But who wants to wait for their treats? So let's get to that right off the bat.

The folks at IveTriedThat.com – an excellent website about working at home have decided to make their eBook "The Complete Guide to Telecommuting" available to you for free.

Click here to learn more about their free eBook and grab your copy.

Oh, and expect to learn a few tricks from their eBook as well, such as how to:

• Properly prepare to work at home
• Revamp your cover letters and resumes to stand out to above the crowd
• Create and display a portfolio
• Speak to employers on a professional level
• Learn to recognize a fake online job posting
• Quickly and efficiently scan through job ads for legitimate postings
• Convince potential and current employers to let you work from home
• Manage and grow a telecommuting business
• And yes, show you how and where to find legitimate work at home jobs.

Click here to learn more about their free eBook and grab your copy

The few opportunities I did run across were for managing triage situations by phone and managing schedules.

So I was happy to find another site that posted an article called 3 Great Jobs for Nurses Who Prefer to Work at Home which shows 3 areas of potential telecommuting opportunities for nurses:

• Disease management
• Case management
• Medical transcription (medical transcription has been covered at WorkAtHomeTruth and I highly recommend you read this post about medical transcription training concerning the importance of the quality of education you receive in any formal medical transcription program).

You can see an example of a company looking for a TeleHealth Nurse Consultant here.

The problem  isn't that you can't find a good niche this way, some could be very good, but the fact it lacks the most important element:  YOU.

I want you to think about a few names real quick Starbucks, Mcdonalds, Craftsman.  I could literally build a GIANT list here but let's just look at the 3 we have here.  Why do they lead their industries?  First, let's look at Starbucks is their coffee the best?  Arguably I'd say no, some people might disagree with me.  But, what has set them apart from virtually every other coffee chain?

Their individuality, which involves the following: their logo (think branding), the design of their coffee shops, market share (they are everywhere).  Now keep in mind that you can go to any fast food chain and get a regular coffee for a $1 at Starbucks it's at least $2 for the same coffee which might be similar quality as the fast food cup.  Of course, at Starbucks you can get 50 other kinds of coffee and flavors but I wanted to point out the price point of their regular cup.  It's their branding (individuality) that sets them apart.

Let's look at Mcdonalds.  Mcdonalds is a giant marketing genius.  They have it all, branding (the golden arches, Ronald Mcdonald and other characters, the Big Mac, super size, Chicken Mcnuggets) and market share (they too are everywhere).  Mcdonalds may not have the best food (still argubly very tasty) but yet they are dominating their market.

Now the next company I want share with you is going to help me complete my point fully.  You see Mcdonalds and Starbucks share one thing that the next company doesn't have, Market share.  However, this next company still has something that both the other companies have…… Branding and individuality.

Craftsman tools.  Everybody has heard of them (at least in the U.S.A.).  You can only buy them at Sears stores which means they have a limited market share.  However, they sell millions of tools each year because they are branded as "the strongest or toughest" and "the best".  Craftsman has that individual feel and they help you bridge the connection between high quality and long lasting with their lifetime guarantee.

All three companies we looked at are well branded and that's the biggest connecting factor.

Now, let's take a look at why the home business startup kits in large part do not work.  Let's just look at the specs of one (which will remain nameless) and let's assume you own this cookie cutter business package.  The product promises your buyer the following…. (this product also has the typical cookie cutter name)

*Make money online (make $10,000 a month!)

*work from home

*Work 1-2 hours a week.

Keep in mind the inside is much like every other product out there….. very basic and not really step by step.  Probably not even enough to really help someone make money online and especially not $10k a month.

What would set this offer apart from the 50,000 other ones?  This will cause much less people to buy as they've seen and heard it all before.   The other problem would be the buyers would likely refund as they won't learn much, will be disappointed in the training and down right bored.

So how would you set something that teaches what 50,000 products others products do apart from the pack?  I will use one of my courses to help demonstrate.

#1.  Brand it - think of something with some individuality.  When I came up with the name Niche Blitzkrieg for one of my courses it's something that get's recognized, the name makes it stand out.  Love or hate the name it grabs your attention.  Blitzkrieg means "lightning war" and is used in various other areas like chess and of course was a term used in WWII.  But, what sounds better, Niche Blitzkrieg or Niche Lightning War?  Even if other similar products with similar names spring up they'll have to compare it to Niche Blitzkrieg.

#2.  Uniqueness &  Quality - Make your product better, be unique and different.  You can pass the same information to someone and make it different enough that it connects.  Notice just like Mcdonalds and Starbucks your product doesn't have to be the best just make it unique.  However, I always stress quality….. always.  The higher quality you can make it the better for not just you but your buyers.  With Niche Blitzkrieg I teach people how to make money with their own small online businesses, nothing new there.  However, what sets it apart is it's unique design, feel, teaching style, high quality and presentation.

#3.  Be honest. You never hear Starbucks, Mcdonalds and Craftsman make outrageuous boasts.  However, many of the businesses in a box style setups come with "off the wall" boasts or claims that people can hardly match. The thought process by the designers of the business in a box start up kit products is that outrageous boasts will be the way you'll be able to convert sales!  Instead, shoot people straight tell them the truth and they'll love you.  People who have a good experience and are not lied to in the beginning will buy from you over and over again.  Honesty is what has helped take my business from scraps to a very nice living.  When quality, uniqueness and honesty collide what happens is something very special.  Model your business this way and you'll experience a steady growth of happy and engaging customers.

Bottom line: I personally would pass on a turnkey home business startup kit or similar styled products.  Instead you should consider just learning the techniques to make your own products or sites.  In the long run you'll reap the benefits of your own unique branding, customer service and style.  You may never fully recover the original cost you put into buying a turnkey system since it's going to be the exact same system 50,000 other people are promoting as the next big thing.

BBB Warns Grant Companies Exploit Confusion over Stimulus Bill to Rip Off Consumers

Note: in the BBB warning they state: 'Since this press release was first issued, some websites have been taken down or edited.  Contact BBB for more details on the original content.'

Back on December 13, 2008 WorkAtHomeTruth posted a warning about fake "blog" sites promoting government grants here similar to the ones mentioned in the recent 3/3/2009 BBB warning which states: "In February, ads on Facebook directed the public to Web sites such as www.davidgetsgreen.com* and www.jakecutler.com which were set up to look like blogs written by people who are sharing the secret of how they received $12,000 in grants from the government to pay off their debt."

The BBB gives specific complaint and rating details about the following companies in their warning:

• Raven Media – BBB has logged 495 complaints as of 3/3/2009. F rating at the BBB.
• Grant Instructor – BBB has logged 295 complaints as of 3/3/2009. F rating at the BBB.
• Grant University – BBB has logged 300 complaints as of 3/3/2009. F rating from the BBB

Specific websites mentioned in the BBB warning are:

• FederalGrantSolutions.com
• FederalGovernmentGrantSolutions.com
• OfficialStimulusChecks.com
• ObamaStimulusGrant.net

The BBB warning says:

"According to the BBB Serving Utah and the BBB Serving Las Vegas, complainants state that they ordered a “free” CD and were promptly charged as much as $69.95 on their credit or debit card. Some complainants also stated that their credit card was charged by other companies as well.

When complainants contacted the businesses about why they were being charged for a “free” item, they were told that they had actually signed up for a “free trial”—as explained in the terms and conditions on the Web site—and they needed to cancel within seven days of requesting the CD or they would be charged monthly.

Complainants also stated that they never received the “free” CD, received the CD after the free-trial had expired or were unable to log into the Web site to access grant information as promised. These companies fail to provide refunds and some complainants tried to contact the company to cancel the service but ultimately had to cancel their credit card to stop being billed as much as $69.95 every month."

• Click here to read the full text of the 3/3/2009 BBB warning about grant companies exploiting confusion over the stimulus bill.

Additional notes from WorkAtHomeTruth:

The following sites are Grant offers or redirect to Grant offers from Raven Media Inc:

• Free Grant Connection
• 36HourFunding.com
• SBAGold.com
• SBAFundingExpress.com

• Weekly updated content
• Daily telecommuting job leads
• Reviews of work at home resources
• Articles covering various work at home topics

As usual, the forum is the place to head to quickly, but also be sure to take a look at the types of articles JustOnlineJobs.com offers

• Click here to visit JustOnlineJobs.com main page.
• Click here to visit the JustOnlineJobs forum.

"eHomemakers has been around for a long time and is a very professionally run site that really cares about your work-life balance.  You can get a sense of how much they care by reading through some of the

Founded in 1998 by a single mother, eHomemakers started as ‘Mothers for Mothers’ – a voluntary group of mothers from multi-ethnic communities. Against the backdrop of the Asian economic crisis, the group consisted of “housewives” who managed their home-based businesses using ICT. Members were involved in women-connecting-women activities to promote the concept of working from home.

The network, while helping its members gain self-esteem through mutual support activities, had to overcome public prejudice about useless “housewives” who did not contribute to the household income. It became obvious to them that more homemakers needed economic empowerment to uplift their gender status."

Although the eHomeMakers site is focused on South-East Asia, most of the topics covered at the site are universal in the world of telecommuting and work in general.

Click here to visit eHomeMakers.

The forum is especially active with genuine dialogue which is usually a great sign for a site like this.

I love the fact that Real-Wah-Jobs is extremely well organized and seems especially adept at keeping up with the flow of what must be an enormous amount of information. The only glitch is for some reason Real-Wah-Jobs doesn't make it obvious how to get back to the home page (you have to click on the big "Real Work at Home Jobs" letters at the top of the page)

• Click here to visit Real-Wah-Jobs.com's home page
• Click here to visit the Real-Wah-Jobs forum (you'll need to register for free).
• Click here to see Real-Wah-Jobs' list of companies that hire telecommuters on a regular basis.
• Click here to see telecommuting job leads at Real-Wah-Jobs.com

A good thing to pay attention to when visiting all the recommended home job sites are how the job descriptions are written up. This can be helpful when coming up with search terms to search on when you use the job boards, job search engines, Craigslist, etc. in order to find legitimate telecommuting work.

You want to identify parts of the job description that are specifically related to telecommuting – i.e. phrases like "must have quiet area in the home" or "must have stable, high-speed internet connection", etc. Ideally you should keep a list of such phrases and start to guage how effective the searches are in bringing up relevant results.

• Click here to visit the WorkAtHomeSpace forum
• Click here to visit the main page of WorkAtHomeSpace

While there is a section on TelecommutingJobs here, the real gold is in the postings that the owner of TelecommutingDiva – Valencia Hiquera – makes about her own telecommuting decisions and experiences.

Click here to visit TelecommutingDiva.com and explore the realities of telecommuting.

Most of you will want to jump directly to the Between Mom's message boards here and check out the Telecommuting Jobs section as that appears to be where the telecommuting job leads are posted now.

Note, the site lists a Telecommuting Jobs section here, but it really seems that most of the job leads are posted on the telecommuting job board mentioned above.

• Click here to visit BetweenMoms.com
• Click here to visit the BetweenMoms messageboards