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What Are the Different Types of Home Employment Opportunities?

Jacob Queen
Jacob Queen

There are many different home employment opportunities available, and these have generally grown since the Internet became open to a wider range of people. Some of the more common examples include phone-based jobs, transcription-oriented jobs, and freelance writing jobs. There are also very simple jobs where individuals are hired to do basic tasks that machines can't be programmed to do, such as judging whether two sentences are similar, or deciding how to categorize a picture.

Home employment opportunities have been around for a long time, but the Internet has had a pretty large impact on the availability of this kind of work. This is partly because it gives a very convenient way for employers and employees to interact with each other. Many jobs may require constant supervision, which wasn't necessarily possible before the Internet gained popularity.

A writer might work online from home.
A writer might work online from home.

Some home employment opportunities aren't necessarily that well-paying, but many of them are rather simple. For example, computer artificial intelligence is constantly advancing, but it isn't perfect yet. Some jobs allow people to do work that is particularly difficult for computers to do, such as identifying photos and similar tasks. These don't usually take that long to do, and the pay may be pretty low, but if people can do the tasks quickly enough, it can add up. In some ways, transcription jobs are another example of this kind of work, and they sometimes pay much better, but they also generally have more stringent skill requirements.

Tech support, sales, and customer service jobs can all be done from home; all that is required is a telephone and the Internet.
Tech support, sales, and customer service jobs can all be done from home; all that is required is a telephone and the Internet.

Another useful task for businesses that's often done at home is answering telephones. Jobs of this type can range from tech support for products, to sales, or customer service. Usually, the calls are routed through a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) so that the person isn't actually required to use his or her own phone line. Some phone jobs pay by the call while others pay by the hour.

Home employment allows parents to spend more time with their children.
Home employment allows parents to spend more time with their children.

Freelance writing is one of the more popular and potentially profitable home employment opportunities. These jobs can range a lot in terms of pay and the expected quality of the work. People are paid to write articles, create website content, and write material designed to sell products. The pay for these jobs can be based on word count or a flat fee by the article. Many people also employ freelance editors to help improve the quality of the work produced by their writers.

IT professionals might work from home.
IT professionals might work from home.

Some individuals who aren't satisfied with the available work from home opportunities simply create a business as a way of creating their own work-from-home job. These people may be a craftsman who wants to sell his products on websites, or people offering a service of some kind. This is often the most potentially profitable work-from-home job possible, but it's also often the most difficult to arrange.

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    • A writer might work online from home.
      By: auremar
      A writer might work online from home.
    • Tech support, sales, and customer service jobs can all be done from home; all that is required is a telephone and the Internet.
      By: nyul
      Tech support, sales, and customer service jobs can all be done from home; all that is required is a telephone and the Internet.
    • Home employment allows parents to spend more time with their children.
      By: Monkey Business
      Home employment allows parents to spend more time with their children.
    • IT professionals might work from home.
      By: imageegami
      IT professionals might work from home.