Liveops Prevails in Independent Contractor Lawsuit

It has been almost a year since Jeannette Gonzalez and Tammy Kerce filed a lawsuit questioning whether Liveops violated Fair Labor Standards by considering its workers Independent Contractors instead of employees, which would then require Liveops to provide minimum wage and overtime pay. Unfortunately, many Liveops work at home agents considered this lawsuit to do more harm than good, and argued that when signing up for Liveops, they fully understood that they were only independent contractors. The results of this lawsuit could potentially deny Liveops' agents the flexibility that makes it such an amazing company to work for. Fortunately for these agents, the good news is finally out: Liveops resoundingly succeeded in court. According to a December 10, 2008 legal document from the United States District Court Northern District of Atlanta Division (with bolding added),

"This action having come before the court, Honorable Beverly B. Martin, United
States District Judge, and the court having determined that judgment may properly be
entered in favor of defendant LiveOps, Inc., it is
Ordered and Adjudged that the plaintiffs take nothing; that the defendant LiveOps,
Inc. recover its costs and fees of this action, and the action be, and the same hereby, is
dismissed."

This is excellent news for Liveops, since in addition to being ruled in favor of, the final order even awarded Liveops all court costs. Congratulations Liveops on your victory!

Source
Women Diet Pills

Tech Blogging Job!

Hey Everbody! I was just browsing the Problogger Job Board when I found a neat job opportunity that might interest you. Are you a techy person who owns an Apple Iphone, Touch, or the new Google Android? Are you also a great writer who would be interested in reviewing some of the different applications that are currently on the market for these product? If so, then Yulmedia Interactions (Iphonefreak.com , and Androinica.com) might have a great job opportunity for you. They are currently looking for "passionate writers to write mobile application reviews."

This opportunity entails:

• Writing at least 2-3 reviews per week


• An average of 150-250 words per review

(Yulmedia is also looking for people interested in home entertainment who have a good amount of knowledge on Blu-ray, movies, and home theaters.) If you would like to apply, send your resume along with a recent work example to Stephanie at

info <@> yulmedia.com (take out <> signs when typing address).

Good luck!

Monetizing Your Blog

You've created an amazing blog with tons of great content. Now what?
Well, if you are interested in making money off of your blog, there are a few excellent options out there. In this post I'll try to go over one of the easiest ways of monetizing, which is by using contextual/ pay-per-click advertising. These programs place ads on your website/blog that are specifically targeted to your audience. Whenever a visitor clicks on these ads, you earn. Below are a few great contextual programs.

1. Adsense- Adsense, the advertising program created by Google, is in my opinion by far the best option out there right now for monetizing a blog. Out of all the programs I have used, this has definitely been my top earner. Currently, I am using Adsense exclusively on this blog.

2. Bidvertiser- This is another one of the contextual programs out there right now. Personally, I have NOT done well with this program. The ads do not seem to be as popular with visitors, and they just did not perform well for me.

3. Yahoo Publishers Program- This program seems to be a little bit more exclusive than the two above, but if you get in, then it seems to be a pretty great program and performs almost equally as well as Adsense at times.

4. Chitika- Though this ad company is more well known for its marketplace ads (which I will talk about in another post), it also has begun a fairly good pay-per-click program. Chitika may not have as wide of a variety of ads as Adsense, but I believe that it shows promise to grow.

Hopefully, this should help get you on the path to monetizing your blog. In future posts I will discuss some of the other great options out there.
Good Luck!

Job Opportunity For Bloggers

I have lately been receiving tons of e-mail from people who would like to start blogging, but want a way to immediately begin earning money even before their blog gains popularity. Well, about three months ago I joined the blogging company "Today." Today is unique in that it is simple to begin earning money immediately with them. Basically, the job entails making a blog about whatever you find interesting, and then getting paid for doing so. As soon as I heard about this opportunity I was interested, so I applied. After being accepted, I decided to create a blog on their site about working at home. I then proceeded to make one post each day, and was paid money for every post. I quickly began to accumulate cash, and by the end of the first month I had received a check for around $50, which is amazing for a startup blog. According to Today's website, they take the risk by immediately paying people for creating startup blogs, and only begin to earn money themselves once visitors begin clicking on the blog's ads. In my opinion this is extremely generous, since most companies require you to get a certain number of visitors before you get paid. Around the second month of working with Today.com, the company introduced another writing program, known as "Content Calls." Here, you are paid to write articles for other people and companies. The articles can be on a wide variety of topics, from movie reviews to info on Ireland. The average pay for this is about $5/article, which is also a pretty good starting rate. Recently, Today decided to open up the application process for new bloggers, which is why I am writing this post. Currently, you can sign up to blog at Today and receive a guaranteed $1/post, and $2 per thousand views of your blog. I know that this may not seem like a lot to start out with, but your blog is reviewed monthly, and based on productivity and popularity, the amount can increase. Plus, at the same time, you can earn some extra cash in the Content Call section. I really enjoyed working with this company. Their site is easy to use, and a great way to start blogging. Plus, if you ever need any help with your blog, just send Today an email. From my experience, all of their employees are friendly and happy to help. To get started with Today, you can click the application link that I have posted below. I hope that this opportunity is as much fun for you as it was for me. Enjoy!
Link: Today

Make Money With Paid Posting

One of the top questions I have received from readers is how to make money blogging. Truthfully, there is no single answer to this question, since there are hundreds of different ways. For this post though, I will write about one popular choice, which is paid posting. Paid posting is usually where companies pay money for you to write reviews of their various products and websites on your blog. Of all paid posting sites, the two that I have heard of most often are payperpost.com, and www.reviewme.com. Both work similarly, except that payperpost seems to focus more on products, while reviewme focuses more on reviewing websites. Basically, you just have to sign up with these companies, and they will contact you whenever they receive something for you to review. Keep in mind, the more traffic your website receives, the higher the pay is. From what I have seen, pay can be anywhere from $5-$300 per post, though it usually averages about $25/post. It all depends on the company which is paying, as well as how popular your blog is. With a little work, you could easily be making money off your blog with these two options.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my blog! You will then be able to see my posts as soon as they are written. Enjoy!

Voicelog Pays Hourly!

I have been receiving many requests for work at home call center jobs (similar to Liveops), but which pay a guaranteed hourly amount. After talking with many other work at home contractors, I found Voicelog, which seems to be a perfect fit. Unlike Liveops, which pays you only for the time you are actually on the phone with customers (and not while you're twiddling your thumbs, waiting for calls), Voicelog pays a guaranteed minimum $8.50/hour and up! Even better, there are no annoying upsells. There are no upfront costs to being an independent contractor for them, and they will provide personal training. Voicelog is currently hiring in all US states except for Alaska and Hawaii.
Instead of selling products, Voicelog is in the business of verifying orders to prevent fraud. Your job would be to talk with customers who had recently ordered products and verify that they wanted what they were being charged for. Though this could be an excellent work at home job, there are a few downsides to consider. For one, unlike with Liveops, you will have to work at least 2 days per week to stay active. Also the smallest block of time is 2 hours, versus only 30 minutes to one hour for other work at home jobs. If this is fine with you, read on.

Below is some additional information, as well as links:

• Pay is a guaranteed minimum of $8.50 weekdays, and $9 on weekends.
• Are you Bilingual? Pay is $9 weekdays and $9.50 on weekends.
• Call hours are from 9am-6pm and you can reserve job spots in 2,3,4,5 or 6 hour blocks.

Job Requirements Include:

• As usual a noise-free workstation
• PC with Microsoft 2000 or XP (No Macs, no emachines, and sadly for me I'm assuming no Vista)
• Minimum of 1 GB Ram
• Pentium 4 1.6GHz or higher
• IE6 (You can download it at http://www.download.com/ or at http://www.microsoft.com/)
• Excel, Microsoft Word
• Working Printer
• Paid Email Provider that provides enough space to receive fairly large documents (No Yahoo, Gmail, etc. accounts)
• DSL or High-speed Cable
• Recent Antivirus and Adaware software
• AOL Instant Messenger Account (You can get one at: http://www.aim.com/)
• A second phone line (must be already installed) dedicated to accepting inbound calls.
• Phone with no features (no VOIP, no digital phone, no call waiting, voice mail etc...) To find some of the most reliable (and inexpensive) one's, just click the link right under the picture at the top of this blog page.)
• 1 Year of Customer Service Experience

Links:

• http://www.voicelog.com/careers/job1.html (I have already covered pretty much everything on this page.)
• http://www.voicelog.com/careers/info.html (Information Page)
• http://www.voicelog.com/careers/faq.html (Frequently Asked Questions Page)
• http://www.voicelog.com/careers/job1app.html (Job Application Page)

If you found this post helpful, please subscribe to my blog! Just click on the picture in the upper right hand sidebar of my blog for RSS (an orange box with green lines), or type in your email address and press submit below the picture for email.

Women Diet Pills

Work at Home Identity Fraud?

Every year, the number of identity fraud cases increase dramatically, and I often hear people worrying about having their own identity stolen. What I haven't heard mentioned is how this can be a gigantic issue for work at home jobs.

The U.S. government has implemented a law requiring employers to report their employees' earnings to the IRS. Because of this, many work at home companies require you to type in your SSN (Social Security Number) when applying for a job. The problem with this is that scam companies could (or already do) use this law as an excuse to get people's SSNs online. Think about it. When applying for most online jobs, you not only are giving out your SSN, but also your Name, Address, Phone Number, as sometimes even your date of birth. All of these things can easily set a person up to have their identity stolen. Just as an example, I know of many fellow wahms who are extremely careful about avoiding phishing scams and hate giving out their credit card, yet happily type their social security number into any website that offers them a chance of making money online.

We all need to be more careful when applying to work at home jobs. Your social security number is your life, and could never be guarded carefully enough. Even when sites aren't scams, you still should be careful. I recently was applying to work for stay at home job that was well known and 100% legitimate. I had passed all of the certification tests, and was at the form where you have to fill out your SSN number, when I noticed something. The site was not even encrypted! Even when a site is legitimate, if it isn't encrypted, a hacker could easily swoop in and steal your info.


Below is a list of things to look at before applying to an online job.

• Is the company well known and trusted? To find this out, you will have to do a little research. Google the company's name. If there are no results for it, or many complaints, the company is likely a scam. Next, check the Better Business Bureau (bbb.com) to see if any complaints have been filed against the company. Then, go to a work at home forum ( I prefer using wahm.com) and see if anyone has talked about this business.


• Does the company say that you will make large amounts of money in little or no time? If it says anything like this, leave the site immediately.


• Is your information encrypted and secure when you send it to them? The way to check for this is to see if a picture of a lock appears either in the upper or lower toolbar of Internet Explorer when on the company's page. I recommend downloading the new Internet Explorer 7 on your computer as an added benefit, as the address bar of your computer will turn green when you are on a secure website.


• Lastly, trust your instincts. If the site seems like a scam, don't put in your info! Hopefully, these tips will help to keep your identity secure as you search for work at home jobs.

If you found this article helpful or interesting, please subscribe to my blog. To do this, just click the orange box in the right hand column, or enter in your email address below it and press submit. I hate spam just as much as anyone, and promise not to send any to you.

Mystery Shopping. Is it Worth the Hassle?

You all have probably seen those ads looking for mystery shoppers when researching work at home jobs. The sad fact is, a majority of those companies are scams looking to make a buck off you, and most of the rest don't really pay what it's worth.
When I first was looking for a work at home job, I did a large amount of research on mystery shopping, and came up with a list of legitimate companies. For those that do not know, mystery shopping is a job in which a company will pay you to spend money at their business, while making sure that it is being run well and everything is satisfactory. When I first started this job, it seemed to be quite fun. No, I wasn't making a profit, but I was able to buy items while the company paid the tab. After a while though, I came to the realization that to me, mystery shopping is definitely NOT worth the time and effort it takes. With most of these jobs, you are given a specific time to shop and even the specific item to buy. After shopping, you are expected to usually fill out a very specific report form (with lots of detail) on almost every possible aspect of the shopping experience. I found these to be extreme time wasters. It is unusual to make money off mystery shopping, as the companies will usually only help you to break even with your purchase. So no, for me mystery shopping was not a job that I could enjoy doing for months. Still, some of you might want to give this unique job a try, so I am posting a few links to companies which should match you with businesses in need of shoppers.
Note: Though the companies below are recommended, DO NOT sign up with one if you are required to pay money to join, as this is likely a scam. If the job seems fishy, it probably is! Use common sense when applying for these jobs.
Links:
http://www.aamerch.com/b2c/secret.htm
http://www.a-closer-look.com/
http://www.a-insights.com/
http://www.mystery-shopping.com/
http://www.mysteryguestinc.com/MGI/
http://www.usd-datatron.com/

Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Freelancer?

There are tons of great work at home opportunities out there, which means that there are a variety to choose from. Today, I'm writing about one popular job idea, called "Freelancing." Basically, with a freelance job, you are an independent contractor who bids on job projects, and then gets paid after performing the job. There are tons of these freelancing jobs out there, from writing, to translating, to even photography. I even saw one person who was willing to pay $100/day just for someone to call him every morning and tell him what his weather forecast would be for the day, as well as current news! (O.K. I'll admit that's a little strange.)
Still, you can make a good amount through this.
Here's how it works:
1. You sign up to a website that is a marketplace for listing and bidding on these jobs.
Here are two of the biggest:
Elance - This one has a membership fee to bid on jobs.
Guru -Guru is free for some limited bidding, but small fee for most jobs.
2. Search for jobs that interest you.
3. Once you find a job that you would like, you will have to bid against other job seekers, to see who would be willing to do the job for the lowest cost. (Though cost is a large factor in being picked for the job, the employer will also be looking at your reputation, as well as the messages you send them.)
4. You get the job. If you win the job the employer will send your payment to either Elance or Guru (whichever you use.) Next, you will be expected to perform the job, and only when you have successfully completed the job will the company release your payment to you.
Is this job easy? No it is not, but there is usually a higher amount of pay per job than with other work at home jobs. Before you decide not to do it, at least take a look at the type of jobs offered on the site. There might be something there that you would really enjoy!
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my rss feed in the upper corner to instantly receive my posts whenever they are available.

Strange Update on Liveops Lawsuit

Liveops has Prevailed in the lawsuit! To read the article, click here!

This post is in response to the original post on a Liveops Lawsuit. To view the original click here.
Though I find the Livops lawsuit a very important topic to cover, I have said my share, and this will be my last post on the topic. (Except for the results, of course!) From now on, my posts will be about working at home, how to get started, and basically everything in general on the topic (with some interesting additions thrown in! Just wait and see.) Ok. Now on to a Liveops update. While browsing Yahoo, I decided to do a search on "liveops lawsuit" just for curiosity. I saw two things that surprised me. For one, my post wasn't even on Yahoo results, while it is #1 on Google. Shame on you Yahoo! The second thing that I noticed was even stranger though. In the area where the search advertisements usually are, I saw this ad: (image below)


When I clicked on the image, it took me to this site: http://www.overtime-flsa.com/

The site appears to be a lawyers website, since the title bar says "Unpaid Overtime Pay and Claims Lawyers." Additionally, the site says "Michael D. Lore, P.C. is a Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated law firm that focuses its practice on representing workers in claims and lawsuits involving unpaid overtime wages." The reason I found this strange, was that at the bottom of the website, it says "Not Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization." So, then who and what are they? Also, the site has a form with which you are supposed to fill in your information, if you think that you are entitled to overtime pay and submit it to them. The site also provided a phone number in the toolbar. As I was curious, I called. The person who was on the other end answered the phone as "the law firm." What law firm? Who are these people?! When I said that I had been an agent, the person told me that they were collecting information, and that there currently was no class-action lawsuit against Liveops. Hmmm. So apparently, it looks to me like other firms are testing the waters, to see if they can make some cash off of Liveops as well. Whatever it is, I would have liked if the site, as well as the person on the phone, gave more information on who they were.
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed in the upper corner!


Subscribe in a reader

Women Diet Pills

Update on Liveops Lawsuit Post...

Liveops has prevailed in the lawsuit! To read the article click here!

To view all posts related to the Liveops Lawsuit click here.

A few days ago, I made a post on how Liveops, one of the largest known work at home companies, is being sued by two of it's agents. In one day, my blog received more hits that I have seen the whole month. At the same time, I have noticed that people have had a few misconceptions when reading my post, so I want to clarify it now.
Though I side with Liveops and hope that they win, there is an extremely fine line between an independent contractor and an employee. The IRS uses three categories to determine the difference: Type of Relationship, Behavioral Control, and Financial Control. Liveops could be on either side of the fence with these. For example, Liveops does control how its agents behave. An agent can't say random things to a customer, scripts must be followed, sometimes verbatim. Secondly, as I said in my last post, signing a contract saying that you understand that you are only an Independent Contractor does NOT always mean that you are one. For example, in 1996, someone filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for almost the exact same reason. Microsoft had been hiring people as independent contractors who had to sign a contract saying that they were such. The U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard the case. One of the main arguments was that people had their jobs defined by Microsoft, and worked for long periods of time (usually years.) Many agents at Liveops have been doing the exact same thing. In that case, Microsoft settled before a decision was reached, for almost $100 million dollars! Similar things have happened to Time Warner and other large companies.
So basically, it is up to the judge to decide on this one, and he could go either way. If Liveops loses the case, they might have to change all of its agents to employees, and as I said in my last post, most of them probably will not want a set pay, as it could be a lot less than what is made now. This could be a landmark case for all call order work at home companies, so let's hope for the best!

Want more info to decide for yourself? Check out some of the links below!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp
http://www.contingentlaw.com/Costly_legal_myths_in_contract.htm
http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/laborlaws/l/aa121800.htm
http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/laborlaws/l/aa121800_2.htm
http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com/Independent_contractor_employee
http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=400&article_id=52996&cat_id=1088
Also, please subscribe to my blog to receive updated info about this and work at home tips in general. I hate spam just as much as you, and will never send you any. Thanks!


Subscribe in a reader

Women Diet Pills

Upsells, Downsells, Affinities, Oh My!

Hi again!
Today I'm writing about one of the bad sides of working with some of the work at home phone order companies. Most people think "Oh, I'll just have to process someone's order and get paid for it!" Sorry, but it's not that easy, and I want to clear up this misconception now. In addition to selling the product that the customer has called in to order, you also will be trying to get that customer to buy multiple other items, from additional items similar to the one that the customer is purchasing, to different magazines and membership clubs.

For example:
If Linda calls in to order a juicer, it could then be an agents job to try and sell her another juicer, some cookbooks that she could use with that juicer, and maybe even a fitness program or a magazine subscription.
So in addition to Lisa just buying the juicer, we would be offering her upsells (additional items along with her juicer), downsells (reducing the price of the additional items if she turns it down), and even affinities (magazine subscriptions, free vacation getaways, and membership clubs.)
As an agent, most companies require us to offer her every single item, since there can be a large profit made from these items. Because there can many items to offer, a call that could take five minutes might even reach half an hour. This can make the customer very frustrated if they do not want the items, and they sometimes might start yelling at you that "No, for the last time, I DO NOT want anything other than what I ordered!" The only way that you can usually skip all of the offers is if the customer says that they will hang up or cancel. Usually, you finally get to the end of these call with the customer frustrated and you tired from saying that you're sorry but you are required to read these offers. Though I still think that working at home is great, I just want people to take this into consideration before applying.

(Additional Note: Not all work at home companies do this with the calls they take. With the ones that do, not every call is this way. What happens is the call company's clients (the ones who are actually selling the product, will decide whether or not they want to add additional offers to the product they are selling. Also, you will usually receive an incentive per additional offer sold.)



Subscribe in a reader

HSN Now Offering Work at Home Jobs!

Hey everybody!

I was just looking at the Home Shopping Network's website, and they are currently offering work at home jobs. Their job benefits are the best I have seen so far with a work at home job. Basically, you would be taking calls for people who are calling in to order products shown on HSN.

The job's benefits include:

• Employee Discounts
• Paid Training and Paid Time Off (Most Work at Home Jobs Don't offer this!)
• Stock Purchase Plan
• 401K

Most of the benefits listed above are unheard of with most home jobs. The pay is $10/hour, which is o.k., but I think it is worth it due to all of the great benefits. Here are the some of the requirements:

• You must live in: Florida, in either Pinellas, Hillsborough, or Pasco County
• Previous Sales or C.S. experience
• Strong Computer Skills in: Windows, Internet, Excel, Work, and Outlook
• Good Organization Skills
• Good Communication Skills, and Desire to Make Customer Happy
• Be able to connect with customer, and bring excitement with the call

Here are the Tech Requirements:

• Home PC with Windows XP, 2000, or Vista
• At least 10 MB free Disk Space
• 17" or bigger color monitor that's able to display a 1024 x 768 resolution
• High Speed Internet (cable, ISDN, DSL)
• Antivirus Software Installed
• Regular Telephone Service, with wired jack close to your PC
• Telephone Headset
• IE Version 6 or Higher

This seems like a great work at home job, especially since it is with Home Shopping Network. Many people have told me that this job is a lot more fun than with other call companies, and also that there are less upsells to read. I would definitely apply for this job, only I'm not in the area.
If any of you are interested, you can visit the link here:
Work At Home Call Agent - PT
Or you can go to the HSN website at hsn.com, and scroll to the bottom area of the site, where you will see a like that says "Careers at HSN". Click it, and on the next page click the Search button. A window should pop up, and in the keyword search box, type in "work at home". Then, click the job that says : Work At Home Call Agent - PT
If you liked this post, then please subscribe to my Blog!


Subscribe in a reader
Women Diet Pills

Wanna Try Blogging??

So you want to try blogging. Great! Blogging can be a fun way to try to make some extra cash working at home. The first thing that you have to know is ........patience!! Unlike lots of other work at home jobs, you aren't going to be suddenly receiving paychecks from your blog, but with time you could possibly make big bucks off it. (I know at least twenty bloggers who are making a six-figure income just off their blogs ads.) The key is to keep making quality posts on your blog, no matter how discouraged you are.

Before you create a blog, you need to think of something YOU are interested in. A sucessful blog usually has at least a few new posts every week, so you should at least find something that you won't get bored writing about. For example:If you really enjoy hiking, then maybe you could make a blog about the places you are going to hike, and post interesting pictures and posts about them. You could also talk about the supplies that people need to go hiking, as well as interesting trails they could take. Never forget though, if you want people to read your blog, then it has to be interesting to them too!

Ok. Now that you've got a topic in mind, let's get started! The first thing that you will need for blogging is a platform. A platform is what you will host your blog on. The two best known platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. If you are a beginner blogger, then I recommend that you try Blogger first. It can be a lot easier to use when trying to customize your blog, as well as add posts. With wordpress, you are not allowed to use any javascript on your blog, which means no ads or cool money-making additions. The only way around this is if you host your Wordpress blog on your own server, which is not for the faint of heart. Because of this, we will mainly focus on Blogger in this post.

With Blogger, just go to their website and click the "Create Your Blog Now" arrow, and you will be on your way to having your own blog. On the blog set up page, you will see a few things the you will need to fill out. Your blog title needs to be something that clearly describes your blog, but also sounds interesting. The blog address is what people will type into their address bar to access your blog, so try to make it something that is short and memorable. Next, you will go to a page where you choose a template, which is basically a design pattern for your blog. Try to find something that is easy on the eye, and not too cluttered, or else your visitors will just go to a different blog. Don't worry if you have trouble deciding, since you will be able to change it later. Now it's time to start making some posts! You can start off by making a short post introducing your blog to visitors. Talk about walk you are planning to blog on. After typing, click the "Publish Post". Congratulations, you now have your own blog! Try to make a post at least once every other day, to keep visitors coming back. Next week, I'll talk about how you can get more visitors, and also how you can make money blogging. Until then, try to build up some content on your blog.

Happy Blogging! Don't Forget to Subscribe!!!

Subscribe in a reader

Work at Home Company Sued!

Liveops has prevailed in the lawsuit! To read the article click here!

(Note: This post has received an update. To view it, either go to the main page, or click here.)

I was just looking though the news, and I noticed that Liveops, one of the best work at home phone order companies in my opinion, is being sued! According to Justia Federal District Court Filings & Dockets, Jeannette Gonzalez and Tammy Kerce are the plaintiffs. The lawsuit was filed on December 3, 2007. The presiding judge will be Judge Anthony A. Alaimo.

In addition, one of the plaintiffs of the Liveops lawsuit, Tammy Kerce, appears to also have filed a suit against West at Home, another call company. (Seems like someone's a little sue happy.)

According to the Houston Chronicle:
"two agents in Georgia contends they don't even earn the minimum wage when their training time and nonpaid downtime between calls are factored in. The two women argue they're employees — not independent contractors — and are entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay."

Though these women might be making some points, I think they are clearly off! The Fair Labor Standards act applies only to employees. When they signed up to work for Liveops, they signed a contract, and I clearly remember reading something similar to "I agree that I will be working as an independent contractor, and not a a paid employee. I agree that I will be paid on a case by case basis" (It sounded similar to that when I applied.)
Now, I understand that in some states, agents would be considered employees, even if they signed a contract saying that they are only independent contractors, but if these people hate the job so much, they should go work for someone else! This is how I think it is when you work at home!
Instead, it looks like they're making all of the rest of us agents look bad. I have no idea where they got the idea that they were employees. Liveops makes it clear even in their faq's that we are all independent contractors, though this is a fine line, if you look at how the IRS defines an independent contractor vs. an employee.

A while back, West at Home got in some trouble similar to this, and because of it they changed lots of their agents into employees with fixed pay. Now, I don't know about you, but I like being able to have no limit on how much money I make per hour!

These women need to get a day job at a physical workplace, and let people who enjoy what they are doing work at home!

To view the public records of the court filings visit this link:
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-gasdce/case_no-2:2007cv00148/case_id-42631/
-and-
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-gasdce/case_no-2:2007cv00081/case_id-41150/

To view the article the Houston Chronicle did on the case, visit this link:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sixel/5422587.html

To see a brochure made by the IRS on whether or not a person is an Employee, visit this link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1779.pdf

(And, to me it looks like there is a fine line, but we are still Independent Contractors.)

Any of the names or personal information in this article are based on information obtained from public records, and may not be accurate.

For more information about Liveops, or to apply, follow the link below!
Liveops

Subscribe in a reader

Women Diet Pills

You need a backup!

Many people I know who work at home with phone order processing have told me that they are currently only working for one company. This is definitely not the way to go! These companies are usually seasonal, and you will absolutely see an increase in earnings if you spend your time with different companies at different points of the year. Here's how my schedule is:

Liveops- Though you will usually receive many calls with Liveops no matter when you work, they still are slightly seasonal. The best time to be working with them is anytime from November to February. The reason for this is because before Christmas, many people will be buying the items they see on t.v. as gifts. You will probably get lots of orders on Electronics, kitchen appliances, Books, etc. After Christmas, and usually up to February, there is a huge amount of calls from everyone who ate too much during Christmas, and now want to order dieting or fitness programs!

West at Home- With West at Home, depending on which group you are in, you will probably see a solid influx of customers throughout the year. This is because this company takes orders for many of the shopping channels on t.v. I will usually use this company whenever there aren't seasonal options with other companies.

ACD Direct- Unlike many other call companies, ACD Direct deals with lots of Fundraising drives. There is usually one drive per quarter, and there can be lots of calls during this time. I will usually use them whenever a huge drive is going on, like with a big foundation or radio station.

Though there are many other companies that I think are great in this business, I have not used them enough to be able to say what they specialize in. If you have an idea, or would like more info on any of the companies I have listed please email me!

 Subscribe in a reader