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Online Work: How Do You Explain it to Others?

digitalbrew

digitalbrew

Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
127
My sister who's living far far away has always questioned my work since it's not exactly something you can place on paper. She does her best to trust in my decisions in life but there are still instances that I feel that she truly doubts my type of work.

Most people think working online is a breeze when in fact there are days that we end up working more than 12 hours a day. People will often doubt this until they see us face the computer longer than they do. Even then, they'd still assume that you're simply surfing.

Bottom line, how did you explain your work to others?
 
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I have the same problem. I just tell people that I am a freelancer and I do most of my work online. Sometimes I tell people that I have a small business. That seems to satisfy most people. I do have a part time day job, but my goal is to replace that income with strictly online ventures. By that time, I should me making enough with my online work that no one should question me. ;)
 
I don't really understand what exactly you're even needing to explain. Working online is pretty common, practically everything is done online these days. I find it odd that people would think you were surfing the net because you work online. If they don't understand the nature of being a freelancer, they are really behind the times.

I've never had anyone question my job or how much money I was making by working online. That seems quite rude to me.
 
I don't use my online work as my full time job, so I just tell people that I dabble in online work to make some extra spending money. I don't usually go much further into it than that.
 
I tell people that I am a freelancer and they think that means that they can call at all hours or stop by. It is really annoying at times. You wouldn't just stop by someone's work and disrupt them when they are doing their job so I don't see why they do it to me.
 
Jesserotica said:
I don't really understand what exactly you're even needing to explain. Working online is pretty common, practically everything is done online these days. I find it odd that people would think you were surfing the net because you work online. If they don't understand the nature of being a freelancer, they are really behind the times.

I've never had anyone question my job or how much money I was making by working online. That seems quite rude to me.
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You're pretty fortunate. At first, I told people that I was working online, they assumed that it wasn't "real" work. Like sillylucy, family and friends would drop by or ask me to run errands for them. I stopped answering my door and screened my phone calls.
 
I avoid going into detail about it honestly. I usually say that I freelance. I will tell them that I write for various sources, for example. If they push for more, I'll throw out terms like "social media expert" or "search engine optimization specialist" even when it's not true or exaggerated because they don't know what it means. It goes over their heads and it sounds important enough that they don't judge too much.
 
My children understand my work online. In fact, my youngest daughter who is just ten trusts that I'm making some money online. But my husband is not as easily convinced. He thinks that when I'm in front of the computer, I'm just surfing for entertainment and he'll feel neglected. He doesn't know that working online is much more difficult to earn a decent income than working at an offline job. So, I just don't go online whenever he's at home. I will only work online when he's not at home.
 
Parker said:
You're pretty fortunate. At first, I told people that I was working online, they assumed that it wasn't "real" work. Like sillylucy, family and friends would drop by or ask me to run errands for them. I stopped answering my door and screened my phone calls.
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Ah yes, you're too nice, lol. :) Everyone in my life already knows I'm not doing favors for anyone. :D
 
Jesserotica said:
I don't really understand what exactly you're even needing to explain. Working online is pretty common, practically everything is done online these days. I find it odd that people would think you were surfing the net because you work online. If they don't understand the nature of being a freelancer, they are really behind the times.

I've never had anyone question my job or how much money I was making by working online. That seems quite rude to me.
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I wouldn't really matter if it were just some other stranger but this is the sister who I was really close with.

She still doesn't understand the concept of working online. Heck, she even complained to our old sister what the heck I am doing with my life. Sigh, I guess she thinks I'm like our older brother who always kept on promising things but never actually did anything right.
Parker said:
You're pretty fortunate. At first, I told people that I was working online, they assumed that it wasn't "real" work. Like sillylucy, family and friends would drop by or ask me to run errands for them. I stopped answering my door and screened my phone calls.
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I'm on the same boat as you. My sister who isn't as techy has no understanding of how people earn online. In fact, someone asked me how I get paid. It just shows that the traditional way of earning is still believed as the only way. My brother-in-law used to ask me to do errands for him but now that he sees how I work, he'd often ask me if I have free time before he asks something of me.
 
My husband wasn't so sure about working online. HOwever I think this December when we're using my online money to pay for 100% of our cruise I think he'll be ok :)
 
I usually don't try to explain. People don't seem to understand and do think that all we do is surf. I don't understand why though because sitting in front of the computer is pretty difficult on it's own. I'm 21 so when I tell people that I work online everyone just assumes that I'm lazy and that I'm not doing anything at all. It's pretty frustrating, but I've started to not care. It really is not anyone's business what I do or how I do it. I just tell them I have a job, and if they ask anything else, I tell them I don't want to get into it and change the subject. I'm pretty hot-tempered so it works pretty well for me that people are afraid to annoy me :D
 
Quirky Jessi said:
I avoid going into detail about it honestly. I usually say that I freelance. I will tell them that I write for various sources, for example. If they push for more, I'll throw out terms like "social media expert" or "search engine optimization specialist" even when it's not true or exaggerated because they don't know what it means. It goes over their heads and it sounds important enough that they don't judge too much.
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Those are a few awesome terms. When I tell people that I am a writer they kind of roll their eyes. I like the term, "search engine optimization specialist". It does make you feel important lol.
It is tough to sometimes explain yourself to others. I feel like I'm on the computer for hours on end when I am working and my husband is always saying, "you're still on your computer?" I think many people just think that I am playing around on it.
 
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dashboardc33 said:
Those are a few awesome terms. When I tell people that I am a writer they kind of roll their eyes. I like the term, "search engine optimization specialist". It does make you feel important lol.
It is tough to sometimes explain yourself to others. I feel like I'm on the computer for hours on end when I am working and my husband is always saying, "you're still on your computer?" I think many people just think that I am playing around on it.
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Oh I know that feeling. I'm not just goofing off, though. And it's especially bad when they can see me having interesting things up on my screen. I know that sounds silly, but if I have a strange news article up or a funny picture....it doesn't matter that I'm using it in an article or forum post....they immediately think that I send around looking through lolcats and videos all day long. :(
 
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