A Young Adult's View of Online Jobs: What exactly am I looking for?
From my long and extensive research in online and work at home jobs, from the perspective of young adults and newbies, let me tell you, a lot of this is genuine fecal matter. And this is coming from someone who was desperate for "money now!" and "short term success!" But, that can only sustain someone for so long, and what's the point of all that if that trail of breadcrumbs leads me to failure in the end? I can't start out the rest of my life on quick paths to nowhere. In the words of someone famous for something I can't remember, "take the road less traveled by, and that will make all the difference." (cool points to whoever can tell me who said that!)
Now, in the shortest way I can, let me tell you about the ultimate fails I have ran into, and the giant blazing red flags that for people just starting out should really watch out for before investing their money:
CRAIGSLIST AND JOB SITE SPAMMERS:
Now I have never personally placed an add on the holy grail of Craigslist or any other job listing site, but I'm assuming that this method generates employers the most candidates. In one way I can respect that, if only it wasn't all circulating around the same scheme! This company lures in the likes of everyone looking for online jobs with titles such as WORK AT HOME CLERICAL/TYPING/DATA ENTRY NEEDED!!! or $22 PER HOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE ONLINE !!! and posts dozens of listings in about twenty states. I was extremely close to falling in with this company until I did enough research to find out they required a $50 non refundable fee. Why do I need to pay you to get a job to work for you? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Which brings me to my next find:
INVESTMENT SCAMS AND PYRAMID SCHEMES:
Every supposed bright light at the end of the tunnel always turned out to be the flashlight of a money hungry claud somewhere in the world. Everything always required a nonrefundable fee, or a membership never specifying their service or product, or purchasing their product which is way more than the money you'd actually make with the company, or a nonrefundable background check (that one didn't strike me as too suspicious though, but from my experience employers never had to charge me for a background check).
Another method that was especially driven for demographics like me, ("ANYONE can do this, although we're really looking for younger adults who can easily network social media sites and refer a lot of people to generate us more money") and luring us in with their ten-minute campaign and before-and-after photos of BMWs and trips across the world and large stacks of money being held by someone that looked like they just graduated college and having them swear that "This can all be yours! No selling! No cold calls! Just simply watch this video and refer three friends!"
(ha, I lied: this isn't exactly short after all is it?)
Maybe there are companies out there who genuinely earn others profit from things like that, but I've been on this internet thing for a long while, and I'm pretty sure I can spot a fake local news website with fake news reports, fake comments, and cheaply photoshopped testimonials from random networks like CNN, FOX, and ABC. (Oh, and the deadline cleverly being always one day after I visit the site is a nice touch!)
I swear I was defeated for the longest. But in my endless search I have found three (and a half) legitimate ways to make money online, and these three will probably grow only more and more in this internet age so I (sort of) highly suggest people take these routes:
ONLINE SURVEYS:
Okay, this is the half, and for good reason. I've taken about five online surveys in my life, and they actually do give you profit, just very very extremely tiny profit that you should NEVER quit your day job for. Each survey could be from about $0.20 to $5.00 a survey, so when you see the "easily make $100 a day!" ads, that's assuming you're successful enough to be eligible to fill out 20 to 40 surveys a day, which is hardly the case. These companies must screen you first by asking you about two minutes worth of questions to see what demographic you fit in, and if you're me, you've never got the right amount of stuff to finish the survey and collect your money. So for me, it was a big NEXT!
MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION / OTHER TRANSCRIPTION JOBS:
Now this is I definitely have no gripes over. Many companies and hospitals apparently outsource these tasks to various online transcriptionists. But you must be qualified either with a degree or certificate. Even with my 79 WPM typing speed I don't have the right tools under my belt for this one. But I have found about two successful typing/transcription jobs that start off extremely small but pays you via direct deposit or check once a week. It's a nice quick job for others, but not necessarily what I was looking for.
FREELANCING:
Sites like Elance, Freelancer, or Fiverr are probably the best for this. Simply advertise a service you're able to perform and let others bid on it. I'm not too familiar with Elance or Freelancer, but for Fiverr you're able to post a task for each job you finish, you earn $4 while $1 is kept to the site. I had a couple art and editing jobs on here, and it was the first step at teaching me how to network and build up clientele while producing the best of my skills. Some have really succeeded in not necessarily making a living alone off of Fiverr, but generating enough good buzz to become a Top Seller and charge more for a service. So this was good, but for some reason, it wasn't IT.
WRITING, BLOGGING, AND COPYWRITING:
This one is probably my favorite, because I am a born and bred writer and have loved it ever since I published my first book in second grade. Many sites such as eHow, About, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Amazon will pay you to write content on their site or reviews for various products and services. You can either have this as a side gig or, what I suggest, treating it like a job and committing as much as you can (about an hour a day) to actually reap the real benefits. Even though I thought this was my answer, there was still one element I wanted and couldn't ONLY settle for writing a blog here and there.
I needed a community.
I needed the marketing experience.
I needed an opportunity to start a career, and not just get paid now.
So, like one of those cheesy cartoon animations of clouds parting and bright heavenly light shining on my laptop, I found a site, a pretty awesome one at that (One Cup of Coffee), that led me to this, equally - maybe a little more - awesome site, that finally answered all my questions! It's gonna take a while, I know, but if there's a job out there that lets me write all day, make websites all day, find people who are actually going through the same problems I am, and give some awesome products out to others like me, WHILE in my oversized Tweety Bird shirt, then I'm more than willing to commit the time to finally follow my dream.
Oh yeah --
And earn money!
Recent Comments
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Wow. You have very extensive experience and knowledge about different ways to earn money online. Personally, I don't know much about data entry and medical transcriptions...or even surveys and freelancing. I will definitely have to pick your brain at some point because I would love to write some articles on this for my blog. I mostly know about affiliate marketing.
Since you know so much about this stuff, have you thought about doing Bootcamp? It's a training here at WA that's targeted toward folks that want to promote WA as a way to make money. Not everyone wants to have "make money" as a niche, and it might be a challenge if you are new to WA, but it sounds like something you know a lot about, so might be good for you!