Forums were made to be a platform where people can share ideas and thoughts on certain topics. However, sometimes it tends to be chaotic. Thus, the need for a work at home forum moderator to ensure everything remains in order.
Forum moderators are in-demand. While some companies opt to hire people to do the job onsite, others would rather choose to work with freelance or work at home forum moderator. That is why we are going to particularly talk about the latter choice – after all, we want to share with you as many work from home options as possible.
Interestingly, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, it has been found that “84% of Internet users or about 90 million Americans have participated in online groups“. They used the “used the Internet to contact or get information from a group“.
Furthermore, the report says that 79% of these people “identify at least one particular group with which they stay in regular contact“.
So, given these facts, it only means that forums are indeed being used by a lot of American people (and even people from other parts of the world) not only to socialize or connect but more importantly, to acquire necessary information.
Now, while these forums are essentially helpful, unfortunately, since they’re composed of different people with different personalities and thoughts, they’d sometimes become chaotic – and that is when a forum moderator enters the picture.
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When you own a forum, as much as possible, you want to attract more people to visit and join the forum, and keep a friendly and orderly atmosphere for everyone. Now, the only way to do that is to have a forum moderator whose main job is to put an order in the forum.
As mentioned earlier, forum moderators are in-demand. While there are companies that hire people to work onsite, others opt to hire work from home forum moderators.
With so much going in the country and in the world right now, we won’t be surprised if more companies will opt to hire a work at home forum moderator to do the job. Needless to say, more forum moderators will surely choose the work from home setup given the fact that going out these days is crucial and risky health-wise.
That being said, today, we are going to share with you everything you need to know to be a work at home forum moderator.
In particular, we are going to talk about the following:
- What is a forum moderator?
- What are the duties and responsibilities of a forum moderator?
- Who qualifies to be a forum moderator?
- How to become a forum moderator?
- How much does a work at home forum moderator make?
- Where to find work at home forum moderator jobs?
WHAT IS A FORUM MODERATOR?
First of all, we got to define what a forum moderator is.
For some people, they may already have a clear picture of what a forum moderator is all about. However, technically speaking, what is a forum moderator really?
When you search over the internet, you will find a lot of different definitions, but ultimately, they’re just the same from one another.
Basically, a forum moderator is someone whose main role is to oversee communication activity in an online forum.
As a forum moderator, your job is to monitor the exchange of contributors and makes decisions regarding content and the direction of threads you are handling.
You are in charge of keeping these threads or discussions organized — sometimes you even have to move discussions from one section to another just to keep everything in order.
To ensure there are friendly discussions when someone in the forum becomes hostiles or starts attacking another person who’s also part of the forum, the forum moderator does have the discretion to lock the discussion to prevent further heated interchanges.
As a forum moderator, you have the power to decide on how a discussion goes depending on the situation or how the interchanges are. You are responsible to ensure that all forum guidelines and rules are followed by participants, otherwise, you have the call to decide what happens next.
In the next section, we are going to share with you a more detailed list of the duties and responsibilities of a forum moderator.
To put it simply, though, a forum moderator facilitates discussions and keeps everything organized and in order, also she ensures all forum guidelines are followed by all forum participants.
WHAT ARE THE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A FORUM MODERATOR?
As mentioned above, in this section, we are going to share with you the important duties and responsibilities of a forum moderator. This way, you get a glimpse of what you are expected to do if hired for the said job (especially if without previous similar work experience).
As a forum moderator, your duties and responsibilities include:
- Facilitating Discussions
- Keep Discussions in an Orderly Manner
- Thematic Control
- Content Relevance
Facilitating Discussions
The primary function of an online forum moderator is to promote interaction among participants of a forum. As a moderator, you have to encourage friendly exchanges of thoughts and ideas from the members of the forum. After all, forums were made to provide a platform for people to do interchanges on a particular topic.
Keep Discussions in an Orderly Manner
As mentioned earlier, as a forum moderator, one of your major roles is to keep everything in order and organized. You have to see to it that there is order during discussions. You have to ensure that all participants or members of the forum are acting and behaving with courtesy.
To ensure everything stays in an orderly manner, forum moderators share the forum rules or guidelines to everyone and make sure they follow. Otherwise, the forum moderator has the power to sanction a forum participant or member.
Thematic Control
Normally, a forum usually comes with a specific theme or topic. As a forum moderator, you have to ensure that the discussions among forum members stay within the thematic parameters. Otherwise, if the forums seem to be straying away from the theme or topic, the moderator comes in and guides the discussion back to the theme or topic.
Content Relevance
As a forum moderator, you have the authority to determine the content of a forum you are moderating so that it stays relevant. As a moderator, you can edit the content of the discussion, move any contributions to a different page if it is not directly relevant to the topic, and in some cases, you can even delete contributions that are totally off the topic.
In addition, it is also part of your job to protect the integrity of the discussion by getting rid of contributions that are illegal or unlawful like copyright infringements as well as defamatory statements.
If you want to know more about working as a work from home online forum moderator, here’s a very insightful video by WorkersOnBoard:
WHO QUALIFIES TO BE AN ONLINE FORUM MODERATOR?
So, you already what a forum moderator is all about – this time around, we are going to tackle the requirements for the job are.
Surely, every company or client does have its respective list of qualities they are looking for. However, some of the most common qualifications they look for include:
- Excellent communication skills
- Strong organizational and multitasking skills
- Excellent knowledge of online legal issues
- Handles pressure excellently
- Strong knowledge and understanding of online community platform moderation tools
- Problem-solver
In addition to these qualifications, we’d like to include that to be a great online forum moderator, you must have the ability to:
- Encourage forum members or participants to feel comfortable in sharing information to the group
- Pinpoint responses (whether it be positive, negative, or neutral) that require explanation to make the most of their value to the client
- Mediate when forum members or participants get into heated arguments over a certain topic
- Discern between a valuable insight and an irrelevant contribution in the discussion
Again, as mentioned, every company does have their respective requirements. While some may require previous experience, others welcome even newbies. Thus, it is best to check the requirements set by the company or client you are eyeing for before you even hit that apply button. That’ll totally help you save a lot of time and effort.
HOW TO BECOME AN ONLINE FORUM MODERATOR?
First of all, you have to take into consideration that online groups, chats, and forums do not function the same way. They are totally different from one another. That is why it is important to be familiarized with the platform first before anything else.
Familiarizing yourself with the different platforms will surely be a big advantage if you want to land an online forum moderator job. Having technical knowledge is definitely a must.
Also, it would also help to immerse yourself in different online forums and groups. Be a member, participate, be active, and learn how things go. As a member of an online forum or group, make sure to maintain a neutral, positive voice at all times.
Unlike other online jobs, to land a work at home forum moderator does not require a specific degree or license, or anything like that. Anyone can be considered for the job provided you are knowledgeable about it.
By the way, when it comes to acquiring knowledge, there are a lot of resources online. Crash courses related to the job may also be available.
Ultimately, to become an online forum moderator, you got to look and apply for the job. Later on, we are going to share with you some sites you can check for possible work at home forum moderator gig.
HOW MUCH DOES A WORK AT HOME FORUM MODERATOR MAKE?
According to Glassdoor, the national average base pay for a forum moderator in the United States is $16 per hour. Depending on your experience and expertise, it can go as low as $11 per hour up to as high as $25 per hour.
WHERE TO FIND WORK AT HOME FORUM MODERATOR JOBS?
As earlier promised, in this section, we are going to provide you with a list of some of the companies or sites where you can land a work at home forum moderator job. This includes the following:
- BabyCenter
- CrispThinking
- ICUC
- JobVite
- Khoros
- Live World
- Metaversr Mod Squad
BabyCenter
As stated on their website, BabyCenter is “the world’s partner in parenting”. It is the number one pregnancy and parenting site that reaches over 51 million moms and dads from all over the world.
BabyCenter is the perfect choice especially if your interests include pregnancy and parenting.
Unfortunately, BabyCenter does not hire on a regular basis, but they do look for online forum moderators from time to time. To see if there’s a vacancy, all you need to do is go visit their site and check the “Jobs” section.
By the way, the site particularly prefers hiring forum moderators with a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree.
CrispThinking
Crisp Thinking is a company that “provides 24/7/365 early-warning risk intelligence as a service for leading brands, global enterprises, and social media platforms”.
The company was established in 2005 by an online gaming and social media entrepreneur named, Adam Hildreth.
Crisp Thinking particularly hires forum moderators for social media accounts. According to reports, Crisp forum moderators could earn $10 or more depending on experience and expertise.
To check for possible job openings for the said position, just head on to their site.
ICUC
ICUC is a company that has “pioneered community management services in social spaces” even before the prevalence of social media.
The company follows a remote/virtual structure, which is why it is not surprising that the company is one of the options if you want to work as a work at home forum moderator.
Similar to other companies/sites on our list, you may head on to the company’s website to check available positions particularly as an online forum moderator.
It is important to note though that only interested applicants living in either Canada or the United States can take advantage of the community moderator or forum moderator position.
What’s nice about ICUC is that it is open even to those without previous experience in this field because they provide training anyway.
JobVite
As stated on its website, JobVite is “leading the next wave of talent acquisition innovation with a candidate-centric recruiting model that helps companies engage candidates with meaningful experiences at the right time, in the right way, from first look to the first day”.
Unlike other companies on our list, JobVite hires forum moderators on a temporary or contract basis.
To be considered for the position, you have to have excellent verbal and written communication skills.
If you think you have what it takes to be one, all you have to do is go visit their site to see if there’s a vacancy for an online forum moderator posts.
Khoros
Khoros was born because of the merging of two of the industry’s leading customer engagement platforms, Spredfast and Lithium.
Khoros caters to helping its customers to “develop trust and connections with their customers”.
When hired as a community moderator, you will be working on the different online communities that Enterprise Companies manages for its clients.
Unfortunately, the company requires previous experience for the position, which obviously means newbies should consider applying to other companies instead.
Live World
LiveWorld help companies in terms of improving their customer and patient experience by “sparking dialogue and strengthening relationships across the digital landscape”.
Because of the company’s nature of the business, they constantly hire community moderators — just head on to their company website to check its current vacancies.
With LiveWorld, you do not need previous experience to be considered for the job. So, this becomes a great opportunity for those new to this line of work.
Metaverse Mod Squad
Metaverse Mod Squad, although based in the United States is an international digital engagement services company. This company is probably the go-to of every aspiring forum moderator.
Metaverse Mod Squad constantly hires online forum moderators. In fact, it currently has more than 10,000 moderators in its network.
To be accepted for the job, however, you have to meet certain standards, which include: excellent communication and interpersonal skills, should have the ability to communicate with people of different cultures and from all walks of life, must have excellent time management and organizational skills, the ability to multi-task, should be proactive and self-driven, and many more.
While it is not disclosed on their website, online forum moderators working for Metaverse Mod Squad could earn as low as $8 per hour or higher depending on your qualifications and the place where you live in.
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT BECOMING A WORK AT HOME FORUM MODERATOR
In one way or another, most of us have gone through or have stumbled upon an online forum – not necessarily to converse with forum members but just to look for some information.
Forums, as mentioned earlier, are everywhere across the online world. It serves not just as a platform for people to share thoughts, ideas, and relevant information, but for some, it is their source of living.
Every forum requires a forum moderator, otherwise, it would be chaotic and irrelevant. Good thing is, there is a lot of company that actually look for people for the job. As mentioned, as a moderator, your job is to put an order in a forum or discussion and to ensure everyone is following the guidelines set.
So, if you think you have what it takes to be one, go ahead and take a chance. Who knows, you might just be the right one for the job.
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