About 20 years ago I got my first computer. I connected my dial-up internet, pulled up my first web page–and, like the rest of the world, was completely hooked!
The idea that this box on my desk could actually connect me to people from all corners of the earth was wonderful.
But what I found really fascinating was how to make money with a computer doing something you love!
Unfortunately, as a single mom with 2 daughters and working a swing shift, pressure filled job, I never was successful at pursuing those interests. Then I got a little older and started thinking about retiring early, traveling, and having time to spend with my grandchildren.
So I pulled out my laptop, researched all the different ways to earn money online, and found the one that I knew would work for me-–Affiliate Marketing!
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Have you ever been reading an article that you found online and then clicked on a link that took you to a retailer’s website where you can buy a product? If so, you’ve experienced affiliate marketing!
The retailer has made an arrangement with the website owner to pay a commission for any products bought by a referral from the website. There’s no selling, producing, or shipping products involved, just a referral from your site to theirs!
There are many affiliate programs out there for nearly every type of product on the market. Commissions run from a typical 5%-10% all the way up to 85%, and most retailers keep your link on file for anywhere from a few days to 2 months.
This means that even if a customer doesn’t purchase a product on their initial visit to the retailer’s website, you will still get a commission if they purchase during a subsequent visit during that time frame.
==> Get my Proven 5 Step Plan To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing <==
Creating A Website–It’s Easier Than Ever!
One of the challenges that I faced when computers first came out was not having the ability to easily create my own website. I wasn’t a programmer, and I didn’t have the money to hire someone to spend hours writing HTML code and meta tags (who understood those really?!)
But now things are very different, and you can create a website in literally less than 3 minutes! This is not just any website–it’s a powerful, secure WordPress website.
See just how easy it is for you to have a working website up and running by viewing this short video:
The program used in the video is Wealthy Affiliate, a community based platform designed by affiliate marketers for affiliate marketers.
Their website hosting platform is world-class and secure, and you get all the powerful W
ordPress features that enable you to easily create a high quality website.
You can read about all of the wonderful features at Who Has The Best Website Hosting Services For Your Online Business?
When I found Wealthy Affiliate and used it to host my first website, I realized that there was so much more to this program.
They have nearly 1,000,000 members worldwide, thousands of training modules, and a platform that is set up to encourage and reward members who offer help, feedback, and assistance.
In fact, the community of marketers is one of the very best features for any beginning affiliate marketer! It’s extremely active, and everyone is willing to share their knowledge and experience.
Wealthy Affiliate’s FREE starter membership includes access to 2 training classrooms, Phase 1 of their Online Entrepreneur Certification training, live help, and 1-on-1 coaching. Plus, you can also create TWO websites, and all of this is available to you without even putting down a credit card!
The live help and 1-on-1 coaching are available for 7 days, but you can still access and work on your websites as long as you want–still without paying a penny.
==>==> See the legitimate program where I learned to make money online <==<==
***Update:Â Wealthy Affiliate has added an SSL certification to every free website, which means that your site will be encrypted and secure for your visitors–still at no cost!
There is also a premium membership available for those who want the full training and the ability to own your own domains (like me!).
With this package you receive all 12 training classrooms, their entire Online Entrepreneur Certification training, their website security package, up to 50 websites, and more…all for just $49 a month!
Pretty amazing when you think that people have paid hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars for someone to build them a website.
But I’m Not An Author!
How often do you talk to someone about a hobby or interest that you like? Let’s take golf for an example, I’ll bet just a few of the topics you and your golf buddies talk about are:
- What golf course is your favorite
- The brands of clubs do you like
- The best way to get out of a sand trap
- What clubs you use for each step of the course
- How do you judge factors like the wind
- Different types of tournament play that you’ve been in
For a golfing enthusiast, this list could easily top 100 topics, with each of them being 1 or more posts on your website.
You don’t have to be an author to write a great post, you just have to TALK to your audience. In other words, you just write about your topic the same way you’d explain it to someone who was standing on a golf course with you.
In fact, when I first started writing posts for my first website, I used Google Voice Typing so that I could just talk about my topic. That helped me develop what I wanted to say more naturally!
Again, Wealthy Affiliate has you covered with their platform on site content. They have templates you can use to help construct your post, a grammar, punctuation and spelling checker, and hundreds of training modules to use as a guide.
Then, if you like, you can submit any pages or posts on the community platform and get feedback from other affiliate marketers. Anyone who can communicate with others can create a successful, money-making website!
How Do I Find Affiliate Programs To Sign Up With?
Affiliate programs will be the backbone of monetizing your site. Amazon has one of the largest and most popular affiliate programs in the world, and you can link to any product they sell to earn a commission.
To use our golf example again, Amazon has over 370,000 items on their website related to golf! So you will have plenty of products to choose from to start earning commissions no matter what your niche is.
You can do an online search for affiliate programs in your niche and sign up for any of them that have products or services that you would like to promote. To find more programs for a golf niche, you can search for “golf + affiliate programs”.
There are also affiliate networks available to you that host programs from hundreds of companies. Choose an interest or hobby and do a little online searching–I guarantee you’ll find affiliate programs that will relate!
==>==> Is your dream job to work at home and make money online? You can do it here! <==<==
Don’t Let Anything Stop You!
Many years ago, I let the challenges of creating a website stop me from developing a very lucrative income in affiliate marketing. Lucky for me, those who took that challenge and made a success with it are now sharing how easy it is with others.
So if you’re looking for how to make money with a computer, don’t let any challenges stop you! Look no further than the wealth of knowledge and information, along with the support and feedback, from an entire community of affiliate marketers just like you.
Make your mark in the online world sharing information about something you love!
Thanks for explaining the basic of affiliate marketing. I finally want to start an affiliate blog, but I think there are some training that I need to do. I’ll be sure to check Wealthy Affiliate, because I believe having a supportive community can help me to do it. Is it possible to use it with free plan only? Thanks
Yes, you can definitely use Wealthy Affiliate’s starter program to create your site and learn the basics of affiliate marketing. I recommend creating your first site and getting as much info as you can from this program in order to see if creating an online business is right for you!
I am also a wife and a grandma looking to have more time and to be able to travel. I recently signed on with Wealthy Affiliate and love that they have made it so easy. The community is a wonderful bonus and helps to keep us inspired. I have spent many hours and dollars on other programs over the years, only to give up and continue working stressful jobs. Now that I am in a place where I can focus a little more on myself and what I really want I am happy that I have found WA.
I may have to look into the Google Voice recorder thingy. That sounds very appeling to me, as I sometimes have a hard time putting things into words with my fingers. Thank you for your well written article and for being another inspiration feather in my cap. I hope to inspire others as you have inspired me.
Google Voice Recognition Software is a great free tool to use. Many times I get a lot of ideas for writing a post while I’m doing things like cleaning the kitchen or exercising. With Google Voice I just say all the things I want to include, then I can organize all those thoughts into a post much easier when I have more time!
I have always loved the idea of making money with your computer and have wanted to make that happen for a long time. There are definitely different ways to earn money online from surveys to watching videos, but I want to do something with my computer that will bring me income to where I can replace a full time job. Affiliate Marketing is an amazing way to make that happen and your article lays it out step by step on how to do that. Finding affiliate programs that fit your passion or niche and creating your own website is easier than ever before and I like that you don’t have to be a tech expert to do it. Are you already seeing a lot of success with Affiliate Marketing?
I’m definitely having success with affiliate marketing and earn commissions every month. When I started my first website, I was working 30-40 hours per week. So I worked on it in my spare time and added about 2 articles a week. I started seeing traffic trending upward about 7 months in and made my first sale at about months. So it took time and consistent effort, but it’s been well worth it.
I now have 6 websites hosted with Wealthy Affiliate and am loving my online business!
Thank you for the educative article on making money online from home.
Lots of people have heard of the idea of making money online, but sometimes they get stuck with many other platforms that turn out to be scams. The thought of making online income thus becomes a dreadful topic for such a people, so much that they might even begin to think that only people with super skills can make it online.
But this post has rightly highlighted one of the best ways to earn real income. Wealthy Affiliate is one platform that has been proven, tested and trusted.
Thank you Janelle for the post. Many people would definitely find this useful.
You’re very welcome, and I’m glad you found it helpful!
Great article I must say. There’s was a certain period of time I search regularly on how to make money online, then fell into traps by scammer who toke lots of money from me. But I never gave up I searched and later created a great and amazing blog site which earns me alot now. I get paid by Google and now I’m making cool cash online
Congratulations on your successful online business, and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts to show others what is possible!
Hello Janelle
As I was reading your post, I could remember myself a few years ago. Today I’m happy I found your website as I’m currently looking for a way to make some extra money and live a more relaxed retirement.
Your article is so clear and it has helped me to understand better how affiliate marketing works and I’m sure many people will love to read your article too.
I love to read articles that help people to know more about starting an online business and what steps to follow, I’ve been working on my blog, and I want to learn more about how I can start monetizing it.
I will take a look to your recommendation and I’m sure it will help me as I can see you’re doing a great job with your website!
I’m so glad you found it helpful, and I wish you every success with your blog! Wealthy Affiliate can definitely show you how to monetize your site and drive organic traffic for the most profit.
Good luck, and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!
It is true, anyone can do it. Anybody with a computer and internet connection can do affiliate marketing and make money online. Unfortunately, my countrymen here in the Philippines are slow to grasp this opportunity and a lot of them are being lured by network marketing. To me, affiliate marketing is better than network marketing as you can do business with just a computer hooked with the internet compared to network marketing where you usually have to meet people to get customers. Maybe I need to share this blog post of yours on social media particularly on Facebook to educate people on the beauty of affiliate marketing.
I totally agree–affiliate marketing is definitely better for me than network marketing. Having a business that I can work on wherever and whenever I have a laptop and an internet connection is just what I was looking for!
I totally remember dial up connections!!! It was super annoying having my computer hooked up to that cord and now that I think back it was super S L O W. HAHHAAH my how times have changed.
I’m very new to the online world of building webpages. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for some time but haven’t found an easy way to learn it. I found Wealthy Affiliate at the end of January and I have been completely WOW’d by their services. It is so completely amazing to be able to see my pages come to life. The training is easy to follow and I’m learning something new each day!
After 2 years, there still isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new! The awesome community at WA is always producing new guides and training, so you’re always able to keep up with new rules and technologies.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for this great article and insight into affiliate marketing. I had always heard of affiliate marketing but thought it was a scam. But it turns out it’s a real thing, and I spent years trying to do things that didn’t work when I should have focused on affiliate marketing. After all these years I think it is the best way to make money online. I also thought creating a website and ranking it was going to be too difficult, but it turns out it’s nowhere near as hard as I imagined! Thanks again for this eye opening article.
There are so many scams that use the concept of affiliate marketing to sell their system that a lot of people believe affiliate marketing itself is not legitimate. But, like you say, creating a website and learning how to drive traffic and make money is not hard nowadays. You just need a step by step program to teach you and a terrific website hosting service–both of which you get with Wealthy Affiliate!
A very insightful article! I’ve trying and failing to make money online for years, although affiliate marketing is very new to me and the way you explain it makes it so clear and makes me hope that this is it. I will definitely try to make it and thanks to you now I have a great place o start. Thank you so much!
I can relate to what you’re saying since I tried making money online and failed years ago. It took many years before I tried again, but I’m glad I did! Wealthy Affiliate gave me everything I needed to stay motivated and understand how to build my websites and start making money.
Good luck, and feel free to look me up in the WA community!
Thank you for this information. I have read about affiliate marketing and I am now convinced that it is a must-do for me. I set up a website and started selling physical products some time ago. It have made some money but this concept of affiliate marketing seems like far less work and greater possibilities of reaching more customers. Thank you for the motivation to get going
I had a dropshipping website several years ago and really enjoyed the whole process of making money selling products online. But since I learned about affiliate marketing and saw the huge potential for passive income, I now choose this for my online business.
That’s not to say that affiliate marketing doesn’t require hard work, time, and commitment, because it does. But I don’t have to keep up with suppliers, inventory, price changes, shipping, customer complaints, etc. I can spend my time on the things I really enjoy doing with my websites–like writing and researching content.
Good luck with starting your online business, and I wish you every success!
Thank You for sharing with us this instructive article on how to make money with a computer.Many people are using computers for different activities such as designing,word processing,communication…but making money still puzzle to them.
This post is helpful to many people as it reveals the main way to make money using computer and I can assure them that it works.
Affiliate marketing is changing many people’s lives in good.
Congratulations on the success you’re having with affiliate marketing, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience!
Hello there, I was once in the same point when I always searched on ways to make money online of which I only ended up in scams and loosing cash in the process, I had the full access to my computer and the internet, how I wish I had came across your site I would be very far, anyway I have been doing some online marketing now but somehow I am stuck at the point where I have to apply for affiliate links. Currently I am trying to figure out what to do some research on how to get great traffic, I will be following your site and am sure to learn more from you.
It’s a great site you have with all the necessary information one need to develop marketing.
Thank you
Matthew.
I’m so glad you are finding my site helpful! If you have any questions about affiliate programs and ways to get traffic, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to answer them.
Good luck with your online marketing business!
Great post. I hear you talking about wanting to start a business and getting close to retirement. When I began my journey of finding a business, there never seemed enough hours in a day to learn and do all there was required and then it was the issue of dropping one program for another promise. Those days are over. Affiliate marketing is the key, the answer to operating a business. Affiliate marketing can get you access to hundreds of companies that are looking for people to partner with as a marketers–name brand retailers and some exceptional newer companies. Companies want to get their products out there and Affiliate marketers are the bridge. So when you write about Wealthy Affiliate, I totally agree. Wealthy Affiliate in my opinion has the training to get you plugged in if Affiliate marketing is you goal. Learning how to set-up a top notch website, which is needed if you are going to compete online. I speak from experience, because I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate. I have learned so much about marketing that has helped me and I continue to learn. But all in all, Affiliate marketing is a true bet. If people are interested, find a niche you want to market–Wealthy Affiliate shows you how to do that as well, set out and do it. Success to all that are searching!
You are exactly right! I couldn’t believe the resources that I had available to me when I joined Wealthy Affiliate, and soon after, I signed up for the premium membership during their Black Friday special. There is absolutely nowhere else that you can find the quality training, world-class web hosting, and the mentors who are all willing to help you succeed!
Thanks for the helpful post about making money with a computer! I felt so excited when I stumbled across your post as I had been an affiliate marketer since 11 months now and can witness to your point that affiliate marketing really works when it comes to making money online.
Creating a website had never been easier as anyone from any location in the world can build a personal website within a few minutes leveraging the Wealthy Affiliate Site Builder platform. I had my best site building experience when I was creating my own website for the first time through this platform.
There’s nothing so sweet like promoting affiliate products through a personal website and there are hundreds of thousands of affiliate products out there to promote. Thanks for the great work!
Israel Olatunji
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences with building a website on the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Their website hosting is the best by far, and their affiliate marketing training is where I learned how to make money online.
Good luck, and I wish you every success with your online business!
Hello, I Think it’s great to know that it’s possible to make money while you surf the internet. So many ways to build it online but I believe affiliate marketing is where you should start don’t you agree?
I heard amazon is one of the many affiliate marketing programs out there for commissions and service products, could you name more programs that could benefit me more in the area of home theaters?
Is it possible to build a successful online business of one website? How much work will it take to make a FULL time income online?
I never heard about a community based training program like wealthy affiliate before, Is there options for newbies and people who do not have membership funds yet?
Thank you for this interesting post, I will be sure to share this information with my friends.
Jerald Polk
Affiliate marketing is definitely the way to go for newbies in my opinion. In fact, Wealthy Affiliate has a free starter membership where you can build 2 websites, get free training, and have access to the community–all without putting down a credit card!
Home theater systems are a great niche, and you can find affiliate programs by typing in home theaters + affiliate programs in Google. You’ll get a lot of great programs that you can sign up for in addition to Amazon.
Good luck with your online business!
I agree that obtaining organic traffic will be tough. That’s why I’m therefore grateful for a platform like Wealthy Affiliate, so that they may teach the correct things to pay my time on. I have joined this affiliate site recently and found that training is really helpful and they have strong community to support. Thanks for the information in this article and I think this will be really useful for new comers who are searching for online earning.
Newcomers will definitely benefit from a program like Wealthy Affiliate! Their wonderful website hosting platform, comprehensive training, and very active community–there’s nothing else out there that gives you this kind of value for your money.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and share your experience!
I am one of those building early retirement. You give a great explanation of affiliate marketing in your article. I to am a member of Wealthy Affiliate. I cant even list what i think is the best part of WA because its all so good.
I do know what is the neatest part. I have met people from all walks of life. Doctors, retired doctors, lawyers, retired lawyers, farmers and stay at home moms.
This just proves that affiliate marketing and Wealthy Affiliate is for everyone.
Once again thank you for a very nicely written article.
Their diverse community is one of the best things about Wealthy Affiliate! So many people from all walks of life and all sharing their knowledge and experience.
I’ve written a lot of reviews for programs that claim to teach you how to be an affiliate marketer, and none of them offer what WA does!
I can remember the good old days of computer usage. Remember those AOL disk for 500 hours. I used to collect those.
Times have changed, though. For instance, 5-7 years ago SEO used to be drastically different. You could easily get sites ranked by buying tons of spammy backlinks to a website, stuffing your keywords, etc.
However, I actually like how Google has leveled the playing field now. You have to create quality websites, provide value, have user interaction, etc.
What a lot of people don’t realize is it takes 6-12 months before you start making money with your niche site. A lot of people get frustrated and quit before that golden 6 month mark.
You’re exactly right! Google actually has the age of a website included as part of it’s algorithm. Since many sites get abandoned between 4 and 6 months, a new website will usually not start to get ranked well until it’s over 6 months old and still showing it’s getting fresh content.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by!
Affiliate marketing sounds like a great way to make money. I am prepared to put in the hard work and make this a reality for me. But realistically how long will this take to accomplish?
Hard work is definitely what can make your affiliate marketing website a success, and that’s one of the messages you’ll hear time and time again in Wealthy Affiliate. Realistically, how long it will take to start making money will depend on a lot of factors–how much time you are willing to put in, how you are able to comprehend the lessons and implement them, and how well you work through the times when you may get discouraged. I know some who have started making a little money very fast and it gradually grew into more substantial income. I also know some who did not make a sale for several months, but yet were making a full time income by the end of their first year.
Your article was very good and informative about affiliate marketing. The most difficult part of affiliate marketing is getting organic traffic. There is no guarantee that someone will be able to get traffic and it might take a long time to get conversions.
I agree that getting organic traffic can be difficult. That’s why I’m so grateful for a platform like Wealthy Affiliate, so they could teach me the right things to spend my time on. The more efficient I am, the quicker I get those conversions!
Thank you for a great article on affiliate marketing. In my opinion affiliate marketing is perfect for ANYONE who wants to start an online business.
Affiliate Marketing creates a win-win situation for all concerned. The sellers gets a sale he wouldn’t have had without the affiliate marketer and the affiliate marketer makes a commission without any investment.
For anyone interested in building an online business they need 3 things, Education, Website and Expert Help and Wealthy Affiliate Platform provides all these 3 things.
I have been a member of Wealthy Affiliate for some time now and for me, apart from the excellent training provided, the community of 1.2 million is just AMAZING! Anytime I need help with anything I can usually get an answer within minutes from the experienced Community.
You are so right! I have found all 3 of those things at Wealthy Affiliate as well. One of the frustrating things in starting something new at home is that you don’t have other employees to ask questions to like you would at a regular job. I’ve found that having this community makes me feel like I’m right there with so many other people who are wanting to know the same things I do. Wealthy Affiliate and hard work are a winning combination!
I’m like a kid in a candy store reading this right now. I’m currently a student at a local college. I stay on campus and work. But I want more and I think I could defiantly handle a side job. I hear guys on campus all the time talking about affiliate marketing and how they were making this and that. So I’m here to see what all the fuss is about and I might just get my feet wet with it today.
There are a lot of people in the Wealthy Affiliate community attending college and doing affiliate marketing with their website. Good luck, and if you need any help, just let me know!
Great post about getting started with Affiliate Marketing! You made everything really clear and easy to understand, which I think is super important for beginners who may be using your blog for help.
Wealthy Affiliate truly is a great program and the training cannot be matched for the price point. Not to mention that Jaaxy is included in the membership, which I would be lost without.
Keep up the great posts!
Thanks, Brittaney!