Beth Furness August 24, 2020

Data entry jobs often qualify as the best freelance jobs because of their flexibility and freedom to work from anywhere. Moreover, you also have the ultimate freedom to choose your timings, be it weekdays, weekends or even working part-time. The data entry jobs often require little to no training and one can plugin into this occupation fairly easily. Let’s discover how to start earning online through data entry jobs!

What is a Data Entry Job?

Data entry jobs can be referred to as clerical jobs that involve the process of adding data into computers by the use of audio or typing commands. On a higher level, it also involves transcribing audio files or meetings, coding insurance forms, scanning the documents as well as transferring PDF files into Word files or vice versa. Hence, a data entry job is a process of transforming data from one form to another one.

While performing the data entry jobs, you are often expected to handle a number of electronic devices as well as paper or electronic files that are used to enter the data. Typically data entry jobs do not require previous experience per se, but a diploma degree in any field and a good typing speed. 

The payment mode for data entry jobs can be defined on the basis of per project, hourly rate keystrokes per hour, word or per minute. Usually, the payment rate is defined as per the typing speed and hence, the faster one can type and enter the data, the more likely he/she can earn.

Types of Data Entry Jobs

The scope of data entry jobs is quite wide and all you need to do is to ensure accuracy and speed while entering the data or transforming the data from one form to another. Though all may have not been discussed here, let us shed a light on different types of data entry jobs:

General Data Entry Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs are quite common and often you are expected to attain a typing speed of 20-30 words per minute. Some of the notable general data jobs are as follows:

  • Plain Data Entry Jobs – This includes typing data into the Microsoft Word or Google Docs file by reading the data from a PDF or paper copy. 
  • Basic Data Entry Jobs – This includes typing the data into cells of the Microsoft Excel or Google Sheet from a PDF or paper copy.
  • Typist – Also referred to as Word Processor, this includes drafting email bodies, letters and reports to name a few. Hence, this job requires an understanding of the technical stuff, proper formatting, grammatical as well as syntax rules.
  • Data Cleaning – Also referred to as Data Scrubbing, this includes detecting and removing errors from the database, table or a plain document.  

Some of the home-based data entry jobs are explained in detail in this video.

Online Data Entry Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs are free from the restriction of office space and require just a laptop or PC and a reliable WiFi connection to carry out the operations. Some of the notable online data jobs are as follows:

  • Online Form Filling – This includes entering the data from a list of huge data sheets or documents into the online form’s fields very carefully so that you do not end up messing with the data. 
  • Online Surveys – This includes filling the online forms through answering a set of questions. This hardly takes 5-15 minutes and often is required by the companies who rely on PR and customer-based testimonials.

Micro-data Entry Jobs

This concept of data entry jobs are relatively new in the market and includes completing the micro-data entry jobs or the Human Intelligence Tasks (HIT) created by the owners. Some of the notable micro-data jobs are as follows:

  • Captcha Entry Jobs – This includes entering the numbers, alphabets, alphanumeric data or selecting the right images within the Captcha fields. 
  • Copy & Paste Jobs – This includes copying the data from a source, be it a plain Word document or an Excel sheet, and pasting it into another one. 
  • Captioning – These jobs are rare to find and often require intellectual yet creative thinking to write captions or headings for the news, image or banner in general. 

Data Formatting Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs are often more about formatting the written data than entering or typing the data in. Some of the notable data formatting jobs are as follows:

  • Formatting & Editing Jobs – This includes formatting and edit the written data and thereby, spotting & correcting the grammatical as well as syntax errors. 
  • Reformatting & Correction Jobs – This includes formatting and correcting an already written data, long forms or documents, such as adjustments regarding alignment, layout and font size to name a few. 

Files Conversion Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs require converting files from one format to another. Some of the notable files conversion jobs are as follows:

  • Image-to-Text Data Entry Jobs – This includes reading the data from images and typing that data into a plain Microsoft Word or Google Docs, which can cover from simple English to hard technical terminologies.
  • Audio-to-Text Data Entry Jobs – This includes converting data from an audio file to the text-based documenting while listening to the audio file at the same time. This requires great listening skills as well as a great hold on native accents.

Woman working on a laptop

Miscellaneous Data Entry Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs require data entry via the help of the internet. Some of the notable miscellaneous data entry jobs are as follows:

  • Online Data Capturing Jobs – This includes capturing the data from various internet resources, such as e-magazine, research publications or eBooks.
  • Email Processing Jobs – This includes processing hundreds of emails, categorizing them and entering the excerpts into an Excel or Google sheet.
  • Database Updating Jobs – This includes updating the existing database and adding new entries as well to the various fields within the database.

Data Entry Keyer Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs require data entry into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) based Softwares. Some of the notable data entry keyer jobs are as follows:

  • Catalog Data Entry Jobs – This includes reading the data from a database and entering into various fields of online or offline software. 
  • Payroll Data Entry Jobs – This includes entering the data into various fields of any offline or online database or paper of a particular organization.
  • Web-based System Data Entry Jobs – This includes entering data into the web-based system as read from different product catalogs, belonging to legal departments or insurance claims. 

Data Entry Clerks Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs require data entry into an offline register or online software and is somewhat similar to Data Entry Keyer jobs. Some of the notable data entry clerk jobs are as follows:

  • Hospital Jobs – This includes entering the patients’ records and reports into the hospital’s dedicated software or an Excel sheet. 
  • Municipal Jobs – This includes entering the data into Municipal office’s records, such as legal documents, birth certificates and town records to name a few.

Medical Data Entry Jobs

These kinds of data entry jobs are one of the toughest jobs and require transcription skills. Some of the notable medical data entry jobs are as follows:

  • Medical Transcriptionist Jobs – This includes listening to audio files and converting them into text-based documents. This requires you to be aware of the medical terminologies and jargons for efficient work.
  • Medical Coding Jobs – This includes converting the diagnosis records, procedures and medical services into alphanumeric codes. 

Tools & Skills You may Need for Data Entry

There are certain skill sets that you are required to have when looking into a data entry job.

Although the job itself may sound easy but proficiency and accuracy cannot be compromised in data entry jobs. 

Some of the basics but important skills that you must possess are:

  • Typing skills – The first and foremost important thing to focus on is your typing speed. If you are slow in typing you will not be able to earn much from the job. Not only you have to type fast, but you also have to type the data correctly so you need accuracy as well. There is plenty of software and typing games that help improve your typing speed and accuracy. 
  • Listening skills – When typing in the data from an audio source, one must have an absolute grip over their listening skills to insert the right data. If you cannot apprehend the audio data you will end up doing a poor job entering it. 
  • Grammar and Vocabulary skills – Listening skills can only go in your favor if you have a firm grip around grammar, vocabulary, punctuations, spellings and sentence structures. All these things are equally important for your sentence to make proper sense. 
  • Computer skills – Basic knowledge of computers and some of the software is important. You should know your way around some of the essentials tools that are most popular in data entry jobs

Data entry can be a handful if you do not know how to use essential tools for it. While there are many tools used for this purpose, some of the important ones are as follows:

  • Microsoft Excel – Everyone is familiar with this tool and you might have studied about it back in your schools as well. It is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft to input data and for their calculations. It also offers graphing tools, pivot tables and Visual Basic for applications, all of which can be significantly used in data entry.
  • Microsoft Word – MS Word is popular in data entry jobs that require an input of the data in the form of text.  It helps in pointing out your grammatical mistakes too so that you can formulate correct sentence structures. 
  • Google Docs –  Google Docs is a web-based word processor that helps in formatting texts and paragraphs through its smart editing and styling tools. It is one of the major tools used in data entry because of its online availability. 
  • Google Sheets – Google sheets is also another online service by Google which works as MS Excel. It is a web-based spreadsheet that can be used to input data from audio, text, pdf or printed papers. 

The use of Google tools for data entry is evident and the only leverage that they have over Microsoft tools is their online availability. Although, many who are working from home are still fond of Microsoft tools for data entry jobs as they have no problem working offline and delivering their project later when they are done with it.   If you struggle to find your way to the right tools and skills, you can learn more about them by reading our blog post about the ultimate guide about essential tools. 

How Much You Will be Paid? 

Depending upon your typing skills, experience and work hours, your pay can vary. Here is how probably you are going to get paid:

  • There are companies that pay about $0.60 to $1 per audio minute. If you are a beginner and you do not have that pace of typing, you can still earn around $100  monthly on average. 
  • If you are a pro and have a good typing speed you will have no problem earning up to $200 monthly from data entry jobs. 
  • Working as a part-timer, you can also get assignments of long audio calls and can earn up to $20 for an hour of audio.

The payment of data entry jobs is mostly dependent on the duration of audios or key per strokes. It is not based on your working hours because a pro can finish a job in an hour that a newbie will do in 2. So you have to work on your data entry skills to earn more in less time spent. 

How to Start Working with No Experience?

As a starter, you may need to lower your wages if you want to work as a freelancer. There are several platforms that offer gig work but the competition is quite high and everyone is offering their skills at different wages. If you want to get through them and want to build recognition for yourself in this area, you will be better off starting with lower bids.

Here is how you can start your journey in data entry with no prior experience:

  • Start working as a freelancer – Before you get a full-time job for data entry, you need to develop your data entry skills through freelance projects
  • Pick a platform. There are thousands of platforms that you can go with and it is always good to have several options. Some of the good options are:
  • Setup a strong profile – Once you pick your platform, set up your profile and describe your gig work. 
  • Set lower rates – Set comparatively lower rates than others. Lower wages will attract customers faster. 
  • Promote your gig work – You will not be getting leads in hand at the beginning level even with lower rates if no one finds out about you. Promote your gig work on different platforms. Let people know what you have to offer. 
  • Setup a PayPal account – Around the globe, most of the payments are made via PayPal. It is a common medium of payment among the businesses. Make sure you have a PayPal account for a smooth payment method.
  • Research your customer – There are thousands of people looking for data entry services but not everyone pays upfront. Some of your customers can give you a hard time and some are even scammers. Therefore, always do a background check of your customer. If you are looking to find out how to start working freelance data entry work, you can look it up on our blog post about starting work as a freelancer. 

 Data Entry Courses & Education

The data entry job covers a lot of areas itself. From transcribing to listening skills, you have a lot to learn if you want to get professional at it. There are thousands of online institutions that are providing online courses to teach you the very core skills you need to master for data entry jobs. Some of them are free and some of them will cost you a little. While some of the important courses you need to take are as follows:

  • Typing lessons –  To increase your typing speed and accuracy.
  • Keyboard tutorials – To learn and master the keys of QWERTY keyboards.
  • Listening courses – To improve your listening abilities so that you can pick words in a single go and you do not have to repeat audio back and forth. 

Here is the basic data entry video tutorial for beginners to get them started.

Some of the websites that are providing online data entry courses are:

  • Typing.com – Typing.com provides free online typing courses that a beginner should look into. It can help improve your typing skills significantly. 
  • Udemy – Everyone is familiar with Udemy when it comes to online courses. It has over thousands of data entry courses and some of them are for beginners and are quite reasonable in prices. 
  • The Typing Cat – A platform that trains newbies and enhances their typing skills by providing free courses and training sessions.
  • Coursera – Coursera is an online platform that allows you to join them for free. It offers various courses on data entry in spreadsheets that teach you how to delete and edit different types of data. Initially, it provides free trial videos and then you have to pay for lessons. 
  • Alison.com – Alison is a great platform for those who want to become professional data entry keyers. It offers some of the great diploma courses that are enriched with thorough knowledge of data entry skills and tools. You should definitely look it up if you want to polish your data entry skills and earn as much as other professionals are earning. 

 5 Best Data Entry Jobs for Beginners

Although there is quite a scope for data entry jobs in offices, at the same time many organizations offer work from home and freelance work for those with the right set of expertise in data entry. There is a wide range of positions that you can get for a data entry job based on your skills and preference. However, below are some of the favorable jobs for everyone in this field:

  • Literably – Literably is a service where you can help transcribe documents to earn some extra cash. You listen to students read, transcribe what they are saying and highlight errors. They pay around $10 per hour, but will pay you per transcription.
    • Pay – per recording transcribed
    • Experience – not required
    • Payment method – PayPal 
  • Amazon’s Mechanical Turk – Amazon Mechanical Turk provides small tasks related to not only data entry but other areas too. It usually does not pay heavy but it does not require any experience for the tasks which is a bonus point for beginners to improve their data entry skills and earn something out of it.
    • Pay – $1 per task
    • Experience – not required 
    • Payment method – PayPal
  • Clickworker – Clickworker is an open online platform for everyone that allows anyone from anywhere to work on little projects regarding data entry. They pay under a dollar for every task achieved. You have to be registered with them before you get started. 
    • Pay – Under a dollar for a task
    • Experience – not required
    • Payment method – PayPal
  • Survey Junkie – Survey Junkie is another online platform that provides data entry and survey job opportunities freelancers. You complete tasks and earn points that can be redeemed for cash or giftcards.
    • Pay – points based system (you have to earn a minimum of $5 worth of points to get a payout)
    • Experience – not required
    • Payment method – PayPal or giftcards
  • Scribie – Scribie offers data entry jobs to those who are looking for home-based work and to freelancers. They have limited tasks and they hire on a first come first serve rule. For every hour that you spend on transcribing data from audio files. It pays you $10 for it. 
    • Pay – $10 per hour
    • Experience – not required
    • Payment method – Weekly via PayPal

If you are good with words and you are looking for jobs, you can get a head start on our blog post about freelance writing jobs. 

 5 Highest Paid Data Entry Jobs

Thousands of platforms are bringing home-based work opportunities for transcribers and data entry clerks. However, not everyone is paying handsomely. Some of the good platforms that are paying quite alright for data entry jobs are:

  • SigTrack – The platform generates opportunities for data entry clerks but those who are living in the US only. Their basic task is to process the data from voting polls and petitions and input it on a sheet. No prior experience is needed and for starters, they can earn as much as much time they are willing to spend doing this work. 
  • Scribie – Scribie hires freelancers and gig workers who are looking for typing related work. You have to type audio and video files that are not lengthier than 6 minutes. For every working hour, it pays $10.
  • Axion Data Entry Services – Axion is a great platform that provides work opportunities for independent contractors working as typists, transcribers and data entry clerks. The company offers long term contracts to experienced workers and pays quite handsomely. 
  • Capital Typing – Based in South Carolina, Capital Typing is a huge business that offers transcribing, translations and customer care services. It has many departments for data entry jobs and hires independent workers who are looking for home-based data entry jobs. It is one of the companies that pay high to freelancers working as transcribers. 
  • DionData Solutions – Not only this company hires people for home-based typing jobs, it trains them too for better proficiency. Although, it does require a high typing speed of at least 60 words per minute which is achievable if you practice. Its payment methods are not discussed online but word has it that it pays alright for every document that you complete. 

If you want to know more about online jobs that you can easily do from home, check out our blog post on work from home jobs.

Work from Home Tips for Data Entry Jobs

Data entry jobs can be easily performed at home. Although, it can be tricky at times if you do not follow the right procedures. Here are some tips to give you a head start:

  • Have a noise-free environment at home so you can correctly hear the audio data.
  • Moving the cursor up and about on-screen can be time-consuming. Use hotkeys. 
  • Learn to multitask. You should be able to hear and transcribe the data at the same time. 
  • Increase your typing speed by practicing in off-duty hours. 
  • Play typing games to increase proficiency. 
  • While using excel, use the excel data entry form to make it easier. 
  • Autocomplete the data that you have already inserted by typing the initials of the data and by pressing the tab.
  • Excel can actually speak out loud the data you are entering. Make use of this function and get excel to speak so that you know you are typing in the right data. 

Looking for easy to do home-based online jobs? Find them here on our blog post on easy online proofreading jobs. 

 Data Entry Jobs FAQ

 Is a data entry job hard?

Data entry jobs are quite easy in comparison to other jobs. However, without having the right skills and knowledge, these can be tricky too. 

 What skills are needed for a data entry job?

Some of the basic skills that one can need for a data entry job are typing, listening, computer and technical skills, communication and multi-tasking.

 Are home based data entry jobs real or fake?

There are thousands of home-based data entry job opportunities lying around the internet that are reliable. However, there are many scams as well which is the case with every other job. All data entry jobs listed on Appjobs have been qualified.

 Who are the best-outsourced data entry providers?

Among many data entry providers, some of the common platforms are, Upwork, Fiverr, Microweb, Hitech and Habile Data.