Sometimes, all I want to do is relax when I’m taking a break. One of the best ways, I find, to take a break while I’m writing is to entertain myself with one of my favourite freelancing shows, podcasts or cartoons. Yes, they exist. The guys at these freelance writing websites have turned their freelancing experiences into freelance gigs.

Freelance Freedom

This is a cartoon by N.C. Winters that I positively love. It’s published weekly on the homepage of FreelanceSwitch. Basically, it takes all the good, the bad, the misconceptions and daily grinding tasks of freelancing and rolls them into funny, often satirical comic strips. Perfect for a quick coffee break!

Hot For Words

This popular video podcast should not only interest writers but the nerdy and fact obsessed. Basically, it informs us of the origins of strange words which we may or may not use in the future. For example, did you know that clinophobia is a fear of going to bed?

The podcast is presented by an attractive, often scantily clad woman (maybe that’s why it’s so popular) who guides us through loads of cool words. This is a quick five minute break filler that makes you laugh, raise an eyebrow or just go “hmmm…”.

I Should Be Writing

This freelance writing website is a podcast presented by Mur Lafferty, a freelance writer. This is in audio format and gives the listener practical yet entertaining advice and insight into the world of freelancing and its many pitfalls.

The podcasts covers many different areas from the basics such as writing query letters to managing finances and organizing your workday to reach optimum levels for output. All in all, this is a good podcast if you have a while to spend listening to the musings of a seasoned veteran.

Write or Die

While this is considered a motivational tool to get writers writing, I think it’s a funny freelance writing website, and has loads of other uses such as beating your WPM record or just joking around.

Basically, it’s a word processor that times you when you write and keeps track of what you’re doing. If you slow down or stop writing for a while (i.e. you lay back and start spinning on your office chair, admiring the ceiling, etc) it will go red and redder  until some crazy, funky music starts playing and it tells you to get your fingers back on them keys! An easy to use, fun and perhaps even useful app for the procrastinating writer.

I hope that in some small, most likely insignificant way, I have cheered up a fellow freelancer somewhere who has just lost a contract, missed a deadline or is simply bored in their office waiting for an e-mail to come in and for the ball to start rolling after the weekend slump.

Warning: I take no responsibility for time wasted or deadlines missed due to your enjoyment of the above cartoon, app and podcasts!

What sites and apps do you look at on a regular basis in your freelancing breaks?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Over the years, I have learnt my lesson. Now, before the start of any projects, I will tell my clients that I charge by hours and give them an estimate of the time needed to complete the project. I will then use a desktop time tracking software to track the amount of time I have spent in the project and then charge my clients accordingly.

If you are like me who provide your services on the hourly rate, here are some free and useful desktop time tracking tools that you can use to track the time you have spent on any projects.

Baralga

Baralga is a simple and lightweight application that allows you to track the time you have spent on your project. On the home page is a big Start/Stop button where you can click to start the timer as you start on the project. There is also options for you to enter manually the total time you have spent on the projects. Best of all, it allows you to export your data to Microsoft Excel, CSV or even as a data backup.

Baralga is developed in Java and works in multiple OS.

Rachota Timetracker

Rachota looks slightly complicated than Baralga, but it is in fact a simple to use application with several useful functions. It allows you to define your working hours/day and give you a notification when your working hours are not reached/exceeded. It also allows you to define regular tasks (with priority) so that you can access to them easily on the front page.

While doing your projects, there will be times when you need to take a coffee break. Rather than stopping the timer, there is a Relax button where you can use to pause the timer. Once you are done with your break, simply click the Work button again to start the timer.

Rachota comes with an Analytics tool where you can use to compare the amount of time and work done that you have completed.

Rachota is developed in Java and in available for all platforms (that support Java)

Klok

Even though Klok is still in beta, it is surprisingly an useful and comprehensive time tracking application. For each project, you can further split it into smaller sub projects and manage it like any other projects. You can also create templates to be used for new creation of projects.

Once a project is completed, you can drag and drop to the Archive button (located at the bottom left corner) to archive it. At any point of time, you can also access the archive to unarhived any old projects. While Klok allows you to export your data to Excel spreadsheet, there is no ways for you to import any data. This might be a problem if you need to work on multiple computers.

Klok works in all platforms and requires Adobe Air to be installed in your system before you can use it.

actiTime Basic

actiTime Basic is a free, yet powerful timesheet optimized for your basic time tracking needs. Once installed, you can run ActiTime from your browser. Features include creating new users, setting up customers record and project details, enter the time spent for each projects, allocate your work schedule and best of all, generate an invoice for the time you have spent on the projects.

actiTime uses Microsoft Access or MySQL to store your data. Data collected by actiTIME can be exported to qbXML file and then imported by actiTIME Invoice Importer to QuickBooks® for invoice generation.

Time Tracker

Time Tracker is a Windows-based application. One thing that I like about this application is its user-interface. It allows you to see everything in one glance. The projects, tasks and links to reports/charts are located on the left pane and allow you to switch between each project easily and quickly. The main panel that track the time you have spent on your project is of a spreadsheet format so you don’t have to spend a lot of time getting used to it.

The reports section comes with three different type of visual report: text, chart and grid. Depending on your preferences, you can choose the one you like.

Time tracker also supports plugins. However there are only few and limited plugins that you can use currently.

Time Tracking Tool

Time-Tracking-Tool is really what I call a lightweight application. Weighing at only 1.3 MB, it is by-far the smallest applications among these 6 time tracking software. Even though it is small, it still comes with the complete set of tools to track your time effectively. You can create new tasks and add sub-tasks to it, activate the timer as you work on the project, view the report with bar chart. One thing that is lacking from this application is the ability to export/import data.

Time-Tracking-Tool is developed in Java and works in all platforms.

What other time desktop time tracking software do you use to track your time?

Image credit: John-Morgan

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Much of the power of the multitude of Craigslists are that while they certainly cover local communities, the lists are spread throughout the entire world. With Craigslist, it’s just as easy to search through electronics for sale in Poland as it is to search for auto parts for sale in Greece. The scope of the Craigslist database is just staggering.

However, this size also represents a significant search problem. While it’s fairly easy to search through listings within a specific city or town, how do you search listings posted throughout an entire country, or even the entire world?

Solving The Craigslist Search Dilemma

Everyone who has ever used Craigslist knows that the site is about as non-user friendly as it could possibly be. The front page consists of nothing more than a huge listing of locations that stretch from the U.S. all the way throughout Europe and Asia.

The front page offers not a single search feature. Instead, you must select a location first, and then you can search. A few MakeUseOf articles have covered some potential solutions, such as this article by Abhijeet which discusses the website SearchAllCraigs.com, or CLHack which lets you search Craigslist for listings with pictures.

However, by far the best free tool I’ve found for searching all of the Craigslists is the free CraigsList Reader by Motion Technologies.

Overview of The CraigsList Reader

The CraigsList Reader is a well written application that allows users to drill through the entire database of Craigslists, based on any search criteria whatsoever. The application is aesthetically impressive considering it’s a completely free application. Search results are displayed in the pane to the right, and individual ad content is displayed in the panel below it.

The Reader offers users a comprehensive search based on categories, geographic locations, and even subcategories and ranges (such as price ranges) depending on which category you choose. The selection boxes at the lower left hand portion of the screen allow you to select which demographics and categories to search through, view your saved favorites from previous searches, set up notifications (see below), or configure your Craigslist Reader options.

This is also the corner of the screen where you can view the search status and number of results as the Reader application sifts through the millions of Craigslist listings.

How It Works

The power of this application really comes out when you start using it. While the search itself can take a fair amount of time depending on the number of connections you allow (consider the fact that it’s sifting through millions of ads across the world), the results are more useful than anything you’ll find trying to sift through the website yourself.

For example, whenever I’m hungry for writing work, I will often search the entire world for writing gigs. While this may sound like a bit of a stretch, I’ve found some of my best clients in countries like China, Australia, and even Ireland. The Craigslist Reader is useful for local searches as well, but when you can do work on a global scale, this application can really come in handy. The results for such a search typically take about 20 minutes or more to complete (with 5 connections), but by the time it’s finished there are thousands of results to sift through.

While doing manual searches yourself can provide a lot of opportunities, eventually you’ll make it to the bottom of the list. At that point, the real game on Craigslist is getting to the opportunity faster than anyone else. That’s where the “notifications” feature of Craigslist Reader is useful.

When you click the “Add as Notification” box before performing a search, you can add that search to your notification list. What that means is that the Craigslist Reader will repeat the search as often as you tell it to, and when there are any new results, it will immediately notify you through a display, sound, or even an email alert.

This is an excellent feature, especially if you’re in a highly competitive industry and need to jump on opportunities before your competition. You can also tweak the Craigslists search by modifying the application options.

The key feature in the Options section is the ability to modify how many connections, or threads, you want to allow the application to use. This lets you scale back the bandwidth that the Craigslist Reader uses if you want to just let it run in the background while you surf the Internet. By carefully selecting the right thread count, you can tweak the Reader to make the most efficient use of your broadband Internet connection.

Why Craigslist Reader is Unique

While there are a number of web based and application based Craigslist readers out there, Motion Technologies really nailed it with this particular free reader. The search capacity, bug-free features, and the ability to tweak the application and alert settings to your particular needs sets this reader well above the rest.

In particular, if you are looking for job opportunities, just set up your search notifications, let the application run in the background, and before you know it countless job opportunities will be knocking down your door.

Do you have a particular method or tool that you like to use to search the Craigslists?  Share your opinion in the comments section below.

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SocialWhoIs allows you to set up a profile along with tags of what your specialised subjects are. So if your specialities are say SEO, Google, social media and so on, then you would put all that into your profile as tags.

But let’s jump back a step and get your profile started. When you are setting up your profile, you have the opportunity to enter your Friendfeed Remote Key. This will then import your Friendfeed profile information which saves you the trouble of re-entering it all again. I recommend doing this if you can.

As I said, you can choose to import all the profile information via Friendfeed or you can input it manually. Or of course you can enter as much or as little as you like. It’s entirely up to you.  But obviously the more you enter, the more chance that someone will find your profile. So it pays to reveals more.

The keywords are the most important part as this is what people will search on.

Enter all the keywords that you think you can talk about. Then save it.

When you search for your profile, it will now look like this :

So now if someone wanted to talk to someone else or even hire someone else for a Web 2.0 related assignment, they just have to go to the SocialWhoIs website and type in “Web 2.0″. Everyone who tagged their profiles with the “Web 2.0″ tag (including me) will then come up and that person will then have a bunch of people to choose from to contact. If the searcher has a really obscure tag search, then again, if someone on the site has taken the time to tag their profile properly then they will pop up.

I guess the initial point of SocialWhoIs was for people to find other people with similar interests to follow on Friendfeed, and you can still do that obviously. But I think this site is rapidly going to turn into a database for headhunters and employment centre workers to find suitably qualified employees, especially in this bad economic climate.

If you are currently unemployed or are looking for a new job, I highly recommend you make a profile on SocialWhoIs and put LOTS of descriptive tags on there. You never know who might find you on Friendfeed and come calling!

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For those who have come in late, Google Alerts is nothing but ‘email updates’ (and now RSS feeds too!) of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. It distills the results from the first 20 or so pages of its search engine results and sends you the alert. It simply allows us to automate our search, setting it just once instead of doing it every day.

For a freelancer, Google Alerts can become a homing missile in his or her arsenal. So here are some ways I use the service to save me lots of time and the dimes on my caffeine.

(1) Walk around the writer’s block – Get fresh ideas to write on.

The obvious…but for us keyboard tappers, Google Alerts are a fountain of fresh topics to write on. Simply, set up an alert on your area of interest and let the breaking news trickle (sometimes it’s a deluge) into your mail box.



(2) Be in step with your niche – Get the news delivered to your inbox.

A fine-tuned alert updates us on what’s happening where. New beta announcements, new software launches, new posts get indexed by the search spider and Google sends out the alert. For instance, set up a Google news alert with this – Windows source:cnet (delivers Windows related news from CNET.com).

(3) Become a cyber paparazzi – Become an ardent follower.

We all have our favorite blogrolls, our favorite authors or we just want to slaver over Brangelina. A specific keyword in the search query box allows us to note when and where any relevant snippet gets published. Follow them around on blogs, news websites and even on Twitter. For instance I follow some of my favourite blog authors through the blogosphere with this simple query – inpostauthor:Seth Godin [Alert Type: Blogs]

(4) Use it as a job scout – Go where ‘no freelancer has gone before’.

Life for a freelancer often means a 24×7 job hunt.  Jump ahead of the queue with just-in-time alerts. It could easily be on an obscure site not on your feed list. Sometimes major events in a company could signal an opportunity for the freelancer. Especially during a recession when a company looks to retrench its rolls with outsourced work. Seek, prepare and apply. Google Alerts is a powerful tool if set up with your skills matched to your niche.

(5) Proof the future – Prepare a job directory.

I try to take my job hunt a bit further by using the job postings as a future source of reference. Keeping a list of sites where jobs usually crop up means I have a prepared database to bank on when my well runs dry. Bookmark them, tag them, or put them on an Excel file or just a notebook. A ready list saves time and hassle.

(6) Climb up the SERP – Do your own SEO.

Page rankings revolve around keywords. Bring out your own list of keywords and see which sites rank near the top for those phrases. A look at the content of those websites will help you not only give you knowledge but also a bunch of other keywords to use. This is a precursor to the next activity.

(7) Be with the crowd – Take your work to the community.

A visit for information is just so casual. We can increase the interactivity with our niche by using the power of comments. A well thought out (polite, please!) comment with a backlink/trackback/linkback to your own article/blog helps to build a community on the web. Using something like Trailfire helps to find relevant forums where you can contribute. Make sure they allow linking. Such peer to peer communication not only brings in additional information to a post but also helps to generate traffic.

(8) Spot the spotter – Know when Google finds you.

When you are delivering content like there’s no tomorrow and like to know when Google indexes the page (and how popular you just became), Google Alert notifications enable instantaneous tracking. Use a unique line of text from a page as a Google Alert search term.

(9) Do some ego-googling – Manage your reputation.

On the web everything is permanent. Both positive feedback and acerbic comments. Use Google Alerts to see where your name crops up or if someone links to your blog. Somethings deserve a thank you…but I wouldn’t tell you what to do with an acidic barb. It also helps to keep tabs on your profile by removing long forgotten mentions on other websites. And just for fun see if there’s a personality clash with Googlegangers (namesakes)!



(10) Catch the copycats – Defeating plagiarism.

Copyscape is good but add Google Alerts to it. Make up some unique phrase or keyword combination. Put it somewhere in the article (preferably, towards the end)…and wait for the fly to catch.

Some Tips to Manage Google Alerts –

* Get friendly with Google search queries. There are specialized search queries for news and blogs too. For instance, Blog search has specialized queries like – [inblogtitle:], [inposttitle:], [inpostauthor:], [blogurl:]

* Alternatively, you can use the Advanced Search in Google Search to create a search parameter and copy it to your alert.

* Google has introduced RSS Feeds option to deliver alert results. It is a more compact option to the earlier email only option.

* If email is the choice choose HTML mails. You are always a click away from the source.

* Get accurate results by putting quotes around your search terms.

* Choose ‘Comprehensive’ as Google Alert Type for getting results across the web, news, blogs and groups.

* Choosing ‘once a week’ in the ‘How Often’ dropdown prevents clutter in your mailbox or feed reader.

Old world searching is passé`. It’s time to sit back and let the results come in on their own.

How do you use Google Alerts? Maybe a tip from you could add another to those mentioned.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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First of all, remember that like any job, blogging requires your time and talent. It can be really tough and it can also be really rewarding. There are a few prerequisites you need to have in place before beginning even a small freelance writing job on the blogosphere:

• Do you enjoy writing? Can you say what you want to say in a reasonable number of words?
• Do you have a voice? Do you have a distinctive writing style? If your writing sounds like a press-release, you might want to experiment with new types of writing.
• Can you get yourself to write regularly? If you’re not sure, try making a blog on Blogger or Wordpress and play around with regular posting.

In fact, this last point outlines how I started out in the freelancing world. The best resume is experience and a personal blog can be a testament to that experience. Long ago, I ran a personal blog that was more or less commentary on the things I did in my everyday life. Exactly 5 people in the world actually read that blog. If you want your own blog to have a little wider reach and even serve you in getting a future job, you’ll need to make the content a little more compelling.

The change came for me well over a year ago when I began to blog in earnest about technology news. At the time, I was doing it in collaboration with my university’s news website and I even had an editor to nag me. Contrary to what you might think, editors can be wonderful people. While some of them can be penny-pinching blog owners, most just want to help you produce the best content you possibly can. Anyway, after a year of forcing myself to go out and find new and interesting things to write about, I had a pretty stable blog.

Regardless of whether you do this last bit, once you have the prerequisites, you’re ready to start job hunting. Where should you go? Well now I’m going to share with you my top four favorite places to find blogger jobs (keep them in your RSS reader). 80% of the blogging opportunities I have had came from these sources:

(1) Simply Hired: Blogger Jobs – A general job aggregator that probably won’t get you many decent opportunities, but sometimes wacky stuff pops up.

(2) ProBlogger Job Board – Slightly better than Simply Hired, but often they have the same kinds of opportunities. Even so, the clientele is usually slightly more blog-oriented.

(3) Freelance Switch – Often has a number of good opportunities but the site is pay-oriented. To get the contact info you usually need to pay. Fortunately many employers list their link in the ad and you can simply use the contact form.

(4) BloggerJobs.biz – The cream of the crop in my opinion. Not only are some great jobs listed on this site, but if you request it, they’ll put up your bio so others can contact you directly (definitely worth the time it takes to write up a personal bio).

Another great place to look for jobs is right on your very own feed or list of favorite blogs. Don’t underestimate yourself. Most low to medium level blogs are more likely to risk a few articles on you than potentially miss out on a great new addition to their team. Unlike the “real world,” the internet really levels the playing field. As long as you have a decent writing sample or two (especially if those pages have gotten popular anywhere), you have enough to get in with a lot of great blogs.

Case in point, MakeUseOf is almost ALWAYS looking for talented new bloggers to fill the ranks of our contributors. I can tell you for a fact that this is one of the best sites I’ve ever blogged for in my short but varied career as a freelance writer. If you feel you’re already up to speed with some of the points in the first part of this article, I strongly encourage you to apply.

Next week I’ll go over the important aspects of picking which blogs to write for and how to avoid some common blogger downfalls. In the meantime, why don’t you share some of the sources where you’ve managed to find your blogging opportunities? How did YOU get started?

[Cartoon from Blaugh]

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Whatever the case, if you want to set your own hours, work at home, and possibly have some fun then read on! We go over some of the best online self-employment opportunities here.

As with any of these at-home positions you will find key benefits and drawbacks.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

Key benefits include:

• Flexible hours
• Convenience of working at home
• Convenience of setting your own hours
• Free training (depending on the job)
• The more you work the more you earn

Can you think of some other benefits?

Drawbacks may include:

• No benefits such as health insurance or overtime
• You must keep your own records and submit invoices for payment
• Pay your own employment taxes
• Repetitive nature of the job
• Being alone for a long period of time with no one to talk to
• Having to motivate yourself to work

What other drawbacks do you see or have experienced?

If you find that working at home is for you, here is a list of opportunities you may want to consider:

1 – Virtual Call Center Representative

The need for At-Home Call Center Reps is growing. This is a job opportunity with long-term growth potential. This type of at-home work involves answering in-coming calls for companies and can range from taking customer product orders to answering questions, or scheduling appointments. Many companies will allow you to work at-home as little as fifteen minutes a day to full-time hours each week. Some companies may want you to do the calling. It all depends on the needs of the company you work for. Always ask questions about the work involved and never pay any upfront fees to get started. Legitimate call center companies will pay and train you.

Some requirements for this type of work may include:

• Minimum of 18 years of age to apply
• Legally permitted to work in the United States
• Criminal and credit background check required
• You must like talking on the phone
• Must have good typing skills
• Having a room that is free from outside noise and distractions
• Have excellent verbal skills
• Basic computer knowledge
• Have attention to detail
• The ability to set aside certain blocks of time for work

Optional but often necessary requirements are sales skills and data entry knowledge.

Some Equipment that is needed:

• A computer with high-speed Internet access
• A dedicated land line telephone line
• Telephone (not a cell phone)

I tested LiveOps which is a Virtual Call Center. The registration process was quite easy. You have to fill out your basic contact and background information, take a reading comprehension test and record a voice audition. You do all of this online. If you are interested in trying out LiveOps start here

Some other Virtual Call Centers you might want to check out are West at Home (to apply), Working Solutions (to apply) and ACD Direct (to apply)

2 – Freelance Article and Ghost Writing Jobs

Online business owners need to drive more customers to their website to ensure a steady stream of potential buyers. Many business owners do this through blogs. Keeping content written for a blog is very time-consuming so many blog owners turn to freelance article or ghost writers.

This is where you come in! You can offer to write articles (from 400-1,000 words depending on the need) for small websites or blog owners. Usually you can get paid $10 to $20 per article, sometimes even more.

If you decide to become a ghost writer you will not get the credit for writing the article. You get paid to write articles for other people and they will put their name on the article.

Here are some categories you could write for:

• Health and Beauty
• Technology and Computers
• Internet and Blogging
• Music and Video
• SAHM (Stay-at-Home Mom) and WAHM (Work-at-Home Mom)
• Business and Financial
• Real Estate
• Health and Wellness
• Women’s and Men’s Issues

Basically, you need to have experience and expertise in your chosen category. But that doesn’t mean you need to be an expert. What are you good at? What hobbies do you have that you could write about? Do you have a good writing style? Are you able to teach someone else what you know?

How do you find places to submit your work or bid on projects? Craigslist is a very popular site to find writing jobs. It is free to post a job and free to find one too. You can search in your local area or nationwide. Here are some other popular sites you may want to check out as well.

• Associated Content
• Helium.com
• Constant Content
• Guru.com
• Journalism Jobs
• Funds For Writers

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3 – Freelance Contract Work

Many people enjoy running their own business from home. I was a computer consultant for years working out of my house. I taught classes at the local college but studied and wrote my lesson plans from home. I was and still do occasional web design work and all of that was done from home. There are a lot of freelance at-home opportunities if you look for them and you don’t want to be limited by the jobs you can do in your local area. The internet provides so many more opportunities.

One website you may want to consider is Guru.com. At Guru.com companies post freelance jobs and as a freelancer you can bid on them. Once you register and fill out your profile, submit a quote and once picked, work on projects. You get paid once the work is done. If you are just starting you may have to bid low to get a project but over time you will be able to raise your prices. As of this writing they had over 5,200 projects to bid on.

Basic membership is free but the asic account cannot upload Package Deals or a Video Profile. Their Services page will give you the breakdown of fees for their paid package deals. Once you login you fill out your profile and can also upload photos, your resume, samples of your work and videos. Guru.com charges all professionals either a 5% (Guru and Guru Vendor accounts) or 10% (Basic member) Project Fee.

Although this could also fit into the Freelance article writing category it encompasses so much more. They have all kinds of freelance talent categories including:

• Website Design / Website Marketing
• Graphic Design / Presentations / Multimedia
• Fashion / Interior / Landscape / Set Design
• Business Consulting
• Photography / Videography
• Admin Support (Legal, Medical, & Accounting)

These are just some of the categories and I encourage you to visit their website and find the category that fits your talent and job skills best.

4. Sell Handmade Crafts Online on Etsy.com

Etsy is an online marketplace similar to eBay but it is strictly for the buying and selling of handmade goods. If you have a talent for making anything from pillows to clothing, jewelry to baked goods, dog collars and everything in between then you can sell them on Etsy.

From their website:

“Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice: Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.”

Instead of buying something that is mass produced you can buy something on Etsy that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. They have over a million visitors looking to buy and they are growing fast and it is free to join. There is a 30¢ fee to list items and a 3.5% fee on sold items.

If you don’t already have one, you should set up a PayPal account because it is easiest way to accept payments on Etsy. It is free to set up a PayPal account. Of course, PayPal takes a very small cut of the money you earn but without a service like PayPal you would have no way of taking online payments so the fee is worth it.

Once your items sell you have to ship them to your customers. If you use the post office you can get free USPS Priority boxes sent to your house. Just sign up online and the postal worker in your area will deliver them in about a week. You can sign up by going to USPS and clicking on Supplies.

When you sell online you should get a separate email address just for selling. It helps you keep your sales emails separate from your personal emails. There are many places to get a free email address.

5. Get Paid to Take Surveys

While this is not really a job or career and you won’t get rich by filling out surveys, it is still an easy way to make some quick cash. Companies will pay you to fill out brief surveys or try their products. Usually you will make between $5 and $10 per survey and will often receive free product samples to test out. The key with paid surveys is to sign up with as many paid survey companies as you can. The more surveys you take the more money you are going to make.

These companies want to find out what you like and don’t like. They use the collective information and statistics from the surveys to help them decide who to market their products or services to. Large companies can spend millions on product research before putting them on the open market. They are willing to pay for your opinions and ideas to help them to figure out how to market their product.

It doesn’t cost anything to sign up to fill out surveys. Make sure you are using reputable companies though. If you are in doubt ask friends who take surveys for referrals or look for messages boards online where people are talking about taking surveys.

You should also set up a separate email account just for taking surveys to help you keep your personal email from getting mixed up with the survey email.

Here are some legitimate survey companies to get your started:

• Greenfield
• Pinecone Research
• Zoom Panel

Of course, I think the best benefit of working at home is sitting at my computer typing away with my fuzzy slippers on while I watch the Ellen Degeneres show. And, yes, I do get up and dance!

Do you have any other suggestions for home-based employment?   How do you make money from home (legal methods only please!!)

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