# Does anybody know of any legitimate work-from-home opportunities, online or otherwise? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339 "2017-02-08T18:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/21 "2017-02-09T05:49:13Z")
> [@three\_cups\_of\_duck](#): > > **running coach** Did I break a rule by accident? Post and experience are legit. I’ve been a lurker for years and saw an opportunity to help out. You never posted and your first post has a whiff of spam just because of the topic. I’m sure the mods can verify you are you. Also, the offer to PM is odd as usually any information should go in the thread so it can be of use to others. This is why I specified that your account might have been hijacked. ---
**Author:** ![CatandMouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@CatandMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatandMouse)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/22 "2017-02-09T06:14:18Z")
I have no idea of how that quote got in my post. I know I did not hit the quote button. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/23 "2017-02-09T13:58:36Z")
> [@three\_cups\_of\_duck](#): > > Check out Upwork and Fiverr. Both are established online work platforms where she can set up a profile and bid on work or provide services. If she’s willing to start low on cost to establish presence, there are definite opportunities for customer service, clerical, research and assistant type assignments. Once you get established and have some reviews, you can get higher paying gigs. > > I have used Upwork (and its predecessor Elance) as a contractor for several years, have worked full time from home for 5 years and built a business/career in that time. On Upwork, contractors bid for work. > > Fiverr is the reverse. You post a profile on work you can do (generally small tasks), and people looking for that will contact you. > > No need for dodgy online video chatting. > > Feel free to PM me. Can’t vouch for the duck, but I can vouch for both of these websites. I used elance a bit when I was unemployed right out of grad school, and while I’ve never personally used Fiverr, I know of it and looked into it as an option. If she can write in any way, shape or form there’s Textbroker. You provide a sample, they analyze your writing and give you a star rating from 1-5. You then pick up assignments and write things for business/people. It doesn’t pay too terribly much, but it’s something to do and as long as you work fast, you can make more money. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/24 "2017-02-09T15:41:33Z")
**running coach** Unless it’s obvious spam or a logistical issue (duplicated or misplaced thread etc) there is no need for posting that you reported something. It walks the line of Jr Modding. Even if we get a few similar reports, it’s ok. > [@running\_coach](#): > > **three cups of duck** reported as possible hijacked account. ---
**Author:** ![tallcoldone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@tallcoldone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tallcoldone)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/25 "2017-02-09T17:11:26Z")
Here’s a semi-managed list from a non-interested source: [http://www.clark.com/work-home-guide](http://www.clark.com/work-home-guide) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/26 "2017-02-11T04:14:00Z")
> [@tallcoldone](#): > > Here’s a semi-managed list from a non-interested source: > [http://www.clark.com/work-home-guide](http://www.clark.com/work-home-guide) I’m a bit surprised that site listed 2020 Research, CashCrate and Google Opinion Rewards. I’m signed up with 2020 and in 4 years have been picked for precisely 1 panel (grand total, 50 dollars). I haven’t done the other two but I _have_ worked with other survey sites. The payback on those is typically terrible: you often spend a lot of time answering repetitive screening questions, and then get turned down as being a bad match. I would assume CashCrate and Google Opinion would probably have similar results. Bottom line, I never made more than 5-10 bucks a week, usually less. After a few months it would add up to enough to do something frivolous but it really won’t contribute anything to the household budget. Mechanical Turk is a bit more steady though you won’t even average minimum wage. You have to learn to choose the HITs carefully there; I’ve actually occasionally lucked into one that had a followon that was pretty profitable (in one case, 60 bucks or so and in another, over a hundred) but those are VERY rare (and the two I mentioned were pretty stunning). Still won’t contribute much to the household budget but it’ll buy a few groceries if she spends a fair bit of time at it. I did a couple voice transcription HITs for them and decided they were absolutely not worth it. It would take me an hour or more to do a 5 minute sound clip. They might have been easier if I’d had a foot pedal controller to pause and start the playback, but still not worth it. As far as, um, chatting… here’s a [Dope thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=286032) on the topic, though video was not involved. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/27 "2017-02-11T04:26:42Z")
If you’re looking for a few extra dollars, Pinecone Research is a legitimate way to do it. You get market research surveys by e-mail for new products or questions about what you do or don’t use; if it’s a product questionnaire, you get $3, and if it’s about product usage, you are entered into a $500 monthly drawing. Sometimes, they may send you a new product to try; you do that and then give them feedback (and get paid $3). To date, I’ve gotten (that I can remember) flavored water, a frozen pizza packaged in dry ice, a bra that didn’t fit :rolleyes: , and a few other things. It is erratic; I may do several surveys in a week and then go a few weeks without one. p.s. You are limited to one participant per household. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/28 "2017-02-11T04:28:42Z")
> [@CatandMouse](#): > > If she has customer service/phone skills/sales experience, she could work from home for Marriott setting reservations. In fact, there are a lot of companies that hire for setting reservations at home, like Avis car rentals and other car rental companies. American Express Travel and other companies do this as well. This might be an area to do more research into. I knew someone that did this for several years and made a good living. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/29 "2017-02-11T04:33:07Z")
The company I work for has operations here in Aus, New Zealand, Canada and England, not in the US as yet. But I’d bet a fiver that there would be similar companies in the US. It’s a call-centre that employs entirely home-based operators, doing inbound and outbound campaigns for everything from charities to power-companies and more. Maybe something to consider? ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/30 "2017-02-11T09:55:47Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > There is always this, but I have heard it often pays very little. [Mechanical Turk at Amazon](https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome). Some of those listing pay nothing, some pay 2 cents some pay 5 cents not sure what to make of that? ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/31 "2017-02-11T10:04:41Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > I know a few women, who make decent money ($50-$75k per year) doing online video chatting for money by the minute, if you get my drift. You may have to invest in some upfront software and video equipment and other devices, but the payback is relatively quick. I am kind of thinking no guy wants his wife having to sit online saying “Hi Joe, you got big pee pee? Me love it long time, me show you good time” ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/32 "2017-02-11T10:28:48Z")
ehh the video markets over saturated like the old 976 numbers were streamate has anywhere from 12=1500 girls and a few hundred guys on it and 90 percent of them say they don’t make a whole lot one girl said you get 3.00 an hour and the rest is one of 3 versions of paid for chats and since its live video you cant fake it like in the other thread about 60 percent of them are foreign also ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/33 "2017-02-11T11:19:26Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > ehh the video markets over saturated like the old 976 numbers were > > streamate has anywhere from 12=1500 girls and a few hundred guys on it and 90 percent of them say they don’t make a whole lot > one girl said you get 3.00 an hour and the rest is one of 3 versions of paid for chats and since its live video you cant fake it like in the other thread > about 60 percent of them are foreign also No more semi retired grandmothers with the greta garbo voice huh? hehe i always found that kind of amusing, call, pay X dollars per minute to talk to the grandma with the hot voice. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/34 "2017-02-15T05:30:33Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Some of those listing pay nothing, some pay 2 cents some pay 5 cents > not sure what to make of that? It’s rather difficult to get actual money out of Mechanical Turk these days. It used to be worth the time; now it’s mostly not. If you keep an eye on it, you can occasionally find HITs that pay decently, or surveys that result in Amazon gift card-type money. It is not even remotely a steady source of income. Before taking any HITs, especially ones that look quick and are listed among a slew of other similar ones, take a nose around one of the sites that rate Turk employers. Doing a bunch of tiny tasks for someone who has a reputation for turning down everything can make your ranking plummet so fast Amazon freezes your Turking account and won’t let you take anything anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/35 "2017-02-17T20:27:41Z")
> [@Arabella\_Flynn](#): > > It’s rather difficult to get actual money out of Mechanical Turk these days. It used to be worth the time; now it’s mostly not. If you keep an eye on it, you can occasionally find HITs that pay decently, or surveys that result in Amazon gift card-type money. It is not even remotely a steady source of income. > > Before taking any HITs, especially ones that look quick and are listed among a slew of other similar ones, take a nose around one of the sites that rate Turk employers. Doing a bunch of tiny tasks for someone who has a reputation for turning down everything can make your ranking plummet so fast Amazon freezes your Turking account and won’t let you take anything anymore. SOOOOO true. The zero-cent HITs are worth it only in the following circumstances: 1. They can help you get your HIT count up (some HITs require you to have x number of approved HITS to qualify) 2. They are prescreening HITs for potentially more profitable work 3. They just sound like fun. A lot of the penny HITs have the potential for bonuses of a few cents. I’ll occasionally do one provider’s HITs which involve transcribing French grocery store receipts, just for the heck of it - usually I get a couple cents bonus. The review site I check most often is Turkopticon. There’s even a browser add-on you can install for Firefox that links directly to the reviews so you can see who to avoid. I still do HITs occasionally, even though I have a full-time (and reasonably well paid) job - it’s my money for really frivolous stuff that I couldn’t rationalize spending household money on. I actually gave Google Opinion Rewards a try based on the mention in the linked article. It pays me in Google Play Store credit - and the surveys are insanely quick, and you don’t get screened out. I play one or two games on my phone where I could buy points, and this is more than enough to fund that habit (as with MTurk - truly frivolous stuff not worthy of the household finances). ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/36 "2017-02-17T21:44:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > If you’re looking for a few extra dollars, Pinecone Research is a legitimate way to do it. You get market research surveys by e-mail for new products or questions about what you do or don’t use; if it’s a product questionnaire, you get $3, and if it’s about product usage, you are entered into a $500 monthly drawing. Sometimes, they may send you a new product to try; you do that and then give them feedback (and get paid $3). To date, I’ve gotten (that I can remember) flavored water, a frozen pizza packaged in dry ice, a bra that didn’t fit :rolleyes: , and a few other things. > > It is erratic; I may do several surveys in a week and then go a few weeks without one. > > p.s. You are limited to one participant per household. I’m with Pinecone as well. As I understand, you can’t just sign up with them, you have to be issued an invitation or something (mine was through another survey site, which was one of the ones that wasted my time on screening questions). I’m lucky to get more than 1 a month from them. The only time I’ve gotten a product was a soft drink (which was very tasty). They will also pay you 3 dollars a month to upload your Amazon purchase history, and lately they’ve also been pushing me to let them get emailed purchase receipts from my email. Um, no thanks on that last one. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/37 "2017-02-17T23:33:27Z")
I hated mturk. The amount of effort and time I put into it was not worth the measly amount of money I got. I’d much more suggest working for Amazon’s customer service if you can. I have a friend who does it at home and she’s loving it. All you need is a suitable internet connection and you’re good to go. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/38 "2017-02-18T00:36:14Z")
Start a baking service. Cookies, cakes, candy. People love to buy well made bakery products. Get the word out through social media, church and other organizations. Get an order, take a deposit and then bake it. Word of mouth will soon have your phone ringing constantly with orders. The junk they sell at the grocery’s bakery has very little taste at all. My aunt baked and decorated wedding cakes. That’s a bit more skilled work. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339/39 "2017-02-18T02:25:43Z")
Writing a book might be an interesting diversion. Find a subject that might be interesting, research it, and write a book. Think of an interesting way for someone to die, research it a bit, and write a mystery novel. Or, something non-fiction also works if you have the right angle. Be a visual artist or a musician. Really, it just takes one interesting craft idea that you can sell at RenFest or art shows. Depending upon your personal situation, you might discover that horticulture is time well invested. Or, only slightly different, you might become a mycologist. Lighthouse keeper? You might need to move to a lighthouse. But, once you’re there, you’d be at home and at work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-know-of-any-legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-online-or-otherwise/779339.md?page=1)