How to Legitimately Make a Living from Your Home without Being a Victim of “Work At Home” Scams

Chances are that your email inbox is filled with all sorts of “opportunities” for you to make money from your home on just about a daily basis. Usually the offer will tell you that you can make hundreds of dollars per day working on a part-time basis from your home office. The offer will be very high on promises and very light on details, but it’s almost certainly a scam. These offers usually require you to pay an up-front fee to be considered for a job or money-making-opportunity, and then you’ll find out there was no opportunity to begin with.

Because of the sheer number of “work at home” scams, individuals who are trying to legitimately have some sort of telecommuting based job have found it very difficult to sift out all of the scams and find real opportunities to make a living from one’s home. There are legitimate ways that you can earn an income from your home, and they essentially fall into three categories, including starting a business from your home, using a technical skill that you have and working as a freelance contractor, or working as a virtual assistant for one of many telecommuting-based call centers. There are certainly other ways to make money by working from home, but these are the three legitimate ways that are most common.

If you are the entrepreneurial type, starting a business is probably the most exciting and rewarding way to go. Come up with a product or service that you can offer that you can make better than anyone else. Develop your business plan and get started. There’s no security in doing this at all, and there are a lot of risks in doing this as well, but it also has some of the best rewards. Don’t fall for one of those home-based business offers you see on television or online either, your business idea should be your own, not somebody else’s.

A common way that web design, technical writing, graphic design, marketing, and software development professionals make money through the internet is by providing freelance consulting services to small businesses who cannot afford a full-time professional to do the job that they need completed. You might make a new web-site for a company, develop a logo for them, write a software tool or help write their marketing material. There are a number of freelance exchange sites such as Elance.com and Guru.com that will help you find potential jobs.

The third common way for people to legitimately work from home is through one of many virtual call centers. These jobs are great for people who aren’t necessarily entrepreneurial and don’t have any unique technical skills, but are dedicated and know how to work. At a virtual call center, you might answer phone calls or emails as a customer service agent for any company that contracts with the virtual call center that you work at. Some of the legitimate virtual call centers are AlpineAccess.com, Arise.com, Intellicare.com and LiveOps.com.

These three aren’t the only ways to make a living online, but they’re what a lot of people do. You can also find additional working at home opportunities on the WorkplaceLikeHome.com forum and by reading the “Work at Home Mom” magazine at http://www.wahm.com/