I've Tried That - We lose money so you don't have to!

We have been promoting a couple of different affiliate marketing programs lately in Niche Blitzkrieg and Wealthy Affiliate University.

These programs teach you how to start from “I know nothing” and build potentially large incomes with an online business.

On one recent post, Rachel added in the comments:

Yeah these are great if you are wanting to do your own online business, but this does not help at all for those wanting to find actual online jobs. No programs or MLM, no stupid ebooks or blogging that Never really pays in the end and no online business crap. Just plain simple jobs that can be done from home that are legit. That’s all people are asking for and no job list websites that have you pay for a useless membership to only get programs, ebooks and build-your-own business systems.

She makes a great point and I agree with her core claim. (I don’t agree that these things “never really pay in the end.” I am living proof that they do. But that’s the subject of another post.) But she’s correct that the excellent training programs we have found do not help those readers who just want to find online jobs.

Jobs Defined

Part of the problem with the whole idea of searching for jobs online is the terminology. So let me be very clear: a job is an arrangement in which you trade a known amount of time for a known amount of money. $15 per hour, say. You might also trade your skill for a known amount of money, such as when you get paid a flat fee to transcribe a document. But that’s still a negotiation of how much time you spend.

There is also a key difference between online jobs and finding jobs online.

An “online job” would be an arrangement in which you trade known amounts of time for known amounts of money to do tasks over the Internet.

I hate to say it, but these are extremely rare. I can count the legitimate ones I’ve seen on one hand. However, many of the scammy sites we’ve exposed manipulate these meanings and your expectations. They lead you to believe that such jobs are common and easy to come by. They are neither.

“Finding jobs online” is the best way I know to use the Internet to make money if a job is what you’re looking for. You won’t do the work online, probably. But you’ll use online sources to find the jobs. These are jobs you can do at home or around town. You’ll trade time for money, like in a traditional job, but you won’t necessarily work over the Internet.

The good news? There are many jobs like this. Most of them call for a fairly specialized set of skills, such as these:

• Writing, editing
• Programming and scripting (including Perl, PHP, SQL, and so on)
• Web site design
• Bookkeeping
• Graphics design

The (maybe) bad news? You will probably be an independent contractor, not an employee. That means you pay your own taxes.

So how do you find jobs online? You have to know where and how to search. And it’s not Google. Here is the quick version of our system, which I have used to find several well-paying jobs.
1. Go to Craigslist.org.
2. Find the jobs category that matches your skills.
3. Search for jobs where the telecommuting option is checked.
4. Send an awesome inquiry/application letter.

The full details of this system are in our e-book, The Complete Guide to Telecommuting. Check it out by clicking the link. It’s only $10 so it’s not much of a risk.

I could even be persuaded to give away a few of them to deserving, broke job seekers. Is that you? Drop me a line and convince me: joe[at]ivetriedthat[dot]com.