remarkably clever

Want designer for cheap? Buy from China.

2010-02-21T22:03:05Z

My friend Casey recently mentioned that she wanted to get her daughter some shoes that cost a lot at local boutiques so she found them available in China and even with shipping, they were much cheaper. I’ve had other friends do similar things with Ugg boots so I thought I’d look at how to find items for cheap.

Disclaimer: I don’t have personal, firsthand experience with this as I normally would with topics I blog about. I have heard from friends that it worked well for them. I can’t vouch for the authenticity of these items so shop at your own risk.

Squeaky Shoes

From a US Store

$29.95 + $5 shipping = $34.95

From a Chinese Store

$7.80 + $8 shipping = $15.80

Uggs

From a US Store

$144 + Free shipping = $144

From a Chinese Store

$66 + $18 shipping = $84.00

Coach tote

From a US Store

$410 + Free shipping = $410

From a Chinese Store

$237 + Free shipping = $237.00

To find more items available from China, do a Google search for your brand name plus the word “China” and if that is only giving you wholesale results, remove wholesale from your search results. Example:

YourBrandName China -wholesale

Don’t be too afraid of sites that sell wholesale because many will have pricing for individual items as well as bulk. Hope this helps somebody looking to save a few dollars while still looking fab.

Me? I can still be found at my own designer store located right around the corner – the fabulous Targét.

10 things I learned in this blog’s 1st month

2009-07-02T05:18:20Z

It’s been a great first month here on RemarkablyClever.com. Here are 10 things I’ve learned so far.

1.) Stat addiction

When you work hard to create posts and you try to get the word out about your blog, the desire to watch the stats is reallly strong. I had hoped I would get over it by now but I haven’t. Watching the stats surge is a huge high but seeing slow days is a downer. I wish I wasn’t a slave to the stats but I’ve learned it’s inevitable at the beginning when it’s all new.

While we’re on the subject, here’s some stats from this first month. There are lots of ways to measure but I like pageviews the best.

I’ve also had 1358 absolute unique visitors, visitors spend an average of 3.5 minutes on the site (a high number for a website!) and come mostly by referral. People who arrive via search engine or referral from a link that I’ve placed spend the most time. People who come from Facebook spend the least amount of time.

2.) Blogging takes a looong time

I spend 3-8 hours on each post and I post 3 times a week. That doesn’t even count the efforts I put out to promote it or technical fixes or anything like that. I also work full-time and have a family so blogging is a huge chunk of my time. I think many people underestimate it when they start, including me.

3.) Opinion posts are easier than well-researched ones

When the research is basically my thoughts, it’s much easier to create a post. Most of my posts are factual and well-researched which is why they take so long. I’ve only done 1 or 2 of these and they haven’t been as popular as the longer, more detailed and factual posts.

4.) The longer I spend on a post, the more traffic it gets

The post that took me the longest to write was the one about real work-at-home jobs. It took me 8 hours to write and is one of the most popular. One of the next most popular posts is the post about running a half marathon which took me 6 hours to write.

5.) Comments make it worth it

Comments are VERY exciting to me. I get some here, some on Twitter, some on Facebook and some via email. They are the reason it is worth spending the time blogging. You want to know you’re actually connecting with people and that they appreciate it. I’ve also spent more time commenting on other people’s blogs because I want them to know their information was useful or inspiring in some way.

6.) People search for funny stuff

I look at the terms people are using to find my blog in search engines and the most used search term is often “couch to half marathon” but there are some hilarious ones too. I often wonder if they’ve found what they are looking for?

“lost virginity cruise ship”
“fun things to do with pipe cleaners”
“fun things to do by yourself”

7.) Having a narrower niche would be much easier

Each post that I write is usually on a different topic than previous posts so promoting the post has a different promotional tactic each time. If I always wrote about the same thing, it would be much easier because the marketing efforts would be the same.

8.) I will likely have to focus on a smaller niche at some point

When I started this blog, the one thing that I thought summarized what I wanted to write about was things that were “clever.” I tend to research a lot of areas and come up with smart ways to do them and so I felt like that umbrella worked for me. And it does. But this broad topic makes it harder for search engines, to find an audience, etc. I’m going to keep doing this blog until a smaller niche becomes more apparent and then I will focus.

9.) My voice works best

For some reason, my first posts were devoid of my personality completely and they were strictly factual. I think I was nervous about starting a new site and how to combine a “professional” blog with my personality. However, I’ve noticed that the more I loosen up and just use my normal language, the more I get feedback and interaction from others. You have to show your personality for others to show theirs.

10.) It gets easier

At first when you have no content and no visitors, everything is a struggle. Once you start to gain some traction and people start finding out about your blog, it gets easier. It’s an exponential growth rather than a linear one. It takes a lot of long-term work to launch a blog but I’m already thrilled with what just this first month has been like and can start to breathe a little easier now that I’m not white-knuckling it quite so much. Month 2 looks to be even better. Can’t wait.

For the love of travel

2009-06-30T12:03:04Z

Up until now, all or most of my posts have been “how to” type of information. This works well for most of what I want to share but there is one exception:

Travel.

I can’t just give travel tips here without also sharing my passion about it.

About 12 years ago, I read an article that said that everybody defines happiness differently. After I read the article, I realized that my husband defined happiness based on having money saved because it makes him feel secure (seriously, you’d think he grew up in the Great Depression) and I base my definition of happiness on having the freedom to travel. He loves to travel as well but doesn’t use it to define his own happiness (my way is more fun).

Why do I love to travel?

Because it forces you into new situations, foreign travel exposes you to new cultures, it’s adventurous, and it’s fun to learn bits of new languages. I especially love exposing the kids to different cultures (though my son asking a group of British kids why they talk like Harry Potter wasn’t my proudest moment) so they can see there’s a whole world out there and they will be comfortable being and living wherever they want as they become adults.

I also love other travelers and airports and public transportation. My husband is often embarrassed because I feel the need to chat with my seatmates on airplanes or strike up a conversation with people at a hotel. We have made trips to the airport just to watch planes take off and land. I love everything about it.

My son being an airplane in the viewing area of DFW airport, 2006

We know many people who say things like “one day I will go to [fill in the blank]” or “I wish I could travel as much as you do.” The fact is, they could, but they just don’t. As with anything, it’s all about priorities. We have arranged our lives in such a way that traveling is easier to do. We’ve never owned a new car, our only debt is our mortgage and we maximize our vacation time to go new places.

When we were buying our current house, our realtor was desperately trying to get us to buy something bigger and more expensive. She knew we could afford it but we insisted that our house didn’t need to be that big or that expensive. She said “can’t you give up your family vacation every other year to get a bigger house?” (For the record, our house is 2700 sq. ft. and has 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Why would we even need bigger or more expensive house?) We stuck to our guns and I’m glad we did. I wanted to tell her “my ideal year has 4 trips so giving up vacations every other year sounds like hell.”

For example, on a train ride between Slovakia and Hungary a couple of years ago, I figured out that the cost of visiting 100 countries would be roughly equal to that of buying a new S.U.V. When I saw how relatively little that was, I felt encouraged. I gave up the hypothetical large vehicle and received the world in return.
-Chris Guillebeau in “A Brief Guide to World Domination”

My daughter at the Vatican, 2001

Now we find ourselves looking at relocation just 1.5 years after we moved into our house. Our plan? To downsize, go even more affordable and simplify the work needed to maintain the house. Why? You guessed it, so we can travel more. We don’t care about big houses or nice cars so this is planning our lives around our priorities, not somebody else’s blueprint.

I will be doing a series on this blog about traveling to Walt Disney World because it’s something that I think is really fun to plan, especially if you are willing to dive into the details. However, getting away from this touristy type of travel more often is a goal of mine because cultural experiences are just as important to me as silly family fun.

My travel goal

For that reason, it is my goal to go somewhere for an entire month in the summer of 2010 and get a taste for what it’s like to live like a local for a bit and expose my children to a new culture. I was inspired by Eat, Pray, Love to go someplace for an extended period. Although I don’t have the need to runaway and heal from a painful situation like the author did, I do have the desire to experience a place as something other than a tourist.

I’m still trying to figure out where we’ll go and the logistics to make that happen but it will. My husband will likely be able to join us for part of the time but it will primarily be the kids and me. How great will that be that they can grow up and say that they “lived” outside of the US for a month? Longer than a month would be fantastic (like maybe a year – or five!) but this will be a good start to experimenting with extended travel.

I always say that planning is half the fun for me and I’m ready to get started. I’ll be documenting the plans for our month-long stint here over the next year.

First decision: where to go. Have any suggestions?

Making money online: an experiment

2009-06-29T12:57:03Z

A couple of weeks ago when I posted the list of work at home jobs, I was surprised to see that hardly anybody had clicked on the link to read more about how to do affiliate marketing. It has a bit of a learning curve but when it’s done well, it can create a stream of income that requires no work once it’s setup.

I decided to do an experiment and follow the steps and document it here to see if it will work. I’ve tried it once before and while I have made more than it cost me to build the site, I made the mistake of picking a product that I didn’t know much about.

This time, I’ve decided to take my post from Friday about creating a professional blog and create a site just for it. The difference between having the information here and on its own site is that people looking for blogging information aren’t necessarily going to find my post from here very easily in a search engine.

As I said in the “work at home” blog post, there’s a tutorial at HQHow.com which details how to do affiliate marketing. Here are the steps from that tutorial and how I am doing them for this experiment.

Choose a product. This step of the tutorial involves researching products to see what you might want to sell and creating a broad list of possibilities. For this experiment, I’m skipping these because I already have 3 I know I want to use.
Keyword research. Just like the tutorial says, I used Google’s Keyword Tool to research search terms that people often look for. I tried several variations to find a phrase that met the criteria specified in the tutorial. I eventually ended up focusing on the phrase “pro blog” to use for my site.
Picking a product. I chose to feature 3 products which were all discussed in my blogging tutorial. They are products I use and recommend and happen to have affiliate programs for – HostGator.com hosting, Thesis for WordPress theme and Bookmarking Demon social bookmarking tool. I also recommend other products within the tutorial which don’t have affiliate programs but that’s ok too. These 3 products will be my affiliate links on my new site and the way that I can earn money.
Registering a domain. Based on my keyword research, I decided to reserve probloghq.com as my domain name. Having the search term in your domain name gives your blog a boost and more people will be able to find it.
Choosing a host. I used HostGator just like I’ve recommended before and just like the tutorial recommends. Since they allow unlimited domains hosted on one account, I just simply added this new site for free.
Affiliate Landing Page. I used the affiliate landing page template from the tutorial to create the site to make it easier to get going.
Website Contents. I already had the content mostly created because I was going to use the information from my previous post. I simply broke it into multiple pages in this case. If I didn’t already have it created, I would need to work to build at least 2-3 pages for the site that speak about the product(s) I’m featuring. Having this amount of content helps the search engines pick the site up.
Building backlinks. I used Bookmarking Demon to submit my site to social bookmarking sites automatically which is much, much quicker than doing it manually.
Checking your site is indexed. This will be my next step. It takes about a week for Google to pick up a site so that people can start finding it. I will report back on this as well as if I’ve made any money.

Time spent: 4 hours
Money spent: $9 (for domain registration)

I don’t know for sure that this will make much money but I’m hoping that it does (obviously) not just for me but for other people to see that it can be done. I’ll update you next week to see if it worked.

How to create a professional blog without hiring anyone

2009-06-29T04:32:59Z

I’ve been asked several times recently via email, Twitter and in person how I setup this blog. For example, I got this email from Karol.

I really like your blog’s design and see you’re using Thesis. Did you do it yourself or did you hire someone? I’m looking for a designer.

Thanks!
Karol

I responded to Karol but since I’ve been asked a few times now, here is how I setup this blog.

Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links.

1.) Reserve your domain name

I used to be a big user of GoDaddy.com but then somebody introduced me to NameCheap.com. They are the same price as GoDaddy but NameCheap.com will give you free private domain registration where GoDaddy.com charges an extra $9 for it. I was paying the extra and happy that I don’t have to now.

2.) Setup hosting

I also tried GoDaddy.com for hosting but it didn’t go very well. I ended up switching in the middle of the day to HostGator.com. I announced on Twitter that I was switching and they sent me a message back. I was off to a good start. In addition, they have many ways of obtaining technical support including online chat which I have used a few times and they have been able to fix my issues right away.

Maybe my favorite feature is that with the $7.95 plan, you can keep adding domain names to your account. I’m now running 2 or 3 domains off of one account and plan to add more. Get HostGator info.

3.) Install WordPress

I’m going to assume you are using HostGator and will be installing WordPress from there. I’m not the expert on these steps having done them just once but this site has lots of good details to help you out.

4.) Get Thesis

Ok, the real magic starts to happen when you get Thesis. Technically, Thesis is considered a theme. However, I call it a framework. It’s so much more than just a skin of your site. It’s a framework on which you can design your site pretty easily. It’s not free but it’s inexpensive compared to hiring a designer and gives you so much flexibility.

Some sites that use Thesis. Notice how unique but professional they all look?

HowtoMakeMyBlog.com

CopyBlogger.com

blog.2createawebsite.com

GreenYourDecor.com

Once you decide to purchase Thesis, you’ll have access to the forums there where your questions can be answered on how to customize. For instance, I knew that I wanted a large footer so I searched the forums for “wide footer” and got the answer. Other times, I couldn’t find the answer and had to post and get some help. Easy. Get more info about Thesis.

5.) Design your site

Thesis settings will allow you to set some parameters on your site such as the columns, fonts, how you show teasers, if you show a feature space, etc. Here’s the options from the admin screen.

Beyond that, I would suggest that you make code tweaks to customize it. Not only can you tweak the code but you can design custom elements. On this blog, I designed the header only and made the rest of the elements coordinate with it.

Resources for designing:

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements

Definitely need to use the tools the pros use. I happen to have Photoshop but you can also use Photoshop Elements. A fully functional 30 day free trial is available here.

Establish a color palette

Use the VisiBone Webmasters Color Lab to play around with colors and decide on a color palette.

Dafont.com

Lots of fun fonts for free (I love alliteration) at Dafont.com.

SmashingMagazine.com

See those cute icons in the upper right under my mini-bio area? Those are from SmashingMagazine.com. They have amazing sets of icons and graphics FREE and they are really high quality. Highly recommend looking there.

Photoshop brushes

There are many places to find free Photoshop brushes but I’m going to recommend deviantART to search for many great ones that are beautifully done.

6.) Promote your site!

Once you’ve got your blog looking professional and you’ve created killer content, you have to promote it so people will come. I do a combination of things such as sharing my links via social media, target specific forums that I’m a member of, commenting on blogs and I submit my site using Bookmarking Demon.

I wasn’t familiar with a product like Bookmarking Demon before I had this blog but what it does is create accounts on various social bookmarking sites for you and then after the initial account creation, you can submit your links to each of the sites. Even if it had just created the 100+ accounts for me, it would have been worth the purchase. I read a case study of a woman who created the accounts manually without using a tool and she spent 8 hours just on creating accounts. Yikes.

Once these social bookmarking sites link to you, search engines will view the importance of your site as higher since you have links coming in. This, in turn, will help people find your blog while searching.

My Google search traffic started coming in steadily about a week after I started submitting using Bookmarking Demon and the great thing is that Google searchers also view the most pages and spend the most time on the site. Read more info on Bookmarking Demon.

I hope I’ve helped those of you who have asked me about creating a professional blog. Let me know if there’s other information you need or if there are other topics you’d like to hear about!

How I pay 50% less than you for groceries

2009-06-29T04:33:28Z

I probably don’t grocery shop the way you do. I use The Grocery Game and spend far less. If you could save 50% (or more) on groceries, why wouldn’t you? Because many people get hung up on the process to use it so let me explain how it works.

1.) Sign-up

First of all, you will need to sign up. Joining for 4 weeks ~~just costs $1 to try it out~~ is now free!

2.) Start collecting coupons

By far the easiest way to get coupons is through the Sunday paper and that’s what the lists for The Grocery Game will reference (the name of the circular and date). Most people will only keep coupons during the week that they arrive in the newspaper but you will want to keep them until they expire. You can cut out the coupons for products you would use and file in categories in an organizer. You may also choose to file the entire circular in a binder.

3.) Get your list

Login to get your store list(s). The day and time that it is available will vary so check that to know when to login. The entire list of sale items will be shown.

Little Known Fact
Adding a drugstore like CVS or Walgreens to your Grocery Game membership is well worthwhile. It isn’t obvious but that’s where you can save huge amounts.

Try to focus only on items that are in green and bold OR blue and italic. These are items that have prices so good that The Grocery Game thinks you should get them.

Green is free, blue is a good buy, black is only if you need it.

The coupons are listed by the date and circular they appeared in. In the above image, see the references under the product amounts such as “(S 6/14)” shown there? That means that the coupon appeared in the Smart Source circular on 6/14. The full list of circular abbreviations is below.

Here’s the concept that you have to get used to:

Stockpiling

Most of us go to the grocery store for what we need THAT week. When using The Grocery Game, you need to stock up when they are on sale only. At first, you’ll still be buying items that aren’t as cheap but as the weeks go on and you have more coupons and more in your stockpile, your savings will grow. My goal was always to make the cashier say “wow!” If he/she was impressed, I knew I’d done a good job on that trip.

Stockpiling requires providing space for your items to be stored. Since we never bought a second freezer, I am limited on how much I can stockpile frozen items. However, we did have an extra closet with shelves that became like a little grocery store in our house. In fact, when you are stockpiling, you can often skip weeks of going to the grocery store (except for a few perishables) which is maybe the best part to me.

Confession

I will confess something though: I hate clipping coupons. Often times I will just skip this step and shop the items on my list that don’t require them. I like knowing that I’m not just shopping sales but sales that genuinely have great prices. For maximum savings though, I strongly advise going the coupon route.

I will say that 50% savings wouldn’t impress the avid gamers on the message boards of The Grocery Game. They often save much, much more but it’s just in how much effort you invest. I can comfortably say that you should be saving 50% within 4 weeks. I bet you can save even more.

And, finally, here’s a video created by the founder to help get you started. She talks in more detail about things like how the website works.

So, what do you think? Still have questions? Now that you’ve got the information, there’s no reason to pay for full price anymore!

5 blogs to inspire your creativity

2009-06-29T04:33:55Z

There are many fantastically creative and inspiring blogs to read. Blogs to teach you how to decorate, party ideas, scrapbooking. Here are 5 blogs to inspire your creativity.

1.) Kara’s Party Ideas

As the name suggests, this blog is all about party ideas but Kara focuses on details that are pretty unbelievable. She recently hosted a Bunko party and made it a candy theme….complete with Dum Dum topiaries. Dum. Dum. Topiaries. Does it get any cuter? I don’t play Bunko but might have to crash a party at Kara’s house and learn. (Oh, and she also runs Kara’s Cupcakes.)

2.) iDiY

Although I introduce my husband as my first husband, I have no plans to get married and have a wedding again. That doesn’t stop me from reading iDiY which is great ideas for people planning their own weddings. I think the ideas are so creative that they can be used outside of wedding planning.

Ideas like…

Recycled Starbucks frapuccino bottles

Or this wedding invite which was designed by the groom himself. I want to marry this guy.

3.) …love Maegan

Maegan is a fun California girl who shares her thoughts and ideas especially on beauty, clothes and style. The fact that she’s obsessed with Lady GaGa makes me like her even more. She makes me want to grow my hair long so I can do this:

And she even shows you how….

4.) whatever

The whatever blog is written by Meg Duerksen and has kind of a Pioneer Woman vibe but instead of being on a ranch, she’s in a beautiful old home. Beautiful photography, cute kids, and the house? Have I mentioned her house? Also, she lives within 30 minutes of here and I love knowing such inspiring people reside nearby.

5.) Swanky Tables

Annette runs Swanky Tables and she describes her blog like this:

I love designing festive tabletops and planning events with a modern flair. I hope you will be inspired to break out that china and glassware you registered for and put the “wow” back into your next bash!!

Indeed, she does inspire. If I had remembered to do something for Father’s Day, this would have been fantastic from her post of Father’s Day ideas.

And anybody with a pineapple martini recipe is a friend of mine.

Handy tools for your job search toolbox

2009-06-19T01:13:59Z

Today is my husband’s last day at his job. He is joining the 6.8 million people who are now jobless in America. When we received news that his job would be ending, we revisited what he would need for his job search. Here are some basic tools that you (and he) will need in your job search toolbox.

1.) 3 versions of your resume

You should have your resume in 3 different formats: text, Microsoft Word and PDF. Having these 3 satisfies most requirements that employers will ask for.

The text version can be used for companies that ask you to submit through their website. Pasting your resume from Word into the entry form on the website will cause the text to have strange formatting so you should have a text format to make it easier.

Word is still a very common version and many companies will request it. Depending on the recipient’s Word settings, your Word resume could break in the middle of the page, not align the same way, etc. For this reason, if PDF is given as an option, it’s preferable because you can predict the formatting better than with Word.

If you don’t have a way to create PDFs right now, download the PDF995 Printer Driver from pdf995.com. After you install it, you’ll have PDF995 listed in your list of printer options. Just choose it as the printer and it will create the PDF for you.

2.) Company research tools

Just because you’re out of a job doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be selective with the companies you are considering. Sites like glassdoor.com let you research the salaries and employee feedback of companies. Vault.com is similar though it is a paid service (though if you’re OK with being a little sneaky, you can use Google Search to look at some of the content. Just search “site:vault.com yourcompanyhere” without the quotes and then view the cached version of the site to see some information from vault.com).

3.) Social networking

Social networking has become such a buzz word (or maybe buzz phrase?) lately that it’s almost annoying. However, don’t underestimate its value in job searching.

Not having a profile on the social networking site LinkedIn is, for some employers, not only a major liability but a sign that the candidate is horribly out of touch. (Source)

If you want to stick to just professional social networking, setup a profile on LinkedIn. Take a bit of time to fill out your profile thoroughly, find people you’ve worked with and establish connections. Having your connections easy to find makes job searching much easier if you’re asking for a reference or need people to help you in your search. If you’re comfortable with branching out on social networking, search Twitter for jobs, setup a Facebook profile and/or establish a Google Profile.

4.) File for unemployment benefits

If you have been laid off/furloughed/let go/whatever-your-company-calls-it, be sure to file for unemployment when you are eligible to help take care of basic needs while you are in job searching mode. Many (probably all) states are getting back logged with unemployment claims so the sooner you can file, the better, as there may be a delay. Rules vary by state so be sure to search for the information for your state.

Facebook usernames aren’t the only way to personalize the Internet

2009-06-17T14:14:43Z

So if you’re a nerd like me, you were online late last Friday participating in the Username Rush of 2009 to claim your Facebook username but there are other things you can customize online. Here are 4 other ways that you can personalize the Internet.

1.) Custom TinyURL

So if you’ve been online for long, you’ve probably seen people use a TinyURL somewhere. Using a TinyURL makes it easier to post links to something that would otherwise be reallllly long. Did you know that you can customize them so instead of saying

http://tinyurl.com/l38tos

it could say

http://tinyurl.com/BillsHouse

I’ve actually used this a lot with our address because it’s easy to tell somebody “just go to tinyurl.com/myhouse” than it is to expect them to remember the address. In fact, I also use this link on invitations since I know people will be Googling the address and it just saves them one step by taking them directly to the map. Be nice to your friends and do it too.

Link: TinyURL.com

2.) Get a new Twitter background

The default blue Twitter background is nice and all but it just takes a few steps to make your Twitter account look like a bit more like you.

Here’s mine. (Follow me on Twitter)

Mashable has a great tutorial on how to set it up.

Link: http://mashable.com/2009/05/23/twitter-backgrounds/

3.) Email address at your own domain

In a previous post, I mentioned getting your own domain name for your blog. If you use GoDaddy.com to register, you can also get a free email address to go with it. Instead of having somebody email funnygirl9984@hotmail.com, they could email you@yourname.com which is way cooler (and easier to remember).

Link: http://help.godaddy.com/article/1728

4.) Create a Google Profile

Google Profiles are pages that you setup on Google that let you control what people see about you. Let’s say that you’ve interviewed for a job and your prospective company is researching you online. What if they look you up and find somebody else with questionable taste? You can create a Google Profile page that has your picture, basic info, links to your correct social networking accounts, etc.

Link: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97703

How about you?

There are lots of ways you could personalize the Internet that aren’t on my list. What nerdy tricks do you have?

10 REAL work at home jobs you didn’t know about (and they’re hiring now)

2009-06-29T04:34:23Z

Stuffing envelopes and posting ads online are not legitimate ways of earning money from home. Here are 10 real work at home (or flexible) jobs you may not have known about and the companies that are hiring for them right now.

1.) Writer

What you do
You write articles either based on topics given to you or topics you suggest and have approved. Articles are submitted through the site and if they are approved, the money is deposited in your account. Since these companies act as middlemen between writers and clients, the pay is lower than if you were to go direct.

Pay
Often $10 – $15 per article but it varies by company.

Companies hiring right now
Demand Studios (also hiring Title Proofers, filmmakers, transcribers, and copyeditors)
Writers Research Group
Textbroker
Bright Hub
AssociatedContent.com

2.) Text Message Response Agent/Researcher

What you do
Using your computer, you respond to queries submitted via text message. Training is provided. There are very strict rules on accuracy and people have been dismissed very quickly for inaccuracies so that is something to know ahead of time.

Pay
You are paid per transaction so it will depend on the number of transactions but $3 – $12 per hour is common.

Companies hiring right now
kgb
AQA 63336

3.) Retail Merchandiser

What You Do
You work independently and go to grocery stores, drugstores and large discount stores that are part of your assigned route. You change out shopping cart ads, shelf ads, set up coupon machines, instal floor ads and other similar tasks. The job operates in a 4 week cycle. During ad-change week, you would work 20-35 hours and the other 3 weeks, you work 5-15 hours for the week. The hours are generally up to you as long as you complete them in the designated week. The work can be quite physical and lifting is required.

Pay
Around $8/hr. Many people make around $1000/month. 401(k) and insurance are sometimes available.

Companies hiring right now
SmartSource
Search the National Association for Retail Marketing Services job bank for current offerings
Other merchandising jobs also often found on Craigslist under Retail Jobs (or use this search from craiglook.com)

4.) Court Researcher

What you do
As a Court Researcher, you go to the courthouse to research items that have been assigned to you. You enter the information you find into a computer program such as Excel and then submit the information to the company.

Pay
You are paid per record but many make between $8 – $14/hr. depending on how fast you can work.

Companies hiring right now
Jellybean Services (Also search here to see if they have jobs in your area available. If a job is available in your area, there’s a good chance you will hear back.)

5.) Online Tutor or Teacher

What you do
Depending on the company, you may either create your own coursework and teach based on that or you may teach based on existing curriculum. Some teachers who have transitioned from the classroom to online teaching have been discouraged with how much administrative work is involved online and very little time with students. Some courses are based on commission so you may not be able to predict your pay.

Pay
Some positions are based on commission so you get paid according to the number of students. For non-commissioned teaching positions, pay is usually somewhat less than what teachers would get paid in the classroom.

Companies hiring right now
K12
Ed2Net Learning
A-1 Tutor
Berlitz (language instruction)
Coursebridge (opportunity to propose what you want to teach)
Creating Careers (sports, entrepreneurship, IT and employment skills tutors)
Educate Online (experience and teacher certificate required)
Kidspan
Onlinelearning
Thinkwell Corp. (instructors propose and write their own courses, paid by commission based on enrollment)
Tutor.com (math, science, social studies and English tutors)
Universalclass (4 year degree required and experience in your field)

6.) Scopist

What you do
A scopist is someone who edits the transcripts created by court reporters from their stenographic notes. Training is usually required. Of all the positions listed, this one seems to have of the higher satisfaction rates since the pay is good, the hours are flexible and if you can get hooked up with a court reporter long-term, the work is also steady. Getting the initial training and finding the court reporter to work with is likely the most difficult part.

Pay
Scopists are paid by the page but hourly rates can range between $15 and $35 depending on skill and the material.

Companies hiring right now
Positions can often be found by contacting court reporters and offering scoping services. A list can also be found here of current opportunties.

7.) Editor

What you do
Editors provide corrections and suggestions in reference to grammar, spelling, document flow, punctuation, and usage within strict deadlines ranging from 3 to 72 hours, depending upon the client’s request. He/She also must be skilled in Chicago, APA, AP, MLA, CSE, and other style manuals. Work is completed in 4 hour shifts.

Pay
You are paid 40 – 50% of what the client pays so editors make between $300 and $3000 every two weeks depending on how much work is done and the amount paid for the work.

Companies hiring right now
Papercheck

8.) Virtual Assistant

What you do
You provide administrative support which can include research, using software such as Microsoft Word or Excel and data entry.

Pay
Can range from $8 – $25/hr. depending on difficulty of job.

Companies hiring right now
There are some well-known VA companies that I won’t list here because they treat the VAs badly. Instead, search guru.com for “virtual assistant” and look at the jobs available there.

9.) Affiliate Marketer

What you do
You resell products and get paid for the sales. This is usually done by setting up a small website touting the benefits of the product and if somebody clicks on your affiliate link and buys the product, you earn money. Technical skills are a big plus but can be learned. Affiliate marketing is highly competitive and finding the right product is key. Learning curve can be steep if you have no technical background.

Pay
Totally dependent on the product you pick and the success you have in getting people to purchase.

Companies hiring right now
You don’t have to be hired by anyone to do this but there’s a fantastic step-by-step tutorial at http://www.hqhow.com/case-study-1/.

10.) Online Juror

What you do
You receive cases via email (often in the form of audio) and afterward, you answer questions with your thoughts on the case. Men have a better chance of getting an Online Juror position since there are so many females that sign-up and the companies need to try to maintain some balance between genders. People living near larger cities also report being given more cases.

Pay
Often as much as $25/hr. (or more, depending on complexity of the case) but you would usually work just a few hours sporadically.

Companies hiring now
JuryTest.Net
OnlineVerdict.com
Trial Practices Inc.

And 2 more bonus jobs on the list that you probably have heard about but continue to be popular choices for people who want to work at home…

11.) Telephone Agent

Nature of work
You answer calls that have been routed to your phone for various companies. Upselling is sometimes involved and hours can be hard to get. Experience varies between companies.

Pay
$8 – $10/hr is typical.

Companies hiring right now
There are dozens of companies that hire for this type of position. There’s an extensive list at http://www.ratracerebellion.com/CS_Comparison.html that should give you a list of companies though you will have to check to which ones are hiring right now.

12.) Transcriptionist

What you do
Transcriptionist take voice recordings (could be medical or non-medical) and transcribe the recordings into text. Training and transcription equipment are usually required. Jobs are becoming more difficult to find due to outsourcing to other countries and the use of voice recognition software. The pay can also be very low for the amount of work done, depending where you work.

Pay
Varies a lot between companies. Some pay by the page, many by the word. Obviously, the faster you type, the better.

Companies hiring right now
ANP Transcriptions (experience required)
American High-Tech Transcription, Inc.,
Caption Colorado (real-time captioning of local news)
ChaCha (transcribing questions from audio)
Cherry Lane Music Company (guitar transcribing)
SpeakWrite (general and legal)
eTranscription Solutions (experience required)
Fantastic Transcripts (work is flexible but in the office and you must be in Boston area)
Morningside Partners (news and financial)
Mountain West Processing (medical, legal, corporate for both entry-level and experienced)
Mulberry Studio
Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (court/legal transcription)
Net Transcripts (law enforcement, bilingual needed)
Quicktate
TASK Transcription (general/legal, 3 years experience required)
Tigerfish
TSI (experience required)
VITAC (transcription for deaf or hard-of-hearing)

Part-time professional option

And, finally, here’s a company that has part-time professional jobs. They aren’t work at home positions but part-time might work for some people.
10 til 2

If you want more information, the best source that I know of is the message boards at http://www.workplacelikehome.com. Free registration is required but the quality of the participants there is high. If you know of other reputable companies that are hiring right now, feel free to share in the comments. Good luck in your job search!