After I had my son, I quit my job as a pit boss at the casino after having worked there nine years. It wasn’t that I was unhappy there; I just wanted to be a full-time mom at home. A few weeks after quitting, I realized I needed something to keep me busy, and possibly make a little extra spending money.

First, I tried online surveys, but they didn’t work out. Or at least, I didn’t make what they were promising. I thought I’d get at least a few surveys per day, at $10 or more each. It’s been two months now and I’ll be surprised if I made more than $5. Most of the incentives include being entered into sweepstakes of $1000 or more. Great for some, but I’ve never been lucky to win anything like that.

Next, I tried applying to some work at home jobs through a database that lists available jobs. I found two sites, and I had to pay to access both. Not a lot, mind you, but it still seemed like a bit of a joke. I must’ve applied to at least 2-3 dozen jobs online and maybe heard back from ONE company. And it turned out to be some sales program. No thanks.

Lastly, I decided maybe starting some kind of home business might be the ticket. However I didn’t want to have to sell anything, or do any kind of telemarketing. That somewhat limited my choices I guess, but I’m just not a salesperson type. The first company that contacted me sounded promising at first, as it was run by moms who worked at home. But after looking into it more, I realized it involved lots of selling, a lot of money to invest in the company, and the most I could make from it was maybe $150/month...if I was lucky! After mulling it over for a couple of days, the company called me back to ask if I was interested in joining up. I said “No thanks but I don’t want to be a slave for only $150 a month. I can make more than that working two weeks at Starbucks!" Sure, $150 a month might be all fine and dandy for some people, but for the amount of money I had to invest, and the amount of selling I would’ve had to do, it wasn’t worth it for me. I wanted to make more money than that to make it worth my time.

So finally, after filling out a few “Home Business Match-Up" surveys, I received an email for this one company that told me I could make up to $300 over and over. Naturally I was skeptical. Who wouldn’t be? However, when I went to the website and called the hotline number, everything they said made sense. I checked them out on the Better Business Bureau and another similar site, and they looked to be legitimate. So I figured...what the heck?

Within a couple of weeks I was on my way to making money online by being an affiliate for Windows Casino. A week later, I added Amazon.com to my site. I made a short Power Point ad for my site and emailed it to everyone I knew. I’ve had lots of traffic and things are looking up. Some people said this company was a scam. Others said they’ve made some good money from it. Those people were the ones who made the effort and advertised their site on their own. It’s been my opinion that you get out of it what you put into it. If you just sit back and wait for something to happen, nothing will.

The great thing about being an affiliate is that it’s free to sign up. They provide you with banners and text for your site and 24/7 access to view your sales/tracking reports. I’ve signed up with several affiliates now and I’m marketing/advertising each one on various forums etc. It’s great fun and I’m enjoying it. And, if I don’t make a lot of money from this business, I’ve definitely learned a lot to help me in the future.

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