6 Best Work From Home Jobs In 2020

If you have been hunting for a real, practical list of work-from-home jobs that don’t require a degree, a trust fund, or three years of prior remote experience, you landed in the right place. This post breaks down the six best work-from-home options ranked from a solid starting point all the way up to the one Alston calls his number one favorite way to earn online.

Every job on this list is something a regular person can start without quitting their current job first. Some pay you an hourly rate right away. Others take time to build but pay you long after the initial work is done. By the time you finish reading, you will know which one fits where you are right now and what a first step actually looks like.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear breakdown of all six work-from-home jobs, ranked from entry-level to highest income ceiling
Real numbers for customer support, web development, and social media marketing so you know what to expect
Specific platforms to use for each job (Fiverr, Thumbtack, Freelancer, Udemy, and more)
A look at the subcontracting trick that lets you do web development jobs with almost no technical work yourself
An honest breakdown of the drawbacks so you don’t get blindsided after you start
A decision framework to match the right job to your current skills and schedule
A path to figuring out exactly which online income stream fits your background with finder.platformproof.com

Job #6: Customer Support From Home

Customer support from home is the most accessible entry point on this list. Companies like Amazon and Apple, along with a wide range of healthcare organizations, hire remote customer service representatives to answer phones, respond to questions, and solve basic account issues. You do not go into a call center. You work from your living room.

Alston puts this at number six not because it is a bad job but because the income ceiling is relatively low and the work is repetitive. You follow a phone script. You answer the same kinds of questions on loop. He worked in a call center himself and describes it honestly: it is low-level, repeatable work. That said, low-level is not a knock against it. If you have a newborn at home, a family situation that requires you to stay close, or you just need something predictable and stable, customer support from home is a legitimate path.

Alston shares a story that stuck with him: he once had to add a newborn to an insurance form, called the company, and could hear the representative’s TV and dog barking in the background. That person was working from home, on a regular payroll, handling real customer calls. It is not glamorous but it is real, and it is available right now without a portfolio or a client list.

Job #5: Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is someone who completes tasks for other people or businesses remotely. Those tasks can include data entry, building spreadsheets, pulling together research, doing keyword research, managing email inboxes, scheduling appointments, or basically anything that the person who hired you needs handled but does not want to do themselves.

The best part about virtual assistant work is that you can do it from anywhere in the world. You are not tied to a time zone, a city, or a company headquarters. You pick up clients, deliver the work, and get paid. Platforms like Fiverr, Thumbtack, and Freelancer all have active demand for virtual assistants across dozens of categories.

Alston points out that being a VA does not require a high skill level. What it does require is organization. If you are juggling multiple clients, you need to be reliable. You need to deliver on time and communicate clearly. Someone who is organized and dependable can build a stable income here even with no formal background in business. The ceiling is higher than customer support because you can take on multiple clients and scale your hours in a way that a single employer does not allow.

Job #4: Social Media Marketing Agency

A social media marketing agency, often called an SMMA, is built around one core skill: running paid ads for businesses that cannot run them effectively on their own. Most often, that means Facebook ads. Sometimes YouTube ads. The business owner knows they need to advertise online but does not have the time or knowledge to do it well, so they pay someone else to handle it for them.

The pitch is simple. You approach a local business, explain that you can run targeted Facebook ad campaigns for them, and charge around $1,000 per month for the service. The client pays for the actual ad spend on top of your fee. Your job is to set up, manage, and optimize the campaigns. The reason this model works so well at scale is that you can replicate the same ad across multiple markets without those clients ever knowing.

Here is the specific example Alston gives: imagine you are running ads for dentists. You build a dentist campaign in Kenosha. You run the exact same ad in Minneapolis. You run it in Miami. You run it in Fort Worth. Each dentist has a completely separate customer base and geographic area, so none of them will ever see that you are running the same creative in multiple cities. This means you can serve five, ten, or fifteen clients with similar work structures rather than starting from zero every time you add a new account.

This job does require some customer service skills because you are managing ongoing relationships, not just doing one-off projects. You will need to build trust with clients, report on results, and sometimes have difficult conversations when a campaign underperforms. But if you know how Facebook ads work and you can keep clients happy, the recurring revenue model of an agency is one of the best income structures on this list.

Not sure which of these six paths fits your actual skill set?

Answer five questions and get a personalized recommendation at finder.platformproof.com.

Job #3: Teaching an Online Course

If you have a skill that other people want to learn, you can turn it into a course and sell it online. Alston mentions Udemy as one of the most well-known platforms but notes that Teachable is another option. You can also host your own course entirely, which means you set up a membership site and students log in directly on your own domain.

Hosting your own course has real advantages. You have more control over the pricing, the student experience, and the content updates. You can charge more than you would on a marketplace like Udemy, where race-to-the-bottom pricing is common. The tradeoff is that you take on the technical responsibility. When a student cannot access their membership at 3 in the morning, you are the one who gets the email. You are the subject matter expert, which means you are also the IT department unless you build a team around yourself.

What makes teaching an online course stand out is the ability to stack income streams on top of the course itself. Alston points to affiliate marketing as one example. Inside a course about any topic, you can recommend tools, books, or services that you use, drop your affiliate links, and earn commissions when students buy. You can also sell individual products separately or grow an audience around your content that opens up sponsorship, consulting, and other revenue opportunities. A single course can become the foundation for a much larger online business.

Job #2: Web Development

Alston has a background in web development and computer science, so this one carries some personal weight. He has profiles on both Thumbtack and Fiverr where he picks up web design work. On Thumbtack, when a small business owner posts that they need a website, he bids. When he wins the job, he talks to the client, figures out what they need, and almost always steers them toward WordPress.

The reasoning is practical. Most small and medium-sized businesses do not need a complex custom site. They need a clean storefront that tells visitors who they are, what they do, and how to contact them. WordPress handles that job well. Alston typically charges anywhere from $300 to $2,000 or $3,000 depending on the scope, and he can get a standard site done in a few days.

The real play, and the one that turns web development into recurring income, is the maintenance package. After delivering the site, he offers a $50 per month retainer. For that fee, he uploads a new image, keeps the plugins updated, and handles small tweaks. He admits that he makes it sound more complicated than it is, which is partly the point. Clients pay for peace of mind more than they pay for labor. A handful of these retainers add up to meaningful passive income that arrives every month without additional selling.

The subcontracting layer is where this gets even more interesting. Say a client wants a website and you quote them $800. You go to Fiverr or Freelancer and find a developer who will build it for $200. You hand over the specifications, collect the finished product, deliver it to the client, and pocket the difference. You never wrote a single line of code. This is a real business model, not a shortcut. It requires solid communication and quality control on your end, but it means the web development income path is open to people who understand client management even if they do not know how to code themselves.

Job #1: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is Alston’s number one pick, and he says so outright. The reason is simple: it is the only option on this list where you do the work once and can continue to get paid from it for months or years afterward. Every other job on this list trades time for money in some form. Affiliate marketing breaks that pattern.

The model works like this. You pick a niche, a subject area you genuinely enjoy or know something about. You create content around that niche, whether that is YouTube videos, blog posts, social media content, or some combination. Within that content, you recommend products or services that are already solving the problem your audience is trying to solve. You drop a link. When someone clicks and buys, you earn a commission.

Alston uses a memorable example to explain it. Say you build a channel or blog about basket weaving. People come to you because they want to learn new designs, see how you work, and pick up tips. You put a link in your video description: “If you want the exact basket weaving blueprint I’m using, click the first link.” Because those viewers are already interested in basket weaving, a portion of them click. Some buy. You earn a commission. You made that video once. It sits on YouTube or on your blog, gets found by new viewers every week, and keeps generating clicks and commissions without you doing any additional work.

Affiliate marketing also opens additional income streams on top of the commissions themselves. If you have a YouTube channel, you can monetize with ads once you meet the platform requirements. If you write blog posts, display ads show up around your content and pay you based on traffic. One piece of content can generate affiliate commissions, ad revenue, and lead traffic to your email list or course all at the same time. This is why Alston returns to affiliate marketing more than any other topic on his channel.

Honest Drawbacks of Each Option

Every item on this list has a catch. Customer support gives you stability but little income growth and no ownership. Virtual assistant work depends on keeping clients happy, and losing a big client can wipe out a significant chunk of your monthly income overnight. A social media marketing agency sounds simple but results are never guaranteed, and a bad month for a client means a difficult conversation for you.

Teaching a course takes real upfront time to produce and you may spend weeks building something that does not sell. Hosting your own membership site adds technical overhead that many people underestimate. Web development at the freelance level is competitive, and clients often come with unclear expectations that lead to scope creep unless you manage contracts carefully. The subcontracting model sounds clean but it only works if the person you hire delivers quality work.

Affiliate marketing has the highest ceiling and the best passive income profile, but it is also the slowest to start. Most people who try affiliate marketing give up before they see meaningful results because content takes time to build an audience. If you need income in the next two weeks, affiliate marketing is probably not your first move. If you have six to twelve months to build, it becomes the most valuable asset on this list.

How to Pick the Right Starting Point for You

The right starting job depends on your current situation, not on which option has the highest potential. Here is a simple framework to use.

If you need income within two to four weeks and you have strong communication skills, start with customer support or virtual assistant work. Both have existing platforms where you can get hired quickly without a portfolio. If you know how to run Facebook ads or are willing to learn, social media marketing agency work gives you a faster path to four-figure monthly income than most options here.

If you have a skill that others want to learn, whether that is cooking, fitness, accounting, a language, or anything else, an online course lets you package that knowledge into a product. You build it once and sell it repeatedly. Web development is the right choice if you have any technical background and want a mix of active client income plus recurring maintenance revenue. Affiliate marketing is the best long-term choice for anyone who enjoys creating content and is willing to treat it like a business for at least six months before expecting significant returns.

You do not have to commit to just one. Many people start with customer support or VA work to cover immediate expenses while building an affiliate marketing channel on the side. The income from the day-to-day job funds the time it takes to build the long-term asset.

Find Your X

Six jobs, one ranking, and a lot of variables. The fastest way to cut through the noise and find the option that actually fits your skills, your schedule, and where you want to be in twelve months is to go through the free recommendation tool at finder.platformproof.com. Answer five questions and get a clear, specific direction instead of another list to think about.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need any experience to start customer support from home?

Most companies that hire remote customer support agents provide their own training and phone scripts. Prior experience in customer service helps but is not always required. Amazon and Apple, for example, regularly hire people with no formal call center background. A quiet workspace and reliable internet connection matter more than a resume with specific experience.

How much can a virtual assistant earn starting out?

Entry-level virtual assistant rates on platforms like Fiverr typically start around $10 to $15 per hour, though specialized VAs who handle things like social media management or executive scheduling can charge $25 to $50 per hour or more. Rates depend heavily on the type of tasks you offer and how many positive reviews you accumulate. Starting lower to build reviews and then raising rates is a common approach.

How do you get your first client for a social media marketing agency?

The most direct path is reaching out to local businesses in your area or in a specific niche you understand. Restaurants, dentists, chiropractors, and gyms are common starting points because they have local customers and a clear need for visibility. Alston’s approach is a straightforward offer: a flat monthly fee to manage their Facebook ads, with the client paying for the actual ad spend separately. Cold outreach by phone or email, or through local business Facebook groups, is where most new agency owners find their first few clients.

What platform should I use to sell my first online course?

If you want to start quickly without technical setup, Udemy or Teachable are both reasonable starting points. Udemy handles the marketplace and drives some organic traffic, though it also means competing on price with thousands of other courses. Teachable gives you more control over pricing and your student list. If you are comfortable with WordPress and a membership plugin, hosting your own course gives you the highest control and the best long-term economics, but it adds setup work upfront.

Can I do web development freelance work if I am not a professional developer?

Yes, if you understand how WordPress works and can set up and customize themes and plugins. Most small business websites do not require custom code. They require someone who can install WordPress, pick a clean theme, build out the pages, set up forms, and make the site look professional. If you cannot do even that, the subcontracting model Alston describes lets you manage the client relationship while someone else does the technical work. The key skill in that version of the business is clear communication, not coding.

How long does affiliate marketing take to produce real income?

It varies significantly depending on the niche, the quality of the content, and the platform. YouTube channels that target specific how-to or product review queries can see affiliate commissions within a few months. Blog-based affiliate sites often take six to twelve months to build enough search traffic to generate consistent income. The most common mistake is quitting after two or three months before the content has had time to rank or get shared. Treating it like a part-time job with consistent output is what separates the people who stick around long enough to see results.

Is it realistic to run a social media marketing agency and manage multiple clients at once?

Yes. The dentist example Alston uses in the video is a real and common SMMA strategy. Once you have a campaign structure that works in one city for one industry, you can replicate it in another market with minimal additional work. The campaign setup, the creative, and the targeting logic are largely the same. The clients never see each other’s campaigns. Some agency owners manage ten or more accounts this way. The bottleneck becomes client communication and reporting rather than the actual ad work.

Which of these six jobs has the best passive income potential?

Affiliate marketing and online courses are the two strongest options for passive income. With affiliate marketing, a video or blog post you published two years ago can still generate commissions every month from search traffic or YouTube recommendations. With online courses, you record the lessons once and sell them repeatedly without doing the teaching again. Web development maintenance packages offer a third, more modest version of passive income, where clients pay a flat monthly fee for light ongoing support. Customer support and virtual assistant work are fully active income with no passive component.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “6 Best Work From Home Jobs In 2020,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/VGOxxyVmrtc
Fiverr, freelance platform for virtual assistant and web development gigs: https://www.fiverr.com
Thumbtack, local service marketplace used to find web design clients: https://www.thumbtack.com
Freelancer, platform for virtual assistant and development project bids: https://www.freelancer.com
Udemy, online course marketplace: https://www.udemy.com
Teachable, online course hosting platform: https://teachable.com