Data entry clerks type for cash. They also do other clerical work and office related activities and duties. I’m the first to admit that the work I do from home doesn’t benefit anyone but me, my family and my fans but I’m not apologising or making any excuses. The best thing about working from home is not having to answer to anyone. If I sleep in and start work late I am not hurting anyone but myself so I don’t have to make up excuses or act obsequiously. I just get on with the job at hand and do my best to catch up.

There is a lot more to life than just finding a job and talking about it at social gatherings. You should see the looks on people’s faces when I tell them I post articles on blogs for a living. They are generally both astounded and gob-smacked. Most of them have never heard of a data entry clerk who plies his trade from home. I never ask someone what they do for a living because I don’t think it should be an important factor in judging a person’s character. I’m more inclined to ask them what they do for fun. You should hear some of the answers I get!

When I chose to be involved in a home based career I was blissfully unaware of the risks and pitfalls that would eventually present themselves. How you deal with setbacks defines you as a business owner and, as most data entry operators know, dealing with setbacks can be a daily occurrence. My favoured method is to use the ‘ignore it and it will go away approach’ which has kept me in good stead up until this point. People who enter data for a living tend have an innate ability to shift focus one problem to another in the blink of an eye. What was I talking about?

I’m pretty fussy when it comes to when and where I’ll work. I don’t want a part time job and I don’t want to be working in the evenings. I don’t want to drive to my place of employment; I want to wake up there. My frustration at not being able to find a legitimate home based job on the internet led me to create my own occupation and I chose being a data entry operator for one very good reason. I can type quickly and accurately so it seemed like the most logical choice I could make at the time. Entering data may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it sure is mine.

Everyone knows it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. I’m not a woman but I reserve the right to back flip occasionally. I really feel sorry for anyone looking for an internet based job at the moment. Trying to find a part time data entry job must be like looking for a raisin in a bucketful of cricket heads. Sometimes when I’m entering data it feels like I’m trying to push a square peg through a round hole but sometimes it just flows like a river to the sea. Someone asked me recently if I’d prefer to work full time down in the mines or part time as a data entry operator. I smiled coyly and told them the latter appealed more.

If I lived in Melbourne I could’ve watched Australia beat England in the rugby league world cup game at the Telstra Dome last Sunday. I may as well stay here though. I can watch the footy on the television and internet anyway. After I’ve entered some data I like to read back over it to check I haven’t made any major mistakes. I’ve started to notice a distinct drop in quality with my writing. I’ll need to address that as soon as possible if I want to keep making a living by performing data entry from home. I guess the main thing I need to worry about is quantity. I need to just keep churning out the words.

One day I’d like to travel around Australia, entering data as I go. People would point at my brightly coloured van and say something about how cool I look. I would stop every so often and type a blog post on my laptop computer and publish it next time I had access to the internet. Would I be Australia’s first mobile data entry operator? I don’t know and to tell you the truth, I don’t care. My main concern at the moment is being able to pay for life’s necessities like rent and chocolate.