WorkAtHomeTruth Weekly WrapUp September 27th 2008

Top business site of the week:

A special “Thank You” from last week’s business site of the week MilkWeed Mercantile

“With the help of you and your readers the Milkweed Mercantile has made it into the Ideablob finals. We’re a strong second, but are getting slammed by a well-connected, well-known design firm.

Money aside, I’d love for us to win so that we can show that there ARE sustainable ways for Americans to live, that we don’t have to lose our souls or ethics to earn a living; we can actually have a LIFE.

We are asking everyone who voted to please ask one friend to vote. It would make a world of difference and could actually put us over the top. Do you think you could put a small update in your newsletter tomorrow? Voting continues through midnight on Monday, September 29th.

thanks for your consideration,
Alline Anderson”

If you believe in what they’re doing and want to take 3 minutes to help them out (for free) you can register and vote for their idea of using a wind-powered turbine as an energy source for their community here:

Click here to vote for the Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage’s sustainable energy plan for their community.

Note: This might be an interesting process for some of you to go through to see unique and unusual ways to raise money for a business.

Top telecommuting site of the week:

WorkOptions.com

Includes the Telecommuting Proposal Template recommended by the WallStreetJournal and several other proposals and articles, some free and some paid.

Top Government Website for the week

ConsumerAction.gov

This is the online version of the Consumer Action Handbook, and includes sample complaint letters, along with a full section of various agencies to file complaints with depending on the type of complaint you are filing.

Top Scam Research Site of the Week

The Australian High Tech Crime Centre

Although based in Australia, it’s a very useful site for people all over the world, including the United States. I would highly, highly recommend you visit the page on an increasingly pervasive fraudulent employment scheme called “Mule Recruitment”  which is an attempt to get a person to receive stolen funds using his or her bank account, and then transfer those funds to criminals overseas.

This is the type of scheme that can land you in jail – even if you are completely unaware of what’s going on.

Click here to view an simple-to-follow, clearly presented flowchart about how the Mule Recruitment scheme works.

We just prevented someone from getting involved in one of these schemes within the past week. The sites that are used to perpetrate this type of scheme are getting more and more elaborate and professional-looking.

If you are concerned that you might be heading for involvement in a Money Mule scheme either post it at Scam.com or send it via the feedback forms located throughout the WorkAtHomeTruth website.

WorkAtHomeTruth Weekly WrapUp September 19th 2008

Top business site of the week:

MilkWeed Mercantile

I’ve included this site because it’s a great example of other alternatives to the typical 9 to 5 routine. Also, I’ve noticed there’s quite a few artists, musicians and creative people who visit WorkAtHomeTruth, so I thought I’d show them one of the more unique ways artists, artisans, and other creative people are making the artistic lifestyle work.

If you believe in what they’re doing and want to take 3 minutes to help them out (for free) you can register and vote for their idea of using a wind-powered turbine as an energy source for their community here:

Click here to vote for the Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage’s sustainable energy plan for their community.

Note: This might be an interesting process for some of you to go through to see unique and unusual ways to raise money for a business.

Top telecommuting site of the week:

HomeWorking.com

Probably the most interesting part of this site are the case studies they provide of various ways people are working from home.

Click here for the direct link to the categroies of work at home case studies.

At the time of this writing the site provides just shy of 50 work at home case studies, including case studies from the following areas:

  • Teleworking
  • Self-Employed
  • Freelance
  • Network Marketing
  • Mail Order
  • Part-Time

HomeWorking.com also has a discussion forum here.

Top Government Website for the week

The home business section of Business.gov.

If you don’t know this site, you should. If you don’t know the home based business section of this site, you should.

It includes extensive free information about running and starting a home based business, including:

  • Five Key Steps to Starting Up a business.
  • Applicable licensing other legal matters to consider (believe me, this is the non-fun part the IM gurus don’t want to tell you about…but it’s not really as bad as some of you might think).
  • Small Business Start-up assessment.
  • How to plan for and set up a home-based business.
  • Where to find help for your business.

Top Scam Resource Site

SpywareWarrior.com

I can almost guarantee that for many of you, keeping this site bookmarked will save you a lot of time, headaches, and will also keep you from making costly mistakes.

In addition to a helpful forum, Spyware Warrior provides a list of “Rogue/Suspect” Anti-Spyware products. And even though the list hasn’t been updated since May of 2007, a quick read of the list along with the reasons certain “Spyware Removal” products are on the list will give you a quick education of deceptive Anti-Spyware marketing tactics to look out for.