Do you love teaching? Do you have the qualifications to teach on a particular subject? Why not be a tutor?

Tutors work at many different education levels. It’s not all K-12; college students need tutors too.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Qualifications vary on the type of tutoring you want to do. Some may require that you be a credentialed teacher. Others may only want you to have a college degree.

You can work for a tutoring service or seek out your own students.

Job Duties

You may work regularly with particular students or be available at particular times for whichever students come looking for help.

The basic job, of course, is to help the students improve in whatever subject you are tutoring.

Your hours may be very flexible, but you have to be available at times that people are going to want a tutor.

Equipment Needed

If you’re an online tutor, you’ll need your computer and high speed internet access.

Where to Search for Jobs

Education job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru
College campus bulletin boards if you’re going to tutor local college students. Post your information.

Related Scams

Tutoring is of course subject to the usual “pay to show your interest scam,” but there’s another interesting possibility.

You answer an ad for a tutor, and are told that you will be paid by certified check. They want you to cash the check, take out your pay and send the balance on to someone else.

This is related to the mystery shopping scam or payment processing scam where they tell you to take your mystery shopping pay out of the check. It’s fraudulent, and you are suddenly responsible for the money. Worse, you can face criminal charges.

Starting your own blog is a pretty popular online business model right now, but it’s not the only way you can make money as a blogger. You can also do pretty well by blogging for someone else.

Often the pay is not that great, however. Many companies pay by ad revenue shares or by page views. But you can sometimes find hourly or per post pay.

Blogging for someone else’s site means you have less worry about the marketing side of things… although if you’re getting paid by the view or ad revenue you might want to make some time to market your posts.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Many companies will want to see blog post samples that you have written. You should also have a strong interest in the topic of the blog and know how to find great information to share.

WordPress is the most common blogging software, and being familiar with it can be a big help. Be prepared to learn other systems if necessary.

Job Duties

Writing interesting blog posts is the most obvious part, but that is not all a blogger does. You often have to do a bit of research on your topic. You will probably be expected to respond to comments and encourage your community.

Equipment Needed

Probably just your computer and internet connection.

Where to Search for Jobs

Blogging job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru

Related Scams

There aren’t many specific to blogging work at home job scams out there. However, you should always keep in mind that if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Don’t fall for outrageous promises.

I got thinking about this job due to my oldest sister. You see, she is a work at home computer programmer, and not a freelance one. She has a regular employer.

As with many work at home jobs, this can be done as an employee or purely freelance. You might telecommute part time and be in an office the rest of the time. But as computer programming really doesn’t require a lot of face to face interaction, it’s about perfect for working from home.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

You need to have the skills for the particular type of programming you’re going to do. In many cases, a college degree is necessary.

Job Duties

Programmers will generally have to code, test and debug according to the needs of their employers. You may be modifying existing programs or helping to start an entirely new program.

Even from home, you are often a part of a team of programmers working together on a particular project. You will need to know how to cooperate and plan as necessary with your fellow programmers.

Equipment Needed

Your basic needs will of course be a computer and a high speed internet connection. You may also use programs such as Skype to keep in contact with your employer and coworkers.

Where to Search for Jobs

Not all of these sites focus on jobs you can do from home, but it’s worth searching all around when you want to work from home.

Craigslist
FreelanceAuction.com
Dice.com
GetAFreelancer.com
Hire My Mom
Elance
Guru
LimeExchange.com
Monster
Job.com
oDesk.com
Project4Hire.com
RentACoder.com
ScriptLance.com
SearchWebJobs.com

Many people think about product assembly or crafting when they start looking for work at home jobs. It sounds great, getting paid for your artistic skills.

Unfortunately, this is one of the most heavily scam-ridden areas of the entire concept of working at home. The number of legitimate employers in this area is exceptionally low. But people keep on looking because they’re comfortable with their creative skills and may even have real talent.

In general, if you want to use your crafting skills, think about starting a business selling your own products on Etsy. Your odds of making money are probably quite a bit better.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

This will depend somewhat on what you are doing. In general you will need good manual dexterity and an eye for detail.

Job Duties

Assemble products to the standards required by your employer. This may include sewing, gluing or other crafting skills.

This is where the big catch comes in for the classic scams . Working up to the standards is essentially impossible. Since you often pay for your supplies and will only get paid when your work is accepted, it’s easy to lose money and incredibly hard to earn anything worth the time you spent.

Equipment Needed

Depends on what you are assembling. A sewing machine if you do sewing, for example.

Where to Search for Jobs

Good luck! Legitimate jobs are very, very few and far between on this one. But if you must search, don’t call it crafting. Be more specific, or search for “artisan”, “seamstress” and the like. There may still be scams, but you’ve improved your odds.

Try job boards such as Craigslist and Monster, but be aware of the standard signs of a scam. Finding this kind of work takes a great deal of caution and skepticism so that you do not merely fall for one scam or another.

Related Scams

The majority of positions in this field have the potential to be a scam. Don’t pay to show you’re serious. Research any company you are considering contacting, especially before you send any money. A Google search on the company name plus scam should give you a good starting point; if not, start asking at the forum and see what others can come up with for you.

A forum poster gets paid to post in forums. It’s a pretty simple job, often with minimal requirements. Unfortunately, that minimal part also goes for the common pay, which may not be great. But if you enjoy the topic it may not be such a bad deal.

Forum posters may be hired by people wanting to grow their forum or by people wanting to market their business. In either case you need to follow the rules of the forum you are posting on. Use whatever signature your client wants you to use for your posts.

Pay is often in the $0.15-0.20 per post range.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Many forum posting jobs do want you to know a little something about the topic of the forum. They’re prefer to hire a parent to post in a parenting forum, for example, or someone who enjoys photography in a photography forum.

You should have sample posts ready to show for companies you are new to. Over time you can build a good reputation to get more work from particular companies.

Job Duties

Post on the specified forums as detailed in the assignment listing. Job assignments may tell you how often to start a new thread versus responding to one started by someone else. They may tell you how much to spread your posts apart in time.

Your posts should match the style of the forum. If most users use popular chat abbreviations such as LOL or IMHO, you’re probably safe to do likewise. Your spelling and grammar should be excellent.

Equipment Needed

If you’re here, you probably have all you need. Computer and internet connection. A Paypal account is a good idea too.

Where to Search for Jobs

Digital Point Content Creation forum – Just look for forum posting jobs. Other writing jobs also listed here.
Coding Forums Vacant Job Positions forum – Only occasional forum posting jobs, mostly coding positions.
Best Forum Posting
Forum Advantage/Paid Forum Posting – Owned by the same company
Forums First
Forum Post
Inb0x
Kickstart Your Forums
Posting Direct
Webvigor
Wired Flame

Related Scams

One of the challenges with this type of work is that companies can sometimes be slow to pay or suddenly quit paying. This is probably the most common complaint of forum posters. Doing the work you were assigned and not getting paid is a very unpleasant experience.

Keep track of the posts you make for each company you work for. If you start getting excuses for why you aren’t being paid, keep asking for your pay until you get it, and decide if the company is worth working for in the future. Sometimes it will be a yes, sometimes a no, depending on how constant the problems are.

And never, ever pay to show that you’re interested in one of these jobs.