Online Jobs: Myth VS Reality

While there really are online jobs out there, there seems to be more confusion involving them and outright lies to be had than real and substantial information. Admittedly, there seems to be more in the way of outright scams than real work when you take a look at listings, however there are ways to tell what is real from what is a scam.

Below are quick points to look out for:

Promises of huge earnings: Let’s face it no job is going to be giving you any kind of huge sum if you don’t have experience.
The Words ‘Data-Entry’: Data entry is real work, BUT it is something you need to train for. Most of the ‘data entry’ jobs online are surveys which may or may not pay out.

To find legit work online jobs, you do need a definable set of skills. Considering the largest growing portion of online jobs is blogging, writing is a must. While you may be able to find jobs for coding or art, typically you need more experience than the ability to code.

No matter what you would like to look into, you need a way to back up any claims. Anyone can claim to write or code, but claiming something won’t get you jobs. Create a portfolio or a blog (there are tons of free areas to get set up, WordPress and Blogger being two of the best) and get to work showing your skills.

Any website you create doesn’t have to be insanely popular to get jobs from, it’s just to show that you really can do what you say you can. It should have at minimum 10 or so posts or examples (fairly arbitrary number, but you need a good amount up to show what you can do).

So what can you expect?

Rejection. You will be rejected and ignored more often than you get a declined offer. It may or may not be anything against you, often you just won’t know. The important thing is to keep trying.
Low pay. You more than likely aren’t going to get much, especially if you are just starting out. If you are brand new at writing online (and the same can be said about other areas of online work) getting more to add to your resume may be able to help more with early gigs, so it may be worth taking lower paid jobs for a while.
A lot of work. You will work, a lot. Often the hours invested at first may not seem to be worth it, and often you may not want to work on a certain day. Yet, you are expected to so if you are serious about working online you have to work even if you ‘aren’t feeling up to it’. It will get better, and those long hours will be worth more in the end, and as you keep it up, it does become a lot easier.
Topics you may not be interested in. Most of the time you don’t get to pick and choose what you are writing about. At times you may find a topic boring, or downright dreadful (admittedly some of us do get lucky).

It’s not a job field for everyone, and you really need a lot of time to invest and dedication to the work. When you are looking for a source of income online, remember the adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.