Category Archives: Online Opportunity

Tips for Stay-at-Home Moms: Home-Based Jobs

“Stay-at-home mom” is a title that has significantly evolved in the past decade — in large part because “stay at home,” thanks to the digital revolution, no longer means “non-working.” A home computer with an internet connection is the portal to innumerable flexible options, and if you’re a stay-at-homer looking to add part- or full-time work to your home-based schedule, there are many paths you can pursue. Earning an income for your family while simultaneously caring for your family (and being present) has recently become much easier — you just have to determine what type of work is best for you.

Know Thyself, Skillset and Schedule

First, you must ask yourself these questions: What are you looking to get out of home-based employment? Would you sacrifice a higher salary for something personally rewarding? Or would you rather be earning at a higher rate for work that isn’t necessarily fulfilling? Whatever your goals, keep in mind the schedule in which you can achieve them. Do you have a solid seven hours of time when your children are at school, or is your free time scattered throughout the day as you tend to a toddler, or your home? And does your environment allow for the quiet necessary for phone-heavy jobs, or is it louder and more chaotic — requiring most communication to occur via email? Know the answers to these questions, and you’re on your way to exploring the following employment options.

Learn a High-Demand Skill

If decent pay is high on your list of priorities, it wouldn’t hurt to invest your time or money in learning a high-demand skill. Computer coders and programmers, for instance, are often needed across all industries. On a small scale, any company that maintains a functioning website requires an employee with some degree of code familiarity. On a large scale, startups and digitally-based companies are always often in search of reliable programmers and developers to add to their team. These opportunities are both freelance and permanent hires that work remotely, so you’d be able to fit your own work schedule around your established lifestyle.

Similarly, many companies (particularly smaller companies) hire freelance clients to do web-design — the actual site graphics — that has nothing to do with coding. Learning Photoshop skills or taking a graphic design class could be a fantastic investment that will allow you to start freelancing on your own as a visual designer.

Follow Your Passions

If the search for a home-based job is centered more around self-fulfillment than finance, the first thing to ask yourself is: “What do I love to do?” If your passion is making art or crafting, check out sites like Etsy.com. Individuals can set up their own digital store and sell their unique homemade products. If you’ve wanted to make and sell your own ceramics for years but have put it on hold as a stay-at-home-mom, you should know that there are many ways to sell your products online from your own living room.

If you’re passionate about teaching, you can start your own tutoring business from home. Or, if you’d like to stay digital, you can seek out jobs on sites like TutorVista.com that hire individuals to tutor students online.

And if you’re passionate about an organization or charity, seek out jobs in their marketing department that can be performed remotely. Many smaller organizations may not even have a centralized office, but rather hire individuals who can work from home. Charities and non-profits are often in need of marketing employees, and while the pay may not be the highest, knowing you’re helping spread the word about your passion can be incredibly rewarding.

Know Where You’re Needed

If you can’t find a field that appeals to you and are more concerned with a consistent paycheck, look for positions that aren’t necessarily glamorous, but are necessary. Data entry, for example, exists throughout all industries and can often be operated remotely. Companies will hire employees to manage their databases and upkeep their systems. And although tedious, these types of jobs allow you assignments that are finite and accomplishable so you can go on to do other things at home. Learn software like Excel, Oracle, SQL Server, and Amazon’s SimpleDB. Data management isn’t going away anytime soon. Just be careful—there are a lot of ads out there that promote home-based jobs, and they are often scams. Before you sign up or submit anything, be sure to do your research.

Writing content for websites is also a niche position that many people making a living off of. If you’re better with words than number data, you might want to consider checking out freelancing sites like upwork.com. Oftentimes you’ll start with very low rates, but after gaining some experience you can charge higher numbers in exchange for guaranteed quality content. In addition, learn how SEO works; much of the content purchased by companies for their digital sites take SEO into consideration when publishing.

There are also phone-based positions offered by many companies. Think telemarketing, but the caller calls you. This can include IT help, sales, and customer service lines. And many of these jobs are also shifting to home-based work — the image you might have of a large call center is becoming less and less accurate as corporations save office lease costs by keeping their employees at home.

No matter what job you decide to pursue, don’t be discouraged by the vastness of choice. Sometimes jobs will be right in front of your nose, and other times you’ll feel like you’re stumbling around in the dark. Keep looking, pursuing leads, and evaluating what it is exactly that you’d like to get out of home-based employment, and how you can achieve these goals.

Quickest Ways to Make Money Now

glass of water

We’ve all found ourselves longer for a bit of extra income at some time or another. When times are tough, we dream of finding a suitcase full of cash or discovering an old antique in our attic that’s worth a fortune! Fortunately there are quick solutions to make money now – with the internet being the answer to much of our money making needs. Read on for the quickest ways to make spare a few spare quid now:

Cash for… Everything!

Forget the antique in the attic, there’s a good chance you have plenty of sellable items around your house. Almost everything can be sold second-hand on auction sites like eBay or classified listings like Gumtree – both of which are very easy to use. Then there’s the ‘cash for’ sites which will pay you for your disused items without the need for sales listings and bargaining. You can sell clothes, DVDs, computers and old phones by signing up, sending in your items for assessment and waiting for payment!

One off projects

The web has made it really easy to help others remotely from the comfort of your sofa and with sites like PeoplePerHour and Freelancer.net you can browse one-off job listings and apply to complete the project at the rate of your choice. The sort of briefs that you can expect to see include: writing and design tasks, web development jobs and remote data collection.

Make money from your everyday spending

If you shop a lot online, you really should be making the most out of cash back services like Quidco. Sign up and you can receive cash back on many of the purchases you are already making! There’s no catch and you don’t need to do anything new. Cash back sites simply track your computer when purchasing from affiliate stores and reward you for your spending. It couldn’t be easier.

Advertising

If you have a presence online, whether a blog, website, or impressive social media following – there’s money to made from letting others advertise in front of your viewers. The type of advertising that you allow will be depend on your readership and what you plan to offer the advertiser. You could offer a monthly rate for a simple button or banner advert on your website, or provide regular promotion via your social networks and email contacts? Be imaginative and find out what potential advertisers would want. Once the adverts are in place, no further effort is required.

Rent out stuff

When you don’t have stuff to sell, use the lesser-known money making trick of renting items out instead! Sites like RentMyItem and RentNotBuy allow you to post listings for products you will hire out to locals. It could be anything from a formal frock to a ride-on lawn mower, anything expensive that others will benefit from borrowing rather than forking out for. Sites like this don’t provide protection if an item gets damaged… so think carefully before you lend. Asking for a deposit is highly recommended.

Image courtesy of thanunkorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Work from home opportunities

Originally published at Job Opportunities for the Stay-at-Home Mom.

If you’re a stay-at-home mom who would like to add to the family’s income, there are plenty of online jobs that could put anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in your pocket each month. With the economy in its current state, a second income could add to your family’s feeling of security. You could make money in your spare time while you continue to stay at home with your children by using the internet.

work at home mom

Many companies from retail stores to automotive insurance providers are hiring customer service representatives to work from home. These telecommuting positions would involve the stay-at-home mom receiving phone calls that are routed to their home and helping the customer on the end of the line. Sometimes, they’ll have a question about a product or service. At other times, they may need assistance navigating the company’s website.

Virtual assistants are in high demand. Many people can’t afford a full-time secretary, but could use someone to handle appointment setting and paperwork. A virtual assistant usually provides these types of services for several people on a part-time basis. Most communication is done through email with the rare phone call. Virtual assistants rarely meet their clients in person.

Freelance transcription services are also growing in popularity. Information is recorded and transferred to the transcriptionist’s computer through the internet. The transcriptionist listens to the recording and creates a written copy.

The beauty of these jobs is that most of them will allow you to set your own hours and work from the comfort of your home. While the kids are napping or off at school, you could be making a little pocket money for your family’s next vacation or to pay off that extra bill. Although the examples listed here are popular ways to make extra money at home, the possibilities are virtually endless.

Image credit: Stuart Miles – FreeDigitalPhotos.net