This week's work from home jobs have been posted. Ten more opportunities to help you find the work you want to do without having to commute.

While this is traditionally a slow time for finding jobs of any kind, let alone work from home jobs, this week's opportunities include a few from work-from-home stalwarts, United Health Group, as well as a position for a Medical Coder at the University of North Carolina. Those folks would be willing to work with you in setting up a remote work from home arrangement if you have the kind of experience they need.

Check out This week's work from home jobs

Related topics:
Work from Home Guide
Medical Billing and Coding from Home Guide
Work from Home as a Freelancer

According to the latest research report from eConsultancy, an independent research resource based in the U.K., 86% of the more than 1,100 companies and agencies surveyed say they plan to spend more time and money on social media in 2010. However, more than half of the companies surveyed (54%) said their biggest challenge is finding the resources that will allow them to meet their goals.

The survey was conducted as a joint effort between eConsultancy and bigmouthmedia. The conclusion drawn from the report was that nine out of 10 businesses say that social media is taking up more time internally than a year ago and that the biggest barrier to better social media engagement is a lack of resources.

One of the primary considerations for anyone starting a business is to find a need and fill it. The explosive growth of social networks like Twitter and Facebook is providing an additional and potentially effective marketing, PR and customer service tool to businesses of all sizes, and the apparent lack of available resources to handle day-to-day activities in this area would suggest that offering social media services to help companies meet their online networking needs could be a profitable business venture with a promising future.

In my opinion, offering Internet marketing services to businesses, including social media marketing services, is one of the top recession-resistant businesses you can start because Internet marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to traditional marketing methods and can instantly reach a global audience.

Do you agree that social media will continue to grow and offer a good opportunity for a home business?

Related:
Home Business Idea: Internet Marketing Services
How Do YOU Use Twitter?
Follow me on Twitter

That's the title of a recently released Future of Small Business Report by Intuit, makers of popular QuickBooks and Quicken financial software. In it, the company summarizes the report's findings as:

"Today's passion-driven hobbyists breed many of tomorrow's small businesses. Stemming from the "Maker" movement, and enabled by technology, these hobbypreneurs - both knowledge and craft-based - are leading a new generation of entrepreneurs who increasingly take the step to turn fun into profit."

The report goes on to describe "Makers" as those who make things; those who "create, adopt, tweak and innovate to design ingenious things in their garages, basements and backyards."

Makers who become "hobbypreneurs" (entrepreneur hobbyists) use techniques that are based in traditional arts and crafts pursuits. However, now they are more likely to "combine digital technology and tools with traditional methods to build practical and not-so-practical products".

The report says that the trend has shifted from Do-It-Yourself'ers (DIYers) who become entrepreneurs to a hobbyist movement of passionate amateur crafters and tinkerers who create businesses that take advantage of today's technology and business processes to build full blown businesses. And while most hobby business are part-time endeavors, building a full-time business from a part-time start up is becoming more of the trend.

The report cites several factors that are contributing to growth in the hobbypreneur area:

• The falling prices of tools needed to make things.
• Starting and running a niche business has become easier, thanks in large part to the Internet.
• The growth of social networks has resulted in places for hobbypreneurs to network and serve as meeting places to exchange ideas.
• The struggling economy is creating a greater need for entrepreneurship, if only on a part-time basis at first.
• Baby boomers are filling gaps in retirement income and finding interesting things to do in their later years.
• A growing interest in sustainability and unusual products is boosting demand for unusual goods (think green).

View the full research brief: Today's Hobbyist's are Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs

Related:

5 Top Hobbies for a Small Business
9 Part-Time Home Business Ideas

The latest telecommuting jobs have been posted for the week.

As always, I've pre-screened these telecommuting jobs for you, but if you've never heard of the employer or your radar goes off for any reason, I urge you to do your due diligence and check them out thoroughly.

Latest Work at Home Poll Results

Thanks to the more than 8,600 of you who have participated. If you have not already taken the poll, I urge you to do so now. The latest poll results indicate that while slightly more than half of you are still looking, the percentage of people who found work at home "by accident" - they weren't actively looking for a chance to telecommute - is holding steady at 27%. Only 16% were actually looking for an opportunity to telecommute and found it.

Check Out This Week's Telecommuting Jobs
Read Why People Want to Telecommute from Home and Share Your Story
Discuss Finding Telecommuting Work in the Forum