Maybe you’re a mom with a little one at home and you want to make some extra cash. Or you’re a 20-something who just prefers slippers to stilettos. Either way, working from home has never been easier.
If you want to cozy up on your couch while raking in that cash, work-from-home jobs offer flexibility, comfort and oftentimes, competitive pay. Want to cut your commute to zero? Turn on that catchy Fifth Harmony song and check out these 6 amazing work from home jobs!
If you’re in school:
AppleCare At Home College Advisor
Apple often hires remote AppleCare representatives, so if you want to help someone whose Mac is under attack, they’ll likely have a gig for you. But did you know they have at-home advisor opportunities solely for students?
The AppleCare College Program is available to students who are enrolled at participating universities, and key qualifications include attributes like having a “real passion for customer service” as well as iOS, Smartphone, Tablet, PC or Mac experience. For this job, you’ll provide customer service for popular Apple products, and will need to attend roughly six to nine weeks of online training. The position also hooks you up with competitive pay, tuition reimbursement, eligibility to participate in the company stock plan and an employee discount, according to Apple. Looks like all that time glued to your iPhone screen might actually pay off!
Currently, there are available positions at over 30 universities. While Apple says salaries “are competitive and will be discussed during the recruiting process,” the national average salary of an AppleCare At-Home Advisor on Glassdoor is $30,600.
Mystery Shopping
OK, so you might have to change out of your PJs for this one, but mystery shopping is a simple way to score some extra cash.
Mystery shoppers are paid to evaluate companies, under the guise of a customer. You’re paid to evaluate anything from customer service to cleanliness, and will give feedback on either the physical store, website or phone service. Mystery shoppers can make between $7 to $20 per gig, but you can make much more; one mystery shopper actually made a total of $14,000! The flexibility and minimal time commitment make this job great for college students; you can knock out a gig between classes!
However, be wary of scams with this one; if you have to pay for a list of mystery shopping jobs, it’s probably a pretty good sign that the job isn’t legit. You should check to make sure the gig you’re interested in is a member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association; it’s the organization in charge of the regulations of the industry. Popular mystery shopping companies include BestMark, IntelliShop and Sinclair Customer Metrics.
If you’re a people person:
Amazon’s Virtual Jobs
Amazon is low-key taking over the world, one acquisition at a time. And, it turns out, the e-commerce giant needs to fill some work-from-home positions to help make that happen.
Virtual positions are occasionally available to “qualified individuals who live in some areas,” according to Amazon. Currently, there are over 200 virtual location positions available at Amazon, ranging from technical trainers to advisory consultants to customer service representatives. Salary and qualifications vary based on the job.
If you just want a side hustle to get you through the expensive holiday season, Amazon is currently hiring a seasonal work-from-home customer service associate. To be considered, you must live in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia. It’s a full-time gig that pays $10 per hour, unless there’s a higher city or state minimum wage.
Fun fact: Amazon placed third in FlexJob’s rankings of the top companies with remote jobs. Not bad, Jeff Bezos.
Wyzant Tutoring
Tutoring is kind of like the OG of work-from-home jobs, but technology has really given it a boost in accessibility and flexibility.
Wyzant is a great resource for wannabe tutors; it filters tutoring gigs by subject and location, and offers both in-person and online lessons. Book a gig through the Wyzant platform, and you can get paid simply by setting up a direct deposit payment option. Applying to be a tutor on Wyzant is free, and you set your own rate based on what you think you deserve ($1 million! JK).
However, the platform does take a commission percentage, which varies based on the number of lesson hours a tutor accumulates through their account. The commission rates are pretty steep and are a common gripe among tutors who are pulled to the platform for its huge network of students.
In order to get around this, you can directly refer new students to the platform. Once that new student creates a Wyzant account and attends a lesson with you, you will receive 100 percent of the rate; Wyzant doesn’t get a commission percentage. I would definitely recommend going this route, and build your network with the goal of branching out on your own.
In the New York City metro area, I found 1,795 available tutoring opportunities, from college-level accounting to fifth-grade writing. On Glassdoor, private tutors on Wyzant make on average about $38 per hour.
If you’re creative:
Udemy Courses
Are your friends always asking you to expertly filter their Instas or proofread their resumes? If you have a specific subject you slay at, Udemy gives you everything you need to cash in on a custom course.
Udemy gives you the tools to create a course on just about anything, whether it’s programming, Excel, grammar, Spanish, cartoon drawing, web design, photography or public speaking. After you create your course, it’ll be offered on Udemy’s marketplace. From there, students will be able to find your custom course through organic search or Udemy’s marketing efforts, according to the company. Currently, Udemy boasts 17 million students worldwide and 27,000 instructors.
Creating a course on Udemy is free, and pay is structured largely on how students find your course. You’ll get 97 percent revenue share on sales made by you (in which a student purchases your course with an Instructor Coupon), 50 percent revenue share on organic Udemy sales and 25 percent revenue share on paid user acquisition channel sales made with Udemy’s affiliate partners or ads. So work your networks and push those Instructor Coupons!
While the amount you can make through each of your courses will vary, some people have really cashed in with this service, making up to $1 million. Yes, really.
Fiverr Gigs
If you want to make a fortune off freelancing, consider Fiverr.
Fiverr is a popular, digital marketplace of freelance services, whether you’re a designer, developer, writer or musician. You can offer your service on Fiverr as long as it’s legal and complies with their terms; the marketplace has over 100 categories covering everything from business to video to programming. Fiverr is free to join, but they keep 20 percent of each transaction. Its “Gig Packages” offer pricing from $5 to $955, with three versions of your service at three different prices.
You can really turn your freelance work into a full-time gig; one woman reportedly made $38,000 to $48,000 per month on Fiverr as a resume writer, career consultant, and recruiter. And, for what it’s worth, my 22-year-old brother who works in the music industry in Los Angeles swears by the service.
Sidenote: Before you jump at the first work-from-home job you find, you need to beware of work-from-home scams; they run amok. Instead, a good place to start your search is FlexJobs; it’s a resource that is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, and it screens job and companies listed on its site to confirm that they are legit.
Now go forth and hustle! And if you really get good at this side-gig, work-from-home job, consider signing up for a business credit card to reap more rewards.