There are quite a few sites where employers can post jobs and you can bid for them. Maybe you've held back. Perhaps you have pre-conceived ideas about what that's all about... well fear not. I'll explain how and why you should take a closer look at these job postings.

These days more and more companies are wanting people to do jobs for them, but they don't have the time to recruit people through traditional methods. Or maybe traditional methods aren't available to them. If they simply want some documents proof read, or they need to find a logo designer, or perhaps they need some regular articles written for their website or blog (and isn't everybody now wanting this?) then they can't approach a local employment agency, an advert in a local newspaper would not get them reaching enough people, an advert in a national paper will cost them too much and they can't spend a day phoning companies from the yellow pages.

These traditional methods do not work for them because they are busy, the job required is small, they can't throw £000s at advertising.

So their best/quickest bet to find people to do the work is to advertise online. The sites where people bid for the work are the ones most likely to get the right sort of people applying.

So what are the "right sort of people"? If you want to work from home then the biggest fear an employer has is whether you will actually BOTHER to do the work at all. People who apply for jobs on bidding sites are almost guaranteed to be the sort of self-disciplined hard working type that the hiring company are after!

These companies are NOT necessarily looking for the cheapest person to do a job for them either! Some will be, but in the main you get what you pay for - and good companies to work for know this. So they will be looking at your application. Who would YOU rather hire to do a job? "i can do this work, you pay me £5 and i do work 4U today". Or "I have over 2 years experience doing this type of work and can provide references and examples upon request. I would require £75 to do the tasks you need, but I am sure you will be more than pleased with the results I achieve for your company"

I know the £5 applicant would be immediately binned and I'd be in contact wth the £75 applicant as they would instill more confidence in me.

Every £ a company spends has to provide them with a return on investment. They want a job doing because it will make them money either directly or indirectly. They want good reliable people working from home to do a task for them that will meet or exceed their expectations.

After the first job you've done for a company, in a majority of cases, if they have further identical or similar work that is needed they will come straight to you - and - they won't mind if you charge more this time as they will have been able to evaluate your skill and ability. Most companies are quite happy to pay you more after you have done a couple of jobs for them as they know what they are getting for their money and they have build a trust relationship with you.

If you are looking to build your own business working from home doing this type of work, you will soon have built up a list of clients that want to work with you. And another opportunity to increase your rate is by quoting a little bit higher when they ask you to do a different job for them - you can be pretty sure that the jobs these companies advertise are only the tip of the iceberg and they will have a lot more jobs and work on offer in the coming year.

So try it out. See how you get on. And the worst case scenario is that you get to "advertise" your skills for free directly to people who are looking for jobs to be done! And that advertising would normally cost you a lot more money and time than just respoding to adverts.