Introduction - About me and my aims

A bit about me ... and my journey into Affiliate Marketing

I am a slow learner. Looking back on my life, I wonder that I ever made it to earning a living! I have drifted into jobs because they happened to be there, stayed long past the time I should have moved on, have tended to become fascinated with remunerative projects and generally have not used the resources I have to make a living!

So here I am, at nearly 70 (an age which, in others I'd have seen as 'past it'), beginning a new phase. I have done this before, mind you! Twenty years ago I was a common-or-garden second-hand bookseller. I had drifted into it from beginnings in the print industry, through selling children's books and a spell in a University Library bindery. I love the smell and the feel of second-hand books ... and the customers who share that love.

A Change of Life
In my late forties, however, a financial decision made it sensible for me to be a 'house-husband' for a year or so and I relinquished the bookshop I managed. Looking after kids and managing a household was, I found, not my kind of thing at all. So, as soon as all the kids were all at school, I decided to educate myself a bit and enrolled on a part-time course of Computer Studies at the local Technical College.

I do rather like computers but - more importantly - I like the people who struggle with them (the 'users') and I find that I have a natural ability and desire to help them with their problems in using what is these days called 'IT'. I think this is because I'm just an ordinary guy who came across technology quite late in life and well remember the problems I had and how I solved them.

So, here I am, roughly 20 years on, having worked in Computer Support, Software Support and finally as a trainer in basic computer usage and MS Office products. The last few years of my 'employed' life have been invigorating and exhilarating and I wouldn't have missed them for the world! The trouble is that I have the 'computer bug' and, especially, appreciate the Internet for the resources and opportunities it provides.

Since I officially retired, I have been searching for viable ways of making money online. Of course, there are many ways now of scratching a few cents from clicking on adverts, doing surveys and posting at social networking/discussion sites such as MyLot. These, however, are pin money and don't pay the bills.

What I need (don't we all?) is to make some sort of a living online ... a job that pays me a reasonable amount and that I can do from anywhere. The Internet has made this feasible and, now that I have seen a fair selection of what's on offer, I think that I have finally found one that could work for me!