What is it that makes people give up on earning online / working from home?

[Jon]

Is it too much effort? Does it require too much research before you start hitting the decent amounts? Do people not want to work their way up from the old surveys?




I'm not talking about TMS specifically but you see a lot of people post questions, they get great information back but them don't seem to want to go anywhere with it or never seem to post or interact with the work from home community again? It doesn't seem to matter if it's working for another company or setting up a new site / blog to earn an income (sometimes the hardest of jobs in terms of how long it takes!) People just don't seem to have the sticking power that they need when it comes to earning from home.


Is it just too much hard work? Do people expect a decent wedge for very little effort do you think?

 

[Scratch]

I think the reality is a "regular" job pays a better wage, as far as hourly rate goes. Minimum wage is £6.50 an hour and it's hard to earn that amount per hour working from home. So you're going to have to do more hours to earn a similar wage. I understand Leapforce and that kind of work pays a good hourly rate, but what else?

 

[Jon]

I think the reality is a "regular" job pays a better wage, as far as hourly rate goes. Minimum wage is £6.50 an hour and it's hard to earn that amount per hour working from home. So you're going to have to do more hours to earn a similar wage. I understand Leapforce and that kind of work pays a good hourly rate, but what else?

It's important not to compare a constant wage with work that pays above the minimum wage per task/assignment

Constant stuff is things like
63336
Leapforce
Lionbridge
appen
Blubit
ERS Connect
iSoft

Work that pays way above the minimum wage

What users do = £8 for 20 mins work
Pretty much all mystery shopping
field Agent / Roamler etc pays very high money per task


You can't just look at one thing and go "oh that only pays £5 per task" if the task only takes 15 mins then do it as that's £20 / hr

 

[spike241]

It is hard work and it can take a while to wade through the scams and crap work to find something that's good for you.
At the same time, you have to be willing to do that. You might something that works for you straight away but usually it takes time and effort to build up to a decent income. A lot of people are just looking for a 'get rich quick' scheme, unfortunately.

I've cut right down on how much I use Clixsense because I'm focusing more on Utest, which is more enjoyable and pays better.
I wouldn't have known about that if it wasn't for this site, along with What Users Do, User Testing (although I buggered that up, still made $30), E-mystery Shopper.

I'm fairly lucky though as I only need to make £400 a month to cover bills and I'm supplementing the online work with my photography business.

 

[Jon]

I think maybe the terminology and company names that are used can turn a lot of people off. Along with the general secrecy that happens on other sites as information doesn't get shared around an awful lot.


If a new starter gets exposed to nothing but surveys I don't think they are going to have the willpower to find out better opportunities unless the drive is there (maybe through the desperate need for money!)

 

[Twiggy]

I think it boils down to not everyone having what it takes, and if you have an alternative or not. I am quite anti-social and have had health problems in my past and I 100% do not ever want to go OUT to work for someone, so I have always found a way (ebay etc) to work from home. For me, that is easier than going out to work, but for others, turning up at a second job might feel easier for them.

I was explaining to my husband that when you work a regular job you get paid regardless of whether you are intensely focusing or not. With working at home, say Fiverr for example, to be paid £2.50 per gig I want to dedicate 20 minutes at most - so I work at the gig like a machine within that timeframe. I've been doing just shy of 4 hours a day on Leapforce now, and I am tired, and I was explaining that every minutes doing something counts, very unlike a normal working day.

 

[Agena]

For me it's a combination of hard work and that feeling of home=relaxation time. It's sometimes hard to stay focused, especially with attention demanding tiddler also, not every opportunity is for everyone - with said Tiddler I can't for example fo the What Users Do or that app that does similar videos because tiddler will be recorded too. I'm glad I got into Leapforce, otherwise i would've been very discouraged by now since neither Fiverr, Fivesquid nor PPH came back with anything, and clixsense gives me on average only about a dollar a day.

 

[toastking]

I think the biggest reasons are the amount of time it takes to start earning and then scam websites that just don't pay.

If you've only just started and the first 3 sites scam you out of money or just don't pay you, then you're going to wonder if there is any decent websites online.

 

[Jon]

What are you defining as scam sites here?

Are you talking about direct selling companies who offer the world on a stick if you just make a joining payment of £199 and then flog mud to your friends via Facebook over the next year?

 

[toastking]

Well scam sites can mean a lot of things but yes they'd be included.

But I think the noobs are more likely to be drawn into $7 and you can earn $25k a week whilst you sleep... look at my car... look at my house.... all that tat.

There are more money making scams online I reckon than just about anything else.

This is before we get on to HYIP which is a horrendous idea and really shows that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

I made videos about all the scams for my old site, the youtube channel is all that's left of the project I think so here goes:

https://www.youtube.com/user/richquickexperiment

 

[stellajose]

I think you said it exactly.

Some tasks etc pay well - like today I got a message from Roamler, logged on and saw my local supermarket was there for an £8 task (with purchase). I was about to head there anyway so it took 5 minutes while I was already there.

But £8 is a one off. It's not the equivalent to £72 an hour, because there are not those tasks, so it is £8. Or £8 a day or whatever. £8 a week.

And then the regular work - 63336 or whatever. Well 63336 pays regularly. In that you can work when you want for as long as you want. And you'll earn - but if there's not the work (much of the time) you won't earn anywhere near minimum wage. And Leapforce does pay well, but you must be prepared to do the work when it is there (which I guess is like any real job - you can't go and get a job in a clothes store and choose to work 7pm-11pm, because the shop is shut and they don't have work for you then.) But the issue with Leapforce etc is that it is irregular, and not guaranteed.

But I think many other people want to actually earn substantial amounts from home, without actually doing the work they'd have to do if they were employed out of the home.

 

[Jon]

Well scam sites can mean a lot of things but yes they'd be included.

But I think the noobs are more likely to be drawn into $7 and you can earn $25k a week whilst you sleep... look at my car... look at my house.... all that tat.

There are more money making scams online I reckon than just about anything else.

This is before we get on to HYIP which is a horrendous idea and really shows that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

I made videos about all the scams for my old site, the youtube channel is all that's left of the project I think so here goes:

https://www.youtube.com/user/richquickexperiment

haha nice videos


What's HYIP?


The stuff you see on Facebook advertising opportunities is just ridiculous at times. The worst part is that people actually reply and want details!


I imagine after you have failed at one of those it's hard to believe that there is other type of work from home opportunities out there that aren't MLM

 

[Jon]

I think you said it exactly.

Some tasks etc pay well - like today I got a message from Roamler, logged on and saw my local supermarket was there for an £8 task (with purchase). I was about to head there anyway so it took 5 minutes while I was already there.

But £8 is a one off. It's not the equivalent to £72 an hour, because there are not those tasks, so it is £8. Or £8 a day or whatever. £8 a week.

And then the regular work - 63336 or whatever. Well 63336 pays regularly. In that you can work when you want for as long as you want. And you'll earn - but if there's not the work (much of the time) you won't earn anywhere near minimum wage. And Leapforce does pay well, but you must be prepared to do the work when it is there (which I guess is like any real job - you can't go and get a job in a clothes store and choose to work 7pm-11pm, because the shop is shut and they don't have work for you then. But the issue with Leapforce etc is that it is irregular, and not guaranteed.

But I think many other people want to actually earn substantial amounts from home, without actually doing the work they'd have to do if they were employed out of the home.

See, I don't think it is possible to just work for one company offering work from home opportunities and expect to make some decent money.
If I just do stuff for Valued Opinions I am never going to get anywhere. But if I combine VO with eDig, Market Force, WhatUsersDo, and Field Agent I can fully expect to bring in a good couple of hundred each month without any trouble

 

[toastking]

HYIP means high yield investment program and basically its a Ponzi scheme online.

A Ponzi scheme promises investors outrageous interest e.g. 200% in 3 days and they manage it by paying off early investors with the money invested later. Of course they can never get growth to match and so eventually the bubble bursts with the owners having run off with a load of people's money.

In my younger days I invested thinking I was on to a winner, I did get my money back and more luckily, but it took a while and the money came back to alertpay and once I figured out how difficult it would then be to use I gave up. It was only later I actually clocked on and got my brain in gear to realise how stupid the whole thing was.

 

[stellajose]

I think you said it exactly.

Some tasks etc pay well - like today I got a message from Roamler, logged on and saw my local supermarket was there for an £8 task (with purchase). I was about to head there anyway so it took 5 minutes while I was already there.

But £8 is a one off. It's not the equivalent to £72 an hour, because there are not those tasks, so it is £8. Or £8 a day or whatever. £8 a week.

And then the regular work - 63336 or whatever. Well 63336 pays regularly. In that you can work when you want for as long as you want. And you'll earn - but if there's not the work (much of the time) you won't earn anywhere near minimum wage. And Leapforce does pay well, but you must be prepared to do the work when it is there (which I guess is like any real job - you can't go and get a job in a clothes store and choose to work 7pm-11pm, because the shop is shut and they don't have work for you then. But the issue with Leapforce etc is that it is irregular, and not guaranteed.

But I think many other people want to actually earn substantial amounts from home, without actually doing the work they'd have to do if they were employed out of the home.

See, I don't think it is possible to just work for one company offering work from home opportunities and expect to make some decent money.
If I just do stuff for Valued Opinions I am never going to get anywhere. But if I combine VO with eDig, Market Force, WhatUsersDo, and Field Agent I can fully expect to bring in a good couple of hundred each month without any trouble

Yeah, agreed. But you need to be quite organised to remember them all, do the work for each when it's there, etc.

 

[busybusy]

Certainty pays a big factor in my opinion.
If your income is bread and butter money rather than the jam on top then most people would opt for a job with a regular wage and a contract, even if the hourly rate is lower, and most of these are offline opportunities.

 

[DillyBloss]

I just think there are too few genuine opportunities around for homeworking. There are of course lots of scams, but even if you are lucky enough to find a genuine homeworking job the pay is more often than not pretty awful. I dunno what the answer is really.

 

[Jon]

I just think there are too few genuine opportunities around for homeworking. There are of course lots of scams, but even if you are lucky enough to find a genuine homeworking job the pay is more often than not pretty awful. I dunno what the answer is really.

Which ones do you think have an awful pay attached to them?


btw I'm not counting clicksense and those sort of sites cos well, they aren't really 'online work'

 

[Janine8023]

I'm currently on maternity leave but have pretty much decided that I'm going to work for myself rather than go back to my very well paid job. However, once I factor in childcare costs for 3 children, petrol costs for a 40 mile round trip, bought lunches, not being able to shop at Aldi, etc etc. I find that I'm only maginally better off going out to work.

However my husband has now decided that he wants to home work.... So he is quitting his job in January!!!!!!! We are mad.... But hopefully we'll be happy, less stressed, eating healthier, seeing the kids more, seeing each other more, and remembering that the best things in life don't cost money. We've worked out we need £2000 a month to pay the mortgage, bills, food, car. But have no budget for holidays and luxuries. Maybe we won't need holidays because we'll be living the dream....

I know we sound mad, but if it doesn't work after 6-12 months we'll go back to our regular jobs. Life is simply too short to stay in a job that makes you unhappy. It is a lesson I have unfortunately learnt this year.

 

[Jon]

I'm currently on maternity leave but have pretty much decided that I'm going to work for myself rather than go back to my very well paid job. However, once I factor in childcare costs for 3 children, petrol costs for a 40 mile round trip, bought lunches, not being able to shop at Aldi, etc etc. I find that I'm only maginally better off going out to work.

However my husband has now decided that he wants to home work.... So he is quitting his job in January!!!!!!! We are mad.... But hopefully we'll be happy, less stressed, eating healthier, seeing the kids more, seeing each other more, and remembering that the best things in life don't cost money. We've worked out we need £2000 a month to pay the mortgage, bills, food, car. But have no budget for holidays and luxuries. Maybe we won't need holidays because we'll be living the dream....

I know we sound mad, but if it doesn't work after 6-12 months we'll go back to our regular jobs. Life is simply too short to stay in a job that makes you unhappy. It is a lesson I have unfortunately learnt this year.

I am FASCINATED about how this is going to turn out...