IRS is calling! Are you ready for tax season?
I was chatting the other day with an affiliate marketer who is much more experienced than I am at this game. I mentioned that I was still waiting for my 1099 tax forms from a couple of my affiliate networks. One of whom I made a substantial income from last year.
This guy told me that a few years back he made almost a million dollars over an 18 month period. Now let me tell you, that in itself completely blew my mind. I know that there are people out there doing this but that kind of money to me is beyond comprehension. At least as an affiliate marketer. I mean, I personally know folks in the corporate world who make upwards of a quarter million a year and you hear about corporate CEO’s who make tens of millions per year in compensation. But to generate a 7 figure income from internet marketing??? That, to me, is remarkable. Hell, my 5 figure a month income still completely blows me away.
At any rate, this IM went on to tell me that despite that astounding income, he never sent in his self-employment taxes and barely kept a quarter of his income for tax time!!!
WTF??? This guy made almost a million dollars and right now he is broke and is scheduled to go to tax court shortly.
Maybe it’s because I spent 9 years doing retail e-commerce and had to keep strict books and filed my quarterlies, or maybe due to my age, or maybe I’m just old school but when I get those checks from my affiliate networks or adsense, I take HALF of it and stash it in an online saving account that is specifically set up for this purpose.
As it is, I’m stressing that I didn’t hold enough back in 2007 but that’s me. If I didn’t have something to worry about I probably wouldn’t be happy.
So, I’m hoping that everyone did the smart thing in 2007 and kept back enough money to pay the IRS come April 15th. And if this is your first year in any type of internet marketing remember this rule: If you make more then $600 during 2008 through anyone you market for online, you will receive a 1099 in 2009 where you must report that income because your affiliate network already has done so to protect THEIR ass!
Hmmm…I wonder if you could possibly get 100 or more affiliate networks and make $599 with each one and not report the income????
How Much Money Have You Wasted on eBooks?
$10.00? $20.00? $200.00? How much money have you wasted on ebooks that are written by internet “gurus”? Ebooks have become a big income generator for a lot of people who market online. They can be about anything from making money selling on ebay to creating videos on youtube that will help you make money.
A lot of these sell for as little as $5.00 but some go for much more. It’s not unusual to pay $50 for some ebook that will promise you the world.
Listen, I haven’t paid for many but I do have them and I can tell you this: The vast majority of them are going to promote systems and methods that a beginner is not going to be able to follow due to the technical nature or because of additional set up costs involved.
Or worse, the author of the ebook has been using this system for so long that it is just not generating the income it once did. So what does he do? A method that he probably guarded with his life and kept from the world is now being sold to the masses.
I’m not saying all ebooks are garbage but just think of all the money you’ve spent on them and how much you’ve gotten in return. What has your ROI been?
Trying to just focus on tasks
I swear I’m developing ADD. Lately I have hardly been able to just pick one goal or task and finish it! As some may know, I have a money generating technique that has been good to me, I average about $xx,xxx/month with it. But it’s a time consuming bitch, incredibly boring and causes me brain freeze by the time I’m done every day.
So by lunchtime, I’m going nuts. Of course by then, I’m also scouring the posts at BlackHatWorld.com trying to find just ONE project I can sink my teeth into. Well, what happens is I wind up zipping back and forth in the forum, browsing posts or worse, downloading yet another freakin’ bit software or ebook and then taking the rest of the afternoon off while checking that out.
I’m scattered. I am making money but I need back up to what I’m doing. I need to diversify and I am not finding something I want to do yet.
Myspace Cyber Bully May Face Trial
Something I read in the L.A. Times this morning over my coffee: Looks like a federal grand jury in LA has begun issuing subpoenas in the case of the Missouri teen who hanged herself after some taunting on Myspace
I’m sure you remember the case, 13 year old Megan Meier thought she was being rejected by a 16 year old boy she “met” in the shithole more commonly known as Myspace when in fact it was Lori Drew, the mother of one of her former girlfriends. This stupid bitch created the account solely for the purpose of communicating with Megan to see what Megan was saying about Drew’s daughter.
Prosecutors in Missouri have been trying to find some way to charge Drew with something but have been unable to find any statute under which they could prosecute her. However, in an interesting twist, prosecutors in the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles are looking into charging Drew with fraud against Myspace by creating a false account.
Federal wire fraud and cyber fraud statutes are being looked at in the hopes of filing charges against Drew. Since Myspace is headquartered in Beverly Hills, the prosecutors think they can file the federal charges in California.
Interesting stuff. I guess I have two thoughts on this. The more important of the two is in relation to Drew who in my never humble opinion needs to be charged with something. What I don’t know but to let this fucktard get off without even a slap in the face is not acceptable.
The other is the detail on which they are looking at charging her and how it affects internet marketing. As we all know, many internet marketers have used Myspace in the past for for their money making ventures. Myspace and other social networks such as Hi5 and Facebook have been the target of bots used to create numerous, bogus profiles, add friends, comment and bulletin round the clock. Myspace has clearly cleaned up their site but there are still people using this method. In the past, Myspace made an attempt to delete fake profiles and in some cases, ban ip’s but I wonder if this case in Missouri and California might set a precedent on future efforts.
The Bucks Report - From e-commerce to affiliate marketing
Well, you have to start somewhere. After spending the last 6 months of 2007 getting my feet wet in the world of affiliate marketing, cpa networks, Adsense and some, ahem, less than nobel means to generate income, this is my first post of my first “real” blog that deals with all of the above. Basically, I’m in this to make MONEY.
Just a brief history of myself for anyone who winds up reading this: I started dabbling with html and making cute little web pages for friends in the early 90’s. Sometime around late 1998 I decided to put my newfound interest in the internet and one of my hobbies together. The result was a website that became a full blown e-commerce site.
It was all hand coded html in notepad or word. It was labor intense, time consuming, unrewarding financially and I loved it. Over the next few years the site grew and in those early days of Google, I began to dominate on some very popular search terms. In fact, I was #1 on Google for 2-3 years for my most important search term.
Unfortunately, this did not lead to the riches some would think. My business did increase but the profit margins were incredibly slim. I had my own site, my own shopping cart, my own merchant account, my own UPS account and I was dealing with vendors and customers. I was also shipping out items at an increasing rate by myself from my home.
I finally started drawing some income from the business and felt I was doing good for a couple of years. Then, Google had their Jagger update and I was fucked. My listings dropped like a rock and in the end, having no money to hire an SEO team and having not been able to keep up on SEO myself, the business started to dwindle.
I still have the website although it’s been parked for a couple of months. This, to me, has been on of the biggest failures of my life and I am determined to revamp my “baby” and let her rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. I believe in 2008 that will happen. It will not be the same format but I will incorporate affiliate marketing and other monetization methods.
As I mentioned earlier, while I had more and more time on my hands, I started dabbling in buying some turnkey sites, monetizing with adsense and CPA offers. As I got deeper into this (while still not making any substantial income), I also started looking into some darker methods. Nothing spammy but just some alternative, creative ways to bring in some cash.
To be brief, I literally had an epiphany one day. I started a system that has made me anywhere between $300-$700/day on average since the middle of 2007. With that luxury, I’ve been spending more and more time in forums that help people like me and I am determined to make 2008 a fantastic earning year.
So, you’re saying, “Big fucking deal. What’s this going to do for me?”
What I hope to do is share some info here and maybe help someone else. Presently, I’m not prepared to share my “big” gig that I do because I am totally and utterly paranoid that I’ll lose it due to someone elses incompetence. Maybe one day.
In the meantime, I’ll just post. It might be shit, it might be something that leads you to earn big bucks which is why I’m calling this BucksReport.com
And hopefully I’ll learn how to optimize a wordpress blog in the meantime.
Peace to all and I hope anyone who reads this can at least grab one morsel of inspiration if nothing else.