Work-At-Home and homejobstop.com !!

Hello All!!

About 2 years ago, there was a noise in many corporates and even there used to be lots of articles in news papers and job sites as well as magazines that work at home is the next biggest thing which would very soon hit the employment market, as it is considered to boost up human productivity and give access to lots of more opportunities available online rather than just sticking to one 9 - 5 job in daily routine. However, after lots of rumors (or I would say real discussions), many job sites have even added "Home Based Jobs", "Work at Home", etc. other such categories to their list of categories of jobs / occupations, and thus work at home opportunities got a new recognition from then onwards.

I, as a young student, am very much interested in lots of work at home opportunities, and no doubt that is one of the biggest reason I have been blogging as well as trying to get in touch with various people, about whom I believe can be of any use to me to get some legitimate work at home job, rather than only the scams that first ask for some fees to join...

I have been recently going through some sites for online work or work at home opportunities, and came across some legitimate sites like:

Work-at-home-no-scams
This guy named Eddy Salomon, calls himself a successful "work at home'aholic". He has listed a lots of things online on his website, and on a regular basis, keep reviewing many things, that he thinks can be a good opportunity for work at home job seekers. In fact you can even subscribe to his newsletter so that you can get updates directly into your mailbox, whenever he posts any new job opportunity.

Another good site, that I have come across is beyond.com, even this site lists a lots of jobs online for work at home opportunities, and you can search job according to your location, specialization, qualification, talent and so on and on... So this is another good site, about which I get some positive vibes, when it comes to searching online jobs..

However, just a few hours back, I received an email from homejobstop.com, it was indeed a newsletter where they had posted the article written by someone named: Stephen Farrow.

The article is as follows:

Seven Tips to Phone Etiquette for the Work at Home Professional

Working from home can be a blessing for many. By liberating workers of the day-to-day minutia of office politics and micromanagement, home based professionals are free to explore their own independent path to success and challenge their own productivity. Still, being in contact with management and co-workers is vital to keeping up with and staying connected to everyday operations.

E-mail and instant messaging have bridged the gap between home and office worker but often lack the nuances of speaking directly to another person. Sometimes person-to-person contact can clarify questions and details that are easily overlooked in text-based communications. Here are several ways you can bolster your etiquette in phone conversations.

1. Plan Important Calls. No one likes to be blindsided. Scheduling your phone conversation in advance allows the recipient to be prepared, aware, and accessible at the time of your call. Availability, time zone differences, and even lunch breaks can be a factor so always try to e-mail or contact your party beforehand to establish an acceptable time to call.
   
2. Be Available. When setting up a phone meeting, make sure that you’re available and prepared at the time agreed upon. Write notes or reminders if needed. If a conflict does arise, let the party know as urgently as possible so that the meeting can be postponed or rescheduled in a timely manner.
   
3. Test Equipment. A crucial call to the boss is not the time to wonder if that old, extra phone you hooked up works properly or to find that your cell phone reception tops out at one bar when you’re in your office space. Make sure that all of your communication equipment is in working order and educate yourself on its functions (such as ‘mute’ and ‘hold’) before making or taking any key calls.
   
4. Talk Clearly. Speak with a clear, confident voice. When asking for assistance on issues that you are uncertain of, keep a professional and poised tone to your voice and avoid mumbling or talking too quiet. Try to direct your voice into the mic instead of bringing the mic closer to your voice.
   
5. Be Organized. Have your agenda prepared and in order. Have papers and notes ready and within reach and steer clear of hesitations and rustling through papers, looking for crucial documents. E-mail any documents you plan to refer to beforehand and make a list of questions before you make the call.
   
6. Take Notes. No matter how good your memory, take notes as you go along. Nothing is more embarrassing as having to re-ask questions later that were already covered or explained to you during the phone meeting.
   
7. No Distractions. Avoiding distractions is important for all home working endeavors, but even more critical when you have a significant colleague on the other end of the line. As always, let family and friends know that you are working and should not be disturbed. Stress that you have an important business call to help insure you are in a noise-free and distraction-free environment. Most importantly, never try to accomplish other things or multitask while you are in a phone meeting or conference. Always keep your focus on the conversation at hand in a meaningful and professional manner.

However, the article is really very good, but after going through this site, I got to know that this site is actually a good site in terms of no paid advertisements or commercial banners, but as said... There are no FREE LUNCHES in this world, so you have to actually pay a amount to get access to their so called HOMEJOBSTOP Bank, which lists a variety of online jobs that you can do right from the comfort of your home, after googling it up and looking at the user reviews, one review I really found useful is:

http://www.squidoo.com/ahomejobstopReview

This link mentioned above, gives complete details about this site, as well as the kind of job you can find in the HOMEJOBSTOP Bank, so you must go through it if you are considering to buy their List of Jobs, the so called "HOMEJOBSTOP Bank"...

However, on a personal note, I would like to say, that we must never pay to get an online job, or to get the list of jobs, as that is really very untruthful where you have to pay to get list of jobs.. You can rather use sites like beyond.com, freelancer.com, elance.com, etc. to get list of jobs available online where you can work from the comfort of your home, get paid online for your work and you don't even have to pay anything for this.

Apart from all this, if you have not paid anything, there is actually a sense of peacefulness in mind, that even if this turns out to be a scam or some non legitimate scheme, you won't end up losing your money in this..

But still, choices are many and so are the opportunities.. you are your own decision maker and you have to decide whats good and whats not good..

Any comments are most welcome ... And any other sites for legitimate home based job.. please feel free to post in comments!.

My First visit to London, United Kingdom

This is a special guide for all first time visitors to UK (especially London and more useful for students).

London is undoubtedly a great place to be at, the weather is just awesome almost all the time and the temperature is mostly around 15 – 20 degrees (Celsius). If you are coming from a warm area, like India, Pakistan or any other such places where you are not habitual of being at such low temperatures, I would personally suggest to bring at least two winter wears which can be jackets, sweaters, and additionally some muffler or ear straps to cover your ears properly. It rains here almost all the months, and you can never predict when it may rain. Another interesting thing is, people here are mostly dependent on internet for everything, even if they have to wash clothes, they first check the weather predictions online and if it seems like not rainy or sun shining only then they wash their clothes so that they can dry their clothes in proper sunshine. However, internet is not still that accurate, as no one can predict the exact situation of the weather.

I have been here for a few weeks till now, something that I would like to share are the following things, here the public transport is very familiar and easy to understand if understood properly, whether or not someone is coming to pick you up at the airport, it’s always very easy to travel from the airport to whichever place you wish to throughout the UK.

The National Express coaches are always there, if you wish to travel using buses, and if you wish to travel using one of the fastest ways in UK, which is Tube (Metro Train), also known as underground trains, the Heathrow express takes from terminal 1 to 5 to whichever part of London you want to. You might have to change trains and the tube maps are available online as well as at all the tube stations for free, pick 2 -3 maps, so that even if you lose one, you have other in spare. You can even easily plan your journey on http://www.tfl.gov.uk the TFL stands for Transport For London. It is the government site for planning journeys, knowing the latest traffic situations, downloading bus as well as tube maps, checking the fare price and so on… you must really have a look at this site as this gives a very good idea of transport in London even if you are not going to travel by it the very first time you reach London.

The journeys can be planned online on TFL website, and it will show you the easiest and fastest route using the combination of Tube, National Rail, Bus and walk (if the distances are just less that you can walk rather than taking a public transport). Please take care of one thing, if you are going to travel by public transport, please do get yourself a OYSTER CARD, this is like a easy top up card, with the help of which you can just touch this card while boarding the buses / trains and all, and you don’t have to spend money in cash, and it’s a lot cheaper to use Oyster rather than cash, Oyster comes at a refundable deposit of 3 pounds, and additionally you can top up for as low as 1 pound, but do top up a minimum of 7 pounds with the help of which you can travel unlimited throughout London, this is known as daily price cap, which means, if you have travelled at least worth the daily price cap amount, rest of all the journeys are going to be free for you, but that doesn’t mean, you don’t have to touch your OYSTER card on the yellow card reader while boarding the buses or trains. You have to still touch it on the yellow card reader, but that becomes completely free for you, no money is deducted from your OYSTER Card.

If you want to know more about daily price caps and other such information, please visit http://www.tfl.gov.uk that is the best site for every single query in regards to transport for London.

In London, you are charged for per ride, and not for the distance you have travelled, meaning, whether you sit at one bus station and you drop at next or drop at last station, the price remains same, which is 1.20 pounds using Oyster or 2 pounds using CASH (these figures are for Red Buses).

Apart from this, another thing that you might notice here is the bus system, it’s pretty smooth and easy as you always know within how much time the next bus is going to arrive and at what bus station you can get the bus towards your destination. And the same applies to tube. Here tubes are identified by the lines, like Northern Line, Bakerloo Line, Metropolitan Line, Jubilee Line, etc... And the bus stations are identified by bus number, bus station name and the bus station symbol. This symbol is a unique thing which tells you from which side of a particular road you have to take the bus. A bus might go towards north as well as towards south and the bus number might also be the same, in such a scenario you must look at the round Symbol having one or two alphabets written at the top like X, C, H, E, CX, etc. An example of the same is, say you have to travel from The Wealdstone Centre to Wembley Stadium Station, for this you have to take bus, with route number 182 from Stop F which goes towards Brent Cross Shopping Centre, now here in this explanation of taking bus you don’t have to worry about nothing, as you might think about which way is towards Brent Cross Shopping Centre, all you need to do is Reach the bus stand, and look for the top symbol, where it shows “F” in a round circle with mostly RED background. So you have to take bus from this stop, and the bus that you have to take is bus number 182. So just climb in bus number 182 as and when it arrives, and wait for the announcement inside the bus, as and when Wembley Stadium Station is about to come, there will be an announcement inside the bus and the name of the next station will appear on the inside screen, that will let you know that you have reached your destination and you need to leave the bus here.

Don’t forget to touch the oyster card on the yellow reader as you board the bus, or if you don’t have a oyster card or your oyster card doesn’t have enough balance, you can buy ticket from the driver itself sitting on the inside counter at the driver’s seat. Here there are no conductors who would come at your seat and ask you where you have to go and accordingly sell you a ticket, so you have to yourself be careful to take the ticket or touch your oyster card at the yellow card reader.

I will come up with more things to share in due course of time. I am sorry, my experiences are not enough or not put systematically as I am yet to categorize them and make them more easily readable and understandable.

Online Earning --- Some realistic ways especially for Indians

Hello Friends,

I don't really know how many of you are actually aware about this fact, that for Indians there is a realistic way to make some serious money online, not only through Blogging (Google Adsense, etc.) or through PTC Sites (Another Proven business, check here), but even by watching your favorite videos. Well yes, even watching your favorite videos pay you, though not enough, but its better something than nothing.

Today, most of us watch youtube.com / dailymotion.com / metacafe.com for various movies, songs, funny videos, and lots of other reasons (which are better if not mentioned), the same kinda videos can also be watched on INDYAROCKS.COM, this site pays you 0.10 rupees for every view you get on your videos (on the videos uploaded by you) and 0.05 rupees for every video you see.

The only requirement to become a part of Indyarocks.com is, you must have an Indian Address, and an Indian Bank Account in which they can credit the money. If you have earned a minimum of Rs. 300, by the 15th date of a particular money, your money reaches your account by the first week of next month, no deductions, no TDS, or no other hassles.... Just that HAVE FUN and keep watching videos...

If you want to make even more money using the same platform, I would personally suggest you to upload videos, upload as many videos as many you can to earn atleast a few grands just by sitting at home and enjoying doing time pass on internet.

Another cool way to earn on indyarocks.com is GOOGLE ADSENSE, well yes, Indyarocks have got tied up with GOOGLE ADSENSE, so all you need to do is SIGN UP for GOOGLE ADSENSE (if you dont have an account with them till now), dont worry, its free to sign up, and then follow the instructions as given on indyarocks EARNINGS AREA link on your home page, and once your account is approved, your ads will start showing up on your videos, photos, blogs and much more... this way you can even make more money using Indyarocks.com

If you wish to sign up for Google Adsense, just CLICK HERE....

I would certainly keep trying and come up with more such easy ways to start earning, that even a toddler with basic computer knowledge can start earning....

Till then, God Bless... Cya Soon!