How many times have you heard If it seems to good to be true it probably is. This adage holds true when applying for work online.  There are scams out there that is the reality.  There are also legitimate jobs working for companies that are home-based.  It takes work and flexibility to search for and land telecommuting employment.  Legitimate work from home companies will not ask you for money.  NO sign up fees, NO application dues, NO purchase of software products, NOTHING!

     Start your search by deciding what goals and skills you have.  Do you speak well over the phone; do you have bookkeeping experience or maybe you have a teaching degree you can dust off.  Once you decide what you are searching for the process can be streamlined.  For example if you only can work 3-4 hours per day a call center would be ideal.  Many call centers give you a block of hours from which to choose.  Are you home during normal business hours, then a virtual assistant position might be interesting to you. Keep your schedule needs and goals in mind while your searching.

    WAHM.com is an online magazine dedicated to those who work at home.  This is a wonderful site for two reasons.  One they have a job list where most of the listings are investigated for you and update daily.  The second is the support the message boards can offer.  Check it out for ideas or to find companies to apply to.

     I do not think job search websites like Monster.com are not very good at finding telecommuting companies.  When you search for telecommuting you end up with a lot of scams and network ads.  However they do seem to work well if you are a company looking for an employee.  Placing your resume on this type of sites so companies can find you.

Finally here is a list  of a few companies that hire home-based employees to get you started.

CALL CENTER

Alpine- access home-based customer service; $9 hr

accolade- IT home-based support full time desktop trouble shooting, resolve connectivity issues and support software applications. compensation based on knowledge and experience.

Customer Loyalty Concepts- home-based telephone inbound calls.

1-800-flowers- hires at home call agent on a tempory or permanent basis.

EDUCATION

etudorworld- Sales associates will work from home; flexible schedule promoting online personal tutoring services in math and science for school students in grades 5-12.

Connections Academy- “school without walls” is a virtual education program K-12 for certified teachers.

edufire provides a service of putting together students and Tutors.  Also provides online tools for tutoring and charges 15 percent commission on all fees collected by tutors.

Tutor.com connects student to tutors online; you must pass their certification and have a dree or be enrolled in a us or Canadian college

Tutorvista.com hires experienced teachers with graduated degrees for part-time or full time openings.

WRITING

Suite101 is an online magazine written by freelancers who are experts in many fields. Writers must submit 10 articles every three months. Pay based on ad revenues for their work.

Internet Brands: Internet media company that operates community and ecommerce websites in different categories.

Cherry Lane Music Company hires guitar transcribers, piano arrangers and educational music authors on a freelance basis.

CHA-CHA like a search engine with live work at home guides answering the questions pay per answer which is about $3-9 per hour.

MEDICAL

Humana- Choose work at home as the location in Humana’s careers database to find jobs ranging from nurse case managers, medical coders and chart auditors to licensed insurance reps and accounting consultants.

MedQuist career opportunities include professional, transcription, coding and support positions. Transcriptionists must have one year of recent work experience as a medical transcriptionist or must be a recent graduate of an AAMT certified transcription program.

Spheris-Company hires experienced medical transciptionists as well as trains people for entry-level transcription positions.

ACCOUNTING

Balance your books- Offering the “opportunity to telecommute,” accounting outsourcing firm hires CPAs, bookkeepers with experience providing A/P, A/R and payroll and sales staff

Bookminders- Accounting outsourcing firm hires home-based accountants and sales persons on a full- and part-time basis, offering benefits for some positions.

     With Internet job opportunities in full swing and the state of the economy in decline, many people are expressing interest in earning  money online.  There are many ways to do this from the comfort of your home.  One way is blogging. 

According to Wikipedia,  the definition of a blog (a contraction of the term “Web log”) is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Some bloggers just journal or blow off steam about whatever cause they are passionate about.  These types of blogs generally do not make a lot of money.  There are two ways to blog in order to make money.  One way is to inform or help readers with a problem. The second is review or discuss products.

     To get started you have to select and research a topic.  The easiest way is to choose a niche topic and write several articles concerning that topic.  Your knowledge  and/or interests can be a great source for niche topics for your blog.

Now there is a million and one ways in order to research a topic.  The world wide web (hehe!) offers vast amounts of information at your finger tips and a way to gain personal knowledge through forums and chats.  Your local library also is another source of great information and research.  Do not forget your family, friends, neighbors and your own personal knowledge.  Information is all around us just be open to it because it just might be your next post.

     After you research and write your article on the chosen topic, you need to publish.  Blogatize.com is a new and great place to start.  There are others blogging websites that you can use to search for blogs, such as problogger.com.

     There are two main ways to make money on a blog.  The first is  AdSense by google.  AdSense places ads on your blog, (look to the left).  This is a free program you  just sign up for an account and create unit codes.  Google will walks you though the process.  Another benefit is that Google will place ads on your blog using your niche topic.  This will help generate clicks.  You receive compensation for the number of clicks and per thousand ads shown.

     Blogads connects you to advertisers who place ads on your blog. You sign up for an account with them.

     The second way to make money blogging is affiliate programs.  You place a link to websites that sells products.  If someone makes a purchase though your link, you receive a commission.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on marketing your blog.  We will go farther into marketing in another post.

Marketing your blog can take some time. I would give it at least 3 months of blogging to see a good amount of traffic.     

 Blogging is not only a way to make money but can have other rewards as well.  Seeing your words in black and white can let other ideas flow and you may be surprised at your own thoughts.  Also the satisfaction of helping others, I hope with the help of this bog to show others how to make an income using their talents, skills or ideas.