Affiliate Marketing- Part II "Giving a facelift"

Written by John Benjamin (ProMinds Inc)


Continued from page 1

3. The psyche of an affiliate.

Most companies write of affiliates who do not generate any sales inrepparttar first quarter of signing up. This is a dead situation as bothrepparttar 102159 parties would have lost interested. However, a little retrospection into this will show something else. Most affiliates who sign up do not knowrepparttar 102160 technical details for setting uprepparttar 102161 banners, etc. Instead of having a generic FAQ page, customization isrepparttar 102162 keyword here.

Companies will need to monitorrepparttar 102163 affiliate's path onrepparttar 102164 site and contact them accordingly. For example a person who signs up as an affiliate and then logs intorepparttar 102165 system, clicks onrepparttar 102166 banner links and then logs off. If this happens way too often, (and im talking of not more than 2 times) there is something seriously wrong. If a company can take this opportunity and provide support torepparttar 102167 affiliate, trust me, you have one person who is going to be all praise for you.

4. Custom deals.

Another most common fact is that companies provide custom commissions only to affiliates who bring in higher volumes of sales. While many people do know that a company would not limit itself torepparttar 102168 commission type it displays onrepparttar 102169 site,repparttar 102170 company also needs to approachrepparttar 102171 affiliate and negotiate a custom deal that will be appropriate forrepparttar 102172 affiliate. Most often it happens that companies tend to either overquote or underquoterepparttar 102173 deal. Perhaps a little more research intorepparttar 102174 market andrepparttar 102175 affiliate himself would provide a better insight.

5. Special promotions.

Now, I would not call these anything special, far from being called a promotion. For most companies, a special promotion would mean givingrepparttar 102176 affiliate an extra amount for a set number of sales brought torepparttar 102177 company in a specified timeframe. What isrepparttar 102178 use for having a special promotion when your infrastructure is stillrepparttar 102179 same?

It would take anywhere between 2 to 3 quarters before a company can consider offering you a special promotion. Apart fromrepparttar 102180 usual custom of offering extra commissions or increase discounts, it would be a better idea to actually gather information fromrepparttar 102181 affiliate. If a company assigns an account manager for an affiliate, 2 to 3 quarters time is more than sufficient forrepparttar 102182 account manager to be able to guagerepparttar 102183 requirements of their affiliate. Companies will have to move out fromrepparttar 102184 usual and experiment more in terms ofrepparttar 102185 likes and dislikes ofrepparttar 102186 affiliate so that it would fit well intorepparttar 102187 system and atrepparttar 102188 same time not loserepparttar 102189 focus fromrepparttar 102190 affiliate.

While most companies always rely onrepparttar 102191 same roadmap towards having a successful affiliate program, this sector needs companies to experiment with new ideas and innovative campaigns to give a facelift torepparttar 102192 affiliate programs.

John Benjamin works as a freelance consultant for Internet marketing and has his website at http://www.promindsinc.com/

A complete list of articles can be found at his forum http://www.promindsinc.com/bb/


Your Affiliate Business and Taxes

Written by By Vickie Scanlon


Continued from page 1

(Please note: If you are unsure about anything, you should enlistrepparttar help of a CPA, regarding tax matters).

Your estimated taxes are due onrepparttar 102158 following dates throughoutrepparttar 102159 year:

April 15 June 15 September 15 January 15

To obtain more specific information you can read IRS Publication 505: Estimated Tax payments.

Note: You are not required to make estimated tax payments until you have income not subject to withholding on which you will owe tax. If you don't make your first payment until a later period, you must divide your entire estimated tax byrepparttar 102160 number of payment dates remaining. If, for example, you have three payment dates pending, you would pay one third ofrepparttar 102161 total tax by June 15,repparttar 102162 other third by September 15 andrepparttar 102163 last by January 15.

Typical Expenses To Deduct

Here is a list of some ofrepparttar 102164 expenses you can deduct.

1. Your home mortgage -- If you use a room solely for conducting business then you can take this deduction. There are a couple of different formulas to determinerepparttar 102165 percentage of your home that is used for your business.

You can userepparttar 102166 "number of rooms" method orrepparttar 102167 "area method". I would suggest usingrepparttar 102168 "area method" because I can't imagine having a home where allrepparttar 102169 rooms arerepparttar 102170 same size.

Withrepparttar 102171 area method, you would takerepparttar 102172 area of your home office divided byrepparttar 102173 area of your home. Example:

Your Office= 10' X 10' = 100 square feet YOur home is 1000 square feet Your deduction = 100/1000 or 10%

2. Indirect Expenses -- with indirect expenses you will only be able to deductrepparttar 102174 area percentage (Note: use area percentage calculated above) ofrepparttar 102175 total cost. These indirect expenses would include such things as:

House payment Utilites Telephone Garbage collection Internet connection (If other people are usingrepparttar 102176 Intenet)

3. Direct Expenses -- these are expenses that relate only to your business.

Supplies Advertising Business account bank charges

Keeping Track of Expenses

To keep track of all your expenses. and you are comfortable working with a spreadsheet software, I would suggest purchasing a small business accounting package such as QuickBooks or Peachtree Accounting.

To conclude, this definitely is not an exhaustive list of what you need to know. However, this will give you a beginning as to what you will have to be aware of when starting a home-based business. As your business grows, your CPA will be able to assist you and keep you onrepparttar 102177 straight and narrow to your success onrepparttar 102178 Internet.

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools,articles, ebooks, and how to info or check her blog for additional insights to the Affiliate Business – http://myaffiliateplace.blogspot.com


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