If there is one thing that a felon needs, it is the ability to work without going through a background check. Work from home opportunities has increased the growth of the freelancing industry considerably. It enables a person to work without having to reveal their criminal history.
Any chance to work is welcome for many felons, but work from home opportunities offers even more accessibility to work. The only thing that matters is their ability to deliver efficiently and timely. Some work from home opportunities requires a skill level, while others can be done by anyone who can understand instructions.
With worldwide growth in technology, such opportunities are now available for anyone who has a skill. In 2020, data showed that 59 million Americans translating to 39% are freelancers. It is a field that has been tried and tested and a good place for felons to find work from home opportunities.
In this article, we shall guide you on five things:
- Best work from home opportunities for felons, here to find legitimate work from home opportunities and the salary expectations.
- Tips for being productive while working from home.
- The benefits of working from home.
- Disadvantages of working from home.
- How to avoid work from home job scams.
Contents
The Best Work from Home Opportunities for Felons
1 Social media content manager
2 Freelance writer and blogger
3 Translator
4 Call center representative
5 Website tester
6 Virtual Assistant
7 Data entry
8 Online Surveyor
9 Online tutoring
10 Transcription
Social Media Content Manager
Social media is among the top ways businesses are marketing their products and services. Because most people are on social media pages, it has become vital for clients to create an online presence that is engaging, educational, and promotes their products and services. A social media manager’s duties may involve:
- Creating meaningful and engaging content about a company and its products or services.
- Responding to comments and inquiries on social platforms.
- Marketing products and services on social platforms.
- Creating content that will boost engagement on social media.
The payment will depend on your skill level and experience. Pay ranges from $15-30 per hour.
Freelance Writer and Blogger
Writing and running blogs is a marketing strategy used by many companies and websites to drive traffic to their products and services. It means there is a large market for written content around the world.
The skills required are a good command of the necessary language, grammar, and writing educational yet captivating content. If you can express yourself well in written content, you can try to bid for jobs in multiple job sites available today.
As a writer or blogger, you will be required to:
- Research a topic and write according to the employer’s specifications.
- Write an original piece. The employer will use plagiarism checker tools to check for unoriginal work.
- Write relevant captivating articles.
The level of your skill mainly determines the amount of money you earn. Elite writers can earn $ 100 for 500-1000 word articles. A felon can find online writing jobs on legitimate and reliable sites like Upwork, Fiverr, Verblio, Skyword, Freelancer, and Mediabistro. There are many other places and job boards where work is available.
Online Translator
You might have come across websites that offer their web content in several languages depending on their target markets. For multilingual felons, this forms a perfect opportunity to work from home. The work involves translating content to other languages. Apart from translating web content for companies and businesses, you can also:
- Translate books
- Create subtitles for films that are in a foreign language
- Translate content for court or legal purposes.
You get paid depending on the length of the content. Here you can be able to negotiate depending on the difficulty level of the language being translated.
Call Center Representative
Instead of companies opening up physical call centers, they hire work-at-home freelancers to answer customer questions and inquiries remotely. If you like dealing with people, asking questions, and solving problems, this might be a good choice for you.
The upside of such jobs is that companies train their representatives on the exact way they want you to address customers, troubleshooting, and conflict resolution. The average pay for the work is $15 an hour.
Website Testing
Website testing is among the best work-from-home opportunity for felons because it is easy to get. It works by sampling websites and testing the working interface. It is making a review of a website. The main things tested are:
- A site’s internal and external links.
- Check for errors in the content and legibility.
- Test the site’s speed and response time.
- Check the level of security and access to unauthorized pages.
You will answer questions, primarily in writing about your findings. You need to provide honest, detailed feedback. Payment can be up to $15 for a single assignment. You can check these sites to find work from home opportunities as a felon, Enrol, UserZoom, User Testing, and Try my UI
Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants are in high demand as the growth in working from home businesses increases. The duties performed are similar to a personal assistant or secretary. But you don’t get to meet your employer and clients face to face.
The responsibilities include but not limited to:
- Organizing events and making travel arrangements for your boss.
- Scheduling appointments
- Writing and responding to email emails according to the employer’s specifications.
- Preparing presentations.
- Respond to social media queries and comments, among other secretarial duties.
Virtual assistants get paid between $15 and $30 an hour, depending on your skills.
Data Entry
Data entry jobs are not technical, requiring minimal skills. They are readily available, and you can work as much as you need to as long as you deliver accurate entries. The jobs are paid by the amount of data entered, so the more you work, the more you will earn. Lionbridge is a good place to start.
Online Surveying
Online surveys are among the best work-from-home opportunities for felons. For you to take surveys online there is not much skill required. Companies only need honest feedback that can help them improve their products or services.
Some surveys are long and can last up to 30 minutes, while others are last for a shorter time between 1-5 minutes. Payment depends on the length of the survey. There are survey sites that offer bonuses on sign-up. The surveys rely on your demographic data provided during sign-up to match you with jobs.
Online Tutoring
Being a felon does not mean that you are unqualified to do any type of job that you want. If you have some expertise in something that the people require, you can offer tutoring services. There are many people and especially students looking for extra tuition in an area of their education.
People in non-English speaking languages seek people to teach them how to speak and write English. The sites to source tutoring jobs include Preply, eTutorworld, Chegg, Cambly, and many others.
Tutoring is a lucrative work-from-home opportunity that can pay up to $50 an hour. In the beginning, you can earn an average of $ per hour.
Transcription
Transcription is a vast online work industry. The work involves transcribing audio or video content to written content. The skills needed are good hearing and typing skills and the ability to follow laid down guidelines by specific types of transcription work.
The common transcri[tion work includes:
- Medical transcription
- Legal transcription
- General transcription
- Interview transcription
- Market research transcription
- Academic transcription
- Interview transcription, and many more.
Some of the sites you can sign up for the transcription jobs are, Transcribeme, Scribie, Rev, GoTRanscript, and many more. The pay depends on the difficulty of the audio/video and the site where you work. You can take a notch higher and try your hand in captioning and subtitling tagging. The sites pay per minute audio/video.
Tips for Being Productive While Working from Home
1 Set working hours for yourself.
2 Get a good plan for your day and stick to it.
3 Find a comfortable place to work in.
4 Avoid distractions that might keep you from optimal productivity.
5 Take breaks whenever possible.
The Benefits of Working from Home
Work at home opportunities for felons may provide relief of stress involved in job searches. Having a record can keep you from achieving your employment dreams in formal employment.
Here are a few benefits that working from home will give you.
- There is no background check. Your abilities and skills are your selling points. ‘
- You do not have to stick to one type of work. You can choose to write in the morning and transcribe in the evening. It breaks the boredom that comes with the monotony of doing the same things all the time.
- There is a possibility of achieving excellent remuneration. The possibility of earning is endless. As you advance in your skill and confidence, so do your earnings.
- You get to work on a flexible schedule.
- It is convenient if you are a stay-at-home parent.
- You can conveniently work as you enhance your skills by simultaneously taking online classes because you make your schedule.
- There are no travel expenses and no time spent commuting to work.
- It can keep you going as you look for another job.
- The job will not tie you down to a specific location and can take your job on the go. You can and travel to a different state or country and still work.
- You are your own boss.
Disadvantages of Working from Home
- You don’t get a specific salary making it challenging to create a budget.
- There are no benefits such as bonuses, medical, or insurance cover.
- You are responsible for your own time, and your effort determines your earnings.
- Finding work can be difficult at first.
- Most online employers rely on your samples, making the need to have sound samples vital.
- Dealing with virtual clients is more challenging than dealing with clients one on one.
How to Avoid Work from Home Job Scams?
As with any industry, work from home attracts many scammers looking for vulnerable job seekers to con. There are so many websites purporting to offer work from home opportunities competing with many legitimate sites.
It is easy to get conned or duped into sites that can cause attacks on your computer by malicious software. Most scam sites offer unreasonably high promise on pay with minimal skill and experience. Depending on your skill and the work’s technicality, calculate the reasonable payment to differentiate between legitimate and scam sites.
Sometimes, the sites will ask you to pay “registration fees” to enable you to bid for work. If the site is also asking for your details like the social security number, you better run. Legitimate sites will pay through approved online platforms like Paypal, Payoneer, and other platforms. The payment platforms hold money in escrow until you and your client are satisfied and release the funds.
Be always prepared to do extensive research on the best work from home sites and job boards to avoid getting scammed.
Conclusion
The thing that worries most felons is undergoing a background check. The work-from-home opportunities remove that worry and offer you endless opportunities to work. Most of these sites are free, and all you need is to sign-up and complete a profile.
With online work, you don’t have the luxury to sit and wait for work; you have to bid or write proposals to prospective clients to hire you. Not all sites work that way; others like transcription will open up job boards where you pick jobs according to your skill level.
Do not lose hope if you do not get jobs immediately. It can take a while to get your first job. The sites give reviews and upgrade to new opportunities. When you are consistent and efficient, your effort gets rewarded with exposure and accessibility to more work and higher pay. Your effort and hard work will determine your income.
Felons can be as productive working from home as any other person working from home. The fact that your criminal history does not come into play is just an added advantage. We hope this article and others on this website offer the necessary guidance through finding work.