Introduction to Online Jobs
The entry of the Kenya government into the online jobs arena through www.ajiradigital.go.ke attest to the growing popularity of this approach to unemployment alleviation.
While there are numerous types of jobs available online, my experience is in freelance writing.
I have been in this business for close to four years now, and I can confidently affirm that online jobs exist and they pay well.
Allow me to share my knowledge and experience, hoping it will inspire you to embark on this digital employment journey.
How big is the freelancing market?
- It is the fastest growing segment of the labour market.
- Companies and organizations are cutting operational costs by hiring consultants instead of employing full-time staff.
- 53 million people in the US do freelance work
- This represents 34% of the workforce
- 1.4 million people freelance in the UK
- 78% of UK public believes that freelancing and flexible working hours promote good work/life balance
- 72% think it impacts family life positively
- In the UK, freelancing is seen as a highly attractive and lucrative option by 87% of graduates
- 21% of UK First Class honors graduates work as freelancers
- 29% of graduates see freelancing as a careers strategy for the next five years
- By 2020, 50% of Americans will be freelancers (Forbes Magazine)
How much do freelancers earn?
- Freelancers contribute about $715 billion to the US economy
- They contribute £21 billion to UK economy
- Working roughly 36 hours per week at an average of $21 per hour, they earn about $39,000 annually – almost Ksh 300,000 per month.
- In Kenya, a freelancer online writer can earn a minimum of Ksh 2,000 per day, which translates to between Ksh 50,000 and Ksh 60,000 per month.
What jobs are available online?
69% say that technology has made it easier to find freelance work.
- Most freelancers are into IT & Programming (41%), Design & Multimedia (24%) and Writing and Translation (18%)
- Specifically, you can earn money online doing the following:
- Creating apps
- Designing websites
- Designing logos
- Creating and editing videos
- Photography
- Writing: creative writing, e-books, web content, copywriting, clogging etc.
- Translation
- Amazon affiliates (selling items for Amazon and getting paid a commission)
- Selling art on Tumblr
- Transcription
- Data entry
- Paid surveys
- Accounting services
- Social media marketing – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, and managing social media accounts for people etc. (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274687)
What Level of Education is Required for Online Work
With basic English and computer skills, any determined, inquisitive and open-minded person can earn money online.
Web Content or Article Writing
Introduction
Everything you read on a website is mostly likely written by a freelance writer. Writers are hired by website owners to create content for respective sites. There are different kinds of writers and jobs in this case.
Ghost writing
You are hired to write content but it will not be published under your name. The copyright belongs to the website owner. In that case, you are a ghost writer. You lose rights to the content as soon as you are paid for the work and the article or content is published. You cannot brag to other people that you wrote the article or use it as a sample when applying for writing jobs. It is not your article or intellectual property.
Prepare to write on all sorts of topics – health & fitness, mountains, e-cigarettes, recipes, cancer, football and so on. Luckily, the internet contains all the information you need to write, though your relevant experience may help when writing some articles. You will become a walking encyclopedia!
Copywriting
This is also a type of ghost writing, but it entails promoting products and services. For instance, you may be hired to write content to sell a smartphone, promote a holiday destination and so on.
In this case, you need to be well-versed in persuasive and descriptive language. You must also possess good online research skills because you may be required to find the information about the product or service you are promoting from the internet.
Blogging
A blog is like an online public diary that you keep and share with your readers (followers). Unlike ghost writing and copywriting, blogs are written in informal language. It is as if you are talking directly to your readers. Here you regularly share issues that connect you to your readers. You also allow them to critique or support your ideas.
In addition, it is possible to have so much traffic (people visiting your blog and reading your content) that your site become an avenue for advertising. However, to reach this point, you need to be dealing with a singular topic (niche), become an expert in it and have a faithful readership.
When you become a niche blogger, companies and entities that deal with the products and services you write about are likely to advertise on your site just as they would on newspapers, and television and radio stations.
Blogging also requires a strong presence on social media. This allows you to give a taste of your writing to your social media followers who then proceed to your blog to read the article in full. In other words, social media helps you to generate traffic for your website and traffic is the key requirement for online ads to be placed on your site.
Please Note
- Most ghostwriting, copywriting and blogging (hired, not your own site) work is available through online writing companies called content mills or content farms.
- Content mills are like academic writing companies in that they connect those who want to buy articles and ghostwriters.
- Writers have to bid for work, thus competing with other experienced writers.
- This gives the person requesting the content a chance to exploit writers. New writers often have to place very low bids to get hired.
- Writers have to contend with low-paying jobs at the beginning, but the situation improves as you prove to be a better writer.
- There scammers, too, in content mills, who can defraud you. Always check on the reputation of a person offering you a job before you accept the job.
- However, do not let this discourage you from writing. Every job has its hazards. Besides, scammers are few and scattered. Chances are you will never be scammed.
- Here are a few of the most sites in this category:
However, there is no better place to learn the rigors of online freelance writing than in these sites. They are the trenches from which gallant soldiers emerge.
Here you will learn how to be a disciplined writer, how to follow instructions, how to deal with problematic clients, and use of keywords, among other issues.
