Conventionally if you wished to work at home you could really only look forward to be working in unskilled, quite boring work such as stuffing envelopes or sewing. These were the kinds of roles easily given to mothers, who may not have any qualifications, but who were in need of a bit of extra money to swell the family savings. The roles were typically quite low paid, because of this people could usually only make money out of them if they could operate very quicklys and had no distractions.
This was prior to the advent of the internet and broadband. Since the development of these two things the circumstances has changed relatively dramatically. Though there remain the roles that demand relatively low levels of training like contributing to blog sites or doing online surveys for money ; there are other alternatives as well, at the other end of the spectrum. Some forward thinking companies will now permit their staff to work from home, so lowering their cost and improving the money available and quality of life of the employee. Apart from that, there are lots of types of online business that can be carried out by working from home. There are lots of different alternatives to choose from, some of which permit the job seeker to become involved in an online franchise business or others where it is possible to work for another business in some type of internet based job. Mostly relevant are the online marketing type jobs, where the job seeker can help other companies increase their online presence. Or even web design, both positions of course can be done anywhere where there is a computer and a broadband line.
There are also other opportunities, like selling product directly over the internet, or even making money from internet advertising on websites that you build and own. With these last two it may be quite difficult to generate a large enough income but if all the hype is to be believed then some people have achieved it.