There is a growing skepticism about home based data entry jobs. The fears are often justified. Many people have been scammed more than once with such job offers.

So can you earn with home based data entry jobs or not?

Of course, you can! But any amount you earn with such jobs will depend upon your skill set. In any event, it is better to keep expectations of earnings from such jobs at reasonable levels.

Contemporary Data Entry Assignments

There was a time much of the “data entry work” was offloaded to data entry operators, be they business or home based operators.

But over the years, nature of “data entry jobs” has changed dramatically. Traditional “data entry jobs” have nearly gone into oblivion.

The question “can you earn with home based data entry jobs” is heard most frequently only from those familiar with conventional “data entry jobs”.

This is because most of the contemporary data entry jobs require special sets of skills now and new terminologies are used.

The good news is that such jobs can also be quite rewarding.  Effectively, those who are interested in such jobs need to equip themselves with additional skills to remain employable and earn decently from this field.

---

Here is a list of data entry work from home that are around as of now.

• Captcha Entry jobs

These are perhaps the lowest paying “data entry jobs”. The person needs speed and accuracy in typing.

The captchas are used to prevent computer programs from accessing the site.

Different sets of captchas are created randomly and these are tallied in sequence in accordance with which one of the members or visitors keyed it in.

One of the popular captcha sites is megatypers.com. On an average people can earn anywhere between 3 dollars to 75 dollars each month working on it.

---

• Simple data entry

There are several books and manuscripts that are being transformed into digital format. Their content requires a considerable amount of accuracy and the work is time bound.

The books are first converted into PDF, JPG, or similar formats, before sending such formats across for typing.

The required skill set for this job is again confined to typing with great speed and accuracy, i.e., the typing speed higher than 30 words per minute.

The payment in this type of “data entry job” varies as per the complexity of the content. Therefore, textbooks that contain complex data and require more effort in superscripts and subscripts may actually fetch more.

But this type of data also needs to be fed in a specific format and is, therefore, entered in a proprietary software.

This is also where the scope for scamming people comes in as the requestor implies that the software program installation costs are being collected.

Since earnings are often reasonable from this type of “data entry”, people seem more willing to invest for getting longer term returns.

Some of these sites, however, are genuine, even if they seek investment, deposit, or fees initially.

.

In many cases though, people lack accuracy or are unable to complete the assigned job work. People are not allowed to offload. Such contracts seem perfectly designed to make the person give up working.

Data Entry Through Freelance Sites

There are, however, a few contractors who offer such jobs on reliable sites such as Upwork.com, Elance, Fiverr, mturk, and Freelancer.  These sites collect money upfront from a client and keep them in Escrow accounts.

Only when the content is approved, the amount is released to the worker.  Such an arrangement gives the person working also a chance to ask for a review of his or her work if it is being unfairly turned down.

Therefore, it is always better to go through data entry from home jobs sites and bid for the work rather than pay money as investments, registration, etc., and be duped.

---

• Forms     

This requires practice and earnings only increase over time. Basically, the requester installs a proprietary package or software in which there would be some forms.

The person entering the data would be given the required information in a different file, and the data would have to be filled in correctly.

Sometimes the work is copy paste assignment as well, in which the person would be copying and pasting the data from a data file into the appropriate blank fields in the form generated by the proprietary software.

The skill set required for this job is slightly more advanced because here, the person has to read, analyze, and type or paste the information correctly.

As mentioned above, there are reliable sites such as Freelancer and Upwork.com from where such jobs can be taken up.

---

Accounts Data Entry

Luckily for “data entry operators” such jobs are around since accounts statements are not necessarily in agreement with what the bank has in its records.

The bank can err, and so can the accountant. Therefore, these jobs will be around for a long time.

Most organizations maintain records of checks being issued every day without recording them in accounts. Similarly, there is the need for invoices to be recorded or receipts being recorded.

This is again a bookkeeping job so some knowledge of bookkeeping becomes necessary.

The data is usually entered in software tools specified by the client, and the client forwards the bank register, or invoice register for necessary posting into accounts.

The pay is more, but these jobs are not easily given to just anyone because of privacy concerns.

<<See Where I Make Money Online>>

---

• Correcting or Reformatting Content

This type of data entry assignment includes different types of assignments such as

• correcting English,
• reformatting the content to make it easy to understand or present it sequentially,
• formatting content to fit in specified space be it page or box, etc.

The skill set required includes knowledge of English and/or the package or software tool for with the content needs to be tailor-made.

The payment is definitely reasonable, but jobs may require the person to undergo a few tests relevant to required set of skills.

---

• Transcriptions

This forms a major chunk of “data entry jobs”. Transcription may be of movies or television content. The most common transcription format is the medical transcription.

Basically, it requires the person to hear, and type. Accuracy is important as is command over English and ability to type.

It is one of the highest paying home based data entry jobs but requires special equipment at the end of data entry operator, i.e., headphones.

---

• Captions

Many of the sites and blogs use pictures on the Internet and these require captions. Such jobs are also needed for movies, or video recordings.

A good command over English is needed apart from knowledge of the software package in which such caption is to be entered.

The payment matches the skill set as at times captions may be related to professional content such as those used in medical journals.

What To Watch Out For When Taking Home Based Data Entry Jobs

Be careful when:

• You are asked to pay a substantial amount of deposit or registration fees for accessing the job. If the person wants you to do the job, there is no reason why he or she cannot offer the tool free of cost.

At the most, the investment from your end should not be more than half month’s income promised by the job.

• You see something too good to be true. Nobody is going to pay you a substantial amount for ordinary typing these days. So if somebody is offering even $3 for typing a page, it means you need to check with others who are already doing the job whether they are getting as much from this client.
• You are not confident about the workload. There is no reason for the requester to offload more workload than is normal.
  

  ---

Conclusion:

There is a definite expansion of the field with new activities such as transcriptions and captchas becoming very common.  Simple data entry is on its way out, but the quantum of captions work has increased in the meanwhile because of growing number of websites and video content.

It is obvious that knowing merely typing and being able to perform data entry work from home will not be sufficient in future to look at these opportunities for supplementing income.

Chances of being scammed in jobs that require higher skill sets are lower and correspondingly emoluments are higher.

Therefore, if anybody asks “can you earn with home based data entry jobs”, my answer will still be yes, if the person understands what the words “data entry jobs” mean today.

---

You can still make money with home based data entry jobs but to make money online with data entry, you need contracts so this way of making money online is not guaranteed, with affiliate marketing, you sell other people’s products from your website. It starts with a free website at Wealthy Affiliate