Debt Free

One of the best ways to get debt free is to earn more money. Indeed, your income is one of the 3 legs of your financial triangle. One way to increase your income is to get a second job. However, with the pressures of family and professional life, many people simply cannot find the time to get a traditional job as their second job. In addition, many jobs that are available as a second job, typically on evenings or weekends, simply don't pay enough to make it worthwhile for many people.

So, what are you to do if you want to earn extra money, but aren't cut out to be a waiter or convenience store clerk? The route taken by many is to get some sort of job where they can work from home. That can be a great way to make the extra money you're looking for and still fulfill your family obligations. What are some of the top work at home jobs?

It seems like there are about a million ads on the Internet for this type of thing. You see them on the sidebars of websites everywhere trumpeting the ease in which you can join the ranks of those living the good life, making tens of thousands of dollars a month while relaxing on a beach somewhere, Pina Colada in hand. It's true, there really are people living that lifestyle, but there are people making $5 million a year pitching for the Yankees too. What about some of the top work at home jobs that don't involve Internet marketing. After all, not everybody's a marketer or wants to be one.

Thanks to the advances in communication over the last few decades, working at home either full or part time is a real possibility, and in fact a WorldatWork report last year noted that some 28 million people work from home at least part time. You have two avenues to pursue when it comes to earning more money working from home. You can convince your employer to let you take on additional work that you can perform from home(for additional pay, of course), or you can look into opportunities outside your regular work.

Work at home opportunities outside of your regular job are growing an varied. Here are some of the top jobs where you can work all, or substantially from home, and earn good money doing so. (in no particular order)

Work at Home Job 1
Software engineer - This field is projected to be in very high demand over the coming decade. As nearly everything is controlled, produced, or distributed by some sort of computer these days, it's easy to see why. For you, as someone looking to earn additional income, it's a great opportunity, as software engineers make very good money. The problem is that it's not a career you can just jump into. The “engineer” in the title is the first clue here. Anything with the term engineer usually requires substantial education, but nonetheless, there are some great opportunities for software engineers and developers.

If you have skills in this area, but not college degree, you may consider freelancing. There are many companies and business owners that need small software projects and are willing to pay to get them done. You may be just the one to do it for them. Try looking at elance.com. They regularly have lists of projects available for independent programmers to bid on. You're competing with skilled programmers from India, Russia and other places that will do these jobs for comparatively little money, so it may behoove you to develop a client list on your own, but elance.com can be a good place to get your feet wet.

Work at Home Job 2 -
Consultant - This is a catch all title that involves letting someone pick your brain for money. A great job, that. Consultants tend to be very highly compensated and there is tremendous amount of freedom. If your present field of employment is one where you've gained specialized knowledge that would be valuable to others, you can earn money as part time consultant. Many people have specialized skill sets derived from their professional, academic, or private lives that they can put to use working from home as consultants. You may think you don't know enough to be a consultant, but you really only need know more than those you are consulting for. You can do research to learn what else you need for a specific project.

You can bill hourly or on a contingency basis. Typically it's better to use a contingency only with those clients who you've already formed an hourly billing relationship, but not always. The contingency fee arrangement can be immensely profitable, however. This is where you bill the company you're consulting for as a percentage of some metric, such as profitability or revenue. For example, you could bill 15% of a division's increased revenue in the first year. Obviously you can make insane amounts of money this way. I've had consultant friends that took companies from a multi-million dollar monthly loss, to making millions of dollars in profit annually.

Work From Home Job 3 -
Freelance writer - Don't laugh, it's really not as hard as it sounds. I've made well over $10,000 in the last 2 years freelancing, and it's really taken minimal time. You can write for a number of different markets, from corporate communications to consumer magazines and trade journals. The corporate tends to be overlooked when people consider freelancing, but it can really be very lucrative. With corporate down-sizing many firms have decimated or eliminated their corporate communications departments. There is a need for press releases, product manuals, instructions sheets, training manuals, video scripts, and the like.

Many non-native English speakers just can't do this effectively, so the chances of this type of work being outsourced are relatively low. The nice thing about writing for the corporate market is that you are helping them out and can continue to do so for a very long time. In most cases, if you are working for a large or medium sized corporation you can get regular work for quite some time. It only takes a few clients until you can build up a substantial second income. As you can bill from $80 - $120 an hour for your services, in many cases, it can even rival the money you make from your current job. If you want to persue this field, I especially recommend the book "The Well Fed Writer" from Peter Bowerman. I read it more than once, and it's an excellent reference from someone who's well respected and very successful in this field.

Work at Home Job 4 -
Paid surveys – Here's an area where you can actually make money, but you have to be aware that many of the so-called paid survey opportunities advertised are either outright scams or of dubious quality. My wife does this on occasion and has made over $80 an hour for it, although it sometimes requires a drive to a marketing firm's local office. That kind of eliminates the whole work from home aspect. Marketing knowledge is very valuable and many consumer products firms are willing to pay handsomely for it. Before you think you are going to be paid $100 to answer a 10 minute survey, however, think again. While that opportunity may exist, it's like pitching for the Yankees, although without the fanfare (pretty rare).

Work at Home Job 5 -
Data entry - Although we've come a long way all the stuff in computers has to get there some how. The tedious process of data entry is perfect for someone working from home. Just fill out this spreadsheet and email it back. It would make me eviscerate myself with a rusty sword, but there is a demand for it. Many legitimate firms need this sort of work done, but as with paid surveys be aware that many of the data entry positions advertised on the Internet are actually opportunities to create Googe Adwords ads to sell products. That wouldn't be a problem, but you would actually be an affiliate marketer, selling products on which you would be paid a commission. The problem arises because you have to use your own Adwords account. Yes, you can make absolutely huge amounts of money selling products and services as an affiliate using Adwords, however the uninitiated (and many times even the initiated) can also run up giant balances in their Adwords accounts. If you're trying to get debt free,you really don't want a job where you could wind up thousands of dollars in debt after your first month. This is a common scenario, and it's best to avoid it.

Work at Home Job 6 -
Desktop publishing – Again this is a job that's perfect for doing from home, but does require a specialized skill set. If you have it that's great. A strong background or skills in copy editing, writing, graphic design, and image editing are required. You create and design corporate presentations, magazine articles, books and web layouts. You should know MS Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Pagemaker like the back of your hand, but you typically make from $15 - $40 per hour for this sort of work.

Work at Home Job 7 -
Administrative Assistant - Not the secretaries of old, the admin assistant for the new millennium encompasses all manner of coordination and communications tasks. You'll schedule meetings, write memos and emails, and support executives and sales personnel. All of these tasks, thanks to the telephone, Blackberry and VPN, can be done very effectively from home. The rub here is that in most cases, you'll have to do this work during business hours. You may be able to live on the east coast and do work for companies in the west, however. Expect to receive about $12 - $18 for every hour in this line of work.

Working form home will not only add to your bottom line (from sitting at your computer all evening), but you'll save money too. You won't have to by a new wardrobe, pay for parking, gas or other transportation related expenses, or shell out $5.00 at Starbucks during your break. The additional money and flexibility, plus the benefits for the environment, and employers are what's driving the expansion of the work at home movement. Be aware of the many scams around in the work from home field. Steer clear of those jobs where you have to pay to get started. Freelancing or contracting is different. You're in business for yourself and there will be numerous expenses associated with that. Go forth and prosper.