Top 10 Online Jobs That Could Change Your Life

By John W. Gitahi

There are online jobs and then there are some top 10 jobs that could change your life.

And you know what? Sometimes it certainly gets very confusing when you are starting out as a new online worker. It was the same case with me.

Three years ago when at first when I decided to venture into the online workspace, I found myself often wondering if indeed online work could pay bills. You see, I had always heard that online jobs were actually working for guys but I would often develop doubts on whether it was actually true.

On trying to use Google, I found myself overwhelmed with lots of information about how I could get rich online. I also discovered that there were hundreds of different things I could do to earn money online. I read and reread all the juicy articles, all the while trying to get clarity and find out what was the best online job for me. I would later settle for article writing, got some training and launched this website  which I still use to get clients even today. So far, I am doing good.

But all of us are talented differently and not everyone can write, draw, transcribe or sing on YouTube. What I like about the internet is the way it offers an opportunity for everyone. Whatever you are good at, you can still do it online and succeed. While I know of possibly hundreds of different services you can sell in the internet, these are what I believe to be the top 10 online jobs that could change your life.

  1. Transcription

Here, your work is to convert live or recorded speech into written or electronic text.  As a transcriber, you will be listening on speech recordings from clients who need the audios changed into text. This could be an interview the client had with someone, a talk, a lecture, a sermon, a radio broadcast or some other form of recording.

What I like about transcription is that you don’t need any special skills apart from a good internet solution and an excellent typing speed. If you cannot type fast currently, you have some typing software for example keyblaze typing tutor software  that you can use to increase your speed to the recommended speed of at least 35 WPM.

Workflow for transcribers is good and you can find transcription jobs from plenty of websites such as transcribemegotranscriptFiverr amongst others.

Mostly, transcribers are paid a fixed rate for every audio hour with pay starting from as little as $15 per audio hour but rising to up in some cases $25 per audio hour.

  1. Social Media Marketing(SMM)

I know you have been using social media tools such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, PInterest among others. Right? Well, what you don’t know is that these free tools can potentially make you hundreds of dollars as extra income per month. Yes! You heard me right. I know you are very excited to hear this and you are wondering if it’s absolutely true. Well, hundred possibly thousands of companies and brands have realized how powerful social media marketing can be for their products and are everyday hiring people who are proficient in social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to promote their stuff on these individual’s  pages or company channels. If you have a big following on any of the big three- Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, then you are literally sitting on a gold mine.

There are several ways of earning as a social media marketer;

a. You approach companies and offer to professionalize their social media accounts for a monthly fee. You can approach both online and offline companies. The companies will expect that you will be maintaining their online accounts, responding to queries in liaison with their officers and generally build their brands on social media.

b. You work as a social media influencer. This works for you if you have a huge fan base on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or even Pinterest. Interestingly, here you even find big brands such as Coca-Cola approaching you to endorse their marketing campaigns for example by posting on your page(s) or even just doing some basic tasks like retweeting and voila! You have some dollars. Competition for social media influencers is fierce and brands are currently paying top dollar to get visibility from top social media influencers.  Can you believe that Beyonce earns $1 Million per each Instagram post?

c. Market your services on freelancing sites such as UpWork, Fiverr or Freelancer.com. These websites act as agencies and are a market place for clients looking for SMM services and Freelancers looking for work. Registration in most of these sites is free and you can charge competitively for your services provided you offer clients an ROI (return on investment) though some of them like Upwork do deduct agency fees of up to 20% currently.

  1. Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants (VAs) are like the traditional office assistants. They handle every day’s routine tasks such as emails, record keeping, data entry, posting stuff online, preparing presentations among others. As a VA, your client will trust you to handle his daily small but essential tasks such as his communication, managing their social media, following up on matters on their behalf of your customer, maintaining the client’s diary, issuing applications, doing some research and even simple stuff like keying in data into Microsoft Excel. You basically work as an administrative assistant only that you do it remotely.

There is no specific job description that fits all VAs so the client normally guides you on what they need. To succeed as a VA, you will need to have some basic skills like email, typing skills, social media and related skills. These are skills that you can acquire freely from online. It is also required of you to be a good communicator and be a good time manager as most VA jobs have deadlines and you can easily mess up a client when you don’t complete tasks within the specified time.

Some clients will only hire VAs experienced in certain fields such as Medical(Medical VAs) or Law (Paralegals) but otherwise there are hundreds of VA jobs available from popular sites such as UpWork , Fiverr and even general hiring sites such as Indeed.com

I believe this is one of the easiest jobs you could start earning from especially for newbies.

  1. Article Writers

If you are good in English, then why not think of creating content for the web? Every time you Google for something, you get information from thousands of websites. Has it ever occurred to you that what you normally read on those sites is actually written by someone most probably under pay? Each day, website owners hire writers to create all manner of content for their websites.

Some clients want product review articles, other informative articles on certain topics, others e-books, or others DIY(do it yourself) articles just to highlight but a few. Since the owners are mostly not good writers or are busy in marketing their online businesses, they outsource content creation work to freelancers and pay a few dollars per a specified word count. Some will pay like $5 dollars per 500 words while others will pay as much as $200 for a 1000 word article depending with what they need and your experience.

Work is available from agency sites such as UpWork, Freelancer.com, iWriter or even Fiverr. You can also approach clients directly by contacting them through their email or even social media to attract higher rates and get long term contracts.

Some skills you might need here is copyrighting and excellent research skills. These can be self-taught or learnt from some of the online writing courses that we have. Article writers can also market their services by starting a personal website. You just require to register a domain name and buy hosting from reliable hosting providers such as siteground. See my personal writer website here which I host with siteground.

  1. Academic Writing

If you won’t mind undertaking assignments on behalf of students, you can make quick cash as an academic writer. You will be receiving all types of assignments from mostly developed countries such as the UK, Australia, Larger Europe and US. Students and other scholars need assistance even in non-technical tasks such as writing application letters and CV preparation.

Your clients are therefore students from high school to PHD levels. They need essays to be written, business plans, cash flow forecasts and even algebra. You should expect requests for help in various disciplines including commerce, music, arts, math and sciences.

Your goal should be to start earning at the earliest possible moment so it is advisable to take tasks in areas you feel most comfortable in. For example, apply for biology related tasks if you have excelled in the subject previously. Take commerce related matters if that where you feel less strain.

You will need to be familiar with various writing styles such as APA, Chicago, Havard amongst others. You also need to be excellent in research.

Academic writing jobs are available mostly from agency sites such as Uvocorp, Essaywriter, Essayshark, WritersBay.com, Writezillas.com, 4writers.net and Essaylancer though you can still target direct clients through cold pitching and referrals.

Kenyans are doing very well in Academic writing as well as Indians, Filipinos, Pakistanis and Nigerians. Aspiring academic writers should however be worry of scammers who will trick you into buying fraudulent writing accounts which do not pay back.

If you wish to start off as academic writer, it is easier to first work under an established writer as you learn the ropes. You can later register your account once you have gained enough experience. Some websites require a minimum of a college diploma to accept your application.

  1. Affiliate Marketing

The work of affiliate marketers is to promote third party products through their websites. You will need to create a quality website first. I am positive about affiliate marketing seeing how easy it is to build a website today. You can take advantage of easy to use site builders such as strikingly or simply work with if you are targeting running a blog.

To run any site, you have to choose a domain name and a hosting plan. And then you really do not need to spend if your budget does not allow. You can register a free domain name and sign up for a hosting plan to get started. Free domain names and hosting are available from wordpress.com. If you have a budget, go for paid plan as it gives you more flexibility and control of your account. I personally recommend SiteGround( as they have excellent support and dedicated WordPress hosting services.

After building your site, you will have to upload appropriate content. Write excellent articles related to what your blog is all about and publish it. Make your articles interesting and easy to read. You can also load some relevant videos and even podcasts if necessary. You do all this targeting to ensure your site is ranked by search engines which results into more organic traffic and potentially more sales.

Finally, you will approach companies dealing with products in your subject matter and offer to market their products through your site in return for some commission. Examples of companies with successful affiliate programs for online marketers includes Amazon, ClickBank.com and JVZoo. These sites also come with tools to help you track traffic and sales made through your site.

I personally know affiliate marketers who are earning more than $1000 per month in affiliate commissions. Once you have made enough money from your site, you can sell it and start a new site. See a list of successful affiliate marketing sites here

  1. Graphics Design

If you can design logos, brochures, business cards, cartoons, caricatures, banners, invitations or even presentations, then you can easily raise a significant income by selling your services to the globe online. Graphic design services are required for both offline and online platforms. To work as a designer, you will need some skills in design applications like Corel Draw and Photoshop. These are skills you can easily learn from YouTube or cheaply from a local college

In the last two years, Infographics have exploded in popularity and designers competent in this line are in high demand. You then register to the work sites and start pitching for gigs.

  1. Translation

Do you speak a second language? Are you good in German, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese or even Korean? If you answered yes, then you can be your own cash cow. As a result of globalization, people around the world require their content to be translated from one language to another. If you visit a site like UpWork, you will meet clients who are desperate for translation services. I have recently noted an increase in Kiswahili-English translation jobs- something you can do without any special skills. Other popular translation services are English-German, English-Korean and Portuguese translation gigs. These jobs are also available on Fiverr and other sites.

This is quite an easy to start off job if you have the right language skills. Why don’t you just take that next step and register in all the relevant sites and start hunting for the jobs?

You will be surprised how easy you will raise those dollars.

  1. Explainer Videos and Animation

Explainer videos are currently selling like hotcakes. You will be making videos to expound on products or services the client is offering on their sites. Clients may also need animations demonstrating processes or showing how to do something.

Unlike in the past when you would need above average video editing skills to do such jobs, nowadays you will be able to create professional looking videos by simple using some online video making and animation softwares such as moovly , powtoon amongst others. Just log into those sites, learn for free how to make explainer videos in a few minutes and Kaboom! You will be ready to start earning.

  1. Web Design(WordPress Expert)

More businesses are coming online every day. All need websites and that is where your cake is. You will be building WordPress websites for clients from scratch, uploading content, installing the necessary plugins and generally managing the sites.

Work is available from agency sites such as Upwork, People per hour (PPH) and Fiverr. Again like many online jobs, you can get direct clients from blogging or cold pitching.

You can easily train yourself in wordpress from Google, put up a sample blog where your advertise your services and start off. If you would like further training on WordPress, your local college should easily sort you. We also have multiple other sites offering WordPress training services. See this.

Rates depend with your client and the kind of site you are working on. You can check some WordPress web development jobs here or here

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