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Did you ever wonder which online jobs pay well? Of course, you have! It’s a worthy consideration, especially if you have a family to support or you’re trying to grow your remote career. The great news is that you can make serious bank as a remote worker these days: the only caveat is that the bigger the paycheck, the more experience required. You’re not going to get rich fast when you work at home – but you can have a real career with great pay doing something you love.
To show you the wide expanse of opportunity and pay available to you in your work-at-home life, I’ve put together a list of 10 of high-paying work-from-home jobs you can land. Read on and see which fits in with your skills and experience – or which ones you can learn and run with!
Graphic Designer
The Internet is a sea of graphic design jobs – completed, in progress, still to come. You can get a piece of that well-paying pie if you have some artistic skill, and you can learn design even if you don’t! (Just check out the story of Karen Cheng.) From being a freelancer to becoming lead graphic designer with a company, how much you pull in annual salary can vary, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median average wage at $48,700 as of 2017.
Working as a graphic designer is great for those who crave variety in their work! Every client will have different visual needs and you can work on everything from logo design to user interfaces to packaging to advertising.
Skills required: While you obviously need to understand the basics of good design, you should also make sure you’re proficient with the Adobe suite of design programs.
Animator
You may have noticed that video content is on the rise on websites across the Internet, with plenty of ad money supporting that swell. If you have (or can learn) those visual arts skills, this is another position that can work on a freelance basis or as a remote position within a company. According to ZipRecruiter, the average remote animator salary as of May 2018 is $62,000 a year.
You can go to school to become an animator, but it’s also something you could try learning on your own. Drawing animation cel by cel is a thing of the past, with programs from Adobe After Effects to Autodesk 3ds Max making it much easier for aspiring animators today. Learn how to work with them and then sell your services making YouTube videos, video games, animated website elements, and more.
Skills required: You absolutely must be skilled in a variety of animation programs, so head to Skillshare and take some classes on everything from “After Effects for Beginners – Get Started with Motion Graphics!” to “Earn More as a Designer – Learn Motion Graphics in 3 hours.”
Accountant/Bookkeeper
It’s no surprise that people don’t like doing their books – but it may surprise you that remote accountants or bookkeepers can make between $46,000 to $62,000 (according to ZipRecruiter) annually! As with so many remote jobs, this is another position you can do as a freelancer with a whole stable of clients from individuals to small businesses – or you can find a remote position with a particular company.
Accountants tend to make more than bookkeepers, reflecting the difference in job complexity: bookkeepers help you in the daily operation of your business (recording transactions, for example), while your accountant analyzes the information provided by your bookkeeper in order to give you financial advice and reports to help your business.
Qualifications required: besides basic math skills and knowing how to use common accounting software like QuickBooks, there are certifications and licenses you can get to establish your cred.
Learn more about: work-from-home accounting jobs or online bookkeeping jobs.
Software Developer/Engineer
It is a great time to be a coder! If you have coding know-how and experience, you can leverage those skills to find a remote job that can be done anywhere and pays fantastically. If you check out ZipRecruiter’s current stats (as of May 2018), Software Developers pull an average of $94,000 while Software Engineers pull an average of $115,000 a year. And the Internet, computers, mobile games, social networking sites – everything that we love to use daily is made up of code.
Software developers create computer programs and applications or develop the support systems that all devices or control networks need to run, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They analyze users’ needs, design and develop software to meet those needs, maintain and upgrade that software, and so much more. Software Engineers tend to be a bit more cerebral, focusing on solving programming problems and developing computer algorithms than creating programs with code.
Skills required: You’ll need to know programming languages! You can teach yourself to code, and there are a ton of classes available online (many free) that are just a Google search away. You can also get various programming certifications by taking standardized tests and passing.
Nurse
Being a remote nurse can pay well, but requires you to be a nurse first! I know, it’s obvious. In order to be employed as a nurse on the Internet, you must have gone to school and become an RN (Registered Nurse). LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) may be able to find remote work as well. You can make on average $64,000 annually according to ZipRecruiter!
As a remote nurse, you may find yourself monitoring patients, consulting with patients online, managing on-the-ground treatment, and any number of other skilled tasks. You can work with big companies like Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, and Anthem – and expect great benefits packages.
Qualifications required: you must have formal training and be an RN (or possibly LPN), and be computer-savvy enough to work on various software platforms.
Learn more about: work from home healthcare jobs
Project Manager
I know my readers know all about becoming a Project Manager after reading my post “How to Become A Project Manager: Your Online Starter Guide.” If you’re someone who loves organization and making a plan come together, taking on the role of Project Manager could be perfect for you. And, according to Glassdoor’s aggregate information, you can expect to make about $80,854 a year on average in the role!
Working as a Project Manager could be a good basis for a successful freelance business, where you can position yourself as the freelancer with the skills to launch any project for companies large or small. You could be handling a book launch one project and then working on product testing the next. This role offers opportunities to learn new things all the time.
Qualifications required: You must be organized, energetic, and a leader. You also need to start building a portfolio right away – experience and results are what will make you successful here.
Digital Marketing Consultant
Businesses need help navigating the life of their brand on the Internet – they need someone to help them with SEO optimization, lead generation, social media use, email marketing, and more. If you understand much of what I just said, you could turn digital marketing consulting into a career! Since it pays about $51,000 annually (per ZipRecruiter), it’s definitely something you should consider.
This is another role that’s perfect for freelancing, meaning you can build a collection of clients to vary your portfolio and keep your day-to-day engaging. You’d be the point person for developing an online strategy for each of your clients, making your perspective and experience a key element in their success. Exciting stuff!
Skills required: Necessary skills depend on what you specialize in but, in general, you need to be knowledgeable about best Internet practices from SEO and email marketing to sales funnels and branding.
Data Analyst
The Internet is rich in data that businesses pay various professionals to extract and analyze: it tells them who their customers are, whether their ad strategies are successful, if a new product will work. And if you love playing with data, why not get paid to do what you love?
As a data analyst, you can expect to gather data, organize it, and then review it in order to make meaningful observations and conclusions. This role means identifying patterns, writing reports, and collaborating with sources and peers. You make sense of raw facts and explain that meaning to your clients, often with colorful graphs.
Skills required: You should be proficient with data organization and presentation software like Excel (or Google Sheets) and web analytics apps like Google Analytics, for starters.
Ghostwriter
More people feel like they have a book inside them than feel like they have the tools to write those books. That’s where a ghostwriter comes in – someone who can do the heavy lifting of book construction one sentence at a time, taking the pressure off the client. It’s one of the more lucrative writing jobs you can find online, with ZipRecruiter’s May 2018 analysis putting their average annual salary at $52,000.
Ghostwriting gigs come from all genres – scientists may need help turning their scientific findings into readable material, while would-be fiction authors have an idea but no skill to put it to paper. Or perhaps a professional wishes to share their experience with the world, but needs your help to interview them and organize their wisdom into a functional book. Whatever the project, you can set your prices and build a business on writing behind the scenes.
Skills required: You must have writing skills that are good enough to land clients, then the self-discipline to write to their schedule.
Learn More About: freelance writing jobs
Consulting
In a world that contains Wikipedia, we’ve all become accustomed to having the information we need at our fingertips – anytime, anywhere. Of course, that information isn’t always readily accessible – and some information is based on experience rather than fact. When businesses or individuals have a project that requires specific experience, they find a consultant in that specific niche to help them.
In functional terms, there are a few major consulting types: you could consult on strategy, on implementation, or on an industry. You might help companies figure out how to approach a goal, help them with the processes to actually execute that strategy, or educate the business on their focus topic. This is a wide-open field with plenty of opportunities for repeat clients on a freelance basis – and since you’re defining your own worth, you can make as much as any one client is willing to pay. Glassdoor puts the average annual salary at $75,664.
Skills required: Make sure you have networking skills so you can find opportunities, and the skills you need to follow through once you land a client.
These are just a few of the better-paying ways to make a living from home, and I hope they’ve inspired you to take the first step on your work-at-home journey! Which of these remote jobs will you be pursuing?
