Finding legitimate work-at-home jobs can be a little frustrating, but that’s why my team and I have researched the best options so you can make extra money from the comfort of your home.

Our goal is to tell you about the best side hustles from home so you can reach whatever financial goals you have. Maybe it’s paying off debt, saving for emergencies, or simply making ends meet. The point is, you deserve non-scammy solutions that make it possible for you to work from home.

If you’re ready to learn about some real options, read on!

Here are 14 Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs for 2024

1. Work as a Proofreader

Have you ever thought about how much written content is published these days? Do you know who makes sure it’s free of spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors? It’s a proofreader!

This is an excellent work-at-home side hustle if you cringe when someone uses the wrong verb tense or can’t tell the difference between their/there/they’re.

If you’re interested in learning how to make $500 or more per month proofreading, check out the FREE 4-Figure Side Hustle Training to learn more.

Read more at Proofreading Jobs: Make Money Pointing Out Mistakes.

Want to make extra money proofreading?

This FREE training teaches you how to start making 4 figures a month from home as a proofreader.

2. Bookkeeping

Freelance bookkeepers help business owners record and manage daily financial transactions. This can include paying bills, managing payroll, and collecting payments. Bookkeeping is not the same thing as accounting, which means it doesn’t require a degree!

Bookkeepers need to be familiar with popular financial software like Quickbooks and know how to read and create balance sheets. Pay averages $20-$40/hour.

Brilliant Bookkeeper

Make up to $5,000/month bookkeeping!

Learn the skills and strategies necessary to start a successful bookkeeping business from the comfort of your home. 

3. Freelance Writing

You might not realize this, but a large portion of the online content you read was probably written by a freelance writer — from web page copy, articles, quizzes, email sequences, marketing copy, and more.

Many freelance writers niche down, but others will work on a variety of projects for all sorts of clients. Niches like medical, technical, and financial writers earn on the higher end (upwards of $50-$60/hour), while content mills pay much less (as little as $0.05/word).

While you don’t need a degree in English, creative writing, or journalism to get started, learning how the market works and how to start your own writing business can be a big help.

Read more at How to Become a Freelance Writer: The Ultimate Guide for 2024.

Freelance Writing Course

Make $1,000 to $5,000/month as a freelance writer

Go from “I don’t know what I’m doing” to “I landed my first client!”

4. Work as a Facebook Digital Marketer

Digital marketing on Facebook means you’re running ads for small businesses. It’s not boosting posts — it’s creating, running, testing, and managing ad campaigns for your clients.

Out of all the legitimate work-at-home jobs on this list, running Facebook ads is my favorite. That’s because it’s what I did after I quit my job to run this site full-time. I needed to find something to supplement my income, saw a need in the market, and learned everything I could.

Then I landed my first client (it was the jeweler who sold me my wife’s engagement ring).

That client turned into another. Then another and another. I was pretty quickly out earning what I made as a teacher.

There was a lot of hustle in my journey, but I learned that I could make around $1,000-$1,500 per month/per client. And, that was in just a few hours each week as I was:

  • Finding and acquiring clients
  • Creating effective ads
  • Testing the ads
  • Maintaining client relationships

The reason this is, hands down, one of the best legitimate work-at-home jobs is because Facebook has a massive reach. We’ve seen big companies run ads for years, and small business owners are finally starting to realize that they need to leverage Facebook’s reach too.

But — and this is what’s great for you — many small business owners lack the time and resources it takes to run an effective ad campaign.

Learning how to run Facebook ads for local business owners means you’re helping them strategize and grow their business.

If you’re interested in learning more, my buddy Mike Yanda (he’s a lawyer, turned digital marketer who now earns $30k/month in digital marketing income) and I created the Facebook Side Hustle Course.

Start making $1,000-$2,000 running ads

The Facebook Side Hustle Course teaches you:

  • How set up a Facebook ads system
  • How to find clients who need your services
  • Exactly what to say to get business owners to say “yes” and move forward

5. Freelancing

If you have a marketable skill, freelancing is a great side hustle to bring in some additional income. And after you read the following statistics, you’ll understand why it’s one of the most legitimate work-at-home jobs of 2024.

  • With income totaling over $1 trillion, freelancing now contributes more to the GDP than the construction or transportation industry.
  • 57 million Americans are freelancing this year.
  • The number of full-time freelancers has grown by 11 percentage points.
  • Skilled freelancers earn a median rate of $28/hour, which is more than what 70% of U.S. workers currently make.

To see more of these statistics, check out Upwork’s 2021 Freelancing in America Study.

Freelancing is a huge industry and presents options for:

I have a few freelancers on my team here at M$M, including a virtual assistant, web developer, SEO guru, email marketer,  and editor. Overall, they freelance because it gives them flexibility. They can work at home if they want, but they can also work while traveling.

If you’re interested in freelancing, I highly recommend starting a website for your business. This will make it easy for you to list your services, show off your work, and it’s how potential clients can find you. But Upwork and Freelancer are great places to look for your first clients.

FlexJobs

Find your first freelance gig on FlexJobs

FlexJobs is the #1 marketplace for work-from-home, remote, and freelance work.

6. Start a Blog

Blogging easily has the highest earning potential on our list of work-at-home jobs. It’s a slow business model overall, but look at what I’ve done: I started this blog in my spare time after coming home from my job as a high school band director, and in five years I was able to turn my blog into a seven-figure business that I run from my laptop.

That’s not the norm for everyone, but you get out of it what you put into it. You can start and grow your blog on your lunch break, after the kids go to bed, and on the weekends.

The reason I feel so strongly about blogging is that you are in complete control of your work, from when you work, what you blog about, how you make money blogging, and so on.

If you’re interested in starting one of the best side hustles, I highly recommend Bluehost for blog hosting, and here’s why:

  • Bluehost has a ton of free themes to choose from, and that means you can get a professional-looking blog without paying for web design services.
  • They have stellar customer service.
  • You get a free domain name for your first full year.
  • WordPress is included with Bluehost — that’s the platform THIS blog is built on!
  • When you sign up for Bluehost using our link, my team will set up your blog and install key components at no additional charge with Launch That Blog.

Learn more in How to Start a Blog in 2024.

Bluehost

Start your blog for less than $3/month

Blogging is, hands down, my favorite side hustle! It’s how I went from stressed, overworked high school teacher to 7-figure business owner in less than 5 years. And Bluehost is the exact platform I used to start.

7. Sell Printables on Etsy

Etsy is the go-to marketplace for all things crafty, vintage, unique, and hand-made. It saw over over $3 billion in sales in 2021, and some of the best things to sell on Etsy these days are printables.

Printables can be things like:

  • Planner pages
  • Calendars
  • Lifestyle/financial trackers
  • Wall art
  • Printable games
  • Stickers
  • Business cards

Because printables are digital files, all you have to do is create the product once, and you can sell it an unlimited number of times with no additional overhead. Plus, there’s no need to store or ship physical products.

There’s a fantastic free ebook called the Seasonal Products Secret that outlines printable ideas for each month of the year and how to capitalize on each idea. You should definitely grab a copy of that free ebook if you’re interested in learning more.

E Printables Side Hustle Course

Learn how to sell Etsy printables

The E-Printables course teaches you how to generate consistent income selling digital printables on Etsy.

8. Get Paid For Your Opinions

Large companies use market research companies, like Branded Surveys, to learn about the opinions and habits of their target customers. Because companies pay for the research, market research companies pay members an average of $1-$3 to complete surveys. This isn’t the highest-paying work-at-home job, but it’s honestly one of the easiest and fastest ways to make money from home.

What we love about taking online surveys is that it’s incredibly flexible. You can take surveys when watching TV, before bed, or while your kids are napping.

Branded Surveys is our top pick for paid surveys, and users are paid in points that convert to cash or gift cards. New users earn 100 points when you sign up.

Branded Surveys

Claim your 100-point bonus!

Branded Surveys is one of the most trusted online survey sites, and new users can earn a 100 points when you join through our exclusive link.

9. Work as a Virtual Assistant

I hate to admit this, but it’s 100% true — I would be completely lost without my virtual assistant. She helps manage some of my social media accounts, moderates the Millennial Money Man Facebook Community, sorts through my emails, handles billing, schedules meetings, keeps me focused, and about a million more things.

To work as a virtual assistant, you’ll need to have excellent time management skills. You also need to be organized and be a good communicator. And this is one of the most flexible and legitimate work from home jobs out there… my VA works at home while raising her young kids!

What else do virtual assistants do?

  • Data entry
  • Inbox management
  • Project management
  • Bookkeeping
  • Blog management
  • Preparing reports
  • Research
  • Content creation
  • Digital marketing tasks
  • Event management
  • Invoicing

Most VAs do just a few of those things for their clients, and some niche down to do specific jobs like Pinterest management.

Fast track your VA side hustle

Fully Booked VA is giving you the FREE resources you need to successfully work at home as a virtual assistant.

10. Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant

You’re probably already familiar with Pinterest — it’s a great place to find recipes, workouts, DIYs, etc. But did you know that online business owners and bloggers have a high need for Pinterest virtual assistants?

Pinterest virtual assistants make an average of $500 per month/per client, and their responsibility include:

  • Creating pins
  • Optimizing images
  • Developing a pinning schedule
  • Doing keyword research
Pinterest VA

Learn what it’s like to be a Pinterest VA

Check out the FREE A Day In The Life Of A Pinterest VA workshop to find out more.

11. Sell on Amazon FBA

FBA stands for Fulfillment By Amazon, and it’s when third-party sellers (like you) sell goods on Amazon. But how? Amazon is huge!

Here’s the short version of how it works: you find things to sell on Amazon (more on that in a second), ship the goods to Amazon, list your items, and when they sell, Amazon ships them out and processes the sale.

Some items are better for Amazon FBA than others, like:

  • Retail arbitrage
  • Private label items
  • Gently used or returned items
  • Wholesale products

Books do really well too, and I have a reader who made $25,000 on the side of her full-time job selling books on Amazon FBA. If you’re interested, check out our article What is Amazon FBA, How it Works, Fees, & More.

12. Flip Furniture

Are you the type of person who sees furniture at thrift stores, garage sales, or even sitting on the curb and thinks, “Hey, there’s a lot of life left in that piece!”? Then flipping furniture could be one of the best work-at-home jobs for you.

The thing is, a lot of the tossed out or donated furniture is still in good shape structurally. You might only need to sand, paint, or put new hardware on before selling it. Once you’ve refreshed your pieces, you can sell them on Facebook Marketplace or through selling apps like Chairish.

Is this a legitimate work-from-home job? Yes, yes, yes! Melissa and Rob of Flea Market Flipper make a full-time income flipping furniture and other things they find at flea markets. Learn more in their course Flea Market Flipper.

13. Customer Service Representative

All sorts of companies are moving customer service jobs to remote work. And there are lots of companies that are currently posting legitimate work at home jobs on sites like Indeed and Glassdoor. You can find a list of companies hiring in Best Remote Customer Service Jobs in 2024.

Most jobs pay around $15-$20/hour, and being able to work flexible hours from the comfort of your home makes this one of the best jobs for moms and dads.

14. Teach English Online

Teaching English online to young Korean and Chinese students has been a popular work from home job for a few years now. The hours are flexible, you can work when you want, and you can earn up to $22/hour.

There are several companies out there, but VIPKid is my top pick because they were listed as one of Glassdoor’s 2019 Best Places to Work. I also know a number of people IRL who are happily working for VIPKid.

VIPKid is a website that connects native English speakers to young Chinese students to learn English. You don’t need to be a teacher to work for VIPKid, but you do need some experience working with kids. Having kids of your own and working as a babysitter or camp counselor all count.

If you’re interested in working from home with VIPkid, you’ll need to fill out an application and go through an interview process, which does involve a practice lesson. It’s surprisingly painless.

As a former teacher, there are a couple of things I really appreciate about VIPKid:

  • You don’t have to do any lesson planning
  • You’re encouraged to play games with the student
  • The lessons are only 25 minutes long

M$M tip: For more great side hustles for teachers, check out Best Side Hustles for Teachers to Make More Money During the School Year.

The Final Word on Finding Legitimate Work-At-Home Jobs

The great thing about working from home is that technology has made it easier for more of us to earn money wherever we want. You can now earn a full-time income while working at home and raising your kids. You can work from home on the side of your 9-5. And lots of people work online so they can travel full-time.

Real jobs are out there if you look in the right places, and our top picks are:

  • Proofreading: The best work-from-home job if you love to read.
  • Bookkeeping: The best work-from-home job if you are good with numbers.
  • Freelance Writing: The best work-from-job for anyone who loves to write.
  • Running Facebook Ads: The best work from home job if you’re looking for a scalable side business.

FAQs

What kind of job can you do from home?

With the abundance of work online, more and more companies are hiring people to work remotely, which means you can work from the comfort of your home. There are flexible options like bookkeeping, proofreading, and taking online surveys.