I've been working as a freelance writer and graphic designer for the past 7 years and many times I have contemplated whether I should be required to PAY someone money just to get started with work. For a start, let's try typing in the word 'work at home' into any search engine. What you will get is a list of millions of websites offering work at home opportunities...ranging from writing, data entry, processing of forms, folding envelopes, transcription, design, and other stuff that sounds simple and easy. They promise you US$300 - US$600 a week...which will work out to be around US$2,400 a month.

Those of you who could use an extra US$2,400 a month, please raise your hands?

I know with an extra $2,400 at my disposal, I can get a new bed for the kids, upgrade my car in a few months, replace the stupid washing machine that I am currently using and maybe even go on a holiday a few months from now. But there's a catch to these offers.

One thing that I have found that all these offers have in common is that they each require you to pay them something to get started. Now, I've learnt my lessons some time back....WAY back before I started to seriously write and design for a living. I paid a hefty sum to get started with a data entry 'project' and they banked in my money and happily scurried off into the sunset to spend my money. Just to prove myself right, I sent in another cheque - and once again, they cashed in and never sent me the so-called 'TRAINING materials' that they claim I needed to get started with the data entry job. I confirmed my lesson and vowed to warn others of these scams.

The typical job offer promises:

1. It's a very easy job and ANYONE can do it with their eyes closed

2. Can earn a lot of money in a very short period of time

3. No experience or TRAINING required

4. You get paid only when they are happy with your work. Otherwise, you keep doing it until they are happy. (Dead giveaway here)

The first item...easy job. Yeah, it's an easy job so why would they have to give you TRAINING or why do you have to pay for TRAINING materials if it was THAT easy? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And besides, if it was a data entry project, what are they supposed to train you on? How to type? Whatever they need to teach you or instruct you can be put very simply into an Excel file or a Microsoft Word document. Worst comes to worse, they can just put in a very simple slideshow to show you HOW to do the data entry job that they want you to do. And yet, they claim that you will need to pay them US$50 - US$80 for TRAINING materials? Oh, please.

The second item...can earn a lot of money in a very short period of time. Nothing in this world is that easy. Trust me on this one. If you want to earn a lot of money, you've got to work for it. Simple as that. The easier they claim it to be, the more fake it actually is.

No experience or training required. Erm....no experience needed means that it's an easy thing to do and there's no training required for you to get started....which means no training material required...which means they're trying to pull a quick one on you.

You get paid only when they are happy with your work and if they're not, you keep on submitting until they are happy. Wow! What if they are NEVER happy with your work? What happens is they pretend to be not happy, taking your work and selling them off for a good price while telling you that your work sucks? You'll continue to work for them; they continue to make money while you make none of the profit. Brilliant deal, don't you think?

CONCLUSION

You see, the first lesson anyone will need to learn about working from home is that in order to get started, THEY have to commit to your services. Instead of you having to pay them to get started, they should pay YOU a deposit. There ARE exceptions to this rule but I won't discuss them here. I'll leave it for another article. But the basic general rule of thumb is that...if they want to you to pay them in order for you to get paid....pay them no heed.