Hello Fellow WAs
You can call me Char. I am writing this post because I love to write. It's just something I do automatically. But, mostly I'm writing it to remind myself why I joined WA, and why I am here.

To begin with, I truly hope these posts will only be shared with other forum members, because I'm going to be true to myself and reveal some things that I would probably be ashamed to reveal to the outside world.

I just had my 56th birthday, which probably makes me the oldest person in this forum. And for that reason, time is of the essence for me.

I have spent most of my 56 years (minus about 14 of those years) chasing the dream of financial freedom.

It started with a small family funeral home business, which, by the way, my family still operates today. My father tried to instill in me from a very early age, the idea of financial freedom, and the reality that one can never achieve real wealth punching a time clock, or working for somebody else.

It continued with my life-long endeavors to educate myself as encouraged by both my parents, and going on to become an overachiever in the field of education, and funeral service, the two careers I pursued throughout my life.

I earned a Master's Degree in Education, and grudgingly taught school until the mere thought of going to a classroom every day to do a job I'd mastered, but literally hated turned my stomach inside out.

I learned fairly early that entrepreneurism was my forte' but funeral service wasn't the way. Too many risks involved. It's an expensive business to operate, and there are too many variables that affect the financial outcome for the owner.

In addition to the main business, I did a little bit of everything else too: desk-top publishing, printing church bulletins; you name it, I had tried it.

I tried everything else imaginable, too. As a matter of fact, I tried some of the most far fetched -- impossible -- schemes and feats and didn't make a dime.
Got into a vicious cycle of getting hyped up about something, failing at it, and regrouping.

The whole time, I struggled as a single mother, having lost my 43-year-old husband (massive heart attack) when I was only 39, leaving me with two adolescent children to raise, feed, house, and educate. I tried to teach them the importance of good work ethics and hard work, but in spite of my best efforts, we never really got ahead.

My dad's "brick-and-mortar" business has now been turned over to my son (now 30) who is still struggling with the tremendous overhead expense, and income risks that my family has been dealing with for 41 years. And I'm trying to be happily retired... but never having enough income to really make ends meet.

So, throughout recent years, I played around with this idea of making money online, tried and failed at a few things, but could never really sink my teeth into it and knuckle down and learn how to do it.

One thing I understand is that where I live, the marketplace is very very limited, because I'm from rural Alabama. But, I know that with the web, the marketplace is limitless, and therefore, it just stands to reason that the earning potential is limitless also.

Just a few days ago, I was inspired to revisit the idea through a program called Acme-People-Search.com. And for some reason, something was reawakened in me, that made me want to try again, which is why I am here.

Bottom line, I'm not getting younger. And time is of the essence. If I'm going to master this Affiliate Marketing thing, I've got to do it now. I have invested too much time, and there are too many testimonials that support the potential earning power.

Essentially, I'm here because I want to leave my children a real legacy. I want to leave them something tangible other than undeveloped property that can't fulfill their dreams. I want to know what it's like not to have to worry about how I'm going to do this, or that. I want to be able to rest well at night, not having to walk the floors and worry about how I'll make a payroll, or other woes that go along with conventional business operation.

Believe me, I've done all of the above, and as you can see from my photo, I've got a lot of gray hairs in my head to prove it.

I want to be one of those success stories, who learned how to do it literally on a shoestring budget.

Within my first hour in this forum, I have already learned soooooo much from my past mistakes. I hope to occasionally blog about my past mistakes, as well as new beneficial things I learn from being a part of WA.

Thanks so much for reading my story. And do give me a shout.

Char