Typing is one of the most popular ways to work from home. Job seekers see it as an easy way to earn money while watching their kids. And while work at home data entry jobs are few and far between, there are alternatives. One possibility is to find work from home closed captioning jobs.

In its way, captioning is much like transcription – you’re typing up what people say. It’s more specialized, however, especially if you caption live television, which requires much greater speed and accuracy than preparing captions for recorded shows.

Accurate captioning is vital, as it allows hearing impaired people to enjoy television and movies at home. Some people with good hearing also like having the captions on, especially if the room is noisy.

What Are The Types Of Captioning?

There are two basic types of captioning jobs out there. While they require similar skills, one is much harder than the other.

Offline Closed Captioning

Offline closed captioning is where you’re likely to start if you have little or no experience. There are still rules to learn, such as how you cope when people talk over each other, and what you do about background noises.

Sometimes you will have a script to start your captioning, and then add the time codes to it so that everything matches up. Other times you will transcribe first from the show, then add the time codes in.

You will also need to learn how to use time codes. These help keep the captioning aligned with what’s happening on the screen. Captioning that gets ahead or behind what’s actually being said is annoying to the audience.

On the plus side, offline captioning can be highly flexible work. This depends in part on the company, but some will allow you to decide when you work rather than set a schedule for you.

Realtime Closed Captioning

When you see closed captions on the news and other live television shows, that’s done by more highly trained closed captioners. It’s a good job for people with training in stenography, and you will likely be expected to use stenography equipment. This allows their typing speeds to go as high as 200-300 words per minute.

You have to be fast to do realtime closed captioning. Ideally, the words should appear within two seconds of being spoken, with very few errors. If you’ve ever watched a live show with captions, you may have seen how the captioner will sometimes go back and make rapid corrections. They need to do so for accuracy, but they risk losing track of what’s being said if they have to make corrections too often.

And of course, realtime captioning means you work on the schedule of the shows you caption. No flexibility there.

You cannot afford any distractions if you are doing realtime closed captioning. This is not a job for someone who is also watching the kids or has to deal with other noises while they work. Distractions are a bad idea even if you’re captioning previously recorded shows, but they’re disastrous if you’re working live.

What Training Do Work From Home Closed Captioning Jobs Require?

While not all companies require training or experience for work from home closed captioning jobs, it’s a good idea to get training first. Training will help you get off to a better start, as you’ll know what you’re doing. The better prepared you are, the easier it is to earn money.

Training also means you may qualify for better paying jobs. If a closed captioning job doesn’t require training or experience, odds are that the pay is very, very low.

If you’re already trained in transcription, you’re a good part of the way there for captioning. You’ll need to learn how to use time codes, but you’ve learned how to type rapidly. You’ll still need stenography training for some positions, as that requires a different set of skills.

Court reporting and stenography training are also very helpful. Some court reporting schools also offer training for captioning. You will be trained on stenography equipment, which will allow you to write the captions much more quickly than you could type them otherwise. This training may take 2-5 years.

How Much Do Captioning Jobs Pay?

The pay rate for captioning varies quite a bit by company. The Bureau of Labor Statistics groups captioning with court reporters, and gives a median income of $55,120 per year or $26.50 per hour. You will not earn that much as a beginner, so don’t set your expectations that high right away. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/court-reporters.htm

Glassdoor lists captioner salaries starting as low as $8 an hour. Many companies pay on production, so it is possible to earn less than that when you’re still learning the job. This number is probably more realistic when you’re just starting out.

The reason it’s difficult to figure out exactly how much you will earn is because many work at home closed captioning jobs pay on production, not hourly. As of this writing, Rev states that they pay $0.45-$0.75 per video minute. When you’re new, this means a very low hourly rate, but gets better as your skills improve.

Realtime captioning pays better than offline captioning, due to the challenges involved and training required.

What Equipment Do Captioners Need?

You will need to set up your home office with the right equipment before starting captioning work. Many work at home captioning jobs are freelance, and so you will need to start out with enough equipment to get you going. If you’re a regular employee, your employer may provide equipment to you.

The first thing you will need is a computer. Some companies want you to have two computers, to ensure that you have backup. This way it’s not a complete disaster if your computer fails; you just go over to the spare.

You will also need high speed internet, and possibly multiple phone lines. The exact requirement varies from company to company. Many jobs are done entirely online which used to require a connection over the phone.

Headphones are a must. Don’t use ear buds – you want high quality, over the ear headphones. Any background noise in your home will be a distraction that slows you down.

If you do offline captioning, you will probably want a foot pedal. If you do realtime captioning, you will need stenography equipment. It’s often best to look at jobs before buying equipment, as employers may have a preference or may provide equipment to you.

Companies Which May Have Work From Home Closed Captioning Jobs

Aberdeen

Realtime closed captioning jobs at Aberdeen may pay as much as $75 an hour. This is for the highly experienced captioner who can type at 180-220 wpm. Jobs transcribing video clips may also be available. Their jobs may require familiarity with Biblical and Christian terminology.

ASC/Morningside

ASC/Morningside doesn’t so much do captioning as they do transcripts of news shows and such. Not all positions are home based, so pay attention to the location before applying. At least three years of experience is required, along with a bachelor’s degree in English or journalism.

CaptioningStar

CaptioningStar looks for experienced, freelance, realtime captioners. They offer closed captions, broadcast captions, live captions, and open captions to their clients.

Captionmax

While many of the captioning positions at Captionmax are located in their office, they have some contractor positions that can be done remotely. These positions are for realtime captioning, and require that you have experience and your own equipment. An A.A. or B.S. in Court and Conference Reporting or satisfactory completion of other 2-year equivalent program is required. You should also have NCRA certification Certified Broadcast Captioner or equivalent.

Daily Transcription

Subtitler/captioner positions with Daily Transcription require previous experience in the field. You also have to sign a NDA before testing for the position. They also have transcription positions available. Applicants must live in the U.S. or Canada.

They allow you to create your own schedule, which is great if you need flexible work. You get work based on the time you select on the scheduler.

They also state that they pay more than Rev. Their top transcriptionist earns $250- $950 per week.

Dotsub

Dotsub offers freelance captioning positions. On their application, they’re interested if you are bilingual, have a medical or legal background, are familiar with technology, or are a sports fan. Some positions involve subtitle translation.

GoTranscript

GoTranscript mostly offers transcription services, but they also offer captioning services. Positions are freelance. The average transcriptionist earns $150 per month, with the top earner at $1215 per month, according to their site.

They do not require experience, but you must have good English skills. You can even retake the test a few days later if you fail the first time.

NCI

NCI may have both in-office and home based captioning jobs available. Some positions are for independent contractors, but employee positions may be available as well. Stenography experience may be required for realtime captioning positions.

Rev

Rev offers a variety of freelance positions, including captioning, subtitling, transcription and translation. Captioning pays $0.45-$0.75 per video minute and they state that the average captioner working for them earns $240, with top earners going up to $1570. You do not need experience to work at Rev.

Rev is completely flexible with their freelance captioners. You decide when to work and how much you work. It may not be open to all locations, however.

Vitac

Vitac starts out work at home captioners as part time employees. There may be the opportunity to become full time later. One job title to look for on their board is Voice Captioners. This work is done using speech recognition software. They say the hours are flexible, but to expect this to include nights, weekends, and holidays, which means you may need to be flexible for them.

If you are selected to work for Vitac, they may have you travel out to Denver, Colorado for onboarding and initial training. Full time employees may qualify for benefits.

What About Other Typing Jobs At Home?

If you’re looking for typing jobs at home and have decided that captioning isn’t for you, consider transcription jobs. The skills needed can be similar, with a few differences, as you don’t have to prepare the transcript to keep up with the show.

Some kinds of transcription, such as medical transcription jobs, require training before you can look for jobs. This is due to the specialized vocabulary and formatting required.

Others require no special training, but it can help. You may want to consider a course such as Transcribe Anywhere to learn what is expected in a transcription job.

The post How To Find Work From Home Closed Captioning Jobs appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

I often hear from people who want to work at home, and that’s as far as they’ve gotten with it. They seem to want me to tell them what to do. Know what? I can’t do that. I don’t know what kind of work at home job or home business is right for a particular person. That’s your problem. You need to think it out, look at your skills and interests, and start researching the possibilities. Once you’re there, I can probably give some better tips. Just get those first ideas for working at home, and you’ve got a start.

With all that said, here are some ideas to perhaps get you going. Maybe one of these ideas for working at home will help you. It’s not a comprehensive list of work at home ideas, but it’s a start. Oh, and yes, there will be affiliate links in the post here, but it’s potential value to readers that gets links in this post, not whether or not I get paid. There will be non-affiliate links too, in other words.

Work at Home Jobs

As always, don’t pay for a work at home job. Sometimes you may legitimately have to pay for a background check, but look into the opportunity before you do so, as that’s always a risky proposition.

You may need to get training on your own for some of these jobs as well. The training isn’t done with the employer – you have to attend classes at a school or find a good online course. You have a lot of options now to gain the skills you need for the job you want.

Data Entry

Data entry is one of the classics lots of people look at when they want to work at home. It sounds easy, and you can find lots of ads promising you big bucks for filling in simple forms.

The reality of this one isn’t quite so simple. There are indeed true work at home data entry jobs out there, but they don’t pay the big bucks, and they’re on the scarce side. I have some companies listed here on this site, but no idea who’s hiring at any point (as with all other work at home job opportunities) so don’t ask me. You may do better with one of the freelance sites, taking on an individual, usually short term assignment.

If the “job” is filling out ad forms for affiliate commissions, get better advice. Affiliate marketing is great when it works, but it’s not a job and it’s not that easy to make a living at it for most people. At the very least, there’s a tough learning curve and if you’re doing pay per click ads it can get really, really expensive before you master it.

There are better alternatives out there if you think data entry is the one work at home skill you have. You can do more than you think if you give yourself the chance. You need to look at more ideas for working at home.

Customer Service/Telemarketing

Customer service is one of the other hugely popular work at home jobs right now. It doesn’t take a lot of special skills, so many people feel comfortable trying for customer service work at home jobs. You need a completely quiet place to work, a desktop computer compatible with requirements set by potential employers (usually Windows of a reasonably recent sort), a high speed internet connection, a landline telephone, and a good quality, noise cancelling headset telephone that connects directly to the wall outlet (no wireless).

The need for quiet makes customer service a challenging job to do at home with children. Kids aren’t always quiet when you need them to be. Neither are pets. Sometimes even your spouse can be difficult, not to mention the folks mowing their lawn across the street. That’s why you must have a headset telephone that cancels out most background noises.

Medical Coding

If you want to do medical coding from home, you will need training and experience. That’s an absolute. I have yet to see any employers that will train you on the job from home. Once you have that, however, there are some excellent work at home medical coding opportunities out there.

Medical Transcription

Medical transcription is where I got my start working at home. I still cautiously recommend medical transcription, but it’s getting trickier as times change. Electronic medical records have really changed some parts, and you have to be prepared for that. That said, there are still jobs out there. Just remember that you have to get a good quality medical transcription education first, and make sure it prepares you for the current situation.

Legal or General Transcription

Legal and general transcription may be options as well for those who type well. While it is possible to get into general transcription without training if you’re sufficiently determined, I strongly suggest you take the free course from Transcribe Anywhere to get a feeling for what’s required.

You will almost certainly want training for legal transcription. Transcribe Anywhere has a course for legal transcription, including a free mini course so you can decide if that’s what you want to do before spending any money on it.

Transcription is a great alternative for working at home. I think it’s a much better choice than data entry, and there are far more jobs in transcription at home than data entry in my experience.

Bookkeeper/Accountant

Lots of people and companies need a good bookkeeper or accountant. If you have the skills, you can take it home. You may need to meet with clients in person at times, but much of the work may be done at home.

Tax season is a very busy time for bookkeepers and accountants, of course. You’ll need to consider how many clients you can handle even when they all need help around the same time.

Computer Programmer/Software Developer

My oldest sister used to do computer programming from home. I know it’s entirely possible, even though she eventually decided it wasn’t for her. You have to have the skills already, but if you’re a programmer, you don’t necessarily have to go to the office anymore. You can find a company that lets employees work from home instead.

Teacher

Not all teachers work at school. There are charter virtual schools which hire teachers to work primarily from their homes. Meetings with students and parents may be required, but the bulk of the work can be done from your home. In most programs, you do need a teaching credential for this work.

Online Tutor

If you don’t want to go all the way to being a teacher, there are also companies which hire online tutors. You may still need that teaching credential, however. There are a number of companies, however, that do not require a teaching credential for their tutors. Read the job description and requirements carefully so that you only apply for jobs that you’re qualified for. You’re only wasting time if you apply for jobs you aren’t qualified for.

Translator Or Interpreter

It’s a big world out there, and sometimes a translator or interpreter is needed to get through it all. Translators can work from home for a particular business or service, or strike out on their own as a freelancer. You will need to be fluent in both languages you deal with as a translator.

Many interpreters work from home over the phone. You’ll want a good setup so that you can hear clearly and be heard clearly. You might be interpreting between a patient and doctor, for example, and it’s very important to get things right.

Mystery Shopper

Most mystery shoppers don’t earn all that much, but the pay per job can be decent if it’s close enough to your home. It’s a nice way to get out of the house while earning some money. Be aware of the many scams in the mystery shopping arena and make sure you deal with reputable companies. Some people do fairly well, but it takes time to get to where you earn good money.

Health Care

Nurses may be able to work from home answering health related questions on the phone. Nurses can also do case management from home. Most positions require that you be a registered nurse in the state you reside in.

Technical Support

Technical support can be like a customer service position in some ways, except you’re dealing with much more technical information. The pay can be better. Some technical support jobs require a college degree or certification.

Be prepared to deal with problems ranging from the simple to the complex. People call tech support for many reasons, and some of them will have very little understanding of what you need them to do to help solve the problem.

Website Developer

Do you enjoy creating websites? Know your HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and so forth? You may be able to set up a business developing websites for other businesses or find a work at home job as a website developer.

This is one option that many people do a lot of their marketing locally. Not all small, local businesses have websites and may be very interested in having one developed for them. It’s a highly affordable marketing tool, even after the expense of the website.

Graphic Designer

Whether you’re creating a logo for a website or a photo spread for a magazine, graphic designers don’t necessarily have to work from a big office. You can do quite a bit of this on your own for clients or be a work at home graphic designer for a company.

Alternatively, make great designs and sell them on Teepublic, CafePress, Zazzle, or many other websites.

Virtual Assistant

Good at doing things around the office, like handling emails, appointment setting, data entry, online research and so forth? There’s pretty good demand for virtual assistants who can handle a variety of business tasks. Take this course if you want to learn how to be a successful virtual assistant quickly.

Photographer

If you love taking photographs, you can make the most of that by becoming a photographer. You’ll need to develop a good portfolio, and it’s often best to specialize. Some prefer being a wedding photographer while others prefer family photos, for example. Certainly, you can do a few different types of photography, but it may be easier to build a reputation if there’s one you really specialize in.

You don’t have to just take pictures for sale to a particular client. You can also take photos and put them up for sale on stock photography websites. The income from these may be small per sale, but it can build up if you provide an interesting, useful selection of photographs.

Writer

There are lots of opportunities out there for writers, whether you want to be a freelance writer or work for a single employer. There’s also a lot of competition because so many people want to work as writers. You have to find a way to stand out.

It’s a good idea to specialize as a writer. Consider your experience to figure out what areas are best for you to specialize in. You can write articles, ebooks, reports, resumes, and much more. You may want to consider this course, 30 Days To Freelance Writing Success, to get things moving.

Marketing

Ever look at the copy on a sales page and pick apart just how they convince visitors to buy? Are you a convincing writer yourself? You may do well running your own website selling products or you can do marketing for others. A great copywriter can earn very good money.

Social Media Marketer

Just how much of a chatterbox are you on Twitter, Facebook, and other social websites? Are you always finding the great links to share? You may do well marketing other people’s businesses on social media for them. You can be a social media marketer as a regular job, freelance and help several companies with their social media marketing, or use it as a strategy to promote your own online business.

Drive

Driving isn’t working at home as such, but if you don’t need to do everything at home, you can work for Lyft or Uber as a driver. These work if flexibility is your goal and you don’t have to be at home all of the time.

Freelance Websites

This is where the plus in the article title comes from. Just about any job you can do at home, you can find through a freelance website. They’re great for building a portfolio or resume when you’re just getting started, and you can make a living just through freelancing when you’re good at it.

Many freelance websites have you create a profile, then you bid on jobs. Don’t obsess over being the lowest bidder all the time. You don’t want the jobs that don’t pay what you’re worth; they’re reputed to be the most difficult customers because they want so much for less.

Here are a few websites you can check out for freelance job listings. Some are the bidding sort, others are set up other ways. You may need to work at the office at least part of the time for some freelance jobs, but many can be done entirely from home.

Guru
Craigslist (beware of scams)
Upwork
People Per Hour
Freelancer.com
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
iFreelance
Toptal
Freelance Writing Jobs

And many more, just do a search with your favorite search engine.

If all you put down for your skills are common things such as writing skills, you’ll have a lot of trouble finding jobs. Some freelance sites won’t accept you with skills that are too common, as they have too many people bidding on those jobs already. Give some real thought to how you apply to freelance sites as well as your portfolio. It’s a good idea to have an online portfolio outside of the freelance sites so more potential clients can find you and review your work. Starting a blog can help you put your skills on display.

Home Business Ideas

There are a ton of possibilities when it comes to running a home business. Strictly speaking, freelancing is a home business too, but many people think of them separately, and so I’m treating them separately.

Now, you can combine a few things to make your home business work its best. You can have a blog, do affiliate marketing, and have an email list that you send special offers out to. You can have your own product and do affiliate marketing at the same time. These things aren’t exclusive; just make sure you learn to do each part before you add on another thing. Taking on too much at once with a business makes it easier to fail.

Affiliate Marketing

This is just one form of online business. There are several other models, but affiliate marketing appeals to a lot of people. No worries about taking payments, dealing with inventory or shipping products – it just sounds easy.

As with any other home business, there’s quite a learning curve, and many affiliate marketers make under $100 per month, from what I’ve read. In other words, don’t assume you’ll make a fortune, no matter what the promos say. One way or another, you have to learn to market, whether it’s online, offline, social media, pay per click, buying ads on other websites or creating your own.

On the other hand, you can market just about any product you can think of. Affiliate marketing is great if you want to run a website about your hobby – just refer people to sites that sell the things necessary for the hobby and will give you a commission. Make sure you keep your recommendations honest – there’s no quicker way to lose a reputation than to recommend junk.

I suggest taking an online affiliate marketing course to get going. It’s not quite as simple as throwing a few links on a page or into your social media stream, believe me! You’ll earn more as an affiliate if you know what you’re doing.

Blogging

There are lots and lots of bloggers out there now. It’s a popular home business model. Affiliate marketing can be a part of it, but you can also sell ad space, get paid directly to promote products or use it to build upon another part of your business.

Most bloggers won’t hit it big. It should be obvious that we can’t all be big name bloggers, but with all the dreams people have about their home businesses, I think it bears mentioning. Keep working on your blog, and you get a decent following and earn a good living, if not the spectacular money some bloggers earn. It doesn’t cost a lot to start a blog, making it worth the effort.

Email Marketing

Nope, email isn’t dead. It’s not even suffering too badly. Just because a lot of people enjoy reading blogs and receive posts through an RSS reader, or keep up with things on Facebook doesn’t mean they don’t use email anymore. It’s still pretty strong.

There are a lot of rules to follow as an email marketer. Don’t buy a list. That’s a great way to get in trouble for spamming. Don’t just send emails from your home computer either. Most ISPs really don’t like that, and may limit how many you send, plus if you get accused of spamming, you can lose your entire internet connection.

It’s much better to go with a service such as Aweber or Get Response. They provide the HTML for your subscription forms, handle spam complaints and unsubscribes, and so forth. The main thing you do is write and send out your emails, and work on attracting people to your list legitimately. Keep it legit, as either company will terminate any account they feel is getting subscribers the wrong way.

Make Videos

Video marketing is usually a portion of your overall business. Unless you get a lot of views, you aren’t going to earn a living from your videos without selling something, whether you do so as an affiliate or sell a product of your own creation. Sufficiently popular videos may also earn an income from ads placed on the video. YouTube is the popular site for posting videos, of course, but you have to watch out for the rules. Google’s pretty strict, and accounts can be deleted.

Take a little time to learn YouTube marketing to improve your chances of success with YouTube and similar sites. Learning from someone who knows how to get things moving can help you avoid a lot of the mistakes others will make.

Product Creation

The wonderful thing about online marketing is that it’s really easy to make your own product. Ebooks, software and apps can sell very well online, and may not be all that hard to make. You need an idea, then you need to take action to make that product a reality. Then start marketing. As with any other business, it will probably be tough at first, you may fail a few times, but keep at it and you might make it.

Life Coach

Many people enjoy working with a coach to get their career, life or home business running better. If you’ve had some success and enjoy sharing your skills, you may be able to earn a living as a coach. You can take a course to learn how to be a life coach and get your business going.

Daycare Operator

How about going the traditional way? Running a daycare from your home has been around a very long time. The hours are long, the pay may not be great, but you’re with your kids.

Network Marketing

This is another traditional way to earn money from home. From classics such as Mary Kay, Avon and Watkins, to the floods of newer network marketing companies out there, you can have fun selling products to family, friends, referrals and possibly even online.

Sell Crafts

Whether you sell on Etsy, eBay or elsewhere, it’s much easier than it used to be to make crafts and sell them online. There’s lots of competition now, but that means lots of opportunities as well.

Store Owner

You can run your own store selling physical products. You’ll need appropriate licensing for your area, a wholesale source for products, a way to take online payments (Paypal works, but you may want to consider other credit card processors as well), and a website to display your products.

Now, you don’t necessarily have to have the products in your home. Some people prefer to use dropshippers, so as to simplify the shipping process and the inventory. Getting stuck with a bunch of something that didn’t sell is a pain, after all. You’ll still have to deal with customer service issues, store promotion and so forth.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn. What types of work at home do you think are worth it?

The post 30+ Ideas For Working at Home appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

In some ways, this seems like a silly question. Of course there’s work at home for men. Most at home jobs and home business opportunities really don’t care if you’re male or female. That rarely makes a significant difference. That said, there may be different interests in the kind of work most men want to do at home. Then again, perhaps not.

I’ve had both men and women ask me how it is they can work at home. We bought a car recently, and I ended up talking to the salesman almost as much about my work as about the car at times. He was intrigued because I was the first person he’d met actually having success at working online, even though he’d heard about it before. Only time will tell if he decides to start working online too.

More men are choosing to stay at home these days. Two of my brothers-in-law do so, although neither has a work at home job. One writes in hopes of being published someday, not as a job.

Computers play a big role in working at home, whether you work for someone else or run your own business. Your work may be done primarily or entirely directly on the computer. Here are some job and business types to consider. There are so many possibilities that these suggestions are vague, just to get more of them in.

Telephone Support & Customer Service

Lots of companies hire telephone support and customer service people to work from home. It saves them a ton of office space, and the work really doesn’t need physical presence. It’s easy enough to get employees set up to work from home. Just takes a dedicated phone line (usually land line, not cellular or VOIP) and a computer with the right programs. Don’t assume that these jobs are easy to get in spite of the number of companies in the industry – it’s hard to land most types of home based jobs just in general. Still, it’s one of those jobs many people start out looking for because they’ve heard that it can be done from home.

Software Development

Going for a much more challenging job, software development can also be done from home. Teams can hold meetings online rather than in person, and work can be sent in to the company’s server. It takes a good education in programming to succeed in this – my older sister, who is a software developer, notes that cheaper, less experienced programmers can be harder on a project’s budget than more expensive, more experienced programmers as they can make more mistakes.

Healthcare Industry

While you may think of healthcare jobs as requiring a lot of personal contact, that isn’t always the case. There are several opportunities in this area which can be done from home, and some pay rather well.

Medical transcription is where I started out, for example, and the pay for a good, productive transcriptionist is fairly good. Registered nurses can do phone triage from home, and there are even home based positions for radiologists and physicians.

Direct Sales/Network Marketing

While many direct sales and network marketing opportunities appeal most strongly to women, there are a number of companies that are appealing to men as well… and even the traditionally female ones such as Avon are open to men. It’s not whether you’re male or female after all, it’s whether you can sell the goods.

Social Media Marketing

Many companies need help with their social media marketing. If you understand social media, know how to build a following on multiple platforms, and can handle an online reputation, you may be able to find a company that will allow you to manage their accounts from your home.

Online Business

Online business takes many forms. It’s like treating all brick and mortar businesses in a single category, when the range of opportunities are huge, even if you’re only really considering small businesses, not Walmart or the like.

The great thing about online business, though is the range of possibilities available without risking bankruptcy. Many an online business has been started on the side, as the owner continues to work a day job. Costs are low enough that you don’t have to risk a fortune to generate a nice income. You’ll probably spend some, sure, as sticking to free options only doesn’t work that well for most people, but the costs don’t have to go into the thousands each and every month. With many but not all online business models, it’s easy to keep costs under $100 per month.

Sell products you make, drop ship, be an affiliate marketer, sell ad placements on your site, promote a service you’re offering… you have a lot of options online. Some will require you to go other places; others can be done entirely from the comfort of your own home or any place you have internet access and time to work.

Truth be told, work at home jobs for men aren’t that different than those for women. Figure out what you’d like to do, and see what it takes to make it happen. Take into consideration any distractions or challenges your situation will present, and make a plan for dealing with it. You can do it, and it probably won’t be all that hard.

The post Is There Work From Home for Men? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Do you love teaching? Do you have the qualifications to teach on a particular subject? Why not be a tutor?

Tutors work at many different education levels. It’s not all K-12; college students need tutors too.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Qualifications vary on the type of tutoring you want to do. Some may require that you be a credentialed teacher. Others may only want you to have a college degree.

You can work for a tutoring service or seek out your own students.

Job Duties

You may work regularly with particular students or be available at particular times for whichever students come looking for help.

The basic job, of course, is to help the students improve in whatever subject you are tutoring.

Your hours may be very flexible, but you have to be available at times that people are going to want a tutor.

Equipment Needed

If you’re an online tutor, you’ll need your computer and high speed internet access.

Where to Search for Jobs

Education job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru
College campus bulletin boards if you’re going to tutor local college students. Post your information.

Related Scams

Tutoring is of course subject to the usual “pay to show your interest scam,” but there’s another interesting possibility.

You answer an ad for a tutor, and are told that you will be paid by certified check. They want you to cash the check, take out your pay and send the balance on to someone else.

This is related to the mystery shopping scam or payment processing scam where they tell you to take your mystery shopping pay out of the check. It’s fraudulent, and you are suddenly responsible for the money. Worse, you can face criminal charges.

The post Tutoring – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Starting your own blog is a pretty popular online business model right now, but it’s not the only way you can make money as a blogger. You can also do pretty well by blogging for someone else.

Often the pay is not that great, however. Many companies pay by ad revenue shares or by page views. But you can sometimes find hourly or per post pay.

Blogging for someone else’s site means you have less worry about the marketing side of things… although if you’re getting paid by the view or ad revenue you might want to make some time to market your posts.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Many companies will want to see blog post samples that you have written. You should also have a strong interest in the topic of the blog and know how to find great information to share.

WordPress is the most common blogging software, and being familiar with it can be a big help. Be prepared to learn other systems if necessary.

Job Duties

Writing interesting blog posts is the most obvious part, but that is not all a blogger does. You often have to do a bit of research on your topic. You will probably be expected to respond to comments and encourage your community.

Equipment Needed

Probably just your computer and internet connection.

Where to Search for Jobs

Blogging job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru

Related Scams

There aren’t many specific to blogging work at home job scams out there. However, you should always keep in mind that if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Don’t fall for outrageous promises.

The post Blogger – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

I got thinking about this job due to my oldest sister. You see, she is a work at home computer programmer, and not a freelance one. She has a regular employer.

As with many work at home jobs, this can be done as an employee or purely freelance. You might telecommute part time and be in an office the rest of the time. But as computer programming really doesn’t require a lot of face to face interaction, it’s about perfect for working from home.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

You need to have the skills for the particular type of programming you’re going to do. In many cases, a college degree is necessary.

Job Duties

Programmers will generally have to code, test and debug according to the needs of their employers. You may be modifying existing programs or helping to start an entirely new program.

Even from home, you are often a part of a team of programmers working together on a particular project. You will need to know how to cooperate and plan as necessary with your fellow programmers.

Equipment Needed

Your basic needs will of course be a computer and a high speed internet connection. You may also use programs such as Skype to keep in contact with your employer and coworkers.

Where to Search for Jobs

Not all of these sites focus on jobs you can do from home, but it’s worth searching all around when you want to work from home.

Craigslist
FreelanceAuction.com
Dice.com
GetAFreelancer.com
Hire My Mom
Elance
Guru
LimeExchange.com
oDesk.com (edit: now Upwork)
Project4Hire.com
RentACoder.com
ScriptLance.com
SearchWebJobs.com

The post Computer Programmer – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Many people think about product assembly or crafting when they start looking for work at home jobs. It sounds great, getting paid for your artistic skills.

Unfortunately, this is one of the most heavily scam-ridden areas of the entire concept of working at home. The number of legitimate employers in this area is exceptionally low. But people keep on looking because they’re comfortable with their creative skills and may even have real talent.

In general, if you want to use your crafting skills, think about starting a business selling your own products on Etsy. Your odds of making money are probably quite a bit better.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

This will depend somewhat on what you are doing. In general you will need good manual dexterity and an eye for detail.

Job Duties

Assemble products to the standards required by your employer. This may include sewing, gluing or other crafting skills.

This is where the big catch comes in for the classic scams . Working up to the standards is essentially impossible. Since you often pay for your supplies and will only get paid when your work is accepted, it’s easy to lose money and incredibly hard to earn anything worth the time you spent.

Equipment Needed

Depends on what you are assembling. A sewing machine if you do sewing, for example.

Where to Search for Jobs

Good luck! Legitimate jobs are very, very few and far between on this one. But if you must search, don’t call it crafting. Be more specific, or search for “artisan”, “seamstress” and the like. There may still be scams, but you’ve improved your odds.

Try job boards such as Craigslist and Indeed, but be aware of the standard signs of a scam. Finding this kind of work takes a great deal of caution and skepticism so that you do not merely fall for one scam or another.

Related Scams

The majority of positions in this field have the potential to be a scam. Don’t pay to show you’re serious. Research any company you are considering contacting, especially before you send any money. A Google search on the company name plus scam should give you a good starting point; if not, start asking around and see what others can come up with for you.

The post Product Assembly/Crafting – Weekly Work at Home Job Ideas appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

A forum poster gets paid to post in forums. It’s a pretty simple job, often with minimal requirements. Unfortunately, that minimal part also goes for the common pay, which may not be great. But if you enjoy the topic it may not be such a bad deal.

Forum posters may be hired by people wanting to grow their forum or by people wanting to market their business. In either case you need to follow the rules of the forum you are posting on. Use whatever signature your client wants you to use for your posts.

Pay is often in the $0.15-0.20 per post range.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Many forum posting jobs do want you to know a little something about the topic of the forum. They’re prefer to hire a parent to post in a parenting forum, for example, or someone who enjoys photography in a photography forum.

You should have sample posts ready to show for companies you are new to. Over time you can build a good reputation to get more work from particular companies.

Job Duties

Post on the specified forums as detailed in the assignment listing. Job assignments may tell you how often to start a new thread versus responding to one started by someone else. They may tell you how much to spread your posts apart in time.

Your posts should match the style of the forum. If most users use popular chat abbreviations such as LOL or IMHO, you’re probably safe to do likewise. Your spelling and grammar should be excellent.

Equipment Needed

If you’re here, you probably have all you need. Computer and internet connection. A Paypal account is a good idea too.

Where to Search for Jobs

Digital Point Content Creation forum – Just look for forum posting jobs. Other writing jobs also listed here.
Coding Forums Vacant Job Positions forum – Only occasional forum posting jobs, mostly coding positions.
Best Forum Posting
Forum Advantage/Paid Forum Posting – Owned by the same company
Forums First
Forum Post
Inb0x
Kickstart Your Forums
Posting Direct
Webvigor
Wired Flame

Related Scams

One of the challenges with this type of work is that companies can sometimes be slow to pay or suddenly quit paying. This is probably the most common complaint of forum posters. Doing the work you were assigned and not getting paid is a very unpleasant experience.

Keep track of the posts you make for each company you work for. If you start getting excuses for why you aren’t being paid, keep asking for your pay until you get it, and decide if the company is worth working for in the future. Sometimes it will be a yes, sometimes a no, depending on how constant the problems are.

And never, ever pay to show that you’re interested in one of these jobs.

The post Forum Poster – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Writing is one of the most popular work at home jobs. It’s something many people can do, even if not everyone loves to write. The equipment needs are minimal and the demand is there. Pay, however, is extremely variable, depending on the kind of writing you want to do and what you ask for.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Writing jobs don’t always have a lot of qualifications listed, but other times you need specific training or the ability to research unfamiliar topics well enough to write clearly about them.

There are a few kinds of writing. Copywriters, for example, write ad copy. If you’re good at this it can be one of the best paid types of writing job. It involves a lot of testing and practice to learn what works best and what works for particular markets. Little changes can do a lot.

Article writing is very popular now that a lot of websites need it for promoting their sites. However it pays far less on average. The more you get paid as an article writer, the better your research on a given topic will be expected to be.

Any paid writer needs to have excellent grammar and spelling skills. Don’t trust to spell check alone, as it is notorious for missing the use of an incorrect but properly spelled word. If you’re too lazy to proofread, working as a writer is probably not for you.

Job Duties

Write whatever it is you’ve been asked to work on. What you write depends on the kinds of work you choose to look for.

Equipment Needed

You probably have everything you need. A computer with Microsoft Word or Office and an internet connection is about it.

Where to Search for Jobs

Writing job listings at Home with the Kids
Blogging job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru

Related Scams

The main scams to look out for are paid job boards that really don’t offer any jobs, as well as any job posting that offers an exceptional amount of pay for the amount of work done.

Poetry contests and similar are also very common scams for writers, as are writing contests.

Recommended Reading

88 Money-Making Writing Jobs
The Definitive Guide to Making Money Online With Your Writing
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
6 Figure Freelancer

The post Writer – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Mystery shopping is a work from home job that has been around for a long time. It takes an eye for detail and a willingness to keep a sharp eye out for shops in your area.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

No training as such is required in advance. You will need to learn how to write up the required reports after each shop.

Job Duties

You will follow the instructions provided for each shop. Sometimes you will have to make a purchase within a certain budget, for which you should later be reimbursed. You may be told to go to the shop location within a particular time frame.

You of course do not want to be identified as a mystery shopper. While you will need to create a report on your experience, you should not be taking notes during the shop.

Shops can be done at all kinds of stores, apartment leasing offices and even on cruise ships… although that last is generally reserved for highly experienced mystery shoppers.

Pay can be fairly low for the time involved when you include travel time, especially in the early days. But you can get the better paying shops as you build experience and a reputation with your employer as someone who hands in detailed and accurate reports.

Equipment Needed

Transportation to get to the shops in your area. A computer and the necessary software to send in your reports. Odds are you won’t need to buy anything new for this job.

Where to Search for Jobs

Mystery Shopping Work at Home Jobs at Home with the Kids
Mom! Mom!
Volition

Related Scams

There are two current mystery shopping scams I know of. The more recent one is where a company sends you a check or money order for a few thousand dollars, and instructions on how to do your mystery shop, cashing the check and sending the money to a designated recipient. You get to keep a few hundred.

The check is fraudulent, and you end up paying the charges.

The other scam happens when sites offer lists of companies that are looking for mystery shoppers. All you have to do is buy it.

However, most of the lists are useless. They may not list legitimate opportunities, or may only list stores that might use a mystery shopper. The above resources are probably better ways to find companies to hire you.

The post Mystery Shopping – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.