Sunday, November 30, 2008

Not a telecommuting job, but worthwhile: Work for the Census 2010

The federal government is taking applications for 2010 Census Workers.

The jobs generally pay around $18 per hour, and most workers will work a total of 5-10 weeks, going house to house in teams to ask people to complete the 2010 Census interviews. You can work part-time as a census taker, and even if you have a full-time job you can work evenings and weekends to be a census taker as a second job.

In some regions, longer-term jobs are available (starting now through the end of the census). This can be a great stepping stone to a federal job.

Give it a shot!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Internet Program: $1,600 per month in passive income on eHow? How?

I frequent writer message boards, and came across a woman on WAHM.com who claimed, a few months ago, to be making $700 per month on eHow. I didn't quite believe it at first.

eHow is a revenue-sharing site for "How to" articles. eHow is the site where Demand Studios articles are published. If you are a Demand Studios writer, then you are paid $5 to $15 for writing an eHow article--you get that money upfront and release all rights to the article.

If you are an eHow writer, you write for yourself in the eHow Writer Compensation Program (WCP). You make NO money upfront, but you get a percentage of ad revenue from readers reading your articles, clicking on ads, etc.

$1,600 a month is what the writer from last summer is up to now. She's published around 300 articles and earns $1,600 in PASSIVE income (older articles continue to earn money while she does nothing). Other writers following in her footsteps are reporting making $400, $500, more in passive income on eHow as well.

I decided to give this a whirl.

I've made $2.17 so far, with 3 articles and 1800 page views (you generally earn a specific amount per 1,000 pageviews). The more "friends" you have on eHow, the more likely you are to gain readers, which gains pageviews, which gains earnings. I've written articles on How to Get a Customer Service Telecommuting Job and How to Get a Writing Telecommuting Job, plus I threw in How to Cook a Gluten-Free Christmas Dinner for kicks :p

Generating passive income on eHow takes patience. Most writers report putting 20 articles per month on eHow, with first month earnings in the $10-$20 range. You gain "friends" on eHow, put a link to your articles in signature lines on email and on message boards, and you continually add more articles. By the time you hit 200 articles (by the way, an article takes me 10 minutes to write--we're not talking about long how-tos here) you can easily hit $200 per month, and go up from there.

Passive income is great because you only do the work once, but you reap the rewards on an ongoing basis. You're paid once per month, via PayPal, as long as your income is $10 or more. It's very simple, and the interface is easy to use.

Yet another tool to consider.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Too weird to label: SELL your Box Tops for Education on eBay?




Now this is a new one for me, and I'm fairly jaded when it comes to ways people make money on eBay. While selling those Box Tops for Education you find on food boxes doesn't rise to the level of selling used panties or cloth diapers designed for adults with baby fetishes (I'm not making this stuff up, folks--I wish I were!), it's still weird.

Box Tops for Education are those small, square labels on the tops of various General Mills food items (cereals, snack bars, toilet paper packaging). You cut out the Box Tops and send them to your kid's school. The school turns them in for money ($.10 per box top) to buy computers, supplies, etc.

Now that's all fine, and so you send a hundred a year in with your third grader, and you do your duty and it's all good, right?

Here's where eBay comes in. Someone, at some point in time, realized that maybe they could clip and sell those Box Tops for a little PayPal fundage, right?

And somewhere out there was a buyer, perhaps a parent who forgot to clip those Box Tops, or who wanted their little third grader to send in the requisite number of Box Tops and be like all the other kids.

So seller meets buyer on eBay, PayPal is exchanged, and all is good.

But riddle this one with me: why are Box Tops selling for MORE THAN $.10 each on eBay? I'm looking at auctions with sellers selling 100 Box Tops for $14.99 with free shipping...$17.99 with free shipping?

In WHAT free market system do items sell for MORE than they're worth (other than AIG paper)?

I'm going to guess it's the Parent Wars.

You know--those parents who want their third grader to send in the MOST Box Tops. $100 dropped on buying up five or six hundred Box Tops is nothing if their kid is #1!

I'm being snarky (ish). I can't think of any other explanation for this phenomenon.

(Wait...I started this blog post with a point...)

So--start clipping. You buy the products already. This is FOUND MONEY. Bundle the Box Tops in groups of 100 and get an extra $15 here and there.

Report back if you figure out why the Box Tops sell for so much!

Telecommuting Job Leads November 26, 2008

This will be a fairly short list, as even HR takes a break and winds down for the holiday!

Take a look at this article on how to find customer service telecommuting jobs. If you're looking to work at home as a CSR, this is a great launching place.

Happy job hunting!

Remote Technical Support: $13.50 to $15 per hour

Dot Net Nuke Programmer: $50 per hour

Publicity/Media Placement and Speaking Booker: pay not listed

Healthcare Legal Writer: $30 per hour

Senior Drupal Developer: $62K-$68K

Java Web Developer: pay not listed

Freelance Desktop Publishing: pay not listed

Appointment Setting and Lead Generation: pay not listed

Illustrator: pay not listed

Medical Illustrator: pay not listed

Coldfusion UI: must be in Somerville, MA area for monthly meetings

Applications Engineer: $95K to $105K plus bonus

Office Administrator: must be near Schaumburg, IL, for occasional meetings

Experienced C#/ASP.NET Programmer: pay not listed

Personable Sales Geek: pay not listed

Content Writer: 15 hours per week, $8 per hour

Network Engineer: $45K-60K

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Telecommuting Job Leads November 25, 2008

Happy job search! Here are today's leads:

IT Specialist: $58K-$108K per year, federal government job

Marketing Specialist: $82K-$107K per year, federal government job

Transportation Specialist: $107K-$139K per year, federal government job

Transportation Specialist: $103K-$134K per year, federal government job

Administrative Advisor: $98K-$127K per year, federal government job

Records and Directives Management Officer: $82K-$127K per year, federal government job

Adjunct Instructors for Spanish Language and Hispanic Literatures: pay not listed

Adjunct English Instructor: pay not listed

Online Forensic Psychology Instructors: pay not listed

Adjunct Online Sociology Instructor: pay not listed

Adjunct Online Nursing Instructor: pay not listed

Online Faculty, Pharmacology: pay not listed

Online Faculty, Sociology: pay not listed

Online Faculty, Psychology: pay not listed

Assorted Online Faculty Positions: see website for details and to apply

Website Project Manager: pay not listed

iPhone Application Developer: pay not listed

Online Advertising Sales: base plus commission, part-time

Java and BREW Developers: salary plus equity

Freelance HR/Employment Law Writer: $25K, contract

Non-Profit Development Officer: pay not listed

Senior Consultant, ICMI Consulting: pay not listed

Senior Graphic Designer/Web Developer: 10-15 hours per week, must be onsite occasionally in Oakland, CA office

SEO/SEM Director: pay not listed

Interactive Web Producer: pay not listed

Estate Plan Drafting and Elder Law specialist: pay not listed, part-time

Tele-Sales and Marketing: base plus commission, prefer in Bay area

Travel Writer/Community Manager: $1,000 per month

Part-time Software Engineer: must be in Seattle area, but is telecommute job

Medical Billing: pay not listed

Lead PHP and Python Developer: pay not listed

Blogger wanted: 4-8 hours per week

Software Developer: limited to specific geographical areas listed in posting

Rails Developer: Raleigh, NC area only

PHP Developer with CakePHP: Raleigh, NC area only

Data Entry: $10 per hour, part-time, must be able to train onsite in Stratford, CT

Manager, Development and Communications: 30 hours per week, must be available for meetings in Bergen and Essex County

SEO Expert: pay not listed

Freelance Web Developer: pay not listed

Market Research: $10 per hour

Broadband Industry Blogger: part-time, pay not listed

Blog Writer: $20 per 600-word post

Payroll/Benefits Administrator: 6-8 hours per week, must be near L.A. for occasional onsite meeting

Supervising Document Review Attorney: pay not listed

Drupal Wizard: pay not listed

VB.NET Developer: pay not listed

Web 2.0 Manager: $12.50 per hour

Ski and Snowboard Instructor Writers: $8 per tip

P and C Agent/Underwriter: base plus commission, may work from home after initial training in Denver, CO office

Educational Sales Executive: $1,000 per trade show, 15-20 shows per year, plus commission

XML Content Management Professionals: pay not listed

If you like this, please Digg it up!

Internet Programs: ChaCha Guide

I signed up to be a ChaCha Guide a long time ago, and then (ducks head in shame) never followed through. Now, ChaCha is exploding everywhere, turning into quite the trend on parenting sites such as Sybermoms and Mothering, with busy moms earning $.05 or $.10 per question throughout the day.

What is ChaCha? Basically, people using mobile phones can send a text message to ChaCha--a question, such as "Where are the cafes with free WiFi in Leominster, MA?" The ChaCha guide, logged in to his or her system, does a quick search engine search, finds the answer, and text messages the answer back, with links.

That's the BASIC explanation. You start at a low level on ChaCha and then prove yourself as a ChaCha guide. I was rather blase about the program until the ladies (I use that term loosely) at Sybermoms began signing up one after the other and nattering on about ChaCha. When one ChaCha guide commented that she'd done 228 questions, at $.10 each, in one day, my ears perked up. That's $22.80 for the day, for doing quick searches and texting.

From the ChaCha FAQ:

How and how much do I get paid?

Guides are paid on a per-transaction basis. The more efficient you can be, the more you can make. Guide pay currently averages $3 to $9 per hour, though many top Guides earn more than that. See specific roles for the amount of pay per transaction. Payments are made one of two ways: via a debit card from First Internet Bank of Indiana, or via direct deposit to your bank account once a month if your account reaches $100 or greater.


The ChaCha guides I know are either stay-at-home/work-at-home mothers or folks who already have office jobs where they can answer questions during their down time (and technically pull a salary while making something on the side).

Anyone ChaCha? Unfortunately, ChaCha isn't hiring right now--they have 4 levels of Guides (including transcription), but you can check the site regularly to see when they resume hiring.

Post your comments, PLEASE!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Telecommuting Job Leads November 24, 2008

Happy Monday!

I'm working on adding a wider range of job opportunities, so please let me know what you're looking for. LOTS of teaching jobs today!

Post your job needs in the comments and give me some ideas!

Here we go:

Customer Service: $24K-29K, salaried full-time, must train for 6 weeks in St. Louis, MO in January
Customer Service: $25K-$30K, full-time salaried, must be able to train for 6 weeks in Pittsburgh, PA, in January
Virtual High School English and History Teachers: pay not listed, FL and NV only
Virtual High School Math and Science Teachers: pay not listed, FL and NV only
Virtual Operations Assistant for Educational Consulting Company: 30 hours/week, flex time, pay not listed
Health Educator: pay not listed, must reside in Portland, OR area
Trainer/Consultant: some onsite meetings in Manhattan, KS, pay not listed
Adjunct Teacher: pay not listed
Virtual Classroom Administrative Assistant: $10.50 to $11 per hour
Healthcare Legal Writer: $30 per hour
Freelance Basketball Journalist: pay not listed, Atlanta area
IM Specialist: pay not listed
Audio/Video Tech/Dev: pay not listed, occasional onsite meeting in Austin, TX
Administrative Assistant: 10 hours per week, $8 per hour
Immigration Attorney: pay not listed
Web Designer/Graphic Artist: pay not listed
Artist for Website Design: pay not listed
EMR/EHR/PHR: pay not listed
Bookkeeper: part-time, must be onsite for some meetings near Evanston, IL
Web Designer/Developer: onsite once a week in Chicago
Community News Writer: west Houston area, part-time, pay not listed
iPhone Bloggers: $10 to $15 per post
.NET Developer: 4 hours per day, pay not listed, must be near L.A. for some onsite meetings
Website Developer: 15-30 hours per week, must be near NYC, pay not listed
Nutrition and Dietitian Writer: pay not listed
Graphic Artists/Illustrator: pay not listed
Social Media Marketing Influencer: $10 to $15 per hour
Web Programmer: pay not listed
Part-time Contract Paralegal: pay not listed
3D Artist for Game Development: pay not listed
MMOG Database Developer: pay not listed
MMOG C++ Game Client Developer: pay not listed
Bookkeeper: onsite 2-3 hours per week in Beaverton, otherwise work from home, $10-$15 per hour, 12 hours per week
Article Writer: $12 to $15 per hour--hint: put links to the two requested samples in your resume. Do not send new, original writing in the event that this might be a scam.
PHP Programmer: $70K to $90K plus equity
Country Recipe Editor, China: pay not listed
Ruby Contractor: pay not listed
Law Student Bloggers: $20 per hour
Sales Assistant/Administrator: fluent in German, pay not listed
Controller/Bookkeeper: mostly work at home, D.C. area
Japanese Fluent Licensed Attorneys: pay not listed
Writers: pay not listed

The $100 day

Plenty of online workers--especially those who work from home as freelance writers or internet program junki...er, professionals--set daily goals for earning. This keeps you motivated. It sets an end time for work (you're done when you've completed $100 worth of work), which is important when you work from home. It keeps the money flowing. You can insert your own benefit as you think of reasons for working toward the $100 day.

You can choose a different number...$50, $150, $200. $100 per day, 5 days per week, is $2,000 per month. Not bad for anyone working from home.

How do you do it? Take a look at the older posts here:

Associated Content

LetterRep

Demand Studios

BrightHub

I'm only listing sites that can pay off immediately, or within a week or so. Demand Studios and BrightHub both require that you apply (send resume, fill out web form), so those are contingent upon acceptance. Once accepted, you pick up assignments.

You could, for instance, in 1 day write 4 articles for Associated Content--the pay is very low there ($4-6 per article these days), but you do get residual income (ongoing ad revenue share). You could then write 2 letters for LetterRep; if accepted, that's $20. Write 3 $15 articles for Demand Studios (article fees range from $5 to $20 now). Write 2 articles for BrightHub and earn $20 (plus residuals).

That's 9 articles (each in the 400 word range), 2 letters (250 words each), and around $101-$109 for the day. If 9 articles and 2 letters sounds like a lot, it is--but it's very doable once you get going, and this is your typical work-from-home, earn $100/day scenario.

All of these sites pay via PayPal. Associated Content and Demand Studios pay weekly, while LetterRep and BrightHub pay monthly. This is why steady, constant work is important--you keep a pipeline of money coming in.

Give it a try! In the meantime, keep checking back for telecommuting job leads--I post them around 3pm EST.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Telecommuting Job Leads November 21, 2008

Here are today's job leads--good luck with your search! Flash Developers are in high demand today.

I'll be back on Monday with new leads.

Graphic Designer: pay not listed
CAD Drafting Subcontractor: pay not listed
Ruby/Rails Developer: pay not listed
Marketing ans Sales: hourly plus commission, pay not listed
Website Needed: $4,150 for project
Work Naked: PHP Developer: pay not listed
Accounts Receivable/Bookkeeper/Executive Assistant: up to 35 hours per week, $90 per hour
Social Networking Programmer: pay not listed
Part-time Executive Assistant/Conference Coordinator: 10-15 hours per week, must be onsite for occasional meetings in Lexington, MA, $20-$25 per hour
Flash Designer: pay not listed
Sales/Account Representative: salary plus commission, pay not listed
PR Representative: see ad for compensation details
FileMaker Developer: part-time, pay not listed
Flash Developer: pay not listed
Document Review Attorney: pay not listed
Assistat to CEO/Founder: 10 hours per week, up to $20 per hour
Graphic Artists: pay not listed
NYC Design/Culture Blogger: $15 per hour or possible trade for housing--see ad for details
Family Law Paralegal: $30 to $40 per case
Medical Biller: pay not listed
Web Designers and Developers: pay not listed
Native Language Conversational Tutors: pay not listed
Excel Pro: pay not listed
Japan Customer Service Agent: must be IN Japan, $29K+
ASP.net and MySQL: $25 per hour
Conference Salesperson/Coordinator: $32K +, Orange County
Attorney Editor: pay not listed
Web Development Engineer and Operations Lead: pay not listed
Certified CPT Coder: pay not listed
Contract Web Development Professional: $35 per hour
WPF/XAML Animation Programmer: pay not listed
CSS, DHTML Site Builder: up to $45 per hour, must be near Puget Sound

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Earnings Update: Associated Content, LetterRep, Demand Studios, and more

So, Demand Studios brought me a tidy income of around $2000. I'm not 100% done with them, but they've changed policies, and many of their articles pay $5 now instead of $15. In addition, they hired a variety of editors who appear never to have actually read their own style guide. I got a number of articles returned to me with editing requests that sounded like a 6th grader wrote them, so I decided to put Demand Studios on the back burner. It was nice while it lasted, and I hope those who still write for DS are enjoying the work and that it goes well.

Associated Content: I've published a handful of new pieces with them recently, and my top offer appears to be stuck at $5.79. While that isn't bad for a 400-word article I bang out in 10 minutes, it's excruciating for a well-researched article that took an hour. I do make $20-$25/month on residual income, though (translation: I get paid for nothing. Page views for my existing 138 articles generate "passive income" for me). I need to work on registering my existing articles with more sites to get more exposure and page views, to increase my passive income. Check out my article on Getting Rid of Student Loan Debt here.

BrightHub is promising--I've written two articles for them so far ($10 each), both accepted right away, and the editor is WONDERFUL. I plan to increase my writing for them soon, but we just moved (ugh!) and I picked up two contracts with educational publishers recently (yeah!), so that will cut into my keyword article writing.

Good old LetterRep just sent me an email--I made a sale on a year-old letter I wrote there! That same letter has now sold 4 times, generating $40 for me. I need to turn my attention back to LetterRep and generate some standard letters that will be "evergreen" (have long-standing appeal). Passive income is the BEST income :)

I also received a little more than $25 from Ebates--their special deal I blogged about came through for me. That was a nice PayPal!

How are your internet income efforts going? Post in the comments.

Telecommuting Job Leads November 20, 2008

Here we go, folks--telecommuting job leads for November 20. Best of luck, and please post any information you might get in the comments--for instance, if any of these leads is bogus, or if you get a bounce-back on the email, please comment so I can revise the post and save people the wasted time.

Job searching is so time-sucking--that's why I'm doing these posts, to help telecommuters and telecommuter wannabees to save time!

Best of luck!

Technical Writer: pay not listed

Associate Attorney: must be admitted to bar in VA/MD/DC, part-time, flexible hours, pay not listed

Lead Architect: must live in DC area to be available for some small team meetings, $120K+

Financial Services Part-time Administrative Assistant: 10 hours/week, $10-$12 per hour

Women of the Web Editor/Blogger: $100 per month plus ad revenue share

Flash Developer: part-time, pay not listed

Carbon Footprint Consultant: part-time, two-month assignment, with on-site meetings occasional in DC

Senior Web and User Interface Designer: pay not listed

Sales Manager: must be in San Francisco area, $45K-$55K plus bonus

Marketing Manager: pay not listed

Database Developer: pay not listed

Photo Editing/Image Processing: $100 per project

Appointment Setter: $15 per hour plus bonus

RN Office/Business Manager: $75K plus bonus, San Francisco area

Customer Service Representative: 8am-4pm Pacific time, $8-$10 per hour

Computer Programming Consultant: $25-$35 per hour

Omnigraffle Freelancer: 20 hours per week, $40-$50 per hour

Administrative Assistant: 20 hours per week, pay not listed

Flash Ad Creator: contract, pay not listed

PR Account Executive: sports-related, pay not listed

Regional Sales Manager (NYC, NJ): commission-only for 3 months, then base ($15K-$20K) added

Spanish Translator: $500 project

Illustrator/Print Designer: pay not listed

Renewal Specialist: pay not listed

Telephone Sales Representative: base plus commission, pay not listed

Software Developer: must live within commuting distance of Wilton, CT office; can telecommute after training

Book Sales Agent and Marketer: base plus commission, part-time

Adobe LiveCycle Forms Developer: pay not listed

Clothing Sales representative: salary plus commission

Flash Designer: must be near Los Angeles for occasional onsite meetings

Flash AS3 Developer: 5-week job, $50 per hour

Microsoft Network/Exchange Server Specialist: $75 per hour

Healthcare Field SAles Representative: metro Denver area, home-based

Senior Drupal Developer: $62K-$68K

Web Designer: must be able to go to North Dallas office from time to time

Freelance Artist/Adventure Game Illustrator: pay not listed

Accounts Payable: $14 per hour

Web/Flash Developer: 1 full-time, 1 part-time job, must be in metroWest/Boston area, pay not listed

QA person: part or full-time, pay not listed

Humorous Political Monologue Writer: pay not listed

Technical Editor and Desktop Publishing: pay not listed

Sales Representative for European Company: Atlanta-based, commission only for 3 months, base or commission after that time period

PHP, MySQL, X-Cart Developer: part-time, 30-40 hours/week

Technology Sales Position: $12-$19 per hour plus commission

National Accounts Manager: pay not listed, must register at MediaBistro to view (free registration)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Telecommuting Job Leads November 19, 2008

Welcome to today's Telecommuting Job Leads. These are real jobs, with real pay (hourly, salary, or contract), and NOT commission-only jobs.

Read on, click, apply, and good luck!

Telephone Lead Generator: pay not listed

Wholesale Account Executive: $65K-75K salary

Bookkeeper/Executive Assistant: $17/hour, 25-35 hours/week

AutoCAD Expert:$50-$75 per project

Embedded C++/Qt Developers: pay not listed

Web/Content Writer: pay not listed

Security System I Sales Rep: appears to be for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and/or Massachusetts residents

Independent Web Designer: pay not listed

Customer Care Representative: $30-$120 per book publishing client

Marketing Independent Contractor: pay not listed, 30-40 hours/week

PHP/SQL Guru: pay not listed

Foreign Language Content Analysts: pay not listed

Patient Advocate: Florida only, pay not listed

Web Designer and Day-to-day Content Provider: pay not listed

PHP/MySQL Developer: part-to-full-time, no pay listed

News Writer: part-time, $15/hour

Women in Photography Editor/Blogger: $100/month plus ad revenue for 5 blog posts/week

Private School Exam Curriculum Developer: pay not listed

Freelance Business Blogger: $10-15/post plus bonus

Online Virtual Auditorium Moderator: pay not listed

Business Development and Sales Manager/Director: $30/hour part-time, full-time in 3 months

Software Developer for WEb Harvest project: pay not listed

Technical Support Engineer/Pre-Sales Engineer: pay not listed

Customer Care and Tech Support: pay not listed

MBA Admissions Essay Editor: $200 per client

Account Manager: pay not listed

Medical Marketing: $15-$25 per hour or commission

Loan Officer: pay not listed

Experienced Web Developer: pay not listed

Loan Originator/Processor: pay not listed

Customer Service: 40 hours/week, $9.50/hour, Oregon residents only

National Account Director of Government Sales: $80K-$90K base

Windows/Linux Sys Admins: pay not listed

Press Release Writer: $100 per press release, several per week

On Call Scheduler: pay not listed

Project Scheduler, SureTrak: pay not listed

Freelance Web Designer: pay not listed

Joomla Web Developer: pay not listed

Category Editors: $12-$15/hour

Customer Service Representative: close to San Francisco, pay not listed

Telecommuting Jobs: How to Find Them

I have been telecommuting since 1998. Sometimes I have been a full-time employee, while most of the time I have been a contract worker or I make money from my own projects.

I have worked in writing, marketing, user interface testing, research, and accounting over the years. It's been a mixed bag :)

My husband telecommutes as well, full-time, and has since 1998. In his case, he works for a large corporation and is a full employee, with benefits. He travels as needed for business meetings (those are rare). Otherwise, all meetings are conducted by conference call, and he works from a home office here.

We know a LOT about how NOT to work at home. But what you're wondering is: how do *I* get a chance to work at home?

I've been writing for the past two years about ways to make money from Internet programs and freelancing opportunities. What I'm about to expand into is telecommuting: real job leads for real jobs that allow you to work from home.

Every day, starting today, I'll post a list of jobs found on the Internet that are telecommuting-specific. Who cares if your employer is based in Texas and you work in Massachusetts? Or if you're based in France but find a job with a publisher in New York? The beauty of telecommuting is that it doesn't matter where you're located: you're hired based on the quality of your work, not where you live.

I read on a variety of message boards and so many people are desperate to telecommute. Come back to this blog daily to find hot telecommuting job leads, with NO FEE like some places, and post comments on your experiences.

Good luck!