Did you ever get yourself into burnout territory? OK, these things happened to me, some years ago. I had this dead-end job which I really hated. And then I got kicked out of the job. This happened because I had burned myself out on the job, plus the boss disliked me. Really, it was a blessing in disguise. After all, the job was making me puke – so getting out of it was a good thing.

Now the question was what I was supposed to do for a living. Since I had already spent years of my life getting educated, I really didn’t want to go back to school. Plus I had to make some cash immediately.

OK, I had a computer and an Internet connection. Plus I had some idea of how to make web pages. As I browsed the Web, I understood there were many business opportunities online which showed some profit potential. Although I had none of my own stuff to sell, I could still get going.

In the beginning I plastered AdSense ads on a few sites, to make a couple of dollars. Soon, however, I realized I could make better money as affiliate. This means you get paid commissions by promoting products for someone else.

One example is Clickbank. You see, Clickbank is the major payment processor used by those who sell some virtual product, like an ebook, online. And you can very easily sign up to be an affiliate for any of these products. Then you collect good commission money when people buy stuff using your affiliate links.

Most products give you a half, or more, of the pie, for your contribution. Take for instance an ebook about making money online. It might be offered at, say, $47. In this example, you would recieve $25 or more per referred sale. According to rumors I have heard, there are successful affiliates who make lots of money through Clickbank stuff.

As for myself, I have had good success promoting web hosting companies. I set up a simple web site with reviews of a couple of web hosts, and collected commissions when people signed up through my affiliate links. The only problem with this approach is the stiff competition. Unfortunately, there are those who use this strategy without really knowing what they’re doing; their lack of knowledge is evident. This turns would-be customers away. As for myself, I do my research and only promote hosting providers I know have a good reputation.