Ok so 3 more posts today that I’ve dug up – I’m an information JUNKIE on this stuff lately. Give em a browse and let me know what ya reckon. They’re just from a few different sites I’ve been surfing lately that are generally good for information like this…

The Essentials Of Affiliate Programs « For the Fun and Glory of Life

There are good and bad affiliate programs, check out the affiliate program is about to promote, make, search engine search, such as joining forums. Forums are great places to find what they are talking about and can help you decide if a …

Craft Business Basics – What Is An Affiliate Program? | Selling …

One of the things you can do to boost your craft business is participate in craft-related affiliate programs or run your own. Not sure what an affiliate program.

AFFILIATE PROFITS BLOG » Blog Archive » Affiliate Programs …

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President Obama has spent billions on so-called green job programs as part of the economic recovery and plans to spend billions more. He has repeatedly argued this will create good-paying jobs that cannot be outsourced.

But, according to the green groups themselves, these jobs can be highly expensive, often costing well more than $100,000 per job in subsidies and/or tax credits. Just last month, the White House said it was spending $135,294 per job to create 17,000 green jobs.

And research commissioned in part by the Sierra Club found that the jobs often pay less than the industry average and, contrary to Obama's claims, are often outsourced.

'Wishful Thinking'

“There is a lot of wishful thinking about green jobs. A lot of proponents just take it on faith that these are going to be good jobs (and) therefore we should invest in them,” said Philip Mattera, lead author of the study by Good Jobs First, an affiliate of the Corporate Research Project, a liberal watchdog group.

He added: “A lot of people are so caught up in creating the jobs that they are not paying a lot of attention to the quality of the jobs. Or they may be saying, 'Let's worry about that later.'”

Critics, such as Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., say the facts show that these programs are boondoggles.

“Green jobs require expensive taxpayer subsidies, pay low wages and kill a hell of a lot more jobs than they create,” said Bond, who has been studying the issue as a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

But last month Obama said the government is spending $2.3 billion to create 17,000 jobs, at a cost of $135,294 a pop. The funds came out of last year's stimulus bill and go to companies working in technologies such as wind, solar and biomass.

“Building a robust clean-energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future — jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced,” Obama said at the time. He added that the administration planned on spending an additional $5 billion on green job programs.

Advocates of funding such programs admit there are problems, but argue that they are still better than other job-creation schemes and, of course, are greener.

The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups, in 2008 proposed spending $500 billion over a decade to create 5 million green jobs, or $100,000 each.

“(I)nvestments in energy efficiency and renewables will generate about 16.7 jobs per $1 million spent, whereas every $1 million spent in the fossil-fuel industry generates approximately 5.3 jobs,” said Sam Haswell, spokesman for the Apollo Alliance, citing research by the liberal Center for American Progress, a member of the alliance.

Set aside whether those funds could be better spent by the private sector in the form of lower taxes. Or the jobs that will be lost due to future tax hikes to pay for green programs. Even then, it's not clear that the job benefits are as great as their advocates say.

Good Jobs?

A 2009 study by Good Jobs First of 28 state- and local-level green-job funding in manufacturing found four cases where the cost per job exceeded $100,000 and three more where it exceeded $90,000.

Solaicx, a Portland, Ore.-based company, received a $21.5 million subsidy to produce parts for solar panels. That has resulted in 66 jobs, for a cost per job of $325,758.

United Solar Ovonic received $96.6 million in subsidies and tax abatements to place its plant in Battle Creek, Mich. Since then the company has employed 350 people, putting the cost per job at $276,857.

And that's not all. Last month United Solar Ovonic reported receiving a $13 million federal tax credit as part of the stimulus program.

And Norcross, Ga.-based Suniva had by 2009 received $10 million in state and local subsidies to produce parts for solar panels. In January, it got $5.7 million more in tax credits from the stimulus.

In a press release announcing the tax credits, Suniva claimed to have created 130 clean jobs, putting the cost per job at $120,769. CEO John Baumstark told IBD that they had created “over one hundred jobs” directly as a result of the subsidies.

Baumstark said, “It's too early to tell” if Suniva will be able to use all the $5.7 million in tax credits.

Asked what his company's average wage is, Baumstark declined to say. He did say positions ran from high-paying technical jobs to lower-paying ones.

The Good Jobs report found the average cost per job of the 28 programs was about $61,000. But that still isn't very efficient, because often the jobs paid far less per year.

“Wage rates at many wind and solar manufacturing facilities are below the national average” for comparable manufacturing sector jobs, the report noted.

The average wage for workers in the durable goods industry is $18.88 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's less than $40,000 a year.

Good Jobs' analysis of 20 subsidized wind and solar manufacturing plants found only five that met or exceeded that.

Apollo's Haswell said that was why his alliance wanted any green job legislation to include provisions such as “Made in America” mandates. This points to another flaw in the rhetoric regarding such programs: Much of the manufacturing is outsourced.

“Right now, 70% of America's clean energy systems and components are produced abroad. Half of our existing wind turbines are manufactured overseas. We supply less than 10% of the global solar component market,” Haswell said.

Mattera points to Evergreen Solar (NMS:ESLR), which has received almost $50 million in state and local subsidies. In November, Reuters reported that Evergreen was “accelerating its strategy to outsource solar work to China as the company, faced by stiff pricing competition from Chinese rivals, races to cut costs.”

Mattera offered one final, ironic point. These green companies are no more immune to the recession than anyone else.

“Some of these companies have had layoffs and downsized just because of the general economic climate,” he said.

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