Work at home jobs for the chronically ill can be a lifeline when illness makes it hard to hold down a regular office job.
As someone who is chronically ill from an autoimmune disease, holding down a job has sometimes been very difficult. There have been days, weeks, or even months when I couldn't work due to overwhelming fatigue or pain that was disabling.
That's why I started a side business, in the hopes it would eventually become a full-time income and give me the flexibility I need in my life to care for myself. As part of my business, I want to help other chronically ill people be able to support themselves. That's why I put together this list of work at home jobs for the chronically ill.
The jobs in this list allow you to earn a living from the comfort of your own home using a computer, an internet connection, and perhaps a phone. Since these jobs can be worked from home, they can also be considered jobs for the disabled as well.
Contents
Assessing Your Skills
Before you start looking for a new job or source of income, you need to honestly assess your skills and home environment to make sure a work from home job is right for you. You should ask yourself questions like:
- Can I work autonomously, with little direction from a manager?
- Do I function well without a lot of structure?
- Are there too many distractions in my home that will keep me from being productive?
- Do I have good time management skills?
- Do I have the necessary technology and services to work from home, like a computer, internet connection, and a phone?
- Would I miss the social aspect of working in an office with others?
The answers to these questions will give you a good idea if working from home will be a good alternative for you. If it is, you should then list all your skills that might be applicable to the work you want to do. As you're making your list of skills, some questions you might ask yourself are:
- Am I a good writer?
- Am I artistic?
- Am I good with my hands?
- Do I have a hobby that could be made into a business?
- Do I have good people skills?
- Do I have good phone skills?
- Do I have good computer skills?
- What am I really passionate about?
- What am I really good at?
- What type of help do people come to me for?
Work at Home Jobs For the Chronically Ill
In this day and age of technology, there are many different types of work at home jobs for the chronically ill. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but enough to give you a good idea of what's available. There are other ways to make money online, like surveys and micro jobs, but they often don't pay very well. I decided to stick with what I thought were the top three ways to earn the best living from home.
Freelancing
If you have a talent, like writing, copy editing, web development, video editing, or graphic design, there are many sites that make freelancing easier. One such site is Upwork.com. Simply sign up, fill out your profile, and start searching for projects that interest you.
Here are some freelancing sites to explore:
- Chronically Capable (Job board specifically for the chronically ill.)
- Textbroker (for writers)
- Fiverr(For any talent, really. Can you make videos? Do voice overs? Write? Make logos?)
- Freelancer.com (mostly for technical jobs)
- Outsourcely.com (design & multimedia, web development & programming, administrative support, customer service, sales, & more)
- Guru (just about any category including engineering, architecture, and legal)
- We Work Remotely (variety of job categories)
- OnSite (by invitation only. You'll have to provide a portfolio of work and be approved.)
- DesignCrowd.com(for graphic designers)
- 99Designs.com (for graphic designers)
In addition, if you have office or administrative assistant experience, you could consider becoming a virtual assistant. With the boom in online entrepreneurs, there are many that need help expanding their businesses.
Make & Sell Your Own Products
In addition to advertising your talents and looking for freelance work on the sites listed above, if you are good with a camera or with graphic design, you can create your own photos, graphics, and products. Here are some ideas.
- Take photos or make videos for stock photo sites.
- Design graphics and put them on products such as t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, stickers, and more at sites like Zazzle and CafePress.
- Knit, crochet, paint, sculpt, or build items and sell them on Etsy.
- Create printables and sell them as a digital download. They could be anything from journal pages, goal tracking worksheets, wedding invitations, and more.
- Write an ebook on a topic you are knowledgeable or passionate about and sell it online.
- Create an online course to teach people about a topic you're knowledgeable about.
Creating your own products can take more time and effort than freelancing or affiliate marketing, but it often pays off more, especially if it's a digital/online product because your inventory is basically unlimited. If you sell a digital product, you can automate the entire system to take payment and deliver the product without ever involving actions from you. It can be a great source of passive income.
Affiliate Marketing
Probably one of the best work at home jobs for the chronically ill is Affiliate Marketing. It's also one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to make an income online. Affiliate marketing is when you partner with a merchant website to promote their products and services in exchange for a commission if someone purchases through a tracking link provided by the merchant.
You don't have to:
- hold any inventory
- deal with customer payments
- deal with refunds or exchanges
Your merchant partner handles all that. You just recommend products to your visitors and send them to your merchant partner through your affiliate link.
All you need to get started is a website and social media accounts. You may be tempted to sign up for free web hosting services, but I've “been there, done that” and I can tell you your business is then at the whim of the service provider. They can restrict your resources, delete your content, or whatever they want because you're not a paying customer. Plus, a website url like yourwebsite.someoneelseswebsite.com just doesn't look very professional.
Spending a few dollars a month to make that website your own is worth it. I have used KnownHost for over 6 years now and am extremely happy with them. They have the best, most responsive tech support I've ever dealt with and I've been running websites for over 24 years.
There are so many tutorials online showing how to set up a website, so don't get nervous if you're not a technical person. As I develop this site, I'll be adding some tutorials myself, so stay tuned.
Beware of Time Wasters
There are some ways to make money online that require more time and effort than they actually pay. I've seen these listed on other sites as recommendations for the chronically ill or disabled. These include survey taking and micro jobs. Yes, you can make money at them, but generally you're not paid what your time is worth. I know, I tried some of this when I was unemployed for 20 months.
I would find it extremely difficult to actually make a living doing that kind of work and I suspect you would too, which is why I won't recommend them here.
In Conclusion
There are so many more opportunities for workers with chronic illness and disabilities than ever before. You CAN find a way to make a living that fits your life and limitations, whatever they may be. Just keep looking for it.
I hope this article gave you some good ideas for work at home jobs for the chronically ill. If this article helped you, please leave a comment below and be sure to share it with others you know that it might help.