In-between my more dependable online streams of income, I turn to data entry to keep me afloat. Sure, it isn’t as exciting or stimulating as writing copy or running errands, but it’s reliable and easy to accomplish. I’ve done so many data entry jobs from home that it’s almost second-nature to me. And when I am on my downtime, I will gladly take on a rote task that I can do on auto-pilot - it works better for me that way, even if it’s admittedly dull work.
Now, there seem to be a lot of sites offering data entry as a supplemental income source, but I’ve learned to be wary about most of them. I’ve unfortunately tried out several which didn’t pay me, or gave me the kind of scope creep that we freelancers are deathly afraid of. However, there are definitely legit ones that I am proud to recommend to you guys, which is why I’m happy to share five of what I consider to be the best ones (in alphabetical order) in this post today.
Amazon mTurk
As thoroughly reviewed in this forum by Amos last year, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a legit and interesting take on simple tasks requiring “human-intelligence” level and skills (AKA “HITS” or human intelligence tasks). What I personally like about this crowdsourcing marketplace platform is the variety of odd but creative tasks involved: you can opt for transcription work, website rating, image curation, people identification, and even doing reviews for particular movies or TV shows.
I do not like transcribing work, so I turn to doing Google search terms instead. This pretty much just entails copying and pasting descriptions which I can do with my eyes closed (okay, I exaggerate!). I also like getting paid in Amazon gift cards for the tasks I’ve accomplished.
Clickworker
If you can imagine getting paid just for surfing the Internet, then Clickworker might just be one of the best data entry jobs from home for you. It touts flexibility of schedules, free signing up, independence, and only needing a computer or mobile device along with an Internet connection as some of the benefits of being a Clickworker.
Some of the tasks involved are text creation (including product descriptions and articles), data categorization, copy editing, proofreading, survey-taking, app testing, web research, and picture taking. Payment comes weekly or monthly via PayPal, which is awesome.
MicroWorkers
Even big companies require crowdsourced workers for micro jobs such as image transcription, data collection, product categorization or classification, language translation, browser testing, taking of surveys either by phone or online, mobile and app testing, content moderation, and more.
I can always rely on MicroWorkers to have a small and simple task for me to accomplish, though I have to take great care to weed out the scammy job offers from the legit ones myself. I can also work towards the $10 minimum payment threshold before I can get my earnings via PayPal quite easily here.
The Smart Crowd
Calling themselves “the world’s largest provider of at home-based work”, The Smart Crowd is run by a company called Lionbridge, which has been providing cloud-based micro and data entry jobs from home for nearly 20 years now. Today, they boast of having over a hundred thousand cloud workers all over the world to help them meet the marketing requirements of their partner clients.
The kind of work involved varies by location, though a lot really has to do with data entry. Participants only need to be 18 years or older and residing long-term in an uninterrupted capacity while being part of the Smart Crowd platform. There is a placement evaluation prior to getting a task, and the score you get in this test will determine the quality and quantity of work you will get from the site. It’s all very straightforward and simple.
Working Solutions
At Working Solutions, you become an “agent” within a “talent community”, and not just a plain old data entry specialist. The work involved is mostly data entry though, but I’m not one to split hairs on definitions as long as I get paid for work I’ve done. Before you can start working on data entry tasks, though, you will first be assessed. The process could take a couple of weeks which is understandably frustrating, but it’s doable and necessary at the same time in order to match your skills with the kind of jobs that are available.
While most data entry jobs from home sound boring, there are also legit ones that offer a creative twist to the entire deal. I’ve been performing micro-tasks for most of them for years now, and I have yet to be let down pay and job-wise. If you’ve got more legit ones to add to this list, I’d be more than happy to know about them. Share away!
