There are many reasons for wishing to work from home:

- you may have a disability and be less mobile;

- you need extra money to pay an unexpected medical bill;

- you want some extra cash to cover the cost of a family vacation;

- you need additional funds to pay for kids going to college;

- you cannot afford to pay for childcare and choose to stay home with your family; or

- you have lost your job and are unable to find another one.

Whatever the reason, working online from home can be the answer you are looking for to provide you with the income you need, when you need it.

Many people are put off considering an online career because they have little or no computer knowledge. They mistakenly think that the only way to make money on the Internet is to be able to design and build a website and operate an online business. It can appear too complicated if you don't know the difference between an HTML code and a postal code.

There is no doubt that basic computer skills are a pre-requisite to working online, but if you can create a document, send an email and look up the Internet then you pretty much have all the skills you need. Even if you can't do these things at present, a short course at a local college will more than equip you with the knowledge you need.

So, if you don't want to build a website or start up a business on the Internet, what can you do?

You can choose from a great variety of online jobs -ranging from paid surveys, typing up advertisements, mystery shopping, Internet research or even acting as a "virtual assistant".

The beauty of online jobs like these is that you will actually work for someone else, who will pay you for your work the same as if you worked in an office or at a store. In fact many online jobs pay much higher rates than you can expect to get from a "normal" job.

Take paid surveys for example, you can typically make $2 to $3 for filling in a short questionnaire that will take you less than five minutes and barely any effort. That works out at up to $36 an hour. But some surveys do require a much more in-depth questionnaire to be completed and fees for these can work out at more than $50 an hour.

There is often an added bonus too - because you have provided such useful information to the company, they may ask you to complete follow-up surveys or product tests and again reward you with an attractive fee.

You will no doubt have heard a lot of bad publicity about paid surveys and it is true that there are many scamsters on the Internet. The secret to success is knowing how to spot the fakes. Simply put, if you are asked for money up front in order to participate, it is almost a sure sign you are about to be conned.

Also, some companies will let you complete a lengthy survey before revealing that you will be paid in some obscure "points" system, but you will need to fill in hundreds of surveys just to get a free movie ticket or a discount voucher. The genuine companies never ask for payment and provide details of how much you will be paid in an up-front manner. So watch out for these tricksters and you should be safe.

Other popular opportunities are typing up advertisements, mystery shopping and Internet research and again there are many genuine and many bogus websites offering such work. Selecting the good from the bad can be a difficult task and again you require to be vigilant before committing yourself to a project.

One easy way to solve this major problem is to join a reputable membership site which effectively screens out all of the bogus operators and provides you with a huge choice of legit online jobs to choose from. For a small one time fee you will have lifetime access to a great selection of jobs and you are guaranteed to find ones that suit your particular skills and requirements perfectly. I know because that is precisely what I did about a year ago and I haven't looked back since.

So do your research and hopefully you too will soon be able to write your own make money from home story.