Melanie Mendelson

It can take time to secure a legitimate work-at-home job.  If you are currently employed, first talk with your employer.  You might be able to work out a telecommuting position with them.  You could work at home on a part-time or full-time basis and be able to keep all of your benefits.  If they don’t offer telecommuting, or if you are unemployed, you can check with local companies.  Unless you have the right skills, however, it is unlikely that you’ll be offered a work-at-home position starting out.

Realize that with most work-at-home jobs, you’ll be an independent contractor and not an employee.  You’ll gain a flexible schedule but you’ll lose benefits such as health insurance that are provided by employers.  If you are comfortable with that, there are several companies that you can contract with.

To find jobs you can either go through classifieds such as Craigslist and message boards where jobs are posted or you can seek out a company that regularly hires at home workers.  For the first, you’ll have to weed out the scams and beat the competition.  For the latter, you need to know what type of work you want to do at home.

One position that requires little to no experience is a virtual call center.  To work for these companies, you’ll need a computer with high speed internet and a second phone line.  You can process order on things from pizza to exercise equipment.  Most of these companies have online applications and require a phone voice test or interview.  You can find them for searching for virtual call centers.  Check with the Better Business Bureau to make sure they are legitimate before giving them your information.

Transcription is another job that can be done at home, primarily medical transcription.  These jobs typically require a few years of experience or schooling, so contact transcription companies and find out what they require. 

If you don’t want to be tied to one company, you can offer your services to business, both online and off.  Consider writing, designing, or coding.  Look at freelancing sites and, if you have any skills, you can work from home for clients.  This can take time to build and lacks the stability of some work-at-home jobs, but it does offer freedom and flexibility.

With persistence, the right skills, and good timing, you’ll be able to find a work-at-home job.

About The Author: Melanie Mendelson is a stay-at-home mom who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business. Get her “6-Figure Secret” FREE at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com

To build a large mailing list you need to offer something of value to your subscribers and find a way to connect to possible sign ups.  Your offer should have both immediate and long term value.

Start by deciding what you’ll give to your subscribers as an incentive for signing up.  This can be a small report or it can be an email series describing how something is done.  Decide what your subscribers will want, then give it to them.  To keep them from unsubscribing, offer them a long term benefit beyond just affiliate emails.

After you plan for both your immediate reward and long term appeal, it’s time to get your list opt-in in front of people in your niche.  Some of the best ways to do this include giveaways, paid ads in other newsletters, article writing, and forum posting.

If you are in the internet marketing niche, you are probably familiar with giveaways and have possibly used them to build your own IM list.  Consider using them for non-internet marketing niches as well.  Contact others in your niche and see if they would be willing to contribute to a giveaway that you are forming.  Spend time working with the contributors and on marketing the event. 

Another way to build a large mailing list is to target readers of other newsletters.  If you haven’t yet, subscribe to your competitors newsletters.  See which ones offer sponsorship in their emails and contact them to see how much an ad would cost.  The advantage of this is that the people who opt in to your newsletter are likely to open and read your email.

If you don’t have the budget to advertise or the resources to run a giveaway, you’ll want to consider free methods such as forum postings and article writings.  These methods take time and your list won’t grow quickly, but with some effort you will add new subscribers every day.

For forum postings, simple go to busy forums in your niche that allow a web address in the sig file.  Follow the rules and don’t spam.  If you offer helpful information, people will click on your link and sign up.  For articles, you want to focus on offering helpful but incomplete information.  Use the resource box to encourage users to sign up for the full story. 

By taking the right actions, anyone can build a large mailing list.

About The Author: Melanie Mendelson is a stay-at-home mom who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business. Get her “6-Figure Secret” FREE at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com

Before you give your money or information to a person or organization, you want to make sure they are trustworthy.  On the internet it is easy to claim to be anything or anyone, but you can learn how to avoid online scams. 

Common online scams include auction fraud, employment or business opportunities, and ponzi or pyramid schemes.  To avoid auction scams, deal with reputable sites, check a seller’s feedback, and don’t pay using cash or wire transfers.  If the seller suggests an escrow service, make sure it is legit.

Avoid jobs that require you to pay money to be trained.  Be careful about responding to ads claiming no experience required and don’t respond to unsolicited emails offering employment.

Ponzi or pyramid schemes lack real products and instead promise money by getting you to recruit others to join.

Many scams can be avoided simply by doing a background check.  Both honest individuals and scammers will leave a trace of their actions.  Typing their name and business name into Google or other search engines should give you some results.  If you find a lot of complaints about a person or company, it’s a clear sign that you should move on.  If you don’t find anything, good or bad, that should also raise a red flag.  If they claim to have been online for years they should have a web presence.  Not having a web presence means they were either lying about that or that they might be an old scam artist operating under a new name.

If you have a business or charity name to investigate, go to the Better Business Bureau to check them out.  The BBB covers both the United States and Canada.  Individuals won’t be listed here, but most business and charities will be.  If they aren’t, or if there are a large number of complaints, you may be dealing with an online scam.

Asking for reviews in forums is a good way to avoid some online scams, but take all answers with a grain of salt.  Some people are extremely gullible or have a monetary stake in the scam and will defend it.  Others will assume anything that they have not heard of before is a rip-off.  

Finally, you need to trust your instincts.  If you feel that something is too good to be true, walk away.  Your own judgment will rarely lead you wrong.

About The Author: Melanie Mendelson is a stay-at-home mom who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business. Get her “6-Figure Secret” FREE at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com