Stop me if this sounds familiar...you want to make money online from your home computer and you've tried several ideas and affiliate programs only to see a page full of zeros when you check your stats. You work hours and hours only for a payout of a few cents, and that's only if you're lucky! It hardly seems worth all the effort. Sound like you? Well, that's actually true for MOST of the internet "entrepreneurs" out there, and the further truth is that it will be like that for them until they finally give up and go back to being the "working poor" again.
Why the dismal outlook? Because the internet is FULL of scams and programs that pay you next to nothing for working MORE than you would have at a regular 9-5 job. The "get rich quick" idea is long gone. Even the programs that DO work require you to put in many hours of effort to get a good return. If you're looking to get rich while doing nothing, then stop reading and go to bed...NOW! For the rest of you willing to at least put SOME effort into it then keep reading.
Ok, time to separate the wheat from the chaff. Sure, there are some technically real programs out there that make you REAL money, but not a lot of it. I bet you know what I'm taking about. Google Adsense is a good example. I call it "Google Nonsense" because it's crap. You put a load of their ads on your site and get paid, at best, a few cents...a month. Hey, I even made $1.24! Maybe someday I'll make enough to buy a slice of pizza! SOME people can make money from this, but unless you have a huge site bringing 1000's of hits a day, it's just not realistic. On top of that I've read many forum posts stating they have a habit of suspending an account for arbitrary reasons before it hits the $100 payout threshold. That's their way of avoiding having to pay you in REAL money. It may take you a YEAR or more to get close to $100, only to have them close your account before getting paid. Wasted effort.
You probably also are aware of affiliate referral programs. LOTS of those out there! I read one guy boast that he had 1000's of people in his referral downline. He even showed proof of this accomplishment. So, how much did he make from his effort AND the combined effort of all his referrals together? $25.34...total.
Do you REALLY want to work hard all day long for mere pennies? I have tried MANY programs that will pay you just that...pennies. A few cents a day, if that. Even then, you won't always get paid. I made the grand total of $2.08 from one program after 2 YEARS and then was told they were taking that money as credit I could use on their site. So, now I have to BUY something just to recoup some of my money! Crap!
Truth is, there is no such thing as "free" money. SOMEBODY has to buy SOMETHING for there to be any money made by anyone. They have to spend money for you to make money. You have to have a REAL actual product to sell people in order to make a decent profit. The internet "millionaires" out there getting you to join their downlines don't have a physical product to sell you. What they are selling you is the "easy money dream". We all want so badly to see our dreams come true that we'll buy into anything.
Think about it. Have you ever signed up for a program that had a hotmail address for support, or it was a site hosted on a free blog? If these "entrepreneurs" were REALLY bringing in a six figure income, then why can't they afford web hosting, or real support?
Then there are these link exchanges programs where you have to view other sites just to get others to view yours. What's worse is that some are automated just to get hits! The only reason those people are there is to increase traffic to their OWN sites. They don't care about yours, and they certainly aren't likely to actually BUY anything from you. A lady posted to a forum last week that she was seeing traffic increases since she joined the referral program but no real sales. For the most part, they just want to increase their own traffic rank so they can sell advertising on their sites to other suckers. Problem with that is, if there are no real and interested people surfing the site, then no sales will be made and it all falls apart fairly quickly. It's a vicious circle. You need REAL genuine hits, not bots or programs. Remember that.
So, what do I suggest? For most of you I'd say just give up. There is no easy way. Just walk away and rejoin the real world out there. Get away from your computer, maybe go fishing, catch a game with your friends. You know, the REAL people!
For those of you absolutely DETERMINED to make a living at home on the net then I give you my advice. Look carefully at what you join. Forget the "click" type programs unless you like sitting around all making 0.005 cents per click, literally. Forget the crap email programs paying you to read other crap all day long. Find something that pays a REAL amount of commission and not just a few cents. Even if you only make ONE sale all month of a $100 product, at 30% commission, you've made more than you would all YEAR at any pay per click program. Find a PRODUCT, not a program to join.
Think of it just like you would in the real world. If an owner of a TV store asked you to become an affiliate and you get 30-50% of each TV you sold for them, would you rather do that and make real money, or join a program where someone pays you half a cent to LOOK at ads of TV's? You'd make WAY more selling the real product, right? So do that on the net as well! It doesn't have to be a Physical product, since its online, but it DOES have to be a product that people BUY. It can be an ebook, information, service or anything that people will pay for, but it can't be a penny-a-click waste of time. No one wants to pay for that.
I'll give an example, not because I'm plugging their services, but because they sell an actual product that there is a REAL market for. Lots of people are good at something but get passed up for a job or promotion because they don't have the papers to show for it. Well, there are places that can broker what's known as a "life experience" degree for a client who can get a REAL college degree for a small donation, instead of the 1000's it would normally cost for tuition. It's not a scam and it IS legal. They are real degrees offered by small colleges that really need the money and are willing to issue a legal degree to you to get it. You can promote the site as an affiliate and get a REAL actual commission, or you could get a degree yourself to boost your job status. I recommend www.adegreeofsuccess.com because it has a higher payout than other similar sites. These degrees are becoming a hot commodity, but should be marketed to the kind of people who need them most. (ie. NOT to people who are rich and successful already)
Another recommendation, especially if you have your own website for promoting it, is the "one time offer" plugs. The payout is good, real, and quick if you want to see a fast return on your time.It's very simple to get started and it can have you making money in minutes instead of weeks!
The other advantage of those mentioned is that they are FREE to join, and I know that's as important to you as it is to me. You just have to promote the sellable product, just like a true affiliate SHOULD do. No cost to you. Sometimes you don't need your own website, which I know is important to many of you starting out, but some things are easier to promote that way.
There are other good sites out there, but this isn't about me making a huge list of sites to join. It's about giving you sound advice to at least get started in the often dark world of the internet. Basically, just forget about anything to do with advertising programs until you make it big, and you'll save yourself a lot of wasted time. Go for the bigger commission product payouts (higher than 10%) and you'll start making real money soon enough. One final note: It DOES take time to get started, so have patience and you WILL be well rewarded, little grasshopper...
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