Although there is currently a 61-to-1 scam ratio among work from home internet jobs (that is, for every legitimate job, there are 61 scams), if you thought all home-based opportunities were bogus, think again. There are plenty of ways to make money from home with the skills and interests you already have; you just have to know where to look to find the stuff that is legit.
Whether you’re dreaming about quitting your full-time job or just like the idea of earning some extra income on the side, there is a lot of earning potential online, especially as more and more businesses become capable of operating remotely. If you’re searching for employment that works with your schedule and lets you earn money from virtually anywhere, check out these ten legitimate ways you can make money from home.
- Get paid for using your phone. Believe it or not, there are a number of companies willing to pay you just for downloading an app on your smartphone and keeping it installed over time. This is because you’re helping the apps collect data to help businesses better understand consumer behaviors, web traffic, and mobile usage. SavvyConnect will pay you $5 per month per device for each month the app is installed, and MobileXpression will give you a prize after you’ve had the app installed for a week.
- Get paid using your phone. In addition to apps that will pay you just for downloading them, there are also plenty of apps popping up to pay you to perform simple tasks or random services. You can get paid for taking a picture of a menu, verifying a road is closed, taking someone’s dog for a walk, and just about everything in between. Check out resources like Junowallet, Gigwalk, CheckPoints, WeReward, and Zaarly.com.
- Sell things you no longer need online. eBay isn’t even almost the only major player in the buy-sell-trade web business these days; you can sell everything from used baseball gloves to LoveProm dresses through platforms like decluttr and letgo. Chances are you aren’t going to build a retirement account just from clearing out your basement or attic, but it can help you jumpstart a savings account or pay down bills more quickly.
- Sell things other people want online. Online retail and ecommerce is a booming industry, with sales predicted to fall between $427 and $443 billion this year and more consumers than ever before eager to shop for wares on the web. Social media marketing has changed the way people shop, so if you’ve got a product you think other people want, build your brand, advertise on Instagram and other social media outlets, and make a go of a real work from home entrepreneurial endeavor.
- Sell your photography. If you’re skilled with a camera, you may be able to make a hefty income with a photography-based side hustle. Not only are skilled on-location portrait photographers highly in demand, but website owners, bloggers, publishers, and other web content curators need quality photos of all sorts of things for an increasingly visual webscape. Stock photo websites typically pay 15 to 60 percent of the sale of the photos.
- Tutor or teach online. More and more students are turning to the internet for homework help and extra tutoring to hone skills, but there is also a growing student population exclusively learning online. This means there is no shortage of platforms enabling educators to connect with students in a wide variety of content areas and specializations. You can teach everything from the core math, science, and reading courses to vocal and guitar lessons or even ESL. There are even immersion programs like VIPkid that allow instructors to teach English to foreign language learners without knowing a word of their native tongue.
- Get paid for being healthy and losing weight. It may sound too good to be true, but it’s real life! There are programs that will pay you for making healthy choices and losing weight, so if you’ve been struggling to get motivated, see if a little extra cash will spark your drive. Apps like AchieveMint, Pact, and HealthyWage will pay you for tracking healthy choices like eating your veggies, going to the gym, drinking water, and losing weight in the new year.
- Freelance. With brands across the country scrambling to perfect their content marketing strategies, the demand from media, corporate, and nonprofit websites for freelancers who can create, edit, and produce content is actually quite high. The payment systems can vary enormously in the freelance world — everything from salaried positions to pay-per-project and even pay-per-word models — but the jobs are flexible and the opportunities plentiful.
- Watch more children. If you’re a stay-at-home parent looking to add some additional income to the household budget without completely sacrificing your routine with the little ones, consider offering childcare in your home. There are a lot of working parents looking for more affordable and personalized childcare solutions outside of traditional daycare, and your kids will get the added bonus of some extra socialization.
What work from home opportunities are you taking advantage of right now? Tell us how you’re bringing in some extra cash in the comments.