These are similar to the Mechanical Turk and Short Task but pay a little more.
Cloud Crowd pays you to complete on line tasks and You Data pays you to watch advertisements. Your paid each week in your Paypal account.
If your interested in working outside the house in a mystery shopping or merchandising type of situation try Standee Jobs where your paid $20 to $30 to set up movie standees in your hometown theater.
I’m a seasoned writer. My career began back in the early ’90’s as as joke. I had written a fictional piece targeted at my current boyfriend. It was all about how he should appreciate me and women in general more (long story…I’ll tell ya about it sometime) and I kept getting compliments on it. So, I sent it in to a magazine on spec and it was picked up. I began writing for them regularly, moved on to other similar magazines, added a few regional and local newspapers…there you have it.
I didn’t start writing web content until probably 7 or 8 years ago, maybe a little more. But to me- the web content wasn’t really writing. It was just something I could do for extra money. It would irritate the shit out of me to have people call themselves “writers” when all they had ever done was write some web copy. Call me pretentious if you like (I’ve been called worse) but I truly felt that writing web copy did not a writer make.
I began to have issues with it myself. I quit the job I had as a columnist and crime writer for a local paper ( the publisher’s wife was a psycho bitch with a history of crack use and an addicted ex husband to prove it. Yet another LONG story I’ll tell you about later if you get really bored). I picked up a few gigs writing for various print magazines like PREP and Southern Living writing columns and sidebars. I started to peddle my Woman Condemned book to agents and publisher. But I needed the extra dough and writing web copy seemed to be it.
I had issues upon issues with it. I was embarrassed to tell my colleges I did it. I would belittle myself for doing it. Telling myself I had lost “IT” and was just another uneducated copywriter telling the world I was a PROFESSIONAL FREELANCE WRITER.
BUT there is a happy ending (or a happy medium I guess) to this story. Years have passed. I started back to school to finish my Masters and I noticed all the classes and new majors for online journalism (cough…that still gets caught in my throat…a little…) But the fact is, it’s happened. People are becoming more aware of online writers. Bloggers are making a bigger impact in the writing world. I’ve had to make a serious change in my thinking and I think all the old school writers will eventually. I think those of us that have worked in print for years have to realize that there is a new beginning coming. Maybe it will be beneficial for all of us.
Do you have a blog? Are you thinking about it? What about a website for your business or services?
One of the most important pages on your website or blog is the About Us or About Me (as the case may be).
What you put on that page can make or cost you money everytime someone looks at it.
Here is a fantastic article I found about crafting the very best About page you can.
There are two online jobs you can start today and begin working and making money- TODAY.
Both are centered around the same concept: completing tasks that are to simple to hire a part time employee or contractor but to difficult to get a computer to do.
Short Task and Amazons Mechanical Turks.
Each lists tasks that you can complete for cash. Most take only a few minuets. The pay is minimal but it adds up if you have a lot of time on your hands.
Here is an article from Yahoo on the best work at home jobs. All of which you could go into business for yourself doing.
If you’re new to the telecommuting job search; you probably have a lot of questions about what types of positions you can apply for. There are several kinds of jobs that are frequently being offered as a telecommuting position by several companies.
Here are some of the options you may find when browsing the job boards:
Customer Service Agent
This is the most popular and easier to find jobs online. There are several companies that hire people to work from home providing customer service for several clients. You could be using the telephone, live chat or even email correspondence to provide the service.
The level of experience you need for this position depends on the company’s requirements, but they can vary from no experience to a couple years of experience. Each website should say what they have for that requirement.
Transcription
Transcription is typing up audio content into a word document. There are three types of transcription positions that you might encounter in your job search. The types are:
General- You would type up materials from focus groups, financial meetings, and presentations. This type of telecommuting position doesn’t require a lot of experience to do. Companies that hire for this position usually look for ability to type fast, ability to listen, and take direction well.
Legal- This is where you would be transcribing legal content for lawyer’s offices. This type of transcription usually requires one to have at least a year experience working in the lawyer’s office, so that they are familiar with the legal terms.
Medical- You would be transcribing Doctor’s notes and files that are sometimes sent to insurance companies. This is the harder type of transcription to land. This type usually requires medical transcription training and some experience working in the field. The companies will not pay for your schooling, so you’ll have to pay your own way.
Scoping
A scopist works with a court reporter. Basically you would receive the rough data from the court reporter and clean it up for them. You would do the research, type up the correct information, change the formatting and look for any questionable items the rough data may contain.
The court reporter would then proofread your work to be sure everything is correctly in place. This kind of job would require you to have a scopist training under your belt and the necessary equipment needed to do your job. This can be costly.
Social Media Manager
Social Media Managers are people whose job is to scour all social networks, communicate with the target audience of a company and respond to any negative comments being published within these networks. Basically, your primary duty is to socialize with other people important to the company you work for.
You would need to have a good understanding of most of the social networks online and continually research the available tools that pop up frequently to make social networking easier for those who participate. Most companies that hire for this position aren’t necessarily looking for on the job experience; they will oftentimes hire based on your knowledge and experience using them in your personal life.
This list is only a portion of what’s available online today for telecommuters. More types of positions will follow in an upcoming article.
Nell Taliercio has been working at home full time since 2004. She’s worked as a telecommuter, virtual assistant and affiliate marketer. In 5 years she’s discovered many secrets to finding legitimate work at home jobs and securing them. You can find work at home job information and tips at: www.justonlinejobs.com
There is much controversy in the writing community on whether or not Demand Studios is the place to work or if it is a cesspool of bullshit articles for bullshit pay. It isnt so bad really. I registered with Demand in 2008 and wrote for them sporadically. They pay on time but it isnt an easy place to work. The constant differences in what editors tell you is ridiculous. I have had one editor tell me to do something one way and then another ask for a rewrite for doing it that way. Im not the only one that has noticed this. Look around at other mom blogs and on WAHM forums and you’ll see.
The pay is considerably lower than what Im used to as well. Freelancing at magazines and newspapers will bring in quite a bit more but for web content it could be worse. So for now, I’ll keep my two private clients and use Demand Studios to hit the low spots in between. They do try to be consistent, fail as they may. They also take themselves and their writers seriously. That is important for a web content provider. Writers hate to be treated as expendable- even if they are. We like to know that what we have created for you is something of value that you appreciate.
So, as I said, I shall plod on for the time being…
Ive been reading Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz.
Ive seen her other book, Writer Mama but Im already doing fairly well as a writer raising a family (I do an inordinate amount of screaming and yelling and ordering people out of the room but Im paying the bills…lol) so I didnt see the need to buy that book. Of course that might change.
But I saw a tweet of hers about the Get Known book and thought… What the hell…
I write about crime, inmates, and women on death row. Its important to me for many personal reasons but also because the death penalty is just plain wrong. Ive been doing it for over five years. I planned to write a book about my experiences with the women on death row but then three things happened to me that stopped me dead in the water-
My mother died of lung cancer and I sat and watched it. Its a heartbreaking, earth shattering thing. Not long afterthat I had a person I thought of as a dear friend try to ruin my life after she used me incessantly for years and then my father died of lung cancer.
I was emotionally drained and it was all I could do to just make enough money to pay my living expenses. It seemed life kept firmly sticking its celestial finger in my solar plexus and giving it a good jab just for the hell of it.
Any way- back to Christina. My book was a dream I let go a long time ago. Life had taught me the lesson that I was no one to have any dreams. Just give it up Kelly and do the 9-5 thing and realize your just another writer out there. No one special. I bought Get Known Before the Book Deal because I wondered if my work Id done so long ago could be revised at all. If it was still valid platform building work. I wondered if it had been working for me all the while I was giving up on it.
I read the first few chapters and realized I did have a platform for my book. I have the website that gets 1000 hits or more a day, my blog gets several hundred a day and my articles at Ehow and Associated Content on the subject are hit on every single day. Hmmmm…
In Chapter 6 Christina talks about crafting your niche. I almost skipped over that part. I have my niche crafted for me. Its the women on death row right? Wrong. I read on and discovered I didnt REALLY have a niche. While women on death row is a fairly small area of capital punishment it isnt a real niche. I went back and made a few changes to my blog. On page 38 she talks about condensing things to make yourself more accessible to the public. I took that advice (or I have started to.I think this will be a process) and then I updated my contact information and changed things around a little.
The very next day I received an email from a lady in Australia who said shed found me through my Ehow articles and then my site and blog. She had questions about how to find an inmate she was interested in writing about and how to go about it. I thought, Holy Shit. I think I have a platform. I think I have the beginnings of a platform, at the very least I am doing on or two things right.
So just for shits and giggles, why dont you follow me while I follow her advice and see if this thing really works out for me! Oh, and wishing me a little luck would be cool too.
Since Christmas is blissfully over I am concentrating on getting back to real life. That is life sans the candy cane dreams and sugar plum fairs dancing around. I mentioned before that I had started using the Pomodoro technique which works wonders for me but I have modified it.
I found that the recommended amount of work time vs breaks didn’t feel comfortable with me despite its effectiveness. The alarm would go off to signal my break time and I’d still be mid project or need to keep working. So, I have modified it to work an hour or longer before taking a 30 min break. So far so good.
I’ve never been big on resolutions. I don’t make them and that way I don’t break them. Im Catholic. I have enough guilt as it is. But as far as work goes, I had one private client in 2009 that I did lots of work for about .30 cents per word. I also have one steady client I provide content to for .34 cents per word. Also, I had the three jobs for the .50 center per word. Then I had Demand Studios and my revenue shares. Id like to have three or more private clients to work for steady for at least .40 – .50 per word each in this new year.
That would mean asking more of myself as a writer and forcing myself to take extra steps in my career.
Hmmm…. As my old Friend Terry Alford used to say “Just how big a girl are ya’?”
Telcommuting Truths 