When I was 19 years old, I decided I wanted to be different from all my friends with desk jobs and work from home. The flexibility sounded nice, and the idea of getting more pay than spending countless hours in a stuffy office or call center was definitely appealing.

At first, I went for every single ad-click and email-reading site I could find. I ended up paying $10 to access a website that was a guide for work at home jobs, and spent a good couple weeks of my free time looking up every site, sending emails, making calls, and sending off letters. Out of all of this, I found that the majority were out-of-date links and numbers. I didn’t get a single email back that wasn’t an ad to spend $50 for a “kit” to get me started with my business, promising to make me some unbelievable amount of money.

I ended up taking one “job” – go to their site and view ads, and it counted up a certain amount. Their promise was that if you got to that amount, you could request your payout for $5,000. In my naivete, this seemed pretty realistic and fair, since it would take me probably 6 months to get to that. Of course, it did take me that long. At the end of it all, I requested my payment and didn’t get it. A friend offered me a link to www.ripoffreport.com, where I looked up the company, and found a slew of people who had the same complaint. That was a large amount of time to see gone, when I could have pursued other efforts.

After more research and a large amount of frustration, I somehow came across West At Home Agent (links will be at the bottom of the article). I signed up with them, went through a normal screening and interviewing process, had to take training, and was able to start. I was taking calls and filling out orders and requests for information. They paid me, too. Eventually, it came to an end when they stopped offering work to contractors in my state.

I got a normal job and continued down the road of building a technical support and customer service resume. During this time, I came across ShadowShopper.com for mystery shopping and decided to give the free trial a try. After a year, I was sick of clearing out their messages and job offers from my inbox. This eventually caught my attention and I paid the $19.95 for a month subscription. Upon logging in to the site, there were so many jobs available and companies listed that I was sure I’d be set. I kept paying that subscription for a while and took some of their certifications. I got set up with a few companies they had listed, and even came across merchandising, and reset jobs setting up displays at stores.

Another type of work I came across was doing promotional talent jobs, like Ascent Talent. This company pays for you to demonstrate products and services on a typically one to three day event.

Years later and after a move to a different state, I decided it was time to work from home again, and this time, I was serious about it. I wanted real hours, and didn’t want to read ads or click on anything. I was out to make sure I would only come across positions that required some form of a screening process and had training involved. Somehow (yet again) my research pulled me up to one of the most useful sites I’ve found yet – http://www.workathomenoscams.com/work-from-home-companies. This specific page has links to a vast array of work-at-home jobs, from data entry and medical transcription, to call-taking, to content publishers that pay you for your work. In fact, I found Associated Content through that link, and am enjoying being paid to write articles. Through this site I found many work-at-home jobs that weren’t scams, and after a few interviews was able to attain two contract jobs that pay well enough to satisfy me and keep me motivated.

Through one of the women I trained with for a job, I heard about Work At Home Cooperative, a forum for people trying to work at home. It has links to multiple types of jobs, from data entry to virtual assistant to “at home call center” positions. I’ve found other writing sites available there, too. So, at this point, I’m set up with 5 different places to make me money, and am doing quite well… And a lot happier than I would be in some office, away from home all day!

If you’re looking for a work at home position and screening your options, here’s what you want to look for: Do they offer work in my state? Does their page clearly state what the job entails? Do they require me to pay anything upfront for the position? (This is a big red flag) Do they want to see my resume or do any testing for the position? Are they interested in having me fill out a w-9 for tax purposes? Do they screen for credit and background checks?

If you want something doing calls from home, or something in transcription, there has to be a certain amount of qualification involved, just like if you were applying at an office. If you have some customer service experience, you’ll be most likely to attain a position than if you have none.

If the position is something simple, involving just testing to start and little else, keep in mind that doing just this probably won’t bring in much capital and should really be considered substantial income. If the position does have a training period, or a simulator to test before offering you the position, you’ll probably not get paid for that training. Some positions do offer a bonus after your training, but most consider that since you’re a contractor, you’re technically not bringing them in any money yet. In a vast majority of cases, you don’t find out about pay until you’ve been accepted for the position.

You don’t have a job. You can’t put it on your formal resume. They most likely won’t withhold taxes, so you’ll have to pay those out of pocket at the end.

Just because you get an email saying they’ve received your profile or test, doesn’t mean you get the job. Again, this is just like in the normal job market. The neat thing is, work at home positions have been more likely to let you know they have decided not to accept your application (at least in my experience).

And here’s the biggest thing to remember: Even though you work at home and can walk around in your pajamas, you still have to follow the same responsibilities as you would in an office. You still have to be logged on in a timely manner, still have to be accurate in your work, and you have to meet whatever statistics they require. They have to make money, too, and most of these companies have a contract with a client you represent, so you have to meet the statistics of anyone who works directly for the company (if not more stringent).

If you’re ready to go, here’s some links. I apologize if some of them are repeated, but I want to make sure to get them all (because they’re so hard to find!)

http://www.workathomenoscams.com/work-from-home-companies – for a straight list and some forums about companies, though I wouldn’t pay much attention to the forums, they’ve debunked some jobs that actually do work out, just because it didn’t work out for one other person.

http://www.workathomecooperative.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4 – for verified job leads and discussions about work at home positions. A great social network.

http://www.shadowshopper.com – mystery shopping and lots more. Mostly one-time jobs or setting up with a company that offers one-time and repeated positions.

http://www.windowstestsite1.com/talent/ – this is Ascent Talent’s page to sign up, if you’re interested and available to once in a while work a weekend at typically over $15/hr.

http://www.daymonprofiles.com – this is another site where you can find talent positions.

Good luck to you, happy hunting, and don’t give up!

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