John Concrane August 19, 2019

Working and making money from home can be a dream, but it can also be the real deal that changes your life. You can be skeptical of the strategies of making money by working at home, but they do exist. Here are some of them :

Contract and freelance work are often used interchangeably, but there are a few subtle differences. Many of the home-based “jobs” you’ll find on career sites hire workers as contractors instead of employees. These contract jobs can be full or part-time, and as regular as a traditional job, including a steady income. The difference is that contractors are considered independent from the company for tax purposes and therefore, need to manage their own self-employment taxes.

Virtual Assistant: Many small business owners and mid- to executive-level professionals need personal assistants, but may not be able to afford a permanent position on the payroll. The solution: Hire people from remote locations to do their administrative work. Virtual assistants handle all kinds of administrative projects, including travel arrangements, event planning, correspondence and other support services that can be done remotely via e-mail and phone. According to Lynne Norris of NorrisBusinessSolutions.com, who works out of her home in Pennsylvania as a virtual assistant, the rates for VAs run about $25 to $75 or more an hour, though ZipRecruiter calculates the average hourly rate at $19. According to Norris, the startup costs of this work from home job can range from about $500 to $1,000, assuming you have an up-to-date computer and printer.

Don’t go to non-work appointments in the middle of the day. “I try to make doctor and dentist appointments just as I would in a company office, first thing in the morning, last thing in the day to minimize disruptions of my work,” says Linda Stokes, managing partner of the Academy Physicians, a physician recruiting company in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area. Get in-person time with co-workers. Once a month the four-person virtual team at Moreno Valley, California-based commercial telecom company TelecomQuotes meets in person. “I’m a big believer in kinesthetic learning or learning by doing and that’s a bit of a lost art with our virtual world,” says CEO Michael Bremmer. “There is something about white boarding an idea, while talking through the story and everyone is leaning in, engaged, thinking about a common goal, drawing on the deep water thoughts, that you just don’t seem to get on a conference call or video call.” Read extra details on Looking For Work-from-home Opportunities.

Swagbucks is one of the few all-inclusive platforms that lets you get paid for completing a variety of tasks. Like some of the other recommendations on this list, you can get paid to take daily surveys and you can also watch videos or play games for rewards points too. If one of your freelance gigs is writing or web research, you can “double dip” by performing your web searches through the Swagbucks search engine which will provide the same keyword results as going directly through Google or Bing. Every point you earn can be redeemed for gift cards or PayPal cash.