When I first wanted to work at home it was because I was living in my
hometown again and there was just something so stifling about living in
it that I decided I’d finally solve the riddle of how to work from
home. I knew people did it, but I didn’t know how. I also didn’t know
if the only way to do it was to scam someone or if there was legitimate
work out there. The way I define legit work is the same type of work
you’d do at the place of an employer.

I started in May 2008 and call me slow, but I didn’t discover anything
until HubPages toward the end of the year. Now I pretty much figured I
couldn’t make a lot of money from it, but it was a ray of shining hope.
I signed up for AdSense and wrote a few articles. I knew the only way
to bring in any regular money was to publish a lot and that was not
likely something I was going to do. But it sent me on the path to
continue looking.

Finally in August 2009, over a year later from starting my search, I
found Mechanical Turk. You’d think I would’ve come across this one a
long time ago, but call me slow a second time, I just found it. I
started working at it all the time and was happy to be working at home
and making money and although the most I could ever make was $125 a
month, it was real money and legit. I must add that I have read on
Forums that there are people who make $500+ a month on MTurk, but I
honestly have no idea how they are doing it. If you are one of them,
you are amazing in my book.

Also in August, I discovered Demand Media Studios and I applied for
various jobs with them. Come day before Halloween 2009, I got an
acceptance email from DMS for their Keyword Quality Assurance position.
It only paid one penny per title, but since I was accustomed to making
that much on MTurk, I was game. In the first week, I thought that it
couldn’t really go anywhere and that the earnings would likely be
similar to Mechanical Turk. But the third week into it, I had a
realization. I figured out this could actually earn me some real
money. I worked it and in December, I believe I made $450.

By March 2010, I was offered Title Quality Assurance and it paid two
cents per title. Doesn’t sound like much, but truth is, it was a lot
more, and I liked the work a million times better. KQA was SEO and I’m
not an SEO person and TQA was grammar and spelling and that is my strong
suit. I was thrilled! I worked it all the time because I liked it and
I like money rolling in. I was making over $1,000 a month. I bought a
2002 New Beetle Sport in cash. I was saving up to build a small log
cabin in the Ozarks. My last full month with DMS, I made over $2,000,
the most I ever earned with them.

Then BAM! It did the infamous WAH nightmare of coming to a screeching
halt. Bizarrely enough, it happened around Halloween two years later in
2011, just a few months back. They let people go left and right, GOOD
PEOPLE too, and it was scary. I was so upset by how they were treating
such wonderful and talented folks that I sent them an email and
cancelled my independent contract with them. As far as I know, if
there’s anyone even left in the WAH divisions of DMS, it’s probably only
a handful at most.

So November 2011 started the job hunt again, and to make a long story
short, I wanted to share with you my favorite sources for finding WAH work.

1. Get to know people. I know that’s a tired old adage, but it pays
off. If you meet anyone online at a WAH job or in a Forum, get to know
them. Someone I worked with at DMS told me about ACD Direct who does
PBS pledge donor calls and I’m with them now. It’s very part-time and
somewhat seasonal, but some people work it quite a bit. I would say the
money adds up well, but it’s nowhere near a full-time income.

2. Join the Forums and read the New Leads threads. I’d suggest the
WAHM Forum (http://www.wahm.com/forum/) and Work Place Like Home Forum
(http://www.workplacelikehome.com/forum/). They are the only two forums
I know of that are very active and reliable. If you know of any other
forums, please share in the comments. A job I just started this week I
learned about in the WAHM Forum. It’s commission only, but it’s high
paying and very professional and something I enjoy very much. I have
high hopes for it, but I’m going to have to work it hard.

3. Read Real Ways to Earn Money Online
(http://realwaystoearnmoneyonline.com/) and other WAH blogs that you
like. I like Real Ways because I believe she gives the most reliable
leads and I like her style. I’ve applied to quite a few of the job
leads Anna provides. I’m hoping that one of them for Sykes Work at Home
Customer Service comes through next week because I need to be bringing
in money until this commission job pays out.

4. Visit sites like Rat Race Rebellion (http://ratracerebellion.com/)
and Work at Home Mafia (http://workathomemafia.com/). They provide a
list of a lot of the standardized WAH companies and new leads that are
updated all the time. I believe I discovered Alpine Access through RRR
and it’s a company I have a liking for and might work at someday.

5. Read whatever you can, even if it doesn’t provide leads, but it
might help you in the world of work. My preference is for Glassdoor
Blog (http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/) because I find the articles
interesting. It keeps you on the path and in the mindset of work.

I’ve learned that it’s a timeline thing. Once you’ve put in your years
and been around for many, many years in the Work at Home world, your
learning curve really starts to take on new meaning and it’s like it’s
all so obvious and right in front of your eyes and you know so much.
When I compare the folks who have been working at home for several years
to the ones new to it, the difference in knowledge is astounding. I
know from where I started knowing nothing to taking a very long time at
over a year to find anything to landing a great-paying job I enjoyed for
two years to learning so very, very much from WAH veterans to where I am
now, it all seems so simple. But it’s not. I don’t know why you have
to come across every spammy, scammy, yuck site out there before you
start to find the actual winners.

My best to you in your work at home endeavors. May you be very blessed
with a job you love you can work from home.

*************************************
Thanks to Victoria Drake for her wonderful guest column this week! Hope you get some good ideas from it.

Victoria writes EAT! at http://www.eat2.blog.com/ and her personal blog is Ozarks Crescent Mural on Blogger at http://ozarkscrescentmural.blogspot.com/. Her bio and a complete list of links of places she can be found online is at http://about.me/victoriadrake.

Working from home is an adventure, but the journey isn’t all fun and games. The Internet is ever-changing, and jobs that depend on it change as well. One example of this is content writing. Okay, I know some people look down on people who produce content and the so-called “content farms,” but I also know from experience that real people make an honest living writing this content. I’ve done it for two years now, and been quite happy at it.

So maybe I haven’t produced the Great American Novel, or fiction, or an expose, or whatever else ,any writers want to write, but I also did something many writers only dream of: I have supported myself and my son entirely from home, simply by writing content that others are willing to pay me for. It isn’t always easy and it isn’t always even interesting, but I’ve never yet found a job that is, so that’s okay.

What it is always is satisfying to be able to make the money I need without pulling on a pair of shoes or burning gas to get to a job. There are scams out there for sure, but there are also companies that offer work for an acceptable price and pay writers on a regular basis. The hourly rate isn’t all that I might dream of, but when you take off for time wasted commuting, the cost of gas, and wear and tear on my car (and me), it actually starts to look much better. Plus I get to choose my own hours and days, which I love.

But the Internet is changing, and content needs are changing as well. Companies such as Demand Media Studios and wiseGEEK that needed a steady flow of well-written, well-researched articles in the past are changing their business models to keep up with it. Much of the written word is being either replaced or supplemented with video. Writing is fading into the background.

These changes are new, and what it will ultimately mean to content writers remains to be seen, but many have already headed off for greener pastures, often to be found only at brick and mortar jobs. For those who persist, there are other online jobs out there, but there are plenty of scams, too, so those hunting for work need to be careful and not invest too much time and effort with a company the first time around. Get to know who is asking for the work and whether or not they pay their bills, then, by all means, go for it.