:
- How he started earning income through running Facebook ads
- Why small businesses want Facebook ads
- How a person can find their first Facebook ads client
- How much you can make doing this type of work – the average is around $1,000 extra a month per client
Also, Bobby has a free webinar on this topic too. His webinar (you can sign up here) will teach you how to start this business even if you’re brand new, how to find paying clients, and more.
8. Take online surveys.
Not too long ago, one of the top work from home jobs I used to pay off my student loan debt was by doing paid online surveys.
No, I didn’t get rich from them, but I was able to earn some side cash by taking online surveys in my spare time.
There were many times when I would receive an easy $100 check in the mail from completing surveys in a one-month period. The work is really easy. It can all be done from home, on your own schedule and timeline, so it’s a win-win!
Companies use surveys all the time to learn what their current and potential customers think of their products, services, and company. With the surveys you take, companies get valuable opinions on how to improve their products, and that’s what they are paying you for.
To increase your chances of making money, I recommend signing up for as many online survey companies as you can. I say this because individual survey companies may only send a few surveys your way each month, so the more you sign up for, the more money you may be able to make.
If this is one of the part time work from home jobs you’re interested in, here are the survey companies I recommend:
- American Consumer Opinion
- Survey Junkie
- Swagbucks
- InboxDollars
- Opinion Outpost
- OneOpinion
- Pinecone Research
- Prize Rebel
- Product Report Card
- Survey Club
9. Build an online store.
This is one of the work from home jobs that many people are surprised to hear about. But yes, you can start your own online store, and you don’t need to have tons of experience or a lot of money to do so. Many people start with absolutely no background.
I had the opportunity to interview Jenn Leach of E-commerce and Prosper, who explains exactly how to start an online store.
Jenn is a corporate mom turned e-commerce store owner and blogger.
She started her online business a little over three years ago, and since then, she has developed and grown three successful online e-commerce stores earning an average of $19,000 per month.
She is super successful despite only spending around 5-10 hours per week on her e-commerce business.
You can read our interview at How Jenn Makes Over $10,000 A Month With Her Online Store In Less Than 10 Hours Per Week.
10. Start a bookkeeping business.
A bookkeeper is someone who tracks the finances of a business.
This is a great work from home job because you don’t have to be an accountant or have any previous experience!
Ben, from Bookkeeper Launch, helps people get started as bookkeepers even when they don’t have any experience. Ben is a CPA who founded his business after realizing that many businesses needed better bookkeepers.
I had the chance to interview him, and we talked about:
- What a bookkeeper is
- The typical clients a bookkeeper has
- How much new bookkeepers earn
- How to become a bookkeeper
- The positives and negatives of bookkeeping
You can read all of his answers and more in our interview Make Money At Home By Becoming A Bookkeeper.
Also, you can sign up here for a free series that will teach you more about running your own virtual bookkeeping business.
11. Search for items to resell.
Have you ever found something that you thought you may be able to resell and actually make some money?
Melissa’s family earned $42,875 in 2015 through buy and sell flipping, and they were working only 10-20 hours per week.
Yes, just 10-20 hours a week!
And in 2016, she hit $133,000!
Some of the best flipped items that they’ve sold include:
- An item that they bought for $10 and flipped for $200 just 6 minutes later
- A security tower they bought for $6,200 and flipped for $25,000 just one month later
- A prosthetic leg that they bought for $30 at a flea market and sold for $1,000 on eBay the next day
This is one of the work from home jobs that anyone can start because I know we all have lots of stuff in our house that we could probably sell online.
You can learn more at How Melissa Made $40,000 In One Year Flipping Items.
12. Become a freelance writer.
A freelance writer is someone who writes for a number of different clients, such as websites, blogs, magazines, advertising companies, books, and more. They don’t work for one specific company, rather they work for themselves and contract out their writing.
My friend Holly from EarnMoreWriting.com (as well as the popular personal finance blog Club Thrifty) is a very successful freelance writer and has earned over $200,000 writing online!
Her freelance writing course includes nine video modules, several printable worksheets, and awesome add-ons, too. Here are some of the things you can expect to learn if you take her freelance writing course:
- Discover the #1 most important thing you can do to get paid writing jobs
- Learn how to find beginner level jobs and move up over time
- Learn how price affects the amount of work you get
- Learn which types of jobs help Holly earn the most pay, and where you can find them
- Find out which online platforms work best for finding paid work, and how to use them
- Learn how to structure your work day to earn six figures or more
Learn more at How I Earn $200,000+ Writing Online Content.
13. Transcribe audio or video content into text.
Transcription is the art of turning any audio or video content into a text document.
There are many businesses looking for transcriptionists too – since general transcriptionists convert audio and video to text for virtually any industry, there really isn’t a typical client. Some examples include marketers, authors, filmmakers, academics, speakers, and conferences of all types.
Beginning transcriptionists earn around $15 an hour to start.
You can learn more about becoming a transcriptionist in the interview Make Money At Home By Becoming A Transcriptionist. The interview explains:
- What a transcriptionist is
- How you can get started as a transcriptionist
- What kind of money you can expect to make
- The type of training you need, and more
14. Become a general proofreader.
Proofreading is one of the most flexible and detail-orientated work from home jobs. All you need to work as a proofreader is a laptop or tablet, an internet connection, and a good eye for pointing out mistakes.
Proofreaders look for punctuation mistakes, misspelled words, lack of consistency, and formatting errors.
In 2014, Caitlin made slightly over $43,000 by being a freelance proofreader.
You’ll learn more about this in my interview with Caitlin that I link to below, but proofreaders take content that other people have written and then go over it with a fine-tooth comb. You might be proofreading blog posts, print articles, academic articles, website copy, ad copy, books, student papers, emails, and more.
This job is for a very specific type of person who LOVES to correct grammar or makes a note of spelling mistakes on a restaurant menu… it takes a certain “eagle eye” ability to be good at proofreading!
I interviewed Caitlin on what it takes to become a proofreader, and in our interview we go over questions such as:
- What a proofreader does
- How much proofreaders earn
- How quickly a person can start making money as a proofreader
- The steps needed to become a proofreader
You can read all her answers and more at How To Become A Proofreader And Work From Anywhere.
Caitlin has put together a FREE 76-minute workshop, where she answers all of the most common questions about becoming a proofreader, and she even shows you how to use the most popular tools used by proofreaders around the world. You can sign up for free here.
15. Become a court transcript proofreader.
Another type of proofreading is becoming a court transcript proofreader.
“Court reporters use digital stenography machines in combination with computer-aided transcription software to write verbatim records of various legal proceedings. They report depositions, trials, hearings, arbitrations, case management conferences, compulsory medical examinations, examinations under oath, and pretty much any other type of legal proceeding. Because of the sensitive nature of legal proceedings, it’s imperative that as many errors as possible be eliminated from transcripts — an especially major error could ruin an entire trial!”
Due to this, many court reporters also use court transcript proofreaders.
There is more training that goes into becoming a court transcript proofreader, and that is why I separated it from the general proofreading job above.
You can learn more about becoming a court transcript proofreader in the interview Make Money As A Court Transcript Proofreader, including:
- The kind of money you can make as a proofreader for court reporters
- The steps needed to become a court transcript proofreader
- The training that is needed
Caitlin also has a great FREE 7 day course just for people who are interested in becoming a court transcript proofreader.
16. Try your hand at affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is when you earn an income by placing a referral link on your website, social media account, etc. and have people purchase a product through your link.
An affiliate is a person or business who promotes a product or service offered by other businesses, and you become an affiliate when you promote an affiliate product. And as an affiliate, you are given a special link that tells the company that a customer came from your site.
An example would be Amazon book sales, where you link to a specific book on your website and try to get people to purchase the book through your affiliate link. Amazon and other companies want quality affiliates under their belt because they want all the help they can get to promote the products and services they are selling.
If you get someone to sign up through your affiliate link, the company rewards you for promoting their product.
This is what is known as a conversion, and it’s when a person completes a specific action designated by the affiliate program. It may be when someone enters their email address on a company’s website, when they make a purchase, fill out a form, or some other action through your affiliate link.
You can share an affiliate link with your audience in many different ways, such as:
- By adding an affiliate link to your blog (you can do this by inserting a link within a blog post, page, email, etc.)
- Promoting it on social media
- Sharing it in a podcast or webinar
- And more!
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, I recommend getting the free guide 10 Easy Tips To Increase Your Affiliate Income. With this time-saving cheat sheet, you’ll learn how to make affiliate income from your blog. These tips will help you to rapidly improve your results and increase your blogging income in no time.
17. Become a podcast virtual assistant.
Recently, a podcast virtual assistant shared with me how she started her job, and how there’s a big demand for this type of online work.
There are over 800,000 podcasts out there, and that number just continues to grow. Podcasts are still a pretty new area, and that opens the door for lots of new work from home jobs helping with all of these podcasts.
While the podcast host can record themselves, other tasks like editing and publication take time, so many podcasters outsource their work to freelancers or virtual assistants. Also, some podcasters may not know how to do those things, or they may choose to focus their time on other areas.
Some of the different services you could do as a podcast virtual assistant include:
- Audio editing
- Marketing and promotion
- Publication
- Distribution
- Show note creation
Learn more at How I Make $1,500 A Month As A Podcast Virtual Assistant.
Also, you can sign up here for free information on learning more about how to become a podcast VA. In this free resource, you’ll learn more about what exactly a podcast virtual assistant is, the services you can offer, and starting rates.
18. Work as a freelancer.
Freelancers are people who work for others by doing part-time jobs. A business may hire you on for one-time gigs or you may get a long-term job with a company as a freelancer.
In addition to some of the freelance jobs I’ve already mentioned (writing, proofreading, transcribing, and bookkeeping) there are even more freelance jobs out there for people who have experience in a variety of fields, including:
- Graphic design
- Web design and development
- Video editing
- Sound design
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Programming
- Photography
This is one of the best work from home jobs because you can use a skill you already have and start finding work on job platforms like UpWork and Fiverr.
19. Create an online course.
I created Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing in July of 2016. It was my first online course, and after a few years, I have earned over $1,00,000 from it.
And, you probably have a course in you too!
There are successful courses covering all sorts of different topics, such as:
- Parenting
- Woodworking
- Dog training
- Guitar playing
- Languages
- Programming
- Traveling
- Watercolor painting
- Gardening
- Calligraphy
- Business
And much, much more!
Creating an online course is one of the fastest ways to leverage your time, increase your earning ceiling, and help more people.
Learn more at How I’ve Made Over $1,000,000 From My First Course Without a Big Launch.
20. Write your own eBook.
Writing your own eBook is a great way to make money online, and there is probably something super helpful that you could write about (even if you think otherwise!).
In fact, my friend Alyssa self-published her first book and has sold more than 13,000 copies.
She is now earning a great passive income of over $200 a day from her book ($6,500 in one month alone!).
She is also the creator of From Blog To Book, a course that will help you write, launch, and market your first book. I’ve already signed up for the course, and the expertise she shares is absolutely amazing. Some of the modules in her course include:
- Mapping Out Your Book Content
- Strategies for Writing Your Next 30,000 Words
- Where to Publish Your Book
- Tutorial: Getting Your Book on Amazon
- Design Your Book Cover
- Set Pricing for Your Book
- Create Your Marketing Plan
Learn more at How Alyssa is making $200 a DAY in book sales passively.
21. Write romance novels.
My friend Yuwanda Black has found one of the most interesting work from home jobs. She writes romance novels, and in one month, she was able to make over $3,000!
I was able to have her write on Making Sense of Cents about her creative way to make extra money. In the article linked below, you can learn:
- How she got started writing romance novels
- How much money she has made
- Her top tips to start writing successful romance novels
- Why your novels do not need to be long (her most successful books are under 10,000 words)
- How to promote your romance novels
- How to sell on Amazon
And much more!
Learn more at How to Make Money Self-Publishing Short Romance Novels on Amazon.
22. Find an online job in customer service.
Many large companies outsource their customer service departments to people who are working from home. So, if you’re wondering “How do I find a legitimate work from home job?” – this can be a great place to start.
Customer service representatives may be responsible for a number of things, such as:
- Working at an online call center
- Working as a chat agent
- Offering technical support
- Virtual assistant tasks
- Working as a travel agent
This is becoming one of the best work from home jobs because the number of large companies who need online customer service reps is growing. Companies like Apple, American Express, UHAUL, and more are now offering these types of jobs.
23. Become a secret shopper.
This won’t be a full-time job, but it could give you some extra money each month. And, yes, there are some mystery shops that can be done by phone and online.
I remember when I first heard of being a secret shopper. I was working at a retail store and we regularly had mystery shoppers come in to grade how we were doing. We never knew who the mystery shopper was, but we would get to read their report afterwards.
I thought it was so interesting that people were getting paid to shop!
Not long after hearing about it, I decided to try mystery shopping to make extra money to help pay off my student loan debt.
I regularly earned around $150 to $200 a month mystery shopping, and I earned free items/services as well, such as $100 to spend at restaurants (which I had to grade while I was there), makeup, and more.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can join Bestmark by clicking here. This is my favorite mystery shopping company, and the only one I used back when I was mystery shopping, so I know it’s legitimate.
Learn more at Want To Make An Extra $100 A Month? Learn How To Become A Mystery Shopper.
24. Become a voice over actor.
A voice over actor is the person you hear but rarely see on YouTube videos, radio ads, explainer videos, corporate narration, documentaries, e-learning courses, audiobooks, TV commercials, video games, movies, and cartoons.
In 2014, Carrie replaced her salaried day job to become a full-time voice over actor. People are constantly asking her how she got her start and how they can too.
So, she created a six-week online class, and it sold out. Several of her students booked voice acting jobs before the class was even over!
I was excited to learn more about this work from home job, so I interviewed Carrie to learn:
- How she got into this interesting career field
- Who the common clients are
- How much money a beginner voice over actor can expect to make
- The positives of this job
- How to find your first job
- The costs, and more
You can read my interview with her at How To Become A Voice Over Actor And Work From Anywhere.
How to avoid work from home job scams.
Like I said in the beginning of this blog post, there are lots of scams for work from home jobs, and you’ve probably seen some of them before.
All you have to do is scroll to the comment section of any popular article and you’ll see “Work from home and make $1,000,000 in the first 5 minutes!” Or, “Do nothing all day and make $5,000!”
In fact, you can find work from home job scams all over the place – in your email inbox, phone calls to your home, online articles and more.
Sadly, many of these work from home jobs are actually scams.
Now, this doesn’t mean that every online job is a scam.
To sort through the scams and find legitimate ones, you should always make sure to research the company.
If you are afraid of falling for work from home job scams, you should do things such as:
- Contact the Better Business Bureau to see if the company is real.
- Research the company online to see if there are any mentions of it being a scam. I like to type in “Company name + Scam” into a search engine and see what pops up.
- Before you give out any personal information, such as your social security number, you should make sure it’s a legitimate job.
- Search the Federal Trade Commission and see if they have any press releases or articles about work from home job scams that they may have found.
- Never click on any links or download anything in a suspicious email.
And, most of all, trust your gut! If you feel too weary of something, then it’s probably best to move on and find another opportunity.
What work from home jobs interest you the most?
The post 24 Of The Best Work From Home Jobs & How To Avoid Scams appeared first on Making Sense Of Cents.
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