Online work from home jobs...anyone had success?

[pimplybumskins]

Hello! Mumsnet Jobs team here. We've noticed this thread is fairly old now, and some of the information is out of date. We've put together this article of advice, tips and tricks to start working from home. Alternatively, you can look at the work from home opportunities on Mumsnet Jobs. We hope this is helpful!

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Hi Ladies,
I am looking at the online work from home option for work and have signed up to numerous sites. The work (so far) is sporadic, small bits and on completing one transcription job- very low pay. I saw the payment today and am wondering why I am even bothering to do it. I would like to know if any mums here have had success and if its worth persisting with? At the moment I'm thinking not.

Thank you ladies. :-)

I'd never bother with these, the pay is RIDICULOUS. :(

What are you trained in, what's your background?

Hi pimply - firstly I want to say good luck - it is hard work making a living from the comfort of your own home but it can be done.

What I found really useful was looking over profiles and 'hourlies' of people on People Per Hour, and other sites like eLance and Freelancer, and looking for people who sounded similar to me, offered a similar skill set so you can see the many opportunities that are out there.

I picked out profiles that I was similar to, completed a skills gap analysis, taught myself what I needed to know and now freelance getting some clients through sites like that, but mainly with regular clients now.

I don't think that starting with very low paying jobs then working upwards is very effective, but I am happy to be proved wrong.

There are a lot of exploitative jobs. Elance is one of the better sites and I have earned some money - but I am very fussy and I only take well-paid jobs.

I don't think I'd do it again but I did a few years ago. I was an online assistant as I tried to work flexibly around DS when he was being home educated. It was an interesting experience with lots of crooks. I did have one good experience with a client who I kept in contact with. I often found I worked longer hours than I was booked and my annual income was around 1k or a bit less. Then there was also the problem of malware and people messing with my emails. It was interesting but time consuming. It was also my first attempt at being self employed so despite the difficulty it was still great to have actually earned money during the first year.

I have picked up a couple of jobs (I am in marketing). I think the key for me was to only bid for jobs that are worth it (none of this below the NMW stuff!!) and where I have some relevant experience as I think that gives you a better chance of 'winning'. One I won as I was the only person to bid!

Being on there though has brought other benefits. I have met other freelancers which I have then used for projects etc. I have also become part of an associate network through it.

I did read the last Elance annual report/review with interest. There were lots of tales of people giving up well paid corp careers and replacing with elance tasks. However I wonder if that is for a select few who have specific skills that orgs are willing to pay for.

Could you not approach some companies directly offering your services? You could always offer a Skype meeting instead of an in-person meeting if they wanted to discuss etc and you want to work from home only. Fees 'in real life' can be more realistic.

Good luck.

What service do you offer?