I need some advice!

[carmel camel]

I've been at home with my children for the last 2 1/2 yrs. I really need to start working again, but want to work from home. Most of the "work at home"/"moms working from home" sites seems kind of suspect or are home party type things. Does anyone have any advice as to what type of work from home with a computer I might be able to look into? I just need some directions to look into.

Thanks! I know that if anyone can help me you all can.

[Buttercup]

link (click on the stork lawn sign at bottom middle of page)

I know someone who did this and had a really successful time with it. Start up fees could be costly but if you or your spouce is handy.....it might work. You would just have to bundle up the little ones occasionally to go out.

But then it might not be right for you.

Just an idea~

[Maggie]

DealHunting is constantly growing and looking for new staff. We'll probably add someone new soon, so just watch for the announcement and apply. We usually only take applications for about a day and then select the top applicants for further review before selecting someone.

You also can always find the application here:
http://www.dealhunting.com/apply

Good luck! Hope you find something you can do from home.

[marinnat]

How about Desktop Publishing? I do a little work on the side for some of my friends who have small businesses. I design/print their stationery, business cards, invoices etc.

Or, if you have a scanner, you can do computer photo scrapbooks for people. I have made great scrapbooks with DJ Inkers software and another called Creative Photo Albums. Just have people give you their photos, scan them in and create fun pages. I invested in a binding machine so the scrapbooks can lay flat when you look at them. It's a great service for people who need to get their photos organized and don't have the time to do it!

Good-luck!

[carmel camel]

Thanks for all the good advice I've gotten so far. I really appreciate all the suggestions.

DealHunting rocks, but I don't have DSL, and I've noticed that to be a requirement in the past.

If anyone has any other suggestions let me know. I'm all ears.

[kspainhour]

Have you ever thought about writing articles and selling them to various magazines? you can pick up a copy of the 2003 writer's market--and it has TONS of publishers to choose from (also lists what the mags are looking for in articles, etc..) it's a really great resource.

freelance writing is pretty competetive.. but it's something you can do from home

kim

[carmel camel]

hmmmmm......Kim the writer. Sounds interesting. I might scare people though.

[kspainhour]

hey, you can scare people AND make cash off it too!!
what a bonus!

[peachfront]

If I had a little more influence over the guy upstairs, I would have chosen to have my talents fall in another area. The Writer's Market is somewhat of a scam -- publishers no longer accept free-lance novelists, and they are highly unlikely to accept an unknown's proposals for anything else. Most submissions sent to the editors listed in Writer's Market will be returned unread for legal reasons with a polite form letter.

I'll try to link to my most popular book on Amazon. As you can see, it came out quite awhile ago -- pre internet days! My later books just never did as well. A lot of "how to" stuff is on the internet now, which hurts book sales for "how to" stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-7476022?v=glance&s=books


Some of my friends who started writing when I did, have not been able to get a new book contract in quite a long while, and I am starting to doubt that I'll be getting any more myself. But of course your mileage may vary! If you get rich and famous, be sure to report back so we can say we knew you when, tee hee.

[kspainhour]

wow, peachfront..that's wonderful that you've been so successful getting published!

to date i've been published only in small college literary zines and such (no pay--but a little exposure) the most i've received has been $75 for a poem (won a legit contest). then again, i haven't been sending out any queries or written anything new (procrastination--hey, there's always something to do!) i made tons more $$ editing teacher curriculum for ohanalearning.com (back in the dot.com heyday) i worked out of the house and made approximately $4000/month. those were the days--and then the dot.com fallout came.. poof..bye bye job. but hey, i came out on top--i found that i loved copywriting--and have been considering freelance journalism on the side.. but again.. the whole procrastination thing comes back into play!

i was referring more to magazine articles (do you think there are more chances of getting published through that medium) i know the market is pretty saturated--but even the blind chicken manages to get a kernel of corn every now and then.

marinnat, the desktop publishing idea is great too! i did that on a volunteer basis when we lived in washington! made a lot of great business contacts! carmel camel--good luck on your work from home hunt! hopefully something that you love will pop up and you'll be able to make $$ off of it!

[wingnut]

Have you thought about medical transcription? A friend does this and makes a tidy sum at it. She works pretty much full time but only because she needs/wants to. You don't need alot of equipment either. Just a thought.

[carmel camel]

Thanks wingnut,

I've thought about medical transcription before, but have had trouble locating "legite" buisnesses. Does your friend have any contact suggestions ??

Thanks again for all the suggestions. You all have been so helpful.

[peachfront]

Hi, Kspainhour, magazine articles are at least somewhat more open than book publishing, but it is still very tough to get your proposal accepted unless you have contacts at a magazine or some kind of special knowledge. The payment for magazine articles has dropped quite a bit, and the chances of getting an assignment collapsed significantly in the 1990-92 recession. The big problem is that there were so many people who were laid off in the early 90s, and again laid off in the last couple of years, and if they have any connections at all, their friends at the magazine where they formerly worked, will give them the assignments first. It is frustrating when you send in a proposal and get back a note saying, "Oh, we like your idea, but we've already assigned something similar to so-and-so."

Magazine articles today have to be very targeted to the audience reading the magazine. This means that you have to have several sample copies of the magazine in front of you to get a feel for what they are doing and what stories they have already recently covered. Then you are still competing with people who will write articles for cheap or for free, just to have their name on an article. Rates have dropped over the years, and it is not unbelievable that a person could spend more time researching markets and sending out proposals than it's worth.

"Stringers" for newspapers are generally particularly ill-paid.

I don't mean to be discouraging, but if a person is really in need of money, especially if they need it in a reasonable amount of time, I don't especially advise writing unless you've gone to the "right" schools and interned at one or more magazines where you would have an "in." It is very unlikely that a person could get very far just starting from home. Not totally unlikely...not impossible...but if you had other options, I would be investigating those first.