The online freelancing movement is a rewarding global phenomenon that lets you trounce physical or geographical limitations and build a wildly successful career.
The gig economy opens a whole new world of work from home opportunities from across the globe. That makes freelancing perfect for people looking to travel the world or suffering from a chronic illness that makes it challenging to hold down a normal office job.
As part of this movement, you can put your skills, education, knowledge, and experience to excellent use and improve your life. Better yet, your career choices aren’t limited to the job opportunities available within your immediate neighbourhood.
Online work allows you to earn a living without the need to own a car or take public transit– the perfect solution if you have limited mobility.
Best of all, you don’t need to change your living arrangements to be part of this movement, since all you need is a high-speed internet connection.
For travel enthusiasts, the online freelancing movement will cover your travel expenses on a rolling basis, so you won’t need to save for years on end to go on your dream vacation.
As a freelancer, you’d be joining millions of people who earn thousands of dollars every month while working in their pajamas or in some of the most exotic locations in the world.
It doesn’t matter if you are suffering from severe anxiety, bound to a wheelchair, or even bedridden, you can use a work from home job to suit your individual needs.
To join the work from home you only need a polished set of skills and knowledge, a computer with an internet connection, and an iron-will to succeed.
To help you jump start your online career, here’s a selection of job boards that list genuine work from home jobs.
Kaziwork Online Jobs
KaziWork is a dynamic online job directory for anyone looking to join the freelance movement and earn some money while working from home.
It’s open to anyone looking for location-independent work.
The directory is perfect for anyone with a chronic condition that makes commuting to an office location challenging.
The platform screens new applicants to ensure they have valuable skills, but the signup process is relatively straightforward.
You simply need to create an account and upload a resume highlighting your skills, knowledge, and experience.
Once your application is approved, you can apply for the jobs that match your skillset and interests.
You can have your pick of opportunities that range from virtual assistants to copywriting to transcribing gigs.
Employers show a marked preference for a freelancer with highly polished skills to get the job done quickly and professionally.
Taking the time to hone your skills will give you an edge over other applicants to land lucrative contracts from high calibre clients.
The platform vets each employer posting a job to weed out scammers who are out to exploit freelancers looking to eke an honest living.
FlexJobs For Telecommute Opportunities
FlexJobs is a job service that lists legitimate, professional job opportunities to help freelancers work from home.
This giant career site is geared towards the American and Canadian markets but is open to applicants from across the world.
The site allows pre-approved employers to scan its database and contact candidates who meet their hiring criteria.
The signup process is relatively simple and entails creating an account, updating your profile, and uploading your resume.
However, you need a paid subscription to apply for any jobs listed on this site.
You have a choice of three subscriptions – monthly @ $14.95, quarterly @ $29.95, and annually $49.95.
The site offers various resources to help freelancers showcase their skills and increase their chances of getting hired.
FlexJobs vets each job post to eliminate scams and doesn’t allow commission-only job listings.
Virtual Vocations
Virtual Vocations is a telecommuting job board that is primarily geared towards the American market.
Most of the job opportunities on the site are from within the US, but the platform is open to applicants from outside the US.
Signup is free, and the site allows you to create a portfolio page with all your documents and applications.
Virtual Vocation’s employees scan each job listing to eliminate scammers and protect your interest.
The site offers both a free and premium service.
The $15.99 a month Premium Access subscription comes with priority job alerts, complete database access, and exclusive online courses and action plans.
Guru Online Job Boards
Probably one of the oldest job boards on the market, Guru has been connecting freelancers with telecommuting jobs for more than a decade.
The site allows you to create a free account in a matter of minutes and apply for various jobs.
Guru provides a time tracker to allow for hourly jobs and handles payments as well.
There’s an optional $8.95 a month paid membership that comes with perks such as a search boost to increase your portfolio’s visibility.
The site uses a bidding system where freelancers bid for the available jobs, which makes landing jobs here quite competitive.
Guru accepts applicants from across the world and has more than 1.5 million users.
Freelancer Remote Jobs
Hailed as the ultimate freelancing and crowdsourcing market in the world, Freelancer connects more than 40 million people globally.
The online job board covers freelancers and employers from more than 247 countries from across the world.
The job listings cover every imaginable freelancing task from the lowly data entry gigs to the more complex software development and 3D modeling.
The site uses a bidding system that pits freelancers against each other, making it more of a buyer’s than a seller’s market.
The sign-up process is simple – you just need to create an account detailing your skillset and upload your portfolio items.
The site also offers a subscription service starting from $0.99 to $59.95 a month, with a 1-month free trial.
The free trial allows you to place 100 job bids, which is more than enough to help you secure numerous jobs on the platform.
Since the platform uses a bidding system, you need a polished skill set and an impressive portfolio to beat the competition.
Upwork Freelance Jobs
Formerly known as O-Desk, Upwork is among the largest freelancing job boards in the world.
Upwork was formed in 2015 following the merger of Elance and Odesk, to create a freelancing powerhouse.
The site currently lists millions of jobs each year that cover more than 5,000 skills spread over 70 job categories.
You must create a free account to join the platform and then apply for the numerous jobs available.
The platform uses a bidding system and accepts applicants from across the globe, which makes it highly competitive.
The bidding uses points known as connects, each of which costs $0.15.
You’ll need 1 to 6 connects to apply for a job that strikes your fancy.
The number of connects necessary to bid for a job is determined by the project value, marketplace demand, and duration of the project.
The platform provides a time management solution to let you work on hourly projects and handles the financial transactions as well.
Upwork also charges a prorated commission on each project that you handle through the platform.
You will pay a 20% commission on the first $500 earned and 10% for the next $500 earned before it levels off at 5% for any sums above $1,000.
Charging per project makes Upwork one of the most expensive job boards on the market.
Kuhustle Work From Home Jobs
Kuhustle is a relatively new job board that connects freelancers with their prospective employers.
The platform allows employers to post jobs and allows freelancers to browse through the available jobs.
You must create a free account to apply for the jobs on the site, which range from tutoring to copywriting to programming.
You need to populate your profile with your skills, specializations, experience, and bio.
Kuhustle uses a bidding system, and you need Kuhustle credits to apply for jobs on the platform.
You need at least 3 Kuhustle credits to submit a quote for a job that strikes your fancy, and each credit costs $1.
The site sets a five-quote limit for each job to keep the employer from being overwhelmed by an avalanche of applications.
Overcome All Odds With Genuine Online Jobs
One thing is clear when venturing into the online freelancing sector: you’re up against stiff competition.
You must hone your skills to a high level if you want to hold your own against some of the best freelancers in the world.
Luckily, you don’t need advanced degrees to thrive in this lucrative space and build a better life for you and your family.
Some roles such as data entry, phone handling, email management, customer service, and others have relatively low entry bars.
Some roles such as virtual assistants, copywriting, SEO writing, graphic design, and web development have a steep learning curve.
You can polish your skills from numerous free online resources and increase your chances of landing a lucrative gig.
If you’re keen to improve your skills quickly while learning from the best, you can enroll in a training course and drastically lower the learning curve.
A paid course affords you the chance to learn from leading professionals in the field and ride the tailcoats of their success.
In addition to equipping you with the necessary skills, these courses also provide you with incredible insights vital for your freelancing success.
Enrolling in specialty courses will help you launch your freelancing career on a high note and join the ranks of highly paid freelancers quickly.
This is a guest post from Katrina McKinnon. Katrina is the founder of Small Revolution, an online learning platform that creates engaging educational materials that help others become successful online workers.