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Distant Jobs

Lately more and more people are interested in distant jobs. But unfortunately not only programmers, translators, artists became interested, so did large number of swindlers. That is why many of those who tried to work from home dealt with swindlers, lost time and money and were surely disappointed in the idea itself. No need to disappoint, you just should know how not to make a mistake.

Since we talk about distant jobs, you will most likely get acquainted with your customer virtually, and as a result you will mistrust each other executing first orders. Swindlers deceive not only people who work from home and do not receive money for work done and delivered to the customer, but they also deceive conscientious customers who prepay and do not wait till the results. That is why many customers prefer not to prepay, but demand the results first. Since in most cases it is the worker who is interested in doing work, you should show the customer that you have done the work, make him evaluate its quality and size, but do it in such a way that the customer could not use the results, so he will not forget to pay for the work done. There are several tips that will allow you to put into practice all written above.

Since there are many types of distant jobs, there are many tips, each type matches different tips. Distant jobs can also be different, from translations to writing songs and poems to order, so it is impossible to tell about everything in one article. But even if you do not find your specialization in the examples below, this structure of protection can be easily applied to your distant job. Here are the examples:

- If you created a web-site, open it in any browser and make screenshots of all pages. Now you can easily send them to your customer, he can evaluate quality, size, but he will not be able to use your work.

- If you wrote any scripts for the customer, for example, PHP or Perl scripts, you can use the following tip: make a website on a free hosting that supports scripts, upload the form there and the script that handles operations with the form. Give your customer the link to this form. He will be able to make sure that the script works, but he will receive its text only after payment.

- If you created any drawings, images, banners or photo editing, write any word over them, for example, “TEST”. So the customer can evaluate the quality of the images, but he will not be able to use these images because of the inscription. Send your work after you get the payment.

- If you did translations, delete every second paragraph in the translated text and send to the customer. He will be able to evaluate the quality of your translation, but it will be difficult to use it.

- If you performed software outsourcing, it makes sense to send only an .exe file of the program without the source code. You can disable any basic function in the program, for example, Save results, Print results, etc. Probably you have also more than once come across so-called trial programs – these are full-function programs that work only certain number of times or days, then the program does not launch and requires a code that you can get after paying for it. You can also use this variant, it is enough just to write once a security module and then use it in your programs.

Delphi and C Builder programmers can download finished freeware that can be easily installed into your program and set it so that the program will launch once or twice. The customer will be able to evaluate the quality of your work, but not to use your software before payment.

Some more advice: always save intermediate results of your work. For instance, you create a banner and do not like any element, save your work, and then return to it. In cases of controversial points the existence of such sketches will be a good proof of your authorship.

Another way of “survival” for a person who works from home consists in the fact that all the burden of customers search, problems with calculations, quality control, possible fraud can be laid down off your shoulders. How can it be done? It is very easy. In Internet there are many agencies and companies, they can have various names, but the purpose is common: these are associations of professionals united for completing a certain type of distant jobs. For example, there are design studios that make banners and logos, create flash backgrounds. There are lots of translation agencies that translate from different languages into different languages; there are associations of programmers together fulfilling software development orders.

As a rule, the history of these companies and agencies is the same. Everything began with the group of associates who worked from home, contacts began to be established, infrastructures were being established, etc. But life does not stand still, the market of distant jobs is a market that is developing dynamically, therefore amount of order increases. What does it mean? It means that you only have an opportunity to become a member of this team, get your part of distant job and receive payment. All requirements to job seekers are placed in the vacancies section of a website, but if there is not such a section, feel free to report about your willingness to work by any e-mail from the contacts section.

So, what are advantages and disadvantages of finding jobs with the help of agencies? Firstly, the main thing is that you do not have to think where to search customers, agency will do it for you, since it has much more opportunities for doing this. Judge for yourself, since the matter in hand is distant jobs, the main source of clients is a website. Working for agencies and companies, you do not need to create and promote your website. Also a very important aspect is established contacts: agencies receive most of the orders from regular customers, good reputation also matters. Naturally if you decided to search for customers yourself, you will have to start from nothing, so at first you should not expect the rush of customers.

An obvious disadvantage of working through agencies is that you will not get the considerable part of your earnings. This will be your payment for the website, for the reputation, for support of different types of payment.

So, if you are full of energy, have some spare time, feel that you have a business acumen, even it is not very developed, are not afraid of failures, you can start looking for customers independently, try to find, unite associates and so on. It can happen that in future you will form your own design studio or translation agency. If you are already employed and wish to raise the standard of your welfare, then distant jobs through agencies will suit you more. An ordinary situation: a translator comes home from work, checks his e-mail, finds a new order from the agency in his mailbox, he translates the text and sends back, then receives the money.

Don’t take the bait!

Many people whose aim is finding a distant job write a resume, an advertisement, then they go to a search engine and begin searching for forums or message boards, start clicking all resulting links and post the advertisement. But such thoughtless method has a broad number of disadvantages. The matter is that in each part of Internetwork there is a number of websites that stand out against other sites. These “fleshpots” can be easily distinguished by their contents that usually represent a mixture of pseudo-hacker or carder information, porn and of course dubious forums, chats, message boards.

When you advertise on such websites, especially when you post job search advertisements, you multiply your chances to come across swindlers. Even the job that can be offered on such websites is specific. For example, if you are a translator, you can be offered to translate pages of a porn website from English into, for instance, Italian. If you are a programmer, you can be offered to crack a program or something like that. If you want to work as a network administrator, you can be offered to hack a website, IRC channel, etc. Dealing with such shady employers and dubious types of job you run risks not only to lose your money, but also to face law-enforcement authorities and seem an accomplice or a direct crime committer.

The matter is that the audience that mingles on various hacker resources basically is not related to hackers. Yes, these people took hackers nicknames, they learnt words of hacker slang, but when they need to attack, or hack a website, or write a virus, or convert a trial program into a full-blown program, it turns out that they lack necessary knowledge. And you possessing knowledge of programming, network protocols, etc. are more hacker than the audience mentioned above. So make conclusions yourself.

“Theoretically”

We recommend everyone who decided to work from home to sign a contract with the customer. You can specify terms, size, payment for the work done. This contract should be not oral, and not a soft copy, but printed on a paper. How to do this? All details of the contract should be discussed over the phone (by e-mail, in the ICQ). After the text of the contract is agreed, you print two copies of it and send them to the customer by post, he signs them and sends back to you. Is it difficult? Theoretically it should be done this way. Due to the contract you will be able to demand something from your customer, and the customer will be able to demand from you. Distant jobs attract customers also with the absence of any procrastination. Customer can place an order, receive the results, pay for the work done, and he can do everything without leaving home. So in case of one-time orders you should not count on the customer’s agreement to sign the contract. Treat it with understanding. But if you succeeded to receive a large order, which you will have to complete for weeks or even for months, you should insist on signing the contract.