How I earned money from Fiverr

So, here's a work-at-home online "job" that I'm into that scored me a few bucks here and there. Nothing earth shattering since I don't do it full time but money is money and with 0 money to put out, it's a pretty good deal for me.

The website is called Fiverr and it is a micro job site where you can post anything and everything that you can do. People who look for services are called buyers who look for what people offer in the Fiverr market.

There's a whole variety of services being offered. You need someone to copy paste data from a website to Word or Excel? People do that there. You need someone to do data entry, or transcription? They do that there too. From the common tasks that can be done remotely by another person for you, it's there.

Even pranks:

even doing pranks can make you earn $5 in Fiverr.

or pretending to be someone's girlfriend:

The possibilities are endless. If you have skills and a good descriptive mind, you can come up with anything that you can do for $5. Remember, the people who would be buying your services would want to feel that it is well worth the money they spent to buy your "gigs". These are the jobs that you post on the website. Make sure that you clearly indicate what you will do for them to ensure that they would not cancel any orders in between and get a refund.

So, how does the site generate their own funds? For every gig ordered, they get $1, so in essence leaving you with $4 for each gig ordered from you. Also, to protect buyers, they give a leeway of 2 weeks for completed gigs to be credited to your account in cases of buyer disputes.

For example, on my account I have data entry, transcription and even a clash of clans related gig.  So far, I've completed a total of 11 gigs so far, which paid me a total of $44. Funds can be withdrawn either via Payoneer or Paypal.

Want to try it out but don't know what gigs would net you orders? Look around the various categories. There's definitely something out there for you.

Advantages of Working At Home

You might be wondering why you'd want to try your hand at working at home. After all, as I mentioned previously, you'd need to have a space in your house dedicated for working and your own computer, and with a decent, stable internet connection. Let me tell you why I like working at home.

1.) Commute/Traffic = Zero - Regardless of where you are in the world, heavy traffic is a reality that almost all employees face on a daily basis. We wake up hours before our scheduled shift to take a bath, grab something to eat, and spend time travelling to get to work. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up minutes before your scheduled work time and use the time saved for other things, like... sleep? I know I'd like that.

2.) Comfort - when you're at the office, you have to sit at your respective workstation for hours on end, you cannot put your feet up, and in some cases, you cannot bring in some food to eat while working. If you're at home, you can put your feet up, sit straight, or pace around while working. Also, being at home means you can eat whatever you want in front of your system without someone warning you that rice meals or pasta isn't supposed to be eaten in work spaces.

3.) Food - imagine how much you regularly spend on food on a daily, even on a weekly basis. Those costs pile up and they eat away at your salary. Being at home means you can prepare your food the way you want it all the time at a fraction of the cost. You are not limited to another store's available meals since you can plan ahead on what to buy in the grocery and just prepare at home. Not only is it economical, it is also healthier.

4.) Clothing - what I first noticed when I started working at home is that my laundry has shrunk down to just mostly home clothes. and it took me twice as long to fill up my hamper compared to when I was working at a regular office. The regular office has dress codes during regular work days and dress down or wash days during Fridays and/or weekends. From socks, to shirts, and pants, those things pile up. I only have to have one formal shirt for the occasional video conference and you're set.

5.) Time with the family - Imagine being able to get off from work and immediately have time for meals and TV with your loved ones. Regardless of what time you work, that benefit is always available for you. I work at nights and my wife works regular hours. After my shift, I catch breakfast and sleep before lunch. I wake up just as my wife's about to reach home, and we get to spend a few hours of quality time which wouldn't have been possible otherwise [had I needed to prepare for work, and travelled to the office]. This is very valuable because you want to get that so-called work-life balance right.

Now, do you have other things that I may have missed that motivates you to work form home? I'd like to hear about it. Write them down in the comments section.

Can You Really Work and Earn from Home?

Many people want to have the flexibility of being at home, while at the same time, having sufficient income to support the family and their needs. The only question is, can you really earn at home? A quick Google search about earning money online would either bring you to a.) betting sites, b.) scam webpages showing you how they earned $xxx,xxx in just x days but you need to pay X to get in, c.) get paid to sites, where you get paid to click on links, advertisements, surveys, etc. or d.) the dreaded data entry jobs that aren't really jobs. I've skimmed through a lot of the muck over the past few months trying to find a way to stay at home more [I just recently got married and want to stay at home as much as possible to be with the wife as we transition to this new phase of our lives. Let me get to the answer to our main question.

Simple answer is yes, you can work at home and earn money online. These two items go hand in hand but have distinct differences.  Would it be easy? Not initially, and of course, there are things you need to get yourself started. And no, you do not have to pay me for all this information. I'm writing this to share what I've found so far, and any additional information I can find to save you the time from walking through scams, and wasting time trying to sort out what's real and not. 

First off, working at home, is in a way, similar to working at an office. Let me elaborate. You need to have an actual work space for you to get what you need to do, and that space has to be conducive for work.  The last thing you or your online employer [yes, there are], would be someone who a.) falls asleep during work and b.) not being able to complete the tasks before the deadline. I personally had to set up a portion of a room away from the television to minimize distractions. You want to get the work done, in an efficient, and timely manner. Do not be complacent just because no one is literally looking over your shoulder. A good working relationship and reputation goes a long way to furthering a work-at-home career.



What would you need to get started?

a.) A computer [d'oh!] - 90% of the available work at home and online jobs out there require you to have a computer. Would you need a laptop or a desktop computer? Both work nicely, but it depends on some factors. I'll discuss this on a separate post.

b.) A decent, reliable internet connection - This is of utmost importance, because you'd need to be able to stay connected during your work hours.

c.) Patience, determination and willingness to learn - I've bundled all this in one since this pertains to qualities you should have as you're getting started. You have to be patient because surprise, you're not the only one who wants this type of work. Thousands, if not millions of people are scouring the web for legitimate, work-at-home jobs and as normal things go, applications need to be submitted. Companies who look for work-at-home contractors want to make sure that they would get quality, and reliable staff to be part of their team. Some companies might even train you before putting you on the job, so willingness to learn, is a big, big plus.

So, you've got all these three in tow. Have you, however, asked the question, "Why would I want to work from home?", and given yourself a concrete answer as to why you want to do this? That's for another story for another post.