The best way to find a successful work at home job is by doing something you already are good at. Services are your best bet, it is much harder to do production of anything at home and make decent money.
Yes, there are many legitimate jobs out there that allow you to work from home. You can find independent contracting jobs through kgb.com and quicktate.com.
There are several work from home jobs that are legitimate. You can find them on the WAHM website or Work At Home Moms. You could also do some babysitting or tutoring.
There are some legitimate work from home assembly jobs, but you have to be careful which one you choose. You do not want to choose a work from home job that requires you to pay something up front. Usually, these types of jobs are not legitimate. If you find a work from home assembly job you think you might like, you can usually find out on the internet if it's legitimate or not.
You may be able to find some work from home assembling jobs that are legitimate Howver, many of them are scams.
Many sites and companies offer the ability to work at home, if perhaps being payed slightly less. Legitimate work at home jobs are very rare however, and one must check extensively to find a job that is not a scam.
A good online listing service for all types of legitimate work at home jobs is oDesk. Other good, legitimate work at home jobs can be found with companies like Alpine Access that hire remote call center workers and even part time and seasonal at home jobs with large companies like Amazon.
It is not very difficult to find legitimate work at home jobs if common sense is applied. Avoid any jobs which promise unusually large payouts for little to no work; many work at home jobs will pay minimum wage or slightly over. Most legitimate offers will not require initial payments for a list of jobs to complete and will have company names, phone support, and established online presence.
There are some legitimate work at home jobs, but you need to be careful to avoid the ones that are scams. Clark Howard is a consumer advocate and has a list of legitimate work at home companies. You can find the list here: http://www.e4myjob.com/members/blog/?page_id=768
There are plenty of part time jobs working from home. A lot of these jobs consist of data entry, and virtual assisting. It is important to find a legitimate company to work for though, because there are a lot of scams out there.
Directories for jobs one can do at home can be found in a variety of places. Some employment agencies offer these jobs. There are also various online directories, but how legitimate these are is up for debate.
You have to review the types of jobs at home are available. Also the job listings too then check out the lists of companies that are known to be "telecommuting friendly" and hire employees to work from home.
There are a lot of websites claiming to have work from home offers. It can be tricky sifting through your Google search to find legitimate medical billing jobs that are available online. www.homeworkers.org is a website I came across that at least gave the appearance of being legitimate.