It would seem easy enough to determine the right time to quit your job to work-at-home…when you make enough money, right? But there’s more to it than that. Here are the things you need to consider before quitting your job to work-at-home full-time.

1. Are you making enough to quit? Okay so the obvious one is first. But working at home is usually different than a job. You don’t always have the same income each month. Some times you’ll be flush with money and others times you’re be watching your bank account minute by minute to see what checks are clearing. So by making enough what I really mean is; could you support yourself with the income you make in your slow months?

2. Do you have an emergency fund? Sometimes there are months aren’t just low…they’re downright empty. Or maybe a big repair is needed? Or even worse, you get sick and can’t work. Stuff happens and you need to be ready to support yourself if the income isn’t coming. Many experts suggest having six-months worth of savings. This is a good rule of thumb, but how much you save also depends on what you do (are you the only one who can do it?) and the situation.

3. Are you covered? You’d be surprised at how few people have insurance…health or otherwise. Recently I requested work-at-home stories from single work-at-home parents and almost none had health insurance. I know that some people think its not a big deal to pay for doctor visits or the occasional prescription, but I think they’re playing roulette with their financial lives. Even non-life threatening illnesses can take a toll. My son’s appendectomy was over $15,000! My daughter broke her wrist and my husband broke his ankle. In both cases, the costs were thousands of dollars. But insurance minimized those costs. Insurance is important particularly if you have children. So if you won’t be covered by a spouse, research and obtain health insurance for yourself. While you’re at it make sure you have enough home owner or renters insurance to cover business losses you’d have if something happen to your home.

4. Do you have enough work? This is especially true for people who provide a service. Do you have enough regular customers or a consistent flow of new customers to support you? If most of your business comes from one client, you may want to think twice about making the leap home. If that one customer decides not to use you anymore, you don’t want to lose significant income.

5. Do you have a history of success? Some people have success right out of the starting block and within a month are quitting their job. The next month after that, they’re wondering if they made the right decision. While fast success is great, you also need experience. You need to work out the kinks, problem solve issues, and feel confident about what you’re doing. Before quitting, make sure have some experience under your belt so you’ll be prepared for whatever may happen.

6. Are you equipped to handle the change? I once worked with a woman who worked part-time outside the home, but wanted to build her business to the point she could be home full time. When she finally quit, she all of a sudden had no time to work on her business? Building a business along side a job requires planning and scheduling that sometimes gets thrown aside when quit your job and you think you have all day to work at home. But working at home full time still requires routine and planning, and even more discipline. Being equipped also means being prepared to handle more work, as well as having the space and equipment to get it done.

The process is easy. Just paste the video URL, add your text or speech bubbles, add the link and BubblePly will generate a new URL for you to share the video. You don’t have to register, but if you do, you can edit and also delete the projects you’ve done.

My only hesitation is - third party URL. I guess that can’t be helped when it comes to a tool for the masses. Regardless, I’d still use a redirect so I an always control the link. Another big question is, would the video producers be happy about it? Probably not which is why asking for permission is important. But I think affiliate managers would be kinda crazy if they won’t allow their own affiliates to use their videos this way. Personally, I’d encourage my own affiliates to do so.

This is a guest blog post from Alice Seba, the Internet Marketing Sweetie.

Recently I received a great question from one of my newsletter subscribers: “I notice that you redirect your affiliate links through your own domain. Why do you do this?”

Yes, I definitely do redirect affiliate links. There are a number of reasons this is a smart practice. First let me say that some affiliate marketers do redirects to try to avoid losing commissions via “stealing”. For instance, if it is a ClickBank link, someone can see the hoplink and easily switch yours for their own affiliate ID to get the commission.

Frankly, I don’t lose sleep over this possibility. People who want to cheat and steal commissions for themselves will always be one step ahead of the honest guys. Besides, if you don’t market to other Internet business owners, the chances of your readers even knowing what an affiliate programs is are slim to none.

Reasons I Redirect Affiliate Links:

Time saver - I create one redirect link on my domain (ex. internetmarketingsweetie.com/hello.html) that is simple, short, and easy to remember. Affiliate links are typically long and filled with a bunch of crazy characters. This way, I don’t have to waste time looking for my unique link. Of course, if I’m using special tracking, I may set up a second link, but in most cases, this makes a simpler way to go.

Easy to switch – How often have you had an affiliate manager change the program management software on you, making all of your links invalid? What a nightmare if you haven’t created redirects! The time you would spend hunting down and changing out all of those dead links on web pages and ebooks – the temptation would be there to just leave it alone, but that would mean lost commissions. Another scenario is when you stop promoting a product and want to switch to another. If you have made those redirects, it’s easy to switch – in one place - to an alternate product or a new link.

Tracking – It’s important to the profitability of your business to know what your visitors and subscribers are clicking on. If the company doesn’t provide tracking, you can still see your clickthrough stats this way.

Shorter URLs – Sometimes long affiliate links will break up in email, and many of your subscribers won’t know why. Most probably won’t bother to ask or let you know. Shorter URLs also make it easier for the readers of your ebooks in case people print them out. It’s easier to type in a short URL then a long cumbersome affiliate link (often, with all those strange number and letter combinations).

Hopefully by now I’ve sold you on the idea of creating affiliate redirects. If you want to create redirects, there are a few different ways to do it. I use a simple javascript redirect (the only drawback of this is that if your visitor doesn’t have javascript installed, the links won’t work).

Here’s how to do it:

Name the page (file name) whatever you want. I like to name mine something intuitive so I don’t forget, and keep it as short as I can. For example: mydomain.com/easyseoguide.html

Then insert this html into the body of your html document (copy and paste into a text file first or you might get strange formatting added in):

<html><head><meta http-equiv="refresh"
content="0;url=http://www.linktolinkto">
</head><body></body></html>

Congratulations! You’ve just created an affiliate redirect link. It’s short, easy to remember, easy to switch out, and you can track clickthroughs anytime.

Get More Help: If you’d like tips to help you increase your affiliate income, sign up for free here.

Note from Kelly … want to see a video that shows how to set up those redirects? Check out this one here.

To get started, you will need to have an account on Facebook. Invite your friends and eBay pals to join with you. I’ll be more than happy to friend you as well - My profile is here. You’ll grow your friends in time as you grow more comfortable with navigating around.

On eBay:

• Go to your My eBay Account and select Site Preferences. 
• Select Share your eBay items with friends. 
• Select Share all eBay items with Facebook with your Facebook ID account.
• Click Apply.

Now, you’re all set! Once you start sharing, all of the items you list for sale on eBay will continue to be sent to the social networking site to share with your friends, until you turn off sharing. It’s totally automated, you set it and forget it!

Check it all out on eBay’s help page here. 

Happy Selling!

You can get a free fitness plan from them - and did you know they are the largest fitness franchise in the world? I didn’t - they have over 4 million members in 70 countries. My guess is that they aren’t as slimy as Bally’s, so they are doing better than they are (can you tell I didn’t like my experience with Bally’s? I know, I’m subtle like that).

Just click the banner and get your fitness plan now.

I shoulder the guilt of disappointing my usually-quiet readers by not posting often enough. But today, I decided something.

THhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I love you guys, and you probably don’t mind if I only post (gasp) once or twice a week. It’s not forever, just for the rest of the summer, or until I find my head, which is packed in a box somewhere in my new house.

So jump up and down and scream if you want (actually, that would make me feel loved, in some twisted way). Or bear with me through the Strange Summer of 2009 and we’ll get up to speed in August.

In the meantime, put together a list of topics you want me to write about. I still have several books and reports to review for you, but feel free to throw more my way. I also like reviewing services like HootSuite and LotusJump, so if you’ve got those, throw them my way (and expect to wait a while).

Thank you for understanding.

Signed,

The Management

How do you know how long a job’s going to take? How do you know what to charge? And then how should you present it to the client - hourly, per word, per page, flat fee?

It seems like the whole process should be a matter of logic and math, but in the real world our emotions kick in.

When you want a job badly enough, you start to second-guess everything: “should I really charge this much? what if he thinks it’s way too much? what if she’s insulted that I even asked for this much? what if I’m undercharging? what if the client thinks my work must be crap if I’m charging this little?” And so on and so forth.

It gets even worse when you finally decide on a number, send it to the prospective client, and hear nothing. For days.

“Oh no,” you think, “this person thinks I’m an idiot. She’s never going to hire me, and she’s going to tell all of her friends that I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m never going to work again.” Or maybe that’s just me.

If you find yourself succumbing to these kinds of thoughts, take heart. There is a way out.

You have to remember that this is business. It’s not personal. It sure feels personal when you’re a one-woman (or one-man) shop, and it’s your name on the letterhead. It feels even more personal when you’re marketing to people you’ve met on Twitter or Facebook, and you have a friendly relationship with them already.

But in the end, when prospective clients are deciding whether to hire you or not, it’s a business decision.

They have to decide whether they will get the best value from you or from someone else. While personal feelings may come into play (who wants to work with someone they can’t stand?), they’re not usually the deciding factor.

Instead of getting caught up in the “OMG, what did I do, I should have asked for less/more, I should have said this/that, etc.,” try to think more like a business owner and less like the creative spirit you probably are.

Don’t agonize over every estimate - look at every estimate (and response) as a piece of data, compile the data over time, and use it to build your business. As you gather more data, you will start to figure out what works best for you and you will get better results.

The key to this strategy is that you must have a lot of estimates going out the door.

If you only have one potential project, it’s going to seem like the end of the world if you don’t get the job. If you have 10 or 15 estimates going out, it’s more of a numbers game. I think you can look at things a little more objectively when you’re not pinning all of your hopes on one gig.

What do you think?

photo credit: whatmegsaid

I try to stock up at this time of year on school supplies, because you can’t find this stuff cheaper at any other time of the year. My kids go through things like crayons, pencils, and folders so quickly that I’m usually buying them again or dipping into my stash before fall is over.

Office Max Back to School Coupons Expiring July 18, 2009

OfficeMax - Crayola - Buy 2 Get 1 for just a Penny!

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OfficeMax - Save up to 50% off Printers

OfficeMax Deals That Do Not Expire

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Check out the OfficeMax Deals of the Week

Most Sparkplugging readers are…well, small. Call it consultant, micro-business, or whatever you like. Freelancers are small businesses that can benefit from a very small amount of business. Today I’d like to show you how to snag some highly targeted web traffic that will get you some great business - and it’s something you should be able to accomplish by yourself within a few hours.

My last post was on getting yourself added to the Google Local Business Directory. Today I want to focus on how to expand that local presence.

What you’ll need:

• A website.
• Access to your website’s code, or at least the back end visual editor. If you don’t make any changes to your website, you’ll need the person who makes those changes.
• Internet Access

Most freelancers work in competitive niches like writing, real estate, or consulting of some sort. For this example I want to use the real estate industry to show how you can find buyers.

First, let’s do a little research. Do you know what people who are looking for your goods & services type into search engines? Google will tell you, for free. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal# and use the free keyword tool to get an idea. Start by typing in what you sell or provide. In this case, I’ll start with ‘Real Estate.’ I get this result.

Notice that at the top it shows me the average number of searches for the terms ‘real estate’ and ‘real estates.’ These are the exact matches for what I was searching for. The neat thing is that lower down it also gives me a huge list of thing that Google says people also type when searching for real estate. Wouldn’t you love to be found on the first page of Google when someone searches those things? The big national real estate franchises like Remax, Coldwell Banker and others certainly love it.

Again, you can do this with any industry. Try it again with ‘counseling,’ ‘copy writing,’ ‘graphic design’ or whatever it is that you do. The Keyword Tool will generate a list of keywords that relate to your industry.

Now, the next part that I am going to show you really only works for small markets where the competition is not too fierce, but it should work for many of you. If you live in Los Angeles, NYC, or another major metro, you’ll need to do more than just this, but this is a good start.

Do the search again, but add a geo targeted qualifier to it. That simply means add a city or zip code. I picked a small town in Tennessee called Crossville (population 10,433).

Notice that the numbers drop dramatically? It means its far less competitve. If you could show up on the first page of 5000+ searches and get around 5 - 10% of those people to click through to your site, would you be happy? I thought so.

Your next step is store those keywords you want to target. You can click add next to all of them and it will generate a list on the right which you can then download as a text file or as a .csv (Excel) file. You can also just write them down if you want to target just the top few.

Now you want to add these keywords to your website. On your Home, About and Contact page, put in a few sentences about how you are a real estate agent that specializes in the Crossville area, and then rearrange that sentence in a few different ways. Make sure that each page has different content. A good example could be:

Cory Huff is a Crossville Real Estate Agent with over 10 years experience helping buyers locate homes for sale in Crossville, Lake Holiday, and Woodlawn. Located at the intersection of Interstate 40 and State Highway 127, Crossville, Tennessee is a beautiful city that is growing like crazy and we have new real estate deals on beautiful homes and land for sale in the Crossville area.

You know your market, so write for your own customers, but you get the idea. Google loves this local search stuff, and in a small market this can often be enough to get you the traffic you need.

Further ideas:

• Create a blog that you update once a week with posts about the local real estate market. Make sure you put these keywords in the title and at the top of the posts. For example, you might do a blog post about how Obama’s recent tax credits will affect the homes for sale in your current market, and lead with the title, “Homes for Sale under Obama’s Tax Plan.”
• If you’ve added yourself to the Google Local Business Directory, go back and add some of these keywords to your listing in the description and categories sections.
• Get other websites to link to your site using your keywords as the anchor text like I do here with my blog, TheAbundantArtist.com, which contains posts on the best day jobs for actors.

It will take a few weeks to a couple of months for you to start to see results from this work, but it’s well worth it when you start getting phone calls! Please bookmark this post and come back after you start seeing results, and let us know how it works out for you!

Cory Huff, Sparkplugging.com intern, works as a blogger & social media guy for Netbiz.com, a company focused on search engine marketing for small businesses. He’s also a trained actor and writes about the intersection of money & art at TheAbundantArtist.com.

As part of their effort to educate consumers about fraudulent business opportunities, the FTC has produced this video warning.

Signs of a Scammer

We all want to work at home in our fuzzy bunny slippers. After all, that’s why we’re here, right? But we need to be rigorous in our investigation of potential business opportunities. Here are a couple of warning signs you should watch for.

Big Promises

Scammers tend to make big promises. You’ll make big profits in a short amount of time, working only 37 minutes per day from your new beach house. We’ve all seen the infomercials with the talking fox, haven’t we? The old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” is worth remembering here. If you hear these big promises from people who are trying to sell you something, ask yourself if it’s just too good to be true.

Legitimate businesses can back up their claims with proof, and the greater the risk, the more substantial that proof needs to be. A $10 investment requires a lot less proof than a $1,000 investment.

Hard Sell Threats

Scammers trying to sell you on a new business opportunity can’t afford to have you looking too hard at the proof of their claims. In order to distract you from the flimsy “evidence” they provide, they hit you with high pressure sales tactics. If you’re being pressured to buy right now because “space is limited” or because “territories are going fast,” you should take a step back and do some more investigating.

Beware of the scammer who won’t allow you time to sleep on it. They want you to make a decision right now, often telling you that they’re only authorized to offer this “low price” if you sign a contract today. A legitimate business opportunity will still be around tomorrow, so take your time and make sure you’re not being duped.

Real Work At Home Opportunities

Don’t let the scammers scare you away from your goal of working at home, though. There are plenty of legitimate work at home opportunities out there. Take a look at the Sparkplugging authors for example. We have ecommerce professionals and ebay sellers, and crafty types, just to name a few.

A good place to start looking for home business opportunities is Wendy’s post Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear and the follow-up post 10 More Work at Home Internet Business Ideas You Can Do in Your Fuzzy Bunny Slippers.

While it’s great that the Federal Government is cracking down on these types of scams, remember that you can’t count on them to catch every charlatan out there. Do you research, practice due diligence, and don’t be afraid to walk away from a deal that just seems too good to be true.

This is not for big time TV or movies but web video producers on YouTube, Metacafe, Revver, Vimeo etc. I haven’t checked it out but thought it might be useful to you.

The keyword here is unique. Consultants should strive to set themselves apart from the thousands of other consultant websites. The professionalism of the customization could also determine if you get any web orders. Avoid these seven common mistakes to get the most benefit from your replicated website.

1. Loud Music – This should be a given yet I’ve clicked on many websites that automatically start playing. You may like country or hip hop, but will all of your site visitors? Or will they instantly click off? You also may be infringing on copyright and royalty issues by playing music of an artist without permission.

2. Duplicating text that’s already available on the site. Your replicate site likely already has a link about business opportunity or product information. No need to regurgitate the same info on that valuable piece of real estate (the one page that you can customize).

3. Too much personal information. This can be a balancing act. Your personal testimony about why you joined the company or how the products have helped you can be compelling. But information about you being the PTA secretary or a soccer mom isn’t going to enhance the buying experience.

4. Lack of information – “Welcome to my site, please look around” will only invite people to instantly click off. Catch their attention early and give them a reason to stay.

5. Web counters. They look cheesy and don’t mean diddly. You can set the counter to start at any number – so over inflated site visits or conversely, teeny tiny numbers that show few have visited won’t help. Instead use Google Analytics or StatCounter or any of the others that are coded into your site and only you have access to data. Use the data to help you determine if your marketing campaigns are working and from where traffic is generated. (If you didn’t understand that last part, then a web counter isn’t something you need at this stage in your career).

6. Amateur web design. Many of the replicated sites now allow you to add html to pretty-up your site. If you don’t know what you’re doing, hire someone or don’t do it. I’ve seen far too many who attempt to merely “cut and paste the code that corporate gave us” only to skew their entire alignment or template…and they just leave it like that. Don’t do that.

7. Too much information. Remembers it’s an introduction page. You just want to encourage visitors to click on links and come inside – preferably to request more info, to sign up or to purchase. Listing paragraph after paragraph and paragraph isn’t benefiting anyone and your visitors won’t stick around long enough to read all that anyway.

Now that you know what not to do, stick around for another post on what to do. If you’ve fallen victim to any of these mistakes, fear not, just go change your site … posthaste!

Sorry for not posting in a while! I’m still here - I’ve been feeling under the weather recently. But I woke up today feeling pretty good! I’ve got some great ideas for upcoming posts so keep an eye out! And if you have any specific questions on running your craft business, feel free to post ‘em below. We will definitely get ‘em answered for you!

Debi, what is your art or craft?

I am a painter and also teach. Over the years, I’ve gone from selling paintings, prints, and cards at outdoor art and craft shows, to selling at galleries, to booking my first museum show!

How did you get started and what made you realize it could be more than a hobby?

I showed an early talent for art, but was discouraged and ridiculed by my family, who felt art was a waste of time (could be the strong Amish influence). I became a nurse and a frustrated artist - painting the hospital windows for Christmas or entertaining my friends with cartoons. After suffering from carpal tunnel and being unable to paint, I realized how much art meant to me. In 1999, I was able to quit nursing and turn to art full time. I knew there were artists who made a living, but figuring out how was a real challenge.

Bubbles

How do you come up with your ideas for your projects?

Being self-taught, I spent years mastering all types of subjects. (I even traveled to Yellowstone to paint wildlife.) I love variety, but knew I’d never become known unless I specialized. After looking back on the paintings I enjoyed most, I realized I realized that small town scenes were my personal favorite to paint. It’s a timeless subject, near and dear to most American hearts, and I still to get to paint everything from backyard bunnies to urban sunsets.

My first idea was for a school bus picture. After trying to photograph elusive (and dangerous) wildlife, getting photos of a school bus was like shooting fish in a barrel! They’re not only easy to find, they stop on every corner, so you can take shots from the comfort of your own car. While I was on the trail, I drank my coffee and laughed, thinking I was probably the only person in Pennsylvania who wanted to be behind a school bus. Now, I take reference photos all the time - when I run to get milk or go to the post office. It’s a cushy job.

Early Morning

How do you decide how to price your work?

I know many artists who put huge prices on their work, but I have always priced mine to sell. By checking out what comparable work is selling for and talking with the gallery owners, I have a good idea what a realistic price is. And with art, the bigger your reputation, the bigger prices you can get, so I continue to increase my prices as my reputation grows. People who invest in more expensive paintings want to know that their paintings will hold their value, so raising my prices a bit each year is a good stategy.

My detailed, photorealist paintings take a lot of time, so they get the biggest prices. The quick studies that I do as demonstrations in the classes I teach can sell a lot cheaper. I call them my Fast & Furious series. That way I can target two markets, and still keep my prices consistant.

Barred Owl

Are you using any websites like Etsy, Artfire, eBay, Twitter, Facebook, etc to promote your business?

I have sold some work on eBay and am active on Facebook. I list my work on many of the art sites, but have only sold off of the Fine Art America site. I do list my classes on a lot of internet places. Most successful artists have a spouse who does their marketing. Since I’m doing everything, I have to concentrate on what brings the best results, which, for me, is my blog and monthly newsletter.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your business and how to you conquer it?

Being female, self-taught, and a watercolor painter makes it darned hard to be taken seriously as an artist. I asked a museum curator who had just given me a top award at a show if his museum would consider an exhibit of watercolors. He made a shocked face. When I pointed out all my awards, he whined, “But it’s watercolor…. couldn’t you at least call it something else?” So, I target people who’s opinions matter in the art world and send them postcards of my best new work, mentioning my latest awards, but call it ‘watermedia’ or ‘mixed media on paper’.

I want them to know who I am and what I do, and I don’t care what it’s called, as long as they think it’s good. Having an art ‘reputation’ is about who knows you. And that takes a lot of exposure, and persistance.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your work?

Having a finished painting that I love. Just looking at it gives me the warm fuzzies most people get from alcohol. And having a student who just ‘gets it.’ Art is tough to teach and I’ve tried countless things over the years. Now, when I can see a real difference in a student from one series of classes, it’s the best feeling ever.

“I have been studying up on Internet marketing and how to earn an income online for about four months now. I have done a few things here and there not much. The things I am passionate about are niches that don’t make a lot of money (at least that is what I think). For instance coupons and being frugal, sweepstakes (people who want to get things free) and genealogy! So how do I settle for a niche that I am passionate about that won’t make me a lot of profit or do I find a niche that will be profitable that I don’t love? Hope this isn’t to complicated!”

OK Danielle I think I understand what you’re asking…

You want to know if it’s better to pick a niche you’re passionate about and love and might not make a ton of money over a niche where you could make a nice little chunk of change.

Am I right?

Well this is a little tricky and I’m sure a ton of folks will have an opinion on this one but this is my post so I get to go first!

Here’s my advice to you….What is it you want from you home based business?

Are you looking to make a steady income online and start a business or are you looking for a hobby?

If you are hoping to earn an income from your online adventures I’d suggest finding a niche where you know people are already making money.

Now if you can find a niche you love and make money that’s a great but not always possible.

For instance, I love drinking beer and watching baseball but I’m pretty sure nobody will send me a check every month to do this, see what I mean?

Now I depend on my online endeavors to pay the bills and put food on the table so I must find paying niches regardless if I love them or not.

It’s great if I am interested in the topic but it’s not necessary.

Again, it can help your be work more fun and enjoyable if you love your niche but I found I got over this pretty quickly as the checks started to roll in.

Here’s another example, I love BBQ!

You know, real southern slow cooked BBQ so I decided to start a paid membership site around BBQ called BBQFreaks.com.

Now there were already a bunch of FREE BBQ websites out there but I thought if I jazzed it up with some interviews and some other cool stuff I’d make a killing….

Boy was a I wrong…I soon found folks just don’t spend money on this kind of stuff.

BBQ is more of a blue collar hobby and BBQ enthusiasts spend money on their meat, rubs and sauces….Not website membership sites!

However, I still maintain this site, I made it free for folks to join and I make a couple hundred bucks every month from affiliate commission checks from my Amazon Store.

And now, I focus on niches where I know I can make money!

So hope this helps you with your decision.

So please, I’d love to hear from you and what you think of this topic…Do you pick niches where you can make money or niches you love and are inspired by?

Now get busy, Bill Parlaman

P.S. If you like my Friday Q&A segment where I answer you home based business questions make sure you keep sending them in!

Remember…I depend on you for your questions!

@Tracey_D

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@DrMommy

@godtalk

@tracilove

@LataraHamYing

@integratedmom

@JendisJournal

One of my biggest peeves is the fact I can’t seem to clear my RSS reader of the unread posts. There’s so much coming in daily and I don’t have a huge reading list either. Every time I get in there it’s like 1000+ plus posts. Usually, I end up skimming the headlines - which is why your blog subject line is so important but that’s a post for another time. And then fully reading the ones that catch my eye. Even then, speed reading helps.

Then I stumbled on Zap Reader. Wow! I just made it through a post and had plenty of time to leave a comment. I’m debating right now if I should add the plugin to my blog to help people read my posts faster. At the moment, I use the bookmarklet. On a post that I’d like to read, I select the text then click the bookmark. Hit start and I’m reading at 500 words per minute or more. I think this is fast becoming my favorite free tool. Check out the video below to see how it works.

You may have already received a blow to the wallet from your affiliate programs if you live in certain states. Large merchants are dropping local affiliates in response to new laws that require the merchants to pay sales taxes in those states.

Historically, merchants only pay sales taxes in states where they have a physical presence and on physical products. So, if a merchant is in Oklahoma and so is the buyer, the merchant pays Oklahoma sales tax. However, if the buyer is in Texas, no sales tax is charged because interstate commerce is protected from state sales taxes by federal law. So most online sales escape taxes, because the buyer is located in another state.

Now, the new laws require online merchants to collect state sales taxes in any state where their independant affiliates operate. Basically, these state legislatures are claiming that if I’m an affiliate of Amazon, for example, then my home office is a physical location for Amazon. So if I sell a product in my state, to someone else in my state, through my affiliate link, then that product should be taxed in my state.

States currently affected include:

• California
• Hawaii
• North Carolina
• Rhode Island
• New York

Overstock and Amazon have dropped thousands of affiliates in those states, an action that could seriously impact the income of many of those affiliates.

How do these laws affect small merchants?

If you’re a small merchant with affiliates in those states, you may have a reprieve in some cases.

So far, in New York, you must have cumulative gross receipts of $10,000 to New York residents during the previous four quarterly sales tax periods in order to be required to pay the sales tax. This is good news for small merchants who don’t do that much business. However, if you’re a larger merchant, or an affiliate of a large merchant, this could hit you hard.

Check with your local representatives if you live in the other states and want to know if you’re exempt or not. If you do, let us know here.

Pros and cons?

All this said, I’m personally not against large corporations having to pay sales taxes in the areas where they have a physical presence, whether the presence is an affiliate marketer or an actual office. Tax-free online sales have in many cases hurt local economies and these taxes would level the playing field.

That said, I see how these taxes can prohibit new online businesses from even starting out, and this could damage to local economies as well.

What do you think?

You can read the following links for more information:

Internet Sales Tax War

Possible Tennessee Legislation

NY Affiliate Voice

The Amazon Tax and Affiliate Marketing

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