This is a guest post by: VirtualVocations, an Arizona company that specializes in work at home jobs.

If you’re wanting to join the ranks of the 50 million who work from home, now is as good a time as any. With all the technology and gadgets (not too mention 4G internet) that enables us to practically work from anywhere, more and more individuals are choosing to work virtually from home, coffee shops and or while traveling.

image via Citrix Online

These changes not only impact workers, they impact companies as well since many companies are also looking to save money by allowing a part of their workforce to telecommute and or by hiring outsourced staff.

If you’re looking to possibly begin a virtual work from home position, below are six ways to find such an opportunity – all based on your existing career field.

1. Email Newsletters and Alerts -

Find the companies you wish to work for and look on their respective websites to see if they offer an email newsletter. Many times, a company will announce their latest job openings via this mail. If not, it will at the very least contain important contact information that you can use to send in your job proposal. Another thing you will want to be on the lookout for is a job board and specifically an email alert system built into this job board. When you sign up to receive an email alert, you get notice of new job openings that are from a certain category or niche or whatever filter you apply. A great way to stay on top of busy job boards.

2. Work At Home Blogs -

Blogs are great because they’re constantly updated and as such, have loads of recent information. If you frequent blogs that are job related, these should have many listings for what you seek. Whether that’s freelance writing, web designing, SEO, project management or social media. Subscribe to these blogs via RSS, follow them on Twitter or fan them on Facebook.

3. Twitter -

Twitter can be used for so many different purposes including a job hunt. Perform a search for your intended career niche and see what sort of tweets pop up, when you find followers in your desired field, follow them and send them an introductory message – then check out their website for more information. The point here is not to ask directly for a job via a 140 word tweet, but rather to get to know the company and see what opportunities might exist, if any. Then reach out via a more formal method.

4. Facebook -

This one is similar to Twitter above, but since there’s more room for communication and it’s a more open platform, you can really get to know a company through this medium and at the very least – get your name out there via a few strategic status updates. The odds of gaining employment directly via a Facebook status update is pretty slim, but that’s not what you’re trying to do. Your aim here is to learn more about the retailer or corporation and to gain valuable information such as who to contact for job opportunities, best ways to present yourself, what openings exist and so on.

5. Google -

Your next best friend in a job hunt for virtual employment is the almighty Google. However you stand to get the best out of Google, when you know what to look for and where. For example, if you’re looking to write for an eco friendly blog, then a best bet search would be “eco friendly blog job”, “green blog writer”, “green blogger job”, etc. You want to narrow it down best as you possibly can, the tighter your search the closer you’ll get to drilling something down. You could also open the niche more by entering in “blog jobs”, “bloggers wanted” then drilling down deeper once you get to a source site.

6. Your Social Network -

Social networks are not just good for sharing vacation photos, lunches had and cute cat pics, it’s also good for career networking. You never know who in your network knows someone who knows someone who has a virtual job opening. Mary from your Facebook profile might know Jane who runs an SEO company who just happens to be looking for an SEO copywriter. There’s your hook up, now get Mary to introduce you to Jane and take it from there.

Working from home has many benefits and now is a good time to investigate if this is something that might be right for you. Try one or all of our six tips above and good luck.

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