I also preferred not to talk to customers over the telephone or to do sales because I have a small child at home. I knew that my goals would be challenging but not impossible so I was optimistic and determined to search as much as I could for as long as I could until I found what I was looking for. I eventually found what I was looking for but in order for you to fully grasp my work-at-home journey, I must start from the beginning.The Beginning of my Work at Home Journey
Before I chronicle my work-at-home journey I just want to share a little bit of background information about me. Ironically, I enrolled in a summer program entrepreneur class in high school where we had to come up with ideas to start our own business from designing our own t-shirts, starting our own products, store, etc., and sharing it with the other students. It was held in a downtown law firm and we had to dress up professionally every day in business attire.
l also like to write poetry and letters to express myself in a way that only writing can do. I even took some business classes in college but I was still undecided as to what I would do.
It started in the late 90s and early 2000s when I actually made a couple of dollars online.
What was I doing?
Something that many of you probably do already. Giving my opinion online by completing online surveys for companies like Pinecone Research, Survey Savvy, Global Test Market, and some others that have either changed their names or are no longer in existence. I was excited to get my first check but it was hardly part-time income simply extra cash.
Eventually, I came across some sites that would pay you to surf the Internet where you would be required to download and install a search bar on your computer. I would earn money every time I logged onto my computer and used my browser. What was I looking for? More ways to earn money from home. Some of the companies that would pay you to do this were Alladvantage.com and Allcommunity.com. These companies eventually shut down after paying out over $160 million dollars to their members.
What would I do now?
A couple of years later I decided to start my own cleaning service where I would clean residential homes on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It didn’t take a lot of money to get started because I had a lot of cleaning supplies at my home. I did spend a little money distributing banners in gated and non-gated communities that had very large homes. I would also advertise in their monthly newsletter by visiting the rent office and placing an ad. I acquired a lot of clients with this tactic.
About 3 years later, I became pregnant again and decided to stay home and not work outside the home. In the meantime, I would still complete surveys and I noticed there were a lot more survey companies that I could sign up with. I would even participate in focus groups that paid around $100 each but I would leave my home for an hour or two and even get free stuff like diapers, greeting cards, and other cool stuff.
Fast forward to about 4 years ago, I suffered a very traumatic experience in my life and I knew at this point I had to make working from home a reality. I have three small kids to take care of and for me, there was no other way. I spent as much time as I could searching and searching and searching some more.
What I discovered?
I discovered that I could earn extra money writing on various topics online. It intrigued me because I could write on basically anything I wanted to and get paid for it at the same time. I began writing and publishing content to several online writing companies and I actually enjoyed this process. I was still searching for ways to make money online and I thought to myself…I should write about this and that is exactly what I did. I wrote about writing gigs initially and then I found some companies that would hire people to work from home like Sykes, Virtualbee, and Leapforce so I would write about that.
Turning Point
Another turning point came when I decided to start my own blog.
Thinking out loud, I figured that if others seemed to be interested in the content that I was sharing, why couldn’t I write the same content on my own blog? In case you weren’t aware, I didn’t know anything about acquiring a blog, how to design it, promote it, or anything else. All I knew how to do was to write content but that is really all that I needed to know. Everything was secondary to the content and would come in time.
I learned as much as I could about HTML, design, layouts, templates, and so forth and created my blog and website. Believe it or not, the easiest part is setting up your blog. The hardest part is trying to maintain a blog and coming up with creative, interesting content but it can be a lot easier if you enjoy the content that you share or like the idea of helping others.
That is the most rewarding part.
Other gigs I’ve done in my work at home journey
I have done other things besides writing content online. I have worked for and still work for Virtualbee, Lionbridge, Textbroker, Clickworker, and other companies but I mainly work for myself. I still actively complete surveys in my spare time as well.
Would I change anything?
Sometimes I ask myself, would I have done anything differently? My answer is yes. I would have started my own blog sooner if I would have known that this was a real possibility. So as you can see, my work at home journey has had some bumps in the road, a little challenging and complicated at times but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I eventually started off doing what I began doing which was writing but I didn’t limit myself to just writing alone and I am glad I didn’t. Many of you are on this work at home journey too and it may be somewhat similar to mine or not but whatever you decide to do never be afraid to try something new. You never know, it may work out for you.
Hopefully, this post will inspire you to share your work at home journey with me below. If you are thinking of starting your own blog, please click here to go to Bluehost for all your blogging needs.
