I am so gullible. I’ll be standing in line at the grocery store, attempting to resist the chocolate, and suddenly a headline from one of the popular magazines will grab my wallet and make me buy the magazine. So, I paid $2.79 for a Women’s Day in order to read one article, since I really didn’t need the Slow Cooker Recipe Cards or to read an opinion on why everyone should be screened for colon cancer.
The article is called How to Make Money At Home. Well, imagine that. I suppose that somewhere in my subconscious is buried a very deep desire to not spend my days around expelled alternative school students who for some reason, really don’t want to be at school and act accordingly.
At any rate, since I spent the money and then five entire minutes reading it, I figured that at a cost of $13.95 an hour, the article should be shared, so I can hopefully obtain a decent ROI, as they say. Uh huh.
Here is what it says in a nutshell, along with my helpful commentary. Note: Unfortunately, some of the information applies only to those readers who reside in the US.
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1. Customer Service Representative
The rates listed are $9-$20 per hour.
LiveOps.com
WestatHome.com
RepsforRent.com
Arise.com (Does this mean you have to wake up to do the work?)
WorkingSolutions.com
ACDDirect.com
AlpineAccess.com
I have checked out LiveOps and WestatHome, and they appear to be legit. Of course, it would be extremely unusual to get benefits with such a position, as the entire point appears to be the ability to hire independent contractors, which save the company huge buckaroos. The article mentions that someone working for Alpine Access received benefits, so you might want to check that one out first.
2. Virtual Assistant
You know the book, The Four Hour Workweek? You probably have if your residence is anywhere near the vicinity of this planet. Well, apparently there is quite a demand for those virtual assistants. I checked one of the sites out, and pretty much got booted because I had no prior experience being such a person. The article claims that VA’s earn from $25-$75 USD an hour, which made me snort coffee out of my nose. If anyone thinks this is true, please give me a head’s up so that I can switch careers immediately.
NorrisBusinessSolutions.com (It appears that this woman, who is the person who quoted the rates, has her own VA business. I strongly suspect that is the way to go if you want to make a real salary.)
International Assistants Association
VirtualAssistantJobs.com
TeamDoubleClick.com
3. Online Tutor
I have checked this one out before, and contrary to what the article says, the demand is for math and sciences, not English or social studies. Too bad for me, but I’ll bet some of my readers can multiply!
4. Telemarketer
Oooh, would you really put your karma on the line like that? If you’ve got plenty of courage, don’t mind being cursed out and have little consideration for the dinner hour, then perhaps this is for you. (Or perhaps you just really need the money.)
West.com
Telereach.com
Intrep.com
5. Online Juror
I have such mixed feelings about this one! One the one hand, reading the cases is so enticing that I would do it for free. On the other, perhaps the manipulation of our justice system is not the most ethical thing happening today. At any rate, you won’t get rich, as it is rare to get more than one case per week, and you won’t even get that unless you live in one of the locations where lawyers are using this service.
Ejury (This one pays $5-$10 per case–ick.)
OnlineVerdict.com (Pays $20-$60 per case.)
As an eligible online juror you may be asked to review cases that are filed in your county or federal district. You will receive an email invitation from OnlineVerdict.com to review the case at your convenience, but once enough responses are received, the case will close and no additional participants are needed.
6. Online Guide
This section of the article refers to the About.com guides, who get paid a minimum of $725 a month. What the article does not say is that in order to become a guide, you must spend about two months building a blog along with other “finalists”, and you may not be reimbursed one cent. Looking at the areas on About.com will certainly give you the definition of “niche”, however, in case you were wondering or looking for ideas.
They also mention ChaCha.com. From what I hear, this gig pays minimum wage, and that is only when you are actually logged in helping a customer find something that for some reason they couldn’t type into Google themselves. If you are an expert in something, try JustAnswer.com.
7. Professionals
In the article, FoneMed.com is mentioned as a good option for nurses. I know that I’ve seen other sites out there that offer online therapy, legal forms, etc. This option probably pays the most, but you have to have the skills while at the same time being competitive and most likely giving up the benefits of a bricks and mortar job.
Making your money as an independent blogger was not mentioned. That is why I consider these options to be “the hard way” to make money at home. I can’t imagine that any of them would be nearly as fun as working on your own projects. But if you need some reliable cash, some of these might just be the way to go.
If you know of a company that isn’t listed here, do list it in the comments!
Customer service reps – from what I understand these actually are pretty decent jobs for people who’d like to work from home. I recognize a couple of the companies listed there as being legit, though these types of jobs are bad for parents with kids at home, especially young kids and babies because the companies have zero tolerance for background noise.
I’m not so sure the “online jurors” are really that unethical. Basically, you’re not really a juror for a real, ongoing trial – you participate in “mock trials” where you read a case online, and then take a survey and voice your opinions and feelings about the circumstances.
These types of websites, from what I understand, exist mainly to help lawyers practice for the real thing. Is that unethical for a lawyer to script his case by surveying the (uninvolved) public? Maybe a tad, but I wouldn’t say it’s detrimental to the legal system.
ChaCha, don’t even bother unless you’ve got allllll day to sit on the computer waiting for actual searches. You’re only paid $5 per “search hour”, meaning when you’re actively searching. When I did it briefly to check it out, I was pulling in a whopping $1-2 an hour, most of the search queries were bogus.
Can I have your slow cooker recipe cards? Because I need one more road map on how to make stuff my kids won’t eat. ut at least I won’t have to do dishes.
Hmmmmm. Looks like I better keep going to school for the nursing gig. When I graduate with a BSN the starting slary runs about $48,000 a year.
Interesting. Sadly, I don’t reside in the US so can’t become an online juror. And doing the telemarketing gig once was quite enough, although the money can be great and you develop a thick skin against cranky old people.
I’ve heard of some people making fast cash by working for phone sex companies, but I’m not quite there yet – ask me after a year of blogging!
I actually didn’t know you could make money online in any of those ways. I also find the Online Juror option somewhat disturbing — for both the ethical concerns and the wage-slave rate of pay.
About 90% of those jurors must rule guilty. Don’t they know everyone is twice as mean and judgmental on the internet?
I agree. Fun projects at home – even if they don’t turn a profit – are more rewarding than some of these. I don’t see the appeal at working at home: I like meeting people and seeing the same people every day. Plus it’s guarenteed income, and usually techniques I learn at work as a web designer I use on my blog
I make money at home the easy way. Laser printer.
For online verdict, how long does each case last to get that $20-60 dollars >_
My mom worked for AlpineAccess for a while. They received medical benefits in the form of a debit care which was credited a set rate for each hour they worked. It was a nice supliment to her Medicare.
If you don’t have any “moral” issues about it Niteflirt is a phone operator site where you get to set up your own account and charge your own rates to “talk” to men (or women as may be the case) on the phone. I did it for about a month and it was fun but a tad exausting. I earned about $50 a week working a 1-2 hours a night. The only bad part is, the callers rate you and some of them get thier kicks giving you low ratings.
Your writing style is very unique; certainly drew me in
Subscribed to your feed
Awesome post. This is not your standard run of the mill make money from home posts. Very well done.
BeachBum
Argh… I had planned an article similar to this one as a follow-up to my article on “eliminating your housing expense”. I’ll wait for a bit to post it, or maybe link to your post for more ideas. Great job on the research, though.
[...] BlogGrrl Make Money at Home the Hard Way. Michelle talks about alternative work-at-home opportunities and concludes that blogging is her preferred option. [...]
[...] Bloggrrl has looked at some alternatives and decided that a lot of other work-from-home jobs really don’t pay that well. Some think that there is not a rosy financial future in professional blogging. On the other hand, we have John Chow, who is happy to let everyone know what he is making.Apart from Greg and the report he quotes, a few people have thought about the “if it’s not for the money, why do we bother?” question recently. [...]
[...] Bloggrrl has looked at some alternatives and decided that a lot of other work-from-home jobs really don’t pay that well. Some think that there is not a rosy financial future in professional blogging. On the other hand, we have John Chow, who is happy to let everyone know what he is making.Apart from Greg and the report he quotes, a few people have thought about the “if it’s not for the money, why do we bother?” question recently. [...]