Thousands of people have e-mailed "Good Morning America's" workplace contributor Tory Johnson, many wanting to know how they can work from home.
In the third installment of her "Take Control" tour of America, Johnson stopped in Denver to talk about how to make working from home work for just about anyone.
Skye is a Colorado mother of three whose husband, Eric, works on a railroad. His job provides the family with much needed health insurance, but it also keeps him away from home on a regular basis.
Skye was forced to quit her job to care for their young kids. That presented another problem -- the family need a second income to make ends meet.
"I want to be able to bring in the extra income so my husband I are not stressing out on a daily basis," she said. "I was hoping that I would have somebody who could help me find a job that I could do at home. Steer me in the right direction."
Via webcam, Johnson did just that, coaching Skye on how to market her computer skills to find a job.
"You have the skills that they're looking for, and you have the set-up in your home that you require," Johnson said. "So for those two reasons, I would be willing to go to bat for you, to do what I can on my end to help you do some of the research."
With Johnson's help, Skye applied to three companies looking for home-based customer service agents. On Friday's "Good Morning America," Skye announced that she was hired by a company earlier this week.
"It's wonderful," she said. "I couldn't be more excited than I am now."
Johnson offered tips every at-home job seeker should know, including information on how many people who work from home get paid.
"Very few companies that hire at-home workers actually put them on their payroll. Instead, these at-home workers are independent contractors -- like freelancers. That means you are your own boss, and that your paycheck will not have taxes taken out of it," she said. "So you're responsible for keeping track of, and saving up to pay, your taxes. This is nothing to be afraid of -- it's just like putting money away each week in a Christmas club account -- except the IRS gets the present."
Many people have e-mailed Johnson saying they've applied for at-home work but are having trouble getting hired. Johnson talked with two dozen companies that hire at-home workers and asked what stops them from hiring an applicant.
"They all said the first thing they look at is the way applicants fill out their applications. It's their first step in weeding people out," she said. "These companies will trash your application if it's all in caps, or has grammatical or spelling errors. Even though the applications are online -- they are not text-messages or e-mails -- they must be written clearly, concisely and properly."
Johnson emphasized that people who work at home must represent their company without the guidance of a boss.
"When you work at home, there's no supervisor standing over your shoulder, proofreading your work," she said. "You're the virtual face of the company, and they don't want their customers to think the company is unprofessional."