Online Data Entry Jobs From Home Scams
People fall in love with the idea of making money online and working from home. This is particularly attractive to stay at home moms who would love to turn a few hours a day into some extra cash working online. One of the opportunities that is heavily advertised is data entry but thanks to some unscrupulous operators, you have to wonder are data entry jobs legit or scams.
The quick answer is they are both.
Data entry scams are fairly easy to spot but difficult for some to resist. The idea of being able to make money by performing a relatively simple task that does not require much skill can be very appealing to some. In fact it will be appealing to the same crowd that bought into the “stuff envelopes” scam that was common before the internet.
Just remember this. If the data entry job promises higher pay than you could make doing the same thing at a regular job, then it’s probably a scam. If the offer requires that you register and pay a fee to get access to the jobs, it’s a scam. If the offer doesn’t tell you who the employer is, it’s a scam.
Basically if it sounds too good to be true it probably is going to be a disappointment.
That said, there are many legitimate data entry jobs available. Outsourcing has become even more popular thanks to the advent of high speed internet connections and a booming internet population. Add to that the number of new businesses that are “online only” that are accustomed to doing everything on a “virtual” basis and you have a sizeable number of potential data entry clients.
So where do you find the legitimate data entry jobs from home? The best place to start looking are at the freelance sites. The bulk of freelance sites specialize in technical skills but a couple of the largest, to include Elance, have freelance projects in a wide variety of job classifications. As of this writing Elance is showing 73 data entry jobs that need to be filled.
Understand that at these sites you will be competing with other freelancers just as you would be competing against other applicants if this was a regular job. As a freelancer you have to “bid” on a job and provide a proposal that is strong enough to win the project. Often times these are flat rate projects where you agree to do the work described for a fixed amount of money. Some times a buyer will want to go hourly but that’s usually not the case.
Usually these sites will have a “free” sign up and then charge a percentage of the work you are awarded. For example Elance will take 8.5% of whatever you earn on the site. That’s what they charge for getting you and the buyer together.
Another place to look for data entry jobs are the online classifieds like CraigsList. This can be trickier because anyone can post a job and you will have to do some due diligence to determine if the buyer is legit or not. Also when you are searching either the classifieds or the freelance sites, don’t forget to look under the title “virtual assistant” as this is another common name for data entry.
There are great data entry job opportunities and if you are good, then you can use either of these resources as a starting point. The ultimate goal of course is to build up a stable of repeat clients that can keep you busy and minimize the amount of searching and bidding you have to do.