Freelance writing is definitely not for everyone. But if you have the skills and education in this industry it is a good way to start your work from home. Your market: websites, online newspapers and magazines, industry and general blogs, offline writing, etc. I have reviewed some online markets for freelance writers in the past.Today I would like to review one more service: Academia-Research.com. The company has recently issued a press release. Here come a few paragraphs:

Academia-Research.com is a quality academia writing and research support company. It has been engaged in academic and research writing services since 1998.

The key of Academia-Research.com success is in its unique services which are not similar to ones provided by many other custom writing companies. First, its essays, term papers, dissertations, research papers, theses, book reports are not resold. They are unique, not copied and Academia-Research.com customers’ copyrighted.

Academia-Research does not use customized examples and catalogues of ready essays which can be tracked in other academia help papers companies. Next, Academia-Research custom writing quality is much higher than prices. It does not mean the prices are too low, it means the quality is very high. At last but not least, plagiarism is termed as the worst sin and Academia-Research freelance writers do not use scratches. Each project meets the exact needs of customers and it is revised, edited and improved to the customer’s complete satisfaction.

Academia-Research.com provides online freelance writing job opportunities and custom writing services. The excellent freelance writing job opportunities are offered to all experienced writers. The company’s success in essay writing is based on thorough selection of writers and researchers who are well-experienced authors, awarded students, teachers and writers. The Academia-Research writers’ team high level of writing experience, academic knowledge and research skills are guaranteed by a well-set emoluments system. With a continuous growth and development freelance writing job vacancies are always open to young gifted writers and well-experienced journalists, graduates and researchers.

OK, now let’s approach the company as a potential freelance writer.

The company describes the application process like this:

To become one of our writers you have to register on our website by filling out the registration form, once you have done this you will receive a test essay that you will be asked to complete with a couple of days, if you pass the test you will be sent a letter of congratulations and you account will be activated. To get a more detailed overview of the cooperation process go to this page

That was one side of the story. My research for the feedback from the freelance writers on Academia-Research.com has returned writers’ discussion forum with the thread titled ‘Beware of Academia Research‘:

I have written for Academia Research, in addition to several similar companies, and I have found that AR is — without a doubt — the least reliable of any company I have worked for (with the exception of Virtual Link which pays not at all).

I have been paid by Academia Research…but not everything I was owed, and not ever on time. When I signed up, they had three options of payment: wire transfer, paypal or egold. Wire transfer was expensive, so I chose paypal. By the time payday came around, they notified everyone that they were having a ‘problem’ with their paypal account, so I would need to open an egold account. So, I opened the egold account…but before I could get paid, they had attempted to pay me through paypal…………Now, wait a minute, I thought they couldn’t use paypal…But they had. The only problem was I had not finished setting up a paypal account yet, since they had said they could not use it.

I will not bore you all with the rest of the story, but it continues, and continues, and continues…

Again…although I have been paid for work by AR…they have also ripped me off on at least two occasions without grounds. I have had an infinite amount of email discussions with folks from admin at AR and have learned that it takes at least three emails before they even understand what you are talking about.

Just so everyone understands my situation and qualifications…I am currently making, on average, $1900 per month writing for research companies similar to Academia Research. I have NEVER had the first problem with any other company I write for…only AR. I no longer write for them because I believe the old saying…
If it walks like a duck…………..

The subject was very popular in the discussion: a few more members of the forums shared their unhappy experience with Academia Research.com

Summary
Freelance services, home based job opportunities… Unfortunately, much scam in this industry. If you are going to do some work for any kind of freelance site make sure that you will be paid. In fact the only way to do that is to carry out an Internet research to verify the reputation of the service in question. One-two negative feedbacks are nothing if you spot hundreds of happy ones.

Browse thousands of verified freelance jobs for writers

[tag]freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, home job, work from home, home based business[/tag]

I have discovered this work at home blog post with a vast collection of companies that provide home based jobs. I did not browse all websites listed, but I think this information definitely deserves your valuable time for checking.

All websites are divided into job categories.

Work at home admin jobs:

ONSS

Cypher Services

DionData Services

Palm Coast Data

ExecutiveSecretaries.com

CPG

Work at home phone jobs:

VIPdesk

VoiceLog, LLC

LiveOps

Work At Home Agent

WillowCSN

Working Solutions

Ver-A-Fast Corporation

Customer Loyalty Concepts, Inc.

Work at home Real Estate and Mortgage Opportunities:

CFI Home Mortgage Corp

NLC National Lending Corporation

Tri-Bay Financial Group

The MortgageIT, Inc.

The Lending Street

Work at home Medical Transcription/Coding jobs:

Backfile Transaction Coding

OSi – Outsourcing Solutions, Inc.

Accurate Typing Service, Inc

TransHealth

SpectraMedi

CPRT Transcriptions Services

Transcend Careers

Applied Medical Services

Focus Infomatics, Inc.

Axolotl

RTO Stat

UnitedTran

Accuscribe

Ascend Healthcare Systems

Phonenix Med Com

TSystemsGroup.com

Oracle Transcription

NJPR Hospital & Medical ServicesKeystrokes

Breitner Transcription Services, Inc.

Medigrafix

MT World

Cynmedic

Superior Global Solutions

MVTS

Work at home accounting and bookkeeping jobs:

Bateman Houston

VF Auditmall

Audit Watch

Balance Your Books

Tad Accounting

CheckYourbooks

Tax Recovery Group

Profit Recovery System

Bookminders® Services

Total Business Care, LLC

Work at home jobs – Texting:

To tell the truth, I have never heard of it, I had no idea what it is, but this type of home job is defined as – get money for chatting online.

There is a message board, SexInTheCyber, that you can join for more information. You do have to be referred by a member in good standing.

Stream Texting – email: donnabailey@streamgroup.co.uk

Evoke Chat – email: Jo@evokechat.co.uk

EPL – email: wannabe@eplschedule.co.ukLST – email: info@livesextext.com

Text121 – email: text121chat@msn.com

Box-69

That’s it. I guess the list will keep you busy for some time.

[tag]business success, work from home jobs, work from home businesses, work from home ideas, careers, easy work from home, work from home on line, employment, business opportunities, work from home boss, employment, work at home, jobs, opportunity, business, work at home moms[/tag]

Web 2.0 is the buzz word of the last 6-9 months. The trend supporters state that the Web enters a new stage in its development, the opposition says there is nothing new, it all was invented back in the 90’s.

Just to give our readers more information on Web 2.0 I will turn to the list of its significant features. It is up to every person to make his decision to accept or not this Web 2.0 trend (I guess for most Internet users it does not matter – all we want is to see Web more useful and convenient. And free).

What Web 2.0 website features make it different from a traditional one?

o Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability (When devices and programs are connected to the internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services. Therefore: Don’t package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience. Engage your users as real-time testers, and instrument the service so that you know how people use the new features.)

o Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them (Applications are increasingly data-driven. Therefore: For competitive advantage, seek to own a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data.)

o Trusting users as co-developers (The key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide. Therefore: Don’t restrict your “architecture of participation” to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and explicitly in adding value to your application.)

o Harnessing collective intelligence (Intellectual property protection limits re-use and prevents experimentation. Therefore: When benefits come from collective adoption, not private restriction, make sure that barriers to adoption are low. Follow existing standards, and use licenses with as few restrictions as possible. Design for “hackability” and “remixability.”)

o Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service (Small sites make up the bulk of the internet’s content; narrow niches make up the bulk of internet’s possible applications. Therefore: Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head.)

o Software above the level of a single device (The PC is no longer the only access device for internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected. Therefore: Design your application from the get-go to integrate services across handheld devices, PCs, and internet servers.)

o Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models (Web 2.0 applications are built of a network of cooperating data services. Therefore: Offer web services interfaces and content syndication, and re-use the data services of others. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely-coupled systems.)

Job sites also follow the Internet trends and there are a few out there that fit Web 2.0 guidelines. For instance, Jobazaar.com

How do they differ from hundreds of competitors?

• Lightweight, yet powerful
You don’t need people sending you resumes and CVs, you just need someone mowing your lawn? That’s what we made Jobazaar for.
• It’s free and you’re not going to take any risks
With Jobazaar you can easily offer jobs and manage job postings. Why should you pay for looking for someone?
• Modern and fast interface
Don’t waste time waiting for pages loading or filling out unnecessary form fields. We know you don’t like that.
• Optional features
You decide if you want to enable applications directly via Jobazaar or if users can ask questions to your jobs.

A few more Web 2.0 features of the website include: tagging (tags are keywords that you can add to a job to make it easier to find), RSS feeds, applicant ratings forums. There are three versions of the website: US, UK, German. Obviously, the company targets the global job market.

Summary
Freelance jobs are scarce with Jobazaar.com at this moment, the forums do not enjoy much activity, but the service progresses fast, it gains popularity on the Net and it is worth keeping an eye on. I guess its success or failure depends to a certain degree on the destiny of Web 2.0 trend. If it is widely accepted then Jobazaar.com will make it. And we will get another good source of freelance jobs.

[tag]freelance, telecommute, job sites, outsourcing, web 2.0, work from home, home based job, contractor, career, employment[/tag]