Work at Home Resources
Tools I use to work at home like a pro…
Welcome to The Work at Home Wife’s Recommendations page, a curated list of the tools and websites I strongly recommend for working successfully from home. I have tested every recommendation on this page. Many of the resources listed here are crucial to running my business (or were crucial to developing it to where it is today).
Before digging into the awesome resources I know and trust, an important disclosure:
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.
Work at Home Job Boards
FlexJobs
FlexJobs: At FlexJobs, the job leads are always researched and they are always remote positions. You don’t need to sift through hundreds of listings a day in hopes of finding something offering work from home that isn’t a scam. They’ve done the work for you.
Learn More
Learn a New Skill
Become a Freelance Writer
30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success: Freelance writing is one of the easiest industries to get into, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. You’ve got to do some legwork. You’ve got to go out there and find those clients. Gina goes into great detail to help you get your new writing business up and turning a profit in no time.
Become a Medical Transcriptionist
CareerStep: Medical transcription is a great industry for those with great typing and listening skills. It does require an accredited degree, however. CareerStep is the leading online training school for medical billing and coding and medical transcription and editing. They offer job placement help, tuition assistance and a payment plan.
Proofread Anywhere
Caitlin was able to create a full-time income from home quickly with only her iPad. Since then, this career choice has given her the freedom to travel the world. What is she doing? Proofreading transcripts for court reporters. This is a great opportunity for those with an eagle eye for editing. Take her free intro course to find out if this is the career path for you.
Transcribe Anywhere
Transcription is one of the many online careers that many times doesn’t require a formal education. There is a lot of work available for those in the general transcription arena that involves working for bloggers, home business owners, and other small business owners. Learn more about transcription in this free mini course.
Become a Reseller
Amazon FBA Bootcamp: Fulfilled by Amazon has taken the work-at-home world by storm the past two years. Many resellers are finding huge success with the arbitrage opportunity. Jessica shares her tips for starting a successful FBA business and how she not only replaced her own income but also brought her husband home to join the new family biz.
Udemy
The possibilities are endless at Udemy. There are courses for anything and everything under the sun. Udemy vets their instructors and approves every course so you can rest assured about quality.
Learn to be a Bookkeeper
Bookkeeper Business Academy will teach you how to start your own bookkeeping business from home – even if you have no prior accounting experience!
Save & Manage Your Money
Rakuten
Rakuten: I love the Rakuten program. You can earn cash back for online purchases. (As a work-at-home professional, most of your purchases are likely made online.) They also offer a lucrative refer-a-friend program. Payments are sent by check quarterly.
Ibotta
Ibotta: When it comes to offline purchases, groceries in particular, Ibotta is a must-have app. Pick your rebates and scan your receipt when you get home from the grocery store. Rebates will be deposited into your account within a few hours. When you hit the $20 payment threshold, you can receive your money by PayPal or choose a gift card from one of their partner merchants.
Freshbooks
Freshbooks: Every freelancer needs an easy way to invoice clients, see outstanding invoices and run profit-and-loss statements. Freshbooks offers all of those things in a simplified manner.
For Bloggers
Bluehost
Hosting is so important when starting a blog. Choosing the wrong hosting company could mean slow loading times, or even worse, downtime. Bluehost is a highly reliable host with great customer service. They can help you ever step of the way. Hosting is around $4 per month with a free domain for life or free website migration. Why is this host recommended by WordPress?
- Get online in minutes
- Faster and safer website
- Unmatched 24/7 customer service
- Tons of free extras to start & grow your website with ease
- They have awesome tutorials available to help you get your blog online FAST!
- A free domain name and SSL certificate are included
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Genesis Framework
Genesis Framework is one of the most popular foundations for building WordPress sites. It’s optimized for SEO, mobile responsive, secure and integrates with numerous shopping carts, plugins and more.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins for search engine optimization. See at a glance where your post needs work before publishing. A free version of the plugin is available in the WordPress repository.
SEMRush
If you are serious about Search Engine Optimization, I highly recommend SEMRush. It isn’t cheap – $69.95 per month – but it will give you so much information about your site and where improvements can be made. You will also be able to easily track your search rankings for unlimited keywords with the paid account.
KWFinder
When it comes to keyword research, I use Keyword Finder. This web-based tool will show you at a glance not only search volume and similar keywords but also the competitiveness of a keyword and the current top ranking sites. It saves so much time and has greatly improved my SEO.
Pretty Links Pro
The Pretty Links Pro plugin will help you keep your affiliate links organized and updated. It easily allows you to create shortened, branded links for your favorite affiliate products and update them across the web in one place should your affiliate program change networks or close completely.
Beaver Builder
Build pages like this one with ease with Beaver Builder.
Tailwind
Tailwind: Success on Pinterest is largely dependent on consistent Pinning. You need to show up and you need to make sure your posts are being Saved to the site more than once. Tailwind offers an affordable solution for Pin scheduling, and I love their new Tribes feature for extended reach. They also recently added Instagram publishing!
Grammarly
Truth be told, I’m not a proofreader. I hate proofreading my own work even more. Grammarly helps catch a lot of the stuff I miss. Free accounts are available.
AWeber
AWeber: I’ve moved on to ConvertKit these days, but if you are just starting out as a blogger AWeber offers a reliable newsletter service at an affordable price. I spent many, many years on the platform and was always pleased with their service.
Canva
Canva is an awesome web-based photo editor that will meet just about any blogging need. Tons of templates are available as is a free account option.
Styled Stock Society
Styled Stock Society releases beautiful new images twice per month that you can use in your blogging projects. Use them for blog posts, as eBook covers, on social media. They don’t even require attribution! Use as many as you want for just $29 per month.
LastPass
So many passwords as a blogger! Oh my goodness. LastPass can help you keep track of them all. Their app allows you to access them on your smartphone as well. They even have a cool tool that allows you to share your passwords with your assistant without having to tell them what the password is. So awesome!
Airtable
I can’t say enough about this spreadsheet service. If you are struggling to stay on top of your content or profits, check it out. Free accounts are available. See how I’m using it here.
TubeBuddy
If you are publishing video content on YouTube, you MUST use this service. I haven’t seen anything even remotely comparable. Take out the guesswork. Save yourself hours on optimization and uploading. Free accounts are available. Get started here.
Rev.com
If you are publishing video content on YouTube, you MUST start captioning your videos. Rev.com offers super-affordable rates ($1/minute) and a fast turnaround time. I use them for all my captioning and transcription needs. Get $10 off your first order with this link.
Learn to be a Better Blogger
Launch Your Blog
I love this course from Create and Go. It will walk you through the step-by-step process of getting a new blog up and running. It includes great tutorials for those who feel “less techie.” You will also learn how to create content that will resonate with your audience and get them becoming subscribers. This course was designed for those in their first month of blogging. Go check it out!
Elite Blog Academy
Elite Blog Academy: If you are looking for something more advanced, get on the waiting list for Elite Blog Academy. This course catapulted my blog income and traffic to another level. I’m still reaping the rewards and performing the practices two years after taking the course. It only opens for enrollment a few times per year. Get on the waitlist now.
My Favorite Affiliate Programs
Ultimate Bundles
Ultimate Bundles puts together around 10 to 12 “bundles” of products each year from some of the best bloggers and service providers around. Each bundle is created with a specific niche in mind ensuring there is at least one bundle a year that will be a match for your audience. Affiliates earn 40% of each bundle sale they generate. Contributors earn 70%!
Work at Home School
If your audience is interested in working from home, consider signing up as an affiliate for Work at Home School. This is another “bundle” type product featuring bloggers you know and love in this industry – myself included!