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.

Sitting around my house are photos of my sister and I backpacking through Europe, an ex-girlfriend hugging me like we’ll be together forever…. they seem to float around, generate conversation and all of it brings back those amazing memories. So who prints, and what can you print?

In the lead up to the Southern Hemisphere’s largest photographic imaging exhibition, the Digital Life Expo in June, research from the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) found that 37 percent of households in Australia that have digital cameras did not print their photos in 2009 . In response to this, Australian photo printing company Momento, is encouraging Australians to print their photos or risk the loss and leaving it up to memory alone.

Based on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) there are approximately 8.1 million households in Australia. Of these households, 73 percent have a digital camera. This means that there are currently an estimated 1,378,320 households in Australia that don’t print out their photos.

Research from the PMA study also found that 24 percent of households do not transfer their digital photos to computers at all, putting many households at risk of losing their photos forever.

“People don’t realise how easily you can lose your precious digital photos,” says Libby Jeffery, co-founder of Momento. “I’ve heard a sad story about an older gentleman who scanned all his family photos and saved them on one disc and threw out all the originals… then one day the disc snapped!”

“Rather than having your memories stored away on your computer or on a disc, one of the best ways to preserve your memories is actually to just print them out,” says Jeffery.

Offering a range of premium photo printing solutions including photobooks, diaries, calendars and greeting cards the Momento team appreciate how valuable photos are to everyone.

“We often have customers emailing us and telling us how important their photos are to them and how much they loved the end product. Whether it’s creating a family history book or pulling together photos from your big holiday, photobooks are a great way to keep a record of important events and times in your life,” says Libby.

The research from PMA also found that the primary reason for printing was to send or give the photos as gifts to family.

www.momento.com.au

Mobile computing has improved exponentially in the last few years to the point that, today, you can make phone calls, receive and send emails and instant messages, take pictures, update your calendar, browse the Internet, download and review documents, and play music, all from that one small device. There are models that have WiFi capability, 3G technology, and video recording ability. With some, you can even figure out where you are with GPS capabilities.

With older handheld devices, when you were away from home base and your PDA’s synching cradle, you had to depend on email or a phone call to let you know about a schedule change. No more. The newer handhelds have push technology that doesn’t wait for you to ask “What’s new?” Changes to your calendar, tasks, and email in Outlook take only seconds to automatically synch to your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or mobile phone calendar.

Sometimes what you need is a quick look at a document or spreadsheet. No problem now for the newer handhelds. With small screen readers much better than they used to be, you can receive Acrobat, Excel and Word documents on your phone and read them easily. This capability becomes even more powerful coupled with the latest version of MOSS (Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server) intranet software. Now, handheld users can see mobile versions of their KPI data, those all-important measures of performance.

Imagine you are at a client’s office an hour away from your office. How much would it be worth to know that the prospect you’ve been trying to get in to see for months can see you today if you can be there in two hours? That’s when you can quickly see the value of making a full-featured handheld part of your every day business outfit.

With these new mobile computing options there is no longer any question about whether we can be connected anytime, anywhere.

Should we always be connected? Ah, that is a topic for another day.

*Mark Buckingham is an IT specialist with a successful career spanning almost 30 years. To learn more see: www.chillit.com.au

Millions of people around the world enjoy browsing celebrity news and pictures on the Web and the high level of traffic on many celebrity websites makes them attractive targets for online crime.

The global credibility of the big stars and the surrounding media hype also makes things easier for the criminals. We may be mindful of dubious messages and security scams involving online banking, but caution is easily forgotten when we switch to entertainment mode and get that uncontrollable urge to view latest movie clips or music videos.

After hacking a particular celebrity website, the criminals use social engineering tricks like pop-up messages and inviting links to fake web sites which lead unsuspecting fans to allow their computers to be infected. A typical ploy consists of a pop-up message asking you to download a new version of Flash player (or other program), in order to view the content on a celebrity web site. When you click on “install’, the computer is quietly infected with a trojan that steals your banking passwords.

Beware celebrity sirens

This is exactly what happened to visitors to Paris Hilton’s compromised website earlier this year. They were instructed to install bogus “updated” software that instantly infected their computers. Similarly, the huge interest in Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration prompted criminals to launch a wave of fake websites and spam messages designed to infect computers worldwide.

Another common type of attack comes up with an alarming message on the screen that claims your computer is chock-a-block with viruses, which can only be removed by purchasing security software from the criminals. The software is fake and useless, of course. Infected websites can also install DNS changers that modify your search results and promote adverts that bring in cash for the criminals.

No website is safe

Celebrity websites are not the only ones being targeted. Hacking trustworthy sites and reputable companies can yield many new victims to the online criminals. Recent examples include rogue antivirus messages on the Sony Playstation website and bogus messages from “friends” on the Twitter.com social networking site.

There really is no such thing as a trusted site that is permanently safe. Just because you have visited the same website for years without any security problems does not guarantee that it will not be infected tomorrow.

The only way to stay protected online is to keep all your programs, browsers and add-ons updated and patched, and to use effective security software. If you must update an application to take advantage of a new feature, it’s always advisable to go directly to the vendor’s website for the installation.

Top tips for a healthy and secure PC
• Keep all your programs updated.
• Keep your anti-virus updated.
• Don’t open suspicious emails and attachments.
• Watch out for phishing attempts that try to get your personal details.
• Do a free Health Check at www.f-secure.com/healthcheck/

Protecting the irreplaceable

While you concentrate on what is important to you, make sure you’ve got a great system protecting your family, computers and smartphones. Remember that many of these systems also provide up backup functionality, so should the you lose those family photos, work spreadsheets or school assignments you can trust that a smart system has got you covered.

F-Secure’s products and services, trusted in millions of homes and businesses worldwide, are available through Optus and F-Secure’s eStore.

Guest contribution by Indi Siriniwasa, F-Secure Australia and New Zealand

The latest news on real-time virus threat scenarios is available at the F-Secure Data Security Lab weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/ for more information about F-secure check out www.f-secure.com.au.

“The social networking community is not longer satisfied with logging on once a day, from their PC. Twitter and Facebook aficionados are updating their status and getting their fix of information in real-time, on the move,” said Jessica Forrest, PR Manager at VHA.

Vodafone and 3 customers wanting to sign-up to Twitter will be able to do so directly from their mobile phone by typing in http://m.twitter.com into their web browser. Previously Tweeters had to sign-up online before being able to access the site from their mobile phone.

Tweeting etiquette
1. Tweet regularly – we want to know now!
2. Be relevant to your audience – no one wants to know what you had for brekkie
3. Don’t be a spectator – participate in conversation
4. Think before you tweet – don’t brag about your sickie
5. Know your acronyms – LOL doesn’t mean “lots of love”

Top mobiles for twittering

1. iPhone 3G S 16GB is $929 up front for Vodafone prepaid customers. Vodafone Prepaid Flexi Caps give customers the freedom to spend their included Flexible Credit any way they like – on Twitter, calls, txt, IM, games, music or mobile TV.
2. HTC Magic with Google, free on Vodafone’s $59 Cap (24 months)
3. Nokia N97, free on Vodafone’s $79 Cap (24 months)
4. BlackBerry Storm, free on Vodafone’s $56 Cap (24 months)

How much does it cost?

Vodafone Prepaid Flexi Caps^ give customers the freedom to spend their included Flexible Credit any way they like – on Twitter, calls, txt etc. They start at $29, which includes $300 total value ($150 Flexible Credit plus $150 for standard calls within Australia to other Vodafone customers). Data is charged at $2 per MB and is billed per KB.

The world premiere of Toyota Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept represents a milestone in Toyota’s strategy.

It introduces Toyota’s full hybrid technology to a mainstream model and is another step in spreading the company’s Hybrid Synergy Drive® technology across its model range.

Toyota Prius Hybrid

An extensive field trial in Japan, the United States and Europe will see more than 500 units being leased to selected fleet customers.

In Australia, Toyota will expand its hybrid range beyond Prius early next year when it launches locally built Hybrid Camry.

It’s also possible a Corolla-based hybrid will come to Australia, but there is currently no firm plan or time frame.

Frankfurt will also stage the European premiere of iconic, all-new Toyota Land Cruiser, which will go on sale in Australia during the fourth quarter of 2009.