My first love is music, hands down. I front a band called You Can Call Me Al (in honor of that wonderful musician, Paul Simon -- one of my greatest influences). I play guitar, sing and play alto saxophone, depending on the gig, and I love doing all three.

There's nothing quite like getting up on stage and belting out the blues while people sing along, dance, drink and laugh in the audience. It's such a rush to see people having fun in the crowd! The problem is, for a bunch of aging hippies like me and my band mates, the tip jar rarely covers the night's beer consumption, let alone pays the bills.

That's all right, though, because I'm lucky. I've got another love, which is writing, and I might have finally found a way to something I love and actually make some real income! I've been waiting for a gig like this. And I'm so excited that it's finally here!

I've actually been writing articles about my music (and my day job) for a few months now. I've done the research and submitted articles myself to several different content sites in an effort to drive traffic to my new blog, called Beatin' the Blues. My blog is mainly there to talk about the music, but I'm also thinking about joining a couple affiliate programs.

Currently, I have a decent-paying day job selling multi-level marketing products, but it's so far from what I enjoy doing I can't tell you! It makes me enough to get by on, but I'm ready to put some money away for my retirement and the kids' college. Taking on a 9-to-5er doesn't appeal to me, since it would probably mean backing way off from playing two or three gigs a week. The operative word is "aging" after all!

If possible, I want to keep playing music at least that often, and set up a new online revenue stream for supplemental income. I've heard that if you do it right, you really can succeed.

I've checked out several affiliate programs, so I'll start by talking about some of those. The first one I found is called Article Post Robot. It's a goofy name, but they have three different affiliate programs you can sign up for. The first gives you 40 percent, or $40-$50, of every product sold on your site. The second one is also 40 percent, at $35 to $40, and the third gives only 25 percent, estimated at about $8 per sale. I'm feelin' the first two; maybe not so much the third one.

The first program is an affiliation of Article Post Robot itself, a software system you purchase that allows you to post articles on sites around the Web. Personally I've been down that road with the software, but I still might be willing to join their affiliate program!

Some people prefer to use software that lets them control where their articles end up. At this point, I'm looking for the widest distribution to the largest lists possible. Moving on!

Another site I am looking at is called iSnare. They do it a little differently, using a referral rather than a straight-out affiliate program. It works like this: For everyone you refer to use iSnare's service (everyone who then purchases article posts) you earn free article post slots. You get one post for every five slots your referral buys, six for every 40 slots on up to 10 for 100 slots purchased.

There is an option to submit articles for free on iSnare, and like any new system I explore that's the one I'll start with. To be distributed to the entire list, you must pay a fee for your post. Definitely an option -- if I like what they have to offer after a little more exploration.

I read about Article Marketer when researching Jason Develvis's website, Adventures in IM. He has a lot of great advice about how to market yourself online, and he is an affiliate of Article Marketer, so I decided to check them out.

Article Marketer has a very attractive affiliate program. You put their links up on your site, and they pay you 50 percent their sales made through your website. Then, if one of your referrals becomes an affiliate, you get 5 percent of those sales too! Seems almost like they're giving away too much. I wonder if there's a catch.

I've read through their spiel and it seems pretty air-tight, but again I'm a skeptic. I'm going to sign up for their free service before I make a commitment to post their links on my precious blog.

So there you have it! I guess for me the jury's still out on these affiliate programs. But now you're at least semi-informed. So, what are YOU gonna do? Hopefully start making the big bucks, right along with yours truly.

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Johnny Albertson is a musician, blogger and writer. Visit his blog, Beatin' the Blues for more insights and pearls of wisdom. Johnny is a big fan of Article Marketer, an online article distribution service.