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Today's Topic is:
{What Work-at-Home Jobs Are All About}

An excerpt from Readers Digest, March 2009

If you're willing to do your homework and use common sense, you can find real toil-from-your-dining-table jobs, ranging from telemarketing and virtual assistance to software development and graphic design. It will also take you only a few clicks to see scams worthy of a loan-seeking Nigerian prince. "Any kid in his basement can make a decent-looking website," warns Alison Southwick of the Better Business Bureau. Indeed, one industry observer put the ratio of scams to legitimate jobs at an astonishing 54 to 1. (check out BBB guidelines) And no matter what, don't send anyone money, account numbers, or your Social Security number until you're well along in the hiring process and know exactly whom you are dealing with.

Arise.com
workingsolutions.com
liveops.com
alpineaccess.com
westathome.com

specialize in outsourced call center jobs that can be done from home and generally pay $7 to $14 an hour. Read the fine print, though, and you'll find that some pay only per minute you're on the phone (like LiveOps, which takes calls for infomercial customers), while others guarantee an hourly rate. There can be charges for a background and credit check (not unusual in this industry) as well as training, incorporation, and equipment fees: a headset ($75 or so), high- speed Internet access, a dedicated landline, and current software.

Then there are sites such as virtualassistants.com and tjobs.com, which are in effect job boards that charge a fee for access to listings. The trade-off is that you don't have to weed through postings to find ones geared toward home workers and there are fewer scam listings. But anyone willing to do the work can generally find the same listings on free job boards, then do the due diligence him- or herself. MomCorps.com is a free job board geared toward stay-at-home mothers as well as a staffing service that lets you post a detailed profile. Pay $9.95 a month and your profile jumps to the top of an employer's search.

Virtual marketplace sites—like elance.com, odesk.com, and guru.com —link up freelancers who have specialized skills (like video editing, blog writing, or Web developing) with employers by having candidates bid for jobs. Grumblers complain that they're competing with offshore workers who give lowball figures to win assignments. Sometimes the better listings cost extra-from $9.95 per month to $129.94 per quarter, depending on your field and the site.

Some of the most attractive work-at-home jobs can be found at vipdesk.com, which hires virtual personal assistants for clients. The catch? You need to submit a résumé and writing sample, agree to a background and credit check, interview by phone twice, train for ten days, provide references, and be available to work nights, weekends, and holidays. And you may have to wait. Hourly pay is $14 to $20.

Notes: Arise, Alpine Access and LiveOps have also been featured on The Today Show as legitimate work-at-home job companies. This article is an informational resource only and Fremont MOPS does not endorse these companies. If you find job success here or uncover a scam, please post a comment and share your experience with the group.