Legit work from home jobs

Vickie - posted on 10/21/2011 ( 1 mom has responded )

"REAL" SITES

Search for Answers Online: ChaCha.com

We've all done our share of Googling - and now you can actually get paid to search for answers for ChaCha.com users (Become a guide: click here) You can apply to be one of the people who decides what search results pop up when someone types in, phones in or texts an inquiry on a topic you're passionate about -- anything from God to Guitars and from Diabetes to Decorating. There are currently 62,000 ChaCha guides nationwide. It's an attractive part-time gig for night owls in particular, as well as college students and retirees. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection to apply to become a guide.

Fair warning: Not everyone can be a guide. There are entrance tests and limited opportunities. If you're lucky enough to be one of the 10 percent of applicants accepted, you'll go to "Search University" and then quickly be on your way to earning points for each search or task you complete. Points convert into cash at end of month. While this is not designed to be a primary revenue source, ChaCha tells us most guides make a few hundred dollars per month.

Virtual Concierge or Customer Service Rep. VIPDesk.com

Become a virtual concierge or customer service representative helping people plan travel, find home improvement contractors, etc. The job can be done from home, anywhere in the country, at set hours for generally $10-12 an hour. This is growing trend in this economic climate. In fact, VIP Desk tells us they're recruiting now with plans to add hundreds more people to their network with a mix of independent contracting and part- and full-time opportunities. It is competitive, but fantastic work for people who live in remote locations or who are juggling child- or elder-care responsibilities.

Approximately half of their Brand Ambassadors are bilingual, so if you speak multiple languages, you may really have a leg up. When you sign up, you get a schedule weekly or biweekly with your assignments. The work varies by season, since many retail clients -- including Eddie Bauer and Bluefly -- use VIPDesk to field customer service calls. Right now, ServiceMagic is gearing up for all the people who will be looking for Spring cleaning and home improvement efforts. They generate leads for contractors, plumbers and the like. Rather than taking the calls directly, while they're out on a job, VIP Desk customer service reps serve as their frontline.

Find Freelance Work Online eLance.com

This site is the new way to work for many small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Monthly hiring is up roughly 40 percent year-over-year. They're not looking to hire someone in two weeks or two months -- odds are, they needs someone N-O-W. There have been over 35,000 jobs posted to the site in the past 30 days - everything from building Facebook apps to ghostwriting books, developing marketing materials, graphic design work and writing executive bios.

How it works: You submit a proposal for the work, get hired and agree upon terms and milestones. At the end, you submit your invoice and funds are released from escrow. This is key, because one of the things freelancers and e-lancers struggle with is getting paid and getting paid expeditiously. So the fact that eLance provides a tool to facilitate this and that the project is funded up-front is significant benefit.

As freelancing has traditionally been, e-lancing is great way to get a foot in door and build a reputation. You'll be rated on your work (much like eBay's rating system for sellers). The more positive your rating, the more likely work is to come your way. Over time, some e-lancers pair up with other highly-rated e-lancers and bid on bigger, more profitable pieces of business. So, you may start by going it alone and end up joining others and earning a piece of a potentially bigger pie.


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