Finding a legitimate work at home opportunity is not hard when you evaluate the more respectable offers on the Internet. Unfortunately, there are a lot of shoddy operators out there, out to get your money because they want to cash in on this demand.

Working from the comfort of their home is a dream come true for many people. Saying good bye to long commutes, snarly bosses and bitchy co-workers has its benefits. You can grab your own slice of this global behaviour shift by finding, and starting a business from home.

Common types of work at home business opportunities

When people talk about working at home they usually have one of the following opportunities in mind:

Call center work
Data entry
Freelance writing
Network marketing
Technical assistance
Task-based work
Consulting work based on your knowledge and experience etc.

Regardless of the type of work you are looking for, there exists a range of opportunities for just about anyone with a passion for starting out. You will need a healthy dose of entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to work hard – especially in your first year.

Where do you start?

This is a very important question because it is the single-most reason people fail before they even get started. Due to the ever-changing landscape of the Internet it is very hard to stay abreast of the places that accept you for home-based work.

Generally speaking you can find them on job board websites such as Guru.com, Elance.com, or oDesk, or you can brand yourself on social networks in the hopes that people will come to you.

As you can imagine, that won’t work, unless you already have a solid online profile. It takes time and considerable effort to pull this off.

Your best bet as a total newcomer to work at home opportunities is to go with a reputable job network provider. This will save you a lot of time, headaches and money because these networks have available jobs for capable providers pretty much all of the time.

Theoretically you can sign up with them and find a job within the same day.

Reputable job networks

The following networks are considered safe and reputable as long as you stick to their guidelines and TOS. You can earn thousands of dollars with these job networks if you have a talent for one of the above work descriptions. Most of them are in hot demand all the time, so finding a paying job is really not that hard.

oDesk: oDesk is a company that acts as the mediator between you (the contractor) and the client. Membership is free and you will pay a percentage of your earnings to them for finding you the client.

Guru: Guru works in a similar fashion to oDesk, but is more geared towards technical jobs such as coding, website management, database collaboration, etc.

Elance: Elance is a good place to find writing work fast if you are prepared to stick to a lower pay rate. If you are good at what you do you should see repeat bookings from past clients, meaning it will become easier to find work since you won’t have to chase clients – they will chase you instead. Elance’s shortcoming lies in accepting service providers (and clients) who are unreliable and incapable of performing good work. This somewhat taints their professional image.

Short Task: Short Task looks like an interesting platform through which you can earn money for fulfilling short tasks. I’m not familiar with them myself so I will have to mark this site as “somewhat unproven.” Having said this, it seems the creators of the site have already received accolades for the idea, therefore I’m thinking it might be reputable enough. You will have to be the judge.

Demand Studios: As an emerging freelance writer you can’t look past Demand Studios. These guys are considered one of the best job resources for new and existing writers. You will be paid a set fee for writing articles for them. These range widely in topic. The hardest part of getting a job with them is to get accepted in the first place because they will only sign up new writers based on their requirements. The best way to find out is by applying.

Leapforce: Google’s Leapforce let’s you earn money by becoming an Independent Leapforce at Home Agent. In order to be accepted for paid work you need to pass a strict two-part test on your theoretical and practical comprehension of search engine evaluation. If you fail the test you will not be able to do it again.

Liveops: Liveops is a home-based call service opportunity that lets you dial in from your home. Inbound calls come from people who respond to infomercials; they might have questions, or they are ready to place the order then and there. You will be paid a flat fee and then commissions on top for selling more products.

This opportunity will require a weekly work schedule before you can start to help you stay organised.

How to find more opportunities

Another great way to find reputable work at home job offers is by joining popular industry forums such as the Wahm Forum. The support on those forums is very strong and there are plenty of people in your shoes who are willing to help you find alternative solutions.

By being a member of a forum you will always have a support group of like-minded people around you at all hours of the day and night.

Stay clear of too-good-to-be-true opportunities

If you want to avoid tears, then you are best advised to stay away from work at home opportunities that sound too-good-to-be-true because usually they are. Stick with the reputable providers mentioned in this article and abide by their individual terms to avoid disenchantment.

Finding work from home is possible for the dedicated individual who is set to sack his boss for good. It is only a matter of time until you can do so. Good luck – and welcome to a world of better lifestyle choices.

Author bio: Timothy Ng is a personal finance writer for Credit Card Finder an Australian financial product comparison service specialising in credit cards.