Legitimate Ways to Make Money From Home

Working from home can seem like a dream to some people and you can certainly understand why.
Being able to work from the comfort of your couch or home office in pajamas definitely beats the hustle and bustle of waking up super early, deciding what to wear, then rushing out into traffic just to punch a clock.

When you work from home, you don’t have to worry about a commute, where you’ll eat for lunch or office politics – you can just focus on doing your work. On the flip side, there are certain people who take advantage of how popular work-from-home jobs have become and they promote scam opportunities that don’t really allow you to do legitimate work and earn a sufficient income. It’s important to know how to weed through the scams if you want to work from home. Here are three legitimate ways to make money from home:

Customer Service Jobs

Work-from-home customer service jobs are very popular and it’s not hard to land a position with a well-known and reputable company. A typical work-from-home customer service job will involve chatting with people on the phone and answering questions, helping them solve issues, and so on. Employers should provide training for the job once you’re hired. Some jobs are seasonal and offered during the busy holiday season, while other opportunities are available year-round.

To get started, you usually need a landline phone, quiet work environment, and internet access. Some companies that hire work at home customer service employees include: Amazon, Groupon, Skyes, U-Haul, 1-800-Flowers, The Hilton and Apple just to name a few.

Data Entry

If you can type fast and have basic computer skills, data entry work should be simple once you get the hang of it. These jobs basically involves inputting information for companies into specific computer programs. These jobs pay per hour, per project or per words you type. Dion Data Solutions is a good place to start if you are looking for data entry work and meet their requirements.

Search Engine Evaluator

Search engine evaluators conduct research and evaluate search engine results to make sure they are accurate and helper to users. In other words, they are the people who help make sure search engines like Google pull up relevant results to help you find what you’re looking for. Leap Force is a legitimate company that hired independent contractors to work from home as a search engine evaluator. The pay rate ranges between $10-15 per hour.

Selling Items Online

While these other opportunities may require you to work a specific schedule, a more flexible work-from-home option is to sell items online on sites like Amazon and Ebay. I’m not talking about simply selling items in your home online either. Some people make a business out of selling items online and do it full-time.

To get started as a part-time online seller, consider what type of products you’d like to sell and how much you are comfortable with investing in inventory. Take professional pictures of your items and post detailed descriptions to help generate sales. Companies like Amazon even offer a service to help ship your items for you when they sell so you don’t have to do it. If you want to sell your own personal creations or crafts, you can try being a seller on Etsy.

How to Weed Out a Work-From-Home Scam

Work-from-home scams are all over the internet. Some of the top scams include:

• Posting ads and comments online
• Stuffing envelops
• Assembly worker
• Get rich quick schemes (ads that claim you can make thousands of dollars per week/month working from home)

It’s important to understand that a true job will never ask you to pay money to them to get started or to train. Also, any job that promises you lots of money when you have no experience and haven’t even filled out an application is most likely a scam.

If you are skeptical about any opportunities, you can always look up the company on the Better Business Bureau to see if they are accredited and have no negative claims or complaints.

Do you work from home? How do you like it? What do you do?

Photo: Flickr: Marcie Casas