For people living in the San Jose area of Northern California, one of the big questions on people's minds is, "Where have all the Silicon Valley jobs gone?”. The people of Silicon Valley are used to cyclical ups and downs and seeing this happen to Silicon Valley jobs, since much of the industry revolves around computer chips, an industry renowned for its fluctuations in fortunes. But, the financial meltdown and recession that hit the area took things to a whole new level, as far as Silicon Valley jobs lost and the overall devastating effect it had on the economy are concerned.

But, the good news is that, even though jobs aren't coming back in the numbers expected, both in the Silicon Valley jobs arena and elsewhere, there are alternatives to worrying about the lack of job openings in San Jose, and we'll discuss some of the better alternatives available here.

It's Not Only Silicon Valley Jobs That Have Been Hit

Unfortunately, the same scenario that hit Silicon Valley jobs hit most other areas of the US, leaving literally millions of people unemployed and with a very uncertain future. And that picture hasn't changed much in the intervening years, meaning there are still millions of people looking for some way to generate an income stream and pay those bills that keep appearing in their mail boxes every month (wouldn't it be nice if our creditors would just turn around and say, "Well, you lost your job, so let's just consider that credit card debt paid!"???).

Fortunately, there are alternatives that can help repair the damage done by the loss of Silicon Valley jobs and jobs elsewhere. One of the best alternatives, and one that many people have been looking at, is the world of online enterprise.

Opportunities Abound Online

The number of sites and businesses springing up on the internet has exploded in recent years, so many people think the whole idea of doing business on the internet is saturated. Wrong! Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, think about it - the internet as we know it has barely been around 20 years, so we've barely scratched the surface of what's possible there.

There are plenty of opportunities to make money online, and for some of them you don't even need a web site, which is great news for those of us who are technologically challenged. Let's look at some of the more popular and least expensive ones as part of the solution to the shortage of Silicon Valley jobs.

Alternative To Silicon Valley Jobs #1 - Affiliate Marketing

There are a lot of companies online looking for people to help market their products, and no prior experience is needed. That's basically what affiliate marketing is - you sign up to help market a company's products and you're paid a commission for each sale you make. One of the best sources of affiliate opportunities is a company called Clickbank, which has thousands of offers available which pay various commission amounts. This is a no cost way to generate income, so is ideal for people with limited financial resources and looking for an alternative to the Silicon Valley jobs market.

Alternative To Silicon Valley Jobs #2 - Article Marketing

As its name suggests, this is all about writing articles and promoting either your web site or another company's web site. You write a useful and/or informative article on the subject you want to promote of a minimum of 300 words with links to the web site you're promoting and submit your articles to one or more online article directories. Again, there is no cost involved in this, other than the time and effort needed to create and submit articles, which may be time better spent than landing one of those elusive Silicon Valley jobs.

Alternative To Silicon Valley Jobs #3 - Blogs

Blogs have become ubiquitous these days, with people blogging about everything from recipes (yes, I did see the film "Julie And Julia"!) to Silicon Valley jobs to the latest scientific and technological advances, but they're still an excellent way to generate income. Post a review of a product and have people buy it through your blog and get paid; publish ads (see Adsense below) and get paid when visitors click on those ads. There are plenty of free blogging platforms, the most widely known being WordPress and Blogger, and it's easy to set up, so get started today so you never have to worry about the lack of Silicon Valley jobs again!

Alternative To Silicon Valley Jobs #4 - Adsense

Courtesy of Google, Adsense is free to set up, and is contextual advertising that visitors to your web site click on and from which you are paid for the referral by the advertisers.

As you can see, despite the shortage of Silicon Valley jobs and the shortage of jobs throughout the U.S. in general, there are alternatives to the Silicon Valley jobs market that are relatively easy to get started with and are generally free. So, if you're one of the many who finds yourself without a job in this tough Silicon Valley jobs market and wondering where your next pay check will come from, or if you're just looking for an alternative, don't despair because there is still plenty you can do to get back on track financially.