I have been working from home online for a few years now, and my business is to help others earn an income from home online. I help many people monetize their websites, not just lesbians, but as a lesbian myself I have found that there are only a handful of programs out there that are designed specifically for lesbians.

For the most part I showcase opportunities that are generic or mainstream, and have no problem helping my clients find sponsors and opportunities to monetize as long as they're not gay or lesbian.

What I have found though is that once I take on a client who is a member of the LGBT community, finding sponsorships and opportunities becomes double work for me. We really have to work hard to find products and services that the LGBT community have a need for and that is not provided by a company engaged in anti-gay activity.

For example, I have over a hundred online dating sites that I have sponsorship options with, and eHarmony is one of them.

No lesbian webmasters that I know of are interested in touching that sponsorship option with a ten foot pole! Maybe now that Lindsay Lohan put a fake profile commercial together endorsing eHarmony on Funny or Die, but still I'm not putting any money on that bet.

However, there are 3 programs that I recommend to everyone, LGBT or hetero - they are Adify, Amazon, and AdSense.

These are three monetization options that I consider mandatory for all who are interested in monetizing a site online. I use AdSense and Adify on all of my websites, and use Amazon links in many of my posts.

The next best option is to sign up for what are called affiliate programs.

There are some large affiliate networks that host many affiliate programs within their site and the ones I recommend for lesbian webmasters are CJ ( they offer Love and Pride, Fabugo, Gay.com, Match.com, more); LinkShare (they offer Orbitz, Chemistry); and ShareASale (they offer MyPartner.com, OneLove Networks). With these affiliate networks you join the main site and then apply for individual programs after you've been approved.

Other affiliate programs I recommend are those that are offered by a particular website itself.

You will usually see a link at the bottom of their site that will say "Affiliates", "Webmasters", "Referrals", "Partners", "Make Money" or some other term identifying that there is a opportunity available to earn a commission on any sales you might send their way.

Here is a list of the independent programs I am a part of and that I recommend for other lesbian webmasters like myself:

LESBIAN DATING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:

LDate.com

CupidMedia

Singles Cash

LGBT MEDIA AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:

Star Crossed Productions

Lambda Rising

Wolfe Video

Affiliate Bot (for TLA Video)

GAY PRIDE AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:

Queer Republic Tees

Rainbow Depot

Over the Rainbow

Always Proud

ADULT PRODUCT AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:

BabeLand

Good Vibes

Sapphic Cash

Verotel (No Fauxx, Good Dyke P*rn)

CC Bill (Lez Love, Crash Pad Series)

Movie Dollars (various)

So you can see the list is not that long if you consider the thousands of programs available to mainstream markets.

It did take me some time to find these programs for lesbian webmasters so I hope this list has helped someone else out there to save some time and find some good sponsors for their websites.

If you know of a good affiliate program for lesbian webmasters, be sure to let us all know by adding the link in our comments.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her by visiting her page on MySpace.