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Being Your Own Boss
Copyright 2005 Brian Beshore
As far as being your own boss--do you have what it takes? The best bosses, they say, are tough, only in being your own boss, you know who you have to be tough on.
Now, I’m not advocating that you stop liking...
Does Your Website Need Search Engine Placement?
Introduction For many, the value of their websites can be measured in visitors, for others it is the amount of revenue that the site generates. Regardless of how you measure the success of your website, you are going to have to bring visitors to it...
Kick-Off Your Web Traffic Virus!
Have you noticed lately how savvy webmasters are using simple, content-rich articles to pull-in more targeted *traffic* to their Web Site audience without spending a dime on promotion or advertising?
It's a fact: content is KING on the Internet....
SEO: The Importance of an Ethical Approach
It is, of course, always preferable to deal with an ethical practitioner, no matter what the business in question is. But SEO, by its nature, is one of the most sensitive industries, and here such issues as ethics or ethical business conduct are...
The Click Fraud Problem
Click fraud has become a major problem for online marketers. If you participate on Google adwords campaigns or Overture, you must already pay a lot for your campaigns.
What is click fraud?
Click fraud is the deliberate clicks to PPC search...
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Accounting for Affiliate Marketers
If you are an affiliate marketer, then you are in business. Therefore, you should treat it like a business. Keep in mind that Linkshare, Clickbank, Commission Junction and all the other affiliate marketplaces are going to report your earnings to the IRS.
Each of them requires that you provide a Social Security Number or EIN number when you apply with them. These numbers are used to report your earnings. At the end of the year, you'll receive a 1099 form which is the IRS earnings document given to Independent Contractors.
Since you have to pay taxes on your income, you should take care to make sure that your income is properly calculate. Remember, gross adjusted income is going to be the total amount that you earned - your expenses. For this reason, you really need to keep track of all of your affiliate marketing expenses.
Keep receipts and track all the following:
* Web Hosting Costs
* Affiliate marketing tools (such as your WordTracker membership fees, the cost of products like Adwords Analyzer, etc.)
* Any PPC advertising that you purchase.
Don't do as I have been prone to do and wait til the end of the year before you start putting these numbers together. You'll forget many and you won't be able to gain access to others.
For example, with PPC advertising, Google seems to keep records online forever. Great. But Overture only keeps the last 90 days and you can't - I repeat - You CAN'T get those records older than 90 days. (Ask me how I know :(
Getting receipts means that you'll have to think ahead. When you buy something
online, print the receipt page. When you subscribe to a service that may pull a fee from your checking account or credit card account on a monthly basis, make sure to opt in to any e-mail notification of transactions that you might be able to get.
Print everything out and put it in a folder for that years tax records. You won't regret it when tax season comes along.
You will also get a much better picture of how much money you're earning. I think a lot of affiliate marketers brag about their checks, but conveniently forget that out of the $10,000.00 they earned last month, they spent $8,000.00 for PPC advertising, $27.00 for Wordtracker, $100.00 for their web host, ect, etc, reducing their actual profit to enough to buy some bubble gum.
There's great software that makes all of this easier of course. Quicken or MS Money Home and Business editions or PeachTree accounting would all make the whole process of tracking these numbers much less painful.
Finally, there are real benefits (and some costs) to incorporating yourself. Incorporating changes the tax rules and create scenarios that let you put more of your profit into your pocket. They also help to shield you from liability. I'm not a lawyer, so I'd recommend talking to an tax law lawyer. I incorporated in Florida and the entire expense was about $495.00.
About the Author
Charles Waters discovered the wonderful world of affiliate marketing in 2003 and has never looked back. Today, he operates several successful money making web pages, including The Affiliates Home.
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