Hi, My neuro demon is MS and even tho Im ambulatory I am permanently disabled. My ms just doesnt allow me to join the work force anymore so Im on ss disability which is no where enough to survive, not with this runaway economy.

So Im interested in knowing how some of my fellow "homebounbers" are getting along! What do you do for an extra income if any. Iv'e been doing a few things on line and even tho the extra small income is thankful I would like other ideas.

I went and set myself up with a home office and thought about a home call center, but as a result of my financial disaster my credit has gone down the toilet and you need good credit to work for those companies, so call centers is out, what else is there? Any suggestions?

My wife and I tried setting up an ebay store (she makes nice bead jewelry)
but we didnt understand how to get people to see the store, it went un-noticed and turned into money going out instead of in.

Any ideas/suggestions?
Don
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Don - I work a little from home as a medical transcriptionist to supplement the SSDI. For me it works out great.

I have a friend who wanted to work from home as she wanted to be there for her kids. She became a virtual juror. There are many places that hire people to review cases and give their opinions as if they were on the jury. The lawyers in turn use that information to "win" their case.

In my own opinion, I think that this is an upcoming trend and could prove to be fairly lucrative. You can google virtual juror and see what comes up. In the meantime, I will search for the article that had this information and websites that I gave to my friend and PM them to you.

Don, you may also want to check out www.etsy.com re selling artisan made jewelry. I have some friends who do very well there

ps all handmade things appear to sell well there!

Even though I live in Australia I'm anxiuosly waiting to see what other suggestions come forth in this thread.

My DH has started home delivering store catalogues but there's an awful lot of walking involved with that which I can't do, and he shouldn't be doing either. Hubby has a spinal condition and is probably going to have surgery later in the year, and at the moment all this walking is just making his back worse. All for the grand total of 1-2 cents per catalogue, depending on the store, and as he delivers to around 1,000 houses per week, he earns $25-$30 weekly.

I would like something I could use the computer for, but at this stage the only things I've heard of are not the sort of thing I would do, like sending out SPAM. I'll be waiting to read about any other suggestions.

Well I did sign up to that on line juror thing, lets see what happens. I remember hearing about it and then forgot all about it (part of ms). The site says expect about 1 pwr week and each takes about 45 min and it pays 5 to 10 dollars per case, but to be honest I hope I get more then that because Im here just on the computer all day anyway. Thanks for the tip!

Don
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PM me for my sites but I dont thing they work for downunder.
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fishnbuddy, have you looked into things like proof reading for publishers (someone mentioned that one I forget where now) and also I believe there are doctors and others who look for people to do computer records etc for them. not sure if any qualifications needed. there is so much one can do online nowdays if computer work is doable.

this is a really good topic, as many here need a way to either supplement income or earn a living while being challenged with illness or disability.

For us, starting to sell the personal "bric a brac" and the antiques and collectibles we ourselves inherited or enjoyed collecting along the way, has been the way to at least get by since my husband and youngest son had major health changes impact their lives late 90s. It would be a real blessing if we too could find a few more things to add in and have a bit left over instead of month to monthing it the way our kind of retail sales are in this current economy

This all has my entrepreneurial brain in high gear. Maybe once I have a Dx I'll start a work at home agency for all of us.

Here's a link that I read about once. http://www.nticentral.org/

I didn't try it, because, at the time, I was not sure that I was disabled enough.

However, I am currently in the process of applying for SSDI. If I am approved, I may look into it.

~ Faith

hi Don and everyone else.

I wonder if I may butt in in here.

I work at home right now. But it is by luck. I did a lot of other things for many years and then decided to work at home.

I do a couple things at home now.

1) I day trade with the stock market. But that is very risky. If you have someone that can and is willing to teach you. You can make quite a bit of money, actually. But one has to have patience and study the market and need about $25,000.00 to be able to day trade. Hopefully more.

Day trading means that you trade on a daily basis and do NOT hold on to any stocks. So, if you time it right, you can trade about 5-6 times a day (if you know how) but some trade all day long. (I am NOT suggesting this to anyone. This is a very risky thing to do...)

2) I design things. I learnd AutoCAD a few years back and ended up substituting for a while at the local college and then it turned into a business.

with AutoCAD, you can design anything, from landscape to custom homes to jewelries to workout machines to, well, the universe. It's a vector based type of program so it is very powerful and almost every thing is CAD based these days. Furnitures, cars, blah blah blah

Dubai, that blooming eco-center in the middle east was so short on CAD operators that they were taking in secondary guys and paying them 6 figure salaries for 6 months job.

If you want to, do a search on Dubai.

the good thing about CAD is also that you can design it right at your own home, then email it to your clients. Voila, it's done. Of course, setting up a paypal or e-merchant account is very helpful in getting paid right away.

~~~~~~~~~~

I guess what my question is that if you or anybody would be willing to learn a new skill to work at home. Or are you just looking for something to do that you already know. I think the internet is a big untapped market.

If you are still thinking about ebay. My personal opinion is that ebay as a company is not in great shape. They are not what we would call a TRUST worthy brand. I do want to say that there are those that have been very successful with ebay. And thumbs up to them. But maybe you'd want to try something else. And my opinion with ebay once again, is just my personal opinion...

Instead, look into amazon.com which has established themselves to be very trust worthy and they have e-partners that might be able to help you drive traffic. You can become an amazon partnered merchant.

If you have a website, there is something called "traffic blazer"

it is designed to put your site on the search engine whenever you would insert "keywords"

for example, if I was type in "beads" your company will be listed in the search engine. Although the pricing and such determines your placing of visibility.

But it is listed in all the major search engines like google, yahoo, ask jeeves, etc.

here is some info on it

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/traff...2001av&ci=9046

I am not sure if anyone here would be willing to learn a new skill such as CAD. But it is really fun and you can learn it at home.

And the possibilities are endless. I am not trying to sell CAD. When I was teaching, whenever a student would learn CAD and tell me that their lives have been changed. It was always a good feeling.

Now, the generic CAD (autoCAD) is very expensive. But there are other versions available once you've learn the generic form.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you or anyone has a skill, try to promote it as much as possible. Ask around and see if any of your friends have a website, ask them if you can link yours to theirs. Let them link it back to yours. Check out traffic blazer for traffic and searches.

but if you are interested in learning a new skill. I think CAD has great potential...

forget what I say about day trading. It was a stupid idea to even mention that in the first place...

I hope it works out for everyone.

(To Don)Since you like fishing, maybe you can look into something about selling fishing gears or fishing devices based on your expertise? If you are interested in learning CAD, maybe you can even design your own fishing gears and such?


Good luck to all