“I like the informal structure and the content of the projects I have been doing is terrific. The pay is pretty good, and I get to set my own hours and work out of home — a near perfect scenario!” says Padmaja Narsipur, a 34 year freelance writer/editor with Chillibreeze.
Chillibreeze is an organisation that offers content and design services to its clients. It has a network of highly qualified writers who are chosen after an elaborate screening process. These writers work from home and are allowed to choose projects that interest them. Dr Nishi Vishwanathan, a doctor turned writer says that she was one of the first employees of Chillibreeze. She says that the flexibility and freedom that her job offers has made her stay with it.
However as Shivani Mohan, another writer with Chillibreeze points out, what makes it special is that, “here is a website for writers that actually pays!” 
Freelance writers appear to have a lot of choices online. There are several websites that offer ‘exciting’ work at home offers to the freelancers registered with them. However, it is difficult to determine how many of these are genuine.
Some websites promise that you can make up to USD 200 a week, just working from home. Registration to these sites is usually free. Once you register, you are regularly updated about the various projects that match your qualifications and requirements. The catch however is that to apply for these projects, you have to pay a subscription fee.
Directfreelance.com is one such online database of freelancers. While registration is free here, a freelancer has to pay $79 annually to be able to apply for projects.
Nivedita R, a school teacher says she was tempted by the number of interesting projects that were available on the website Gofreelance.com. She decided to subscribe to the 7 day trail offer for $2.97. “I thought it was worth taking a chance for about Rs.150”, she says.  During the trial period, she applied for several projects but did not get any response.
The website, she says asked members not to get disappointed if they did not receive responses immediately as some clients took time to get back.
After a week she decided to pay up the monthly subscription of $29.97.
When there was no response during that one month period, Nivedita decided to unsubscribe.
“I cannot say there was a scam there. But you never know. Paying about $ 30 a month is too expensive. So I decided to quit”, she says.
Manjula, a New Jersey based freelancer says that she has had both good and bad experiences with writing online. After an online search she expressed interest in writing academic papers for websites like Academia-research.com and Premium Writing.com. She got responses from both websites. “They wanted me to take a test. Once that was done, Premium Writers even had an elaborate training package on how to use their website” she says.
In websites like Academia-research and Premium Writers one finds students from the USA, UK, Australia and Canada outsourcing their homework, assignments and sometimes even their Masters Thesis. As Manjula says, writing for these websites can be a learning experience and one gets to learn about various subjects.
The issue once again is payment. With Academia-research, she says there has been no problem at all. Depending on the work completed, they make the payments twice a month. “Even if you write a paper that’s worth just $10, the money is sent to you promptly” says Manjula.
The other website stated that they would make payments once the writer had completed some $300 worth of work.
However Manjula says after she had written for about $70 or $80, she received no communication from them.
Like Nivedita, Manjula is not sure whether the website is a fraudulent one. But she feels they should have informed her if they had any problems with her work.
Although there are several new opportunities for freelance writers, it remains a big challenge to stayin the business and quote the right price for the work you do. Websites like Chillibreeze and Academia-research provide a platform for freelancers and offer them a fair pay. In the case of both these organisations the pay is predetermined by them. Among the writers who express interest in the project, the administration assigns it to the one they feel is best qualified.
There is tremendous scope for freelancers seeking to work from home. The real challenge is to find an organisation that satisfies your professional dreams and pays you for the work you do.