There are many reasons why you may be considering working from home. Remote jobs are beneficial for extra income, flexibility of hours, and if you find yourself coming back to the workforce after a delay. Perhaps you have been bedridden and still need a salary. Or maybe you’re a house mom with kids to take care of and bills to pay. Either way, working from your home office can be as rewarding, in terms of salary and growth, as a full-time in-person gig.
Then, if you are active in seeking online work, you have probably scoured numerous sites and job boards to find the best way to earn an income from home. We’ve done our best to help you along with way by listing the best places to find Remote Jobs on the Web below.
Why Work Remotely?
There are many reasons why you would choose to find a type of employment where you did not have to travel to the office and punch in and punch out every day. For most remote workers, the ultimate reason they choose this type of work is the freedom it allows them. Having flexibility in both your hours of work and the location where you get your work done can be extremely refreshing to many people, especially if they are used to the daily grind of an on-site, nine to five gig.
Freedom can have positive effects on multiple lifestyles. As mentioned above, many women who used to be active in the workforce have experienced a different type of schedule after giving birth. Their child takes priority now, which means they don’t necessarily have the time to work in a traditional office setting. Instead of losing their salary, however, they can opt for working from home whilst staying close to their children. Working mothers constitute a large percentage of at-home workers.
Other people may have certain medical conditions, whether physical, mental, or emotional, that make working in an office impossible. Beyond the obvious situation of someone who has broken their arm or leg, or another who has recently undergone surgery, there are a litany of individuals who may not have the mental fortitude to deal with others. For example, somebody with depression, an antisocial personality, or other mental illness may not be suitable for dealing with coworkers or customers, but may be highly suited to an online position from their own home.
Differences Between Telecommuting and Remote Work
Before we get into the best sites to find telecommuting work, it serves to explain the concept a little. There is often a toss up between the terms: remote work, home jobs, and telecommuting. This is because telecommuting is just that, working from a remote location, most often your home office.
Of course, you are not limited to working from home and can decide to rent out your own office space, go to the library or to a café, or find another location to do your work. Still, most people choose these types of jobs because they are able to relax at home, wear whatever they like, manage their daily responsibilities, and still earn a living.
Some jobs allow complete flexibility, as in being able to work from any location in the world. Other jobs, however, require the applicant to work from a remote location that is still quite near the main operating headquarters. The former refers to home jobs and remote work, whereas the latter are referred to as telecommuting jobs. With telecommuting, you often have to report to the office several days a week (or month, depending on the type of work and company), where in remote or home jobs, you will often never meet the higher ups in person.
In the current employment climate, more and more job seekers are opting to work from home. As such, opportunities to find either remote work or telecommuting gigs are becoming more readily available. They also save the company a bit of money, so everyone is happy with the outcome. If you want to be happy as well, then continue reading for the best places to find these types of employment opportunities online.
Search Engines
These days, you can find anything via the search bar. This also holds true for finding various types of remote employment opportunities. A simple Google search into your given field and some key words could produce an assortment of viable results. For example, if you are a programmer or a graphic designer, you could search for: “remote programming jobs” or “at home design work,” respectively. You could also search for freelancing gigs by replacing “remote” and “at home” with “freelance” or “freelancing.”
Blog Posts
The Internet is full of blogs on various topics. There are also tons of blogs specifically dedicated to finding remote work as well. The listings on these sites can be hit or miss, so it is best to do a bit of research and vetting to find reputable listings with real employment potential. There are even blogs that offer jobs towards any given field. Writers, for example, can find work on a number of freelance and remote writing sites that list work tailor-fit to their skill sets.
Social Media
Social media is the biggest player in the Internet right now. Most Web users spend the majority of their time using one (or multiple) of the various social media outlets. These include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and more. All of these sites have specific accounts and pages dedicated to listing freelancing and remote work listings across any imaginable field. LinkedIn is also a big player in this field, especially for job seekers. Make sure that you have a quality profile on that site and leave the settings to “actively seeking.” This way, jobs can even find you.
Forums
Before the days of social media and blogs, web forums were the gathering hubs of like minded individuals. These forums still exist, and there are many great opportunities listed across forums for freelancing, remote, and telecommuting opportunities. Find one, stay active, and reply to as many posts as you can.
Work from Home Today!
So, what are you waiting for? If you’re looking for flexibility of working hours and the ability to work from home and still earn a viable income, there are options for nearly every skill set and lifestyle. You don’t even have to get off your couch. Earn your living in your pajamas and say goodbye to the daily office grind forever.