I’m often asked to provide information on working from home as if I could pull out a one page “how to” sheet that would detail everything I do, how I do it, what works and what doesn’t.

I think many people think it’s a matter of sitting down, spitting out a couple’a hundred words and then spending the remainder of my day basking in the sun on the deck with a mommy martini and a good book.

It doesn’t work like that – Although it would be nice if it did – at least one day a week.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do – but it’s definitely not for everyone. Sure, I’m able to work from home – work my hours around the schedules of my family, but there are many weeks that I work WAY over 40 hours.

There’s nothing about working from home that is “part-time” and there is certainly nothing “easy” about it.

When reviewing my stats, I see many people arrive here looking for easy jobs like data entry – that’s fine if that’s your thing, but that’s not what I do.

I am often asked how to tell a legitimate work at home offer versus a scam – in a nutshell, if you are signing up or applying for a job and it gets to a point where it asks for your credit card – It’s A Scam!

I have never, EVER paid money to make money. Unless you count the hosting fees, custom template designs and the occasional membership for forums I participate in.

If you are looking for data entry jobs – you could start here with a list of companies who hire telecommuters for this sort of thing.

The links to the website do vary. If you do follow one of the scam links, you will be likely be forwarded to another domain like biznews7-dot-org. The biznews7 site appears to be a legitimate news portal. The news of the day revolves around the headline, “Jobs: Is Working Online At Home The Next Gold Rush?”

The fake article is sprinkled with quotes expressing how easy it is working from home, and the money that can be made with “easy Google profit”. Be warned, there is more to the site than the pitch.

The code running it is designed to auto-customize just for the person reading, adding a bit of local feel thanks to JavaScript pulling data from GeoIP. The GeoIP code will alter the title of the portal, in our case it became localized to Indiana, as well as tagging various parts of the headline story with a local city and state.

Example:

“For Maria González it sure is. Maria, a mother from Indianapolis IN is thriving, in the middle of an economic recession working in the comfort of her own home.”

Additionally, besides using GeoIP, the site also cites an additional source of information to spin the notion that Google is looking for at home workers and has the money to fund the opportunities.

This scam has had some success because it’s been around for a while, and recently it has shown an increase again for whatever reason. It is spreading via comments on Facebook, and has been showing up on forums and as comment spam.

Any ad you encounter that claims Google will pay you to “post links on Google” or “get paid to post links on Google” or any variation of the search terms shown below IS A SCAM!

Any ad that claims making money from home or making money online is easy – don’t believe them.

I’ve been working from home since 1999 and there have been many weeks I have put in 60+ hours creating content, working on my blogs layout, researching topics, researching affiliates and much more.

In a nutshell, working from home IS HARD WORK!

If by SOME chance you have enrolled in the Google Link Scam I would HIGHLY recommend you CANCEL your credit card or debit card. Once these scammers have your number, it’s hard to tell what they will do with it.

This Google LINKS SCAM should NOT be confused with Google Adsense or Google Adwords – those are both legitimate money making and marketing opportunities available through Google and their website.

If you are EVER uncertain of a website or offer and can’t tell if it’s a scam or not – feel free to leave a comment on my blog or drop me an email – I’m happy to take a couple of minutes of my time to save you money and heartache.

Some of keywords used by this Paid Google Link Scam are:

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This list is likely incomplete – so if you know of a keyword or phrase that may be overlooked, please do add it to the comments section – we’ll gladly update the list and needed.

In a recent conversation with my boyfriends son, I shared with him my opinion on working online versus working in our local area.

Justin is going to college in August to pursue an education in IT – so given the topic of “technology” – I felt the door was open to share with him ideas on how to make money while he was attending school.

When it comes to the internet, your audience and customer base is global, not just local. We don’t have to be so concerned about the potential customers in our town, county or even state for that matter and we can rest assured there are many times we can rest easier knowing we are making money while sleeping – but that’s another topic for another day.

More and more people, especially in areas hit hard by growing or high, but stable unemployment rates, American freelancers are finding more and more work abroad.

As the U.S. economy slowly climbs back to health, American freelancers are finding themselves working for companies overseas in what’s being called reverse outsourcing. Executives at companies like oDesk say they’re seeing more corporations and small businesses from the U.K., Australia, China, Pakistan, and India turn to the U.S. freelance market.

oDesk has reported the number of international companies that hire U.S. workers jump from 1,429 in February 2009 to 4,285 in February 2010.

The latest reports indicate the average oDesk employee makes $17.60 per hour. Not bad at all really – when you consider you can work in your pajamas, from home, no commute and high prices of gas are no longer a concern.

oDesk offers a great business model for employers and contractors. Their unique approach guarantees that an hour billed is an hour worked, and guarantees to contractors that an hour worked is an hour paid.

Get Hired on oDesk Today

You guessed it – I have been having MAJOR FOCUS issues lately.

The short version is summer is here, I’m in a very slow process of moving, I have a wonderful man in my life who just so happens to have a lake house we visit as often as we can and my two, very active teenage boys keep me hopping. We all know how bored teens get and how absolutely disastrous life can be when that happens.

While taking some “me time” to read over some of my favorite websites and blogs, I was pleased to find a particular blog entry from Rosalind Gardner. The post is entitled, “Affiliate Marketing: Mixing Pleasure with Business” and is SO appropriate for these summer months when what I really want to be doing is relaxing by the water with my family.

As I am determined to concentrate on focusing, I have begun a stockpile of articles that are my way creating fuel to help get me get back on top of my game even when the water is calling my name…