Data-Entry Jobs are among the most popular Work From Home opportunities for online employment. In this article I will share proprietary research and show how data-entry jobs are so popular and why. Data-Entry Jobs online are among the most sought after positions for work from home. I know this to be true for these 3 reasons: i) As CEO of Home Office Careers I am in a unique position to see the real time demand from our thousands of members seeking jobs, ii) using the keyword difficulty tools from MOZ, I was able to determine that data-entry jobs is one of the top 5 most frequently searched careers on Google & Bing search engines, iii) the search engine ads used for Home Office Careers in Google Adwords and Microsoft Bing marketing accounts, receive more impressions than most other career industries.

The following 3 data points explain why Data-Entry Jobs are among the Most Popular Work from Home Opportunities;

1. Home Office Careers offers job concierge and career guidance services to its members in addition to providing personalized customer service. These 3 features provide great insight into exactly what home office workers are looking for. Over recent months we have been keeping track of the job seeker demand for our various types of jobs. Very frequently we have inquires for data-entry jobs, more so than most other types of work from home.

1. Data-Entry Jobs, is one of the top 5 most searched keyword terms on Google. I came to this result by doing keyword frequency searches in the MOZ pro marketing platform. This tool shows how frequently keywords are used on searches in Google. By testing all of the major job categories, (like those featured on Home Office Careers Job Search page), through the keyword difficulty tool, I discovered the keyword term “Data-Entry Jobs” were among the 5 most searched career opportunities.

Keyword difficulty results for Google using MOZ research tools;

Human resources jobs   18,100

Customer service jobs     18,100

Accounting Jobs               18,100

Data entry jobs              14,800

Marketing jobs                  12,100

• Home Office Careers proudly works with Microsoft’s Bing advertising and Google’s Adwords. These companies provide Home Office Careers with the ability to create ads which are featured throughout their search engine results. For example, if you went to Bing or Google search and you type; “data-entry jobs”, you will likely see the ads for Home Office Careers. What we have discovered, is that there are more impressions for the keyword terms, “data-entry jobs”, than there were for other career opportunities with similar keyword bids.

Over the last 30 days, (October 2015) in Adwords and in Bing;

The top 5 most ad impressions for a specific job category:

Google             Bing

Data entry             447,741       262,725

Customer service 172,628        573,424

Admin & Clerical  151,860        225,915

Healthcare              42,371           310,221

Marketing              47,325            160,719

The results from our ads is not a direct indication of Adwords overall keyword potential for each career category, and there are other factors with our marketing account that affect these results, such as; the quality score, the amount we are bidding per keyword and our competitors. But with that being said, there is a clear sign of high demand for data entry opportunities compared with dozens of other career categories.

Why are Data-Entry Jobs so Popular?

In my opinion, based on the research and based on over 10 years working in the career industry, the reason is more based on job seekers perception of the data-entry jobs than is the reality of the work itself. In other words, people search and request these jobs because they think they are easy and good to have. Whereas, the reality is, there are not many of the easy data entry jobs available and most others are part of another industry, like data entry for healthcare or the legal field.

Job seekers search for data-entry work because they hope it will be an easy, mindless job, copying data. While we do have jobs like this at Home Office careers, we find that most data entry opportunities require some experience and industry knowledge. Compared with other beginner’s jobs, like online customer service or writing, we see fewer data-entry job posts by employers. So with very high demand and less supply, needless to say, these opportunities get filled quickly.

I was surprised to find that data-entry jobs are among the most popular work from home opportunities. The average salary is only $34K a year based on Simply Hired’s salary calculator, and I would imagine much of the daily duties of these roles, is somewhat repetitive and boring. I was expecting writing or media jobs to be the more popular work from home opportunities.

What are Data-Entry Jobs?

Data Entry workers enter information into computers so offline information can be stored and accessed digitally from anywhere. WiseGeek.com makes a good point that most data entry work does not require a post-secondary degree for most roles, but being fast at typing and being detail oriented is helpful. The most common fields for these positions include the healthcare and medical industry, finance, legal, retail and information industries.

The healthcare industry is a well-known source for creating data-entry opportunities. Any information that originates on either paper, like doctor’s notes, or patient information forms, gets added to digital information systems on computers. Medical offices and hospitals must digitize their patient information, thereby creating a constant demand for these types of workers. Getting certification for medical coding and transcription is recommended, as it is any easy and relatively inexpensive certification that should surely payoff in the long run. Experienced medical coders and transcriptionists frequently go into business for themselves, building virtual medical transcription businesses that can be lucrative.

The financial industry has many different categories, but more specifically the sectors in finance that have data-entry positions include; accounting, banking, mortgages and just about anything where people fill out forms in writing that need to be digitized for the financial institution. Once the information is added to a database in the computer, different branches and departments can access the information.

The legal industry has a demand for legal transcriptionists whose duties include entering verbally recorded information from; meetings, mediations, arbitrations, depositions and more onto the digital system. Like the healthcare or financial industries, legal information needs to be stored and accessed by computer. The legal transcriptionist facilitates these services.

The retail industry deals with a lot of products that need to be digitally inventoried and managed. However, in retail many goods are delivered with paper invoices and records, that need to be entered into the retailers system, typically to have the items SKU number be registered to the POS (point of sale) system, so when the cashier rings up the items during checkout, the item will be recognized by the POS and added to the customer’s bill. Depending on the sophistication and digital infrastructure of the retailer, will depend on what is needed to be entered from one company to the next.

Information based businesses like consulting companies that perform offline surveys and market research use data-entry workers to input offline consumer polls into a database where the information can be organized into meaningful reports. Consultants and reporters use these reports to help guide businesses or inform and educate the public through news.

While some industries have more demand for this position than others, almost every type of business has at least some data or information that is offline, on paper or audio recording that needs to be input online where it could better managed, accessed and stored. The best example of this is a typical business’s accounts receivable and payable. When a business receives a check, or sends a check, this information typically gets entered into an accounting program on the businesses computer, this is true for most businesses small or large.

Where can Data-Entry Jobs be found?

The best place I recommend for finding data-entry jobs is the same advice I give for finding any job, and that is; on the employers’ websites. That may seem obvious, but most people don’t think to look for jobs on hiring companies’ websites, and understandably so – because how would a job seekers know which companies website to begin with, there are millions of businesses, how is one to determine who has the availability. I always advise job seekers, that if they have the time, research the ideal companies you would dream about working for, and then go to their websites and look for their career page. While this technique may be time consuming, it could pay off with you landing your dream job.

If you don’t have a lot of time to research your favorite brands’ career pages for your ideal home work opportunity, then you should check some of the major career websites, notably the job aggregators like Indeed or Link Up, this way you can see posts from multiple career sites in one shot. If you are looking for a work from home opportunity, be sure to include keywords in your job search like; telecommute or work-at-home or remote position, so that your results are relevant. The convenience of a major job aggregator like Indeed or Link Up, is that they pull listings from companies’ websites, not from other job boards. These sites are helpful for finding onsite positions, but not so helpful when searching for home-office positions. The reason for this, is that the big career sites are only using software to create the job search results. They match keywords in the job posts to the keywords used in your job search request. Unfortunately this tends to create a lot of results that are not highly relevant or real work-at-home positions.

If you are unable to find data entry work through your own research or through the major reputable career websites, then you should consider using a specialized work-at-home career service like; Home Office Careers, to help you find that perfect ‘at home’ position. What sets Home Office careers apart from the big career sites, is that a manual, human screening process is used to verify positions for relevancy and quality instead of software performing keyword matches.

Gaining home-office or remote employment for data entry jobs is much more difficult than getting an onsite position. While some recruitment professionals recommend temp agencies and job placement companies, I never recommend these services because a large percentage of your income goes to the hiring agency instead of you. Or, the hiring agency passes their large fees onto the employer which is not good for your long run chances with the employer.

Data-Entry Scams and phony business opportunities are common for this industry. I think, that fact, into itself, is yet another indication of the huge popularity for these remote positions. In other words, you don’t hear much about work scams in industries with little popularity, like analysts or translations. When is the last time you heard a warning about work at home analyst job scams? Probably never – the point is an industry is especially popular when the scammers attempt to come in. To avoid falling for a data-entry job scam, use common sense, make sure the positions are being offered by a reputable business that you can easily learn more about online. If you have found a position online but you are unsure if it’s a real opportunity, then please contact us at Home Office Careers and our verification team will gladly screen the opportunity for you for free.

In summary, data-entry jobs are among the most popular work from home opportunities for online employment. While I am personally a bit surprised by the results of my research, I understand why these positions are so popular. Beyond the obvious easiness of many of these roles, there is an allure to this type of work, which is rarely seen in most industries. Watch out for the fake opportunities, if you are not sure about an opportunity that you have found online, the job researchers and customer support team at HomeOfficecareers.com will be happy to screen the position for you.

Data-Entry Jobs may be among the most popular work from home opportunities, but they are not the top industry. If you would like to read to about “The #1 Work from Home Opportunity”, then please subscribe to our newsletters.

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