10 Legit Online Jobs That Pay Well For Your Time (2022)
Did you know that over 3.7 million employees work from home at least 50% of the time? Finding a legit online job is the dream of many people around the world, as it allows you to set your own hours, gain freedom, and become your own boss.
Instead of showing up to a 9-5 every day, you could be jumping on your computer and earning just as much money from home. There’s no shortage of legitimate online jobs in different industries, both for part-time side hustles and full-time careers.
There are online careers for everybody based on their individual interests, skills, and resume. Follow along as we cover some of the best online jobs and how to increase your chances of becoming successful at them.
Contents
Legit online jobs for students and moms
1. Start a dropshipping business
The e-commerce industry is continuing to grow by $500 million or more year over year. Currently, Statista forecasts that the e-commerce industry will reach $7.4 trillion by 2025.
One of the most popular business models within the e-commerce industry that is very friendly to beginners is dropshipping. This is a model in which you purchase products from a wholesaler at a discount, and sell them for retail or markup in your online store.
It’s not uncommon to receive 40% margins or more. This means that you could buy a $100 product for $60, then sell it for the original price to receive $40 profit per sale. Don’t worry if you’re not the most tech-savvy person, either. We’ll show you how to get started as easily as possible.
Shopify makes starting an online job easy
Before you begin drop-shipping, a storefront is required. Out-of-the-box solutions like Shopify are great. They provide users with a professional, fast, and secure online store they can use to start making an online living.
Sign up for the free 14-day trial to get a hang of the platform. This should give you enough time to play around with the settings, and determine if it’s a right fit for you.
Afterward, you can upgrade to any of the paid plans, with the $29/month package being ideal. It gives you the storefront, unlimited products, sales channels, and other mandatory features that you’ll need to make this into a legit online job.
Aliexpress can help you source products
Once you have a store up and running, you need products. But, where do you outsource stuff from? Simple. Aliexpress. This is the business to the consumer version of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse.
You can list products from Aliexpress on your store, and markup the prices a reasonable amount. Analyze competitors in your niche to determine how you should price items to remain competitive while giving customers a good deal.
Save the product images, and ensure that you write enticing product descriptions. Focus on the benefits of the rather, not just the general features like color, size, or fabric.
Once your store has enough products, you need to begin marketing! I recommend investing a few hundred dollars into Facebook or Instagram ads. They are relatively inexpensive and help store owners generate their first few sales. Take this profit and put it back into your business.
Network with suppliers to increase your margins
Those serious about drop shipping should also become serious about networking and developing deeper relationships with suppliers. This will help them acquire better margins and access to more products.
Trade shows are ideal to begin networking in the e-commerce industry. These events exist to help small businesses and local businesses connect with one another.
One of the most popular in the world is the Small Business Expo, which holds keynotes, workshops, and more.
Besides networking, I also recommend considering:
- Producing blog posts
- Learning the basics of SEO
- Learning about email marketing
All of these strategies together will grow your store over time, increasing sales and turning your store into a full-time career.
2. Earn a living from any location with freelance writing
Albert Lasker, one of the world’s wealthiest writers, began his career by sweeping the floor of an advertising agency called Lord & Thomas. His salary began at $10 per week, and eventually, he started writing ads at $5,000 per year.
This eventually rose to $10,000, and $50,000, which is roughly equivalent to $1.2 million in today’s currency. Wouldn’t it be nice to make that kind of money as a freelance writer? Even on a micro-level, those interested in working from home could be making a great living as a writer.
Here’s how to get started. Begin by compiling all of the written work you’ve completed that could be used a portfolio. Don’t worry about what it is. Work reports, school papers, and anything in between can be shown to display your skill level and expertise.
Find job boards for freelance writers
Next, aspiring writers need to visit writing job boards to apply for gigs. These serve as a foundation of earning, building a portfolio, and increasing writing proficiency.
ProBlogger is one such job listing board to check out.
Visit the job summary of any positions that seem interesting and follow the application instructions thoroughly. Some will require you to use an exact subject line, submit a certain amount of portfolio pieces, or other requirements. This is to weed out the less serious writers that can’t follow instructions, so make sure that you stand out with this small step.
If you have a knack for languages, you can also specialize in translating documents. Or if you are a particularly fast writer, there are always gigs available for transcribers.
3. Get paid for your proofreading skills
Do you have an eye for detail and enjoy writing? Then you’d make an excellent proofreader, and it’s also a lucrative online career. Proofreading is the process of ensuring that there are no grammar, spelling, or other errors in various material.
There are plenty of freelancing websites you can use to find proofreading gigs like Working Nomads. This platform is dedicated to the latest and highest quality proofreading positions on the internet.
Filter the results from the left sidebar to narrow down the categories, such as finance, management, sales, graphic designer, and more. Proofreading jobs will require you to go over material like blog posts, white-papers, presentations, and similar to keep quality as high as possible.
Online jobs where you can work from home
4. Help business owners with search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the skill of optimizing websites and content to rank higher in search engines. This helps websites and businesses receive more organic traffic, which can be converted into leads or sales.
Those with a background in digital marketing will find an SEO career rewarding, fun, and profitable.
Start an SEO agency
The best way to become a full-time SEO is to create your own agency. This can seem daunting, but you just need to stick to the basics, and you will be able to generate serious income.
If you’re good at SEO, prove it by building a niche website and optimizing it for local keywords like “Toronto SEO.” Throw together a portfolio if you’ve ever helped others with their websites, as well. Once you have a base like this, it’s time to begin pitching clients.
Nothing beats meeting up face to face, so consider visiting local networking events. Print business cards with a service like Vistaprint, and start heading into local stores to talk to the store owner.
This means that you have to create an awesome elevator pitch: a quick summary of your services and how it will benefit the prospect.
If you can’t sum up what you offer and why SEO is beneficial in roughly 30 seconds, you need to keep working on it.
Common pricing models for SEO
- Retainers: A retainer is providing a set amount every month for a certain price. You might charge $1,000/month for a specific amount of links, on-page SEO, etc.
- Hourly: Some freelancers and agencies have an hourly rate at which they bill projects.
- Per-project: You can bill clients on a per-project basis, which typically involves charging 50% upfront and the remaining invoice after the service is completed.
At the beginning, you’ll have to charge lower rates just to get more customers/clients. As you acquire expertise, you can become more selective about the type of work you specialize in. You can also charge more for your time.
5. Start an online job as a video editor
Every video from YouTube content to television shows and movies has a great editor behind it. They piece together clips, audio files, music, and use effects to make ordinary shots turn into masterpieces.
Those with video editing skills, such as Sony Vegas or After Effects can have a great online career ahead of them.
According to Direct Images Interactive, the average video editing rates are between $75 and $150/hour. This is also dependent on where you live, the clients you’re serving, the niche, skill level, and other factors.
Video editing rates can also be quoted on a per-project basis. If you charge $50/hour and believe a project will take 20 hours, you could ask for $1,000 upfront, for example.
Like any other service, video editors need to market themselves and put in the effort to acquire clients. This means marketing oneself through social media, networking, and letting referrals flow in from producing great remote work.
6. Promote great products through affiliate marketing
There’s no better definition of passive income than affiliate marketing. It’s one of the oldest and most used business models that can be turned into a legit online job with some elbow grease.
Affiliate marketing is simple. You join a program from a relevant business, promote their products through special links and banners, and receive a commission for sales you refer.
You don’t have to worry about customer service, inventory, or any of the other hassles. They take care of it, and you get paid. However, you need to create a base before you embark on affiliate marketing.
You might need to go online
This means creating a blog, YouTube channel, or another medium to reach an audience and promote affiliate products, to begin with. Choose a niche that you enjoy to ensure longevity and that you enjoy the process of building this project into a full-time job.
If you search Google for a keyword followed by “affiliate program” or “become an affiliate,” you will find programs to apply for related to your market.
Every affiliate marketer, however, can benefit from, and begin with, Amazon’s affiliate program.
You register for a free account, link to any product on Amazon, and then you receive a small percentage of sales you help Amazon make. There are affiliates that earn six to seven figures all by themselves, and you can be the next one!
Legit online jobs that pay weekly
7. Share your knowledge as a consultant
Knowledge is power. Individuals will pay a premium for knowledge from an expert, as it saves them countless hours learning a skill, and fast tracks them to success. This is why consulting is a massive industry, and small consultancies can be a very profitable venture.
Consulting isn’t just fancy businessmen in suits. It’s regular people like you who have expertise in a niche area and can teach people about it. The best part about starting a consulting business is that it requires nothing. No website, connections, or upfront capital. You just need knowledge and the hustle to get the word out.
First, determine what you’d like to consult about
- Are you great with social media?
- Do you know heaps about accounting?
Take a few minutes to brainstorm your best skills, interests, and passions.
Then establish a price for your time
Then you will need to consider how much you’d like to charge. Remember that charging less can seem like a good idea, but it could hurt your branding. If you are consulting about finances or directly helping clients earn more money, it makes sense to pay more as there will be an ROI.
Furthermore, charging smaller fees makes your expertise appear lower quality. With all of this in mind, it’s time to embark on getting your first client.
But, how the heck do you do that? The best place to start is with your own network.
Network with friends and family
You have friends, family, colleagues, old co-workers, and more to leverage under your nose. You might not even realize how many potential clients you could have if you simply just asked.
Send out a bulk email to as many people you know explaining that you’re now consulting and would like to know if they’re interested or know anyone that is.
Doing this will begin to ramp up word of mouth, and you’ll have an overflow of clients eventually. In fact, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any form of advertising,
As great as referrals are, serious consultants will need to reinvest into their businesses to maximize profit. Consider taking the revenue you generate, and putting it back into Facebook ads, trade publications, or local advertising like Yellow pages.
8. Entertain and educate as a YouTuber
It seems like YouTuber’s are the new modern celebrities. A young social media influencer can bring in serious amounts of extra money through huge demand and great content. The best part is that you can be one of them.
Begin by creating a channel around something you love or consider vlogging as it makes coming up with content ideas effortless. You just need to record the different activities you’re doing every day, and gradually become a better editor.
Take the time to fill out all of the information on your channel page, use a high-quality photo, and look at it as branding any other business. Peep serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk as an example. His channel has a clear theme and appears very professional through the cover photo and consistent thumbnails.
How do you make money on YouTube?
You might be thinking “How do I even make money on YouTube”? The answer is there are several ways.
First, YouTuber’s earn ad revenue through a program called Google Adsense. Adsense monetizes your videos because advertisers pay for the exposure. As a result, you gain a small amount of money every time ads are displayed. You specifically will net 55% of every dollar paid by advertisers.
This is just the stepping stone for turning YouTube into a legit online job, however. The next step would be to use affiliate marketing for further profit.
It’s common for content creators to add affiliate links in the description of their YouTube videos. As your channel grows, content creators can look forward to one of the most profitable monetization methods ever: sponsorships.
It’s no secret that influencer marketing is massive right now. This is why brands will pay a premium to promote their products or services in front of a large audience.
Sponsorships typically involve shouting out a brand or making a video around their product for a fee. This can range to hundreds or tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the size of your channel.
Legit online jobs with no fees
9. Get the message out as a social media marketer
The amount of social media users worldwide is expected to reach over 3 billion by 2021 according to Statista.
Businesses use social networks to increase brand awareness. On a personal level, people use social networks to keep up with friends and relatives.
Growing social accounts, increasing engagement, and improving other metrics requires skill and prior experience. This is why becoming a social media manager can be a great online job.
Due to the high demand for this skill, you’ll often see it as one of the many services that virtual assistants provide for their clients. We’ve written a completely separate article if you’re interested in learning more about becoming a virtual assistant.
According to PayScale, the median salary of a social media manager is $48,614. This is more than enough to make a good living for many people around the world, let alone if you have other streams of income.
What exactly can you expect to do as a social media manager? Here are some of the key responsibilities and simple tasks you’ll be handling.
Maintaining a brand image
Social networks are crucial for interacting with customers, answering questions, and improving a brand’s image.
As a social media manager, you will be responsible for crisis management, determining how social media employees should behave, and what voice the business should use in their social media accounts.
Identifying a target audience
Businesses that use a clear persona exceed revenue and lead generation goal. A buyer’s persona is a personification of your ideal audience. It includes demographics, values, strengths, weaknesses, and other useful data.
Without one, companies will target random users, and results will suffer. This is why as a social media manager, you will be analyzing data and studying the users that interact with your brand.
Managers help narrow down the ideal target audience to be targeting on social media, advertising campaigns, and other channels.
Content marketing strategy
Social media isn’t as easy as posting random updates and news. Content needs to be tailored towards what we just spoke about: the buyers’ persona.
Those with a solid understanding of content curation, setting up content calendars, and being creative socially will breeze through this responsibility as a social media manager.
10. Teach a new skill as a course creator
Have you ever dreamed of being a teacher, an online tutor, or an instructor? Little did you know that you don’t have to complete years of college or obtain a bachelor’s degree to create an online course. Through selling courses online, you can make a great living and grow a profitable brand.
There are plenty of free platforms, including Udemy, that give you a channel to sell courses and reach endless amounts of students.
Specifically, in the case of Udemy, you will get paid through PayPal or Payoneer once per month. With over 30 million students worldwide and 190 million course enrollments, there is no shortage of opportunities for you to turn this into a serious career.
Here’s how it works in more detail.
Step 1: Plan out your course
Decide what topic you would like to teach students about. Udemy will guide you through setting up the title, description, and basic information about your course.
There are also free resources to take advantage of, including worksheets, examples, an instructor dashboard, and more.
Step 2: Record videos for your course
Whether you have a smartphone, old camera, or expensive DSLR, you can start recording videos for your course with any equipment. Udemy also welcomes screencasts if you’re camera shy.
Use the Udemy community to get feedback on the quality of your course, or talk to the official support team to receive constructive feedback.
Step 3: Start getting paid!
Once your course is live, you will get paid in two different ways. The first of which is if you refer a student yourself, which will result in 100% of the course price getting given to you.
Students who find and enroll in your course through Udemy’s search engine will net you 50% of the price, as Udemy helped them find you.
You don’t have to create courses
If creating online courses isn’t your jam, you can take up online tutoring. You can learn more about taking on part-time teaching gigs through websites like Tutor.com.
Wrapping up
There are tons of legit, easy online jobs you can start pursuing today to turn into a full-time career. Because of the flexibility, they are perfect for stay-at-home moms, teenagers, and college students as well. Imagine being able to wake up every day with a work from home job, and earn a living doing what you love, all while being your own boss.
The different job paths we touched on today can all be started within a day if you have the preexisting skills, and scaled into larger businesses with time.
We recommend focusing your job search on one vertical, so you can maximize the results. Many individuals try to pursue several ventures at once, and it’s hard to become successful when you’re spread so thin.
What do you believe is the most legit online job in 2022?