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What Are the Best Ways to Make Money From Home?

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Earning extra money can help you out in so many ways. One of the biggest benefits is that it can create some extra wiggle room in your budget and also make saving up easier. But not everyone has the time or desire for a second job — and that's where a home-based side gig comes in. There are many ways you can make money from home, and it's easy to supplement your income with a few hours of work that you set aside a little extra time to do every week.

Working from home isn't just for making a little extra money, either. You can even turn working from home into a career if you take some extra steps to build up your business over time. Whether you're looking to start down a fresh career path or put some extra money in your pocket, you can do so from home. These are some of the best ways to get started.

Writing, Editing and Proofreading Are Easy Anywhere You Have a Computer

If you have a way with the written word, you can earn money by writing online. Opportunities for writing income abound, from articles to e-books to paid blogging jobs. If you're interested in this sort of position, it helps to have a strong command of English grammar and of different writing stylebooks and their formatting requirements. However, if you're fluent in other languages you can also pick up jobs translating content from one language to another. These types of jobs also involve negotiating with the clients who need your writing services, so it's essential that you have effective communication skills and can respond quickly to emails and requests from those clients. Because you can do this type of work from just about any computer, it can be a great way to make money not just at home, but also anywhere in the world.

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You can also earn money proofreading or editing other writers' work. You can even bring speeches and videos to the page as a transcriber. As with writing, these positions do require strong language skills, but the convenience alone can make the job worth it. Although you'll likely have deadlines, you can do this type of work just about whenever you have time.

To find these types of jobs, consider looking at an online marketplace like Upwork. You can find client listings for different projects you might be interested in, and these online systems make it easy for you to contact potential clients, place bids on work and get paid regularly. These sites also allow clients and freelancers to rate each other based on how well the transaction went. After a while, you can build up your reputation and add examples to your profile to serve as a portfolio of sorts. This makes it easier to get work in the future and can even help you transition into a full-time career as an online writer.

Crafts and Design Help You Monetize Your Hobbies

If you love crafting as a hobby, creating works of art that people might pay to display in their homes or designing clothes that people want to wear, you can turn those skills into income. If you love thrifting and finding unique vintage items, you can even turn that hobby into income by selling your interesting finds in an online shop. Online marketplaces like Etsy allow designers and craftspeople to sell items they design and make themselves, and the market audience you can reach is potentially huge — people from all over the world shop on Etsy and similar sites.

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The ability to budget money — you want to make more in profits than you pay for new supplies to keep making your items — and promote yourself online will both come in handy if you're interested in selling your homemade items online. You'll also want to make sure you have well-written product descriptions and captivating photography that showcases what you're selling in an enticing way. Be prepared, too, to respond to customer questions and other communications in a timely manner. The nice thing is, however, that you can make work like this a side job or your main source of income depending on how much time you're able to commit to it.

Virtual Assistant Work Harnesses Your Organizational Skills

You can take your knack for organization or willingness to help others and turn it into work as a virtual assistant. Often, corporations and even small businesses are willing to pay remote workers to serve as executive assistants without having to pay for the overhead of extra office space. Virtual assistant work encompasses traditional clerical work, such as setting up meetings and answering emails, but it also can include putting presentations together for meetings, creating reports and maintaining a social media presence. The best thing about all of these tasks is that you can do them from the comfort of your home on your computer.

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One thing you'll want to keep in mind with this sort of job is that many potential clients out there may be looking for someone to do this full-time or during the day when they're also working. If you work a traditional 9-to-5 job, this could interfere with your schedule somewhat. If you're looking for a position that's more flexible, aim for a job that lets you focus on social media management, which isn't always as time-bound. If you're looking to make a career switch, on the other hand, going full-time as a remote office manager or virtual assistant could be the role for you.

Teaching and Tutoring Help Learners of All Ages

There's a growing market for online tutors and teachers, and you can take advantage of these opportunities to add money to your bank account. With a college degree in any field, you can sign up with companies like VIPKid that pair English language students with native English speakers, or you can supplement the education of home-schooled students in the United States and elsewhere. If you have an advanced degree, you can even teach online courses.

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Tutoring often has lower degree requirements than teaching and can be great if you prefer working one-on-one with students. Online teaching and tutoring give you the flexibility to set your own schedule and work as much or as little as you like. Keep in mind, though, that you may need to do much of this work during the day, depending on when students are most likely to need help. If you work with learners in different time zones, however, this may give you more flexibility by making it easier to work at night after you've gotten home from your full-time job.

Micro-Task Marketplaces Offer On-the-Go Earning Opportunities

If you're looking to earn some extra cash but don't want to commit to another job and prefer to keep your schedule open, micro-tasking can provide some extra padding for your wallet. Websites like Amazon's Mechanical Turk allow you to complete a range of short, easy tasks for small amounts of money. From transcribing text to performing data entry to even participating in university studies and surveys remotely, micro-tasking is quick, easy to do and rarely comes with any special requirements aside from a computer and an internet connection.

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The downside of this sort of work is that it usually doesn't pay as much as the other jobs on this list — sometimes only a few cents per task, depending on what you're working on. So, you'll need a keen eye for worthwhile tasks and the ability to manage your own time. With no supervisors and no schedule, however, that could be a fair tradeoff based on your needs.