HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY YOURSELF ONLINE?

Interesting emails.

I always get good info from Jeanette Gates. Here's an article which helps focus you on an important issue.

Enjoy, comment and please tell your friends.

Paul.


How much do you get paid?

by Jeanette S Cates, PhD
Internet Strategist for Small Business http://www.YourInternetStrategist.com

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Every year Parade magazine conducts a survey on how much
people get paid in different professions. It's one of their most popular issues. One year I even shared in the fun with a front page feature for our local newspaper to tie in with Parade's special issue.

When you work for someone else it's easy to figure out how
much you make. They tell you! But when you're self-employed it's a little harder.

There are complex formulas you can use to calculate how much
to charge for your professional services, for example. And there are guidelines on when to raise your fees. But that all assumes you have clients to pay those fees.

What about those of us who sell products online? It takes
time to set up a site and even longer to market it. How can
you calculate what you're getting paid? Sure, you may have another $100 in your pocket. But if it took you 20 hours to get that $100 - you might consider a fast food career.

What we really want to know is - what is the Return on Investment (ROI) on our time? And to do that we first need to know where our breakeven point is.

Here's a quick way to do the math:

1. Decide on your hourly rate. For example, if you want to
make $100,000 per year, that's about $50 per hour. ($100,000 divided by 2000 work hours - that's 50 weeks x 40 hours.)

2. Calculate the number of hours you plan to invest in
creating and marketing the site. For example, for a recent affiliate name capture project, I calculated it would take
- 1 hour to create the mini site
- 2 hours to write a special report to go on the site
- 1 hour to write an article to market the site
- 1 hour to write the autoresponder follow-up series
- 1 hour to set up a pay-per-click campaign.
That's a total of 6 hours.

3. Determine the number of units you will need to sell to
cover your hourly costs. For this project I was referring visitors to an ebook. For each ebook sold through my affiliate link I earn $15. My "labor" cost to set up the site was $300 (6 hours x $50), so I need to sell 20 copies of the ebook in order to break even.

Once I have this information I'm in a position to decide whether or not to proceed with my project. In order to do this I ask a series of questions:
- Am I likely to sell that number of copies?
- How long will it take to break even?
- Could I outsource this project and recover my investment more quickly?
- What else can I sell on the backend to make this more profitable?
- Is this the fastest and best ROI of all the projects I am considering? And the questions could go on.

The bottom line is that many online entrepreneurs work aimlessly on one project after another, never stopping to consider the ROI on their investment. You would never do that with your 401K. Don't do it with your time. Know what you can reasonably expect to make and how much you're getting paid to build your Online Success.

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Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with independent professionals who are ready to turn their knowledge and their websites into Gold. Her reputation as a speaker and trainer has earned her the title of "The Technology Tamer." Jeanette shares her tips and expertise at http://www.YourInternetStrategist.com

Talking Auctions by Storm

Just like the quick ending of the Golden Silents in the 1920's - Chaplin, Turpin, Keaton et al, soon the silent Ebay and other auctions will be D E A D.
Why? Because most of the problems with sounds and 'moving pictures' across the net have gone you can now listen to auctions!

Click on the 'Do Your Auctions talk' box to the left for more info.

Tests suggest over 18% increase in sales. Please try it - it may only cost $1 for a trial!

Let me know what you think.

Paul