So many people have been looking for ways to make some extra income, ways to help pay the bills because of the difficult economy. This has led to more people than ever looking for work at home jobs for an extra income, or even for their entire income. While there are legitimate work at home jobs, did you know that 99% of the work at home advertisements you see on the Internet are scams? Before you go investing your time or money into a work at home job, make sure you avoid these four common scams.

Four Common Work at Home Scams

1. Envelope stuffing- This is probably the oldest one in the book, but it continues on even to this day. Trust me when I tell you, you won’t be stuffing envelopes for a living. The people placing these kinds of ads aren’t looking for envelope stuffers, but rather people who will pay a registration fee and then place the advertisement somewhere else. Stay away from these scams!
2. Processing medical insurance claims- If you think about it there is no way any legitimate doctor is going to contract out their insurance claims to an unproven person or firm. Don’t pay for medical insurance claim “training” that is supposedly so easy you can learn it in no time.
3. Multi-level marketing schemes- There are legitimate multi-level marketing companies, but the truth is most of the multi-level marketing advertising you’ll see are nothing but a pure pyramid scheme. How can you tell the difference? Typically in a MLM scam they will be more concerned with you getting other people to join under you than selling any product.
4. Craft or assembly work- Many scam artists like to use people’s talents against them, and that is exactly what happens in these types of scams. You’ll hear that you can earn money by assembling products or crafts for this company, but once you start crafting and assembling (after you have paid them money for instructions), you won’t hear back from the company.

If you are like many people and you are feeling the pinch of the downturn in the economy, you just might want to consider some legitimate work at home jobs that you can do at your own pace. Since there are so many work at home scams such as envelope stuffing and multi-level marketing, the real and legitimate work at home jobs have gotten a bad name. The truth is there are some real work at home jobs that can serve as a boost your income and most of them have a very flexible schedule.

Three Great Work at Home Jobs for Extra Money

1. Freelance writing or blogging- You need to be a solid writer, but you don’t necessarily have to have a degree in journalism. You simply need to be able to write and keep people’s attention. There are many web content sites that accept freelance articles from authors, or if you want to start your own blog and try to make money using Google Adsense you can do that as well.
2. Customer service representatives (Call Center Representative)- There are quite a few companies that hire customer service representatives to work part-time from home. These opportunities usually pay hourly, but some do include some insurance and benefits as well. The companies are generally quite flexible when it comes to your schedule with them.
3. Medical Transcription- You have to be careful when looking for medical transcription jobs since some of them are scams, but there definitely are plenty of real and legitimate opportunities in this field. The health care field is a real area of growth in the work at home area, so I would expect these positions to increase in the coming years.

Remember to treat these jobs as a real job, since that is exactly what they are. These kinds of opportunities can help you add quite a bit of cash to your budget if you are a hard working and stay on top of your duties. Take advantage of the opportunities available to work at home for extra cash.

During a normal economic period earning money from home is something that select people enjoy and try to make a living. During an economic period like we are currently in, earning some extra income from home can be the difference between being able to make a payment or not make a payment. I’ll take a brief look at five legitimate ways to earn money working from home, either full-time or part-time.

1. Paid surveys or product testing- The truth is there a lot of these types of companies that are real and do pay quite nicely to take surveys or test their specific products, but you have to be careful about which websites you sign up with. A site like topsurveysites.org is helpful because it shows you ratings of the most reliable sites. Don’t count on this for a full income, but it can be a nice supplemental amount of money.
2. Work from home data entry- Working at home in the data entry field has become all the rage of late, and there are a few good companies in the area, and a whole lot of scams. Two large signs that the company is a scam is if you have to pay money to join, or if they continually send emails to recruit you. The legitimate companies must be found on your own since they have plenty of applicants, and they will be completely free.
3. Freelance writing/photography- Making a living off of a freelance writing income has become more realistic over the years. This is actually a great area to be in during a recession since many companies downsize and look for freelance writers rather than full-time paid staff writers. Freelance photography is a growing area that is also quite interesting.
4. Online tutoring- Tutoring students online has become a popular way to make some extra income and for good reason. These companies are generally very flexible and pay a reasonable amount of money to their tutors.
5. Blogging- Writing a blog won’t make you a millionaire, but it can be very fun and you can make some adsense money in the process. In fact there are a few bloggers who have hit it big because their particular niche has been very popular. Blog because you love to do it, and then take the money as a perk on the side.

All of these work from opportunities are available to you today. The benefits of this type of earning money includes: flexibility of schedule, no transportation costs, the ability to earn a passive income online, and direct responsibility for your own work. Use these types of work from home jobs to supplement your income and help you get through the economic recession.