Two Legitimate Work from Home Options

Have you been longing to work from home? Does it seem like those people who work from home are not real, but rather figments of the employment demographer's imagination? The scams on the internet filling your inbox with work from home spam are bogus and confusing.

How to Spot a Scam

If you are not careful, work from home scams can be quite costly as well. You can work from home using your skills. Don't think that you can work from home using a magic computer program that only requires you to install it. A great example of a legitimate work from home opportunity is working as a Virtual Customer Service Agent.

If a company wants you to purchase any of their products to hire you, do not give them a penny. If a company really wants to give you a job, they will not expect you to pay them. When you work for someone, it is because they will pay you - not the other way around.

These two companies will hire someone to work as a Virtual Customer Service Agent. They actually pay their employees. It is not a get rich quick scheme, but rather a way to make a reasonable amount of income per hour from home.

LiveOps

LiveOps will hire employees to work as Virtual Customer Service Agents to handle all kinds of customer service needs. If you have experience, then you should consider giving LiveOps a try. This company will first have you qualify by taking their skills test to see if you can work from home independently.

You will have to make sure you have the proper equipment for your computer to work from home for them. This should be the only kind of expense that you have to pay - computer equipment that you can buy anywhere. At LiveOps you can work from home as many hours as you would like or you can work from home as few hours as you like.

Once you have submitted all of the necessary paperwork to LiveOps, you will begin the certification process and finish within one week. This will allow you to begin working from home for LiveOps within a week.

Macintosh computers cannot be used to work from home for LiveOps. You must have a DSL or cable connection to the internet. You must also have a landline to work from home for LiveOps.

Alpine Access

Alpine Access is another opportunity to become a Virtual Customer Service Agent. Alpine makes agents actual employees of the company. They are employees who work from home, but they receive the same benefits that employees who work in the office receive. Agents are able to earn money for every hour they work and not just for the minutes that they are on call. This makes them a better option than LiveOps unless you are working the busiest of hours.

Some of the benefits of working for Alpine Access as an employee instead of an independent contractor include paid training, guaranteed hourly rates, set schedules to work around your availability, and health care benefits.

The technical requirements to work for Alpine are similar to those for LiveOps. You must have a landline and a fast internet connection. The landline cannot be a Vonage or digital phone. It must be an old fashioned telephone line.

Agents must have a personal computer that is reliable and meets the following system requirements: Windows 2000, XP (Home, Professional, Media Edition) or Vista (all versions), Pentium II 300 MHz or faster processor 600MB free hard drive space, 256 MB RAM, Internet Explorer 6.xSP1 or later, antivirus software with current and updated virus definitions, and installed anti-spyware software. All of these requirements must be met.

These two companies are excellent choices for people who have customer service or call center skills. If you have other skills, look for ways to use those skills from home. You might be surprised how many choices you have.