N.M.
Hi Sara! I responded because of your topic, but I live in North Hills. Holy cow!
I am a Freelance Grant Writer ( and other things) and my husband is a freelance writer as well. He works mostly in video games and educational writing.
I have been looking at a lot of membership Freelance work sites and preparing to purchase one, once I have a sense of which one I like.
For me, Guru.com is great, but expensive. Paidcontent.org is also of interest. I am also looking at gofreelance.com which I don't LOVE. They seem scammy to me. I joined their free offer months ago and get emails all the time. Yesterday I found virtualvocations.com and they seem valid.
I am also looking at LinkedIn and paying for my membership there so that I can use features. It's an amazing site to use your business contacts and friends- old and new- for your business needs.
The first step (IMHO) to working from home is:
What do you like to do and what do you do well? Focus around your skills, background, education, interests. Look at what you can do for people from home in this category.
The worst mistake is to get a mindless from home job that doesn't advance you either personally or professionally. One day, you may want to work out of the home again. You can leverage your working at home now to keep your skills improving so that if you want a "real job" again one day, you can secure it easily and with confidence.
Step two is to leverage your contacts. You have to start talking and talking. I am a _________ and I want to do ________ or ____ from home to get some commerce into my family. Any ideas? Post it on every social network group you have and see what they have to say. It's all about who you know, after all!
Step Three: Marketing. Once you know who you are, plan how you will sell yourself.