Sorting Out The Scams: Here’s How To Identify A Legitimate Work From Home Side Job

In the era of online, remote working, finding legitimate work from home side jobs can sometimes feel like an exercise in futility. The reality is that with so many companies trying to capitalise on the dream of working from home, it can be hard to identify which are offering real work for real money and which are simply trying to waste your time or rope you into a scam.

So how can you tell the serious jobs from the time-wasting scammers? Let’s take a closer look!

Multi-Level Marketing & Pyramid Schemes

We’ll start with the elephant in the room: pyramid schemes.

Pyramid schemes have been around for decades at this point and it doesn’t look like they’ll be going anywhere any time soon. While most people can spot a traditional pyramid scheme – or multi-level marketing enterprise as they’re more likely to call themselves – recent changes to our working culture have made it easier than ever for some of these scammers to slip through the cracks.

In years gone by the idea of “being your own boss” and even just “working from home” was, for many people, little more than a dream but as technology and workplace culture have caught up to us, that’s no longer true. As such, where we might once have been suspicious of a job that sounded too good to be true, now it’s far easier to let your guard down.

That being said, there are some simple rules you can follow if you’re wondering whether or not a potential opportunity is a pyramid scheme in disguise.

First thing’s first, ask yourself where the money is really coming from? The problem with pyramid schemes is that while they tell you that you’re the seller/marketer/boss, in reality you’re none of those things. To a pyramid scheme, you are the customer and their aim is to sell you as much product as possible. You can usually tell this is happening because instead of encouraging you to sell the product, they’ll encourage you to recruit new people under you.

Put simply, if everybody is recruiting, then nobody is selling and that means all the money is coming from you.

Many cryptocurrency scams can also be identified through a similar style of logic. Ask yourself where the money is coming from. If the answer is just ‘people buying in’ then the chances are there’s no real value behind the product/company. All the money is coming from you and all you’re being sold is a dream.

By contrast, with any legitimate work from home side job, you should easily be able to identify the value of the product. It should be clear what people are buying and where the profit is coming from.

Let’s take mentoring as an example. With mentoring, the value is the skills you can share with your Mentee. The money comes from the Mentee who is willing to pay for those skills as an investment in their future. It’s a simple transaction between Mentor and Mentee where a clear service is being bought.

When in doubt, always follow the money.

Surveys & Studies

There are a number of websites out there who market themselves on the premise that you can earn money by filling out surveys and studies. Although most of these are relatively harmless, in that all they want from you is information, it’s worth noting that you’re very unlikely to be able to make a living doing this kind of work.

The reality is that filling out these surveys takes a lot of time relative to the small amount of money these websites actually pay. They sound persuasive because the work involved is relatively low effort, but time is money and, no matter who you are, your time is worth more than what these sites are ever going to pay you.

Freelancing & Side Hustles

If you’re looking to start a side hustle or become a freelancer, then the first thing you need to know is that you’re walking into a wild west. There’s plenty of great work out there but you need to know how to identify it. So what does a legitimate work from home side job look like?

While freelance jobs and side hustles can vary a great deal, any job worth working should pay reasonable money for the time you put in. Or, to put it another way, if you’re not earning minimum wage on the hours you work, then it’s likely you’re being ripped off.

At the end of the day, if you want to be a successful freelancer, then you’ll need to sell a product/service to the people who want it at a value that is both affordable and sustainable. All of which brings us right back to mentoring.

Mentoring is an easy and accessible way for you to provide a valuable service while being well compensated for your time. At Career Navig8r, we’ve built our site to connect people with skills and experience to those who are willing to pay money to learn. Even better, you get to set your own rates, so you decide what you think is reasonable.

Sign up for free at CareerNavig8r.com and start your new side job today!