Posted by Maria Dimitrova

Read this if:You want to work from the comfort of your home or wherever you want using an Internet connection to make good money online or just some extra cash

Gain: Ideas how to avoid scams and what legitimate online jobs you can do

Cost: Some time to do good research on the job offers you see or create your own blog/website. Some businesses like opening an online shop require initial capital.

If you are unemployed or are looking for job opportunities to make extra money, or leave the office environment and work flexible hours, then working online from home is an option you should consider. Not all professions can be practiced in this way but there are plenty of variants and if you find your match, it can be the path to stress free work and great job satisfaction. Make sure when searching for a work-from-home job offer is that it isn’t a scam since a big percentage of such ads turn out to be misleading or outright dishonest.

Signs that a job ad is likely to be a scam

• A job offer says that you can earn a lot of money in a hurry with no experience or skills necessary.
• If there are fees for information, kits, or anything else
• Having to click on another site or call a phone number and submit information, rather than being able to apply for the job.
• They try to get you to send money to a third party.
• There is no company name, web address, location, or anything else other than a phone number.
• You have received a job offer as an unsolicited email message – you haven’t applied for the job or posted my resume. The message hasn’t been addressed to you and the return address is a personal email address, not a company one.

Here is a personal account of such a scam:

“Applied to job ad on www.cbcjobs.com. Contacted via text message to setup Yahoo Instant Messaging. Communicated several days. Sent cashier’s check to pay for computer software needed to perform job. Instructed to deposit in local bank. Several days later instructed to withdrawal $2300.00 and send Western Union to vendor/supplier . Contacted by local bank days later cashier’s check had been returned as fake.”

Prevention measures

• Look out for the listed signs and opt for searching online jobs in websites with good reputation like Freelancer or vworker.com.
• Ask for references. Then contact the references to ask how this is working out. If the company isn’t willing to provide references (names, email addresses and phone numbers) do not consider the opportunity.
• Presume that the position is a scam and trust the company only if there is compelling evidence to the contrary.

Questions you have to find the answers to in advance:

• Is there a salary or the payment is on commission?
• How often are you going to be paid?
• What equipment (hardware/software) do you need to provide?
• What support does the company provide?

Work at home job offers to be avoided

• Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) which involves recruiting new people, and more new people, to sell the product. It is built on a pyramid structure and the products aren’t really important. The main aim is to attract more people. People who make money from this have to be pushy and see all their contacts including friends as potential new members of the structure. It might seem an obvious scam to you and you might think that there are no chances to be tempted to start such a job. Be cautious!I know two people who were initially against pyramid schemes and ended up buying a starter kit after they attended a meeting with “successful” members of the MLM company during which the focus was on the potential income and bonuses like expensive cars. The speakers at such events can be very persuasive and making quick money fast is a common dream that often turns out to be more convincing than logic. The outcome for my friends was no money earned and a big outlay for the starter kit products they are now using for themselves.
• Posting Ads. There are lots of ads saying workers are needed to post ads on online bulletin boards and forums. You don’t get paid to post, rather you may get paid if other people sign-up.
• Processing Claims. In order to get “hired” you’ll need to buy equipment, software and pay for training
• Medical Billing . Most medical clinics process their own bills, or outsource the processing to firms, not individuals. Your software may not meet their specifications, and often the lists of “potential clients” are outdated or just plain wrong.
• Email Processing. This is a twist on the classic “envelope stuffing scam”. If you have visions of forwarding or editing emails, forget it. What you get for your money are instructions on spamming the same ad you responded to in newsgroups and Web forums!
• “Turn Your Computer Into a Money-Making Machine!” This is much the same as the previous  spam, above. Once you pay your money, you’ll be sent instructions on how to place ads and pull in other people to “turn their computers into money-making machines.”

These are just some of the most common scams. Bear in mind that scammers are very creative and they may write an ad giving a lot of details to make it sound pretty authentic.

Being prepared for the possible risks of searching for a “work at home and make money online” job, you can look at the numerous opportunities for real, lucrative options to make use of your talent, skills and expertise.

Online work at home ideas

* Write. If you enjoy sharing information, ideas, opinions and a personal viewpoint and have the talent to create interesting texts on different topics, you can make your own blog or work for one or several sites that will pay for your articles or blog posts. Associated Content and Helium will “pay for performance” based on page views for just about anything you want to write about. Articles on specific topics they’re looking for can earn direct payments up to about $200. When you want to earn money through your own blog, then you can put advertise products of various companies on your site or become an affiliate with sites like Amazon. You have to find efficient ways to attract visitors to your blog to make good money out of it.

* Microstock photography. You don’t have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image. Just be careful that you don’t have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people’s faces that are readily identifiable. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto.

* Paid surveys. All you have to do is find a free paid survey site, fill in the application form and then fill in an interest profile. Then you will start receiving surveys straight to your email inbox, and will start earning around £ 3 per 15 minute survey. You could probably earn around £ 50 per week by using a handful of paid survey websites.

* Data entry. It should be free to join, and so be wary of scam sites trying to request a fee up front. It isn’t the most exciting job opportunity but it is an easy and good way to earn extra cash.

* Wholesale on Ebay. Ebay can be a very profitable source of online income, especially if you know of some good wholesalers and have good information of the online marketplace. Millions of people make an income working from home using Ebay as their own online shop, discovering a niche market and then developing and selling a product. Bear in mind you will need some initial capital for this type of online business.

* Be an online consultant. You can be an expert in different spheres and give people online advice how to solve different problems. You can implement this method of making money if you are a car expert ( making car problem diagnosis and giving solutions to problems that are easy to identify without the need to check it on the spot); a financial expert, a software expert and so on.

I know a person who became an online consultant helping corporate clients to implement certain software programs. He makes a lot of money and travels around the world, combining work with fun. Wherever he is, the only thing he needs for his job is his laptop and Internet connection.

* Become an online language teacher. Some people are so busy, they can’t afford to go to a brick-and-mortar school and online language training is the best option for them. You can teach through programs like Skype.

* Become an Autocad designer. Autocad is a crafting software that is used to craft 2D and 3D structures of homes and other building to provide a virtual view of a building to customers from three dimensions. One designer that I came across said that he’d made a lot of money by working on projects after he joined websites like Freelancer.

If you are confident in your expertise in Autocad software then you should take start by joining engineering forums first where you will be able to meet a lot of people of your field and get knowledge about better opportunities.

* Trade currencies online. This method of making money can prove to be really lucrative provided that you have a good knowledge of the currency market and the factors that influence it and the flair to predict the upward/downward movements of currencies, making educated guesses.

My father used to do this in the era before home computers. He made/saved a lot of money in this way, rescuing our savings from high rates of the inflation. He got his information about currency movements from the TV and radio and used exchange bureaus to do the actual trade. Imagine how much easier and faster it is to do it nowadays through the Internet. A serious warning here, 90% of people lose money at this activity because they are unable to control the size of their bets. FX trading services allow participants to multiply their bets by many times the size of their initial stake and it is easy to be wiped out.

* Be your own boss and find clients for your services online. You may be a plumber, carpenter, computer hardware specialist, etc and make your own web site, offering your services online and attracting customers through the Internet. Apart from information about your services and recommendations from previous customers, you can also give tips on your web site for solving some common problems and ideas for prevention measures. You can advertise your site or yourself on web directories and local classified websites like newspapers or Craigslist.

Whatever your sphere of expertise or skills is, the bottom line when working with clients is to do your job so well that your services will be recommended by satisfied clients and your best advertising tool will be by word-of-mouth. You are the product you are selling!