Want to supplement your current income or make a little additional money on the side? Many of the following suggestions are not meant to be job replacements but are good ways to save up for the holidays or to help generate extra spending cash for vacations and trips.
Home-Based Agent
A home-based agent is a person who takes calls for customers who need help. They enter and verify customer information and resolve customer concerns through phone, email, or live chat. Home-based agents can either be directly employed or independent contractors. One famous company that does home-based agents is JetBlue.
Requirements: A job like this will require you to set up a quiet working atmosphere, complete with a phone and a reliable computer with a high-speed internet connection.
Virtual Assistant
This type of job provides administrative or technical support to various businesses. Your tasks as virtual assistant (VA) will vary from setting appointments to managing email correspondence, placing orders, planning events, or arranging travel plans. There are also VAs who do virtual office management; these are called administrative assistants, and they may take care of various clerical or research work.
Requirements: Quiet working environment with a phone and a good computer with a high-speed internet connection. Some companies provide you with the laptop and pay your internet and phone bills, especially if you have been delivering impressive results.
Online Tutors
This online job is generally for teachers and graduate students. Second language and foreign language teachers are usually being sought as online tutors, but various other academics work in this field as well. There are various platforms and companies out there that help enable this type of work.
One interesting new development in this area is through Google Helpouts. Basically you can offer assistance for a fee or for free and help people over a video call.
Requirements: Deep knowledge of a specific topic, a web camera, a good computer connection, and lots of patience.
Freelance Writer
There are a lot of online writing opportunities. Topics will vary from healthcare facilities to travel destinations. There are also websites who will need you to write articles to promote brands and their products and/or services.
Requirements: The style of writing may vary depending on the topic. You need to have strong writing skills and the ability to be creative.
Graphic Designer
A graphic designer creates images, usually for marketing purposes. This job will ask you to design print or web ads, brand logos, or web portals. Some companies will ask you to design images so they could put your work on the market. Some work may be involved with layouts of printed materials or web page design.
Requirements: This is for those who have the gift of a good eye for colors, shapes, and symmetry. These positions are for someone with meticulous senses and attention to minute details, as well as a keen knowledge of applications like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Online Surveys
This is a simple way to take 10 to 20 minutes during your downtime to answer some questions. Most people who do this and who are consistently trying to take surveys earn quite a bit over the course of a year. The rewards add up.
Generally people sign up in online panels and supply basic information about themselves to take surveys. Here are the types of questions that they will ask you Types of questions in survey profiles.
Fortune 500 companies hire survey panels to find people to answer questions. For example, Wal-mart may create a survey targeting people in a specific area to find out about their shopping habits. They will go to a survey company that has a list of people who have signed up to take surveys and offer a small reward for every respondent who answers the survey.
Requirements: A computer and your honest opinions. Falsifying information will get you kicked out of survey panels.
Buying and Selling Collectibles
Some people focus on specific niche markets to sell things. How most people do this is they find items on ebay that are selling for a discount and sell the items in custom online stores. Oftentimes, collectors take large sets of items that people are selling and sell the individual pieces at a price higher than the combined collection.
Many people buy and sell items like coins, mini figures, stamps, and various other collectable items.
Requirements: Anyone can do this with enough time on their hands and a little knowledge of the product category.
Selling Homemade Goods Online
If you are great at making something that you enjoy, you can easily sell your wares online.
One great place that allows you to sell online is etsy.com, such as https://www.etsy.com/shop/mwarnerdesigns. This is a great location to sell your freelance skills online. For example if you are a graphic artist, this could be a great place to sell your product to the masses. Other types of products may include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Graphic Art
- Homemade Jewelry
- Pottery
- Art
- Books
- Collectibles
- Toys
- Home Decor
- Clothing
Requirements: You need to have some creative hobby and time on your hands to make a product and ship it when it is ordered.
Freelance Job Sites
Check out other types of jobs found on the following sites, where people can post jobs needed done and you can look for freelance jobs and tasks.
There are more types of online jobs than this, and many new varieties are created every year. Look around some of the sites listed above and see what others are doing, then find your own niche and start your online income today.
