Rural Diaries - live the country life, love the countryside and learn about rural issues

Posted by Sally on January 21st, 2009 in Country Living, Rural Resources

An issue that often crops up for the likes of farmers wives is can you make money working from home and if so how.

I am not talking about running a business from home but being paid as a home worker, an employee that works at home.

The benefits of living in the countryside simply can’t be counted but with that comes the downside, one negative is lack of employment opportunities.

When you live in a rural location it can be difficult to find any sort of work, let alone a job that can support a family. As more bread winners lose their jobs in the downturned economy people are often left with a choice of drawing benefits (which only cover the basics if you are lucky) or finding a way to work from home.

Gone are the days of Ma Larkin, where farmers wives spent the day baking cakes and feeding the chickens, now many people turn to the internet to try to find a way of earning money working at home.

The problem is there are just so many scams out there and desperation can make us ignore the alarm bells in our heads and think “what have I got to lose”.

The answer is YES you can make a living working from home but they are not get rich quick schemes, it takes time, motivation and hard work to earn money from home.

However, you can’t simply type “earn money working at home” into google and hey presto a website offers you a job and the money starts rolling in.

I thought I would spend a couple of hours searching the web for resources to help rural people in the UK find a way of working at home, this is what I have found and if you are thinking of working from home I hope it will help you or at least get you started in your research:

Work at Home Truth

First I suggest you look at the website called Work at Home Truth and don’t just scan it, read it, click all the links and sign up for the newsletter (no I don’t know these people, I was just so impressed with the free information they provide).

This is a US website but most of their information is valid for any country. An excellent example of their down to earth information can be found here … as you can see from the comments section this is what started my research and this blog post, because someone sent me the link for a scam site.

Now, I do hope the Americans will forgive me for saying this but I am no great fan of US websites, they tend to be spammy affiliate sites without any real helpful content (the website owner that referred you gets a little of the profit when you sign up or buy).

That’s just business and fine with me but why I suggest you read this site is the amount of free information it provides on avoiding scam sites, yes I am sure they are in it to make an income for themselves but they offer what most sales sites don’t .. good honest free information that can help you if you are thinking of working from home.

I was really diappointed with the lack of information I could find in web searches for UK sites that give information on home working but these may help you. If you know of any good sites please share them in the comments section.

UK Government

Gosh it’s not often I recommend them but their website has some great information on and they include lots of links to further reading.

Homeworking

The Homeworking site has a forum where you can chat to other home workers and compare stories/information. The forum has lots of information and each section has been posted on within this month, so it’s an active forum. They have plenty of information about home working scams, case studies and even information for employers wishing to employ home workers.

Mums Club

The Mums Club website has some very good information for mum’s looking to work from home. The business opportunities page is basically a page of adverts for franchises and home businesses, so if there’s anything you are interested in then get into their forum and ask if anyone has worked with that company before.

Even if you’re not a Mum, their business advice page has some excellent information, from tax tips to writing a press release.

Bytestart

Their website has lots of articles about working at home .. I know, I know all this reading but to avoid the scammers you need to research thoroughly.

Career Builder (no that doesn’t mean a brick layer)

If you don’t know where to start Career Builder lists 10 jobs that let you work from home, it doesn’t give you any links to further reading but may just give you an idea of what you could do working from home.