Are Legitimate Work From Home Jobs Difficult To Find?
Finding legitimate work from home jobs can be a difficult task. There are so many shady opportunities in the marketplace, not to mention misinformation when it comes to this industry. Many of the opportunities require startup costs, training courses, and some even have travel expenses and/or car requirements.
Here are just some of the opportunities in the marketplace that you’ll come across in your research for legitimate work from home jobs:
Paid surveys – this is where you would get paid for taking a survey that would allow a company to get consumer data. The advantage of this is it can be done in your spare time whenever you want, and it’s not hard work. The disadvantage is that there are many products in the marketplace that charge you either a one-time fee of around $20-50 (or sometimes a monthly fee instead) to access these surveys. Then many of the surveys could take you an hour to complete and only pay you $5, and in my opinion that’s not time well spent. It’s totally up to you to decide if you want to classify this as legitimate work from home jobs.
Mystery shopping – this is where you can get paid to shop. At least that’s how it’s sold to the public. The REAL mystery shopping experience isn’t as convenient as it would seem. Many times you’re told what to buy, from where, and when to do it. You need to understand a few factors when researching this industry and other legitimate work from home jobs.
One example would be you have to go to a fast food restaurant at 5pm and buy 2 cheeseburgers, 2 diet sodas, and a large fries. Another example would be going to a movie theatre on a specified date to see a specific movie (sometimes that the company specifies regardless of what you want to see) and you have to make specific food purchases there as well.
In both of these cases you may receive free credit for everything to get your feedback on your shopping experience, and in other cases you may only receive a discount coupon or partial credit for your purchase. Either way your commute time and time to complete the activity isn’t paid for. Only the cost of the item or activity purchased.
Disclaimer on mystery shopping: there are many legitimate work from home jobs ‘mystery shopper’ companies, but there are also many websites that will tell you they’re mystery shopping companies when in fact they’re trying to get you to signup for 10-20 different offers for a “free” gift card – when in reality you’ll spend much more than the amount of the gift card just to qualify for it.
Virtual assistant – this one is pretty straight forward and is one of the more popular legitimate work from home jobs. The key is finding a good company to find you work. There are several of these companies listed in the Stay At Home Mom Solutions Guide, but you could try doing an online search for companies as well – just beware of the company you’re sending your resume to!
Virtual assistant jobs are ideal for stay at home moms because many of the positions only require 10-25 hours a week, so SAHMs can spend the time with the kids or doing things around the house and still make some additional income for the household as well. If you’re looking at being a virtual assistant as the primary household income though, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Internet marketing/affiliate marketing – this is where you can advertise other people’s products online for a commission on the sale. The advantages of this is that you don’t have to create your own products but still create leveraged (and many times passive) income using the internet from the comfort of your home. The disadvantage is that you need to have the proper support and internet marketing training to be successful. But if you can do this and create a substantial income from home IT’S WORTH IT!
The reality is that many of these legitimate work from home jobs aren’t “jobs” at all. They are either business opportunities disguised as jobs, or the people applying to them are just assuming they are jobs. Consider all this information and decide whether you’re looking for legitimate work from home jobs, or if you’re looking for a more lucrative business opportunity.
