How to Find Legitimate Work at Home Jobs

A July 10th, 2008 Wall Street Journal article examines the concept of working at home, during these tough economic times with high gas prices, job losses and credit crunches. The article cautions those looking for cushy jobs where they can earn a regular salary from home, saying that many of the work-at-home opportunities are for mundane, difficult tasks that other people would find tough. An example is telemarketing, transcribing inaudible MP3 files from meetings, or hours of tedious data entry.

Another caution is that you often receive spam emails or see sites advertising simple data entry for thousands of dollars salary a week. Be warned that these need to be treaded cautiously and can be scams. The WSJ article provides some great resources on freelance type jobs such as virtual assistant or travel agents. The three sites listed below will help you identify if a job you've found online for working from home is legit or not.

3 Sites to Use to Find Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs:

bbonline.org - Click on "For Consumers"

WomenForHire.com - offers resources/ideas on working from home.

FTC.gov - In the search box enter "work at home scam".

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Websites for Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs: The following websites were all profiled in the WSJ article. As always read the details and find print on any opportunity you get involved with. These all appear to be legitimate companies which hire freelancers for clients, post job listings, and provide work at home opportunities.

Arise.com - 8,000 home business owners as agents, with plans to add another 4,000 by year's end.

AlpineAccess.com - 7,500 home agents, hiring at least 2,500 more by December 08'.

Elance.com and oDesk.com - Link clients with freelancers from around the world. Freelancers can take skills tests on the site and have results posted. The sites also work on commission, taking 4 to 10% of the freelancer's fees. A college student dropped out of school realizing he could make up to $60,000 doing computer programming on a freelance basis through oDesk.com.

LiveOps.com - Has 20,000 home agents who work on at least a part time basis each week.

Sologig.com - A work at home posting site with screened free-lance opportunities.

TeamDoubleClick.com - Offers $10 to $20 an hour for "Virtual Assistants", who perform the tasks of Administrative Assistants, but from home.

VirtualAssistants.com - For $14.95 a month get screened job postings for at home work.

WestCorp (west.com) - Has 15,000 at home agents and is currently expanding.

(Info source: Wall Street Journal "Nice Work If You Can Get It: We Sites for At-Home Jobs" - WSJ 07/10/08)

Note: Another great site to check out is WAHM.com which provides info on work-at-home job opportunities, points out scams and much more!

Keep this work out home sites in mind and you just might be working from the comfort of your aeron chair in your own home office...That's the American dream right?

Casino.de Offers Online Blacjkack Training and More!

The Monetizer recently checked out a website which offers a variety of helpful resources for the beginning or avid gambler. Before we get too far into a look at the site, realize that the site is written in German. If you read or speak the language you're all set. However, they also offer a sister site, which is in English, which The Monetizer also examined.

The look of the site is appealing just as many online gambling sites are. This site provides a great number of links to help you learn gambling skills, rules and possibly improve your chances at winning big. The Casino.de site provides instructional trainings on various casino games such as Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps, Poker, Roulette, Slots, Video Poker and the recently popular Texas Hold Em'. Casino.de also provides reviews of various online casinos and betting sites as well as links to check them all out. Upon checking out the American sister site, www.online-casinos.com, you can find a wealth of info regarding various gambling systems and methods. I found the information to be easy to access and plentiful. The gambling strategies section provides several gambling methods such as the d'Alembert System (based on "The Law of Equilibrium") and the Fibonacci Sequence developed by the Italian mathematician Leonardo Pisan in the 1700's.

The fun starts when you try out the online training and practice tools at the site. I found the Video poker tutorial fun and informative to try out. As you play it keeps score of how many correct moves you make while playing. This way you can practice and practice for free, then take your skills to an online casino or real life one and hopefully cash in with your newfound skills! Casino.de also offers several free slot machines online such as "Fruit Fiesta" and Pub Crawler". These slot machines offer prizes to the top scorers each month.

Overall, the American version of the site is a great wealth of info for gamblers, and even though the Casino.de site is completely in German, it appears to offer the same quality and amount of information. So get started and give your luck a boost with their training guides and resources if you love to gamble!

MagicJack Review: Make Phone Bills Disappear!

The Monetizer will be the first to admit a love for new technology. While some hate it, I embrace it. I also love making money, and saving it. So today, I wanted to let you all know of an interesting and impressive piece of technology today called the MagicJack. MagicJack seems to be a worthy rival to the well-known Vonage VOIP phone service. You know the company which allows you to make calls using your home computer and claims to cut down on bills? Well MagicJack is just a small device with a USB jack on it that you plug into your computer. Plug a regular phone cord into Magic Jack from any phone you'd like to use with it. Turn your PC on and presto! Within 3 minutes, MagicJack has installed itself and downloaded the latest upgraded software to allow you to make FREE phone calls through your hi-speed connection. (Windows XP, Vista or Intel based Macs)

I set Magicjack up today, but have to admit I was slightly skeptical before I tried it. I've heard people complain about delays, echos and poor sound quality with Vonage. Hasn't been the case yet with MagicJack. Once the software installed, it allowed the Monetizer to choose any area code for my MagicJack phone number. What's great about this, you could essentially set up a virtual business office somewhere else in the US (New York, LA, etc) and make it seem as if you're an established business. Also, you could choose an area code from a state perhaps where many friends and relatives are located, making the calls cheaper for them. Quite a cool concept. MagicJack allows you to change your area code for free one-time, and then you can change it for a charge of $10 each additional time.


(A look at the cool display/interface for MagicJack on the PC)

MagicJack offers some great additional, no extra cost features as well. First off, you can see in the screenshot above, there's a cool interface that you get on your computer screen. It displays a phone keypad, menu options, contacts, website favorites, link to Google, Redial, 411 and more. You can dial your phone/check Voice mail from the computer, or the phone itself. When a call comes in, it pops up a message on your screen to "ACCEPT" or "IGNORE" the call. If ignored, the call heads straight to your no extra-cost voice mail. The same happens when your computer is shut off, or if you lose hi-speed service, calls go straight to the voice mail, which you can also set up with various messages.

So far I like what I've seen and heard with MagicJack. It's definitely a viable option to eliminate long distance phone bills or cell phone bills which can really add up. MagicJack's phone service is free for a year from the date of install on your PC. Then it costs $20 or so annually to keep the service going. Calls are free, and you can even bring MagicJack with you on road trips/travel and use your current phone number to make free calls.

With Vonage I've heard the complaints: hard to hear the people on the other end of the phone, monthly bills, and the fact you need a special extra device hooked up to make it work. Not the case with MagicJack..Until it starts bringing in tons of telemarketer calls, calls from The Ring villain, or acting possessed, I'd fully recommend this little device which can be picked up for about $35-40 if you shop around! Check out some of the latest MagicJack auction listings on eBay to find yourself a deal, and start saving money!

Find out more info about this product at MagicJack.com's official website.

The MySuit Experience

If you're in the money making business world offline, you may be required to wear professional attire daily to your job. Suits can always be a challenge, as you want them to look great, fit properly, yet still be affordable. A helpful website known as MySuitNY.com provides Made to Measure suits in about 2 weeks time starting at just $495.00! This is a great way to get an upscale look to your business or personal wardrobe. I recently toured the My.Suit Experience on their website to check out their services. I personally prefer charcoal gray suits with 2 or 3 buttons, that work well in many occasions, and have a lightweight fabric. Judging by MySuit's website experience, it would be very easy to get a made-to-order suit that would fit me properly and work well in many seasons or situations.

MySuit is a company which is global and has over 40 years experience in retail and manufacturing. It also lays claim to being one of the largest suit makers in the world. They're able to price suits affordably due to direct selling to customers, and also because of on demand productions. There's 3 easy steps involved in getting a suit made to your specific measurements with MySuit. There's measuring, styling and fabric selection. A consultant guides individuals through these steps to ensure complete comfortability with the overall MySuit experience and final product. For measuring, the consultant uses a "Gauge Suit" after determining your specific body type. The gauge suit allows for your particular body type, posture and stance to help find the most accurate specs for your suit. The consultant will take about 30 measurements total, providing a true made-to-measure suit, versus the 3 measurements you get from "off the rack" suits (waist, suit size, inseam).

Next you'll move on to step 2, deciding on styling for your suit request. The two basic choices you'll have are jacket type (buttons) and pant type (flat-front or pleated). The consultant will help you personalize your selection with additional details and style elements such as lapels, pockets, vents and sleeve buttons. Then you're on to step 3, selection of the fabric type to be used. The consultant will help you determine the fabric weight, color/pattern and most importantly whether the suit will be for social or business occasions.

It appears to be quite a pain-free process to get a made-to-measure suit created by MySuit. You can schedule an appointment with no purchase necessary just to get your proper suit measurements done. The MySuit website allows for customers to set up appointments for the New York store, which is located on 1270 Broadway (@33rd Street) in NYC. Hours are Monday to Friday 10AM to 8PM, Saturday 10AM to 7PM and Sunday 12PM to 6PM.

Ways to Make Money with Ebay & Craigslist!

eBay & Craigslist continue to be two of the big online buying and selling sites. Craigslist is a great place to advertise not only items for sale, but also services (such as your blog). There's quite a few ways you can combine the eBay & Craigslist websites in order to generate income. Sometimes if I'm selling items I like to cross-promote them on eBay just by picking out random spots to advertise. Usually I like big cities like NYC and LA, but I've tried elsewhere. It's hard to say if it helps, but its a free form of advertising. Some eBay expert sellers like to go into the "Free" sections of Craigslist and grab anything they might be able to sell on eBay. Or, they look for items being sold on Craigslist locally that they can sell at a profit on eBay. Both are great ways to start a part-time eBay biz with little or no real start-up cost.

Craigslist also provides "Wanted" sections, where people can list off things they're looking to buy. For example, if you're currently selling items on eBay, you can do Google searches for the items you're selling as "wanted" items on Craigslist.

An example Google search: "craigslist wanted toddler Halloween costume"

Now it's not guaranteed, but you're likely to turn up at least a few results from around the United States of people looking for toddler Halloween costumes (or whatever items you're selling on item) on Craigslist. You can consider foreign Craigslist want ads such as UK/Canada, but only if you're offering sales and shipping to these on eBay. Once you find some want ads, check out the Craigslist want ad to get a feel for what they want, and reply to the email given. Make it simple, saying you noticed their ad, wanted to help and are selling an item they may be interested in. Provide them a link to the item auction and the eBay item number, but don't be overly agressive or pushy about it. Make it calm and simple because you don't want to get blacklisted as a spammer from the email.

Taking this concept a step further, you can become an eBay or Shopping Ads affiliate and start doing this for items you're not selling. You can go to the various Craigslist cities around the US and check the "Wanted" sections for items such as mp3 players or video game systems, or anything else that is hot on the market. Again, make the email calm and simple but not a pushy sales pitch. Write it simply as if you're just helping someone out by providing the item # of something they want to buy. eBay and Shopping Ads offer nice commissions for signups and sales on eBay, so check into their program details for more info.

My experience is generally that Craigslist buyers want even better deals than eBay has to offer so this may be tricky to pull off. Also many Craigslist buyers seem to prefer buying items in person, rather than paying the shipping charge. It's worth a shot though, and if you have your own domain/website you may also consider setting up a page full of listings for items such as the iPod or video game systems. With Shopping Ads you can set up ads to be PPC (pay per click). Provide a Craigslist buyer with a full web page of listings you've created, and profit from the clicks and buys!

If you've had experience making money with Craigslist and eBay combined, feel free to share your info and tips below!

Best Online Banking Deals Right Now!

They say money doesn't grow on trees, but it can grow online! A few days ago, The Monetizer gave you some suggested ways to get Cash fast during these trying economic times. Today I'd like to provide you with some of the best deals for online banks to stash that cash! These particular banks offer the highest interest rates going today for Savings accounts & CD's! Make sure to do your homework and see what other fees or rules may apply, but generally these are some great places to grow money.

Listed below you'll find savings accounts, certificates of deposit and Foreign currency CD's. If you currently make money online, you definitely want to consider allocating some of it to these spots!

If you have money just sitting in your Checking account, let it grow here.

If you are afraid interest rates may fall, it might be a good time to lock down with a CD.

Don't forget FDIC insures up to $250,000 until December 2009. We still recommend holding a max of $100,000 / bank.



Savings Accounts ( Can Pull Out Money Anytime )

- OneUnited - 3.75% APY ( min of $1000 )

- FNBO Direct - 3.50% ( no minimum )


- WT Direct - 3.31% ( min of $10000 )

- HSBC - 3.25% APY ( no minimum )

- Savings Square - 3.05% ( no minimum )

- Emigrant Direct - 3.00% APY ( no minimum )


- Citibank e-Savings - 3.00% APY ( no minimum )

- E-Loan - 2.76%+ APY ( no minimum )

- Bank of America - 0.20% ( don't consider )



Certificate of Deposit CD - ( Cannot Pull Out Anytime )


If you don't mind keeping your money in the bank for a certain time, CD (Certificate of Deposit) would give you a slightly better rate and rates will not change for that time period.

- 3 Months - Virtual Bank 3.51% APY ( min of $10000 )

- 3 Months - Eloan 3.41% APY ( min of $10000 )

- 6 Months - Imperial Bank 4.35% APY ( min of $1000 )


- 6 Months - Corus 4.25% APY ( min of $10000 )

- 9 Months - AmTrust 4.35% ( min of $1000 )

- 9 Months - Imperial 4.15% APY ( min of $2000 )

- 1.0 Year - Patelco 7.00% ( max of $1000 )


- 1.0 Year - Corus 4.65% APY ( min of $10000 )

- 1.0 Year - Flagstar 4.50% APY

- 1.5 Year - Advanta 4.50% APY ( min of $10000 )

- 1.5 Years - Capital One 4.46% APY ( min of $5000 )


- 2.0 Years - National City 4.75% APY ( min of $10000 )

- 2.0 Years - Discover 4.5% APY ( min of $2500 )

- 3.0 Years - Pentagon 5.0% APY ( min $1000 )

- 4.0 Years - National 5.25% APY ( min of $10000 )


- 5.0 Years - Advanta 5.25% APY ( min $2500 )

- 5.0 Years - Discover 5.21% APY ( min of $2500 )



Foreign Currency CDs

With the government printing a lot of money lately, fear of inflation is roaming around. You can put money in foreign currency CDs to protect yourself

- EverBank.com Foreign CDs ( min $10000, protected by FDIC )

(Source: Spoofee.com)

Ways to Get Cash in Rough Financial Times

"Tough Times don't last, tough people do" is a very fitting statement right about now. The stock market has dipped to its lowest levels in about 5 years time. Gas prices have soared up over $4.00 a gallon, and luckily come back down a bit lately. Airfare travel has become even more expensive as the airlines are forced to add more and more charges so they can continue to operate. Grocery store and roadside stand prices have even been on the rise. With the way the economy has become a major issue in our lives as well as the upcoming 08' presidential election, it's time we adopted more of a deal-finding, opportunistic and saver's mentality!

The Roanoke Times has a recent article titled "How to Get Cash Fast" as part of its Good Housekeeping Reports. The article gives several tips on how to get money right now. Some may be obvious, others might be something new to consider.

1) Sell your unwanted gold jewelry - Gold is valued at over $900 per ounce right now so why not cash in? You've seen the ads all over TV. The article says to stay away from those places, but instead consult your yellow pages for jewelers who buy gold. Then begin the process of calling or going to each and finding out their commissions and offers. Draw up a list and find the best deal for your gold. Also, don't worry about workmanship of your gold pieces as the buyers will just be melting it down. Turnaround for this is about a day to sell your gold.

2) Borrow from peers - This doesn't mean your friends, because we all know if we're hurting financially, then so are they. Instead try out peer-to-peer lending at sites like prosper.com and lendingclub.com. You can usually borrow $1000 or more with an interest rate around 8% or so depending on credit. Good credit is vital to getting a loan this way. Turnaround for this is 1-2 weeks.

3) Tap home equity - As the article describes it, a home equity credit line is like a big credit card account with your home as the collateral. You can write checks against the credit line and interest is often tax-deductible. Use this in extreme desperation, because you'll be paying it back. Ask your bank or mortgage lender for their terms, as you may get a break as their customer. Turnaround for this method is about 2 weeks or so.

The Monetizer suggests IDEA #4, start your own home-based or internet-based business. Things like eBay sales, monetized blogging, paid article writing, affiliate marketing, survey sites and more can get you money without you even having to leave the house. You can consult the Monetizer's Moneymakers for a great list of sites to sign up for today!

And #5 is of course to play the lottery every week, but we all know about the chances associated with that!

Slate.com Looks at Blogging for Dollars

There's a fascinating 10/1/08 article over at Slate.com by Michael Agger entitled "Blogging for Dollars - How Do Bloggers Make Money?" The article takes a look at how blogging has exploded in size and continues to grow exponentially each day. According to the stats there are 900,000 blog posts created daily across the world. So this post is just a fraction of that!

Even more interesting, the article takes a look at the big money some people command from their blogs. Examples you may have heard of:

The LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month;
Overheard in New York gets $8,100 per month;
Perez Hilton, gossip king, scoops up $111,000 per month.

(info source: Slate.com)

The article may state the obvious to us bloggers. That is in order to get the income you want from writing a blog regulalry, you need to have visitors and a high level of traffic. The example of 43f is given, which started out small then exploded and began to pay the bills.

Agger writes:

While monetizing your blog may be easier than ever, all of this comes with an ever-present hammer: the need to drive traffic. This month, the writer/blogger/productivity thinker Merlin Mann opened a window onto his angst with an anniversary post. Mann is best-known as the creator of the Hipster PDA (index cards clipped together by a binder clip)* and his Inbox Zero talk (turn your e-mail into actions). In a post titled "Four Years," Mann sketches out how his site, 43 Folders, grew from a personal dumping ground for his "mental sausage" into a full-featured destination for productivity nerds and life-hackers. In 2005, he experienced a key transition:

At some point that year, 43f became the surreal and unexpected circus tent under which my family began drawing an increasing amount of its income. This was weird, but it was also exactly as gratifying as it sounds. Which is to say, "very." But, my small measure of something like success did not go unnoticed. In fact, the popularity of small blogs like 43 Folders contributed to the arrival of a gentrifying wagon train of carpetbaggers, speculators, and confidence men, all eager to pan the web's glistening riverbed for easy gold. And, brother, did these guys love to post and post and post.

It is amazing the amount of money and traffic that some blogs generate. Shoutouts are given to Shoemoney and Problogger in the article, with link backs to their respective blogs. Both of their blogs command lots of visitors, subscribers and moolah. Yours can too if you follow in their footsteps, build something people return to and find often, monetize it properly, and you're well on your way...

Read the full artice here at Slate.com for inspiration and possibly some ideas on how to get your moneymaking blog into full gear!

Goal Setting & Maximum Achievement

Goals are considered the driving force in many peoples' successes. Most successful people who you read about had what many refer to as a "definite purpose" in mind. They knew what they wanted to do, kept at it constantly with a large amount of desire, and eventually they achieved something great. The success all started with a goal in mind.

According to Brian Tracy in his book Maximum Achievement, every successful person is a consistent goal-setter and achiever. Tracy goes on to state that there's more to goals than just setting them and maybe acknowledging them from time to time. There's actually a 12 step detailed process used for carrying your goals to fruition, aka the "Master Plan" which Tracey discusses in his book.

The 12 Steps in Goal-setting:

1. Develop an intense burning desire to achieve your goal.
2. Develop belief that your goal will be achieved.
3. Write down your goal.
4. Make a list of all the ways you will benefit from achieving the goal.
5. Analyze your position or starting point on the way to your goal.
6. Set a deadline for achieving your goal.
7. Make a list of all obstacles standing in the way of achieving your goal.
8. Identify any additional information you'll need to achieve your goal.
9. Make a list of all people whose help and cooperation you'll require.
10. Make a detailed plan for accomplishing your goal (including #3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
11. Use visualization of what it's like to have achieved your goal.
12. Make a decision in advance to never, never give up on your goal.

The idea is if you make a goal with at least a 60-70% chance that you can achieve it, and you follow the above steps, you are well on your way towards success! Thinking of the achievement of your goal daily is a great way to overcoming negative feelings too. And once you've achieved the goal, you're ready for even more challenging goals!

Tracey's Maximum Achievement is a great positive book about how to achieve success. There's more detail given on each of the above steps as well as questions to ask yourself to help identify the major goal you really want to achieve. The Monetizer greatly recommends the book as well as goal-setting! If you choose not to read the book, make the effort to set goals on short term and long term bases. Stick to them, refusing to give in to the temptation of "I Can't". If it's worth achieving, it's worth writing down, acting upon, believing in and eventually reaching!