MarketingBeyond

Affiliate Marketing & Your Time: Want to Work for $4 Per Hour?

As I continue watching Internet product launches,  I'm becoming increasingly concerned. Many promises are made, some are kept. A few IM niche marketers make lots of money. Most don't.

You've all seen the acronym "ROI" (return on investment). I've just invented a new measurement, related to ROI and more important: "ROT."

ROT stands for "return on time" and has two components: the AMOUNT of time you invest in anything (attending school, working at a job, learning an Internet marketing course) and the monetary VALUE of your time, broken down in hours.

Before choosing an Internet training program, before checking out the PRICE ($47, $97), estimate how many available HOURS you can set aside to complete the course.

Let's say you estimate 100 hours. Ask yourself first if you have 100 hours available. If you do, you must COMMIT yourself to allocating 100 hours of your time to complete the course. If you don't have 100 hours, you shouldn't purchase because the ROT (return on time) will be nil.

Then, estimate what your time earns. If you spend 100 hours of your time to generate $100 per week in month two, you initially earn $4 per hour ($100 per week X four divided by 100 hours).

If your time investment results in earning $200 per week in month three ($800 per month), then you've earned $10 per hour ($400 to get going in month two; $800 in month three for a total of $1,000, divided by 100 hours).

If your time investment continues growing, you ROT rises; if it diminishes, your ROT goes down.

Now, subtract your monetary investment and the value of time spent maintaining your investment (PPC advertising, cost of product, joint partner ayments, etc.). Let's say it's $500.

Your return on time generated $1,000, but your costs reduced that by $500. So by month three, your net gain is $500. You've earned $5 per hour ($500/100 hours). Is the investment worth your time?

Both quality and poor Internet marketing courses take time, your most precious resource. Some Internet marketers are honest and up-front about earnings, like Affilorama's, but many are not. The latter usually have promotional names such as "how to make $10,000 on Twitter in one week" or "Blogging to the Bank" and such.

Some Internet marketers play off people's general reluctance to spend time and consider their ROT. That's why so many newbies and others continue buying new courses, because the previous ones were time-consuming and ineffective.

You have to decide whether the promise of riches is realistic and the amount of time it will take to achieve a profit rather than just making money. (The two are different.)

"Free" bonuses are not really free because they require your TIME and lower your ROT. The best rule of thumb is to take on only ONE course at a time, put all your time and effort into learning, then decide if you want to move on to the next one.

But before choosing any program, calculate your RETURN ON TIME. To avoid considering ROT will cause you a lot of pain and no gain.

Online Small Business Strategies and Resources in Hard Times

This morning's Wall Street Journal brought new hope to online small businesses. Holiday revenues only dipped a mere 2% while brick-and-mortar retailers experienced 20-40% sales declines year-over-year. With prices down, 2009 may be a great year to start an online business.

Small businesses--those under 500 employees--are the cornerstone of the American economy. They hire half of all private-sector workers and generate 60% to 80% of net new jobs. Best yet for our dour economy, small businesses create more than half of non-farm private gross domestic product (GDP). Bottom line: Small businesses will play a significant role in pulling us out of the global economic crisis.

Before jumping into the deep end of the pool and raiding your declining 401K, however, do your homework:

Write a business plan--an essential--that addresses these important requirements:

• Your niche market (describe your target customers in detail)
• A description of your products and services (use online research tools; Google Trends is great)
• Your first year's budget, including a start-up business loan if necessary. Consider these essentials:
  • Affiliate Internet marketing (paying others to market your services or products)
  • Web design services ensuring your website receives high search engine organic traffic
  • Web hosting of your site (s)
  • Internet marketing services, such as pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo and other search engine advertising sites
  • Sales lead generation. As prospects and customers visit your site, it's essential  you capture their names and email addresses for further contact. Remember it takes five to eight impressions before people buy most things. If you continually build an email list, you can contact people interested in your company's products and services. 
  • An email list management company. For under $20 per month, companies like aWeber Communications will manage your lists. Then communicate with your list through regular contacts using promotional emails and newsletters.
  • Consider taking an an Internet marketing course. Many are low cost and help you  understand online business effectiveness. Super Affiliate Handbook, while focused on affiliate marketing, covers the basics for online small businesses
• An Internet marketing strategy. Ask yourself how your product or service is different from others online. Then differentiate your company. You can't be all things to all people and you'll make more money in a narrow segment of a hot market.

For other informative articles and additional resources, check out our new site: ICS Web Marketing: Small Business Strategies.