I know this is not my normal posting but considering I have not worked outside my home in around 10 years I wanted to say a few things.
MYTH
All work at home offers are scams
FACT
Yes, many of them scams but are easy to avoid. If any company wants you to pay money to work for them or to help you get a work at home job run away, run away fast, and run away screaming. These are scams. If it is legitimate employment service or employer they will not ask you for money to hire you. They may ask for a ton of paperwork but they will not ask you to pay them.
Another way to judge a scam is if it seems too good to be true. If it is sounds too good to be true it probably is.
If the work is legitimate then there should be a contact person, company address, and phone number – there are exceptions to this but we will get to them later.
Myth
You cannot make a living working from home.
Fact
Many people make a substantial income working from home. It is a matter of finding the right job that is not a scam. There are a lot of them out there if you know where to look. I will post a set of links below if you should want to apply.
Myth
All work from home opportunities are sales, cold calling, or phone work.
Fact
Yes, some of the work from home opportunities are for sales and phone work but there are also a lot for those who do not wish to do phone work for what ever reason. I remember one of my only call center jobs I have taken was not sales it was order verification. Most people were grateful that someone was looking after their orders and making sure that they did in fact order a product.
There are writing jobs, Q and A jobs, Consulting jobs, and many more that do not have anything to do with phone work.
Myth
You have to has some special skill or equipment to work from home.
Fact
This is not true either. If you can speak, read, and write English you are a commodity. If you can do so in more than one language it is definitely a huge plus. Most work from home companies that want writers want native speakers or those that are really proficient with the language.
Myth
Working at home is easier than working for an office.
Fact
In some cases this might be true but in others it most definitely is not. Time management, self motivation, and a large amount of skill are required to work from home. Having your home office set up so that there are not distractions is a massive plus. Working at home is not for everyone.
Some Legitimate Work From Home Websites
http://www.ratracerebellion.com
In the days / weeks to come I will expand on the many aspects of working from home. It is a godsend when you have agoraphobia. If you have any questions feel free to comment. I will be happy to answer any of them.
Yes I know this isn’t my usual type of post on here but I thought it might be good to do a public service announcement.
Can't Sleep Clowns Will Eat Me 
Thanks for the post. Right now, it’s difficult to find a work-from-home job without having to filter through the scams, a more effective approach may be to ask about flexible work programs when applying for a role. Depending on where you are, employers may have an obligation to provide work from home for family reasons when required, though of course this is still quite different from a “work from home all the time” role. Most employers nowadays are at least considering the benefits of telecommuting for themselves and their employees, despite some recent high-profile employers (Yahoo! and Best Buy) rolling back their work from home programs.
Hello Alex,
The purpose of my post was not to have people suggest to their current or prospective employers that they work from home but to introduce people to real available work at home situations that they did not have to beg an employer for. The problem with your approach is having to convince a company why telecommuting is a good idea. There are plenty of companies that already know and hire through agencies for home workers for their call centers (live ops working for direct TV). Trying to convince a company to go to work from home for the average person who needs to work from home is just not a good idea.