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There are many home business opportunities for those who want to work on the Internet. Becoming an affiliate marketer is one of the ways of having your own online business. Every affiliate marketer who has ever written an article, has written one about why they started a home based business. The reasons vary. Here are some of my reasons why I choose affiliate marketing for my home-based business.

1. Be Your Own Boss – This is my the main reason for being an affiliate marketer. Actually, it is what motivated me to become an affiliate marketer. I really am independent when it comes to someone telling how to do something.

2. The world is your store – There are no geographic limits on your sales area, because you never leave home. Promote your web site worldwide; every Internet user in the whole world is potentially your customer (and they call this a small business! The joke is on them!)

3. Set up costs are minimal – Most affiliate programs are free to join, so all you need to start your business is the Internet, a computer and a willingness to learn. You can work from anywhere in the world and it makes no difference whether you have an office or work from your kitchen table.

4. Selection of products and services – All you have to do is decide what you think people will want to buy, just about everything is available online. With affiliate directories it’s easy to find products to sell.

5. No inventory to stock – You don’t need to worry about purchasing products that you then have to store in your home. Sell any item, large or small without having to worry about storage space.

6. Astronomical income potential -With your own affiliate business your income level is limited only by you and your desire and effort – not by a salary structure or office politics.

7. No wholesale account or billing required – Forget the problems connected with invoicing, collecting payments and processing credit cards. The wholesaler handles all payment processing; as an affiliate, you never have to worry about returns, fraud or losing your account.

8. Extremely low overhead – Apart from a reasonable budget for advertising and the cost of your Internet connection, you have nothing much in the way of overhead. You work from home, so the big expense of renting office space is eliminated and it is possible to get income tax deductions to cover office expenditures.

9. Open for business – As an affiliate, your business is running for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when you are sleeping, vacationing with your family and all Holidays. You don’t have to worry about business hours or delivery deadlines it is all on autopilot. You don’t have to worry about scheduling employees: as a matter of fact you don’t even need any employees!

10. YOU ARE THE BOSS! – This is the best reason of all! You are completely responsible for your own success (or failure); no one can tell you when you have to be at work, when you can have a day off, how much you will get paid, no stress, no pressure, and the list goes on….

With the growing recognition of social  networks like MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and so on, business and personal reputations are more public and exposed than ever before.  And as we all know your reputation can make or break a business.

No matter who you are or where you live, you have a reputation. Your friends and family have different views of who you are based on your behavior; while your reputation online might be thought of as professional and helpful or juvenile and indifferent. If you think your personal reputation doesn’t affect your business; that people shouldn’t mix personal and business, think again. Your personal reputation beyond doubt carries over into your business.

Trust is a fragile commodity.  Building a relationship with customers based on their trust of you is time consuming but the most important factor in building your business whether that is online or offline.  Any successful businessman will tell you that without trust they would not be in business at all, but working for someone else.

If you cheat one person by not offering the best possible service, that one person will tell his neighbor, who tells their neighbor, who tells the next person and so on down the line.  This principle applies to both online and offline businesses.  If you are working solely online it is even more important for you to build a solid reputation as an honest person.  Customers will not meet you face to face to judge you, but rather they will judge you by what you have to offer on your websites. So be very careful how you treat your customers and be honest in what you are offering.

If you gain a poor reputation either online or offline, your customers and acquaintances will not trust you; therefore these same people who feel a lack of trust believe they cannot rely on you or your business.  And this will most assuredly hurt your business!

Those customers who believe in you and your reputation, who trust you, will become loyal to you and your business. They will continue to come back to you for their needs and are more likely to refer others to you. The better their experience, the better your reputation becomes, and the more profitable your business becomes.

Do you know how you and your company are seen through the eyes of potential customers? Your company’s reputation can be in some measure assessed by searching the Internet and seeing what people have to say about you and your company. Checking with the Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce are also very good ways to determine companies trustworthiness. Search for yourself and your company at Google and on Twitter to see what people are saying about you.

By remembering that anything you add to public web pages is out there for all to see is a good way of protecting your reputation. It may not be of much interest today, you never know who might pick up on it next week or next year. The old adage that “bad publicity is better than no publicity” no longer applies. In today’s global marketplace competition is high and it is extremely difficult to overcome a negative reputation.

Remember what you sow today will be what you will live on tomorrow!

In a couple of weeks the children will be back in school and a few weeks after that mothers will start thinking more about what they want to do with their “free” time.  So some start to look on the Internet in hopes of finding that perfect part-time job, that can be done while the children are at school or sleeping.

The only problem with this concept that I have come across is that a lot of mothers with businesses find that they have no idea whether or not their business is making any money.

Most “newbies”  jump in with both feet and have no idea what it is they are suppose to do to make money.  Or they simply do not have any cash flowing through to make money.  At the end of the 6 months or even a year, they sometimes realize they have spent more than they have made.  Then usually I hear the cries of “It is a scam!”  I am here to tell you not everything on the Internet is a scam; they are quite a few legitimate work at home jobs or businesses.

If you don’t know alot about finances, and the vast majority of people don’t, then how can you determine that your business is making money?  If you don’t’ keep track of advertising and sales-then how do you know how to improve?  And how do you plan on staying business?  Here are some tips to help you answer these questions:

1.The Basics:  You need to have more money coming in than going out.  If you have ever done a budget for your household living expenses the same concept applies to a business.  It is a simple, straight forward concept; however there are numerous “newbies” who think they can spend money they don’t have and still make a profit each month.

2. Business Plan:  Do you need one and why?  Yes!  Having some sort of   plan written down will help with determine how much money you can safely invest in your business.  It can help you decide where the best possible place is to put that money.  Plus, if you have it right in front of you every time you turn on the computer, you will have a better idea what it is you are doing.

3, Keeping Track:  If you don’t balance your checking account regularly you will be overdrawn in no time.  The same with your business accounts check them regularly to make sure more money is coming in than going out.  That you are staying within your budget.  Keep track of your sales and after a time if they are not improving ask yourself why.  What can I do different to increase sales and still stay within my budget.  Is your business plan still working and how can you improve it.

During this time you should have a pretty good idea how much you are spending on advertising, is there some way you can improve your results with the same advertising.  Do you need to rework your ads to make them more noticeable?

If you have your own website are you getting the necessary traffic to your website to make a profit.  In most cases, I have found that if I get somewhere between 300-400 clicks a day on my website, I am guaranteed a profit.  This is not written in stone, it can vary.  But this is my goal per day.

A really good program to use to track your income and expenses is Excel.  You probably already have it on your computer.  You can set this program up to keep track of your activity, and as you bring in more income you can then purchase an accounting program such as Quicken to track all income/expenses.

4. Know Your Profit Margin: What is a profit margin?  If your costs are set at a certain amount, your advertising at a set amount, then how much do you need to make a profit.  Let say you have a product that cost you $49.99 to purchase, you need to advertise that product.  How much and how many sales are needed for you to start to make a profit on that one purchase?  If you were to sale that same product for $59.99, you would make $10.00 profit on each product and it would take 5 sales for you to make your money back, without spending any money on advertising.  If you spend money on advertising, then that too has to be factored in before you can determine your gross profit.

Once you know all this then you are at your “break-even point”.  This is when you have covered all your cost.  If you cannot cover your cost then you are going to lose money and your business will fail.

Keeping track of these few things could make the difference between making money and losing money.

Let me give you an example:  Doggie Heaven (fictitious) makes $6000 in sales per month (sounds good doesn’t it?) Doggie Heaven’s owner makes a guess that their costs are around $5,000 per month, this is before he checks his actual figures. So they assume that they will make $1000 per month. However, once all there costs are tallied, they soon realize that the cost of running their Doggie Heaven business is actually $6000 and they have made no money at all.  So they have worked for nothing.

In having a business plan in front of them with approximate costs they could have adjusted expenditures and/or increased their sales.  The point is that if you don’t know how you are doing, how can you improve it and how will you stay in business?

Don’t be afraid to start a business, just be informed.  All of the information is at your fingertips you only need to ask questions, search for answers, and have a business plan, that can be adjusted, in front of you.

Working at home is both rewarding and challenging at the same time. Running a business out of your home takes commitment, self-discipline, flexible, and being able to make your own decisions.  Learn  to treat your business like a business not as a hobby, or your success will be longer in coming than you thought it would be. I have learned five simple tips that will help you see more success on your work at home adventure as a home based business owner.

Tip #1: Setting up an office space that is just for you and your business separate from the main busy area of your home is your first challenge.  It doesn’t have to be a large area, but make sure that your family knows that this is area is just for you and your business.  Keep all your business material in this area only rather than scattered around your home. You will be able to run your business more easily when you have a separate working space with all your business materials in an area that is only used for business purposes.

Tip #2: Only you know when the best time for you to concentrate on your business.  Just remember it does not have to be 9-5, it can be 2-3 hours a day if that is all you have to spare. Be flexible and remember why you wanted to work from home in the first place. The important ingredient with this tip is that you do make the time, no matter how small, set aside time each day for your business needs.

Tip #3: As you go through your working hours, the ones you set, keep your space organized.  Make sure whatever it is you are working on is put away at the end of the day in a designated spot.  I find notebooks to be a particular help with this.  Each notebook is labeled and at any point during the time I am working I can pull out whatever I need, because it is right there in front of me.  I try to make sure my desk is uncluttered at the end of the day.  It doesn’t always happen, but every other day I go through and make sure everything is where it is suppose to be.

#Tip 4: Since the chances are you have never worked online or known someone who has don’t be afraid to ask for help from the many online forums.  You do not have to do this alone, there are plenty of people online who will help you.  I have found that online entrepreneurs are for the most part very generous of their time and advice.  This is part of good business planning. It is the sign of a smart work at home mom, who is savvy enough to admit she can’t do it all.  Remember to ask for help and eventually when your business grows you might be able to outsource some of the work load.

#Tip 5: So many times I see work at home moms running in circles and wondering why they aren’t seeing success. What is even more distressing is when someone asks for ideas, suggestions and help, and you offer them, sharing your experience and knowing what works and what doesn’t,  they don’t listen to the advice.

If you are a work at home mom or dad, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you know for certain what will work at what doesn’t. Many times you need to accommodate  the clients you are trying to reach, and the method used from past clients you have been dealing with will not work on the newer clients. Be open to new ideas and continue to explore new methods and techniques of advertising and promoting your home based business.

Using the tips I have outlined will make your adventure less exasperating and much more rewarding as you reach your goals.