A Degree Of Success! Work At Home Money Making Tips And Advice.

I wanted to kick off with a bit of fun before getting into any serious discussion. I collect seriously odd artifacts and curios. My main pic is Gumpy, The Folk Art Fish. I live near the ocean and there is a lot of folk art around. The pic here, however, is my dancing Sinatra Dog. Given to me by a friend, this puppy dances AND sings, to "New York, New York". No, really...

Ok, so you tried blogging, have a website and maybe a Squidoo lens, so now what? The learning never stops! You need to get your message out there to the masses! I suggest writing articles to promote your various sites and products. It's a simple and not too time consuming way to get the word out. It spreads fast too, as your articles get picked up and distributed around the internet. The biggest advantage is that original writing is Search Engine Friendly, and I KNOW you want that! Even writing ONE article can pay off greatly as it works like your own personal advertisement travelling around the world wide web.
What are you waiting for? Start writing NOW!

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 just 2 examples, 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 http://instant.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. Check out http://oto.adegreeofsuccess.com and see what you think of it. It's very simple to get started there 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. Also, especially for the first one mentioned, you don't need your own website, which I know is important to many of you starting out. The 2nd one doesnt really NEED a site, but it's 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...

I've had several people on some of the forums ask me what work at home program works best for me. If you've been following my posts then you'll know that I'm not about promoting one program over the other. I don't use my posts to recommend programs for 2 reasons:
1. What works well for me may not also work for you, 2. This site is meant for helpful general advice and tips, rather than pushing programs.

However, that being said, I will answer the question based on the fact that I've already written articles about this and so my answer is already out there if you can Google it. My personal preference is to work from home as a degree broker for various colleges and universities. I have tried many different things and brokering is BY FAR the best one for me.

Forget those stupid pay per click programs where you get a whole lousy penny for your time, unless you are using them NOT for money, but for your own advertising purposes. I'm truly amazed when I read forum posts about people who are overjoyed about actually making it to their $10 threshold. Do they not realize how truly small $10 is for all the time they put into it? They could work 18 hour days in a sweatshop and be better off! Seriously.

The whole PURPOSE of a "work at home" program is that you can make enough to actually WORK AT HOME, without having to follow the "rat race" to your job every day. How is 10 bucks going to help you? You need to actually make roughly what you make at your day job in order to eventually quit and work from home.

As a Degree Broker, I actually HELP people get ahead in their career by offering low cost degrees to people who cannot afford full tuition. It's real, legal and a much faster way to get ahead. You've probably noticed how many ads there are from universities offering online education degrees posted all over various websites. It's because it's quickly becoming BIG business and every school wants a piece of the pie. This is where you come in, acting as a broker for the schools to help people who need it and everyone wins!

As a degree broker, the commission is the highest that I've ever found, and is enough for me to live at home without having to "work" at a day job. That's REAL income and not the fake payouts that some other places may promise, but never deliver. Also, you never have to pay out anything yourself, which should be common sense for ANY job, work at home or not. Any program that wants you to pay out anything to them for an "upgrade" is scamming you! Remember that.

As with anything, don't take my word for it or anyone else's. Read the FAQ I have set up at http://instant.adegreeofsuccess.com and see what it offers at no risk to you. All the best to your success in the future!