Making Money with Affiliate Programs

Some people make a living marketing other peoples' stuff online. One is the author of The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 Last Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online, a book that purports to show you how it is done. I don't have $75 for the book, so I am learning as I go.

I am now an affiliate for Amazon.com, eBay.com, Half.com and The Coupon Clippers. I've started posting the links on my blog, forum signatures, and articles I write for other websites.

I earn about $20 a month from Amazon, without much promotion at all. Most of my purchases are made through some plain text links on another site (not this blog).

For me, becoming an affiliate marketer allows me another opportunity to earn passive income, my new hobby. I spend a few minutes creating text links, add them to my articles or posts, and leave them alone. I log in to my Amazon Associates account a few times a week to check on the progress and am pleasantly surprised when a sale shows up.

However, I haven't made more than $5 on any one item and was slightly jealous to see that many Amazon Associates have had commissions of $100 or more on a single item. One associate mentioned selling a $1,000+ watch and earning a large commission for it. That would be nice, but for now I am content to build up my traffic and hope my referral links get the clicks.

I'll let you know how my progress goes, so keep an eye on my blog for an update.

Goals and Success as a WAHM

Setting goals (as I did in my previous blog post) is only half the battle. You have to work hard to achieve those goals, and articulate changes as you progress.

Immediate revenue needs as the impetus, I have changed my weekly work-at-home goals to reflect my current situation. I have had to put my Natural Health Information web site on hold while I work more on near-term income producers.

I do plan to get back to my website about mid year, or when we sell our home and our financial pressures ease up.

For now, I am working about 15 hours a week (3 hours a day Mon-Fri) on my English grading job online and I try to write one new eHow article each day.

The English grading is a good match for me. I don't get bored or find it tedious, but it is simple at the same time since I have graded thousands of papers by now. I was pleasantly surprised to receive an $.83/hour raise in my January paycheck ... hey, it'll add up over time.

I continue to be pleased with my eHow revenue -- you really can make money writing eHow articles, and with a large enough collection, the monthly royalties add up. I figured I would have to have thousands and thousands of dollars in a high-interest savings account to bring in the passive income I'm making from eHow. Yes, there is the work up front to write the articles, but I consider the time investment worth it to have income each month that will keep coming even if I stop writing.

No, that's not my workspace in the photo ... but it inspires me and is something I aim for. Simplicity and order help me stay on track and organized. It's amazing how much more I accomplish with a clean desk.

Write online ... for yourself.

Here's to 2008 and MMM*!

The past year as a WAHM was busy and enjoyable for me, despite finding it hard to juggle kids and work and home.

I started out the year primarily as an English grader and ended as an English grader, freelance writer and website owner. The freelance writing pays the best so far, the English grading is consistent and always available, and the website... well, it's a work in progress.

In 2008, I plan to transition to full-time freelance online writer and webmaster. I have found that writing online "for myself" pays far more than writing $11 articles for online content companies.

For example, Writer's Research Group pays $10-$11 for a 250-400 word original content article. Not bad pay, considering I could usually write 1-3 an hour. But then, at the end of October, I started writing those same articles for eHow. Several have earned more than $30 each already. Other have made far less. However, when I average it our and project the earnings over a year, they will make about $30-$40 each.

That's a lot better than $10, obviously, even if I have to wait several months or more to get to the amount I would have earned instantly by selling the pieces to Writer's Research Group.

My website, so far, has not made any money. But that's because I haven't asked it to. I have not begun to monetize the site, and won't, until I have enough traffic to warrant monetization. I'm building my site through Site Build It, following their proven success plan.



The first step is Content. That should say, content, content, content. The more I write, the easier it gets, but I still have nagging doubts about whether it "will work."

I hope, by December 2008, to have a success story of my own to share.

In 2008, I plan to:
~Add 3-5 pages to my website each week
~Update my blogs each week.
~Write 2-3 articles on eHow, Hub, Squidoo, a week.

I'd love to hear your WAHM goals for 2008!

*making more money