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Legitimate Work From Home Jobs – The Definitive Guide

work from home

Legitimate work from home jobs aren’t usually the kind advertised on social media platforms. They are not get rich quick without doing any work. Legitimate work from home jobs are a massive upgrade on more traditional office-based jobs. You can work from anywhere and have the freedom to move.

So don’t tune into this article if you’re seeking five business ideas that will make you rich without risk or investment. Those five big ideas have already passed and the next five aren’t being advertised so freely to the world. This article is about legitimate work from home jobs that will help you leave mundane everyday routine, to live a lifestyle of freedom from anywhere.

Illegitimate vs Legitimate Work From Home Jobs

Most people in the world would love a secure work from home job. Over a billion people were working from home at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s a rapid acceleration towards remote working and even the most old-school of businesses are now hiring remotely.

To say there are more legitimate work from home jobs than ever is a gross understatement. Volume and opportunity has increased tenfold in the last two years. Yet the dream of working from home and working from anywhere brings with it all manner of sharks and pyramid schemes. There’s so much on offer it seems too good to be true.

Scroll down for an insight into genuine, long-term, future-proof work from home jobs. You may need to retrain or change career path, but you will find opportunity and a sustainable pathway. It would take another ten articles to list all the scams and illegitimate jobs out there, but you can quickly understand the telltale signs.

How to Tell an Illegitimate Work From Home Job

There’s a tendency to view a job differently if you can do it from home. If you don’t have to be in an office it seems you can be paid less, or not at all. The easiest way to objectively analyse a potential work from home job is to treat it to the same criteria as any job. Working from home is not substantially different to working in an office. It’s more efficient and more enjoyable. It gives you freedom. It’s still working, just in a different environment. You still need to get paid!

work from home

1. You have to pay to work

Imagine getting a job and paying $200 a month to rent your desk in the company’s office. Imagine an employer requesting $1000 in downpayment from you – it’s usually the other way around. If you have to pay to work, it’s not a legitimate work from home jobs. In these cases, the usual business model revolves solely around the number of employees the business owner can sign up.

money

2. Commission only with no base salary

For many jobs you don’t have to pay, but you don’t get paid unless you actually sell. Commission-only sales jobs have been common throughout history. They have surged over the last decade because so many people want a work from home job, and many businesses want to increase sales with zero budget.

You may have success with a commission only sales job. But even the best salesperson will struggle to sell a poor product. Commission only sales indicates a lack of sustainable investment in the product (no money to pay a sales agent), or a lack of belief in the product’s long-term viability (no belief that paying for an experienced sales agent will pay off).

If it’s commission only it will only be successful if there is a good product, a clear strategy, identified audience, extensive support and long-term viability. So ask your employer combative questions about all of this, before taking the job.

commission

3. You will get rich quick

Yes there are still ways to get rich quick. But be realistic – can you really get rich quickly when working and earning money for somebody else? Can you get rich quickly with an idea that’s been advertised on social media and tried by tens of thousands around the world? Be honest about whether the job is genuine and not a scam. Jobs offering $10,000 a month with no skills or experience are too good to actually be true.

ferrari

4. Anyone can get the job

Imagine owning a business and putting out this job advert. “We’re looking for anyone. You don’t need any skills, any experience or any attributes. You don’t need anything except your own computer and a phone line.”

A job can be easy. A job can require no previous skills or experience. But when an employer is seeking anyone, the employee is incredibly dispensable. And there will always be another potential employee who will do the job for less money than you. Legitimate work from home jobs have some entry requirements.

work from home

Legitimate Work From Home Jobs

Legitimate work from home jobs provide the same security as jobs in a traditional office environment. You should still get a base salary, a contract of employment (or at least a very clear understanding of expectations), and a sense of purpose.

It’s estimated that over 60% of the global workforce can be working from home. There’s also a strong correlation between future-proof professions and the jobs that can be done from home. And by home we mean you can be working from anywhere, like digital nomads who take their workplace almost anywhere in the world.

work from home

Programming

You definitely can’t get a coding or programming job without skills. But you do not need significant experience to be a junior coder. The great thing about programming is that demand for programmers continues to outstrip supply. And it’s the most natural job to do from home.

Programming is the most future-proof skill and profession on the planet. You can up-skill to a junior programming job in less than a year – this article explores different in-demand programming skills you can learn. Programming has been future-proof employment since the 1980s. Even though tens of millions are now skilled, tens of millions more programmers are still required.

programming

Language Teaching

Language teaching is a great entry point if your goal is a flexible work from home lifestyle. The pay is not great, around $12 – 18 per hour. But you can usually choose your hours and do it from anywhere. It’s also an ideal part-time work from home job if you’re also starting a business or setting off to be a digital nomad.

You can gain a TFL (teaching English as a foreign language) qualification in just 40 hours. There are many online language companies, such as VIPKID, Qkids and Teach Away, who are always seeking new teachers. How much you earn is based on how well you can retain your students. You usually teach one-to-one over a video chat.

language

Design

Design is now digital. Some architects may still have their paper plans, but even most house design is done digitally, with tools like Sketch. Then there are all the legitimate work from home jobs for UX and UI designers, people who design the user experience and interface for websites and apps.

It’s easier than ever for creatives to harness their skills in design jobs. Digital design is digital, so you need collaborative on the screen tools rather than an office. Search Remotely has a list of online courses that can help you turn soft creative skills into hard-wired, employable design skills.

design

Customer Support

Customer support is the fastest growing legitimate work from home job in terms of the volume of jobs. The essence of customer support has always been to provide a good level of support, for the lowest financial investment. Switching to a remote working model is a simple way for businesses to slash costs and provide 24-hour hours of operation.

Customer service giants Liveops and Continuum Global Solutions are just two examples of major companies who are continually hiring virtual assistants, in multiple languages, for short and long-term roles. You need the right attributes and great communication skills, but you don’t need significant qualifications. 

customer service

Sales From Home Jobs

The rapid increase in legitimate work from home sales jobs can be attributed to the huge increase in products you can buy from anywhere. Ecommerce is overtaking traditional in-person sales. Many products do not rely on a specific location. They are not physical products, but services, subscriptions and technology.

Sales is one of the oldest jobs on the planet and the fundamentals have never changed – to be successful you need to have some belief in the product you are selling. You may find that the base salary is low, but even a small base salary is a good sign it’s legitimate. Be sure of the contract when you’re selling from home – most customers are going through a digital funnel so it’s hard to take them elsewhere if you don’t get paid.

sales

Marketing

Most marketing is now digital marketing, messages seen on a screen from anywhere, messages created from anywhere, perhaps by you on a computer at home. Marketing is another work from home profession that’s easy to get into. But don’t advertise yourself as the complete digital marketing expert when you’re starting out.

Marketing is easy to get into because you can develop from a specific niche. Get good at a single channel (e.g. a single social media channel) and the natural progression is to find crossover with other channels.

marketing

Data Entry

Work from home and do the work anytime. Data entry doesn’t pay very well but there is a freedom that works for a lot of people. That may be a freedom to travel and work two long days a week, or a freedom to work around childcare.

While the simplest online data entry jobs are focused in countries like India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, you can be more indispensable and get paid more by improving your range of computer skills. Knowledge of Adobe, HTML, or web platforms like WordPress are highly valued.

data entry

Copywriting

Yes you can have a job writing from home. Working in a busy office is mostly antithetical to good writing – it’s too noisy and most of the work is not collaborative. You don’t need a qualification to be a copywriter but you do need to be good at writing. Not necessarily writing flowery phrases, but writing engaging to-the-point copy for the web.

Mastering the basics of online writing is essential and you can do this by reading. Medium is a great source of inspiration as it values quality, regardless of the writing style. Note how the writing is always concise and punchy, with relatively short paragraphs and simple punctuation.

copywriting

Data Science and Data Analysis

Data expands faster than the number of data scientists in the world. Data analysis is a future-proof profession. This legitimate work from home job makes sense of all the data we create on our phones and computers. It’s a blend of statistics, computing and maths.

Data science is the best paid work from home job right now. Certainly the best paid offering a large number of entry-level positions. It’s a long-term option if you’re serious about retraining for a career working from home.

data science

Other Legitimate Work From Home Jobs

These examples really are just examples. The Covid-19 pandemic impressed the importance of businesses having good work from home processes. It also provided a kick to employers fearful of change. By hiring remotely, businesses can enjoy access to a wider talent pool for a cheaper price.

Check out this list of 20 companies hiring a remote workforce for 2020. They prove that legitimate work from jobs can be almost anything, from accounting to project management. To understand the different opportunities you have, it’s good to categorise businesses into four categories.

100% Remote Businesses – Some companies are 100% remote, even billion-dollar companies. That means every job they have is done from home.

Massive Companies Going Remote – Big companies are switching towards remote working. They start with jobs already covered in this article, then expand to other parts of their business.

Career Change Work From Home Jobs – These are large companies with low entry requirements, who value attitude and passion over a list of qualifications. They’re great for kickstarting a career change.

Future-Proof Work From Home Jobs – Fast growing companies based around fast growing professions, becoming industry leaders in the skills of tomorrow. They may need you!

work from home

Search for Legitimate Work From Home Jobs

Search Remotely is the leading platform for work from home jobs. Every job is legitimate and quality checked, so you can be confident of where you will be working. The jobs board is updated continually throughout the day and you can filter jobs by type. The remote jobs board is also a good place to further your understanding of different work from home jobs available.
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