Careers Finding a Job How to Work at Home in Online Data Entry Share PINTEREST Email Print Finding a Job Work-From-Home Jobs Job Searching Internships By Laureen Miles Brunelli Laureen Miles Brunelli Laureen Miles Brunelli is an experienced journalist with more than two decades of experience in the field. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 11/20/19 01 of 05 Everything You Need to Know to Get Started in Online Data Entry funduck/iStock Data entry is a field in which the work-at-home paradigm keeps changing. Online data entry work has become much more prevalent as companies hire independent contractors based all over the world. Often these data entry operators remotely access a company’s infrastructure and work in much the same way their office-based counterparts did. However, the rise of crowdsourcing technologies allow companies to parse out data entry into small tasks spread across a larger workforce. Workers log on to a system, and instead of being assigned a whole project, they choose one tiny entry or verification task and typically receive a tiny payment. 02 of 05 What Is Online Data Entry? Getty Images At its most basic level, data entry involved operating equipment that inputs data into a company’s system. What equipment is used (most often a keyboard) and what types of data (alphabetic, numeric, or symbolic) as well as where the data is coming from, often an image or audio file, can all vary. Home-based transcription jobs, though similar, often require more experience and speed. Some data entry operators might work for micro labor outfits that use crowdsourcing techniques or for more traditional data entry companies, which are often business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. What Kind of Data Entry You Can Do From HomeHow Data Entry PaysWhere to Find Data Entry JobsHow to Spot a Data Entry Scam 03 of 05 How Data Entry Pays Getty Most home-based data entry jobs are for independent contractors rather than employees (which means there is no guarantee of minimum wage), Data entry compensate workers using a variety of rate structures, such as: Hourly wage (rare) Per-piece (common in crowdsourcing operations) Keystrokes per hour or keystrokes per minute Per-word So while data entry jobs are less likely to give speed tests than transcription jobs, if you are not fast you will not earn much. Read more about how data entry jobs pay. What Kind of Data Entry You Can Do From HomeHow Data Entry PaysHow to Spot Data Entry ScamsWhere to Find Data Entry Jobs 04 of 05 Data Entry Scams Mutlu/Getty Images Work-at-home data entry is a field particularly rife with work-at-home scams. Legitimate companies will not charge fees to work for them. You should never have to cash a check or wire money. Be very careful of any company selling a “business opportunity” in data entry. Read more about data entry scams so you can be prepared to tell the legit operations from the scams. However, companies that may not be scams may still not be good opportunities to make money. Data entry is a low-paying field in general, and some companies may pay so low as to make it not worth your time. You could end up just making a few cents for a lot of work, so you have to be careful. Read more about how home-based data entry jobs pay so you can be prepared to find the best opportunity. What Kind of Data Entry You Can Do From HomeHow Data Entry PaysHow to Spot Data Entry ScamsWhere to Find Data Entry Work 05 of 05 Where to Find Legitimate Online Data Entry Work To find legitimate data entry job leads, see these companies offering online data entry work. Additionally, the companies on these lists may offer similar work: BPO Jobs From HomeGlobal Work-at-Home JobsFind Micro Jobs These profiles of popular work-at-home data entry companies include information on salaries, the application process and the type of work available. Axion Data ServicesClickworkerDionData SolutionsQuicktateScribieVirtualBeeWorking Solutions