Monday, November 30, 2009

Do You LIke to Write?

Many of us who blog are frustrated authors at heart!  We think we have some information that is of interest to others, either as educating someone about a subject or strictly stories that are either serious or humorous in nature.  On the internet there are websites that you can actually get paid to write articles for! What a wonderful opportunity for those of us who want to write either for fun or who may be considering this as a career and earn some money at the same time.

In Notepad or other text editor, make a list of 7 to 10 keywords that describe your blog site. Then, beneath this list, create and write a keyword-rich description of your blog. Save it! You're going to need to copy and paste this information on your applications to paid blogging networks. Trust me, this will save you a ton of time.

Check out the following paid blogging network sites

      PayPerPost.com These folks pioneered the "get paid to blog" concept. Besides being the most popular paid blogging network, I've found that they always seem to have the most job opportunities available at any given time. PayPerPost pays bloggers anywhere from $5 to over $200 per completed and approved post.

      Bloggerwave.com Although Bloggerwave is a smaller paid blogging network and lists fewer open job opportunties, their site is super blogger-friendly and easy to navigate. Bloggers here get paid a minimum of $10 for each completed and approved post.

      Smorty.com Besides having a "quirky name" you'll like Smorty because they pay from $6 to $100 for each post and they pay-out weekly. A great feature with Smorty is that bloggers are allowed to have multiple blogs so income earning potential is unlimited. The Pagerank of your blog along with a high Smorty smart score determines how much you can earn - up to $100 per post.

      ReviewMe.com  Bloggers get paid to review products and services on your site. You control what you review. Payment will vary from $20.00 to $200.00 for each completed review that you post on your site.
   
Another site you might enjoy writing for is called Sponsored Reviews.com. 
    
      A Sponsored Review is an article you write for an advertiser. You review their products and services and then post the review on your blog. Each advertiser has his or her own requirements. Bloggers can earn anything from $10 to $500+ for each review.

       PayU2Blog.com If your blog meets their requirements then you can make money blogging in their system.

       Hub pages.com is another good site that you can get paid to blog at.


It will be a good idea to apply to as many of the above listed blogging network sites as possible. Your blog may not be accepted or approved by some companies, so you are going to want to have every opportunity possible to get exposure and paid to blog.  

After applying, be patient. Some networks have a fast approval process, while others seem to take forever. This is another good reason for applying for multiple opportunities because of some taking a longer time to approve you.

Tips & Warnings

      Be tasteful and professional - only take jobs and/or opportunities that match and are a good fit for your blog. I would suggest that you stay with subjects that you are familiar with, at least to begin with, unless you really enjoy doing extensive research first so that you will be knowledgeable about the subject you will be writing about. Now some people like to do extensive research which is great, but I have a feeling most people enjoy getting started and earning money right away.... therefore, staying in your comfort zone is important.

      Pay close attention to each network's disclosure policies. If and or when you are accepted to the different paid blogging networks, take the time to read their rules, guidelines, policies and/or requirements! There are often restrictions, where you can only write an article for one site and you can't reproduce it for another, either at the same time or in a given time period. Trust me, you'll be sorry if you don't check out each site's policies because they all vary. What may be acceptable for one is not acceptable to another.  

Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving with family and friends!

I know that this year, there are many who have had their hours cut back at work,or are out of work and are now searching for a new position. The official unemployment rate is 10.5% whereas the "hidden" rate is 17.5%. The "hidden rate" includes those whose unemployment benefits have run out and those who are no longer searching for employment.

With the holidays fast approaching, you may want to consider looking for temporary employment with one of the larger department stores, grocery stores,fast food restaurants,or toy stores. These types of establishments will hire extra help for the holidays and if you are a good employee you may be asked to stay on after the holidays.

Also put your applications in at one of the temporary services where they supply additional clerical, construction help and warehouse help to businesses. During the holidays many companies will hire support staff on a weekly or monthly basis. Often a company will make a permanent hiring decision from using someone temporary through an agency.

Friday, November 13, 2009

More Interesting Opportunities

On CNN   Careerbuilder.com

Alpine Access is a call center company that uses customer service representatives that work from home. Employees use their own telephones and computers. The company provides representatives for clients like Office Depot and J. Crew.


• Convergys hires home-based call center agents who provide support in customer service, and also supplies sales agents or help desk staff for companies. There are many locations throught the US where you can work in one of their offices or from home.

 • Extended Presence provides their clients with outbound sales agents and marketing support staff who work from home.

• Internet Girl Friday provides information technology support as well as administrative services for clients nationwide.

• LiveOps provides customer service support for a variety of major corporations.

• Spheris provides support to medical professionals. Their services include medical transcription and clinical documentation.

• Staffcentrix supplies virtual assistants for business clients, including CEOs and upper management of major corporations.

• VIPDesk provides call center support and also offers a home-based concierge service to clients.

• Voicelog provides representatives to perform verifications for transactions done online or by telephone. Many states require changes to telephone service and other remote transactions to be verified by a third party, which VoiceLog provides.

• West At Home also hires home-based customer service agents. They cater to a specific range of industries, specializing in health care and pharmaceutical support, as well as the hospitality industry.

Employees need to meet some basic requirements, including having a telephone and access to a PC. Although the work is conducted from home, interviews for the job aren't always done remotely.

Working at home is a growing and legitimate opportunity, but workers should still beware of any job that asks you to invest money, provide access to a bank account or give up a great deal of personal information up front. These are indicators of a possible scam.

Traditional companies with home-based workers

Some traditional companies also have home-based workers in the mix as part of their overall staffing strategies. Companies as diverse as American Airlines, TDS Telecom, 1-800-FLOWERS, Sprint and Xerox have programs that enable traditional workers to transition to telecommuting or hire workers specifically to work at home.

Aetna is one of the companies that has developed and implemented such a program. "Our telework program started as a grassroots initiative to keep talented employees when there were site consolidations," Aetna Telework Program head Eileen Levin explains.

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is another company that is mixing traditional workers with employees who work from home. These home-based employees include medical transcriptionists and nurses who operate the hospital's Advice Line

Don't Forget To Look Down!

As you surf the internet looking at businesses that offer products that you are interested in, be sure to look at the bottom of their page for two areas, careers/employment opportunities and affliliate program.


You might be surprised at what major companies offer opportunities to work from home or even have openings in their "brick and mortar" locations that you hadn't seen in your local newspaper.

The affiliate programs are also important if you plan on doing blogging to earn an income. Many will have programs set up through a third party and you must sign up through them and many will let you become an affiliate directly through their website.

Would any of you also like some tips on how to job hunt where you are not working from home? Please let me know because if you are, I will also include some articles on how to put together a resume, how to do interviews that will help you get employed.
 

Work From Home Opportunities

Sorry to be so long in posting to this blog, we had a slight interruption..........I have been extremely busy trying to gather the very best information for everyone to take a look at.
There are many opportunities out there and you do have to be careful not to get tangled up in ones that want to charge you money up front.  There are companies that once you have started the hiring process, who will require you to pay a fee to have your background information checked out.  This will usually be about $50-$65 to do a criminal background check and a credit background check.

Here are some opportunities that either I know people who work for these companies or they have been featured on either CNN or Good Morning America. Torey Johnson, who has appeared on GMA many times, is very cautious about reseaching the companies that she speaks about and I feel comfortable suggesting them to you also.

Home-Based Jobs for Americans with Disabilities:
National Telecommuting Institute, Inc.  www.nticentral.org
This organization employs Americans with disabilities who are willing to work as independent contractors

https://typists.quicktate.com/transcribers/signup This is a good growing company with lots of opportunities.

http://jobs.problogger.net/  At problogger you can write articles for them and get paid

http://eduwriters.com/index.html You can write articles for them and get paid

hubpages.com        writing jobs

http://www.bluezebraappointmentsetting.com/Careers.aspx  must have 2 yrs outbound exp.

http://www.writersresearchgroup.com/company/jobs.html     writers and data entry positions

sylvan learning centers......  onlinetutorshttp://www.associatedcontent.com/     paid to blog

http://www.highlights.com/contributor-guidelines?iCategoryID=203&CCNavIDs=3,203 This is the Highlights magazine that all the kids in school get and would be a fun place to submit articles to

http://www.ehow.com/write.html  Have you ever used ehow? Their articles are written by people who have expertise in how to do certain things, whether it is how to make jelly to how to fix a washing machine.

Good Survey Companies
Pinecone.com They do surveys and you often get to test new products before they come on the market. A nice little "filler" but not enough to support yourself.


GMA Tory Johnson
www.womenforhire.com. I subscribe to her website for ideas and companies that hire people.

Writing Opportunities
I have to admit I have not had a chance to check these all out so I can't personally vouch for them.

Here are some other options for various assignments:

www.writerfind.com

Author101.com
WritersMarket.com
WellFedWriter.com
FundsForWriters.com
MediaBistro.com
FreeLanceWritingGigs.com
WorldWideFreelance.com
AbsoluteWrite.com
WriterFind.com
ReviewMe.com
PayPerPost.com I have heard that this one is very good

blogging
Here are some other sites to check out:

    * Google.com/AdSense
    * AdSense.Blogspot.com
    * BlogAds.com
    * Publisher.Yahoo.com
    * Adbrite.com
    * Text-Link-Ads.com
    * Wordpress.com


virtual publicist
Among them:

    * www.partnercentric.com
    * www.orcacommunications.com
    * www.perkettpr.com
    * www.kellylodestro.com
    * www.OpenAd.net
    * www.Aquent.com
    * www.oDesk.com
    * www.Elance.com I have heard good things about this particular company.


on line juror I know absolutely nothing about these listings but have included them because they sounded interesting.

Sites including

    * www.ejury.com
    * www.onlineverdict.com
    * www.trialpractice.com

pay nominal fees to home-based e-jurors, which may range from $10 to $60, depending on the length of the e-trial. Research all of the sites and read the requirements before signing on to serve.

I personally subscribe to Leslie's website: http://momsathomesuccess.com/
The site is free with regular updates on savings tips, work-at-home
resources and more. And it has a 7 day email course that can help
you determine what it would take for you to stay home including
determining how much it costs to work outside the home, what you'd
need to earn from home (if anything), making money at home, and
more!

I hope that these sites are helpful to you in your job searches, I will be adding more information soon.