Affiliate Marketing Secrets

When I talk to people about trying out internet marketing, talk to my dad about HOW MUCH BETTER it would be than FLIPPING BURGERS, people think I’m deceived, that I will fall for a scam.
Yet, most affiliate networks are not scams and they do pay. Yes there’s people making money online.
And guess what the general public’s attitude towards THEM is? Internet marketers are “scammers too lazy to get a real job”.
Why?

I worked at a regular job from Jan.-May of this year, and earned roughly $4,500 from that job. Starting in April I also started generating income from the web.. ebay, affiliate programs, etc. I have averaged $500/month since June.. leaving me with (so far) $6,500; With a projected income of about $9k-$10k for this year.
When I filed my return last year, I made 15k (before taxes) and got a refund of around 6k (for my EIC).. so I know I won’t be expecting close to that amount this year because I didn’t make as much money, but.. will my self-employed earnings count towards my EIC payout as income? Or will they only count the earnings I made at my regular job?
If I continue to be self-employed and it is my only income for the next year, will I still be eligible for EIC next year?
From what I understand I will file schedule SE with my 1040? Anyone with any advice, I’d greatly appreciate it. This will be my first time ever having to file taxes like this.

I tried searching for online courses but couldn’t find the one that I wish to study. There are so many different diploma courses and degrees offered by institutions that I don’t know where to start. Someone recommended IT course but it’s too competitive in the present job market situation.
Study abroad is also another good option and choosing which country to apply is not easy. There are so many information on the net that sucks because most of them are affiliates promoting and selling something.
Is there any reliable sites that really provide genuine information on degree course and private education?
Thank you very much!

I’ve been out of work for two years. Living on savings and unemployment, so I’m getting by for now. The past two years have been hellish. Lots of isolation and stress. Moved to NY to be closer to family, but that didn’t help completely b/c some of my close family does not see me (lifestyle differences or laziness on their part). Ex: haven’t seen my four grandkids in four months, despite being a short subway ride away and asking my son repeatedly to let me visit.
Last month I got a callback from a job inquiry (in itself a big deal, cause my field is pretty niche). The director of the agency/think tank said they had possible positions I”d be interested in. I followed up, the hiring people said they just needed the director’s official okay, and that was a month ago. My stuff has gone into a black hole and my emails to the director unanswered. I don’t know what happened, but the job is going off into the sunset without me astride.
After these last two years, this was the closest I”ve come to a job (and in my field no less!). I was okay before this all came up (had learned how to cope over the last two years), but my hopes getting up and then going nowhere has really thrown me for a loop. I have an upset stomach alot and have a hard time getting out. The situation with my family is also weighing heavily.
I know that some will suggest looking outside my field (I’m preparing to do so by getting recertified in what I got my MA in instead of my PhD field), so that’s already in motion.
Others may suggest getting together with those in my situation – honestly, just thinking about doing that depresses me more, and I know that I’m not alone in feeling that way.
This isn’t really about practical suggestions – it’s about dealing with the grief that my concurrent almost-job hopes dashing and my absent family and grandkids are bringing up in me. There’s no happy pill that works for me and sometimes the sadness is just crushing. I do take care of myself (excercise and eating right), but sometimes (like this past week as the days ticked by again with no response from the job people) it is just sooo hard.
Thanks for reading and listening.

The Beast Is Starved: Welcome to the Next Great Depression
by John Atcheson
Since Reagan, Republicans have been on a “starve the beast” campaign – by which they mean eviscerate the government by taking away as much revenue as they can.
Starving the beast has been the biggest bait and switch con game that has ever been perpetrated on the American people. And the most tragic.
“Well, if past is prologue, welcome to the next Great Depression.” (photo of mother and children As Paul Krugman pointed out, Republicans offered popular tax cuts so that they could later cut popular government programs “as a necessity.” Oh, we’d love to continue providing low cost, effective medical care under Medicare, but you see, the country just can’t afford it … Of course we can’t. Billionaire hedge fund managers and Wall Street traders pay less in taxes than their secretaries. And most corporations pay little or no taxes.
Starve the Beast was coupled with a clever campaign to make government appear to be a collection of bumbling bureaucrats who wasted tax money for pure pleasure. Long after it became politically impossible to stereotype racial and ethnic groups (with the possible exceptions of Muslims) it was – and is – quite acceptable to characterize government workers as shiftless, lazy and incompetent.
As a result, once the Republicans succeeded in cutting government revenue to the bone and beyond, it became impossible to raise taxes – who wants to give any more of their hard earned money to a bunch of lazy bureaucrats?
Never mind that most big government programs are far more efficient than their private sector equivalents. That’s a mere fact. Can’t let that get in the way of starving the beast.
Bait and switch. Divide and Conquer.
So, after starting with a surplus in 2000, Republicans used two wars, two rounds of tax cuts, and a giant giveaway to big Pharma, to get the country racking up debt like a drunken sailor.
Along comes the Bush recession, and the debt accelerates, and the Republicans declare the debt to be an “emergency” and right on schedule immediately attack popular programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Student loans –and virtually anything that doesn’t help the uber rich or the corporations suddenly must be cut if we are to stay solvent.
Never mind that cutting Social Security to balance the budget is like attacking the mailman because your car doesn’t work. It has nothing to do with the budget – but again, that’s a mere fact. When you’re drowning the beast, facts don’t matter.
So OK. The beast is drowned. Keynes is dead. Now what?
Well, if past is prologue, welcome to the next Great Depression.
See, the dirty little secret is that we never had a debt “crisis.” We had a jobs crisis.
While Republicans were arguing about the faux “crisis” and the press and Obama joined them, we got a series of disturbing economic signals. Consumer confidence was down, manufacturing was off, May and June’s job numbers were pathetic. In fact, if not for a hiring binge by McDonald’s there would have been a net job loss in May. That’s something to hang your hat on: McDonalds accounted for what little job growth there was. What’s next, America gets saved by an uptick in Wall Mart greeters?
Look. This whole drown the beast strategy has been nothing more than a stealth tactic for instituting an extremist version of a laissez faire, market uber-alles policy designed by and for the Plutocracy.
And to be sure, it’s worked great for them. Today, the richest 1% owns 40% of the nation’s wealth, and the top 10% owns nearly 75% of it.
The rest of us? Not so much.
Income and wealth inequality in the US has been increasing rapidly since Reagan, (with a slight break under Clinton). In terms of income inequality, the US now ranks about the same as Ivory Coast, Uganda and Cameroon – countries not exactly noted for being prosperous, equitable and just societies.
News flash for all the debt mongers, Tea Partiers and other assorted ignoramuses. You can’t run a consumer-based economy when the vast majority of consumers don’t have enough money to buy anything. After all, Paris Hilton can only buy so many yachts; Corporate CEOs can only purchase so many jetliners – even with their special jet tax credits; and Wall Street traders can only buy so many Bugattis. But middle and working class Americans need to spend their money on food, lodging, and other necessities.
Here’s the dirty little secret: Republicans want the economy to fail. They want Obama to fail, and they don’t care who gets hurt in the process. They want these things, because the beast is in the bathtub and they can almost taste its demise.
The pieces are in place for the Plutocrats final victory … an industry friendly Supreme Court; a Democratic Party that is either in collusion with the plutocrats, or so cowardly as to be neutered;

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/oil-gas-western-us-provide-employment-and-millions-revenue-says-energy-alliance

Printing money has been tried and has failed. Government stimulus spending has been tried and has failed. Let’s try deregulating the energy sector. It will be a robust job generator! The secret to stimulating our economy is energy not printing money. We have abundant cheap energy here in America. Government regulation is limiting access to these natural resources!
QE2 ended with oil prices peaking @ over 120 a barrel. This extreme price of oil stalled the recovery.
Why then is the Obama administration holding back oil production in America? Reducing regulation on the energy sector would not only create jobs in this specific industry, it would make ALL AMERICAN INDUSTRY more profitable. And consumers would have enhanced spending power. It would be a jobs bonanza and a new raging bull market. This is why Oblunder is finished next year. We can’t afford his rigid ideology in this economy!