International and Online Job Resources

Telecommuting (work from anywhere) may be the one "Internet opportunity" that most truly arouses my interest and enthusiasm. I'm a natural traveller and gypsy. The thought of having a ball and chain between my ankle and any particular location gives me panic attacks. I want to be able to live in one place and work in another - if I can't find a job in the place I want to be that week. There are a lot of us out there, we've previously been mostly limited to working on cruise ships, teaching languages, writing, becoming travelling troubadours, or getting stuck in one place. Now, we have some options.

I'll be listing job sites first that offer work over the net (work from anywhere) and will pay internationally. The next group is those that offer jobs in more than one country, and offer at least some jobs with visa and work permit in those countries. Last are the huge job search engines, mostly based in the US, and mostly limited to US citizens, but there are some jobs in the US where the companies are willing to bring in outsiders, mostly in speciality areas, and language teaching. The online jobs are probably the best bet, especially if you are in motion. I have not used all of these, please let me know if you have any trouble with them.

All of the following are good places to get online (offsite, telecommute) jobs and projects. Most charge some small amount for their services, I've seen both good and bad projects posted on all of them too. Please be aware that any place that caters to the job market will get its share of "make money fast" and other scam job-postings. In the case of freelancers, it isn't so much "buyer beware" as "seller beware". These places are all matchmakers, and, while most do some form of authentication, frauds do slip by. The general rule is, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

There are many good jobs out there, many places that need a project done, and are quite willing to hire someone in North Siberia, as long as that person has the skills needed. These places do try to keep things clean, and most of their project postings are legitimate.

SmarterWork

Truly international - the site is now in 4 languages, more to come. Unfortunately, most of the employers are posting English only, but you can see the site menus and instructions in Chinese, German, Norwegian and English. Money transactions are carried out in Euros. It's wonderful not to see the $ everywhere (you can choose a different display currency to give you a local price approximation). Charges subcontractors 10% of fees earned. Job postings are free. Subcontractors can receive pay through Smarter Work, which is an option I wish the others would offer! A good site, with many extra conveniences, including a moderation process for disagreements, tests for their experts (freelancers) to prove they do know what they are doing, and an escrow account so the experts can have some guarantee of payment.

FreeTimeJobs.com

Make your free-time more productive Do you have a few hours of spare time now, tonight, or this weekend? Thousands of small business owners need urgent help from people just like you. Click to view job listings.
Matches subcontractors with companies who need them. Charges a yearly membership fee of $10 for subcontractor members and $10 per ad for employers. Many online jobs, but they post ads for everything from baby-sitters to high-tech, so some jobs are local to the employer.

Ants.com

The fastest growing Freelance Marketplace today!
Matching subcontractors with companies who need them. Projects are posted on-site, and interested subcontractors post bids for the job. Free to the posting company, those members who win the bid pay 5% of the pay received to Ants.com as commission. Members are not charged until the money is received, but must pay Ants.com in the same currency in which the money was received. Since you know the commission, you can add it into your bid, and most do. Has a fairly limited number of jobs, but I've seen some very high-paying ones here. Unfortunately, not in my field :-(

Inforocket

Answer questions, get cash! Mostly small jobs, but they have questions in every category, most won't take much time to answer if they are in your field, and the money could mount up pretty fast if you win a lot of bids. Allows your customers to rate you, so you better do a good job! Great for a bit of extra cash in the pocket. Pays internationally.

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Auction your services

I would never have thought of this if I hadn't been wandering through an auction site one day and noticed the word "services" under the computer category. I was a bit surprised, I hadn't thought they would allow intangibles. But evidently they do. I've found two that seem to have a fair number of services to bid on. Surprising to me, there are a number of bids on many of the jobs. Jump on these before everyone gets the idea!

U Barter

Let people bid on your services - sell logos, web pages, accounting services and so forth. I'll bet they never thought of this when they first set up the auction sites!!.

EBay.com

Let people bid on your services. Most of what I've found here is graphics and other services that are easily priced "per item". But still - they are there, and they are getting bids!

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