by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: March 27, 2009

Every day, as we surf the Internet, we see ads promising to show us how to make a living online. I even remember a time when I used to click on them, eagerly anticipating a life-changing message and great wealth soon after to follow. I even fell victim to a couple of total scams, one of which stung me to the tune of about three hundred US dollars.

My only defence is that it was a long time ago and my Internet usage was in its infancy but I am sure there are thousands of people who succumb to these schemes every day in their desire to make a living online. They will without question end up being as disillusioned as I once was before I learned that it is indeed entirely possible to make a living online.

I genuinely make my lining online in two ways. I sell products as an affiliate marketer for several different companies and I write articles for such as the site you are reading this article on, Helium. Make no mistake, it is not easy and you will have to expect to at the very least double the amount of hours you presently work in the early stages of your online career as you establish yourself, but with great determination and perseverance, the results are there to be had.

I would recommend heartily that you start off part-time. Do not suddenly quit your day job in the hope of making a living online instantly! Unless you know pure and simple luck beyond your wildest dreams, you will fail drastically and be in very hot water indeed.

The first step to making a living online is to create a niche for ourselves. We have to think of something which we are greatly interested in, know a lot about and which has associated products which we can sell upon our sites. Take some time over this and make sure you get it right. Although it will of course be possible to change direction at a later time, we do not wish to waste time attempting to create the incorrectly branded business.

The next step to making a living online is to join some affiliate marketing programmes. In the first instance, I would suggest Amazon and eBay. They are quite simply the best by the length of the River Amazon. As with the sites I will mention below, space does not permit me in this article to examine each of the sites and their affiliate programmes but full details are available on the companies' sites. At a later stage, we will of course develop programmes with other companies as we discover those which offer products suitable for selling on the sites we begin to build.

The next step is to sign up for

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