Archive for February, 2010
Outsourcing Pros and Cons – More recently I have been outsourcing some of my work because of the lack of time I have on working on so many projects. There are actually a lot of benefits to outsourcing but unfortunately, there are also some negatives that come with it.
What Is Outsourcing?
I’m sure you guys already know what outsourcing is but incase you don’t, it’s basically hiring a third-party person/service to do work for you that you need to get done.
An example of that would be if a company needed to get a lot of filing and processing of paperwork done, they would probably hire a temp to do that. More than likely, the reasoning behind that could be the company may have more important work at hand to get accomplished so they can’t use that time filing paperwork. Though, that simple task does need to get done at some point.
Outsourcing Pros
There are plenty of pros to outsource work besides the obvious fact that you’re getting necessary work done by paying a third-party service. But here’s a list of advantages I see when I outsource some of my work:
The following is a paid review in my honest opinion. Being paid is good but it does not influence the review. If you’re interested in a review of your site or product, please visit my advertising page.
Let me just start off by saying that I’m extremely impressed by CPATrend because this relatively new affiliate network has a few things that stand out that I have never seen any other company do. Honestly, I’m not just saying that and if you work your cards right, it will only help you make more money. But we’ll get into that in just one second.
CPATrend.com is definitely the newest affiliate company that I have seen. I believe they went live as of this year and they already have close to 50 campaigns you can run. For those of you guys that don’t know, that’s actually quite a lot for a company that is this new. That basically means they are good at getting new campaigns for you guys to promote to make money quickly.
So, What Makes CPATrend So Great?
Let’s just jump straight into it because there are a few things that just stand out to me. You guys can feel free to agree or disagree with me but I have never seen some of these things done from an affiliate network before.
Prompt Payments – I know this doesn’t seem like anything new because almost all affiliate networks pay on time. And yes other companies pay every 15 days or biweekly as well but does any other affiliate network offer anything other than an excuse and apology if your payment is late? Probably not. But this CPA Network offers $10 every single day your payment is late.
In my eyes, that shows just how confident they are with paying on time. And if anything does happen for whatever reason, they are willing to compensate you every single day that your payment is late.
Highest Paying Offers – Okay, every affiliate company say they have the “highest” payouts for their campaigns but if you happen to see another campaign at another company with a higher payout, CPATrend is willing to match it and or beat it.
Of course, more than likely their campaigns already have others beat so no need to go through this hassle. 
Great Customer Service – Hey, I’m a true believer of good customer service and getting to know who you’re dealing with and that’s all I’ve gotten from Phil, who is one of the account managers there. I’ve had numerous e-mail exchanges with him and I believe he has always responded back to me in the same day.
Of course, you should be able to get the same great customer support through telephone or instant messenger if that’s easier for you guys.
Stats Displayed Conveniently – Of course, they have the standard live tracking stats that I have seen from almost every affiliate company but the thing that kind of stuck out to me was the fact that if you search for campaigns to promote, your stats are also displayed there. That is handy when you’re searching for campaigns because it’ll let you know right from the get go that you have promoted that offer before… or not.
Suggestions
I’m just one person but we all like things a certain way, right? Well, I have just a couple of quick suggestions because I’m just a picky person and hopefully it’ll be helpful for a brand new affiliate network to know.
Banners for Campaigns – I was going through a couple of different campaigns and noticed there wasn’t a place to get banners to promote. I would prefer they host the images because we all know bandwidth kills!
Help or FAQ Section – I know they are brand new but I always like to browse through the entire site to check out if they have some sort of help feature or FAQ section just incase I’m stuck on anything. They have a contact area in which people can respond to your inquires but if you’re a non-contact type person then you might look for something indirectly.
Conclusion
I definitely see a lot more perks to join CPATrend than most affiliate networks currently out there. They don’t guarantee things and not back it up. And based on all the incentives, ability to payout higher than any other company and personal experience with their customer service, I am definitely impressed.
And since they are a brand new company, it should be a lot easier referring new affiliates to get commission on that too! Hey, just a helpful suggestion!
Tax Brackets 2009 Calculator - Since we’re still in tax season and a lot of people like to wait until the last minute to get their taxes done (including myself), I figured I would continue on our discussions of taxes by getting out the tax brackets 2009 calculator.
First, let’s go over the tax brackets for 2009 singles. The reason why I’m focusing on singles is simply the fact that I am “single” which basically means I’m not legally married with a spouse living in the same household. Plus, a lot of internet entrepreneurs aren’t married so this list should help them a little bit, especially if this is one of the first times they are filing taxes (or they’re doing it themselves without an accountant).
Here is the tax brackets 2009 single:
I’ve been trying to write out this particular weekly updates for a while now. Well, particularly since I upgraded to a dedicated server two weeks ago. But I’ll cover a handful of things including ones you guys would be interested in such as the free advertising, contest update, free web hosting and more.
Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Some Comments/Posts May Have Been Deleted - I do apologize to some of you guys but some comments may have been deleted on my transition to my dedicated server. Matter of fact, if some of you guys posted on some of my other blogs, a couple of posts may have been deleted as well. I hope you guys saved a copy! Sorry about that!
Looking For a (Committed) Team Once Again - I’m actually looking for yet another team to work with on one site. But I’m actually looking for committed individuals who are willing to work a few hours a week with the potential of making money in a couple of months. I mean, a LOT of money and traffic. I actually have a plan but unfortunately, it does require a team of committed bloggers.
As we continue with tax season, I figured we’d go over some tax deductions you didn’t know about. Well, maybe not necessarily you but me.
I previously wrote a few posts on tax stuff so you can read them at List of Tax Deductions 2009, Tax Deductions for Self-Employed and Tax Deductible Expenses for Self-Employed Online Entrepreneur. But since there’s less than two months left to file your taxes and get your refund, I figured we’d cover a few more things here.
I’m constantly reading about tax stuff because it’s becoming more and more important to me as my revenue increases for my online entrepreneurship. As you guys know, we have to file for taxes on all the money that we make so deducting expenses become more and more important so we’re not actually losing out on money that should belong to us and not Uncle Sam.
Matter of fact, I don’t even have a Uncle Sam so why would we want to donate our money if we don’t have to. 
(By the way, that was my lame attempt to add an unnecessary joke somewhere randomly in this post)
Anyways, let’s get down to business. Let’s go over some detailed tax deductions we didn’t know about…
Write Off Travel Expenses – There are a few things about travel expenses and I’ve mentioned in the past but I would like to correct a couple of things I found as well. I mentioned that you could write off travel expenses if you’re moving outside of 50 miles to a new job. Well, apparently you need to have been hired prior to the move to qualify for writing off travel expenses.
