How to Choose A Work At Home Job That Suits Me

A work at home job might be a good option.

A work at home job could be a good choice for you. Maybe you want to work at home full time, or maybe you'd prefer a part time work at home career. Maybe you already have a full time job outside of the home and you just want to supplement your income by working at home, too. Or perhaps you are a stay at home mom or a stay at home dad who wants to continue to be a stay at home parent for the foreseeable future, and working at home would help you fulfill that dream. Fortunately, in the Internet Era, there are plenty of work at home opportunities to go around, provided you are prepared to do some research and leg work to figure out the right work at home career path for you. Here are some tips to help you out along the way.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. When you seek a work at home job, you may want to take a look at the more popular telecommuting online message boards, such as WorkPlaceLikeHome.com. There is an unbelievable amount of information on these boards, and they are moderated and administered by people who have been toiling away in the work at home trenches for years now. Soak up the information you find on these boards, because they will provide you with an incredible education about telecommuting.

2. When contemplating a work at home job, think about your particular needs. For instance, you will notice once you start reading these work at home online message boards that many people are looking for what is commonly referred to as "non-phone work," meaning work that does not require you to use the telephone. Freelance writing, blogging, editing, proofreading, taking photographs, doing data entry work, working as a Google quality rater, or as a computer programmer or website designer all fall into the category of non-phone work at home jobs.

3. Medical and legal transcription positions are also considered highly desirable "non-phone" work at home jobs. (Take note: In most cases, you will need the appropriate education, special equipment, certification and experience to perform transcription jobs.)

4. If you enjoy Internet research and you are seeking non-phone work at home jobs, you may want to consider working for companies like chacha.com or kgbkgb.com. These jobs require you to research and provide clear,concise answers to questions that people send in (often via text message from their mobile phones).

5. Some people who work at home like to provide daycare in their homes. If this interests you, you will want to investigate the home-based daycare provider licensing requirements in your state.

6. If you are outgoing, sociable, and you like throwing parties at your house and in other people's homes, you could seek a work at home job as a sales representative for a company like Pampered Chef or Avon.

7. If a work at home job that requires you to use your phone is of interest to you, you really are in luck! Many of the most reliable work at home jobs are phone jobs, such as customer service and telemarketing jobs. Do visit the message boards like WorkPlaceLikeHome.com because they contain tons of information about what it is like to work phone jobs for various companies.

8. Many people earn a fair amount of money as eBay sellers, so if this is of any interest you, you will want to visit eBay.com to get a much clearer sense of how it works. You may also want to visit the various eBay.com message boards to get a variety of perspectives of what is actually involved in working as an eBay seller.

9. If you like animals, you are an outdoorsy person, and your schedule permits, you may also want to consider becoming a professional dog walker. This is a very gratifying job for people who enjoy working with dogs; and as a great perk it also provides excellent exercise. (Other less "traditional" work at home jobs that do require you to spend at least some of your time outside of your home engaged in real world "social networking" include: catering, wedding planning, mystery shopping, and working as an interior designer.)

Tips & Warnings

• People with disabilities who are seeking work at home jobs may want to look into working for a company called J. Lodge (which can be found at jlodge.com). J. Lodge exclusively hires people with disabilities to work as Technical Call Quality Analysts. (These analysts listen to a wide variety of customer service calls to determine the overall quality of the calls.)

• Always be on the lookout for work at home scams when researching a work at home job. Sadly, they are everywhere. Again, please consult the work at home message boards and read them carefully, because they can alert you to a large number of current work from home scams.