How to find a real work from home opportunity

I guess I will go with the obvious first and state that what sounds too good to be true probably is. Not that some people don't think up ways to make incredible amounts of money online, because they do; but those people are not going to be telling everyone about it. Anyone that is legitimately making a ton of cash online with some glorious secret system doesn't need your $29.95, and they don't want your competition.

Before pursuing any job opportunity online make sure to check into it as much as possible. Try typing the name of the company or program and "scam" or "ripoff" into google search together and see what comes up. Automatically skip anything that has a lot of complaints, wants a credit card number or too much other unnecessary personal information, charges a fee to participate, or is offering outrageous amounts of pay for the work performed.

Once you have the abundance of scams out of the way and think you may have found a legit opportunity; you should next ask yourself what the demand is for the product or service, and how many other people you will have to directly compete with in order to make any money doing it.

MLM's and affiliate programs aren't necessarily scams, but they can get played out due to market saturation pretty easily. Avon is a prime example of that. If I wanted to buy an Avon product, I would have at least 10 different reps that I could choose between to buy it from, just from people I can think of right off the top of my head. Even legit opportunities can be less than ideal for making money when there are more reps than customer demand can keep afloat.

What you are doing here by writing articles on Hubpages is one of the better ways of making money online over time, but it will take a while to get your content, traffic and reputation built up before you start to see any real earnings. Just be patient and stick with it and you can earn some good extra money, but be realistic about your goals. Chances are that you are not going to turn into the next J.K. Rowling, so don't expect to quit your dayjob.

The virtual assistant idea Ambition suggested is a very good one. I know several people that are doing this sucessfully, including myself. As companies are tightening their belts, many have started outsourcing tasks or projects in this way instead of hiring regular employees. I have done fairly well working as a virtual consultant for quite some time now. Unfortunately, there are now a lot more people looking for work in this market, and the jobs are generally going to the most highly skilled and experienced of the applicants.

As far as specifics, one of the best legitimate online jobs that I can recommend right now is ClickNWork.com. ClickNwork is somewhat of a virtual employee job brokerage type of program that is targeted towards matching skilled workers with professional businesses. You can get real online work as a web researcher, a trend spotter, a professional writer/editor, an information specialist, a consultant, or an analyst. Since this is a legit job; dont be surprised that they want to see a real resume, expect you to pass pre-employment skills tests, have fairly high expectations, and will not accept everyone. Pay ranges from $5 to $150 per hour depending on your qualifications and starts out part time, but can increase to full time if you perform well and there is a demand for your specific services.

Another real online job that is less demanding in skill and experience is working at Chacha.com as a guide for Cha Cha mobile texting service. Cha Cha guides provide fast responses to questions that mobile phone users ask by finding the answers using search engines, and then texting the answer back to the client's phone. Guides are paid per each question answered.Two other companies somewhat similar to Chacha guide jobs are Google Answers, and Askdownunder.

If you have enough knowledge in a specific field to qualify as an expert, then you may also be able to work for sites like Bumperbrains, Kasamba, Keen, Liveadvice, Supportfreaks, or Surfbrains. There are also many freelance job sites like Guru, Elance, etc. Some good resources to look for known legitimate work at home jobs and check for possible scams are NetScams, Scamfreezone, and hopefully soon http://ework411.blogspot.com/, provided that I can stop hubbing long enough to get the info I know into my new blog for you to read.

As you can see, it is clearly very possible to find real online work if you are qualified, and willing to take the time to search out the good opportunities from the plethora of scams. But in the long run, these jobs are the same as any other regular job in that you are still working for someone else, with all that entails. If you are truly seeking freedom in your lifestyle and the ability to eventually determine your own income, then you should really be going into business for yourself. Almost any business idea is a great opportunity as long as you are good at doing it, and have the dedication required to make it suceed.

A close friend of mine has always dearly loved fish tanks, and his biggest hobby is fine carpentry and woodworking. He started out small, designing and making aquarium stands in his garage workshop on weekends, and then selling them at a local pet store on a consignment basis. They sold well, and it did not take long until the local pet supply distributor asked him about carrying his products, so he quit the job he hated and no longer sits in a cubicle all day. He now works full time making more than he did at his job by doing what he loves to do. He started to have a difficult time in keeping up with demand because he is very good at what he does, has reasonable pricing, and is targeting a specific niche in which there is not a lot of competition for his products among other vendors. Due to that, he just took on his first part time assistant last year. This may not be a good opportunity for everyone, but it is certainly ideal for him. It is experiencing growth, making him a decent income, and providing him with flexibility.

Most of the really great small business ideas seem to work like that, so the key is to think outside the box. Ask yourself what you are good at and enjoy doing, and then try to figure out a way to make money doing it. You may even surprise yourself, and create your own golden opportunity.