by Eric Hansen

Created on: May 06, 2008   Last Updated: January 09, 2010

Join thousand of people in the five-foot commute and work from home.

Feeling the urge to make a break from the cubical farm to the comfort of working from home? Your not alone many Americans are opting to forgo life at the office in favor of working at home. Don't be fooled though, working at home can be both difficult and rewarding.

From a call center in your home to starting your own web business, mystery shoppers and online auctions there is much to choose from. You could even start your one personal business based right out of your house. You will want to keep a couple of things in mind, though, as you look for the opportunity that is right for you. Firstly and foremost, no legitimate business will ask you to pay for the opportunity to work for them. The key here is to not expect to make a fortune. Remember the old adage "If it looks to good to be true it probably is." The real deal opportunity will not ask you to pay upfront fees for details, training or materials. Working from home is a job like any other with its own unique perks.

So now you have decided to work from home, but where? Choose your space wisely. You will want a room that is quite and comfortable, without a lot of distractions. If you are looking at customer service and call center types of work at home jobs you will defiantly want to minimize the auditory background noise. You will also need a room with access to a landline phone and Internet capabilities.

Working from home for a cal center is probably one of the easiest opportunities to find, with over 600,000 Americans doing such jobs. Better Internet and call routing has allowed more companies to outsource their sales, problem solving and even order taking to workers at home. Home based workers also tend to be more loyal and better educated than their peers in more traditional call center environments, and the turn over rate is much lower.

Some companies will pay by the hour, but many pay for each minute you spend on the phone. This allows them to quickly ramp up to meet high volume needs without having to pay idle workers during slack times. The pay is usually starts around $8, but can be hirer depending on your skills and the type of job. Some of the places I have found in my search to work at home are Alpine Access, LiveOps, Arise and West at Home.

Online auctions are another opportunity I have found to work at home. Need a little extra cash, need more attic or closet space? Think about selling some of the stuff you don't want on

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