Working from the comfort of your own home and setting your own hours seems like a dream come true to those stuck in traffic on the way to a stuffy office.
The reality of working at home is actually very different as you can expect long hours, low pay and a non-existent social life. The following are 25 of the worst paying jobs that are available right now.
1. Writer For Demand Media
Content mills such as Demand Media are always willing to take on new writers. You can choose the topics you would like to write about from their extensive list, and you will earn around $15 per article.
However, unless you are an incredibly fast researcher you can expect to spend at least eight hours researching, writing, correcting and resubmitting.
2. Survey Taker for Toluna
Toluna pays online users to participate in online surveys. Whilst this may sound like easy money, its actually pretty time consuming, and you don’t really get much for your efforts.
After completing somewhere between 20 – 30 surveys which will take around 20 minutes each, you will be rewarded with a £15 Amazon voucher.
3. Generate Likes for Facebook
When people create a new page on Facebook for their business or service, they need to collect likes in order to push their page to the top of the search engines. Some people are willing to pay for those likes but usually not more than $1 for every 100 likes.
4. Writer for Helium
Helium is a content website with a difference.Writers choose the titles they would like to work on and then submit their content to the site.
The articles are then rated by other members of the site, and writers also have to rate article in order to earn money on a pay-per-view basis.
5. Tarot Card Reader
Even fortune telling has been turned into an online service, and those with the ability to read tarot cards can offer to do so via webcam.You can choose to set up a profile on an established website that offers tarot card services or design your own website to tempt clients.
6. Troll
A troll is somebody that posts information in a forum that is untrue or designed to provoke a response from other users. Believe it or not, some companies actually pay for this service although it is usually kept a secret from consumers. You will be paid by the amount of traffic you generate to the site.
7. Astrologist
Are you a gifted stargazer? Those who are able to read horoscopes can set themselves up with a website or fill out a profile on an established site.
However, don’t expect to get rich overnight with this job as a quick Google search will reveal thousands of other clairvoyants offering the same services.
8. Writer for Triond
Triond works slightly different to most content mills as writers are free to write about any subject they wish. fter posting an article, you will be paid by however many people then view it.
Even combining this with Google Ads fails to generate much money unless you can rack up millions of views.
9. Cam Girl
Stripping off for the webcam has been a popular occupation ever since the introduction of high speed broadband.
You can perform private shows for individual clients or do activities such as your housework in sexy lingerie for a large number of viewers. As with most jobs in the sex industry, the pay is nowhere near worth what you have to put yourself through.
10. Music Blogger
Music writers are generally the lowest paid out of all print journalists. Attempting to make money with a music blog will be a difficult task unless you have something truly unique to offer readers.
You can earn money through Google Ads or even by asking for donations to your blog.
11.Survey Taker for YouGov
YouGov is the official website of the UK government. You can get paid to take surveys on their website, and most deal with serious subjects concerning the environment and society as a whole.
Users report that it can take several years to reach the minimum payment of a paltry £50.
12. Charity Fundraiser
We have all been accosted by the ‘charity muggers’ that stand on the street asking for donations. This job now exists online, and you can get paid for soliciting monthly donations from online users through email and social media.
You will be paid according to how many donations you manage to secure.
13. Proofreader
Proofreaders are often wanted online to spot mistakes in online content such as articles, e-books website content and advertisements.
Those who take on this job can expect to read through several thousand words before making a single penny, and the going rate is usually around $1 for one thousand words.
14. Website Tester
Like browsing around online? You could get paid simply for clicking through websites and then giving feedback on your experience.
If this job sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. It’s incredibly difficult to find these jobs and most pay only a few dollars for several hours browsing.
15. Writer for Elance
Elance is another platform that allows freelance writers to bid on projects that interest them. The site works by awarding freelancers credits that they can use to bid on specific jobs.
However, most employers tend to go for the lowest bids from people in poorer nations which doesn’t leave much work for writers in the UK and US.
16. Survey Taker for Pureprofile
Another survey site that offers users cash for their opinions, Pureprofile pays out once users have reached the minimum payment threshold of £25.
However, this could take up to two years as surveys are reportedly scarce, and many users lose interest and leave the site before actually earning any money.
17. IT Blogger
IT bloggers are so numerous that just finding a regular audience cam be a challenge let alone making any money from your efforts.
Bloggers are paid through Google Ads, so you will need to drive a significant amount of traffic to your site before you can expect to make money.
18. Agony Aunt
If you enjoy listening to people complaining, then online agony aunt is the perfect job for you. There are many websites where you can build a profile and advertise your services, but finding customers willing to pay for a service that they can find elsewhere for free is another challenge.
19. Article Spinner
Have you ever read an article online and thought you could do a much better job?Spinning articles involves taking an existing text and changing it to read like a completely new article.It is often done to fool software that is designed to detect plagiarism and can be a whole lot of work for very little money.
20. Trader on Etsy
Selling merchandise online has proven to be profitable for many online traders. Finding a product that sells is the key to success, and online shop Etsy has proven to be a difficult platform for many.
Etsy deal mainly in vintage, boutique and handmade items, and the sheer amount of other shops makes it difficult to make any money.
21. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing involves driving traffic to a particular website through the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.
It is the ideal job for those who already spend hours on social media. The job requires you to spend many hours online for little to no pay depending on the level of traffic.
22. Life Coach
Are you positive? Encouraging? Do you have the ability to motivate others? Then consider telling other people what to do with their life in exchange for money.
Setting up a website to offer life coaching services has proved a lucrative business for some celebrities, but newcomers will struggle to drum up a decent client base.
23. Ad Poster
Those annoying ads that appear in the comments section at the end of online articles are known as spam. Most of them are selling items or services that have nothing to do with the article they appear under.
Whoever posted the ad was most likely paid to do so, but you will need to post several hundred ads every day to make money.
24. Translator
Providing translation services is actually a good job in the real world, but online translation jobs often pay pennies.
Recruiters will advertise their jobs on sites such as Freelancer.com, and you will then have to bid for the position along with several million other users who are more than happy to work for $1 an hour.
25. Data Entry
Online data entry has become a popular job, but the sheer amount of workers available has meant that the salary has fallen to an all-time low.
You can expect to spend long hours entering in data for almost no money, and unscrupulous employers may try to get out of paying their workers altogether.