Online work includes certain activities of freelancers such as copywriters, web designers, programmers, translators and graphic designers. But also novel business models such as network marketing, creating your own blog, online couching or running an online shop have their place here.
For people who want to earn a little extra, portals like Clickworker or Crowd-Guru offer additional possibilities. Portals for online surveys also fall under this category. Above all, the home office saves a lot of time and money.
This eliminates the time-consuming journey to and from the workplace and saves costs for additional office space. In addition, breaks can be set and designed individually and the workplace can be set up according to one’s own wishes. The annoying dress code is no longer necessary, a high value can be placed on cosiness with maximum comfort and music during work is also possible. A big problem, however, is the potential distraction.
Online business offers even more potential, because the Internet is developing rapidly and many companies and private individuals are discovering the Internet for themselves. Online business is distributed via social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, so it is spreading at a fairly fast pace. Other advantages of Internet-based entrepreneurship are multidirectionality (entrepreneurs and customers can communicate directly), flexibility, spontaneity, honesty and a focus on a lifestyle rather than a product. Nevertheless, a certain etiquette should be maintained towards the customer. In this way, insults should be avoided and the customer should remain objective and friendly.
Probably the biggest advantage over conventional business models is that you don’t need an education and you can automate it, this can even help to build up a passive income. The already mentioned independence from location promises financial as well as geographical freedom. In the following different possibilities are presented.
Writing articles
Although several training courses (e.g. online editor or copywriter) are offered for this job description, no specific training is required for this type of work, as already mentioned. The focus here is on blog texts, PR texts, print texts, web texts and SEO texts. The work is divided into research, text writing and customer meetings. Copywriters are primarily active in web agencies, corporate consulting, PR agencies, as well as in the trade fair and congress industry. By and large, this is a very varied job description, because one can prove one’s ability for all possible means of communication.
Creating a blog
“Blog” is a short form of “Weblog”, which in turn is an intersection of “Web” and “Log” for logbook. A blog is a diary written by bloggers on the Internet and thus represents an Internet publication. The function of this web-based entry is to express opinions on certain topics and to represent certain areas of one’s own life. The articles are mostly written from the first-person perspective and other users can also add their own comments, criticism or praise with the help of a note box.
The history of the blog goes back to the beginning of the 90s, when the computer scientist Tim Berner-Lee put the first official blog on the Internet. The very first blogs, however, were called “online diaries”. To create a blog, you can use certain functions of providers such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Myspace and Tumblr. In addition, it is also possible to create a blog on your own web space with the help of appropriate weblog software and HTML. These individual weblogs are so-called content management systems, which are special software for editing and organizing content. In most cases, a graphical user interface is integrated, so that the author can edit this type of administration system with relatively little IT knowledge.
Many blogs, for example those used for customer communication, have an imprint obligation. In order to market blogs successfully, some advice should be heeded. On the one hand, care should be taken to apply the principle of SEO (Search Enginge Optimization), which means as much as search engine optimization. You should link to other bloggers and leave many comments in other blogs. Furthermore, you should rather focus on niche areas. To capitalize on weblogs, you can use Google AdSense (placing ads), direct banner marketing and affiliate marketing. Affiliate programs aim to earn commissions for various corporate products using links that can be built into your blog.
The virtual assistant
The virtual personal assistant is a mostly independently acting assistant, which takes over tasks of entrepreneurs or customers, which do not have to be executed by themselves. Communication takes place through modern technical aids such as e-mail, telephone, Internet and Skype. Virtual assistants therefore usually work independent of location and for several customers. There are no limits to the tasks as long as they can be performed with the help of existing communication tools. The secretary and the personal assistant have to be separated from here. The personal assistant works for only one customer on site, the secretary functions as an employee in a company and is therefore subordinated to a superior. The job description of the virtual assistant originally comes from the United States and has been established there since 1995. Tasks may include travel planning, scheduling, research, template creation, database maintenance, graphics, and various web activities.