Why Do Work When You Can make money online?

The idea of going to work has changed substantially in the past 10 years. While the norm is still to commute to a physical office, there is a growing contingent who work from home, myself included. Being able to work from home affords a lot of freedoms — I’m sure John knows all about this — as it lets you spend more time with your family, you can save on child care costs, and you don’t have to fight rush hour traffic two times every work day. The arrival and rising popularity of the internet is largely responsible for this growing trend, but it can be difficult to find legitimate work-at-home opportunities. And that’s where WhyDoWork.com — the company that ordered up this ReviewMe review — comes into play.

The name of the website is a bit misleading. When I tell people that I’m a freelance writer who works from home, I get more than a little annoyed when the response is, “So when are you going to get a real job?” Working from home is just as legitimate a career as one that gets you to put on a monkey suit and sit in a corner office for 40 works a week.

Following this line of thought, the work at home jobs listed on the WhyDoWork website are just that: jobs. They’re still work, so it’s not like you’re on a twelve month vacation. Some are the telecommuting equivalent of more conventional jobs. When I surfed through the opportunities, I found several that called for “virtual assistants”, or people who act as secretaries from the comfort of their homes. They type up memos, reply to emails, perform administrative tasks, and answer phone calls. Other gigs are a little less conventional, but (hopefully) no less legitimate.

Making Money Online

On the plus side, a membership with WhyDoWork.com is absolutely free, granting you access to an active forum, useful hints and news on the blogs, and a list of work at home employers who have been deemed “a legitimate source for telecommuting employment opportunities.”

The people at WhyDoWork are out to make a buck too, so there’s a fair amount of advertising on the site. They sell eBooks, for example, and many of the pages come with fairly prominent Google Adsense blocks. There are also “featured” employers and opportunities. While the banner ads don’t bother me too much, the Google ads on the front page detract from the professional feel of the site. They also direct people to other work-at-home websites, which may not exactly be the goal of WhyDoWork.com.

If you have a blog or website (that is at least PR3), you may be eligible for a link exchange from WhyDoWork.com. Check the partners page for more details on this, as well as information about advertising on their site.

Work at Home Jobs That Actually Pay

I’m not sure how stringent the screening process is before WhyDoWork.com approves a job posting, and as such, I’m not sure if the “opportunities” are any more trustworthy than the potential scams you find on Craigslist. Interestingly, the bulk (if not all) of the postings link to SimplyHired.com, leading me to believe that the two sites are either owned by the same people or they have some sort of partnership.

Alternatively, jobs can be posted for $49 (for 30 days). This provides a little bit of comfort, because at least you know that the people putting up the openings had to fork out some money. They’ve got to be a tad more serious, right? There are also work-at-home jobs for mystery shoppers, paid online surveys, and other alternative “get paid to” opportunities. All in all, I’d say that WhyDoWork.com is fairly comprehensive.

May 3rd, 2007 by Michael Kwan
www.johnchow.com