Business Opportunities and Internet Marketing Systems that Don't Work

Highlights

Home Data Entry
Envelope Stuffing Books
Work at Home Directories

Home Employment

Home employment does not mean home business, or business opportunities! It means a genuine home job, one where you get paid hourly, and where you are able to do honest and ethical work.

Work at home scams are so prevalent that many spam filters will flag or delete an email just for having related terms in it. This makes it very hard on people who have legitimate work at home information to be able to function effectively.

To further complicate things, even people who are perpetuating half scams are labeling them as "legitimate". Many sources for work at home information are nothing more than a listing of stuff that has never been screened for honesty - or not actually tried. There is a truth about home jobs that takes a bit of time to explain, but it is worth hearing:

Working at home has a history. About 15 years ago, it became apparent that technology was progressing to the point that it would soon be possible to employ people from their homes in certain types of jobs. And a few brave pioneers allowed trusted employees to complete part of their work off-site. But the realization of wide-spread home employment was a long way off.

First of all, only certain types of jobs could BE done at home. Those jobs involved computer work, or other work which did not require direct supervision, or which did not require interaction with other workers or customers.

Second, there was a problem of tracking productivity. Only trusted workers with a history of integrity were allowed to work off site part time, because companies had no way to insure that they would get the work they paid for.

Third, training had to be done on-site. Remote training was simply not possible for most jobs that could be done at home.

Fourth, the work must be entirely portable. I mean, WHY would someone hire you to type stuff for them, if they had to email it to you (it is already typed if they do that!), or mail it to you (they can hire a real secretary for less). The job has to be at least AS convenient to do from home, if not MORE convenient.

Scammers though, with full awareness of the reality, and of people's ignorance, jumped on the work at home bandwagon and began to take advantage of the idea. You see, writers were talking about the wave of the future, and many people wanted it, even though many of the technologies required were still in their infancy. But even when articles explained the limitations, people wanted it so badly that they were willing to believe there might be an exception, so scammers were able to perpetuate a myth that anybody could be hired for a work at home job.

Telemarketers were the first to allow people to work from home, followed quickly by phone porn companies, phone psychics, and other marginal employers. You can track someone's time on the phone, so they allowed people to do this kind of work, on commission, from home. Time did not have to be tracked, payment was made by performance, not by total time put in. Telemarketing is VERY hard. Very few people have the fortitude to endure the demoralizing routine of a telemarketer. It is difficult to be successful at it, and far more people fail than succeed. I do not feel that phone porn, or “psychic” work is even a consideration for honest and moral people, so I won't dignify it as a realistic option.

At this point in history, work at home jobs were either not jobs at all, but self-employment (and most of that scams), or jobs most people did not want to do, or outright scams. This is the time period during which I told people over and over, “The kind of jobs you want are not available. Period. End of story.” and it was the truth.

A few years ago, another possibility finally became available. It happened because of the proliferation of high speed internet, and from other progresses in technology. Today, companies have the ability to hire people for certain types of jobs, and track their hours.

These are real jobs. You have to interview and qualify for the job. Not just anyone can do it.

This new class of jobs falls in between classic work and self-employment, in that you MUST have certain conditions in which to work, and you must provide your own working equipment, according to the employer's specifications. They provide the job, but since they let you work at home, you must provide a suitable environment. And the employer is the one that determines what a suitable working environment is, not you.

Work available consists only of a few specific types. Generally they include telephone support, customer service, background checks, reference verifications, travel bookings, and other work that can be done through an internet connection and a phone line, and monitored through the same connections.

The nature of the work means that you have to have a phone line that you can use for the work – usually you will be taking calls, and the company will lock out your line, so that no calls can come in except from them.

You must have a high speed internet connection in order to access a remote desktop. This is what has enabled this type of work to occur successfully – you can connect into the employer's computer system, and record bookings, responses, access support resources, record results, etc.

Between the ability of the company to lock your phone into their system, and for you to login to their computer network, you are able to perform work to their specifications, and they are able to track your participation.

Many of these companies have inconsistent work. You may get a lot one week, not so much the next. Most aim to hire part time, not full time workers, and some will not have enough work or pay a high enough wage for you to live on it as a sole source of income.

The third phase in history has been entered. It means that REAL work at home jobs ARE available. But scammers are still perpetuating myths about what actually IS available. Here are some of the myths that are mistaken for the truth:

That jobs are available to anyone.
That porn and telemarketing jobs are real work at home jobs, or the only available work at home jobs.
That data entry or home typist jobs are legit (most are outright scams, the rest are almost invariably lead generation jobs, which are the paper equivalent to telemarketing).
That you can do any kind of work you choose from home.
That these jobs are plentiful.

While we are in a state of change, and technology is making more options possible all the time, some realities of working at home will always be true:

Only certain types of jobs will be offered by employers.
They will require you to qualify for them.
They will require that you prove that you can supply a suitable working environment and equipment.
They will require that policies and procedures allow them to track your work time, and they will insist on controlling that time to a certain extent – as is their right if they are paying you hourly.
Competition is fierce – there are many applicants for every job.

In order to work at home in a regular job, you will most likely need the following skills and qualifications:

Typing skills – requirements vary from 20 to 60 Words Per Minute, depending on the job in question.
Telephone skills – a friendly and professional telephone manner.
The ability to learn from phone and internet training.
Computer skills – the ability to function well in computer and internet programs.
A good job history – Poor job history will almost certainly disqualify you, because working at home requires a higher employer/employee trust level.

Now, every time I write about work at home jobs, or home self-employment, SOMEONE will email me to tell me I am wrong. The same thing happens when I give guidelines for telling good marketing from bad. Invariably, the person who writes me to tell me I am wrong, is either just starting out learning about the topic, OR, they are selling something that falls outside the definition of what I consider to be honest, viable, and worth your time.

Remember that working at home follows the same rules as working outside the home. You have to qualify, and you have to work by the boss's rules, and you have to accept having the boss look over your shoulder to make sure you are working.

That is the reality of work at home jobs.

For a review of a real company that hires home workers, and more info on getting more employer names, go to: http://www.skinnyshoestring.com/reviews/alpineaccess.htm

Written by Laura Wheeler, MicroBusiness Website Developer, and founder of the MicroWebmasters Alliance

Bad Marketing Ideas - The Bad Ideas and why they don't work.
Skinny Shoestring - Shoestring Startup Info and Resources.
LDS Home Business - LDS Business Resources
Good Marketing Ideas - Just the stuff that works.
Bad Website Ideas - Keep your site functional and attractive.
Simple Effective SEO - Just the important SEO for Do-It-Yourselfers.
Effective Free Marketing - Only the good free marketing tactics, no timewasters.
Bad Business Ideas - Everything that makes a business fail.
Home Business for Parents - How parenting helps you in business.
Fabulous Frugal Websites - Frugal doesn't mean cheap!
Western Hills Institute - Website Design Training for Microbusiness
Best Business Freebies - Great free items for startups.
Online Computer Instruction - Lessons in Plain English!
MicroBusiness MarketPlace - Find or promote a MicroBusiness.

Every reasonable effort has been made to provide true and accurate information on this site. We are not responsible for the content of sites that are not under our direct control, including sites that are linked to ours. It is inherent in the nature of business and the web, that things will change over time. We do try to keep our information up to date, and to avoid all defamatory or libelous statements about any individual or entity. If you are aware of inaccuracies in our information, we request that you notify us so we can investigate and make adjustments if our information is in fact inaccurate. We screen advertisements for this site, with the exception of Google ads, which we do not control the content of. Business and marketing success is dependent upon factors that are out of our control, such as individual effort, individual resources, market trends, local demand, and other factors. We make no guarantees of success of any kind. We provide information which, if used correctly,under the right circumstances, will reduce business, marketing, and internet purchase risks by a significant amount, but we cannot eliminate the risks of any of those activities. Use this site at your own risk. If you are dissatisfied with the content or presentation of this information, you may discontinue use of the site.