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* Merchant Account. You probably won't need a Merchant Account, as such, unless you are selling digital products or products you'll be shipping to a customer. It is a good idea to set up an account with http://paypal.com because a lot of affiliate managers are using PayPal to make payments to affiliates. There is no charge for using PayPal.
* Software and Scripts. You will need, at
least, some kind of spreadsheet to track your expenses and income from your affiliate business. Eventually, you will need a more robust program like QuickBooks or Microsoft Money. If you don't have a spreadsheet software application, you can get one free from http://openoffice.org. This is a suite of tools that works like Microsoft Office. You may or may not need website scripts - depending on how elaborate you want your website to be. Examples would be article management or "tell a friend" scripts. Let's just set at cost at $50 just in case.
* Advertising. For first few weeks, you will not be spending money on advertising or promotion. But since we are working on an "Annual" budget, let's estimate it at $50 per month or $600. I know that sounds like a lot, but if you want to get word out, you'll need to set money aside for pay-per-click search engines and ezine advertising.
* Education. Ongoing education is going to be extremely important to your affiliate marketing success. You will not have to purchase a lot of educational materials - if you don't want to. There are many free resources, such as newsletters, that you can study. For now, we'll set a zero budget, but allow a certain amount later for ebook or how-to videos.
What is final total? Approximately $800.00. Does that seem extreme? Remember, this is for an entire year. Where else but on Internet can you start a business for under $1,000? Keep it in perspective. If you intend to have a "real" business, you must treat it as a real business - which includes real expenses.
