Article writing is probably one of the fastest growing at home job. Being a Freelance writer you have the opportunity to write articles for magazines, online blogs, and for news paper columns. Work at home freelance articles are used for many purposes. Many freelance column editors do most of their work from the comfort of their own home. Then they send it via email when finished. When magazine companies hire writers they have the opportunity to hire from all over the world. This way they have views from other cultures, views and ideas.

Online blogging has become very popular among men and women who work at home. With the interest of blogging on the rise, many of the blog host look for people who blog from home. Keeping in mind that people who blog from home are not paid highly. This technique is based on people who want to be exposed of their writing ability. In fact many writers blog for free to get their writing noticed.


There are many advantages to working from home and more pros than cons. For one, which is a big issue in this day’s economy, is saving money on gas expenses driving to and from work. Whatever the job may be. If someone has to drive to work to make their profession available then a work at home job just might work as well.

Below are some tips that you may find useful when working from home.

Budget:
First: Figure out your client’s budget. When you initially talk to clients, very few will volunteer a budget because they want to hire you for the least amount possible. Imagine yourself in their position. You’d want to do the same thing. It’s good business. To try to find out more you can try using a preliminary worksheet. Have this worksheet ask questions regarding the goals of their projects, time-frame, and budget. When being more straight-forward many clients will tend to be more straight-forward with you as well.
It’s as simple as developing a rapport.

Proposal:
Spend as much time as necessary on your job proposal. As nice and agreeable as a potential client may seem in your communications, you still need to create a proposal. Always put in enough time to cover everything. Don’t start without it, even if the client seems to be hurried. A lot of clients with give you a dead-line just to see if you can meet it at first. It’s a great way for them to learn your capabilities. Make sure your proposal covers both client and contractor responsibilities, requirements, expectations, payment agreement and terms for all charges that may fall outside your proposal. Include anything else you can think of that you feel applies to the job. Clients as often as not have a much larger scope in mind than they communicate. Spend a couple hours on this and it could save you many more later.

Hourly Rates & Charges:
It’s always a good idea to charge by the hour. Rather than providing a fixed price for your project, and finding out later that you misquoted which will cost you time and money, you need only tie your quote to an estimated rate and time-frame (i.e.: 20 hr for 30 hours). Not only does this make the quoting process much easier, but clients understand that they are buying your time- enough to finish the project. Thus the chances are increased that your client will be more lenient if you need more hours. You’ll be able to show them what you’ve accomplished, explain what you’d like to do next, and find out how they’d like you to move forward. You can up your estimated cost by ten-percent if you like. When starting out as a free-lancer, it is natural to want to impress your client with a rosy scenario and quote that are lower than your competitors. But you never want to be put in a position where you have to cut corners- producing a bad effort- in order to achieve a quote that you give without giving it proper thought.

Not only that but there is time that you’ll spend communicating, collection assets, and in administration-duties. This doesn’t include snags and problems that may incur outside your control. Therefore, do yourself a huge favor and be deliberate in the quoting and estimation process so that you produce realistic expectations. That doesn’t mean you won’t still be on the lower end of what your client typically receives from other buyers. Keep in mind they also care as much as results as quotes.

Expectations:
Set and manage expectations. If you’re quoting by project, let them know the cost and time-frame for additional changes. If you are quoting by the hour and giving them a total time estimate, let them know when you’re getting close to that quoted total time and whether you will be able to hit it. It may be helpful to have a clause that says if your total time is within 10% of your time quote, you will not charge more (this gives you extra money for finishing quicker and saves them money if you take a bit longer). Clients don’t like surprises: keep them informed on your current time status and let them know at proposal time the possibility of “run-over” and charges associated with extra changes.

Collecting Up Front:
Collecting up front of often a good idea. Aside from recurring maintenance work/costs for smaller projects (projects whose totals are under one ro two thousand), it can be a good idea to collect a portion up front. This will show your client that you are serious and far less likely to bail on them- leaving the process uncompleted. You should not have an issue being given 50% up front on most projects. If the project is large- exceeding over 1000 dollars- you may want to lower the percentage you collect up front so that it doesn’t scare the buyer off. Then at another milestone you can collect more. Use this process only when you feel it is absolutely necessary and the money will be going back into the job. Otherwise it isn’t needed and your clients will know this immediately and- chances are- find a more reasonable buyer.

Milestones:
FINALLY- set a last payment milestone that will get you through to the completion of the job. For instances, if your job is to create websites you’ll need to invoice the final payment the moment the site is complete and 100% live. For a print job: invoice when the goods are delivered. These particular invoices the client will know are coming. Use shorter payment terms as well. If you are not precise and have a proper business-like manner in regards to your payment schedule, most- if not all- clients will ride up as much debt as you’ll allow them. While most are reputable, it’s not a good business practice to let this happen.

Start Small – Many virtual assistants begin their careers on freelance sites like Odesk and Guru. Taking on small projects here is a great way to get your feet wet and a quick way to build a good reputation.

Be realistic about your abilities – If your knowledge of Excel is minimal do not take on assignments requiring advanced Excel skills to snag a client. If (and probably when) you do a less than stellar job the negative feedback can hurt your chances of a successful business and future clients.

Get organized – Many in the market for a virtual assistant are small business owners and entrepreneurs themselves. They look for a VA to help them stay on track, stay focused and grow their business. Great organization and time management skills are essential. If these are not your strong suits you may want to rethink your new career path.

Team up – If you are working on a freelance site spend some time in the chat rooms or forums, talking with other virtual assistants. You may want to partner up with another individual who is strong in areas where you are weak and vice versa. You can program a great website but can’t write to save your life; she has no idea what HTML is but can blog effectively on any subject under the sun. Teaming up can create a virtual team to be reckoned with.

If you are self-employed and making more than $400 a year you are most likely subject to self-employment tax. When you are working for someone else and considered an employee you pay social security and Medicare taxes but, your employer also pays half on your behalf. Being self-employed you do not have an employer to “split” the taxes with and therefore are required to pay both on your own.  “The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance)” (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98846,00.html).

The other difference (when it comes to taxes) between being an employee and independent contractor is the number of times you pay taxes. For usual employees you worry about taxes once a year and either receive a refund or may owe the government some taxes. Self-employed individuals must pay estimated taxes quarterly:

Those who do not pay by the scheduled due dates will be subject to penalties. For more information on estimated payments visit the IRS’s website.

It is not all bad news though! As a self-employed individual you are able to claim a number of deductions for working out of your home. This can include part of your rent/mortgage for your office space, supplies, insurance premiums, and many more. Check with your tax professional on your allowable tax deductions. Taxes are just one more of the pros and cons to working at home. While, you may owe more taxes and have more responsibility on keeping good records, you are fortunate to have additional deductions. So while, paying estimated and self-employment taxes can cause a headache, hopefully a good refund in the end will be all the remedy you needJ Some additional helpful resources for the self-employed: A Dozen Deductions for Your Small Business 10 Tax Tips for the Self-Employed Paying Social Security and Medicare Taxes Overlooked Tax Deductions

oDesk is free of charge and you may submit bids to any position in any category. Of course there is a limit to the number of bids you can place at any one time. Just like applying for traditional job – only apply to those you meet the qualifications for. There is a reason for the limit on amount of bids you can place:)

When you create an account with oDesk you are given access to download oDesk team. This allows you to keep track of your time worked by taking screen shots of your work and tracking activity. You must login to access and can always go back to edit time you may have mistakenly captured. This record of your work is accessible by the buyer and will be used on a weekly basis for payment. Payment for hourly jobs is quite simple. As long as you are logged in to the oDesk team while working at the end of the week your buyer will receive an invoice which is automatically paid. The difference comes with fixed rate jobs in which the buyer manually makes payments and these are not guaranteed payments by oDesk.

While Elance does offer a basic free membership, you cannot apply to jobs in all categories as you can with oDesk.  A basic membership allows you to bid (connect) on up to 10 openings at one time in one category. You may change the category you have chosen (such as Admin Support, Design & Multimedia, etc.) but only once a month.

For additional “connects” (opportunities to apply to openings) you must upgrade to a Professional Account. The cost is $9.95/month and allow up to 25 connects a month. You still are confined to one category unless you purchase additional categories at $4.95/month.

Tracking work and getting paid is slightly different through Elance. You will be able to keep track of your time via the Time Tracker but, screen shots are not taken. The tracker is more for the provider’s use as to know what to invoice for at the end of the week. Invoices are sent on a weekly basis but, manually (it only takes the push of a button). Payments are not automatic and the buyer must “pay” each invoice when they are received (unlike oDesk which the payment is automatically taken from a credit card). This difference is certainly better for the buyer who has more control over the payments.


As a user of  both sites I have been fortunate to find work through both. I feel oDesk is more “provider” friendly and Elance is more “buyer” friendly. As most do, I prefer “free” to having to pay as I do on Elance. I like the time keeping  and invoicing system better on oDesk. However, I have found better work and higher paying assignments on Elance. This of course could simply be because of the line of work I am looking for (HR/Admin) while, someone in Web Design or Development would probably find work on either site.  For those seeking freelance/work at home assignments I highly recommend registering with both and other freelance sites as well. You may find some overlap in positions posted but, each provides many different opportunities.

There are real telecommute jobs out there; it’s just knowing where to find them that is the challenge.  A few companies have now made this easier for the virtual job seeker with websites similar to a traditional job board. They spend the time searching for legitimate telecommute job openings and post them all in one place for you to view. Saving you, the job seeker, both time and aggravation of locating the jobs yourself. Another benefit to these sites is the screening involved. Jobs posted are only those that appear to be “jobs” not business opportunities or any form of MLM. Of course many of these sites do charge membership fees (mostly monthly) but, some are also free.

One of the more “popular” sites is FlexJobs which touts the “As Seen on CNN” and monthly membership of $14.95. Virtual Vocations is also very similar with $6.99 weekly, $ 15.99 monthly, and $49.99 semi-annually subscriptions. They do provide some free job leads but, to view the majority of the openings you must subscribe. SavvyVirtualJobs is a virtual job marketplace with free services for job seekers and employers. Legitimate telecommute jobs listed are both sourced online and posted directly by employers. There is never a charge for job seekers. Employers may post jobs for free and charges only apply to “Featured” jobs and “Business Opportunities”.

As with any job opening you apply to there is no guarantee you will land the job. Telecommute job boards will however save you time and let you break away from countless hours of trying to find the “needle in the haystack” online job.