Thanks to advances like high-speed home internet and encrypted cloud access, a growing number of workers from a growing number of industries are making a living without needing to leave their house. So long as the job involves creating or editing information, it’s easy enough to do it from home and send the results into the office through an online connection.
Still, not every job and industry is embracing telecommuting at the same rate. While some employers are fine with never meeting an employee or contractor in person, other companies insist on having face-to-face interactions at least once per week to maintain a relationship between employees and help coordinate their tasks. Other industries can’t go electronic because they produce more than information. Still, if staying at home and working through your home internet connection appeals to you, there are a few industries you can focus your job search on.
1. Content Creation
A growing number of people are making a living by creating videos, blogs, music, art, and other content and then posting it online to gather donations, sponsorships, and ad revenue. It’s not an easy gig even if you’re good at what you do, especially since you need to be your own marketing team and you can’t count on a steady income, but it’s very possible to do.
2. Translation
If you speak at least two languages fluently, you have an opportunity to help people communicate online. This could mean assisting a non-native English speaker with an online education, translating works from one language to another, or working at a bilingual call center.
3. Search Engine Evaluation
The algorithms that search and sort web pages are extremely complex and growing more so by the day. Search engines gather all kinds of information about the search inputs they receive from all their users, but in the end, their programmers need some detailed feedback about what people are seeing and how the engines are sorting the white hat SEO and dropping the black hat SEO. That’s where search engine evaluators come in.
4. Transcription
Transcribers need to be fast, neat, and precise, especially since they usually transcribe documents with a lot of jargon or precise language. Don’t expect much money at first, but you should find good-paying jobs once you have enough experience.
One last thing you should do is keep an eye out for scams. Since you don’t expect to meet your employer in person, it can be easy for scammers to either make you buy into a fake job or convince you to do work for them without paying. But if you find a good employer, you could earn a surprising amount of money with nothing but a computer and a high-speed home internet connection.