Carl

Hank Snow: I’ve Been Everywhere

Before traipsing onto the web, wading through the muck of telecommute web sites, the first thing you want to do is create a professional website. I created my site and professional email inbox at Microsoft Office Live. It’s free, easy and they have additional tools you can use as a Virtual Professional, such as SkyDrive, for document storage.

The main thing to remember is NEVER, EVER under ANY circumstances pay a fee or for a “list” of companies that hire telelcommuters. Why? Not necessarily because it’s a ripoff but they aren’t offering anything that you can’t get for free.

Having spent so much time on various sites and applying, bidding and getting nowhere, I can, without reservation recommend the following sites… FREE SITES, for you to create an account with and place bids for jobs. (For more information on bidding, follow my articles. I’ll be writing that article next).

Elance

Elance is one of the most well-known bid platforms. You get a free account and 10 free bids per month. There are options for paid membership but it is up to you to determine when, and if, you want to go that route. They charge a fee, per hour, but that is added to the payment the Client/Vendor makes to you AFTER you’ve done the job and they submit payment. The other benefits of Elance are the online timer, which takes webshots to verify to the employer you are working on their project when you say you are; and, Escrow. With Escrow, the Client/Vendor has to put the funds with Elance. In the event there would be a dispute, Elance uses the online tracker and information to determine if you’ve worked and should get paid or if the Client is right not to pay you. In over a year, with Elance, I have never had this issue. With the free account, you can only bid on one Category; however, if you want to change it, you can.

Freelancer

Freelancer is also free to join. They, too, charge a fee from the Client/Vendor. They also offer paid memberships but allow 40 bids per month. They don’t offer a tracking system, like Elance. And, although they do not require payment verification, they offer the ability for you, as the job seeker, to click on a link under the Clients name to see if their payment has been verified so you KNOW you will get paid for the work. A bid plus for this site is you can choose up to 25 categories to bid in, which can be changed at any time.

Guru

Guru also has free membership services; however, unlike Elance and Freelancer, the fee is charged to the worker (you) so that needs to be kept in mind when placing bids on projects. With their free account, you get 10 free bids per month but they do offer Bid Packs, where you can purchase a small or large amount of additional bids. The drawback here is you can only sign up for one specialty, such as Admin Support, Legal, Finance, Web… and so on. You can only bid on those requests that a Client lists in your category. Once you select that category, it cannot be changed. A new profile would have to be created.

There are also a few sites that list companies that list legitimate freelance/telecommute jobs, with no strings attached.

Rat Race Rebellion

This site is provided by Staffcentrix, a training and development company that designed the first virtual-work training programs for the US Department of State and the US Armed Forces. Since 1999, they have been showing organizations and people how to work virtually. They were also premiered on The View in December.

Homeworkers

They have a work at home database that allows you to enter criteria and locate companies that are hiring for positions you want to fill. No strings attached!

I am certain there are other legitimate sites like ODesk and People Per Hour; however, I have had no luck getting any projects with them at this time so I cannot really promote how good or bad they are.

Laura Smith

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Profant_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Find-Real-Telecommute-Careers&id=6835976

Bobby Darin: Beyond the Sea

A cautionary tale about grabbing at something that seems too good–especially when you are in need…Hope you are enjoying National Telework Week….It looks like a new iPad is about here…Do you really need that smartphone? Really?…Cloud computing is upsetting the apple cart, big time…The Android Market now is the Google Play Store. Has anything else changed?…It’s much more likely that you don’t like your mobile network…Do you know about computers and have a background in math? The job market is open for you…Not using a cell phone while driving is safer. And water is wet. Now if they would just put breathalyzers in every vehicle and cameras on the rears of SUVs…Unified communications is a huge issue for teleworkers and telecommuters. Essentially, it’s doing everything you do now, only far more efficiently.

The company says that the signals are delivered to an antenna that connects to a broadband router in the home. Pricing begins at $59.99 per month for 10 GB of data, with a one-time $199.99 equipment fee. Installation is free.

This is the wave of the future. Services that serve the whole home wirelessly will proliferate. The value is obvious to folks who work from their home part- or full-time. Expect other carriers to follow suit. This will be particularly useful in rural areas that are under served by cable operators and telcos. LTE services operator at about DSL and cable modem speeds.

Verizon Wireless recently said that only 5 percent of its subscribers are on its LTE network. It’s unclear yet whether that is a sign of the immaturity of the market or if demand is less than anticipated. In any case, the progress — or lack of progress — of this service will be tracked carefully both internally and by industry watchers.

Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com

Heartbreak Hotel: Elvis Presley

This extensive and well executed slide show was posted by eWeek last month, but it’s worthwhile for anyone considering a purchase.
There are some security/privacy concerns on smartphone photos. The New York Times reports that Google and Apple will meet with Senator Chuck Schumer to discuss the issues. The bottom line is that folks who use their own camera for work or are given one by their employer should be careful until the issues – which revolve around cameras taking photos and even tagging them with locations—are resolved.