Home based typing work

Has anyone out there ever done one of these self employed jobs where you type up documents at home? I don't mean the ones where you are just doing surveys for £5 a pop. I'm struggling to find work (I'm 57 y.o.) but could probably manage something part time, earning between £150 - 200 per week. The Ads always say "so and so makes £2000 per month doing typing from home". I'm inclined to think that these are always a sham but I'd hate to think I'm losing out if there are any that are legit.

If it was that easy mate we'd all be doing it and we could all say "UNEMPLOYMENT What UNEMPLOYMENT" Prisoners and people institutionalised who have hours to fill would be thrilled to earn and bank such EASY MONEY...Which of course they should upon leaving their educational institutions pay back their rehabilitation costs. If you pursue do let us all know as there are many older people in need of a quick fix to their bank balances.

If it was that easy mate we'd all be doing it and we could all say "UNEMPLOYMENT What UNEMPLOYMENT" Prisoners and people institutionalised who have hours to fill would be thrilled to earn and bank such EASY MONEY...Which of course they should upon leaving their educational institutions pay back their rehabilitation costs. If you pursue do let us all know as there are many older people in need of a quick fix to their bank balances.

Your response is a little rude.

I didn't respond because (in my experience) this is a little outdated. I used to know a lot of people doing such work but I would say that most of this dried up fifteen to twenty years ago when people started having access to computers.

You may be able to find work as a PA/part time secretary to small businesses or perhaps offer a virtual office service which would include some audio typing etc. If you decide to have a business phone line installed at home I don't see why you can't offer virtual telephone answering service to some small businesses, not all want their mail re directed. Some trades just can't answer phones when busy so would need a phone answering service. I have a second landline number for someone to answer calls when I'm not available.

Has anyone out there ever done one of these self employed jobs where you type up documents at home? I don't mean the ones where you are just doing surveys for £5 a pop. I'm struggling to find work (I'm 57 y.o.) but could probably manage something part time, earning between £150 - 200 per week. The Ads always say "so and so makes £2000 per month doing typing from home". I'm inclined to think that these are always a sham but I'd hate to think I'm losing out if there are any that are legit.

As a general rule if a job advert says earn £XYZ from your computer it is a scam. If the job advert says Wanted freelance typist, must type 120 words per minute, then it is a job.

There are a limited number of work from your own computer real jobs without having contacts to individual businesses you will find them mainly at freelancer, peopleperhour, odesk and other similar site. The pay is usually poor unless you are skilled and build up a good reputation. You will often be bidding against people in India and Bangladesh who have degrees, masters and can also type English.

A quick google search brings up copify.com. They claim to pay £25 for a 500 word article and charge websites £129 for 8*350 word blog posts. Which is £16ish per post! So I am not sure how legit they are, but could be worth a punt.

onlineo I have to disagree. There are quite a few people doing freelance secretarial work. They person advertising will specify the speed so the candidate realises what caliber of person is required. The op is nine years older than me so will understand the difference between proper touch typists skills and some of the people today that call themselves typists. I'm referring to unskilled / semi skilled not professional typists.

As a fourteen / fifteen year old back in 1980 people learnt to type on manual typewriters, electric typewriters were rare, even in colleges and work places. As a beginner you were expected to be able to do 34-38 words per minute as a touch typist converting hand writen scrawl with virtually no mistakes. People soon get up to double that and more words per minute if typing all day.

My point is, it doesn't mean the job is not a freelance job when specifying speed. I'm not sure what point you are making when you specify the hourly rate either. I have had people try to sell me their freelance PA services at £50/hour. They may be worth it if someone needs a skilled PA on an ad hoc basis but that is quite some hourly fee for general admin.

I have never seen an advert for "earn ££££ from home" that looked legitimate.

I'd steer you away from those and towards the freelancer websites where you can sell your skills to the open market without the middleman.

http://gyantastic.com/best-freelance-websites/

I wouldn't be too keen to trust the advert but I disagree with everything else you say.

The link to the freelance site doesn't look good, I wouldn't use them. In addition to that, I have never heard of it before so how many other potential employers would you miss out on by being on there and nowhere else?

An agency isn't to be dismissed. In my industry all but the junior jobs are usually advertised via agencies for over twenty years. Employers get to trust agencies. I have been called at 4pm and asked if I will work the following day. The employer trusted the agency so I started the next day. A couple of weeks work to help them over a busy period turned into six months. I don't know if there are well paid or senior roles in admin advertised this way though. You need to be good at self promotion if looking for opportunities yourself.

onlineo I have to disagree. There are quite a few people doing freelance secretarial work. They person advertising will specify the speed so the candidate realises what caliber of person is required. The op is nine years older than me so will understand the difference between proper touch typists skills and some of the people today that call themselves typists. I'm referring to unskilled / semi skilled not professional typists.

 

As a fourteen / fifteen year old back in 1980 people learnt to type on manual typewriters, electric typewriters were rare, even in colleges and work places. As a beginner you were expected to be able to do 34-38 words per minute as a touch typist converting hand writen scrawl with virtually no mistakes. People soon get up to double that and more words per minute if typing all day.

 

My point is, it doesn't mean the job is not a freelance job when specifying speed. I'm not sure what point you are making when you specify the hourly rate either. I have had people try to sell me their freelance PA services at £50/hour. They may be worth it if someone needs a skilled PA on an ad hoc basis but that is quite some hourly fee for general admin.

I am not sure if you just trying to have an argument or just have misunderstood my post.

So what I said was if it says £XYZ from your computer it is usually a scam ad.

If it says wanted typist and specifies a speed it is usually a legit ad.

I think you agree with me on both those points!

Going through an agency in the UK is probably the best route as there is a limited amount of adverts online solely for people in the UK (as many people from other countries with lower wages can also type, read and talk English).

I listed 3 websites that I know people use, and mentioned that the more skilled people seem to have the most success.

I also found another site I had not heard of, but the financial numbers didn't seem to add up. They offer a wage of £25 per 500 words payment yet get an income of £16 per 350 words. Which means they receive 4.5p per word but pay 5p per word!!!

Thanks to everyone who replied. I am inclined to think that most of these online jobs are scams of some sort. I just thought it was worth asking.

Chez2 - Those were the days eh? Yes, I was trained as a touch typist at the age of 12 - there was an evening class in Sheffield. That was on a manual typewriter where the keys were coloured rather than having letters and numbers on them. From the age of 15, I spent best part of 38 years typing and at my speediest could type at 120 words per minute (on a pc keyboard). But, of course, as we get older the old fingers get a little bit stiff and creaky. Im now down to roughly 60 wpm although if I was typing regularly, it may increase a little. Thank you your kind words. I shall keep applying for jobs.