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Ways to Make Money from Home [40 Legit Ways for You to Consider]
Finding Legit Ways to Make Money from Home
Ways to make money from home — think all the options suck? There are actually some really great options to choose from. The key is to choose legitimate ways to make money from home. You can easily make some extra money from home. Many people even make a living working from home. There are endless opportunities to earn money from the comfort of your own home. This article looks at 40 legitimate ways, in no particular order, to make money from home.
Become a Graphic Designer
This is one of the ways to make money from home that I wish I was talented enough to do. There are lots of jobs available online for graphic designers. You can work as a freelance graphic designer and make money by creating logos, infographics, brochures, designing web pages, and more. depending on your specialty. Good graphic designers are always in demand and you can earn handsomely if you are really good at any specific field. Check out freelance sites, online job boards and online marketplaces like Fiverr for graphic design jobs.
Become a Digital/Internet Marketer
Businesses and individuals are using the power of internet to promote their products, services, brand awareness, website and company. There are various ways to use the internet as a marketing tool such as content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), and more. If you have strong knowledge in SEO, you could offer businesses to optimize their websites for search engines with a targeted audience in mind. If you are an expert user of various social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, then you can help businesses and individuals to grow and engage their following via social media marketing. You can focus on traffic generation or help businesses with generating leads and even conversions.
Create an Online Store
If you ever wanted to be an entrepreneur online, one of the best ways to fulfill your dream is by becoming an online store owner. Today, you can sell just about anything online thanks to the internet. Once you create an online store, you can earn an income by selling your own products or services, or someone else’s online. You can create an online or e-commerce store through a self-hosted ecommerce software platform provider like Shopify, or via a hosted ecommerce software provider where you are responsible for configuring your online store.
If you do not have any technical experience, self-hosted ecommerce software platform providers such as Shopify will help you create a beautiful online store in minutes. You can also add ecommerce functionality to your existing website to sell things online. However, the ecommerce software is the easiest way to build an online store and sell your products online.
Become a Blogger
If you have a talent for writing, you could become a blogger and make money by writing for other people's blogs. Today, almost every business owns a blog. Besides, millions of individuals also have their own blogs. However, many business owners and individuals often do not have the time, or writing skills to write blog posts for their own blogs so they outsource this task to online freelancers with writing and blogging skills. Often they will post blogging jobs to various places online, but many just wait for writers and bloggers to contact them for blogging opportunity.
You could check out online job boards such as the ProBlogger, or freelance sites like Upwork, and other job sites and marketplaces online to find blogging jobs. You can also contact blog owners directly to find out if they are interested in your blog writing service.
Sell things on auction sites
Many people earn a full-time living selling a variety of products via auction sites like eBay and Etsy. Since these sites receive massive amounts of buying traffic daily, if you have in-demand products to sell, you could do very well selling things on these auction sites. Set up a shop on eBay and then buy second hand items, vintage items, etc. products inexpensively from bulk suppliers and then resell them on your eBay store. Just make sure you provide a good description and clear photo of each item to be sold. If you are auctioning your products on eBay, set a start price for each product. If you have new products to sell, you can set a fixed price per product.
Research and answer questions online
If you have good knowledge of a particular subject or more and possess excellent research skills, then you can join some “answer and questions” sites that will pay you to answer questions asked by users on these sites on various topics. You will provide answers online, meaning you just need a computer and internet access to get started. The users post the questions to these sites and pay the experts that provide the right answers. The sites take a cut out of your earnings. Some reputable sites that hire experts to research questions and answer them include JustAnswer, PrestoExperts, Ether, and Experts 123.
Administrative assistant
If you have strong organizational and communication skills, you can work part-time for a company as an administrative assistant from your home. You will perform various administrative tasks for a small company, or a busy professional. You will complete tasks such as answering phones, composing letters, sending emails, scheduling appointments, doing web research, data entry, etc. jobs. If you are able to do multitasks, then you can earn an income from home providing administrative support for organizations and people.
Freelance online
This is where you work for various clients online as a freelance or self-employed contractor. If you have a particular skill, you can use that to freelance online doing assignments or projects for individuals or businesses. People and businesses from all around the world are looking for freelancers to help them with various tasks getting completed. They often post various types of jobs or projects to online freelance sites, also known as freelance bidding sites, and freelancers from around the world bid on these jobs along with a proposal. If a client hires a freelancer, then the freelancer will deliver the work and get paid if the client approves the work.
Whether you have writing, graphic design, web design, teaching, language, marketing, programming, translating, language, virtual assisting, data entry, or any other marketable skill, you can freelance it. These sites list freelance jobs on virtually all sorts of topics. If you have a specific skill and narrow down your search based on your specialty, you can win bids and make good money freelancing online. Some notable freelance sites include Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer, OneSource, Guru and Fiverr. I have personally used freelancer.com to hire a few experts to work on my blog. I found the folks I hired to be professional and wonderful to deal with and it seems like one of the awesome ways to make money from home or anywhere around the world for these pros. Here is an insightful post about how freelancing is growing. And though it was written in 2015, it's still very relevant, “Here’s Why The Freelancer Economy Is On The Rise.“
Sell your services via micro gig sites
Micro gig sites are online marketplaces where freelancers list their skills and post gigs to connect with clients from all over the world. You offer your services by doing a short, quick job for others. When clients find your gigs and choose to hire you based on what they need and your skills, you will complete the job and get paid when the client approves your work. Payment is held in Escrow when a client purchases your gig and is released to your account when the order is completed and approved the client. Fiverr is the most popular microgig site on the web. You can also get hired to work on large projects on this site once you have completed a few jobs successfully.
Become a tasker on Amazon Mechanical Turk
If you want to earn some extra cash, then join Amazon’s MTurk. This is an online marketplace that offers a variety of short tasks you can complete to earn some extra money. Typically, tasks listed on this platform just pay literally a few cents per task completed, but it takes very short time to do each of these tasks. Depending on your location, you can cash out your earnings via PayPal or receive Amazon Gift Cards.
Become a Social Media Consultant
If you are familiar with various social media sites and have a good following on your own social media accounts, then you can work for various companies and busy professionals, in particular, as a social media consultant. You will help businesses and people to grow their following by scheduling posts, posting posts, answering questions by their clients or potential clients. Many companies do not have the time or expertise to manage their own social media accounts. Besides, many businesses are looking to build their social media presence online. You can step in and use your social media skills to help these companies and make decent money in the process.
Answer Online Surveys
The easiest way to make money from home is by answering online surveys. There are some reputable legit survey companies or sites that will pay you to share your opinions about products, services, companies, websites, your habits, politics, environment and just about anything. Typically, when you join a survey site, you can choose categories to receive relevant surveys based on your areas of interest. You can answer surveys using your computer or smartphone. You can expect to make anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per survey, depending on the length and complexity of the survey. Taking surveys online is a great way to make some extra nice cash every week or month.
Some reputable survey sites include: MyPoints, Opinion Outpost, Swagbucks, Surveys On The Go, Harris Poll, Valued Opinions, and Ipsos Panel among others.
Complete small tasks online
You could get paid to do what you usually do online such as watching videos, performing web searches, sharing your opinions and even shopping online. There are websites that will pay you to do a variety of small tasks online. Swagbucks, for example, is a site that will pay you to do a variety of tasks such as watching videos, completing small surveys, performing web searches, and even shopping online. You will earn points called Swagbucks (SBs) for each task that you will complete on Swagbucks. You can redeem these points for cash rewards or gift cards. There are more sites that will pay you cash directly or points that can be redeemed for cash or gift cards for completing various types of small tasks online.
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Get Paid to Test New Products
You can make money from home to test new products mailed to you by different companies. You will test the new products and earn money in exchange for your opinion because your opinion matters to these companies. Ipsos-i-Say and Toluna are two of the most reputable sites that offer new products testing opportunities.
Test websites
Website developers and businesses, in particular, want or need to know if their websites are user-friendly before they launch it officially. They will often hire third-party sites to recruit and pay people to test out their websites. That is where website usability testing jobs come in. All that you will need to test websites include a computer with a microphone, a reliable internet connection, and fluency in spoken English.
Most tests take between 5-20 minutes to complete. Several reputable companies such as User Testing, StartUpLift, Enroll, TryMyUI, Userlytics, WhatUsersDo and Userfeel hire for this popular work at home job. You can expect to earn an average of $10 per test which is a good rate considering the amount of time it takes to complete the test.
Start a Blog
Starting a blog is easy but it will take time to make money from it. The key to making money from a blog is to choose a profitable topic, write often and build a large amount of traffic. You need to choose the right monetization methods as well to make money from it. If your blog attracts a large amount of traffic every month, you can make money easily by placing online ads on the site. If your blog focuses on a particular topic you are very knowledgeable about, you can promote products or services relevant to the topic to make money with affiliate marketing programs.
You can also offer your writing and blogging services via your blog. Create a “Hire Me” page to let others know that you write for pay. You can also sell physical and digital goods on your blog. There are lots of ways to make money from a blog.
Create a YouTube Channel
Online videos have become increasingly popular on the web thanks to YouTube channel. If you are creative and tech-savvy, you can create useful and helpful videos to provide information, entertainment, or instructions on how to do something and then upload them to YouTube. Once your videos start getting some traffic, join YouTube Partner Program to make money from online ads and affiliate marketing. There are many, many YouTubers that have found success using videos (and not just YouTube, but Twitch too!) as their sole income or one of the ways to make money from home that they enjoy.
Become a Freelance Writer
Probably the fastest way to make money is by becoming a freelance writer. There are numerous content-based websites, freelance websites, article writing jobs sites, online job boards, microgig websites, content marketplaces that provide the opportunity to make money writing articles, blog posts, reviews and web copy on a wide variety of topics. If you have a knack for writing, you can get started by joining a freelance site like Upwork and more to find writing jobs.
The fastest way to earn money writing online is to sign up to article writing jobs sites such as Textbroker and iWriter where you can pick jobs direly from a live streaming job board. You pick an article or writing assignment, complete and submit it within a specified period of time and get paid when the client approves your work. You can also write articles, blogs or web copy and then upload them to a content marketplace like ArticleSale.com, or dotWriter for sale. You can use Fiverr to advertise your writing services so people looking for your services can find and hire you. There are more ways to find writing jobs online.
Become a virtual assistant
If you have good computer and communication skills, are organized and can perform at least one task in administrative, creative or technical field, you can become a virtual assistant. Most VAs perform a variety of tasks such as performing web search, doing data entry, scheduling social media and blog posts, managing blogs and site, managing social media accounts, doing search engine optimization, and more. If you are able to do all of these or only one of these tasks, you can find work as a virtual assistant. You can work for a virtual assistant job agency or site like BELAY and Time Etc. or find clients or jobs as a freelance virtual assistant on sites like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer, Fiverr, etc.
Web search evaluator
There are some companies that hire web search evaluators, also known as search engine evaluators, to provide feedback on search results returned by search engines like Google. As a search engine evaluator, you will find out if the search results returned by a search engine are relevant and accurate in response to the search term or keyword(s) you were given to enter in the particular search engine's search box to get those search results. Then you will provide feedback which helps the search engine to understand whether their search results are relevant, accurate, and meet users' intent. Companies or sites that hire search engine evaluators include Appen Butler Hill, Leapforce, iSoftStone and more.
Become an online proofreader
Many website or blog owners and authors, in particular, need someone to proofread their work and they turn to online proofreaders to do the job. If you have an eye for detail and good command for English grammar, this could be the perfect job for you. You can find proofreading jobs on freelancing sites like Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, etc. Read my interview with an online proofreader making a full-time income being a proofreader while traveling the world, all from her ipad!
Become a transcriber
Transcribers transcribe audio files, recordings, etc. If you have fast typing skill with accuracy, and good command over English language, you can find plenty of transcription jobs online. If you are experienced in medical or legal transcription, you can earn more per audio file, clip, etc. being transcribed. TranscribeMe is a famous site for finding transcription jobs online. You can also check freelance sites as well to find jobs in this field.
Data entry
Perhaps the easiest job to do online, data entry can involve consolidating data from multiple documents to a single document, processing invoices, entering data in a new document from a single type or different types of documents, entering data regarding income and expenses, and performing similar types of other tasks. Some specific sites to check for finding data entry jobs include Axion Data, Capital Typing and The Smart Crowd. In addition to these sites, you can find data entry jobs on sites like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer and Fiverr.
Tutor online
If you have a teaching background, certification or training then tutoring students online could be an ideal way to make money from home. Online tutoring jobs can be found in a number of ways. You can join an online tutoring agency or site such as Chegg and Tutor.com to find clients, or bid on tutoring jobs listed on freelance sites, or advertise your services via your own site. If you specialize in a particular academic subject, you do not even need any teaching background, certification or training to become an online tutor and make money from home.
Teach a foreign language online
More and more people are looking to learn foreign languages for various purposes and one of the best ways to learn a foreign language is by using the internet. Many sites are dedicated to connecting people looking to learn foreign languages with people that teach foreign languages online. If you enjoy interacting with people from different cultures around the globe then you can teach English, for example, if you speak it fluently, to people from all over the world. Many students, business people, and travelers among others want to practice speaking English for various reasons. Two sites you can check out for teaching English, French, Spanish and several other languages online are Cambly and Open English.
Be an online translator
If you are bi-lingual or fluent in another language, then you can make money from home as an online translator. Gengo is a popular translation jobs site with a worldwide client base. You can join this site and other reputable translation jobs site that offer translation jobs online. You can also check freelance sites like Upwork and Freelancer, and online marketplace like Fiverr to find online translation gigs.
Create and sell an online course
If you havea specific skill in a particular area, you can get paid to teach other people everything in the area of your expertise they need to know in exchange for money. The best way to do that is by building an e-course and then selling it via one of the several online learning platforms. You can try Udemy to sell your video-based educational or instructional online video course(s). Whether it is how to start an online business, how to learn HTML, how to play a particular musical instrument, or how to do anything else, if you have the relevant skill and knowledge, you can create and sell an online course.
Become a customer service agent or representative
Many companies are looking for home-based people with good communication, organizational and computer skills to work for them as a customer service agent. If you are patient, have good telephone skills, and stay calm under pressure situations, particularly when dealing with disputes or complaints, this job is a good fit for you. Some companies provide the opportunity to work as an employee or as an independent contractor customer service or call center agent. If you want to work as an employee, you may get health benefits, paid vacations, contribute to a retirement plan like 401(k), and get other incentives or perks, depending on the company and whether you work full-time or part-time for the company.
Some great companies that offer customer services jobs you can do from home include Alpine Access, Convergys, Hilton at Home, Sitel, LiveOps, VIPdesk, Alorica (Formerly West at Home) and Voice Log.
Sell things online
You can sell a wide variety of things online. The key is to identify a need for people and then sell a product or service based on that need. It is not easy to sell things online, especially when you are a complete beginner. If you are tech savvy, know how to promote your products or services, and get traffic to your product or service page, you can make money easily by selling things online. You can set up a shop on eBay or Amazon or start your own site, or an online store to sell your physical or digital goods. You do not even have to sell your own products or services and hold stocks if you choose a dropshipping business model.
Sell your digital photos online
If you have a passion for photography and like taking photographs of different subjects, you can make money by selling your photos. This allows you to take a passion or hobby and turn it into one of the ways to make money from home. Websites, blogs, eCommerce stores, news agencies, and organizations use stock images on a regular basis for a variety of purposes. You can take quality pictures of places you have visited, or images of nature, animal, people and more subjects and then upload them to one of the several reputable microstock photo agencies online such as Shutterstock, Fotolia, and more. If your images are accepted then you will make money every time a user on these sites download one of our photos.
Sell handmade goods online
You can create and sell handmade goods such as homemade candles, crafts, decor, clothing, and more handmade and vintage goods online via an established online marketplace like Etsy or by setting up your own online store or shop. You can set up an Etsy shop for free to sell your handmade goods. Write an honest description and add a good picture of the item because buyers prefer to bid on something that has a clear description, and can be seen. If you're a candle lover… see my post, Sell Candles From Home! Companies to Help You Get Started! for candle companies that might interest you!
Start a Dropshipping Business
This is a great way to make money from home, and ideal way to start an online business. It involves selling products through your own site or third-party-site like eBay, but you do not make any physical delivery of the products sold to your customers. Customers buy the product through your website or another website where you have listed your products and then once the customers pay for the product, it is you that keep the payment, but a manufacturer or warehouse ships the product directly to the customers on behalf of you. The customers pay you for the product and you pay the manufacturer or warehouse. The difference between the selling price to your customers and the manufacturer's selling price to you is your profit.
Sell Unwanted Gift Cards
You probably have many unused gift cards to stores, restaurants, and coffee shops, sitting idle on the desks, in drawers, inside wallets, etc. places collecting only dust. If you do not need or want these gift cards then you can sell them for cash. Gift cards have a cash value, pre-loaded with credit up to a certain limit, and can be sold for cash up to 90% face value of these cards, depending on the gift cards issuers and the original cash value of the gift cards. There are several reputable online merchants that buy and sell unwanted gift cards. If you have a number of unused or unwanted gift cards then you could earn some extra cash by selling those unwanted gift cards.
Become a Mystery Shopper
Did you know that you can get paid to eat and shop for free in return for a review of a service you have received? That is where mystery shopping comes in. It is one of the totally legitimate ways to make money from home (Kinda – I realize you aren't at home…but it's very flexible!) by going undercover and review the service of a shop, bank, and more businesses or organizations as a mystery shopper. You could get reimbursement for any purchases you have to make, on top of the money you will earn for each assignment that you complete.
Write and sell your own eBook
Looking further into ways to make money from home for moms, writing is a real opportunity. If you have a knack for writing and good knowledge in a particular subject, then, writing an eBook based around that subject can be an excellent way to make money online. eBooks do not need to contain hundreds of pages. If you know the ins and outs of a subjects, you can write an eBook about that subject and then sell it online via your own site or a third-party online marketplace like Amazon.com or eBay. You can sell it many times to people. No matter which topic you choose, if you can write well, there is an audience out there who want to read your eBook. Many people will also pay you to write eBooks for them to promote their products and services to their target audience or customers, but you will earn a one-off for the work. Writing is one of the ways to make money from home that I always recommend if people are stumped on what to do.
Get Paid to Review Products
There are many reputable sites that will pay you to write review about products, services, websites, companies, and more. You can get paid to write reviews about products at Review Stream. If you have knowledge in various software products, you could write reviews about technical products and earn money for doing so via a site called Software Judge. Other notable sites that pay you to write reviews include E-Pinions, Shared Reviews and Ciao. This could be one of those fun ways to make money from home that give you a little extra mad money or cash to stash for something special.
Work as a Bookkeeper from Home
Many small businesses, in particular, find the justification to keep a full-time bookkeeper to manage their accounts. Besides, now many small and mid-sized businesses, as well as individuals, use online accounting software, meaning the need for full-time bookkeepers has decreased. That is where you come in if you want to make money from home as a bookkeeper. If you have relevant qualification, or experience, or are good with numbers, you can offer the services that businesses need and earn money from home.
Start a consulting business
If you have strong knowledge in a particular subject that may be helpful to other people, you can start consulting business from home. If you know how to start a home business, how social media can benefit a business, or have specialized knowledge in any other industry, you can offer consulting services to other people that will pay you to know what you know.
Fitness Trainer
If you love helping people then helping folks get in shape could be an excellent opportunity and one of the ways to make money from home that suits you. You can offer online classes on fitness through Skype or other online platforms. You can also help coach people in your home. If you have done a fitness course or raining, it will be easier for you to start your own business from home or online. You could even start a blog to help people with fitness and workout tips. Once you build a following, you could create and sell personalized workout plans online through your blog to other people and make money while helping people stay fit.
A Few Final Thoughts on Ways to Make Money from Home
The key to finding ways to make money from home is to identify your skills and then find the relevant job(s) that match your skills. Some jobs listed above do not require you to have any special skill at all so anyone can do them. Working from home is the best way to enjoy work-life balance.
I think people should be aware – selling things on auction sites (eBay, etc) isn’t as easy as it might seem! I’ve never tried reselling items I bought wholesale, but I have sold some of my kids’ old clothes on eBay before because I thought it was a good idea. It turned out I spent a ton of time dealing with sorting, packaging, shipping, dealing with the customers, etc. and only making a small amount of money. What a headache! Basically if you’re going to sell things on eBay, you’d better look for something to sell that has a nice profit margin or it probably won’t be worth your time.
@Alicia
Thank you so much!
This is a great, concise list! Provides someone that’s looking to start a home based business with some great alternatives. Thanks!
@Cori
Thank you!!
Hi Kelly,
This a great list of ways to make money from home. I started out working for Transcom – when they were Cloud10. Then I started a blog and now I’m designing sites and doing VA work. Which goes to show once you start working from home it can open a lot of doors. :)
Thanks for putting this together! No doubt I’m passing this along. Have a great new week!
Cori