Earn Money

Best Ways to Make Money from Home

With job postings still scarce, job security dissipating, and wages seemingly stagnant at best, many people are trying to establish some security by creating multiple streams of income. It’s a smart strategy, but if you have trouble leaving your home or primary position to get to a second job, you’ll find yourself frustrated and stressed out.

Perhaps you’re raising kids and you’re committed to not using daycare. Maybe you’re a little older and can’t commit to a full-time job. Or you might be injured or disabled, making it difficult for you to leave your home each day. Whatever your reason is, if you’re stuck at home most of the day, you’ve probably thought about the income you could be making by taking a work-from-home job or running your own business.

Good news: There are plenty of legitimate ways to earn extra money sitting right where you are right now. Some of them involve starting your own small business, while others mean working for someone else using your home as an office.

These endeavors aren’t without traps and challenges, though, so before we take a look at some legitimate ways to make money from your home, let’s review a few things that you should avoid. Unfortunately, if you want to earn an honest living from home, you’re also a common target of scammers, especially in these economically tough times. But if you keep these simple rules in mind, you won’t become a victim of one of the many work from home scams.

1. Requests for Money

Sure, you might expect some legitimate costs to be associated with starting a new business, like business licenses, permits, materials, or even some advertising or marketing fees.

You should never have to pay someone for the privilege of selling their product for them, but that’s just what scammers tell their marks. They trick people into paying for worthless information about how to run a business or for substandard materials to use in creating a product.

Some scams might involve asking you to pay for a “training” book or CD that explains how to make money in a certain business. Others charge for supposedly “exclusive” products that you’re supposed to sell at a premium. Avoid both of these scenarios. Remember, you should never have to pay to get a job. And if someone asks you to, you can be sure that it’s a scam.

2. Get Rich Schemes

Get-rich-quick schemes get only one person rich: the schemer. Not you. Don’t be that con artist’s next victim. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, you will have the opportunity to build a viable business or become a trusted home worker in a great business.

But if you’re looking for easy money, you’ll likely just get stuck with a lot of bills and worthless information. When websites run promotions that promise that you’ll make thousands a week with no experience and very little time, you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll be in your wallet before you can ask the first question.

3. Offers That Are Too Good to Be True

You might be desperate for work, but don’t necessarily jump at an opportunity that sounds too good to be true. In my article about common Craigslist scams, I wrote about fake employers who “hire” new employees, then “accidentally” send them too much pay. They’ll ask their victims to wire back the difference, but a few weeks later, when the bank discovers that the initial check is a fraud, the “employee” is on the hook for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars. If a job offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.These three points may seem like common sense, but the truth is that the people who run these scams are very good at what they do. They’ve been able to deceive many intelligent people because they present their “opportunities” so well that almost anyone will believe them. When you’re looking for a new job or extra income, it’s easy to get lulled in to a comfort zone where they can take advantage of you. Keep your guard up – always.