Finding Legitimate Work from Home Jobs

You’re interested in working from home to supplement your income (or perhaps you’re recently unemployed and need to find work quickly), but you’re not sure how to find legitimate work from home jobs. You see a lot of ads, but you’re worried these are all scams and that you won’t get paid. In this article, we’ll go over some tips for finding legitimate work from home jobs.

1. Look for trusted names. A lot of the most legitimate work from home jobs available are with established companies looking to reduce overhead by outsourcing some of their work load. For example, many people take in dictation or editing work for doctors or lawyers. By working from home for established professionals with well-known practices, they reduce the chance of being burned or shorted money. These kinds legitimate work from home jobs will never be advertised in a Google ad – check classifieds, craigslist.org, or other reliable sites.

2. If it’s too good to be true, it is. The market for at-home work is a lot like the market for office work: it’s skill-based. If you see a job advertised that requires no special skills, no prior experience, and no education, there’s a good chance that it’s a scam. This is because legitimate work from home jobs still require skills, at the very least the ability to work with computers or to type. If someone came up to you on the street and said they’d offer you a job that required absolutely no skill, talent, or experience, wouldn’t you be a little suspicious?

3. Use trusted sites for freelance work. Legitimate work from home jobs often involve freelance work, i.e., completing specific assigned projects for different employers. Freelancing can be a dangerous area to work in, because you generally don’t have a relationship with your employer when you start out. You can have a lot of success working from home as a freelancer, but start off using established freelance websites where money is held in escrow by the site until the work is completed.

4. Take pride in your work – and see if your employer does. Because working from home is independent, you need to take pride in your work. On the flip side, a good indicator of a legitimate work from home job is the pride they take in their work. If you see a sloppy website with poor content, you should wonder whether the work you do for them will be appreciated and promptly paid for. A sloppy website or error-filled e-mails should make your wonder if you’re approaching a legitimate work from home job or an elaborate scam.

5. Trust common sense. This is a lot like number 2 – if you just don’t like the feeling you get about a particular work from home opportunity, don’t take it! You don’t get to meet your employer face-to-face, so the impression you get from online interaction is crucial. If you don’t like the employer from the start, back away. You’re probably not dealing with a legitimate work from home job.

The single biggest piece of advice for those looking for legitimate work from home jobs is to not give up. The internet (and the classifieds section of your local newspaper) is filled with opportunities that promise you can make thousands of dollars working from home, and you can. It just might not be with that company that’s promising you so much money. Really consider what a company is asking you to do and how much they’re offering you for the work before you agree to anything and remember, legitimate work from home jobs don’t ask for your personal information (i.e. social security numbers) through e-mail or a website.