I'm curious about jobs where you can work from home - I feel like I'm constantly hearing and reading about medical transcription, but don't know what it takes (online degree, on-site training, etc.) or if you really think it's worth it. Does anyone on this forum already do anything related to medical billing? Maybe you've looked into it already? I recently resigned my position after 7 years because I don't feel like I was called to do it anymore, and now I'm looking for something worthwhile I can do while I start my career search again.
I have never seen a "work from home" advertisement that wasn't a scam. I have done medical transcription and medical billing, in an office at a medical center. I'm not aware of any companies hiring people to do such work at home.
Although these sites seem targeted towards stay at home Mothers, there are a lot of places to find jobs: Work Place Like Home Work at Home Forums Most companies that have telecommuting as an option only offer it to employees who have some tenure. There are some sales positions out there that allow you to work from home. My sister works for Insight and she has worked from her house for the last 7 years. Check with some of the larger internet base companies for position as well. Amazon and the like. Medical transcription and paralegal seem to be big work from home jobs. Customer service as well. I would think you should just do something you like and find a company with good telecommute policies and go from there. Unless of course you have some limitation for working outside the home. Good luck.
One of my wife's friends does medical transcription from home and is quite successful with it. I think she added medical billing last year, but I am not sure how that has worked out.
As of November of last year I work from home full-time doing web design. I worked for years as an accountant (hence the degree) but finally realized that if I ever wanted to make it in this world, I had to strike out on my own. The best thing about web design is you don't need a degree or any other credentials to do it. If you are doing web design for customers, it's the quality of your portfolio that gets you new customers. No one cares whether you have a degree, certificate, credential or anything else. Where do you get customers? Easy. Just advertise your services on "ODesk." I originally started looking for a work-at-home business because I was really interested in living in another part of the world for awhile, soaking up a different culture, and learning a new language. I've spent countless hours looking into super-low cost countries like Ecuador, The Philippines, Thailand, etc. Although I'm making enough to live in any of those countries now, I still haven't made the big move anywhere yet. Many web designers only do work for clients' web sites. I do things a little different. I also build web sites for myself and place advertising on them. the great thing about this arrangement is that once you get a web site in place and ranking in the search engines, it's like a perpetual income machine. This web site is a good example. You've probably already noticed that it has ads all over it. Those ads are from E-Learner. They pay $25 per lead. Not bad. I know I'm not the only one on this site who does this either. Two examples that quickly come to mind are Laurie Miller's BA in 4 Weeks site and Tom Nixon's online high school site. Both of these have advertising on them. It's pretty easy to learn how to do all of this. I learned through the Keyword Academy. Learn How To Make Money Online At The Keyword Academy
Oh, another thing you might want to look into is copy writing. There's good money to be made in freelance writing for businesses in your area. A good book to guide you on the subject is "The Well-Fed Writer." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/978-0967059877/njsc-20
Yet another work-from-idea you might want to check into is photography. Most people who end up in the photography business start off taking pictures as a hobby. Eventually they move up to such things as wedding photography, studio photography, etc. A good friend of mine did this. She rented a [tiny] studio a couple of years ago and now specializes in baby and children's photography. Her business is doing very well.
Get an online doctorate and adjunct for UoP, Kaplan, etc. Oops, it looks like this is not longer an option.
What it worked for me for a while was web development but then wages went too low. At some point I was preparing for the CPA certification as many accounting firms outsource their accounting over the internet and wages are still decent. Computer consulting is not so bad, there are always people willing to pay to set up wireless networks, installations, upgrades, etc. Other possible options are insurance brokers, real estate valuation, financial planning, small business accountant, computer trainer, etc. There are many possible options but most of these careers require training and time but many make decent livings.
AV8R is dead on. I've done some affiliate marketing on the side and made enough money to know it is real. Copywriting is definitely another good idea. Websites that rank well must have unique content and people like me hire freelancers all the time. When I'm done with my BS all of my energy is going into building websites and monetizing them. You can make a great living if you work hard and have a true passion for it.
I agree 100%, especially considering patient privacy laws such as HIPAA which would make you think that having unsupervised medical records at someones home would be opening the medical center/hospital up to a huge liability.
