If you are always working for an hourly wage there will forever be a ceiling on the potential income you are able to earn. There are only 24 hours in the day, and you probably don’t even want to spend half of them slaving away at work.
Stay at home moms like us face a similar problem. Our days tend to be unpredictable and ever changing. We adhere to a schedule to keep our sanity and have things quasi-organized, but with kids you never know whether or not you’ll be operating on your schedule, or theirs.
This can make working from home difficult, but not impossible. The solution involves a simple change in philosophy. Instead of trying to work as many hours of possible, try to accomplish as much as possible. Focus on your total productivity instead of your total hours spent. It almost sounds freeing, doesn’t it?
Today we’re going to reveal 8 jobs that ambitious stay at home moms can use to earn money without having to dedicate specific hours to on a daily basis. You decide when you want to work. Ready? Let’s get started.
Amazon mTurk – Quite possibly the largest micro-worker platform on the internet, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk lists thousands of tasks that need completion. You’ll find quick jobs that take 30 seconds and pay you $0.03, and others requiring over an hour of time, that pay upwards of $50. It doesn’t get more trustworthy than Amazon.
The type of tasks on mTurk range from writing articles and transcribing audio to testing web site functions and giving opinions. Some tasks are great pay, others are a complete waste of time. You should be able to tell pretty quick which are which.
99 Designs – Artsy moms, listen up! 99 Designs is an awesome website which connects designers to businesses in need of logos, web design, t-shirt ideas, and all kinds of other branding type stuff. Company X needs a logo, so they create a contest on 99 designs with their criteria. 99 Designs users then create their best rendition at what Company X is looking for. Company X then chooses the “winner” out of all the submitted designs, and the artist gets paid.
Afterwards an open communication channel remains between the designer and Company X, so when the time comes to do the website, coffee mugs, and book cover, the same designer can be contacted again. Boom. A lasting business relationship is created. If you don’t already have experience in the design field 99 Designs may be out of reach, but then again it doesn’t hurt to try.
Clickworker UHRS – A micro-job platform similar to mTurk. Earn as little as $0.01 per task and as much as $100. Just like mTurk, jump on the good ones and don’t do the terrible tasks twice to maximize earnings. Writing, translating, researching and collecting data are all the types of jobs you will find on Clickworker.
Fiverr – A job platform where people buy and sell jobs for $5. There is a lot of creative stuff on Fiverr that can get your brain in the right place to think about starting your own business. If you can come up with a unique idea that you can get done quickly, try putting it on Fiverr. The hardest part about this site is the competition. There is probably someone already doing what you’re selling for less.
Writing for content marketplaces. We already went into detail about how SAHMs can write as an online job, so we’ll just briefly shootout 4 opportunities you can utilize today. Note that the higher end of these payments aren’t possible when you’re just starting out, but are easily achievable if you stick with it:
- iWriter: Up to $15 per article
- Online Writing Jobs: Up to $50 per article
- Text Broker: Up to $0.05 per word
- Zerys: Dependent on test results/experience
It’s your call how far you take these opportunities. That’s the beauty of taking on jobs where your paycheque isn’t tied to the amount of hours you spend. You can work hours and hours if you find a profitable rhythm a couple days a week, or not at all if a specific job doesn’t suit you. If something urgent comes up you can drop everything you’re doing without thinking twice.
Are you already working a job, or running a business, which enables you to earn money independently of the time you put into it? Let us know in the comments below this post!