If your ideal is to be a stay at home mom, yet you face the reality of having to help contribute to the family income, you may be searching the Internet, wondering if there are any real work from home jobs or are they all scams.

After all, you are being a pragmatist, knowing you must find a way to make some money. While it may not be easy, it is also, on the other hand, not impossible.

There are ads for work at home jobs all over the Internet. Among the fake ads and scams and rip-offs there are real opportunities. If you follow some guidelines and exercise due diligence you will soon learn the difference between the real jobs to apply for and the scams that will do nothing but take your money and/or waste your time.

The general rule applies; if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. So be aware of various opportunities such as pay to read (which will pay only a few cents or a few dollars at most) and especially be aware of any kind of job asking for an upfront fee for “training” or “materials.”

Watch out for “email processing” scams and “making crafts at home” scams. With the later, the companies either ask you up front for money for your supplies (as noted something to avoid!) or they will receive your finished products refused to pay you for them, saying you have not achieved the quality standards. Survey taking and mystery shopping are legitimate but do not pay nearly as well as you may be led to believe.

The the types work at home or telecommute jobs that you want pursue will offer reasonable pay, and, conversely not ask for money from you up front. Look for writing jobs, freelance work in photography, and programming jobs for web sites.

See video below for additional ideas. You can check some of the popular forums to learn more about these jobs: Try WAHM.com as well as Why Do Work for more information on Legitimate Jobs for Stay at Home Moms.

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Legitimate work from home jobs? It sounds like a dream. Go to work in your pajamas. Work only a few hours a day. Make a killing. However, as anyone who has looked for home based employment will tell you, many offers are scams. For this reason, the work at home market has gained a bad reputation, and may people have assumed that there are no legitimate professional opportunities in that realm. This could not be further from the truth. While there may not be a wide variety of six figure work at home jobs out there, there are plenty that can help you make ends meet.

Freelance writer- This is one of those work at home jobs that has a large amount of variety within the field. You can work as a journalist, blogger or hired gun, providing unique web content on demand or for larger companies. With some employers, you get handed quotas for accomplishment in a given time span, or individual assignments. In other cases, you will be hired on for one project at a time. Other websites, such as Demand Studios, will list a variety of assignments that you can claim and make money off of. Others, such as Suite101.com, allow you to write about whatever you want, and people looking for web content will buy the rights to your material. As far as work at home jobs go, this is one with lots of opportunity and a great deal of flexibility.

Medical Transcriptionist- While some work at home jobs don’t require much training, but this is the exception to the rule. If you are a medical transcriptionist, you will have to listen to audio of a medical chart’s dictation, and type it verbatim. It requires an ability to type very quickly, and the use of a specialized pedal to start and stop the audio while you type. It may require some initial investment, but this is one of the few work at home jobs that will actually be able to financially support you all on its own. The pay for a medical transcriptionist makes the extra work worth it.

Survey Taker- This may seem like one of the more sketchy options available, but if you have some flexible capital, this can work for you. This is one of those work at home jobs where you sign up with a website who will direct you to surveys to take and emails to read. You will be reimbursed for each objective you complete. You can even get paid for signing up for free trials! In other cases, you need to sign up for services, which will cost some money. However, with some of these services, you can cancel after a month or so, and the fees for signing up are low. The trade off can be a lucrative one for you if you do it the right way, but this process can often be time consuming. This is one of those work at home jobs that would be a good fit for a stay at home mom trying to bring in some extra money.

Be sure the check the resources on the sidebar and the video below for more ideas on Legitimate Work from Home Jobs.

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CIO Insight editor Eric Chabrow urges chief information officers to take the leadership in expanding telecommuting programs at their businesses.

In this brief video, Peggy Klaus shares some valuable tips to help you keep your telecommuting job. Effective communication is a foundation of her recommendations.

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Here’s an informative video that demonstrates some of the Web tools that telecommuters can use to enhance productivity and efficiency.

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As CNN reports, the number of Americans taking home office tax deductions is on the rise:

The number of U.S. taxpayers claiming home office deductions has grown from more than 1.5 million in 1991 to nearly 3.2 million in 2005, the most recent tax year for which figures are available, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

The dollar amount Americans claim each year is also climbing — from nearly $3 billion in 1991 to close to $9 billion in 2005, the IRS said.

The number of sole proprietorship businesses — a tax classification that includes home-based businesses — also has shown impressive growth, increasing in number by nearly 50 percent in the last 15 years, the IRS reports.

While trading in a harried morning commute for a short trip down the hall sounds inviting, claiming home office space tax deductions can be tricky.

Read the rest of the article for helpful tips on tax deductions.