Some Financial Tips for Affiliates

Status
Not open for further replies.

majorbta

Makin Paper
Apr 1, 2008
581
22
0
Charlotte, NC
Here are some financial tips and pieces of advice that have saved/made me a lot of money over the last few months so I thought I would share.

- Get a CPA, don't be cheap. You get what you pay for and a good one will pay for it's self very quickly.

- Stop using a debit card immediately. Get a good credit card, I use the Amex Plum that has 2% cash back. After a little history with them you can usually charge about 200-250k before they make you pay it down. This gives me a lot of float and protection you don't get with a debit card. When you start doing bigger numbers, the cash back with this card can be more than enough to live off of each month.

- I have stopped using a regular checking account and moved to brokerage account for all my banking. I use Schwab, but others are good too. I do all my banking straight out of my tax free municipal bonds sweep account. I earn interest on my savings not to mention since i am doing all my checking from this, I earn money off my weekly wires until it is time to pay off the credit card. Many credit cards end up having a float period of 35-60 days. That can be alot of tax free interest money

- Stop paying wire fees at your bank. Schwab has no wires and most banks don't either if you keep enough cash in the bank. bank of america doesn't charge wire fees on their preferred business checking with only requires a avg balance of 25k. Wire fees can add up, stop paying for them.

- Negotiate your media buys. Almost any rate can be negotiated. I've gotten as much as 50% rates by prepaying or signing a larger IO. Say you'll do 100k if they give you break. Get a 48hr out clause, if the traffic sucks, bail. If it doesnt, you got a cheap rate.

- Ask Google for credits. I can usually get refunds of $500/m by submitting click fraud info too Google and they will almost always credit me. They do click adjustments, but it doesn't always catch everything. Audit your traffic and email their quality people if you find lots hits from multiple ips or a small block of IPs

- Find short terms investment options. There are some short term bonds, cd's, etc... that you can put cash in before you need to pay your credit card. Lets say you have a card that the billing cycle is 30 days and they give you 30 days to pay, that sa 60 day float. You could invest some or most of your advertising costs into a short term CD before you need to pay off your credit card.

- Don't try and be a baller, save your money. Bank hard now, save, and then live the rest of your life off the interest your savings earns. This means that you should try and live below your means.


Just a few things that might help you save or make more with the money you have.
 


- Don't try and be a baller, save your money. Bank hard now, save, and then live the rest of your life off the interest your savings earns. This means that you should try and live below your means.

In a thread laden with good advice, this may perhaps be the best of all. Good looking out, Major - quite a few people don't realize that this business may NOT be the long-term cashcow that it seems and thusly spend their money exorbitantly, only to go broke and re-appear as a lowly affiliate manager two years down the road, wondering how they could have blown through that much money that fast. I call this 'Mike Tyson Syndrome.'

Great wisdom.


Ev
 
Nice post Major. I use a debit card (stupid yes) and need to get AMEX etc...
I put the unused revenue into my TD ameritrade account and have it on a world fund that does about 5-10%.
And yes, CPA is the ONLY way. H and R block? I dont think so.
 
trafficuniversityfaq.com "- Negotiate your media buys. Almost any rate can be negotiated. I've gotten as much as 50% rates by prepaying or signing a larger IO. Say you'll do 100k if they give you break. Get a 48hr out clause, if the traffic sucks, bail. If it doesnt, you got a cheap rate."

That's all those people talked about. I remember it in the background while we were raping the chatroom, but good stuff here, that one point just reminds me of that pos.
 
I have to be honest, this makes me realise that I am just not looking at PPC as a long term business investment. I need to stop looking at the quick buck, ignoring things like wire free, smaller cash back numbers, etc.

Thanks a ton for the post. Am printing it out and going to investigate each option in more detail and evaluate other areas of my business.
 
Great Advice!

Can you shed some light on the best ways to protect the money we earned?

What entity did your lawyer recommend (multi member LLC, S/C Corp, holding companies)? Do you have business liability insurance?

I never thought an affiliate working from home would need basic biz liability insurance but I was told my biggest risk is getting sued over a personal matter like a car accident. The lawyers will also sue your biz. Makes no sense but they will attempt to prove you were going to Staples or traveling to some other biz related function.

Any of you affiliates pay for business liability insurance?
 
What % are you getting on your cash sweep? I keep lose funds in my WF CS and the return keeps going down, was looking for something new.
 
- I have stopped using a regular checking account and moved to brokerage account for all my banking. I use Schwab, but others are good too. I do all my banking straight out of my tax free municipal bonds sweep account. I earn interest on my savings not to mention since i am doing all my checking from this, I earn money off my weekly wires until it is time to pay off the credit card. Many credit cards end up having a float period of 35-60 days. That can be alot of tax free interest money

What exactly is a sweep account? my dad mentioned it to me, but i never figured what it was.
I know its higher interest, but i thought there was some risk involved.

I have a money market acct thats paying 2%, which sucks.
 
This one is brilliant. Solid words there buddy.

- Don't try and be a baller, save your money. Bank hard now, save, and then live the rest of your life off the interest your savings earns. This means that you should try and live below your means.
 
What exactly is a sweep account? my dad mentioned it to me, but i never figured what it was.
I know its higher interest, but i thought there was some risk involved.

I have a money market acct thats paying 2%, which sucks.


My understanding is that it is basically an account where your funds are swept to overnight. So if you are in a tax free bond sweep account, your funds, like a money market, are swept into a tax free interest bearing account which is invested into bonds each night.

I am not a financial adviser, that's just my understanding.
 
+rep

I'm looking to save up $2m and buy a house.
That sort of cash in a 5% interest bearing account works out as just over $100k p.a. to live off.


Yea you're right. If you can bank between $3-5M you can basically earn a six figure salary off the interest each year without touching the principal
 
- Ask Google for credits. I can usually get refunds of $500/m by submitting click fraud info too Google and they will almost always credit me. They do click adjustments, but it doesn't always catch everything. Audit your traffic and email their quality people if you find lots hits from multiple ips or a small block of IPs

what do you submit to them? a screenshot of p202 with the fraud info and ips?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.