With each work at home opportunity, business opportunity you join online, you are promised the world but instead you end up burning another hole in your wallet.

I've been in your shoe before and want to let you know that... knowledge is power. And there are 15 strategies you must apply if you want to be successful landing a work at home job or independent contract.

Let me share three of the 15 strategies I've used in the past to increase my chances of obtaining legit home-based jobs and independent contracts over and over again.

Tip 1 - You Must Possess Or Acquire A Specialized Skill

The secret to landing a home-based independent contract is to acquire a specialized skill, or start a career in a field that is recession-proof. The career field or skill must be in high demand but have a low supply of skilled workers like transcription.

For example, many people can type, but can't transcribe. The demand for transcriptionists, whether medical, legal, or general is in high demand versus the supply of skilled transcriptionists.

Don't believe me? Go to Google.com and put in a search for "medical transcription companies," for example, and you will see a lot of websites listed. Go to each website and look for the "career," "employment," tab on the site and you will see most of the sites have job openings listed.

There are also other specialized fields such as Advertising Copywriter, Appointment Setter, Java Developer, Appraiser, Blogger, Web Developer, etc., that you can look into to set yourself apart from the work at home crowd, and land an independent contract quickly.

Tip 2 - Create Your Own Work At Home Opportunity, Business Opportunity

Many employers are leery about hiring home-based workers because they fear the lack of control they would have if they hire a home-based worker. Despite this fact, there are employers that you can convince to let you work at home as an independent contractor.

What you can do is let JobsByFax.com fax out your attractive resume and "killer" cover letter. Make sure the cover letter has an attention-grabbing headline, but do not mention anything about working from home.

Here's an example of an attention-grabbing headline for your cover letter: "You Are Going To Get A Bunch Of Applications For This Awesome Job Offer, But Guess What...?"

You have three seconds to get an employer's attention. Why not stop them dead in their tracks at first glance with your "killer" cover letter headline.

After you're called to several interviews, discuss working from your home office. You would have to go to those interviews prepared with solid qualifications and a clear blueprint on how working from your home office would truly benefit the employer.

Show the employer how you can perform your job even better in your home office that is set up with the latest equipment.

Let the employers know that they will assume financial burdens that they won't have if they hire you versus an employee. Here's why. They won't have to:

? Make social security and Medicare contributions ? Withhold federal and state income taxes, pay for sick leave or vacations, provide health insurance, retirement plan, carry worker's comp insurance, etc.

If the employer says no, which some will do, that's okay. Thank the interviewer for his/her time and move to your next interview. Someone will eventually hire you. Persistence is the key to success and it's all a numbers game.

Tip 3 - Reduce Your Job Search Time

Finding a job using the Internet can be a frustrating, time-consuming endeavor because there are literally thousands of job boards and work at home resources.

Let YourJobSearcher.com do the work for you. This software is not only for 9-5 job searches. You can use it to find legit work at home jobs also. Download and install your own personal job searching software to find jobs before your competitors. Enter your job description (home-based job title you desire), click and begin the search. It's that simple.