Considering a Work-at-Home Job: Don't Be a Cliff Hanger!

I have a friend who does welding construction and sometimes it can be excruciating listening to the things he does. For example, a little while ago, he went up to Nor Cal and told me that they had to weld a bridge, being cliff hanged high above ground where falling would be the cause of death and to top it off, in one hundred degree plus weather. If he enjoyed what he did, I would be happy for him. Instead, he tells me how utterly crazy the job can be, especially since his job offers such a sporadic schedule.

While I think about this, I wonder why not just do a work-at-home type job like affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is basically trying to help sell someone else's product and when that product is sold, you get a certain percentage of the money back (commission). The best part of doing this is that you can do this at home where it's not blazing hot outside and you can do it on your own schedule, meaning it can be hour to hour and day to day, without having any random calls from your boss telling you that this week your working Monday mornings, Thursday nights, and Sunday evenings.

The basic steps of affiliate marketing are pretty simple.

1. First choose something that you like to do and are passionate about.

So, if you enjoy the topic of sports or lingerie, that would be great! But also take note that your topic should be something that majority of people know of and would be willing to buy. If your passionate about blue whale spotting, this may be very difficult for you to make money.

2. Next, find an affiliate program.

There are literally hundreds of them online and a lot of them pay you 50% or more in commission. So let's say my friend did really "enjoy" construction and was passionate about welding. There many be an affiliate program online that sells sturdy construction hats that come in colors of aqua blue and hot pink (sexy!). Sign up for their affiliate program and get their affiliate link off of their website. It's usually in internet code (html) but you can easily just copy it down. Basically you want to try to get visitors to go to that link and that directs them to their site. You can do this with the next step.

3. Create a website based on your passion.

To create a website, you need buy web domain name (this is just "name" of your site like and there are ones that costs as much as a Jack in the Box combo meal). The second thing you need is a web designer and there are free ones on the internet like Kompozer (you can Google this). Once you have those two things, you can start creating a website based off of your passion. Insert your "copied" internet code into the web designer by simply pasting it there and if a visitor likes your site, and is actually thinking of buying a cool product from it, they can click on that link, which directs them to their site, and if they buy something, you get paid!

Basically that's how affiliate marketing works in a nutshell. Starting this kind of work-at-home type job and getting the hang of it may be frustrating if you have never done it before, but there are always friendly people and resources that are willing to assist you. At most, you'll spend one week figuring out the what's and how's of the three steps I described above, but after that, you can be making $1000-1500 dollars a month. Finally, starting off slow at first is expected with anything new, bit in the long run, it'll pay off similarly like that folktale of the turtle versus the rabbit.

Good luck and hope this helps!

Tristan Lee is an aspiring entrepreneur, English Major, and Creative Writing Minor. He has a passion for writing and tries to find unique, different, and friendly ways to help people improve their lives though his writing. Money Turtle Tips