A friend brought this site to our attention and we wanted to share it with all of you:

FindFocusGroups.com

Might be a nice way to earn a little pocket change while you continue searching for work at home jobs for moms.

~Enjoy!

Recently, while searching the web for work at home jobs for moms, we came upon an ad for a remote customer service job. You never saw the ad…well, not in our job leads anyway…because, while it sounded like a legitimate work at home job, the sad fact of the matter is that they were charging a fee for you to be trained. Let’s rephrase that: they were charging a rather high fee of $100 to train you in the specifics of their job description. Although we don’t doubt that the ad was for a legitimate work at home job, that they sought to profit from you in this way was a huge turnoff to us. However, we’ve since come to learn from a few work at home moms that this isn’t entirely uncommon.

Charging people to train for a position is just icky to us and if you ever encounter this in one of the work at home jobs for moms that we offer a lead on, please let us know. Further, we won’t judge you if you choose to pay for one of these jobs “training modules”, we want to make sure that you know that you don’t have to do so. Our advice is to continue looking for a WAH job, as there are many that don’t charge. As you know, we list job leads daily and will continue to bring you updates as we learn of them.

Work at Home Transcriber Jobs Are Not Just Exclusive…Sometimes They Can Be Elusive!

In posting work at home jobs for moms, we do our best to supply links to employers hiring for medical transcription work. Home-based transcription positions, however, can be a little difficult to come by. Therefore, we thought it would be nice to share a few tips on finding these unique work at home jobs for moms and to open the doors of communication for you to share a few of your own with your fellow work at home moms.

(NOTE: If you happened upon this post because you’d like to become a transcriptionist or because you’d like more information on how you can earn money performing medical transcription work, home typing or general transcription work, please see our articles located in the Work at Home Mom Job & Training Center located in your sidebar.)

Tips for Finding Medical Transcription Work

Home-based opportunities in this field do exist and, all over the world, people just like you are earning money through legitimate work at home transcription jobs. Although job leads can sometimes appear to be quite thin, here are a few tips to help you find transcriber jobs that are perfect for your work schedule:

• Cold Call – Yes, it’s a scary idea to some, but some of the best transcription positions are not advertised and, therefore, you have to do a little homework. We suggest going through your local Yellow Pages and asking doctor’s offices, hospitals, law firms and other professionals who they are using to satisfy their transcription needs. Then, contact these companies directly and ask about available positions and who you can send your resume to.
• Network – Several forums and blogs are dedicated to medical transcription work. Home workers tend to congregate in these places to share stories, advice, encouragement and, yes, job leads. Social networks on Facebook or Twitter are a great place to also meet fellow transcriptionists who may be able to offer you a heads up on positions that aren’t advertised.
• Speak up – Let people know that you are looking for medical transcription work. Home is the best place to start, because even though friends and family members aren’t in the field, it’s likely that they’ve come across someone who needs a transcriptionist. Remember that it’s not just doctors who need to fill transcription positions, but online marketers often need webinars transcribed, professors are often looking for lectures to be be transcribed and a lot of other professionals who your friends and family members may have in their Rolodex may have a need for transcription services, too. So, make it known to anyone who will listen that you are on the hunt for transcriber jobs.
• Advertise – Did you know that it’s completely free to list your services on popular classified ad sites like CraigsList and Kijiji? Or that Facebook has a Marketplace for you to advertise your wares and services? These are but a few of the places where you can let people know that you are available for regular or medical transcription work. Home workers have also had success advertising in their local papers, as well, so be sure to consider all of the free and low-cost classified listings in your area.

Don’t Give Up!

Legitimate transcription positions do exist and each day people are finding transcriber jobs by employing these tips. Looking for medical transcription work, home typing and other transcription positions can sometimes feel like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. With a little outside-the-box thinking and a whole lot of perseverance, however, you CAN find transcription positions…even when they’re not publicly advertised.

We’d like to hear from you!

What are some of the tips you can recommend to others searching for transcription positions? When it comes to finding work at home jobs for moms, it’s important that we share our personal experiences and ideas. So we hope you’ll share with us some of the tips you’ve found to be helpful in locating transcription positions.

Mock Jury Duty, Anyone?

Obviously we spend a lot of time gathering leads for work at home jobs for moms. However, every now and then we discover a few that we’ve never heard of or, quite frankly, ever considered possible. Enter online jurors!

Apparently, lawyers hire mock jurors to review their cases and weigh in on their opinions and it’s all done online. It makes perfect sense that attorneys would conduct such focus groups since, as we know, working at home saves on commuting and all of the little expenses associated with in-person meetings or work (cost of the physical location, utilities, coffee, office supplies, etc.). But the fact that we were actually able to locate a few companies that do so puts working at home as an online juror on our radar.

Are Online Jurors a Legitimate Work at Home Opportunity?

Before we go any further, it’s important to note that the discovery of online jury duty is a new work at home jobs for moms possibility for us. And, while we’re happy to share our findings with you, we cannot vouch for the legitimacy of these companies or the opportunities that they provide. With that said, PLEASE, if you have any experience as an online juror (or with any of the other work at home jobs for moms that we discuss here), we strongly encourage you to weigh in about your experiences.

Now, on to the good stuff…

Companies Hiring Online Mock Jurors

Here are a few companies that we found who hire online jurors and we encourage you go check them out for yourself:

eJury

Trial Practice

Jury Test

Online Verdict

How Much Are Online Jurors Paid?

From what we’ve read, most companies pay online jurors between $5 and $60 per case, so this certainly isn’t a full-time income opportunity. But it sounds like it may be an interesting experience and a way to make a little money on the side while exploring other work at home jobs for moms.

What do you think?

Do you know of any other companies hiring online jurors?

If you have any experience as an online juror, please leave a comment…we’d love to her from you!

If you can easily blow several hours tweeting, find yourself obsessively updating your Facebook status or have ever spent an entire afternoon engaging in a forum discussion, you may want to consider becoming a social media expert.

Is This a Real Work From Home Job?

While some social media jobs require a person to work on-site, a good percentage of them allow employees to work from home since the job is performed wholly on the Internet. Also, keep in mind that this is a service that you can offer as a freelancer or as an independent contractor. Simply post an ad for your services on CraigsList and similar sites, and you just may be able to start a new business.

Get Paid to Tweet, Really?

Yup, really. But that’s not all. Other services you may be asked to perform (or you may want to offer if you’ll be doing this as a freelancer) are:

• Social bookmarking
• Submitting articles to article directories (also consider writing articles for submissions!)
• Submitting press releases to media outlets and directories
• Submitting company websites to search engines and directories
• Forum and blog commenting to provide backlinks to a client’s site

Consider a few recent job descriptions from companies serious about hiring someone to handle their social media needs:

Social Media / Community Manager / Online Marketing

Social Media Reporter

Virtual Admin – Social Media

Also, be sure to check out today’s JOB LEADS for social media job leads and other work at home jobs for moms.

What Kind of Companies Need a Social Media Expert?

Any company that plans to do business in the 21st century.

Seriously!

See, business is all about branding and the Internet is an enormous landscape where companies need constant visibility. Gone are the days when it was enough for a company to have a website and an email address. In order to compete in today’s marketplace, companies need to have a presence on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and a variety of forums and other sites where their target customers hang out.

It’s unlikely that busy executives or their employees have the time to engage in all of these mediums on a daily basis, so it makes perfect sense that companies would either create a new position for an employee to handle their social media needs or outsource these duties to someone like yourself who is looking for a perfect work at home job.

When searching for work at home jobs for moms, keep your eyes and ears open for freelance writing contests. You may or may not be a professional writer, but contests are a way to possibly earn extra cash from your writing skills and become an award-winning writer in the process! To get you started, here’s a list of freelance writing contests you can enter today:

Atlanta Review – International Poetry Competition ($2,010 Grand Prize – Deadline May 7)

Writer’s Digest 79th Annual Writing Competition ($30,000 in Cash Prizes – Deadline May 14))

SubTerrain’s Annual Lush Triumphant Literary Awards Competition ($3,000 in Cash Prizes – Deadline May 15)

2010 Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Contest ($500 Grand Prize – Deadline May 28)

Olive Garden Pasta Tales Essay Writing Contest (Contest is for school-age youth – 3-day trip to NY and $2,500 Savings Bond Grand Prize – Deadline December 11)

For more work at home jobs for moms, check out our job leads.

Happy Writing to All!