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Home-Based Jobs with Flexible Hours By Christine Durst & Michael Haaren July 19, 2012 Many people would like to work flexible hours, and especially if they're at home. Moms (and dads) with young children, folks caring for aged parents, people who work more effectively at night or in the wee hours of the morning – all often fare better with open-schedule jobs or flexible self-employment arrangements. Here are just a few of the many jobs and projects we see that offer other options than the usual nine-to-five. ONLINE MODERATORS More and more companies are realizing that customers want to feel a personal connection with the brands they use. Thanks to the Web, this now goes far beyond putting a toll-free number or snail-mail address on the back of the product. Brands – including the media – must create communities of their customers and moderate their discussions around the clock. For example, the online newspaper The Huffington Post seeks remote moderators to handle the five million comments the site says it receives monthly. HuffPo offers daytime positions, but also a nighttime shift for the night owls. According to the site, “This is a fast paced entry level position and we will train you. If you can read quickly, make quick, impartial, decisions and want to get started in the Community industry, this is a great position for you…. Night shifts are 6 hours and generally fall between 10pm ET and noon the next day.” For details, see http://tinyurl.com/2hwrrm. LiveWorld also hires moderators to work various shifts on behalf of its clients. Moderated content can include “Facebook Wall posts and comments, message boards, chat boards, user groups, blog entries, videos, pictures, or audio files on either LiveWorld or client platforms.” For more, see http://tinyurl.com/c4gdwnt. VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS Virtual Assistants, or “VAs,” offer administrative and related support to small businesses, Realtors, overwhelmed individuals, consultants, public speakers and the like from home offices. They set their own schedules (and hourly rates) and decide whom to work for. VAs can also work for clients overseas. If the client is in a distant time zone, VAs can often complete work in the evening and email it to a client having his or her morning coffee. For more on VAs, see the International Virtual Assistants Association, at http://www.ivaa.org. Manuals for launching and growing a VA business can also be found on Amazon and in some local libraries. (For a shameless plug, our own magnificent VA manual is titled “The 2-Second Commute.”) BLOGGERS AND FREELANCE WRITERS If you have a knack for the written word, blogging jobs and freelance writing assignments let you work when you choose. Of course, you have to meet deadlines for your blog posts or articles, which requires self-discipline and time-management skills, too. To find blogging positions, visit the job boards at such sites as http://www.problogger.net and http://www.bloggingpro.com. For freelance writing jobs, see http://www.journalismjobs.com and http://www.mediabistro.com. ---- Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is Work at Home Now, a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 BY STAFFCENTRIX, DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM |
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