Nice little earner – making money working from home

• There are, of course, many reasons why people work from home. Some are by personal choice, others by personal necessity. Many parents (single or not) just want to spend as much time as possible with their child or children, but need the income that jobs from home can provide. Some may be going through a period where employment is more difficult to secure, while many others (perhaps even the majority) seek the extra income which working from home can provide, while still maintaining their day job. The working from home page on my site, is specifically aimed at all of these very deserving groups.
  
  There are many different types of work offered, some of which seems extremely attractive, but may not be what it seems, and a very good yardstick to adopt is:
  
  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
  
  While the free to join schemes might sound attractive, and many are, there are a growing number where real caution is needed. This is particularly true of the data-entry jobs. You get free membership of the initial site, one where they introduce you to the companies requiring the data entry (typically filling in the details for ad sites, although not including the reputable like Google, Yahoo etc). However, before getting the work itself, and therefore the opportunity to earn, they require you to pay, often as much as $49.95. And it doesn’t stop there. Some of these scams actually require you to pay this sum for each and every opportunity they offer. Do not touch these offers. Please.
  
  The only paid sites I support as an affiliate, are those where unconditional money back guarantees are not only given, but they have been tested out aswell, to ensure that they live up to the promise of the guarantee. These sites are totally upfront about being a members’ site, with fee payment, one-time-only, and experienced users have said that they are usually able to recoup the membership outlay within the first job and certainly by the second. A typical one-time-only membership fee is around $24-$39. In fact the main home job site you’ll find on my site, HERE, is only asking $18 right now. This company has been around since 1999, which in itself is a great recommendation. Scammers tend to come and go after a few weeks or maybe a month or two.
  
  One of the reasons these sites are genuine in their requiring fee payment is that they incur fairly substantial costs by employing staff to maintain and very regularly update the directories of jobs on offer. The majority of the free sites cannot do this.
  
  Ok, so what types of jobs are offered? Well, there really are many, too many to mention here, but here are what I believe to be some of the most popular:
  
  
• Taking online surveys
• Telecommuting
• Typing
• Surfing the Net to review websites
• Reading emails
• Freelance photography
• Website designers
• Translators
• Internet shopping
• Writing articles
• Data entry
• Testing games
• Online tutors
• Software developers
• Telemarketers
• Financial services sales
  
  Currently, it has to be said that the greatest choice or work-from-home jobs is within the USA, but the internet has few borders, and some jobs will be open to people from just about anywhere, as long as they have a computer and an internet connection.
  
  Opportunities abound too in the UK, and although right now I’m not promoting any particular affiliates from the UK, it is only because I’ve not yet found one which is a good match to my own objectives. I am also aware of good opportunities in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and throughout much of Asia. As I find the right affiliates in these locations, I will promote these too, so please do bookmark my website and return regularly.

Get paid to take online surveys – and avoid the scams

It is undoubtedly true, that the one area of the GPT (get paid to) online market place, which seems to be most vulnerable to scammers is that of online surveys.

The scams generally work like this: they offer you “magnificent income potential”, “more money than you’ve ever earned before”, “the chance to give up your boring day-time job” and so on, with equally outrageous claims. They state eg: “for just $29.95” they will provide you with directories of companies wanting your opinions, with nothing more to pay.

What they neglect to tell you is that the fee they charge is non-refundable, and the charge is often per directory, so the “nothing more to pay” only applied to the one directory they sent. You could end up paying a small fortune, also often to find that the directories are out of date.

So, how to find a good, members, fee paying, paid survey site, and one which will not fleece you? One method that my research found to be very useful was to find one or two of the excellent GPT website online review sites, and to see if:

* they have actually checked out if the site offers money back guarantees

* checked that the money back guarantees are actually given (tried it out)

* they have spoken to a human voice at a given telephone number (even if they had to go through an email first)

* they assessed the response to the reviewers enquiry, ie were they hostile or did they welcome the questioning as an opportunity to show their honesty.

All of the affiliates relating to online surveys that I have joined have been checked out by Top Site Reviews, which I personally confirmed direct with the owner of that site.

I would suggest that anyone interested in joining an online survey program checks out the points I mention above, as a minimum. In addition, I would counsel against the free-to-join programs, as a bit of a waste of time. I say this not only because they will pay you less (typically $10 or less), but mainly because they cannot possibly have the same resources as the subscription driven members sites. The resources enable directories to be maintained that are as up to date as possible, as it is a labor intensive activity.

Using one or other of the top three paid survey sites, you can get a pretty good, regular income, although I doubt you’ll get rich, not even slowly. Don’t be put off by the scams you will hear about, especially through online ezines, such as this one. It is more than possible to find good sites, and to make a decent living, even if it is extra-income, over and above that from your regular job.

Please visit http://www.makingdollars4u.com/onlinesurveys.html where you can look into the options offered by my impressions of the top three sites.