Anyone who is looking at earning money online will find that affiliate marketing pops up pretty often as a preferred method. And for some, it works very well. For some, they can actually get rich from affiliate marketing. It really seems to depend on the person and how far they are willing to go in order to learn how to do this type of marketing effectively.

I, for one, have had little success with affiliate marketing, but this could be due to lack of concentration on one project! However, about a year ago, I did a little thing called the 30 Day Challenge, which was a challenge put together to help you earn $10 within 30 days. The concept was an excellent one and I learned a lot from the course, but never had much time to put it into action as much as I should have. Instead, I set up some niche sites and then got busy with other stuff.

Recently, I started to notice that I´m building up affiliate earnings here and there . . . many of which are coming from those niche sites that I haven´t touched in a year! It´s not much, around $100 in total . . . but we´re also talking about something I´ve basically ignored for the past 11 months! So this is an area I´m determined to take the time to explore more fully.

One thing is for sure . . . if you are interested in getting into affiliate marketing, don´t expect to get rich quick. You will only get frustrated and it just isn´t worth it. You will also need patience to take the time to learn HOW to actually make affiliate marketing work and then go off the beaten path. The most innovative affiliates are the ones you see earning thousands every week, and you can bet they have a few tricks up their sleeves!

Affiliate marketing is not for everyone, but if you are interested in learning more about it and internet marketing in general, here are a few good links:

Alice Seba´s Internet Marketing Sweetie blog is a good place to start learning the basics from another work at home mom.

Lynn Terry is another wahm who is happy to share her internet marketing expertise with you.

Tori offers not just internet opportunities, but offline ones too . . . but she has a lot to teach the average wahm about affiliate marketing, including which ones to use and which are scams.

If you are really serious about learning everything there is to know about affiliate marketing, you will definitely want to check out Associate Programs.

Do you have experience with affiliate programs? Are you interested in sharing with us in the comments? Go for it!

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. Eleanor Roosevelt

Being a work at home mom can often feel like swimming in the ocean, with waves crashing over you and it´s pretty tempting to just crawl back up on the beach where it´s safe. But staying in one place in your life is boring and won´t get you where you want to go.

When you are feeling overwhelmed with life, family and work, all piling onto you at once, it can be useful to remember that these times are the ones that teach you things. Here are a few ideas to keep your head above water:

• Find other people in the same position. You aren´t the only one going through this, so network with other moms who can support you and give you a shoulder to cry on. If you can´t get out to a mom´s group or something similar, there are online networking sites that can serve the purpose. Try Work It, Mom or Cafe Mom, where you´ll be able to share your challenges and get feedback.

• Journal it. Whether you write in a notebook or blog about your life for the whole world to see, writing down what you are going through, your frustrations and successes, will help relax you. You can look back and see that you´ve been worse before and remind yourself of how you always made it through before.

• Get help. Sometimes it just isn´t possible to do it all on your own. Rather than fret about how you´re being a bad mom or a lousy wife, order takeout for dinner, hire a babysitter for a couple of days,or outsource some work and get everything done. These spells rarely last for long, so it´s worth getting some help for the duration.

The best way to prevent the pile up from happening in the first place is good planning. Make sure you have backup plans ready to go should something happen unexpectedly. Keeping a visible schedule is also a good way to go, a wall calendar so you can see it easily at a glance.

Work at home moms are the target of a lot of scams. Unfortunately, because we tend to be rather desperate to earn some cash, scam artists pull out a load of amazing offers to woo mothers who need to stay home and work. However, jumping on a scam will only cause you to lose time and money when you could be working on something far more productive.

Personally, I encourage moms who want to work at home to start their own business, but that isn´t always possible and sometimes you need to earn some money faster than you can by starting a business. In that case, you may be looking for jobs online and I can guarantee some of them are going to be scams. So, how do you spot work at home scams?

• Money is required. If at any point, you are asked for a payment to start a job, back away! There are some job listings, directories, etc. that require a fee and may be worth it, but if an actual job requires you to pay them, that´s almost always a scam.
• Read the fine print. You know those “Assemble Crafts At Home” deals? Well, you have to pay for the kit (see my first point) and if you read the fine print, they aren´t required to buy back anything that they think is unacceptable . . . and guess what? It´s all going to be unacceptable.
• Look for reviews without links. There are often plenty of reviews of a business that offers job opportunities, but if there is a link involved, particularly one with something like this at the end: ?2321414232, you´ll be getting a biased review. That link means that you click on it and if you buy something or upgrade, the person who referred you will be earning money. That doesn´t mean that affiliate links are a bad thing, it´s a great way to support someone you trust, but it does mean that the review may be biased and for the purposes of job research, you will want to look for unbiased reviews.
• Trust your instincts. If you aren´t sure and feel kind of weird about the job opportunity, listen to your gut. Amazingly, we are born with instincts to help protect us, but too many women ignore these and end up in trouble.

Work at home scams can really wreck your perception of the online work world, so please be careful.

Every work at home mom knows there just aren´t enough hours in a day to get everything done, but it´s certainly not a problem exclusive to mothers! It seems like a lot of people are searching for the solution, too, and a few of them have some darn good suggestions. Here is my resource list for work at home moms who need a bit more time in their day.

Why not start with 21 Ways to Add More Hours to the Day? Learn how to triage your time, make use of those usually wasted moments and plenty more.

Finding More Time focuses mostly on getting more hours out of your workday and making the most of the time you have.

You could probably use some Organization Tip That Add More Hours to Your Day, as well. I know I could start following some of the tips given in this post.

How to Have a 36 Hour Day not only offers a few time boosters ideal for work at home moms, it offers to help you get an extra TWELVE hours of productivity out of each day! The tips include changing your diet, sleep patterns and even how you work. A little drastic perhaps, but . . . twelve hours? Definitely worth a few changes!

Know any other good ways to add hours to your day? Feel free to share in the comments!

Do you have a great invention, business or service idea that just hasn´t come to fruitation yet? Or are you an expert at whipping up unique last minute meals? Then have I got a couple of great contests for you!

Contest #1: The Mother of Invention

Whirlpool is looking for moms with great ideas. If you haven´t been able to get your business or invention off the ground because you just don´t have the cash, this could be an excellent opportunity for you. Prizes include the following:

• A $20,000 grant for the winner
• $24,000 for the 4 runners up
• Whirlpool appliances
• An invitation to a boot camp where you will receive guidance from Whirlpool and industry experts

To make things even better, Whirlpool has added a special category for green inventions or businesses this year, so jump on in if you have an environmentally friendly idea! You can learn more about this contest here.

Contest #2: Let´s Eat In

Whirlpool has also teamed up with Newman´s Own to create this fun recipe contest, which is sponsored by the Food Network. What mom doesn´t have a few quick recipes up her sleeve? Well, now you can put them to good use and maybe even get a full Whirlpool brand kitchen of appliances out of the deal, plus a year´s worth of Newman´s Own products.

Even if you aren´t interested in entering the contest, I would encourage you to check out the Let´s Eat In website, as it features some great tips on speeding up dinner, as well as some recipes. You will also find the details of the contest at that site.

Both contests end on July 31st, so you have just over a month to enter your ideas. If you win, be sure to let me know and we can organize an interview! Good luck, moms!