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I’ve been contemplating, rather planning, working from home for many years now but have not narrowed down my niche. Having time to do research and planning has been difficult with a full time job which is a necessity when you are going it alone. No one to take up the slack in lean times–just me here. And I have to consider at my age now how much time I really have to do a lot more research.
So I have decided to dive in. And I’m plannning on doing this aggressively. Computers and the WWW have definitely opened up a miriad of ways to work from home and I plan on finding the best way for me to accomplish this. I’m not expecting any get rich quick plan which seems to be what most who venture into this are promised. I don’t even expect to make a whole pile of cash. I just would like to reasonably supplement my meager pension and to be able to sustain my house and expenses.
I have however read a lot of sites that promise all of this and more. Unfortunately most of them are built on exploiting those who are in dire need of finances, and the money to be had for anybody who takes the leap is unfortunately made recycling this same desperation.
I am currently on sick leave from work and feeling like retirement is very close as I cannot continue on with what I do for a living. I have already set the plan in motion. So now is the time for me to act on all those previous years of yearning working from home. I also need a good diversion from the boredom and the pain until my tests and likely surgery.
I decided to start with more reading, and to find out what exactly these sites are selling and inevitably there are all sorts of opinions out there to be had. This is the fantastic thing about the WWW as long as you can keep an open mind because you certainly can’t believe everything you read. And this is where the willingness to take a leap comes in.
More people shop online today it’s inevitable. The world is open like never before in our history and because of it, the products to be sold are endless. So in order for anybody to sell anything online, you need a good marketing plan and more people than just yourself to help you sell it. It’s no different than going into a store and buying something–they are the middle man–there has to be one in order to sell enough of their product.
So online is no different. This is where Affiliate Marketing comes in. The Affilliate is a go-between–the middle man–the virtual store. But how do you become an Affiliate Marketer? First of all you need a website–Duh ! And then you need a way to find the people who need you to sell their product. Then you need the proper online tools to make payments possible. Then you need a good marketing plan.
So lets recap. You need web Design experience and to be able to set up a store online which will involve programming and PHP, HTML etc. You need to find your prospective wholesale base. You will need Marketing experience, and I’m sure a lot more things I cannot begin to think of right now. And how long will it take to accomplish all of this?
Like I said previously a lot of make money sites are built on recycling desperation. You pay a huge sum of money only to find out the money you will be making is from selling other people the same idea and the cycle continues. So my new venture has been to find a legitimate Affiliate Marketing program that will allow me to promote and sell actual products and for the least amount of start up money.
And this is where I am today. At some point I needed to stop reading and act. I found a tutorial by Trevor Walker who’s videos are completely free and risk free, I have joined a site called “Free Site Startup” for the same amount of money I would have to spend on a Domain name anyhow, and they walk you through the whole process step by step. They give you the Web Site, the tools to set it up and many different niches to start with.
My biggest problem I have always had with these marketing endeavors is that they always always ask you to start soliciting friends and family and this site has been no different. But even though I don’t expect any of them to be a purchaser of any of these products, I am hoping it is a way to get my name out into the WWW as a new Affiliate Marketer, and hopefully this will become something I can rely on for my future retirement plan.
I can’t say it has been an easy process–there is a ton of material to read and learn, but with a lot of persistance and hard work I’m hoping something, even a little bit of something comes of it. Someone is making money on selling on the WWW and I plan to be one of them. If not I’ll chalk it up to experience and start with something else. I’ll keep people posted on my progress and hopefully we will all learn something new.
