Because I have bills to pay I’m always on the lookout for easy online jobs.
Sadly, though, I have been a sucker for the easy gigs that ended up costing my time and effort for little return. I start out strong, work diligently, only to fizzle out after a few days.
Boredom, lack of work and the sloooow accumulation of money are my main reason for failure. Don’t get me wrong, a little bit of money is better than none and there are plenty of ways to make extra money online.
But do they pay the bills?
No way.
So, in the spirit of being wary and pointing you away from falling for the time-wasters, I’ve gathered up a list of jobs you shouldn’t do if you seriously need money to pay the bills. No matter how hard you work.
DON’T Do These Jobs If You Need Money To Pay The Bills
1. Transcription service companies that don’t require upfront experience, such as Quicktate, humanatic, TranscribeMe and Scribbie are great if you want to get your feet wet in audio transcription. The pay is peanuts, though. It varies by company but my finding is that the average pay is $10.00 per transcribed audio hour. That doesn’t mean $10.00 an hour – it means $10.00 for 1 hour of audio transcription and it can take a few hours to complete that one audio hour. So, breaking it down, that equals $5.00 an hour at best.
2. Selling stuff online on sites like Ebay, Amazon FBA, and BookScouter won’t net you a whole lot unless you have an endless supply of goods. I have heard of some sellers that do make a lot of money. Heck, I even sold a few things on Ebay but it really was a drag. This source of income takes a lot of time and effort. Not only listing the items but sourcing stuff people want is time consuming. And let’s not forget the expense of shipping to your buyers and the cut of your earnings these sites take. When it comes to selling your handmade crafts and jewelry, Etsy and Craftsy are great resources but again you need to sell enough to really make it worth your while.
3. Getting paid to search the web seems like a no-brainer way to make money. And why not? Web surfing is a big part of our daily lives. Bing Rewards, Swagbucks, and Qmee, are sites that pay you to search or click on their suggested web sites. They’re easy to set up and you can start earning money web surfing right away BUT the pay is so little. I’m talking pennies. And that’s if they actually pay in the form of cash. Some give you rewards to convert to gift cards.
4. Doing Simple Tasks on sites like Amazon Mturk, Clickworker and Crowdsource are nice for a few extra bucks when you need them but don’t count on making a lot of money. The tasks are tedious and really don’t pay more than a few dollars at best, most of them pay pennies. If you’re lucky, you can get a bonus when you complete a task but I have found these bonuses to be few and far between. The nice thing about these task sites is you can log in whenever you want and do little tasks at your leisure. Data entry and internet research tasks are plentiful and they don’t take up too much time. You have to do a lot of them for the money to pile up, though.
5. Online research and answering questions online can be fun but can you make enough money to pay the bills ? I have looked at Wonder (askwonder.com), Just Answer, and Maven and honestly don’t think this source of income is anything more than“extra income”. Wonder claims some of their researchers earn up to $2,000 a month but I have found the typical gig pays $6.00 to $8.00 so it would take a lot of research (and time) to add up to anything near $2,000.00. Just Answer pays 20% of what someone is willing to pay for an answer, which is around $20.00, so you’ll make $4.00 for one answer.
6. Forum posting jobs are easy if you don’t mind spending a lot of time perusing online forums. This is a great way to share your interests and proise on a given topic but not a great way to make much money. Expect to only make a few pennies per post. You can get paid to post on forums with companies like Postloop, Paid Forum Posting and even Fiver but I have found the initiation process is pretty time consuming – you have to submit several “dummy” posts to prove you sound like a real person trying to share constructive information.
7. Surveys and Mystery Shopping gigs are probably my least favorite ways to earn money online. Mainly because most don’t actually pay you money. Their currency of choice is reward points that you redeem for gift cards. With mystery shopping, the trend has turned to phone apps, where you to take photos of items on store shelves so the merchant can make their comparison. There are still plenty of “traditional” mystery shopping gigs out there, like A Closer Look and Second To None, but don’t expect to make a whole lot.
What Should You Do Instead?
If you want more than just a few bucks, there are several work at home options for you. And they don’t require a ton of experience or education AND they are pretty flexible.
Email / Chat Jobs
For the introvert, a great – and highly coveted – job is an Email or Chat Based Customer Service Representative. You don’t need to talk on the phone but you do need a high speed internet connection. You also need patience as these jobs go fast. Some of the best companies to consider are Apple, Uber, Wayfair, Weebly and Worldwide Web Hosting.
Remote Customer Service
Remember that job you had at McDonald’s in your High School days? Or the one at JC Penney when you were 20-something? They show you have customer service experience. And, fortunately, there are so many companies, in a variety of business sectors, who hire Remote Customer Service Agents. Check out the companies Capitol One, Deal Dash, Enterprise Holdings, and Humana, for customer service jobs you can do from home. On average, you can expect to make at least $12.00 an hour and they tend to hire full-time employees.
Interpretation/Translation
Can you speak two languages? You’re bilingual, a skill that pays well. You can be a translator or interpreter for Airbnb (look in the Locolization section of their website), Gengo or Ubiqus (formerly Verbal Ink). Or…teach English as a second language to foreigners with Rosetta Stone, Cambly or Learnlight.
Travel Agent/Planner
Do you like to travel? How good are you at making travel arrangements? Does being a remote Travel Agent sound interesting? If this is something you really enjoy doing, it’ll seem more like fun than work. Quite often Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Hilton Worldwide, and Hotel Tonight seek travel agents and planners.
Virtual Assistant/Cyber Secretary
You can multi-task, right? You’re looking for ways to make money from home (which brought you here) while preparing dinner, right? How does the idea of being a Cyber Secretary grab you – at an average pay of $15.00 an hour? There are a few companies that hire remote Virtual Assistants that may be a perfect fit for you. Check out EaHelp, Red Butler and Time Etc. And if you’re feeling ambitious, set up a profile on Upwork.com to claim some clients for yourself.
Sometimes you need just a few bucks to get through a rough patch. Doing some of the quick little gigs might do the trick. But if you need more than a few peanuts to pay your bills, why not look into some of the alternatives ?