Work at home jobs are becoming increasingly popular these days and will only continue to grow as time goes on. More and more companies are beginning to see the value in letting people do jobs from home. At the same time many people are learning that they can go online and find part time work to earn an extra income in their spare time. This is leading to a sharp increase in people searching for such jobs.
But with huge demand comes stiff competition, and an increase in shady individuals trying to scam you. It can also be very intimidating for the average person to scour the vast internet trying to find legitimate options in an industry they know little about. Lucky for you, I have more than a decade of experience both doing work at home jobs, and running websites on related topics. So I will give you some solid information here to help you out a lot in your search.
The first rule of thumb to live by is to never pay for a work at home job. Not a penny, no matter what the promise or reason is for why they are asking you to pay it. Have you ever paid to get an offline job? Nope! They are supposed to be paying you, not the other way around. Don’t fall for any type of fee for any reason whatsoever when applying for a home job. It’s almost certainly a scam if they are asking for money up front, even if they have a seemingly legit excuse for it.
Now, there are two exceptions to the above paragraph. Well, actually they are not exceptions, but rather two things to keep in mind about the whole “paying for a job” rule discussed above…
First, while you should never pay for an actual job, there are some legitimate home job directories on the internet that do charge for access to the list. So it’s sort of a fine line where you aren’t actually paying to get the work but you are paying to get the list of potential places where you might get hired. Whether you want to do that or not is entirely up to you. It’s certainly not required for finding one but it can help in many cases. Just do your home work at make sure wherever you are buying the list from is a legit seller.
Second, most business opportunities (network marketing, MLM, franchises, online businesses, some affiliate programs, and others) will almost always cost you some type of fee. Biz ops are not the same as work at home jobs even though they are often referred to interchangeably on websites. I’ll even admit that I have done it myself on occasion. Yes, they do have some similarities but overall they are two very different things and shouldn’t be confused with each other.
I just wanted to make sure you understood those points so you didn’t get confused when searching and applying. You will most likely come across more business opportunities and paid job lists than you will anything else, so be sure to keep the above information in mind.
Need some ideas of what you could do to help get your search started? Here are some popular stay at home job options that you might be interested in researching, or they should at least help get even more ideas flowing in your head…
- Virtual Assistant
- Data Entry
- Medical Transcription
- Translation
- Web Design
- Writing and/or Editing
- Call Center Rep
- Home Based Travel Agent
- Tech Support
- Franchise Owner (home business)
Now, here are some places where you can find those and many other legitimate work at home jobs, both part time and full time, as well as gigs you can get paid to do on a case-by-case basis:
* WhyDoWork – A lot of different companies listed on their employers page in addition to an actual job search that pulls listings from several different sites. They also have a section of their forum with job search discussion and listings. This is a great place to start your journey and potentially find something right away.
Also, I’ve been a moderator at the WhyDoWork forums since 2004 so I can tell you that this is a very legit site with a lot of excellent information. It’s also one of the most popular “home based work” websites on the internet and has been for many years.
* WAHM – This has consistently been one of the top work at home websites for a very long time. It is ranked highly for just about every keyword phrase related to working from home and has been for years. Their job search is also very popular.
* Legit Online Jobs – This is not free but they are one of the most popular paid sites for finding jobs and gigs you can do from home to make money online. The selection is very diverse and contains many of the top ways for working at home. It’s definitely worth looking into if you are wanting to find a legitimate stay at home opportunity. No experience required and you can work from any computer in the world as long as it has internet access.
* Problogger – If you like writing then this could be the place for you. The problogger job board features an updated list of blogging jobs. There are a lot of companies and individuals around the web hiring people to blog for them, so if you are good writer you should be able to land one.
* CashCrate – There are a lot of companies that are willing to pay for test users to try out their products or services. This is becoming even more commonplace in recent times. All you really need to do is complete free offers and you will get paid without spending a penny on anything. This is a great way to earn extra cash from home without any experience needed and very little risk taken on.
* Freelance sites – Elance, Guru, oDesk, Freelancer, etc… There are a lot of these sites and you can usually sign up for free on the vast majority of them. Then you can post the job(s) you are willing and able to do, and what your prices are. Or you can simply browse the listings of people or companies looking to hire for various tasks, and apply for them. This is one of the best ways to find work at home jobs on your own terms.
* Work at Home Careers – Here you can find everything from data entry to blogging to customer service, and so much more. Many of the most popular sectors of the work at home job industry are listed here, and the site is very reputable. They have been around for a really long time and are one of the top sites on the internet offering free legitimate pre-screened work from home opportunities.
* Home Job Stop – A leading, solid, reputable work from home job bank. It is another paid membership site but certainly worth the small investment. They feature an active job board specializing in telecommuting and stay at home jobs. Their motto is that looking for work doesn’t have to be a full time job.
Their categories include:
- Business
- Clerical
- Customer Service
- Engineering
- Programming
- Finance
- Graphic Arts
- Human Resource
- Sales and Marketing
- Transcription
- Web Design
- Writing
- Other
* All Stay at Home – The “all stay at home” job bank is a 100% free work at home directory. There are no fees or anything to sign up for. And they have numerous categories to choose from, along with an updated job board to search.
Be very careful when applying for any of the listings, no matter what site you find it on. Even the most legitimate list of jobs could have a couple scams that may have slipped through unnoticed. Just make sure nothing seems strange or out of the ordinary, and definitely don’t give sensitive information until you are absolutely sure, without a doubt, that it is legit. And, as stated earlier, you should never pay for a work from home job.
Good luck and have fun!
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