I officially became a work-at-home mom when the school break started this year. I left my teaching job and chose to work-at-home so that I can skip going out everyday and arriving home late at night. I already have vision problems as a complication of my diabetes and it becomes especially difficult to see at night. I also had frequent spells of nausea and the daily travel from home to work made my immune system weak. Working at home not only solved these problems but also allowed me more time to manage my household and take care of my son's needs.
How do I do it? First of all, I started to monetize my blogs. Once in a while I write paid posts that pay me a modest amount. I also earn a little through Google Adsense. But these earnings do not even make up the major chunk of my online earnings. I do online web content writing, reviews writing, and data entry jobs. Currrently, I am juggling my time between blogging and my two freelance writing projects. I can say that the pay is good enough for me considering that I do not pay for transportation plus the other perks of working from home.
If you are interested in doing what I do, here are some things you should know:
- Have a Paypal account. Paypal is an online payment facility that most clients use in paying. Set up an account and link your local bank account for you to receive your dollar earnings in Philippines pesos. You will need your Paypal email when registering in online earning sites.
- Register your job provider profile in oDesk. A major percentage of my online freelance writing projects are from oDesk. I find the site very secure and this is where you should go if you want to avoid scamming online clients. Prepare an impressive provider profile and take the certification tests to have greater chances of being picked. Apply for jobs and choose between fixed price jobs and hourly jobs. For hourly jobs, you will need to install an oDesk software for work time logs and screenshots.
- Invest in a reliable computer and hi-speed internet connection. Just like in any business, you should be ready to invest a little. In my case, I bought a laptop with really high specs so it can surely accommodate the bulk of my online work. I am still running on SmartBro though as we do not have DSL providers in our village yet. I am fortunate that my internet connection seldom gets wonky and, when it does, I still get to use my wireless phone as a modem.
- Assign a work area at home. Although I can work in the kitchen and in bed while multi-tasking, I still have an assigned work area where I do serious writing tasks.
- Be ready to respond to calls and emails ASAP. Be always online on Skype and Yahoo Messenger. To be more convenient, specify your work hours and our time zone in your cover letter so clients will know when to contact you.
- Be wary of scammers. Although there is a small chance of encountering scammers in oDesk, you will still need to be on guard especially when you are accepting fixed price jobs. Since there are no time logs, oDesk does not guarantee payment for fixed price job transactions. What I do is that I only choose to apply for fixed price jobs of oDesk Verified Payment Method clients.
Freelance online writing can be a lucrative job but a great deal of time and energy should be invested. What I earn is not that much yet but it's better than earning nothing while at home.
