15 Online Jobs for 50-Year-Olds in 2020

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Working online means more work-life balance and flexibility, which is desirable for everyone — especially 50-year-olds. But are there any online careers available for them?

Here are the best online jobs for 50-year-olds:

Writer
Teacher
Seller
Transcriber
Graphic Designer
Virtual Assistant
Accountant
Marketing Specialist
Social Media Manager
Translator/Interpreter
Editor
Therapist
Data Entry Professional
Website Designer
Customer Service Agent

These jobs have two things in common — they all benefit from more life experience, and they can be done online by 50-year-olds. Find out how to get into these careers, what you’ll need, and more by reading on.

1. Writer

Writing was not always a lucrative profession, but with the growth of the internet and the increasing need for content, writing has become a respectable career. The best part about it is that there are so many options within the field that you will certainly be able to find one that suits you.

In general, to get into this career, you will benefit from having a Bachelor’s Degree, although it’s not required. As a matter of fact, experience and a good portfolio will trump any school in this case. But how do you build a portfolio?

The easiest way is to start looking for work. You can draft several posts on the topic of your liking and use them for starters. Investing in a professional website is also a good idea, but you should wait until you get a few clients.

Start looking for jobs on freelancing platforms. These jobs won’t be paid a lot, but they will give you something to put in your resume. After you collect a few of these projects, start looking for more serious options. This is a good time to create a website.

Becoming a writer is not easy, and it will take a few months to earn a full income, but the more experience you have, the better it will get. And there are a few career opportunities within writing.

Here are some of them:

Blogging

Blogging may not be as easy to monetize as it used to be, but you still have a good chance to create a solid business with it if you do it properly. A decade ago, you would have been able to write just about anything, stuff it with some keywords, and earn money from ads. However, algorithms have improved, and now they require more quality.

Creating a successful blog will take some time and effort, so don’t quit your job just yet. Start it as a side gig and work on it consistently. Create specific, useful blog posts about a narrow topic and invest in marketing.

Technical Writing

This is a pretty wide field, so you’ll have a lot of options. Technical writers can create anything from blog posts to web page content, non-fiction ebooks, white papers, official documentation, etc. And there are numerous niches, ranging from healthcare to lifestyle.

Every business or website needs a writer, so there are plenty of jobs out there. You’ll need to find a specific niche to write in and become an expert at it. This will give you a solid portfolio and plenty of job opportunities.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the most lucrative of all writing careers. Depending on the type of copywriting you choose to do, you could be earning a lot. However, this one takes more work and some talent for selling.

The whole point of copy is to sell, although it may not always be direct. For instance, PR statements or white papers are not directly selling, but they do have an end goal of selling. You could write email copy, website copy, landing pages, direct mail, etc.

It’s a fun and dynamic field.

Other Writing Fields

There are many other niches you can work in as a writer. You can be a magazine or news writer — although you might need a degree for this — you can write resumes or essays, recipes, storylines for games, scripts for videos or movies, etc.

If you always wanted to be an author, this is also possible. However, it’s not that lucrative without a fan base or a traditional publisher. But this doesn’t mean that you should stop writing fiction; it just means it’s not a good career option immediately.

2. Teacher

While you do need a formal degree to teach in brick-and-mortar schools, most online tutoring services won’t require this. Starting from the most basic things, you can teach English to students overseas. Moving further, you can become a tutor in anything you know well. For instance, if you were an accountant, you can tutor accounting.

All you need to do is find a good service that connects students and teachers (such as Coach.me for instance) or start your own website where you would offer these services.

Furthermore, you can offer courses online. Let’s say that you’re an expert in marketing — you could create several courses about several different areas of marketing and earn an income from that. There are numerous services that stream courses — Udemy, Coursera, etc.

Courses represent more of a passive income, and they should generally be presented by someone with a website, a blog, or an ebook on the subject, but all of these are generally easy to obtain.

3. Seller

Ecommerce is booming right now, and it’s no wonder so many people are doing it. There are several ways you could become an online seller and earn a respectable income. For one, you could sell your own crafts.

Whether you make clothes, accessories, art, or anything similar, you can sell these things easily through Etsy, Shopify, and similar services. Generally, you’ll need to invest some money upfront to create a nice website and include nice pictures, but the returns could be great. Of course, there are quite a few logistics to figure out — shipping, pricing, security of your site, etc. You’d need to invest some time beforehand as well, to get the hang of all of this.

Next, you could do dropshipping, which is really popular at the moment. The principle is simple, although it has a learning curve. Basically, you would be selling someone else’s products online without needing storage.

Finally, you could sell things on Amazon. In general, you’d want to find products at one price and sell them at a slightly higher price on Amazon. This will also take some learning beforehand.

There are courses online that you can find in each of these niches, so make sure that you understand them well before trying your hand.

4. Transcriber

Transcribing won’t require much knowledge, money, or time — all you need to do is type quickly and be a good speller. There are usually services that connect transcribers with clients, so you could try one of those.

Depending on your experience and skills, the pay could be enough to provide a steady income. You can also look for work on your own by creating some samples, doing some quick freelance work (for the resume), and reaching out to people who may need it.

For example, podcasts with their own websites usually need transcribers, so they can also use their podcast speech or interview as a blog post. YouTube video providers may need it, too, to provide captions and make their work more accessible.

5. Graphic Designer

If you’ve always had a knack for drawing, this may be a good career path for you. Naturally, it will take some practicing and getting used to various programs, but it pays well, and it’s interesting to do.

There are several fields of graphic design you could enter.

Logo and banner design
Infographic design
Social media/email/sales pages design
Character illustration for games

There are many more, of course — it just depends on which area works best for you. Also, you may start in one but develop your skills to do something completely different. If you love art, this is a good career option.

Other Online Jobs For 50-Year-Olds

The online world is full of opportunities. If none of the mentioned jobs seemed like a good option for you, take a look at some of these jobs:

Virtual Assistant
Accountant
Marketing Specialist
Social Media Manager
Translator/Interpreter
Editor
Therapist
Data Entry Professional
Website designer
Customer Service Agent

Conclusion

Some of these online jobs for 50-year-olds may require a bit of learning, but they are all worth it in the end. They provide a steady income and plenty of opportunities for growth. A good piece of advice, in this case, is to find a good course on any of these subjects that you are interested in and do your best to learn as much as possible before looking for a job. Good luck and let us know how it all went!

15 Online Jobs for 50-Year-Olds