Most likely, any Internet user knows what remote work is. Many tried to find her in order to improve their own financial situation. There is nothing surprising here, because labor through the Internet has a number of obvious advantages. Working at home using his own computer, a person expands the scope of life freedom, he no longer needs to exist on a strict schedule with daily going to a disgusting office. He can earn money by choosing those projects that are of interest to him.
What is remote work?
The main of the possibilities of working via the Internet is the formation of your own work schedule and completely independent work time planning. This work is called freelance, and those who do it are called freelancers. These people receive money from the implementation of various projects and tasks, the search for which is carried out for themselves independently. That is, a freelancer is a boss to himself. Remote work with daily pay is especially attractive, although there are few such vacancies in general.
Let's dwell on the main points of her search. It is necessary to work, and, most likely, hard enough. Finding good jobs or suitable customers takes a lot of time and effort from freelancers. But everything pays off thanks to the advantages that this way of earning gives.
What is required from a freelancer
It is very important for those who wish to master such earnings to have experience and good professional skills in a certain field of activity. That is, to have a specialty in demand on the Web. Unfortunately, the circle of those is not too wide. Consider the main vacancies that are currently the most popular, and try to briefly describe each of them.
If we are talking about working with a personal computer, it goes without saying that successful home-based work is possible only if it is available with an indispensable connection to the Internet. The higher the speed, the more convenient it is to work. But even the relatively slow Internet is not an obstacle for a real freelancer.
Where are they looking for this same remote work? First of all, I recall the many sites that publish vacancies with one-time or permanent jobs for freelancers. The huge number of required projects are concentrated on the so-called freelance exchanges - specialized resources containing a database of mutual offers from customers and contractors. There are a lot of such portals on the Web. This includes both the large exchanges that have existed for years, which have earned well-deserved authority, as well as all kinds of small message boards.
What are the benefits of freelance workers?
Why does the customer need a remote worker? After all, the boss is not able to monitor the progress of the work process and track progress or its absence in the implementation of the project. At first glance, it’s much more convenient to have an employee in your own office at a permanent workplace. It is difficult (almost impossible) for a freelancer to be caught in the absence of labor enthusiasm and to motivate a couple of strong expressions.
But this upsetting minus entirely overlap with much more significant advantages. First of all, working with freelancers saves a lot of money for the employer-customer. After all, paying for remote work gives significant savings on the rental of the premises where the workplaces of subordinates could be placed. Another advantage is that a freelancer, especially one who lives in the provinces, can be hired for less money than an office employee, and the employer has a much wider choice in this case.
The third major plus is that by breaking up the work into separate tasks with payment upon completion, you avoid the enormous expense of maintaining the mass of office plankton for a long time, regardless of the fact that they perform any useful actions.
Well, the fourth advantage - thanks to the Internet, geographical boundaries are disappearing. Any employer can afford to find the right specialist of the highest qualification for a reasonable fee - unlike local workers.
About risks and problems
Remote work on the Internet is associated with a number of certain risks. Which ones? The main one is the risk of meeting with an unscrupulous employer, from which it is difficult to wait for payment of the completed order. To avoid such a risk, there is only one advice - use special sites that work on the exchange principle in the search for orders. The essence is very simple - within the framework of such a resource, contractors and customers meet with each other, agree on the terms of the assignment and the cost of the services provided. Then place an order, while the agreed amount is blocked on the internal account of the employer-customer.
As soon as the task is completed and officially accepted, the executor receives the unlocked amount as payment to his internal account, from where it can then be withdrawn to a bank card or electronic wallet.
Most of these exchanges imply the existence of arbitration, the role of which is the analysis of conflict situations. If obvious claims regarding the timing or quality of the work performed cannot be found, the customer’s refusal to pay the required amount may be declared unreasonable, and the money will automatically be transferred to the account of the contractor.
About freelance instability
Of course, you can do without an exchange, for example, search for ads from paid or free boards, focusing on texts about the search for freelance specialists. But the risk of being cheated for the performer in this case increases many times. After all, the mechanism of protection against dishonest customers is not provided here.
Another important risk is the prospect of sitting out part time without money and without work. This often happens in the summer, during a period of decline in activity, when little projects are laid out and the services of specialists are not so in demand. Many customers go on vacation to southern countries, and business life sometimes actually ends. In this difficult period, freelancers often have to tighten their belts and rely only on previous savings.
Other problems
Another problem is that many experts have a poor idea of what remote work really is. Having escaped from office slavery and joyfully plunged into freelance, they suddenly discover that they are unable to organize themselves. A free day - an undoubted and very welcome benefit - turns out to require serious self-discipline skills. Seeing how idly hours and minutes are spent for fruitful work, newcomer freelancers are tormented by the inevitable question - is it commonplace laziness or some hidden psychological motives? Many, unable to withstand life in such an incomprehensible mode, sooner or later return to their native office and sigh with relief.
Working with a freelancer is also at risk for teleworkers. After all, the selected artist is quite capable of hiding, having received an advance payment (if we are not talking about ordering through the exchange). Many of the civilian employees sin by lack of discipline and are able to disrupt the deadlines of any, even very important and urgent project. As a result, distrust is growing on both sides.
How to get started
What is the hardest thing about finding a remote job? Perhaps this is a clear preponderance of the number of ads from those wishing to earn over the number of jobs offered.In fact, there are always more contractors than those who act as the customer. Competition in the remote labor market can be called monstrous. To get a decent homework, a freelancer must go through a rigorous selection process and be able to prove to a potential client their indispensability as a professional.
How to deal with competitors? Freelance beginners are not recommended to try to “grab” an expensive and large order at any cost. Start with existing small and inexpensive projects that will give an experience of communication with the employer and help to create a portfolio. In the future, it will serve you very well.
Note to the artist
The application procedure should be treated creatively, avoiding template expressions and formulating a text in each case, depending on the nature of the assignment. If you have experience completing such orders, be sure to emphasize this.
Response to public criticism should be adequate. Often during a showdown between the customer and the contractor, everyone tends to leave a negative review full of negativity. Think three times before doing so. After all, you are not exposing yourself in the best light to other potential customers. Therefore, at all costs try to be correct and not go beyond business communication.
All works are good, choose to taste ...
Let us now consider what professions are considered the most demanded in such a field as remote work at home. What is the most popular? Who is easier to realize themselves on the web?
A huge variety of types of Internet activities can be divided into several categories. This is work with texts, engineering and design tasks (or related to programming), art and design activities, as well as work in the field of management and workflow.
The first group (work with texts) includes the services of copywriters and rewriters. There are many specialized exchanges where freelancers place orders for writing texts of completely different topics. To get a job there, a copywriter should have a good command of the literary language, be able to write correctly and on business, have a certain amount of creativity, and also be able to quickly type any text on the keyboard. Knowledge of the basics of the HTML language will not hinder him.
Author to author strife
The work of a regular web writer specializing in writing informational articles is paid rather low. Another thing is copywriter advertisers who take up selling texts. Such labor is paid an order of magnitude more expensive, and specialists are valued more and often go like hot cakes.
Other authors specialize in seo-texts, that is, they adapt the articles being created for certain key queries, a list of which is usually available in the statement of work (terms of reference). The ability to masterfully enter keywords is necessary for creating texts.
How to earn
Remote work at home can be paid for in different ways. The cost of labor of a copywriter varies from 15-20 rubles. for 1000 characters from beginners to very substantial amounts in rubles or dollars from advanced ones who managed to earn a name for themselves. The level of payment is associated with experience, the presence of a wide customer base and a “pumped” personal brand.
Rewriting is called a simpler work related to the presentation of other people's material in their own style to give articles the desired percentage of uniqueness, which is so important for the resources publishing them. The main thing for the rewriter is an acceptable level of literacy and high print speed. Payment for this type of work is lower, but the complexity here is less by a whole order.
And who else works at home?
Another popular option is remote operator work related to typing. Typing artists are either busy transcribing audio files (i.e. decrypting sound recordings — transcripts of statements, interviews, court hearings), or retyping texts scanned from any paper media.There are fewer such orders on the Internet. This work is very routine, requiring a lot of perseverance and patience.
Work at home remotely from direct employers is also possible for professional journalists. You can consider the option of cooperation with the news portal by providing a portfolio of your own work for review. The corrector specialist will also be in demand. The main requirement for it is the highest literacy. The essence of proofreading is checking the texts intended for publication on the site for spelling errors, typos, and the like. The corrector can get a permanent freelance job or be content with one-time tasks.
Those who speak at a decent level any of the foreign languages are given the job of translator. On specialized resources for such specialists or on content exchanges, a freelancer can find vacancies - orders for transfers from foreign ones. Clients are those companies that support a foreign language version of their own site, but do not want to introduce a permanent employee for such work.
Creative is our everything
People of creative professions - artists, designers, photographers - can always find work on the Internet. Demand for their services is kept at a consistently high level. Web designers who are able to draw a convenient and extraordinary looking website are more in demand today than ever. Here is a huge frontier of work for layout designers, programmers, as well as classic designers who can work both offline and on the Internet. These are illustrators, interior designers, and 3D graphic specialists.
Creative work can be paid very, very well if you have creativity and a responsible approach to business. Of course, there are enough hackers here, but it is much easier for the owner of a creative profession to find a job via the Internet in the absence of the necessary vacancies in his hometown than anyone else.
Engineers start and win
What about engineering specialties? Such vacancies are mainly offered by serious companies that have problems finding employees in their own city. Complex work, remote (directly from the employer), sometimes thousands of kilometers away, is performed by high-level specialists at home on their own computer, followed by sending the results to the client via the Web.
An example of such work is the design of construction projects. The customer can get acquainted with all the proposed architectural projects without the need to visit each author personally. Construction companies often order remote workers drawings that run in AutoCAD. Similarly, landscaping projects, new cottages, water supply networks of small settlements, etc. are being created.
What else?
What is remote work for other professionals? The easiest way to find remote work is for programmers, specialists in working with 1C and the like. In addition to permanent vacancies for them, there are many one-time assignments from companies or individuals.
Surprisingly, even a lawyer can work online! Many of these specialists today advise on the problems of legislation on specialized sites and forums. Some of them give online advice via Skype. Such work may be full-time with a fixed fee, or it may be pure business.
Even the work of a manager is quite possible with the help of the World Wide Web. After all, you can search, ring and advise clients without tiring sitting for hours in a stuffy office.
Accountant, my dear accountant ...
Is it possible to work as an accountant remotely? There are vacancies on freelance exchanges for them too. After all, the work of an accountant in the office and at home is practically no different. Responsibilities, knowledge and skills remain the same.Such a freelance specialist can fulfill the duties of the chief accountant of a certain Internet company, or work in a more modest position (for example, an assistant accountant), specializing in performing simple routine operations. At the same time, he may be a consultant or an analyst - if qualification allows.
As we see, for the energetic, creative, modern person, the Internet provides every opportunity to provide for oneself without leaving home. If the office has ceased to suit you, perhaps remote work at home is exactly what you are missing. Take a chance!