Work from Home Jobs 5 Places to Find Work Online

   Work from Home Jobs: 5 Places to Find Work Online If you’ve already made the decision to work from home or are looking to ditch your 9 to 5 job and give writing or some other kind of work a go on your own, there is good news. There are five main places that you can look to find work online. And there is honestly no end to the number of work from home and remote job opportunities that are out there. So the good news is, work from home jobs are out there. The bad news is that just finding legitimate work from home jobs can be one of the most challenging things you will face in your life. If you just put â€Å"work from home† into your search bar, you risk getting inundated with a ton of spam at the least and being sucked into a phishing or banking scam at the worst. That’s where we come in. We want to make the search for legitimate remote and virtual jobs easier for you so that you can dive in and start earning money. So finding a legitimate work from home job starts with a decision on your part. Do you want to run your own business and do freelance work or do you simply want to work a more â€Å"traditional† job but avoid the daily commute? Once you make this decision, you can review the suggestions below with a goal to either finding new clients and virtual jobs. Freelancing Platforms Freelancing platforms generally have two sides, the freelancer side, and the client or employer side. They are a third party that provides a service and charges both freelancers and employers a fee, with all payments processed through their website. If you choose a freelancing platform, make sure you understand exactly how everything works and what fees you will be charged. Many third party freelancing sites may also have a clause which prevents you, the freelancer, from connecting or working with any of their clients outside of their site for a specific period of time. This means an employer cannot hire you to work directly for them if they like your work unless they pay a â€Å"buy-out† fee. Some larger employers expect this but it can prevent you from being hired full-time with some employers, so do your research. Examples: Upwork.com is a popular platform and a decent way for any beginning freelancer to start out. This is a third-party website who will take 20% of what you earn for each gig. It’s a lot yes, but the site does save you a ton of time searching for clients and they do assist in ensuring that freelancers get paid for work that was completed. You still need to be alert for scammers when bidding on jobs as they are there. FWU’s own PJ. Aitken made a lot of money on this site and still does. To follow in his footsteps, read his book on the subject: The Online Writer’s Companion. ifreelance has hundreds of projects. You can register, create your profile and then bid on open jobs. ProFinder is designed to help freelancer workers find new clients, ProFinder was recently launched by LinkedIn. It’s designed to match talented freelancers with top name companies who need work done. General Job Boards Online job boards simply aggregate all job listings into one website and give you the ability to search it. This is great because it saves you a ton of time finding all those jobs yourself. But since there are so many jobs out there and there is little to no communication between the job board and the actual employers, job boards are often outdated. Also, jobs don’t always get removed once they’ve been filled. This means you can spend time applying for something only to find out it was filled months ago. But job boards can still be a great way to find clients looking for freelance work or employers that allow remote work. Make sure when you search job boards that you filter the search to limit results to remote jobs. When you apply and actually connect with a potential client or employer, you are responsible for clarifying all the details so make sure that the job is 100% remote or virtual before you get too far in the process. Examples: Craigslist.org is a job board most of us are familiar with for various reasons. They do have writing and editing category. You can further narrow the writing/editing category by checking the telecommute box on the left side. Check the box on the left to â€Å"include nearby areas† so that you get more listings. Specialty Job Boards Specialty job boards are great and in my opinion, these are one of the best ways to find potential new clients or companies that allow telecommuting. The reason specialty boards are so much better than general job boards are (1) they are often managed by someone who specializes in that field and (2) the industry focus means that the person managing it is less overwhelmed, (3) they typically include other resources on their site that will be helpful to you. Examples: Journalism Jobs is specifically for those looking to find work in the media industry including print, broadcast, or digital media. What I really love about this job board is that you can search jobs and even send your resume to employers without having to be registered with their site. Specialized Websites Freelance Writing Gigs: This is the top source for freelance writing jobs and it’s one of my favorite resources. Sign up using your email for daily updates and listings of writing related jobs. Lists are categorized so you can quickly find content writing jobs, magazine writing jobs, blog posting jobs, etc. Freedom with Writing: This is another of my favorite resources to use to find writing jobs. This site curates lists of websites for magazines, publishers, and others who are paying for content. Their lists typically include a short description of what kind of writing each place is seeking along with an idea of what potential compensation would be. You have to pitch your piece and follow up. Content Websites (or Content Mills) Writing for content mills, like Textbroker, Associated Content, or Demand Media is quite controversial. Many content mills pay as little as $.04 per word which is low if research is needed, so check this out before getting started. Also, some editors will not consider you a serious writer if you use content mill articles in your portfolio. Consider using a pen name. Although I don’t personally recommend writing for a content mill, it may be valuable for writers just starting out for the following reasons: Content mills give you an opportunity to get paid to practice writing. You get used to working to deadline. Opportunity to write on a wide range of topics There is no greater freedom than to be able to work from home. With a little research and a lot of hard work, you can find opportunities to work from home in each of the five places listed above. My recommendation is that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket and that you work toward getting a mix of opportunities that gives you the income you need with the freedom that you want. When you find that balance, there will just be no stopping you from that point on.