The best stay at home jobs make it possible for you to make money from the comfort of your home! And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 17.9% of Americans now work from home.
We’ve researched the best options to find great remote side hustles if you want to supplement your income, and we also have plenty of ideas that can bring in a full-time income. There are more options now than ever, from digital marketing, proofreading, starting an Etsy business, dropshipping, and more.
Whether you’re a parent looking for work you can do while at home with your kids or just wanting something remote, let’s get started with our top picks:
Proofreading |
Run Facebook Ads |
Bookkeeping |
---|---|---|
Make $15-$50/hour |
Make $1,000-$2,000 /month |
Make $500-$5,000/month |
Best stay-at-home job if you love to read and are passionate about proper grammar and punctuation. |
Best stay-at-home job if you’re looking for a fast-paced and scalable business. |
Best stay-at-home job if you’re good with numbers and want a flexible job. |
Table of Contents
- 1. Bookkeeper
- 2. Proofreader
- 3. Blogger
- 4. Run Facebook and Instagram Ads
- 5. Selling on Etsy
- 6. Freelance Writer
- 7. Virtual Assistant
- 8. Rent Out Your Space
- 9. In-Home Day Care
- 10. Flea Market Flipper
- 11. Dropshipping
- 12. Customer Service Representative
- 13. Data Entry
- 14. Virtual Travel Agent
- 16. Search Engine Evaluator
- 17. Transcriptionist
- 18. Online Tutor
- 19. Graphic Designer
- What Are the Best Stay-at-Home Jobs?
- FAQs
What Are the Best Stay-At-Home Jobs of 2024?
1. Bookkeeper
Earning potential: $20 to $40+/hour
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, and that difference is why you can start bookkeeping online without a degree or certification. Learn more in our article How to Become a Bookkeeper.
Bookkeepers need to be familiar with popular financial software like Quickbooks and Xero and know how to read and create balance sheets. Pay averages $15-$30/hour, and you can work online and get paid daily or weekly.
2. Proofreader
Earning potential: $15 to $50/hour
Do you cringe when someone can’t tell the difference between there, they’re, and their? Can you spot spelling mistakes in menus? If that sounds like you, check out our article How to Make Money Proofreading.
Proofreaders do a final review of written content before it’s published, and they can work for all kinds of clients – bloggers, website owners, professionals, academics, and more.
Ariel Gardner started proofreading when she was finishing her degree, working two part-time jobs, and caring for three young children. Ariel steadily grew her proofreading side hustle, and she’s now a full-time proofreader, copy editor, and freelance writer. She’s put her expertise and knowledge into the FREE 4-Figure Side hustle training to teach you the five steps to becoming a profitable proofreader.
Want to learn how to start proofreading?
This FREE training teaches you how to start making 4-figures a month from home as a proofreader.
3. Blogger
Earning potential: $500 to $10,000+/month
We can’t talk about stay at home jobs without mentioning blogging. It’s our personal favorite because this blog grew into a seven-figure business in less than five years.
Out of everything on this list, starting a blog has the highest earning potential, but it’s a really slow business model overall — we want to be honest with you! It takes some time to start earning money from your blog, but once you do, the potential is limitless.
Next to the earning potential, blogging is an excellent stay at home job because you are in total control of when you work, where you work, what you blog about, and how you grow your site.
If you’re interested in starting a blog, we 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, our team will set up your blog and install key components at no additional charge with Launch That Blog.
Start your blog for less than $3/month
Gain the freedom and flexibility with our favorite stay at home jobs! With our exclusive Bluehost pricing, you can start a blog for less than $3/month.
4. Run Facebook and Instagram Ads
Earning potential: $1,000 to $2,000/month
Running Facebook and Instagram ads is simply digital marketing through two of the world’s largest social media platforms. Because of how much time we spend online these days, companies are putting more and more money toward Facebook and Instagram ads.
This is one of the best stay-at-home jobs because it doesn’t require a degree or background in marketing — you can learn how to run ads from the comfort of your home!
If you’re interested in learning more, check out the Facebook Side Hustle Course. You’ll learn the exact strategy I used to build my Facebook ad agency.
Start making $1,000-$2,000 running ads
Want to learn more about running Facebook ads and how you can make $1,000+ every month? Just click on the link below.
5. Selling on Etsy
Earning potential: $500 to $1,000+/month
This is one of the best stay-at-home jobs for creative people, and you can channel your energy and make and sell all kinds of things on Etsy, like:
- Handmade soaps and bath products
- Jewelry
- Craft kits
- Home decor
- Seasonal decorations
- Furniture
One of the most profitable niches on Etsy is creating and selling digital printables. It can be artwork, invitations, stickers, calendars, and more. What’s cool about selling printables is that you can create one digital file and sell it over and over again — so it’s fairly passive income.
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.
Learn how to sell Etsy printables
The E-Printables course teaches you how to generate consistent income selling digital printables on Etsy.
6. Freelance Writer
Earning potential: $500 to $5,000+/month
Freelance writing is a broad field that includes everything from writing social media copy, catalog descriptions, and magazine articles. This is one of the best stay-at-home jobs if you enjoy writing and are looking for a fast-paced job that can pay well over $5,000 per month. You can learn more at How to Become a Freelance Writer.
It can take a little time to build your portfolio and business, and if you want to jumpstart your freelance writing business, check out the Big Money Writer 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!”
7. Virtual Assistant
Earning potential: $500+/month
Virtual assistants (or VAs) are responsible for managing day-to-day tasks for business owners, like data entry, inbox management, billing and invoicing, social media management, blog publishing tasks, and much more. You can learn more in our article How to Become a Virtual Assistant.
There’s an increasing demand for VAs as more people are working remotely, and what’s cool about this stay-at-home job is that you can leverage skills and experience you’ve learned in past jobs. Working in executive assistance, HR, customer service, or project management — these are all fields that transfer well to virtual assistance.
Grab these FREE resources to start a VA business
With Fully Booked VA, Gina Horkey shares expert tips and free resources you need to successfully start working as a virtual assistant.
8. Rent Out Your Space
Earning potential: $30 to $500+/month
Neighbor is a peer-to-peer rental platform designed specifically for renting out storage space in your home or any physical building you own. You can list your attic, closet, basement, garage, shed, parking pad, shipping container, street parking, carport, and more.
There are no fees to list your space on Neighbor, and you are in total control of how much you charge. Although, it’s best to do a little research on the site and see what comparable spaces are renting for you in your area.
Here’s an idea of how much you can make listing your space:
- Bedroom $36-$140
- Closet $13-$153
- Garage $125-$330
- Self-storage unit $21-$80
9. In-Home Day Care
Earning potential: $200 to $1,000+/week
This is one of the best stay-at-home jobs for moms and dads with young kids because there are always families who are looking for quality childcare options. There’s a lot of responsibility involved with this job, but it’s possible to make $1,000/week or more depending on how many kids you watch.
You should definitely start by checking out your state’s rules on licensing and insurance for in-home daycares. You want to make sure you understand your liability and the best practices for watching other people’s children.
Once you’ve done your research, using word of mouth is a great way to find families, or you can check our Care.com, which connects families with local caregivers.
10. Flea Market Flipper
Earning potential: $100 to $5,000+/month
Flipping is when you buy things cheap, and then turn around and sell them for more money. You can find things to flip at flea markets, garage sales, and thrift stores. You can sell your flips on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, your own website, etc.
Rob and Melissa of Flea Market Flipper made $133,000 in one year flipping items, and they were only working 10 to 15 hours a week. One of their recent flips was a high-end stroller then bought for $20 and resold for $230.
Check out their Flea Market Flipper Course to learn more.
11. Dropshipping
Earning potential: $500 to $5,000+/month
Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform with tools for setting up your online store and processing sales. And dropshipping is when you outsource warehousing and order fulfillment to suppliers while still managing the listings and sales on your Shopify site. You don’t touch, store, or ship what’s sold on your site — you’re listing them for sale and then connecting customers with your dropshipping supplier.
Check out our Shopify for Beginners Guide to learn more about getting started. It’s surprisingly inexpensive and easy to get your e-commerce site up and running.
12. Customer Service Representative
Earning potential: $14 to $25/hour
Customer service representatives are patient and calm, and they’re able to troubleshoot customer complaints, respond to questions, and identify customer needs. Companies have been moving their customer care agents to work from home positions.
Most stay-at-home jobs in customer service pay between $14-$25/hour, with part-time and full-time options available. You can learn about who’s hiring in Best Places for Remote Customer Service Jobs in 2024.
13. Data Entry
Earning potential: $15 to $20/hour
Data entry is repetitive work, but it’s one of the easiest stay-at-home jobs to start with because it doesn’t require previous experience, and there is a growing list of data entry jobs.
Most data entry jobs these days are helping with machine learning tasks that help artificial intelligence work even better. Because humans are still better than computers at doing a lot of things, like evaluating speech and annotating images, companies pay for quick machine learning tasks.
One of the most well-known ones is Amazon MTurk. It’s a crowdsourcing marketplace where you can get paid to do research, validate data, and moderate content.
14. Virtual Travel Agent
Earning potential: $25 to $75/hour
The internet has changed how people research and book travel, but travel agents are still very much a part of the process. Consultations with customers can happen over the telephone or by video chat, and email makes the entire process easier for everyone.
You can find jobs for travel agents with companies like American Express and Travel Planners International.
16. Search Engine Evaluator
Earning potential: $5 to $15/hour
Search engine evaluators are paid to search the web, critique, and rate search results. The job may also include:
- Search media evaluation
- Social media evaluation
- Translation services
- Survey and data collection
- Linguistics specialties (like text to speech, computational, phonetics, pronunciation, annotation, etc.)
- Lexicon annotation
- Speech evaluation
- Image annotation and/or transcription
- Video annotation
- Sensor data annotation
Find out which companies are hiring in Get Paid to Search the Web.
17. Transcriptionist
Earning potential: $15 to $30/hour
Transcriptionists take audio and video files and convert them to text by listening carefully and typing up exactly what they hear. If you have a quiet spot to work, this is an excellent stay at home job.
The kind of audio and videos you transcribe can include conferences, instructional videos, podcasts, interviews, etc. People who do that kind of work are called general transcriptionists, and can make anywhere from $15-$30/hour — this depends on how fast and accurate you can transcribe files.
But if you have a legal or medical background, you can make even more as a specialized transcriptionist. Learn more at:
- How to Become a Medical Transcriptionist (Plus What the Job is Actually Like)
- 8 Places to Find Legal Transcription Jobs from Home & How to Get Started
18. Online Tutor
Earning potential: $15 to 25/hour
Online tutors can be a huge help to students who are struggling in specific subjects or prepping for the ACTs or SATs. When I was still working as a high school teacher, lots of my kids got outside help from tutors, and their parents paid good money for it.
BookNook is an online tutoring platform that connects K-8 students with tutors who can help them develop critical math and reading skills. Tutors make $15-$22/hour and must meet at least one of these requirements:
- 3+ years teaching or tutoring or
- 1 year teaching or tutoring and at least a bachelor’s degree or
- 1 year teaching or tutoring and current enrollment in a teaching credential program
You also must be a U.S. citizen to qualify. The tutoring sessions last 30 minutes, and you will work with 1-4 students at a time. There’s no lesson planning involved — BookNook handles this part for you.
19. Graphic Designer
Earning potential: $25 to $75/hour
Graphic designers create logos, banners, book covers, advertisements, brochures, and more. It’s one of the best stay at home jobs for creative and digitally savvy people.
Many new graphic designers start out as freelancers who list their services on Fiverr or Upwork. These platforms let you describe how you can help potential clients, and then you can use that work to grow your portfolio and go after higher paying gigs.
One of the best places to find remote graphic design jobs is on FlexJobs, which is one of the #1 job site for vetted, work-from-home jobs. Learn more in our FlexJobs Review.
What Are the Best Stay-at-Home Jobs?
Now that I’m a dad, being able to work from home has never meant more to me. I love that I can work and see my son anytime I want. After reading through this list, you can see that there are lots of ways to make that happen for yourself. My two top picks are proofreading and bookkeeping because these two work-from-home jobs are easy to start, and there’s the potential to build businesses that earn $2,000 to $5,000 a month.
If you want something that requires less commitment, taking online surveys with Survey Junkie and Branded Surveys are one of the easiest ways to make some extra cash.
FAQs
Remote customer service is one, but you can also start freelancing from home as a bookkeeper, proofreader, or virtual assistant with a little training.
Many companies have switched to fully remote work, but you can also work for yourself as a freelancer and work from home as a bookkeeper, writer, proofreader, video editor, graphic designer, and more.