In order to succeed as a work-from-home mom, it helps to have plenty of great resources at your fingertips. As the popularity of working from home has exploded, the number of useful resources has skyrocketed, too. A quick online search reveals that there are dozens and dozens of possibilities out there; how are you supposed to sort the worthwhile ones from the ones that aren't all that helpful? If you don't have the time to sort things out for yourself, you should take a quick look through the following list. Six of the very best online resources for work-from-home moms are outlined for your convenience.
WAHM.com
One of the top online destinations for work-from-home moms is WAHM.com. The site has plenty to offer to beginners and experienced types alike. New job leads are posted to the site daily; more notably, the site offers a well-run forum where you can get help for every conceivable kind of work-from-home issue. The site also posts useful and informative articles on a wide range of different subjects.
If you're unsure about the legitimacy of a particular work-from-home opportunity, try perusing the forums over at WAHM.com. You can search the forums to quickly find out whether or not anyone else has anything to say. In the unlikely event that your search produces no results, go ahead and post your own thread. Make sure that it's posted to the right category; beyond that, it's a snap to use the site, and you should get some help quickly.
Work Place Like Home
Unlike WAHM.com, Work Place Like Home – which is located at www.workplacelikehome.com – doesn't offer a full-fledged website for work-from-home moms. Instead, it's all about forums. In order to see or participate in the forums, you have to register a free account. Don't worry, though – it's well worth your while to do so.
The neat thing about the forums on Work Place Like Home is that they are organized into many different categories. If you're getting into the online writing game, mosey on over to the Writing Desk area. You'll also find categories for phone work and other types of virtual-assistant jobs. This is a great place to investigate new work-from-home opportunities and to seek general advice, too.
Freelance Mom Forums
It never hurts to hit as many different forums as possible. To that end, you should make a point of paying a visit to the forums at Freelance Mom. You can find the site at www.freelancemom.com. It's really easy to get over to the forums, too. The forums here are very active, so you should be able to learn a lot there.
Different people have different experiences with working from home, which is why it's smart to visit a wide range of different forums. Some people prefer the Freelance Mom forums to those at WAHM.com and Work Place Like Home; in the end, the decision is going to be up to you. There are categories for everything from website design to working as a virtual assistant.
No Job for Mom
Forums are great, but there are plenty of other options out there, too. One especially popular site is No Job for Mom, which can be found at www.nojobformom.com. The site is run by a work-from-home mom named Felicia; some of her posts, especially one about Textbroker, have generated a huge amount of attention. Read through Felicia's posts and subscribe to her blog to stay on top of tips and ideas about working from home.
In addition to featuring very useful articles, No Job for Mom's comments sections tend to be very active. One Textbroker thread alone has a couple of thousand comments. Sprinkled throughout those comments is a whole lot of useful information. It may take you a few days to get through all of the info on the site, but it's time well spent.
Demand Media Studios Forums
It's important not to overlook the forums that are offered by many popular writing and freelance websites. Because Demand Media Studios is such a behemoth, it would be foolish to overlook their forums. The forums are moderated, so you don't have to worry about spam and other issues. At the same time, some people may be less than upfront due to concerns about being blocked.
For the most part, the forums on Demand Media Studios are worth visiting from time to time. If you have a specific question or concern about using the site, this is the place to post it. You will find the most knowledgeable Demand Media Studios users on these forums. Better still, your question should be answered lickety-split.
Textbroker Forums
In early 2011, Textbroker rolled out its forums for the first time. Up until then, there was no centralized place to go to discuss the site with others. The Textbroker forums are relatively friendly and informative; they are moderated, so major issues are kept to a minimum. Keep in mind, however, that posting information about other work-from-home opportunities is not allowed.
There are two main areas within the Textbroker forum: "author-to-author help" and "room for improvements." In the first case, you can appeal to your fellow authors for help about issues with using the site; in the second, you can make recommendations about upgrades and new features that you'd like to see. Textbroker employees monitor the forums closely and they do respond to requests; make sure to put these useful forums to good use if you write for Textbroker.
The preceding work-from-home resources are just the tip of the iceberg; there are many other options out there. However, you can avoid a lot of frustration by starting your search with these six sites. Remember, too, that you can always email support at any site that you use. The point here is that you really don't have to go it alone when it comes to being a work-from-home mom. Thousands of others are pursuing the very same dreams; the vast majority are making them realities, too. Increase your odds of success by taking advantage of these prime online resources.