Maybe you’re tired of your daily commute. Or, you know there is something beyond going to the office every day. You want a job that gives you more flexibility. You want to work online from home.
I know because I’ve been there. I started working online in 2017, and even then I considered myself late to the party. After nearly four years in the online industry, I can confirm there is plenty of opportunity for work online – even if you’re just getting started.
When I left my job three years ago, people were concerned about the potential lack of stability as a freelancer. But because of the way I’ve learnt to handle money, I’ve felt more stable as a freelancer than I ever did working a 40-hour work week.
My goal with this article is to inspire you to start something new with your already-existing skillset, and show you how many different opportunities there are if you want to work online.
Freelance or Remote Work?
One of the first questions to ask yourself is do you prefer to work independently as a freelancer, or would you feel safer with the stability of a remote job?
- Freelance – you are responsible for your own taxes, medical insurance. you set your own hours
- Remote – benefits. work within the rules of the company
You might notice from this list that some skills can overlap – or you can create your own job by overlapping skills you enjoy.
Here are over 15 legit job ideas so you can work from home – freelance or remote.
Related Reading: Are You Ready to Work from Home? (Medium)
Writing
Recent studies show that 78% of companies have a team of 1-3 content specialists (SEMRush 2019). If you want to market your writing skill, there are plenty of ways to do so.
Content Writing
Over 4.4 million blog posts are published every day. The content we consume builds our awareness around new products, softwares and businesses to visit.
That’s probably why70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing in 2020.
The reality is, you can specialize in content writing as a native English speaker writing high-quality content. And, you can specialize in content writing producing lower quality content quickly. The market for buying content is a spectrum.
If you do decide to specialize in content writing, hone yourSEO knowledge.
Related Reading: 10+ Websites that Pay Writers
Sales Copywriting
While the purpose of content writing would be to inform, sales copywriting’s purpose is to inspire readers to take action and purchase.
As a sales copywriter, you should be able to empathize with the target market. What do they want? What problems do they want solved? How can the products or services you write about solve those problems?
Medium Partner Program
Medium has a Partner Program which rewards its writers for engaging content.
As a Medium Partner, when you publish a post you’ll have the option to put that post behind a paywall. When members read your content, you’ll receive a part of their monthly subscription fee.
Once you become a Medium writer, there are a few ways to get your content in front of Medium members:
- Submit articles to a publication. You’ll see on my profile everything I write is published in a publication.
- Your article is chosen to be curated.Shortly after your article is published, it’s reviewed for curation. Articles are chosen to be distributed across Medium based on these curation guidelines.
- Grow a following. You’ll notice that people can follow you on Medium. As you publish more, your following will grow – and those followers will receive a notification when you publish a new post.
It’s simple to get started on Medium’s Partner Program. The Partner Program itself is available to residents of 33 countries. After you’re enrolled, you can set up your tax information and connect payment via Stripe.
Book Writing
Another way to earn a living online is by writing and publishing books. Depending on how you approach it, publishing books can be a good way to earn passive income.
- Publish books on Amazon
- Write books to sell on your website
By publishing books on Amazon, your book gets marketed based on the product SEO and Amazon’s algorithms. In that way, Amazon helps you market your book.
You also have the option to publish books off-Amazon, and sell them on your website. You don’t have to worry about paying a commission to Amazon. But you do have to market the book yourself.
Ghostwriting
In the realm of writing a book of your own, you could ghostwrite for someone else. This particular craft requires flexibility in your writing style. You’ll need to be able to show you can follow writing guidelines or the style of someone else’s voice.
You can ghostwrite books, speeches and even blog posts for another person.
Blogging
You may also find that you want to maintain your own blog as you work online from home.
Here are a few ways to make money blogging:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Advertising
- Sales Partnerships
- Product Sales
If you do want to pursue writing, blogging can be an excellent way to get your writing in front of an audience.
Related Reading: How to Start a Blog
Virtual Assistance
Offering virtual assistant services can be a great opportunity for you to refine your skillset, or offer high-level virtual assistance at a high cost.
Everyone needs help – from fellow solopreneurs, to enterprise CEOs. Thus, the title of Virtual Assistant covers a range of services. It’s up to you to decide where you want to specialize.
- Administrative
- Technical
- Creative
Most virtual assistants are self-employed contractors, but you may find a company looking to hire a virtual assistant as an employee.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is advertising delivered through channels like social media, paid advertisem*nts and emails.
Digital marketing is a great industry for creative individuals who enjoy looking at metrics.
Social Media Marketing
94% of marketers use social media for content distribution (SEMrush, 2019). It’s an easy way for companies to build recognition and relationships with current and future customers.
If you decide to specialize in social media marketing, start looking atwhat makes viral content in each industry. Why do certain posts go viral, and how can you replicate that for your clients?
Pinterest Marketing
At first glance, you might consider Pinterest a social media platform. But Pinterest works more like a visual search engine. Pinterest shows visual content based on keywords for each image.
Pinterest is a great way for companies to get their content and product in front of purchasers eyes.
Pinterest has over 367 million monthly users worldwide, most of whom are women. Research shows the majority of Pinterest users earn over $75,000 per year. This indicates most users on Pinterest are more likely to have a disposible income.
Because Pinterest doesn’t work like other social media platforms, many companies who use Pinterest only use it as an afterthought. That’s where your Pinterest marketing expertise can come in handy.
Related Reading: Pinterest Tips for Beginners
Email Marketing
It’s more than likely that you’ve purchased something from an email before. Maybe you bought a piece of clothing after a company announced its autumn collection. Or perhaps you felt inspired to support an independent creator during their product launch.
Email marketing is one of the most intimate ways for companies to build relationships with their customers, and inspire them to make a purchase.
To get started with email marketing, build an email list of your own or manage a small business’s email list. Keep track of email open rates, clickthrough rates, and unsubscribes to decide what content resonates with subscribers the most.
Related Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing (Hubspot)
Facebook or Google Ads
Online advertisem*nts are targeted campaigns where companies pay based on the bidding model – for example, pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-per-thousand-impressions (CPM).
As a digital marketer helping clients with Facebook or Google advertisem*nts, you’ll want to understand how to create campaigns, A/B test campaigns, and reach campaign goals.
You’ll be tracking things like the ROI on different ads, and why certain campaigns bring in a certain ROI.
Having an analytical brain that likes numbers will help. You can either work with a graphic designer to design Facebook ad images, or refine that part of your skillset as well!
Web Design
You might have an interest in creating websites online. If you have a technical skillset, it might be easy to get started. As a web designer, it also helps to have knowledge in graphic design.
If you want to become a website designer, start learning things like typography, visual hierarchy on websites and color psychology.
If you want to specialize in website design only, you would design websites using a tool like Adoble XD, Figma or Sketch to send to a website developer.
Alternatively, you can specialize in certain tools to develop the website yourself. I recommend learning a platform like Elementor + WordPress, Squarespace or Webflow to design advanced websites with little coding knowledge.
Related Reading: How I Became a Freelance Web Designer
Graphic Design
Graphic design is a very in-demand skill for designers at all levels. Studies show that the market size for graphic design is $13 billion alone.
As a graphic designer, there are different specialties you can offer clients:
- Logo Design
- Business Cards and Letterhead
- PDF Design
- Powerpoints
- Social Media Design
- Brochure Design
- Animation
- Infographic Design
As a Graphic Designer, you’ll learn how to ask the right questions about company goals for certain designs. You’ll also learn how to communicate how the designs you make achieve the project goals.
If you want to get started as a graphic designer, learn Adobe products and Canva. Also start learning things like visual hierarchy, negative space and vector vs. raster.
Ecommerce Shop
Unsurprisingly, the market size for ecommerce and online auctions in the US is $596 billion. Between 2015 and 2020, the average industry growth for ecommerce and online auctions was 12.7%. Consumers buy everything from everyday goods to entertainment to big purchases online.
Maybe you want to start your own ecommerce shop! Websites like Etsy and Shopify make starting an ecommerce store easy.
If this interests you, start doing product and market research. Are you going to sell a physical or digital product? Do you want to put your product on a platform that will help you market to a larger customer base like Etsy or Amazon? Or do you want to start your own shop and take care of most of the marketing yourself?
Related Reading: How Dianna Allen Started Candle Business TERRA with $100
Project Management
Most people have probably planned and executed a project before. As a project manager, you take the lead on managing a project from start to finish. Your goal is to manage the project budget in a way that maximizes team communication and client profitability.
Because of this, you’ll need to be organized, flexible and comfortable leading a team.
Depending on the industry, you’ll use a specific framework like Agile or Kanban to set project objectives, meet deadlines and keep your team motivated. Clients will rely on you to take the lead and make sure the project stays on schedule and on budget.
Podcast Editing & Producing
Podcasts have grown in popularity as a marketing tool. In the US, 68 million people listen to podcasts weekly. Last year (2019), $708 million in podcast advertising revenue was reported and that number is expected to reach $1 billion in upcoming years. That indicates advertisers are investing in podcasts.
While you might be quick to assume podcasters edit their own podcasts, that is not always the case. Editing and producing a podcast can be time-consuming, so it’s much easier for a busy person to record the podcast and outsource the rest of the work.
As of 2020, podcast editors in the US make on average $55,817 per year.
To start as a podcast editor, learn how to edit audio and what makes a good podcast. To increase your value as an editor, learn producing skills like podcast research, consulting and marketing skills.
Video Editing
Video marketing is only growing online. YouTube videos can be the first thing you see at the top of a search engine results page. According to Hubspot studies, video has become the most commonly used format in content marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics.
80% of video marketers claim that video has directly increased sales (Wyzowl, 2020).
To get started as a video editor, choose a tool like iMovie, Final Cut Pro, or Adobe Premiere to edit videos.
Web Development
Web development, or programming, can be a highly lucrative skill to learn. Web developers use programming languages to build websites, softwares and applications.
There are different programming languages to learn including (and not limited to) HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Python and React.
There are 3 types of web developers: front-end developer, back-end developer and full stack developer. To begin, it helps to know HTML/CSS and then choose a programming language to specialize in from there.
Find a Work From Home Job Online
Once you have an idea of the route you have to take, you’ll need to figure out first steps. As you get started, it helps to have something to show potential clients or employers.
If you are looking for a way to build your portfolio, create your own project or reach out to someone in your existing network and offer to help at a reduced rate.
Next, figure out what potential clients or employers are looking for when they are hiring someone for a project. It helps to read job listings or even advice from someone successful in that industry. Then, use words from job listings to market yourself and demonstrate how you can help reach certain goals.
Related Reading: 7 Tips to Build a Sustainable Freelance Client Network (Medium)
After nearly 4 years in the online industry, I preach the power of your network. Having a network helps with finding a job offline – and the same goes for jobs online. Make genuine connections with people, and consider how you can support each other.
In fact, I recommend joining our Slack community so you can build relationships, share your projects and look at job listings.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Behind every successful person is a tribe of others supporting them along the way. Join the Reroute Lifestyle Slack community so you can:
👯♀️ Build a network that empowers you to create the life of your dreams!
🗣 Share your struggles and ask for advicefrom people who have been there, too.
🎉 Celebrate milestones – big and small- you achieve in your business.
Leave your information below to grab your free invitation:
Have you tried working online before? What’s the hardest part about finding jobs working from home? Let me know in the comments below!
