Have you ever wondered how to earn money from home? And no, I’m not talking about a few hundred bucks from filling out survey sites or even a side income.

I mean working as a remote full-time employee from anywhere you desire.

The idea of working from home and “remote” positions has grown in popularity and more companies are offering particular jobs that option.

Personally, I have worked remotely in the freelance capacity and in the last few years I have worked from home full-time.

By working remote, you can find yourself with a higher paying gig, it helps save you more money, and can increase your overall satisfaction with work.

Below, you’ll learn how to earn money from home, the pros and cons of remote work, the best remote jobs, and how to find work from home jobs to increase your income potential.

Advantages of Working Remotely

Being able to work remotely full-time has many advantages, which is why it interests so many people. The pay can be more lucrative pending your industry and job niche and you are able to make money at home.

Here are a few pros to remote jobs.

Your office can be your own

You have control of where you want to work and what your space looks like. Your space can be set up the way you want or you can move to various locations to mix up your scenery.

Whatever will help you be more productive and energized to work, you can generally do!

For example, I have my own office space near our living room. But when it’s nice outside, I’ll move to our porch and soak in the fresh air. It’s one of the best ways to stay productive but not feel stuck in the house all day.

Helps your finances

One of the positive advantages of working remotely is the impact it can have on your personal finances. When you work from home, you’ll find you end up saving more money and start earning more.

For example:

Less travel to work (less gas, car maintenance, transportation costs)

Generally, will be earning more money (that means extra money to save and invest)

Spending less on other things like lunches, work outfits, daycare

Many offer amazing work perks (home office setup budget, profit sharing, equity, paid for healthcare)

When I switched to a remote position I nearly doubled my pay, received equity, and had better healthcare coverage. Talk about profitable!

I was extremely fortune to find the right kind of remote job, but there are many out there with great offerings.

Saves you more time

One-way commute time in the U.S. is 26.1 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Then, as you start adding that all up with your 5-day-a-week job, roundtrip that adds up to 4.35 hours a week and over 200 hours (nearly nine days) per year.

That is a lot of time wasted driving and dealing with traffic on the way to your work every day.

By working from home, you can get more sleep, spend more morning time with family, and generally not feel rushed to get ready for work.

More productive

FlexJobs’ annual survey found that 66% of professionals think they would be more productive working remotely than in a traditional office, with 52% saying they go to their home or home office when they really need to buckle down and get work done.

While there certainly can be some distractions at home, I’ve found my best work to be done in my own space. I have my office area set up the way I want and there are no office politics or distractions.

You’re also helping the environment

The environmental impact of vehicles and traveling everyday naturally has some effects on our planet.

While I’m by no means an expert in this area, I found two stats about remote work and the environmental impact that were really interesting.

Transportation, which includes vehicles used commuting to and from work, is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

People who are working from home in the United States right now avoid emitting 3.6 million tons of commuting-related greenhouse gasses annually. To replicate those results, it would take the planting 91 million trees to offset the same level of emissions, according to data from Global Workplace Analytics.

Some disadvantages of working remotely

While the positives of remote work out weight the negatives, not everyone will be successful or enjoy it. Here are some of the disadvantages.

Feeling of isolation and lack of community with the company you work for

Not able to build working relationships as easily as in office

Although less office distracts, there are home distractions too

Less accountability, you have to be quite self-sufficient to stay on task

The Best Remote Jobs

Many of these positions below have now become online jobs.

The internet has evolved and empowered a whole different way to work and created new job positions — which means more ways to make money!

And what is great about these jobs is that you can work from anywhere in the world.

Many people will set up a home office, some will go to a co-working space or a coffee shop, and others will become digital nomads and get paid to travel all over while they work.

If you want to check average salaries on any of the below jobs, you can use Glassdoor’s salary section for free.

Web Developer or Programmer

The advances in technology and the internet has increased the demand for good Web Developers and Programmers.

These jobs can vary, but will include things like building websites, programming or building software, creating apps for mobile, etc.

With an internet connection and solid technical know-how, Web Developers and Programmers can easily work from home and make good money doing so.

The average salary for Web Developers and Programmers will vary pending experience and the scope of the work.

Digital Marketing

Marketing has certainly shifted since the Mad Men advertising days (great show too, by the way!), and now digital marketing has become a major component to any business.

The digital marketing field can include everything from paid ads, creating marketing strategies, social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, video marketing, etc.

And the job titles are also a pretty wide range as you can be more of a generalist (like I am, who handles a lot of moving pieces), to a more specific area of focus like a social media manager or paid acquisition manager.

Customer Support

Customer support includes a whole range of things like answering customer questions, onboarding assistance, troubleshooting, strategic planning, and helping customers upgrade.

Another variations include things like customer service, account manager, client success, etc. While all very similar, there may be different tasks or specific focus points.

In the tech industry, these jobs are incredibly important and can pay quite well based on your experience.

Writer or Editor

While the publishing industry with magazines may have taken a bit of hit over the years, the need for quality writers, researchers, proofreaders, and copy editors are still in demand.

Between books, online media, and general businesses — there are plenty of options for those in the writing and editing fields. And this can be done from home with a computer and internet connection.

Accounting & Finance

Handling numbers, taxes, and other areas of a company’s finances has also grown as a remote job. I mean, it makes sense as most of the work is done via software platforms and the internet along with strategizing with teams on budget.

A few full-time remote jobs I found in account and finance included payroll specialist, finance manager, business analyst, compensation specialist, staff accountant, account receivable, tax advisor, director finance, and many more.

Online Teaching

The online education field is booming and more students look towards cyber schools and other education outlets via the internet.

And it can be K-12 schools, college, or speciality degrees that don’t require four years of school.

With new platforms for learning, video conferencing, and more — these schools allow students to learn at their pace and when they can. But, these still require knowledge teachers who can work with students, build lesson plans, and grade work.

While there are part-time digital instructors, if you like teaching and have the skillset for it you can become a remote full-time teacher.

IT/Support

Naturally, since technology, cybersecurity, and the digital space has grown exponentially — the need for quality IT/support has grown.

Although this might be a bit more limited since some positions can require setting up computers and networks, much of the work can be done remotely.

There are remote login applications to help troubleshoot computers or networks, but as long as there is access to the internet and other computer technologies — many IT jobs can be done from the comforts of the home office.

Many of these remote jobs in the IT/Support space will require a great deal of knowledge and experience, but nonetheless a great field to be in.

Lastly….

There are of course other positions besides this that can be done remotely too. There are jobs in the healthcare field, data entry, and virtual assistant as well.

But I find the above categories to have stronger full-time potential and better pay (generally). And remember, not every career path or industry has options to work from home, but many more doors are opening up!

How to Find High Paying Remote Jobs

Thankfully, over the years finding remote jobs is easier than ever.

Most in-part due to more companies offering work from home options and website job boards to make it easier.

However, as the market and demand for remote work grows, not all options are high paying.

Yet, I’ve found that these places will offer some of the better paying remote gigs (one of these is where I found my current remote job!).

Like anything else, you’ll start to get a feel for which ones may offer more money and be able to narrow down. Some companies will list their pay for the position, but 99% will not.

LinkedIn

The social media network is huge for professions to talk careers, connect with colleagues, and find new jobs. There are tons of recruiters on the platform looking to hire top talent.

You can find remote positions by going to the search bar when signed in, selecting “jobs,” and typing “remote” in the location.

Pending your career, you may find quite a few options or not many at all. I find LinkedIn to be hit or miss with finding work from home jobs.

Remote.co

One of the first sites I used to explore for remote jobs was Remote.co. It’s a great platform to find jobs that are entirely remote, majority are full-time but you may find consulting or part time as well.

You’ll find everything from jobs in customer service, marketing, sales, healthcare, IT, writing, developers, engineering, design, data entry, and virtual assistants.

WeWorkRemotely

Another one of my favorites that is updated often is WeWorkRemotely. You’ll find some overlap with this one and any of the remote job boards, but I often saw ones that were different.

Similarly to the previous, there is a wide range of job options to choose from.

Remotive.io

One that is a bit newer in the space is Remotive.io, but I love the organization of this site. Besides job listings, you can find many resources related to the remote work culture.

They have a community for remote workers where you can connect and learn from other people.

Plus, they also have a massive list of all the companies they know of that hire remotely. It’s important to note that they focus more on the tech and start-up industry.

Flexjobs

I consider Flexjobs one of the “OGs” of the remote and work from home websites around. The only difference here is access to the jobs is not free as they offer a subscription model.

However, this lets them vet the best and legit jobs so you ensure quality. If you are interested, you can sign-up for Flexjobs here.

Remoteok.io

One of the first remote job boards I used when looking to earn money from home was Remoteok.io.

Lately, they don’t have as many job postings for some categories and many are not full-time. Nonetheless, you might find something good on here.

I actually found my current full-time gig on this site in 2017.

Networking

Never underestimate the power of networking! Whether online via LinkedIn, job board communities, or in person at events. Many times, you’ll find people you network with offering jobs, positions or new opportunities that might entice you.

Of course, not all offers will be remote but if you make it clear that’s the work your are looking for then you may get inquiries.

Cold Email

Let’s say you know a company hires remotely but you don’t see any open positions on their website or on remote job boards like above. It never hurts to do some cold email and outreach.

Depending on the size of the company, you might want to reach out to someone in the department you’d be in, hiring manager, or even the CEO.

When I used Remoteok.io and saw a marketing position I was interested in, I actually emailed the CEO directly about it and started a conversation from that.

Additional Ways to Make Money From Home

A great way to test working from home is starting something on the side. Initially, I got some freelance marketing work that allowed me to earn money from home.

But it also let me experience how it might be with a full-time remote job. It made the transition much smoother and easier when I decided I wanted to to work from home full-time.

However, if you are looking to make money from home while working a traditional job, you have a few options to consider.

Use your skills to freelance on the side

Start a content website

Consider a dropshipping business

Start an Amazon FBA business

Sell art or crafts online with Etsy

Create and sell eBooks

Virtual tutoring

Become a part-time consultant

Look for work on Fiverr or UpWork

The reason the above are great options is because you’ll be doing actual work from home which prepares you for remote jobs.

These aren’t quick ways to make some extra cash like the under the table jobs or selling used clothes.

Instead, the goal is to help you build your resume, get a feel for working remotely, and make some extra cash (many of which have potential to become your own full-time business!).

Final Thoughts On Remote Jobs

One of the best career decisions I’ve made is working a remote job. It’s put me to the test by staying organized and more self-sufficient, which has made me a more productive worker.

There are many advantages to remote jobs, but there are also plenty of challenges too.

But if you have been looking to earn money from home and have a more flexible schedule, remote work can be perfect for you.

Do you currently work from home? Are you looking to switch to a remote job? What have been the challenges for you when looking for remote work?