With the economy like it is, it is less likely to find one solid job that pays all the bills, especially if you have student loans. Therefore, many of us need two or more jobs to keep up with the payments! For a long time that meant working at both your professional job and then a minimum wage one. Not only would this exhaust you physically, but also it was also mentally draining. Now, thanks to the worldwide web, we can find part time jobs that don’t require us to go out at all.
First, you have to decide what it is you want to do with your time. Do you want to write creatively? Take surveys or write reviews? Or perhaps transcribe or complete data entry? Once you know what you want to do, you must then start working on your portfolio. In this case, a portfolio is like a more visual resume. It shows off examples of your work and provides all the information an employer may need to know about you before they decide to hire you.
Some jobs, like the survey or webcam opportunities, don’t require a portfolio because they are the easiest to complete. It is a no experience necessary niche that is open to anyone who has the time to complete the tasks. However, if you want to make decent money for your time, the writing/transcription jobs are the way to go. If you don’t have anything to build your portfolio on, there are many websites that you can go to that will provide free tests to prove you are the right one for the job. A few examples of these tests are words per minute, editing, spelling/grammar, and translation tests if you are applying for a bilingual position. If you don’t have any samples of previous work to put in your portfolio then simply create one or two to show your talents.
Once you have your portfolio together, it’s time to start applying for those online jobs. Many can be found via Craigslist, Upwork, Elance, fiverr, People Per Hour and freelancer (just to name a few.) It is easy to get started with these kinds of websites, but be careful and watch for scams. Make sure to know for sure that they are a legitimate client and use the provided website to keep track of all of your work.
Finally, remember that timing is crucial. Working online is not like your nine to five job where you just put it an allotted amount of hours and then you’re free to go home. Working online is a lot like owning your business. You have to be personally responsible for every deadline and never lose track of your clients or projects. The best way to keep to track is to make yourself a schedule. Decide how many hours you can put aside each day to work online and then only take the amount of work you can handle within those hours. A lot of these clients talk to one another, so one bad review can quickly degrade your worth. That being said, if you do right by your clients, they’ll do right by you!
