This is the first in a series of articles that I will be writing about work-at-home opportunities. Here's how it works. I will work for at least one 8-hour day at a work-at-home opportunity, and report back on my hourly and the experience of working.
Freelancing is a rough market. There are identity theft scams, phishing scams, employment scams built only to collect your information for sale, payment problems, labor fraud, labor theft, and a host of jobs that are a complete waste of everyone's time. However, there are a few services right now where you can make decent money writing, editing, answering questions, and doing mindless, menial tasks.
Article continues below.
The Usual
Monster.com
Remember when Monster.com was good? Well, now it appears to be thick with scams and pyramid investment opportunities. I haven't received a contact from a legitimate job opportunity from monster in literally YEARS. The only thing I get from Monster are emails informing me of a great commission-only job opportunity for only a small investment. Lame.
Craigslist
There are tons of jobs on Craigslist for writers, but half the time I get a response from them, I research the company and find out it's part of a work-at-home timeshare with a long list of ripoff complaints from people who were never paid. Craigslist used to be a great source of local job offers, but now it's just as much of a cesspool as Monster.com. Boo!
Online writing jobs: You, too, can work at home.
Helium : Helium is a freelance writing directory in which, among other tasks, you submit articles written about requested topics. The articles pay fairly well; $20-80, but the catch is that your writing goes into a pool to be chosen or rejected by the requester of the article or task. Sometimes there's not a lot of competition, though.
Associated Content - associatedcontent.com: Associated Content is another freelance directory in which you can either submit your own copyrighted video or audio and collect per hit, choose from requested article topics for immediate pay, or submit new articles for consideration for outright purchase and payment per hit, usually for $2-5.
This is the first in a series of articles that I will be writing about work-at-home opportunities. I will work for at least one 8-hour day at a work-at-home opportunity, and report back on my hourly and the experience of working.
First review: ChaCha.com:
An online text-message (SMS) based free answering service.
See you soon! Don't forget to DIGG me. :)
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10 comments:
I agree that Craigslist.com and many other sites have gone down the drain when it comes to good work-at-home opportunities. I'm a college student looking to make a few $$ whenever I have nothing better to do and many sites I have tried are just not worth the time investment. Btw, if you're looking to go into ChaCha I would advise you be careful because many of my friends have told me stories of how they started worked for months with no pay or have had their account with money suspended for no reason. Other than that, good luck with finding a way to earn that $$ at home and keep up with the reviews.
I've signed up for some freelance sites (Guru, Elance, Get A Freelancer) with mixed results. Elance and guru seem to have more quality work but it's easier for you to "Break in" with GAF. Unfortunately, GAF seems to have less quality work as well as 'employers' and you get paid less. I think so many people have joined the job pool in regards to freelancing because it's easy that it's become really diluted and the bottom line price has just plummeted so it may not be worth it.
Finding a legitimate way of making money online can be a full time job in itself. There are many unscrupulous people looking to make a quick buck at anyone's expense. I have been making a full time income online for over 4 years now and I would love to have had someone test the waters like you are doing.
Thanks for the good info about those websites. I agree that craigslist has really gone downhill with a lot of spam on there. The best part of the post was that dude in jean shorts with a pile of 80's era electronics on/around him.
Yes, it's interesting to read and you have given useful tips for working at home.It helps many to start the online home jobs.
Another home based "money-making opportunity" to disregard is from a company called "EZ Bookmarks". You craft bookmarks at home from inexpensive materials, then sell them back to the host company. Not only are they almost impossible to make, you are given an equally impossible amount of time to complete the batch of bookmarks.
BADBADBAD! There went $38 that I should have spent on wine!
Thanks for letting us know about the sites, I've tried GetAFreelancer myself with little success. It's especially tough to find a salary that's decent in the US when you have to compete against people in a global marketplace.
Have you considered using Amazon Mechanical Turk? I hear it's a good place to earn money to do ridiculously easy things. Here's one to draw a picture of a robot, and I'm doing one to post a comment in a blog right now.
I enjoy using Google Adsense to make money with my blogs and I also fill out surveys. I am always looking for a way to earn an easy buck online. Does anyone remember AllAdvantage.com back from about 1998 or so? Those were the days! Great Post
I have used ChaCha for some time now, however have found in that they have gone down hill in the recent past, so if your review of them was not recent I would suggest you re do it.
The other information you provide was right on.
Thank you for for your submission to the advice for women from women blog carnival.
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