REAL Work At Home Opportunities – do they exist?

Written on January 30, 2009 by Garland Coulson

 

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While teaching about Internet marketing. I am often asked if there are any REAL work from home opportunities.

There are, but they get confused amidst all the hype and scams. This article will help separate the real work at home opportunities from the garbage.

Why work from home? Some common reasons include:

• Parents who want to say home with children

• People who are disabled who have difficulty with traditional work evironments

• People like me who want a more relaxed lifestyle

• People who want to reduce their impact on the environment

Beware of “Work From Home” Web Sites.

Many sites promise you amazing work from home opportunities

Often these are just trying to entice you to PAY to join a multilevel marketing program or to buy their products that profess to help you – in some cases they are outright scams.

Here are the three main types of real work at home opportunites:

• Telecommuting

• Freelance

• Start your own business

Here is how they work and what you need to get started.

Telecommuting:

Telecommuting is where you work for a company from your home. You are an employee and are paid hourly or by salary. The benefits of telecommuting include stable income, possible health & insurance benefits and you know what you are working on every day.

The drawbacks is that your income potential is capped and you are likely to work on the same kind of work over and over.

Where can you find telecommuting jobs?

Try searching major job sites using words like telecommute, telecommuting, work from home, off site, etc. For example Monster.com had 1127 jobs that mentioned this while I was writing this article. Another to try would be Workopolis.com.

What is freelancing?

Freelancing is where you work for other people on on a project by project basis. You would likely work for a wide range of companies and projects rather then for one employer on on type of job.

Freelance examples include writing, marketing, photography, graphic design, web design, programming, researching, virtual assistants and many others.

The benefits of freelancing include earning more money than a standard job or telecommuing, being able to work on a range of interesting projects and a greater freedom.

The drawbacks of freelancing include constantly having to find new projects, less security, and the risk of some project owners not paying promptly.

Finding freelance projects:

You can find freelance projects through web sites like Guru.com, eLance.com and

iFreelance.com. You can keep a presence in many sites like these until you get to the income you desire. Some of these sites also have “escrow” services where the project owner has to put the money in trust and it is released to you upon completion.

Starting your own business.

You can start a business by:

• Selling your own products

• Selling services

• Selling products and services of others

The benefits of your own business is that you are your own boss, you can fully unleash your creativity and great results = MORE money.

The drawbacks are less security, may need some capital to start, and a steep learning curve.

You can get help starting your business with books from your local library or from courses, either online or from local educational institutions.

So these are the three types of REAL work at home opportunies. Take some time to research each to see which best suits you.

Garland Coulson, “The E-Business Tutor”

Garland Coulson. "The EBusiness Tutor" is an Internet Marketing Speaker, Internet Mentor and Entrepreneur who teaches beginners how to succeed online.

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