How To Make Money From Home No Scams

Making Money at Home - No Scams

Whether your fresh out of school, a stay at home parent, currently unemployed or simply looking for supplemental income, you have probably searched for ways to make money online and been overwhelmed by the amount of material presented to you.

You may have even bought a system or been roped into a "work at home job" that required a membership fee in order to use their amazing software or get access to ebooks and some "secret" methods. Most likely you were disappointed and are now jaded about the possibilities of working at home from the internet. Now, every opportunity you see smacks of "scam.

On the bright side its good that you now have this experience and have a more critical eye towards these schemes. But, do not allow that experience to take away the huge potential in legitimate work at home opportunities that do exist.

The following are opportunities I have personally used to develop a full time income from the comfort of my couch and often even the local coffee bar.

• At Home Tutoring
• eBay Sales and Arbitrage
• Writing Articles For Passive Traffic Based Income
• Writing Content for Upfront Money - Freelancing and Spec Writing
• Designing Simple Artworks for Print On Demand Resources

As a College graduate it could be assumed that I have the necessary basic education to provide tutoring at the Elementary and High School level. You may think, its been too long or you have not completed an advanced education, so this option does not exist for you.

In truth, my at home tutoring income derives from my self taught skills and hobbies.

• Art Tutoring in Painting Methodology and Drawing (Children)
• Photoshop Skills (Adults)
• Basic Computer and Internet Use (Adults)

The only academic based tutoring I have done professionally is in SAT Preparation. As a former Kaplan Instructor I have a background in that field. What unusual experiences do you have that others may be interested in learning?

How to make money as an at home tutor

I made simple listings on my local craigslist and let them sit. This cost me nothing to try and I was able to screen those who responded via email and phone before arranging any meetings. Of course, there is no need to do most tutoring at home, anything book based or off a computer could be done at a local library, college campus or coffee shop.

Depending on the skill you can offer, you can also put up basic flyers at your local grocery store, library, colleges, churches and community center. With some creative thinking you can come up with dozens of locations that will have your ideal customer.

Online Resource for Working as a Tutor

I also use a service called Wyzant, this service allows you take online tests to confirm your areas of expertise, create a tutor profile and be matched with students in your area. Contact information is not shared until the potential student makes a preliminary payment into an escrow account. So you are guaranteed payment for your time. Options for background checks also exist, so parents are more likely to trust the service than they may from a simple flyer.

See if you have what it takes to be a Wyzant Tutor!

What Can I Charge as an Online Work At Home Tutor

My base rate is $30/hr with some specialized services costing more and offers of contracted lessons given better rates. Ive also worked in trade for guitar lessons, yoga classes and massage sessions.

Its unlikely you are unfamiliar with eBay, and you may have even tried it in the past. Often, eBay is treated as an online garage sale and it can quickly become more time then its worth listing and packaging little doohickies for small profits. Sometimes items dont sell, you have to figure out where to source items, foriegn suppliers undercut your costs and research of random items becomes a bore.

But its actually quite easy to work eBay sales into your everyday life if you take advantage of market arbitrage opportunities. At one point I was making a reliable income by simply reselling items I purchased from eBay back on eBay. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Without getting into the complications of marketing and perhaps selecting a niche for a long term eBay business, let me point out some very easy sourcing opportunities that you may be overlooking.

• eBay/Craigslist Arbitrage - Its quite easy to find low cost items on craigslist quickly check the average completed sale price on eBay and purchase and list the item if it fits your margins. I personally will not bother for anything less than a 200% discrepancy. This works both ways.
• Buy in Lots - Break into pieces - this works particularly well if you have any technical, automotive or craft background. By wholesale or auction lots of items that are either in high demand or very unsaturated and then break into smaller lots. You can often reuse packing materials and even start using the same listings if you stay within one niche of items. My experience was in iPod lots, DVD lots and Gaming System Lots, its fun and profitable if you do it within a a field you enjoy. 
• Take advantage of store closings and major sales - Do you get the occasional buy get one coupon or 50% coupons from major retailers, yet have no desire for any big box items? Take a quick glance at the eBay market and see what the closing price is on a easily shippable big ticket item like a gaming system, designer seasonal clothing item or expensive home appliance can you turn a profit...you usually can. Everyday staples sell well on eBay , is any local business closing or clearing out a seasonal item? Get in the mindset of finding deals based on resale opportunities and you will quickly find yourself unable to to not find an opportunity!
  

The internet is built on words and content and the online businesses of this world are always looking for content and locations to find new customers at.

There are many reliable sites online that will handle the technical end of getting your words online and help you to get relationships with advertisers who will pay you directly. You may shrug off this opportunity imagining you are "not good enough" or have nothing to say. But, its a fact that we as readers respond best to people we can relate to. Which means, whatever you are in to, whatever your perspective, there are readers who would prefer to hear from you and wont be critiquing your every word and punctuation mark.

There is great money to be had in personal product reviews, accounts of your specialized knowledge in any hobby or profession and even in fun stories about your travels. As you get a feel for the process and find your voice its not inconceivable to make thousands of dollars monthly doing just what I outlined once you build up a portfolio of work online.

Best resources for writing online for money:

• Hubpages.com - The site you are on is the best resource online for getting the most exposure and learning the basic methods for doing this well. I may earn from this article, you think I was sharing solely out of my good graces? Maybe, you could do better? Go ahead and look around the site if you are intrigued sign up and try it out.
• Infobarrel.com - essentially, a knockoff of the Hubpages program, if you can do one, you can do the other and its always a good idea to experiment and spread out your activities.
• Factoidz.com - not on the same caliber as the first two but has some interesting formats for product comparisons and offers upfront payment and revenue sharing without you ever having to have your own advertiser relationships.

Writing and marketing online is a rapidly expanding field and shows no sign of slowing down. While the country has complained about a recession, i have watched my online profits grow and am now buying a house with profits derived solely from working at home. Notice, I didnt say a Yacht or my third house or a Lamborghini, just a house for my family which I get to spend as much time with as I want.

Writing online for advertiser revenue is a relatively new industry, only becoming possible in the past ten years as our world has become more "wired." But, writing articles and creative stories for publications is a long established field that is made easier to integrate into via the internet.

Traditional Publications continue to purchase articles and stories from first time authors everyday. One only needs to purchase a single book or simply look into the fine prints of their own favorite magazines and journals to find out where to submit and how to submit works.

In addition, blogs and websites are rapidly becoming our most prominent media and the owners of such sites also will pay upfront for content. Freelancing is made much easier in the modern age by the easy connection of buyers to sellers.

Freelancing for Traditional Media

There is only one book, Writers Market, that is needed to begin an attempt to be a freelance writer. the book contains thousands of addresses, submission guidelines and industry information that one needs to begin to sell article on spec. Wherever your interests lie, from model railroad collecting to hiking enthusiasts there exists a publication that caters to you and they all buy articles. There are fields that would be interested in your knowledge.

Freelancing Job Boards

A thriving marketplace exists for freelancers, built in a similar manner as eBay with an added element of social networking sites like Freelancer.com, Odesk.com and eLance.com will all allow you to create a user profile, highlight your skills and bid on open freelance jobs. You can feel secure that you will get paid for your time as they have an escrow service that the buyer must use in order to do business on the site.

Additionally, you could look into Constant-Content.com and Demand Studios and do one off topics for pay ranging from $5 to hundreds of dollars for individual articles in pre-selected topics.

As an artist, it can be painful to part with original works and you can only sell them once. The simple solution to that is to sell prints and posters, but why stop there? Print On Demand services and the communities that have sprung up around them have created the ability for anyone with creative tendencies to build entire online merchandising shops.

Any picture can be turned into coffee mugs, t-shirts, calenders, posters, coasters, you name it, it can be printed. Since your item is not printed until the customer buys it, you never pay a cent. You just set a commission and design a free online store though the built in options at the sites.

Even if you do not feel you are traditionally creative or visually orientated, remember that people enjoy fun slogans and commentary about social phenomenons. Even big sports events or website memes can be capitalized on. The sites and designs are easy to build and many of the designers in these rather thriving communities also shop there.

The top sites for this type of business are:

• Zazzle.com
• Spreadshirt.com
• Cafepress.com

If you are really clever , you may be able to use this income stream in conjunction with everything that has already been listed, you can build a niche store for any topic you write about that has quotations or public domain images. You can create t-shirts for your tutoring or eBay brand to promote your services or even offer that same printing ability when other small business owners see your shirts.
The clothing and merchandise is often at a higher quality and equal pricing as any of your local printers could compete with.
Every Holiday, Big Sports Event, Chain Letter and Fun Slogan is an opportunity for related merchandise that can be sold easily online or even purchased yourself and sold for a profit in your local area.

Photo Credit- Janet59- All Copyrights to Photographer - Used via CC License