12 Ways to Earn a Side Income from Home

Nowadays, there are plenty of ways to earn money from home. Whether you are working full-time doing the 9-to-5 hours, are a stay-at-home parent, or are not a stay-at-home parent but prefer to work online from the comfort of your home, there are plenty of jobs you can do from home. Many people want to earn some extra cash from home to start a new business, pay down debt, boost their savings account or emergency fund, or save for a dream holiday or vacation. Here are 12 ways to earn a side income from home.

Freelance Online

Freelancing is a solid option to make income on the side while maintaining your own schedule. If you have a marketable skill, then you can find freelance jobs on freelance job sites like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelance, etc. There is a huge range of jobs available on these sites.

Some of the popular freelance job categories include online writing, translation, admin support, computer programming, web designing, graphics designing and digital marketing. Potential clients post jobs to these sites, and potential freelancers bid for them. Freelancers from around the world compete for jobs on these sites, so it may be difficult to land your first job. However, if you are really good at what you do, you will build a great reputation online and continue getting jobs.

Make Money Reviewing Products Online

The best way to do this is by starting your own website where you review products you know a lot about and put links on your site to the site(s) where your readers can buy these products. This is done by adding affiliate links to your site. You can earn money when your readers click on these affiliate links to buy the products you have reviewed. So for example, if you know tons about web hosting services, you can start a web hosting review site. There are many web firms and online retailers that will let you earn a healthy income this way.

Become a Translator

If you are fluent in another language, then you can work as a translator from your home and on your own terms. You can land translation jobs through translation service companies or agencies online, freelance sites, career sites, and online marketplaces like Fiverr. The most in-demand translation jobs are available in language pairs like Spanish-English, French-English, Japanese-English and Chinese-English.

Translation jobs pay well and offer great flexibility. Translators can expect to make $20 per hour. Beginners can land their first jobs on sites like Gengo, TranslatorsCafe.com, Lingosaur, Upwork or Fiverr.

Write Content Online

There are many ways to earn a good side income by writing content for others. Article writing is a great way to make money. Depending on the site, you can pick writing jobs directly, bid for jobs or sell your pre-written articles. There are websites such as Textbroker, iWriter and Online Writing Jobs that will let you pick writing jobs directly from a database of jobs. Pick a job, complete it and get paid if the client approves the article. You can write several articles per day through these sites, depending on your schedule, skills and the site.

You can bid for writing projects on freelance sites like Upwork, PeoplePerHour and Freelancer. If a client hires you for a project, submit your work and make money if the project is approved by the client. There are many websites such as wiseGEEK, Wise Bread and LoveToKnow that are looking for contributing writers to sumbit content. Apply to these sites, and if you are accepted as a contributing writer, you can get paid to write articles.

Look for sites on Google with a “Write for Us” page to see if they pay writers for writing content. Another way to find paid writing jobs is to contact website or blog owners in your niche to find out if they would be interested in your article writing or blog writing services.

Work on Fiverr

Fiverr is a great online marketplace where you can list tasks you are willing to do for others for $5 but you can charge $50 or $500, depending on the project. The minimum prices start at $5 for the job(s) you want to do but it is up to you how much you want to charge per project. Whether you have skills in writing, virtual assisting, web design, logo design, SEO, animation, or voiceover work, you can monetize your skills on Fiverr. Create a seller account on the site, list your skills and create at least one gig to get started on selling your services.

If a client purchases your gig, you will perform the tasks described in your gig, and get paid once your delivered work has been approved by the client. Fiverr takes 20% out of your earnings per job completed. If you market your skills and services well, you can earn a good side income each month from this site. Some freelancers make full-time income through their gigs. What can you offer on Fiverr?

Become a Virtual Assistant

If you have worked in an office before, working as a virtual assistant could be a perfect fit for you. But, today’s virtual assistants do more than admin tasks so if you have other skills, you can find work as a VA. Many virtual assistants can do a wide variety of jobs online and sometimes over the phone, depending on their skills and the job. Many small businesses outsource various admin tasks to virtual assistants because they only need a few hours of support per week. They cannot afford to or do not want to hire a permanent employee to do these tasks. They also outsource technical and/or creative tasks to VAs.

You may be assigned tasks like answering phones, responding to emails, scheduling appointments, typing up letters, web research, data entry, creating and managing databases, writing content, social media management, etc., depending on your skills and the job.

You will assist others virtually doing things they do not want to or cannot do themselves. You can work for a virtual assistant company such as Fancy Hands, Zirtual or Red Butler that will connect you to a client, or you can find work yourself as a freelance virtual assistant on sites like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer, Fiverr and FlexJobs.

Become a Remote English Tutor

If you have an excellent command of the English language with impeccable grammar skills, and have a clear voice, high-speed intent connection and patience, then you can tutor students who want to learn English online. There are sites that connect students and teachers online, such as iTalki, Open English, Berlitz and Verbalplanet. Teaching English lessons online is a great side gig for people with excellent English language skills. If you are a native speaker of any language, you can teach language lessons to the learners using these sites. 

Become an Administrative Assistant

Working from home as an administrative assistant could be an ideal position for you if you have worked in an office environment before. However, you can do this job even without previous experience if you have good organizational, communication and time management skills. The duties include providing administrative support such as answering phones, sending and replying to emails, scheduling appointments, data entry, managing clients’ blogs, websites, social media accounts, etc. You can find positions that allow you to provide services entirely online. You must have a reliable Internet connection and a cell/landline phone (if the job requires you to make phone calls and/or answer phones).

Make Money as a Social Media Assistant

Do you use social media sites often? Then you could find work to do from home as a social media assistant. You will update Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts of companies and individuals. Social media assistant jobs pay up to $25 per hour. If you can work for a couple of clients, you can earn a good side income from home. Check out Appen, BELAY, 99DollarSocial, etc. and Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, Indeed.com, Glassdoor, FlexJobs, etc. sites for social media assistant, social media manager and social media evaluator jobs.

Test Websites

Companies and website owners want to know if their websites are user-friendly and will pay people to test their websites before launching them officially. As a website tester, you will visit websites and give opinions on your experiences about certain aspects of these sites. You will give opinions on how easy it is to find a product, what you do not like about the site, or any errors you perceive, depending on the client’s requirements.

Sign up for UserTesting, WhatUsersDo and TryMyUI to get website testing jobs online. You can make $10 per test that can take up to 20 minutes to do.

Perform Small Tasks Online

There are many websites that will pay you to do a variety of small tasks online. These tasks usually pay a very small amount of money per task involved, but they are easy to do and are not time-consuming. Earnings can add up quickly if you do them regularly. You can get paid to write small articles or blog posts, write social media content, and perform other tasks like data entry, web research, product reviews, etc. through sites like Clickworker, OneSpace, Figure 8 Amazon and Mechanical Turk (MTurk).

Work as a Remote Customer Service Representative

More and more companies are hiring home-based people to work as customer service representatives. If you enjoy helping others and solving problems, remote customer service jobs could be a great way to make money from home. Many of these jobs are part-time, so it would be great if you are looking for a side gig to earn extra money. You will take inbound calls to provide information or answer questions about products or services of the company you will be working for, and handle and resolve the company’s customer complaints. You can expect to make about $12-$15 per hour, depending on the company.

SYKES, Working Solutions, Liveops, Amazon, Apple and Appen are some of the reputable companies that hire for customer service jobs from home. You may be working as an independent contractor or home-based employee, depending on the company and your preference. You can also find customer service jobs listed on job boards like Indeed and FlexJobs.

In Conclusion

With one of these 12 home-based business ideas, you can actually earn profit on the side from the comfort of your house. These work-from-home jobs are ideal for those who want the flexibility of deciding when and how much they want to work.

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