Work at Home Jobs for the Stay-At-Home Mom (or Dad!)

Sure, we'd all love more time with our little ones. Millions, or maybe billions, of people want to work from home but don't know where to start, or they begin the search and it lands them smack dab in the middle of a man standing in the middle of the screen with money coming out of every orafic and pocket. He has with a huge smile on his face saying, "You, too, can make a six figure income in just three weeks!"

I'm by no means an expert on the subject. I'm just a mom and a writer who needed something to supplement our income.

One popular misconception is that working at home is easy. It isn't. And if you have small children, it makes it that much more difficult. Try typing the Best Blog Ever! with a ten month old screaming and a two year old pulling at your arm. It is also highly competitive so your brain needs to be alert and in tip top form. Work at home may not be physically draining, but it is mentally draining.

Another misconception? You're going to get rich or have a steady paycheck. I'm sure there are work at home opportunities out there that will pay you a ton of money and on a regular basis but the odds of finding one is about as likely as winning the lottery. Most work is freelance or on a project by project basis. And even then, especially if you are a noob, you will probably find yourself passed up for someone more experienced.

Another misconception is that all work at home scenes are scams. This is simply not true. I've found some great resources and some legitimate opportunities out there which I will share below.

I apologize if I seem like a downer here. I'm being realistic. If you're looking for a get rich quick platform, you just won't find it here.

For the same reason that weight loss pill producers make billions a year off supplements that don't work as they portray. There's a high demand so scammers come up with plans to take your money without any real promises. Plus, these work at home scammers, as well as the "pill pushers", know that there are an astounding number of people out there that are looking for the quick fix. Make me look like Angelina Jolie before Christmas! and they purchase the weight loss pill, ignoring the diet and exercise blurp on the lable, and get frustrating mad because they don't wake up the next morning falling out of their clothes. Work at home wanna-be's are the same way. Gimme an easy job where I can sit in my jammies and make enough money to buy that six bedroom house! It doesn't work that way. You have to put more time and effort into it, especially when you're just starting out, because you won't see much, if any, results right away.

So, if you're willing to put forth the effort and realize that it's not going to be a piece of cake, then read further to identify what can be considered a scam.

First, a red flag should go up if you see a website promising tons of money in just a short time flat then proceeds to say nothing about what you'd be doing. Instead of focusing on the work that would make you the money, they instead focus on what the money can do for you.

Next, be weary of any company wanting money up front. It may be tempting to spend $45 dollars to receive the know-all, tell all book about how to make millions but the truth is, they are making millions by misleading you. True job recruiters are looking for someone to work for them and won't ask for upfront money.

And last, be alert about where you put your email. There are too many sites that require your email address in order to give you access to jobs. The next thing you know, you're getting tons of "get rich quick schemes" being delivered right to your inbox. They're like damn vultures pouncing on the desperate.

There's one rule of thumb to follow. If there's something uneasy in your gut telling you that their claims are too good to be true, and I know you've heard this before, chances are, it probably is. Run for the hills!

It's tempting to immediately begin signing up for all the resources I'm about to give you but what is best is that you start out small, give yourself a chance to get a feel for it first before you start adding to your portfolio. Treading in all of them at once might send your brain into a panic attack, especially when you realize that it will take awhile before you see some real money on your bottom line.

Take it slow, one at a time, and realize that you have to start somewhere. Spend some time learning the ins and outs of the site, learn to love the site, taste the site, be one with the site.

Also, only do what you have time for. This is imperative. Otherwise, your work at home freedom will dwindle down into, "I can't go anywhere because I'm working on these freakin' sites!"

Breath in. Breath out. (Ha! Stole that from Edmin at Talkwhatever.com.) Don't rush. Don't get overly excited.

Another reason you shouldn't spread yourself too thin is because you need extra time, not only to write and build up your projects but also to promote. You can't just sit back and expect the world to find your work, you have to take your work to the world. Doing this take time and patience. Don't expect your page views to skyrocket the first day you put something up.

Now I'm still learning about promoting so I can't give you substantial guides and tips to promote. But here's a lens I found that may provide some more info at promoting and search engine optimization: SPIL Tech

Keep checking back as I will add more as I find them. Thanks and enjoy!

This is one of those instances where I found myself frustrated after a few months of writing for them. I only made a few cents here and there in revenue share. However, writing for them has become a great gift as I've learned what rates well and what doesn't. Or as least I think I've learned until a bottom drops on one of my articles. But hey, we all have our bad days, right? Anywho, getting back to Helium... it's free. You sign up, you find titles that you know something about and you write, putting your article into a pool of articles under the same title. Other writers will rate your article and that will be defined by the place your article rates along with the others. For example, at the time I write this, I rank 68 out of 170 articles on "Why We Write" (shameless promotion link here: "Why we Write"), while on another title, "How do you become an author?" is currently ranked 1 out of 7 (plug *cough* tooting my own horn link here: "How do you become an Author?").

And since Helium has changed many of their payment options to include bonuses for rating and up front payments, it makes avid writers and raters much more valuable and I've found myself working more diligently on the site.

It takes time and work to see that bottom line grow but it's a great way to start and hone your writing ability.

Visit Helium by going to Helium.com. If you decide to sign up, please, I beg you, contact me first at fictiongate@yahoo.com and let me refer you so my efforts for writing this won't be in vain.

Okay, this one is a bit more difficult for me to give the ins and outs on because I'm not on this one. I started to sign up but have taken my own advice from above not to spread myself too thin. I do understand that it's similiar to Helium but with perhaps more freedom of title choice. It's a pay per click site where they pay you a fixed rate for every 1000 page views or something like that. They also have a rating system and an up front payment system that rivals Helium's new payment system. And if you write for their "Calls for Content" and it's accepted, there's a clicking bonus for that also. For one such example, kodos to my friend Terri for having one of her articles accepted from a "Calls for Content" list. Here's a link to her ariticle to get a feel for AC. When it Comes to Weight Loss, Attitude is Everything. Take notice of their easy rating system and page view ticker.

To sign up, visit

From what I understand, (I'm not on this one either) this works like Helium and AC. You submit content and they will publish it on a site that is appropriate for the content, as opposed to the two above who keep all their content on one site. You get paid a revenue share and/or paid per clicks to your articles. If anyone has anymore information they'd like to share with me about this site's payment plan and their article examples so that I can update this info with more accuracy, please contact me.

You can visit Triond at Triond.com

What kind of work at home site would I have if I didn't mention Squidoo on here? I haven't been here long and am still not fully sure how payment works but will update this info as I learn the ins and outs of it. So sign up, join my fanclub, fave this page and we can find out together!

To get to Squidoo home page, pass go, take a left, then a right, don't stop until you see the dog sitting on the front steps of the run down gas station. Or you can just click here instead.

I love eBay! I'm not into the whole "creating a business using eBay" thing but I do like it for casual shopping and selling. However, there are people I know that make a good living from selling on eBay.

There are several ways you can do this. You can set up a small business selling things for people who don't have the time and will to do so. You do the handy work (pictures, uploading, setting price, etc) and when it sells, you keep a commission fee.

Another way is by signing up with a drop shipping service or wholesaler. Usually these things do require an upfront fee (I found that anytime you get into the business of selling something there is usually some kind of start up fee so no red flags on this part). One word of caution, though. Like with anything, there are good and bad companies out there. Before you hand over your money, make sure you check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any complaints pending on that company. See if you can find others who work with that company and listen to their experience.

In any case, one thing that has kept me from going full blown on eBay is due to the rising cost of eBay fees. If you are selling often on there, you have to have a PayPal account. (PayPal is great to have regardless if you're going into business on eBay as most writing sites pay via PayPal.) So when you list an item, your charged a listing fee. Then when the item sells, you're charged another "final value" fee. And if the person pays you via PayPal, your charged yet another fee. If it was the American taxation system, the triple charging would be illegal. But I digress. If you've got a product that sells like hot cakes and can still pull a profit despite the repeated fees, it could be lucrative for you.

Check out eBay by clicking here.

For "preferred" reviews, they pay $2 per review and for each vote your review gets, you get ten cents. However, it has to be a review that is of a hot item. For instance, right now they are looking hotel reviews, anything travel related, medicine reviews, just to name a view.

For other reviews, they'll pay you per vote which is where promoting your work comes in handy.

The only thing I don't like about this site is that you don't sign up for an account. So for every review you write, you have to put in all your info each and every time. A little extra grunt work but the few cents here and there for your reviews just might be worth it in the long run, especially if you enjoy reviewing things.

To visit Review Stream just take a hop to the left, strike a pose, and click here.

Okay, I signed up with this site about a week or two ago. All you have to do to sign up is provide your email address. They send you email alerts when they've updated the site. Not a problem and a great reminder actually to keep checking for new jobs. I have been spammed twice from this site. So why include something here that I'm being spammed from? Because it has produced results. I applied to a job listing and have received word this morning that they are interested in my work. After I complete a test period then I can start writing on a regular basis for the job I applied for earning a great amount of money and keeping the by-line for the articles I provide! Yippee!

If you don't mind minimal spamming in a sign up email account (like Yahoo!), then visit them at Genuinejobs.com.

This is a new revenue sharing website much like Helium and Associated Content. However, the word on the street is that there is a brand new twist in revenue sharing with this site that is bound to be impressive. Not only can you write articles but you can also upload your videos, slideshows, audio, and images and earn through page views.

All hail my buddy, Rock (I shall call him Rock and he shall be my squishy), for turning me onto the site. You can keep up with his experiment on Bukisa here.

You may sign up and try out Bukisa for yourself here.

Vwa-la!