Work from Home Suggestions

[Wondering]

So, my awesome, part-time, contract job that is entirely work from home on my own schedule has essentially dried up. I've been dropped to 1 hour a week. Pretty much to keep my contract open in case new work pops up, but there's nothing going on now or for the foreseeable future.

As such, I'd really, really appreciate it if anyone has suggestions for work-from-home, part-time, on-my-own-schedule jobs that are real and not scams.  My primary issue is that I'm the daytime caregiver for our baby, so I can't go into an office or work steady hours in the middle of the day.

I know this is kind of pie-in-the-sky job stuff, but I did see someone post about transcribing in a thread (that I don't remember and can't find now; please repost!). That would totally be something I could and would do.

I'm open to (and eager for) any sorts of suggestions folks want to throw out.

[Enail]

Here are the ones I could dig up from the thread (it's this one).

- Mechanical Turk Small tasks for small money. From what I've seen about it, there are some sketchy tasks there so you have to be a bit selective, and you have to do some work to get approved for most of the the better paying tasks, but it is supposed to be legit.

-Upwork - one of a great many freelance job sites, whether there's work for you probably depends on your skills.

-The transcription site mentioned was Scribie. There are also lots of other sites, some of which are supposed to pay better (that one took native English speakers from outside the US, which not all of them do, but since you're US (I think?) other ones might be worth looking into too).

[Wondering]

Thank you!

Yes, I'm in the US, so I'll look and see what other transcription sites are out there. Scribie was the one I remember.

My skills are most recently in the editing, proofreading, document management, project management realm. But I've done several other things, too, so I'll see what there is that might fit me.

Much appreciated.

[eselle28]

Ouch! I'm really sorry to hear that. My hours aren't what I'd like them to be these days, either, and I can sympathize with the pain of a job that's kind of there but mostly gone.

- Mechanical Turk Small tasks for small money. From what I've seen about it, there are some sketchy tasks there so you have to be a bit selective, and you have to do some work to get approved for most of the the better paying tasks, but it is supposed to be legit.

I've actually done a little work on that. It's legit, at least in the sense that they'll pay you for the tasks you complete. I ended up deciding it wasn't worth my time, though. In a Western country, it will earn you the equivalent of snack money - more like a few dollars a day than any really high-paying work. Typical tasks would be filling out opinion surveys, writing little articles for content farms, and posting spammy links on websites. That last potential task is why I had to qualify the definition of legit a bit. There are some tasks there that are kind of sketchy.

[Wondering]

Ouch! I'm really sorry to hear that. My hours aren't what I'd like them to be these days, either, and I can sympathize with the pain of a job that's kind of there but mostly gone.

Yeah, it was unexpected. There had been some team shifts at the first of the year, and I was hoping that would enable me to up my hours a bit, but instead this happened. My manager is awesome and really apologetic, but there's not enough for me right now after 3+ years.

I've actually done a little work on that. It's legit, at least in the sense that they'll pay you for the tasks you complete. I ended up deciding it wasn't worth my time, though. In a Western country, it will earn you the equivalent of snack money - more like a few dollars a day than any really high-paying work. Typical tasks would be filling out opinion surveys, writing little articles for content farms, and posting spammy links on websites. I suggest avoiding the last task.

Okay, good to know. I will keep that in mind and definitely not post spammy links or do anything else I find unethical.

[Wondering]

Wow, Upwork says this:

Work Diary. This tool captures snapshots of your freelancer's screen every 10 minutes, helping to verify that on hourly jobs, work has been completed as invoiced.

Um, no.

[Enail]

That's horrifying!

[Wondering]

Completely.

And in addition to the nopetopus of that spyware privacy violation and attitude of treating you like a thief, that's pretty much the opposite of "on my own schedule" and "flexible."

Yuck. I can't believe somebody would do that. That's very Big Brother distopian.

[Werel]

For transcription, I've also heard decent things about VerbalInk, but no personal experience with either (I think the outfit I worked for is defunct now).

(Just out of curiosity, I made a MechanicalTurk account and did a couple tasks. They're not bad, I think I'm like $0.60 richer now. I enjoyed taking social science surveys that asked "what do you think this survey was about?" at the end and blowing my results by saying crap like "I assume the first set of Likert scales was intended as a priming effect on the IAT reaction time" )

And yeah, that Upwork productivity-monitoring software is some naaaasty shit.

[Wondering]

Thanks, Werel! VerbalInk says they pay a living wage, though they don't say how much. Which is great if true. But they also want a cover letter and resume, so I think maybe I'll give Scribie a try first and see how that goes to get some experience transcribing and thus a relevant line on my resume, too.

Mechanical Turk is an Amazon company, so at least that makes me feel more comfortable about signing up for an account, even if some of the jobs are sketchy.

[Werel]

Oh, Wondering, this is another snack-money thing I did from home for a while: Pinecone Research. Bunch of product-testing surveys, often with actual products sent to you, and pays better than the same kind of thing on Mechanical Turk. Not serious money, but you get some fun junk in the mail sometimes.

edit: oh dag, sorry, looks like they're not recruiting right now. Well, worth keeping an eye out for when they announce openings.

[eselle28]

Oh, Wondering, this is another snack-money thing I did from home for a while: Pinecone Research. Bunch of product-testing surveys, often with actual products sent to you, and pays better than the same kind of thing on Mechanical Turk. Not serious money, but you get some fun junk in the mail sometimes.

edit: oh dag, sorry, looks like they're not recruiting right now. Well, worth keeping an eye out for when they announce openings.

Bah! The part I actually liked about Mechanical Turk was the surveys (I felt productive, and I actually sort of like doing obvious psychological experiments and telling people how I feel about my most recent car purchase). I might have to check back on that one if they have some openings.

[Wondering]

I will definitely check back there to see if they're recruiting again.

I also like taking the surveys. Someone wants my opinion on something? I will give it to you!

I've decided to call my paltry earnings "parking money" since I have to plug the meter once a week when I go downtown for a baby thing.

An actual goal of minimal amount that I can use this sort of stuff to pay for makes me feel less like a freeloader. Sigh. (Kind of having an identity crisis due to the income/job loss.)

[Wondering]

So, I've become so divorced from academics that it never occurred to me that I could apply to teach at an online school like the University of Phoenix until someone pointed that out to me.

I wouldn't want to teach English 101 again because all that was was reading and grading papers 24/7, but I loved teaching grammar and "remedial" writing and myths/legends. Of course, teaching one class of English 101 is usually the price all faculty have to pay to teach courses they like. It's at least worth looking into, though.

[kath]

My mother in law was working for the local technical institute doing business courses - she taught the in-class (but like, the work skills courses companies would book for their staff at their site, over a few days), as well as teaching open registration courses online, and re-writing courses.

Getting back into academia might open other work-from-home stuff, like rewriting courses or editing. Would you want to be doing more freelancey stuff, or have a X hours / week job you do from home?

When I was working in online marketing, I worked with a lot of content writers who worked on a freelance basis from home.

[Wondering]

I'd like to be doing X hours a week from home, but totally on my own schedule. Just because I'd like to have a standard income, one we can rely on for budgeting.

But I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at freelancing.

[Werel]

Oh, just FYI, the transcription company I used to work for is still extant, they just got a new website: http://www.fftranscription.com/join-team.html

They do product surveys and focus groups, too. CHA-CHING

[Wondering]

Great! I'll look into that, too. Thanks for the link.

[Glides]

OK so i'm in the exact situation Wondering was in way back when, any other options besides the ones listed?

[Wondering]

I can point you to this Facebook group. They are legit work from home jobs for people in the US, though many aren't flexible. No MLM stuff.

Virtual Workers of America
https://www.facebook.com/groups/544818398895959/

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