How a Blogger Mom Turns to Affiliate Marketing to Make Money to Pay Down Credit Card Debt

I am a work at home woman who managed to pay down my credit card debt from $20,321 to $12,916 in one and a half year. To speed up paying off my debt, I started trying out affiliate marketing in the hope of making more money online.

Prior to affiliate marketing, I was one of the many bloggers who was busy bidding or grabbing paid reviews to write to make fast money. The easy money generated from paid posts did help in reducing my debt. To most busy moms, getting paid to blog about products or services is perhaps the easiest way to earn money online. Many stay-at-home, single or work-at-home mothers are able to earn a decent income by blogging for many blog advertising companies.

But after more than half year, I decided not to rely on paid blog posts. Depending solely on paid posts is like putting all my eggs in one basket and you know this is not the best way to make money online.

Not being able to write any paid reviews when I am sick lying on my bed for a few days really scares me. Imagine there is no money flowing into my bank account the moment I stop writing!

My initial efforts on affiliate programs didn't earn as much money as I am earning now, but I was very quickly seeing some sales coming in and commissions sitting in my account. Seeing some sales and commissions does give me encouragement and motivation to keep going with affiliate marketing.

I do not even need to stock my own goods or merchandise - I simply sell other people's products, goods or services and in return, receive commissions by doing so. The best part about affiliate marketing is that, once I get my business going, it really can continue to operate on "auto-pilot," producing passive income for me even when I am not actively working on maintaining and growing my affiliate business income.

The most popular way I love to drive traffic to my affiliate business is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It still is the most effective way to get traffic directly from the free search engine listings to my business websites.

People who go to a search engine such as Google and search for something in particular are already predisposed to purchase the product. Being able to rank highly for keywords in a particular niche helps in getting highly qualified people to my websites without even spending any money.

Earning extra money with affiliate programs is not as difficult as you think. But you must be prepared to work on finding niches, setting up websites, learning SEO, promoting and marketing affiliate products.

Vedis Teh - A Work-At-Home Mom Who Makes Multiple Income Streams With Affiliate Programs To Pay Down Credit Card Debt [http://www.syncxpress.com]

How To Make Money On Credit Cards?

Yes, you can make money on credit cards. Here is how you do it. I am sure you are bombarded with those credit card deals in the mail offering 'teaser' rate to entice you to apply. Also, known as 'introductory offers'. They will usually have a low or zero interest rate for 6 to 12 months.

The best are offers with zero interest rate. There are plenty, so if you don't have them yet, just watch for one. Shred the rest away. Just a side note; please shred all credit card offers you don't want because identity thieves are known to apply on your behalf and change the address. While you are unaware, thieves are charging on your name. Just get a $10-20 shredder and shred the credit card applications rather than tossing them in the trash can. I like the shredders that do diamond cuts because they break it down into small pieces that practically no one can piece together.

Now back to our money making strategy. After you get the 0% offers. Go through them and see which one's have 'cash advance fee'. Shred the ones that have cash advance fee. Usually the cash advance fee is where credit card companies make their money. Most have started asking for 3% cash advance fee. Since that is paid upfront, your actual cost of money is much higher.

Now you will be left with one or 2 good offers with 0% interest with NO cash advance fee for 6 or 12 months. It is essentially free money. Take that money and put it in a safe place like a separate money market account. Mark your calendar when it has to be paid back in full. Every month your credit card company will bill you for generally 1% of the borrowed money. Pay it PROMPTLY from this account. If you don't pay, the interest rate instantly jumps to the current rate of some outrageous amount like 16-24%. The credit card companies are counting on the fact that you will forget to pay and they 'sock it to you'. Or you might forget when the full amount is due and again they 'get you'.

Simple strategy, pay their bill every month and when the amount is due in full pay it a week in advance. Do not charge anything on this credit card because everything you pay first applies to your charges and not towards your cash advance. Essentially, keep it clean and give no reason for the credit card company to charge you interest.

You will be surprised that you now have a good chunk left over in your account free and clear. Where did this extra money come. You borrowed money from credit card company at zero cost. And you were smart to invest that money in a money market fund (currently 5% or more). All the time you had their money, you were earning interest on their money. The money can add up very quickly. If you borrow your full credit line say $10k to $35k you can have a good chunk of money. How sweet it is to make money off the credit card companies. Ask them to send you more offers like that!

Raj Vats writes for Lookupcreditcards.com. Media people can contact him when you need a source for credit card issues. He can be reached at administrator at http://www.Lookupcreditcards.com

The Art of Stoozing to Make Money from Credit Cards

Make Money from Stoozing

Stoozing, this is a sophisticated method of making money from credit cards that offer 0% introductory periods, the method requires cast iron discipline in never spending on the cards.

But, I hear you all ask - what is stoozing and can I do it?

Stoozing, in the simplest terms is borrowing money from credit cards that offer a 0% introductory deals and saving that money in a savings account for the duration of the offer on the credit card. Then, the stoozer will apply for another 0% introductory credit card deal from another provider and transfer the whole balance from the first card onto it. This way the cash balance never has to leave the savings account and can be held like this for a long period of time earning 5% + interest!

Find a 0% Credit Card suitable for stoozing [http://www.quote-engine.com/compare-credit-cards.html]

Stoozing and Offset mortgages

Offset mortgages allow your savings and current accounts to be used to lower the amount of interest you pay on your outstanding mortgage balance e.g. if you have a mortgage outstanding for £80,000 and a savings account containing £10,000 the bank will only calculate and add interest on the outstanding £70,000; effectively saving you interest by the savings amount, at the same APR as your mortgage. This APR is often equal or greater than their typical savings account. This is similar to overpaying on your mortgage or other loans except the money is not locked in, and still accessible to remove again later.

As the money residing in your other accounts is no longer earning interest, but reducing outstanding debt, it also means the savings money is also not subject to tax unlike a normal savings account. By offsetting in this way with savings, it is possible to greatly reduce the number of years that the mortgage will run for. Instead of paying off the mortgage for a typical 25 year period, with regular capital payments at the existing level, you can shave several years of the completion date. Once you have an offset mortgage, the more savings you have, the lower your mortgage interest will cost. This is where Stoozing comes in. Instead of using your own money locked away to reduce your mortgage, use the 0% balance transfers from the credit cards to put money into your linked savings account using the same Stoozing methods.

Find a 0% Credit Card suitable for stoozing [http://www.quote-engine.com/compare-credit-cards.html]

Stoozing cannot last much longer...

The situation can't last though. Already Barclaycard and MBNA have introduced one-off charges on transferred debt, based on a percentage of the amount, and other card providers are expected to follow this strategy. Also, as the PricewaterhouseCoopers' report notes, card issuers are likely to become increasingly selective about which customers they offer balance transfers to and there will be a much stronger focus on customer retention. They may also increase other fees, such as those imposed for exceeding credit limits.

Useful information has been brought to you by Phil Sproson, owner of http://www.quote-engine.com - a comparison engine for loans, credit cards and everything financial