Work at home tips – The Work At Home Blog

3 Types of Freelance Writing Gigs and How to Find Them

Most freelance writers have several sources of writing work where they can get paid to write articles. Some are ongoing, some are one-off, and some are gap-fillers. All can be good. Read on for a bit about each of the above categories and how to go about getting those types of writing jobs.

Ongoing
Finding regular writing clients can be a good thing. Do a good job and you might get ongoing writing work.

One-Off Jobs
By marketing yourself, you can find writing jobs that are one-off scenarios. Someone might need a press release written, might decide that they want to write a new sales letter, want help re-vamping their website content, or want another freelance writing service. Marketing can help these clients find you.

Gap fillers.
There are content companies and busy clients that may offer you an all-you-can-write buffet. Having a few of these eggs can be a good thing because you can make fast money writing when you need to up your earnings or when you have a gap in your schedule. You an also spend some of your gaps working at upping your passive income streams through writing for revenue sharing sites, such as InfoBarrel and HubPages, or through developing content for your own sites and blogs.

How to find Writing Gigs:

Find ongoing and one-off clients by marketing on an ongoing basis. Freelance writers who market can get found by clients and some of those clients could provide you with regular work.

In terms of gap fillers, sign up with a writing agency, start a profile on a freelance bidding site such as Elance, sign up with content companies such as Textbroker, Internet Brands, and Demand Studios so you can dive into one of these options as and when you need to.

Getting paid to write articles can be a business of feasts and famines. By diversifying your incoming writing work sources and by continually marketing yourself you can have a wide array of options available.

How Can You Make Money With Google Adsense?

Google Adsense shares ad revenue with publishers. This is a great opportunity for those that want to work at home part-time or even full time. The more publishing you do with Google ads on the page, the more money you can make online.You can sign up to be a Google publisher and make money from Google by utilising Adsense in many ways.

Here are some Google Adsense tips:

Start a blog
Join passive income sites
Post on forums

Blogs

Bloggers can add Google Adsense code to their websites. By doing this, you can earn revenue when people visit your blog. Join a blog network and you’ll share revenue. Start your own blog and you’ll earn 100% of revenue made on that blog. Even a blogspot.com blog (which is free to start) can make you money.

Passive Income

Many sites exist that allow you to share in their income. By contributing, through writing articles, you can earn revenue on an ongoing basis. Sites like Bukisa, InfoBarrel, HubPages, and Askables all have such programs.

Forum Posting

Some forums even share Google revenue as well. For every thread you start, you’ll earn a % of the revenue on that page. In this situation your Google publisher ID is put into your Control Panel.

One of the greatest things about publishing for Google Adsense revenue is that you can publish something once and earn from it indefinitely. There are techniques you can use to drive traffic to your pages as well and this can enhance the earning opportunities. Do some keyword research and you’ll make even more money because you can research the high paying keywords out there and that can increase your income.

How much can you make on Google Adsense?

The sky is the limit with Google earnings. You do need to be very careful that you follow their publisher guidelines otherwise you can get tossed out of the programme and have to forfeit your earnings. Google doesn’t divulge their earning formula so that they can keep the programme honest.

How do you get paid?

Google Adsense pays publishers monthly. For every month that you reach $100+ USD, you’ll get paid in the following month. You can be paid via a cheque in the mail or through direct bank deposit.)

Success Tips:

Post regularly, check your stats so you can analyze where your money is coming from, be sure to create valuable pages, and do keyword research.

(photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/owaisk_4u)

Work at Home Payments: Setting Up PayPal

When you earn money online, PayPal is one of the easiest ways to get paid. It is the defacto standard for those who make money online in terms of getting paid quickly and easily.

Setting it up is easy and getting paid is as easy as someone using your designated PayPal e-mail address. When someone pays you, the system walks them through a process and there isn’t a PayPal account number to be concerned with. They simply allocate the payment to the address you provided PayPal with when you set up your account. When someone pays you, you’ll get an e-mail notification at the same address.

There are things you should know about a PayPal account and here are some basic tips and PayPal FAQ’s for beginners:

Personal PayPal Accounts

Basic / personal accounts are free. You don’t have to pay any fees from amounts you are paid. As soon as you exceed a dollar value received per month and / or someone attempts to pay you with a credit card, your account needs to be upgraded to a Premier account. When that happens, you’ll pay a % of every payment.

Everyone is allowed (per PayPal Terms of Service) to have two accounts so it is advantageous to keep a basic account and sign up for a premium account as well. A lot of people start off with a Personal account and upgrade (or start a second account) later on.

Premier PayPal Accounts

The premier account will require you to pay a fee. This ranges depending on several factors including:

What type of payment is made to you (cash payment or credit card)
The amount of the transaction
Where the payment is coming from (Some countries have surcharges on payments)

When you receive your payment, you’ll get a notice via email either that:

You have new funds
Funds are on the way

When you have new funds, the money is in your account (minus any fees) and you can use it to spend online, transfer to your bank account, or you can request that a cheque be sent to you.

How long does it take for PayPal payments to transfer to your bank?

When you transfer it to your bank account, the transaction typically takes 2-3 days (although PayPal stipulates up to 10 business days). You’ll probably notice a pattern after a few transfers that tell you how long your bank takes to receive the money and what time the funds usually arrive.

If you receive a notice that tells you funds are on the way, someone has sent you an e-check. E-checks can take up to a few weeks to clear and all you can do is wait for a notification from PayPal that says the funds cleared.

Setting up your bank account on PayPal

You can set up a bank account easily. You provide PayPal with your bank information and then wait a few days. You’ll see two amounts (below $1.00 each) deposited into your bank account. When those amounts arrive, you simply log in to PayPal and confirm the amounts received. PayPal does this so they can determine they have your correct banking information for future deposits.

PayPal Bank Withdrawals

If you attempt to pay an invoice that you don’t have the funds for, it will initiate an e-check from your primary bank account in the PayPal system so it’s important to be careful when making payments. If you live in Canada or the UK and you have an available balance in your US funds account, you’ll need to move money between currencies to purchase something online or make a payment in another currency otherwise, it will initiate an e-check.

If you live in the U.S, PayPal will give you a debit card that allows you to make purchases or withdrawals from an ATM bank machine. You can also make withdrawals to your own bank account.

Beyond the fees you pay when you receive your money, if you transfer a small amount of money to your bank account (under $150.00) you’ll also be charged a transaction fee of $0.50. This is removed from your transfer fee.

PayPal Payments

If you try to make a payment in a currency for which you have a zero balance, an e-check can be initiated and this can take weeks to clear and your bank may have service charges if the e-check cannot be processed due to insufficient funds.

While PayPal does have fees, this service is definitely a must-have for anyone who wants to work at home and make money with their computer. It’s a fast and safe way to make and receive payments.

You can run plenty of reports from PayPal to help you with your records and they have other tools such as invoicing tools as well. Once you do get a lot of money happening in your account, they also offer PayPal merchant services and you can benefit from a lot of tools to help your online business run smoothly.

How Do You Find A Work at Home Job?

Querying the internet for real and legitimate work at home job leads can produce results that can confuse anyone. How do you find a real job opportunity for something that can pay you to do work from home? How to do you dodge the scams that are rampant on the net? Should you ever pay for information or pay to work for a company? There is a lot of information out there. Here are some basic tips for finding a work at home job:

Researching Work at Home Job Opportunities

Research a lot! Don’t jump into something quickly, rather check out various opportunities from more than a single source so you can be sure that no one is out there warning people against a scam. If someone is touting themselves as a guru to try to get you to buy their book or join their website, do some research on that individual as well.

Reviews

A lot of review sites exist that talk about what’s hot and what’s not in terms of learning programs you have to buy into. If you’re looking to start your own home based business that’s a bit different than simply working from your house for someone else so be sure you understand what you’re about to invest in.

Paying For Jobs

A company that wants to hire you should never charge you but a company that can show you how to create your own online income may charge you for that knowledge, coaching, and mentoring. Some teaching institutions can teach you how to launch a home based income opportunity as well but it’s important to choose an online school wisely and be sure they’re accredited as well as find out what % of graduates actually achieve the results that school promised.

Telecommuting, Job Lead, and Industry Specific Community Forums

There are a lot of places where people gather online to share knowledge about various topics and WAH is one of them. There are work at home Mom forums, work at home Dad forums, telecommuting forums that exist regardless of whether you’re a parent or not, and plenty of professional organisations online as well. Joining these is often free and can help you get information and ask questions.

WAH Job Lead Sites
There are a lot of work at home job lead sites out there that share job leads and tips. Subscribe to a few so you can have news about this industry sent to your e-mail box. Subscribe to this blog here for instance: The WAH Blog – Work at Home Tips. There are also plenty of classified sites that offer telecommuting job postings as well.

Informed Decisions

The most important thing you can do is to make sure you embark on any new opportunity with your eyes wide open and because there is such a vast amount of information available online, it’s easy to get dazed and confused and overwhelmed. If you take your time researching opportunities and take advantage of the many online resources that exist for those who want to develop internet businesses or find a work at home job, you’ll be able to make an informed decision.

Happy Boss’s Day To Me! Work At Home Bliss

October 16 is boss’s day. Are you ready for it? Do you still have a boss or are YOU the boss?

If you’re a freelance work at home individual, time to treat yourself to something that shows your appreciation since you’re the boss! If you work at home and have a boss, send an e-card to show your appreciation for not having to ‘see’ your boss everyday!

As a work at home professional, here are some things I’m grateful to my boss (ME!) for:

Unlike at my old jobs, I never have the problem of someone else taking the credit for work I did! Ok wait..as a ghostwriter I kind of do but it’s ok ‘cuz I get paid extra for that!
If there’s a run in my pantyhose, no one stares.
If I feel like wearing pantyhose and no pants, no one cares.
The coffee is awesome here (it was beyond sludge at the Big Meatball [aka: where I used to work])
The boss’s door is ALWAYS open and she’s very approachable! She just ‘gets’ me.
When I need time off, I GET IT; no questions asked!
I have unlimited earning potential here
No daycare fees and I can watch the Y&R and Coronation Street every day from my job

If you want to learn how to be your own boss, check out Legit Online Jobs

or find wah job info here.

If you work at home, what do you love about being your own boss?

Freelance Work At Home Tips: Diversifying The Egg Baskets

Working at home as a freelancer has its perks. Beyond the lax dress code you can save money on commuting, dry cleaning, lunches, etc. If you’ve found a great work at home gig, it can feel like you’ve hit the jackpot. If you’re a freelancer, you really don’t have just one boss and it can be liberating to be self-employed. A lot of freelancers find one big client to help pay the bulk of their expenses and extra clients are ‘gravy’ clients.

But is it save to work for one source?

If you’re a freelancer, you might consider diversifying your streams of income so you’re paid from more than one source. Or, do your best to get a contract. Freelance writers, freelance photographers, freelance web designers that get the bulk of their work from one client are in danger of being unemployed if they don’t have any type of work guarantee. Today could be payday and tomorrow could be the bread line if you’re not careful.

If freelancing and you have no guarantees of specific quantities of work from a big client, you need to diversify your income so that if there’s no chance of a contract and notice of any volume changes, you’ll be safe.

What if the big client eats up all your time?

If they keep you so busy you don’t have time for anyone else, do your best to put a buffer amount in savings and keep the pavement pounded regularly to watch for other jobs just in case.

Some clients don’t ever give you a contract and the work never runs out but if you’re not watchful, the rug could be quickly pulled out from under you and you could find yourself in trouble.

Budgeting, savings, a contingency plan and keeping up to date on available work at home jobs in your niche will all be helpful.