8 Lucrative Careers You Can Start From Your Own Couch The internet has given us the amazing opportunity to start highly fruitful businesses from the comfort of our own homes.
By Renzo Costarella Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Are you interested in working from home? Or better yet -- work while traveling around the world with a steady and stable income. Can you finance your travels while also saving for the future? If this is one of your goals, you should start looking into starting an online career as soon as possible.
With the internet at your fingertips, it is easy to find work in numerous areas. Here are eight jobs that you can start today from your own couch:
1. Online English tutor.
Free video chatting services like Skype has made it is easy to connect face to face with people all around the world. More and more language schools are leveraging this platform to create online tutoring opportunities for native English speakers.
Related: Online Tutors
You do not even need to speak another language. Most of these jobs are taught entirely in English. There are many companies competing in this space so it may take a couple of trials to find a good fit for you.
Currently, the European languages, Japanese and Chinese services are paying the highest for tutoring helps. Take a look at those languages and areas of the world as there are many opportunities. Here is a list to get started.
Related: Tutor Your Way to Profits
2. Virtual assistant.
Companies are increasingly opting to forgo operating from a physical office location; this has opened many opportunities for remote jobs like virtual assistants. Tasks for these positions include: answering office hotlines, booking services for airlines and hotels, screening emails, handling the office calendars, and even bookkeeping.
Related: The Virtual Assistant: A Startup's Secret Weapon
There are many virtual assistant staffing agencies that are easy to start off with before branching off to on your solo venture. The freelancers with a lot of experience in the virtual assistant area recommend to you start with a single client to learn the trade. As you gain experience and manage your time, then you can easily increase to multiple clients to broaden your revenue.
3. Social media influencer.
Thanks to the so-called "social media revolution," this is a real career. For those of you with large followings on social media this is an easy way to earn some side change by promoting products. Depending on the number of people following you on your many social media platforms, you could be earning thousands of dollars per post.
If you do not already have a large number of loyal fans on social media this may be a bit more difficult, however there are plenty of ways to increase your following.
4. Affiliate marketer.
There are endless products out there to promote, and multiple channels from which to promote these products or services. The most common ways to market and sell are via email lists or blogs that you operate.
Let's take blogging for an example: you need to pick a broad niche such as "health" or "travel." Take the time to fill your site with quality informational content that will first recruit a reader base. Later your job will be to keep your readership interested in your information. You will be able to curate product based roundups to generate affiliate income.
To become an affiliate marketer, you may need some capital to invest in the beginning, especially if you are required to pay a writer. Once your commissions starting rolling in, the business will start paying for itself and then some.
5. Graphic designer and web developer.
If you have a background in graphic designing and coding, there are many freelance opportunities open to you. But if you have a background in both you just hit the jackpot. Doing freelance work means you choose the hours, set the price, and pick the projects that you find most interesting. There is always a shortage of good freelance designers and developers, so if you build your reputation, the possibilities are endless.
6. Freelance writer.
Freelance writing is one of the easiest and quickest stay-at-home careers to start if you're naturally a good writer. If writing is not your strong suit it's probably a good idea to look for other opportunities. If you are a freelance writer you'll need to be able to produce a high volume of quality posts in order to earn serious cash.
Related: How to Make It as a Freelance Entrepreneur
The amount you can earn from freelance writing is dependant on whom your clients are, your area of knowledge, and level of expertise. For example, if you're extremely knowledgeable about FinTech and are able to secure engagements writing for some of the top payments companies you could easily earn a six-figure salary.
If you choose to go with this career just make sure you're passionate about the content. Writing six to eight hours a day about something you aren't interested in will drive you insane.
7. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
Fulfillment by Amazon allows basically anyone to run an entire e-commerce operation out of their homes. FBA is one of the most popular services since they will handle virtually every step of the process from shipping and returns to 24-hour customer service.
In order to be successful running a FBA business you need to sell specific products and focus on marketing to that niche. By keeping yourself in one niche, you'll reduce your margin for error and failed marketing campaigns.
Greg Mercer, a 7-figure Amazon seller constructed a basic guide to help you find products that work well with FBA.
8. Translator
Are you fluent in another language? Many firms are looking for professionals to translate documents and audio files for their businesses. Often these businesses are looking for people that have a cultural knowledge as well as expert language skills. You will need both the language and cultural skills in order to fully understand and succeed with the translation materials. The more obscure the language -- the more you will get paid!
Thanks to flexible work days and the internet individuals are abler than ever to start a career from home. That said, nothing in life comes easy. Whether you're working out of the Google Campus or your closet-turned-office you'll need to put in the hours.
Evaluate your current set of skills along with your schedule and see if one of these careers may work for you!
