FamilyEbiz

First, hats off to the Schers, the Sullivans and Beth for making it to the Entrepreneur Conference last weekend. I know they had a great time and are excited to start some new business ventures!

Biblia:

Luke 16:8-13

For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Jesus was telling a parable about a servant who was caught embezzling money from his master. He made “arrangements” to reduce, on the ledger, the amount of money owed his master in exchange for kind treatment when he was booted out. Sort of “I’ll scratch your back, if you will scratch mine later”. Of course, Jesus was not condoning the theft, but He was praising the resource-fulness of the servant and the way he used money that was under his control to make future alliances.

We could learn a great deal in this regard. Will we use our money to form alliances with our brothers and sisters in Christ? I am not talking just about missions here. I am talking about teaching our children and our Christian brothers and sisters to start their own businesses and then perhaps forming alliances with them to help them succeed. I see a day when the Christian community will have nothing to do with social security, welfare, unemployment benefits and so on, because we, as a tight knit community, will take care of our own. But, we can only do this from a surplus and that will take generating income beyond the mere essentials.

Jesus also said that he who is faithful in a few things will be faithful in many. Don’t kid yourself. If you can’t handle money when you have a small amount, you will certainly not be able to handle it when you have a larger quantity. Or as one speaker at the Entrepreneur Conference said, “money will only make you more of what you already are”. If you a complainer and a grouch now, you will only get worse as you get more money. On the other hand, if you are selfless and helpful, more money will give you the opportunity to become selfless and helpful as your share your time, knowledge and resources with others.

Practica:

So far we have talked about researching the market to see if our topic is something others want. We have also talked about getting a web hosting account (by the way, I made a colossal blunder on my website and Jon, the web hosting guy I mentioned in last newsletter, emailed me through it at 11:00pm on a Friday night. Now, that is service!). Of course the next step is designing and uploading a website. But before we talk about that, I want to show you the bigger picture.

To make money with a website, you have to have something to sell, right? But developing a product (which is something I want everyone to do with yours truly taking the lead) to sell online will take some time. So, what do we do in the meantime? How do we get our website making money so that we will be charged up to write that masterpiece we have always wanted to write?

Well, ClickBank to the rescue! At ClickBank, we can find a product to sell on our website until we develop our own. It works like this. We go to ClickBank.com, find a product we like (and others would like to!), put a link on our website that sends them to the product’s website and share in the profits when they buy that product. When they buy, Clickbank will track the link and give the appropriate credit to you for sending them to the product website in the first place. When you sell someone else’s product, you are called their “affiliate.”

Now, a few details. We want to choose something that we would not mind recommending! They will be finding the product on our website, so whatever we endorse will be a reflection on us! We also want to choose something that (1)there is a high demand for and (2) pays us well for the recommendation. We want to be paid at least $25 for every sale as a result of our link. So, we will have to evaluate the affiliate percentage and the purchase price of the product.

Now, a few caveats. ClickBank only offers totally down-loadable products. This is great for us, because we do not have to ship anything, but it does limit what we can choose to sell. Also, the more people that visit your site, the more potential you have to sell them something through your affiliate link on your web site. We will be discussing ways to increase visitors to your site (sometimes referred to as “traffic”) in future newsletters.

Actually, there are two scenarios you may want to consider here. The first is to add the affiliate link to an already existing website. Hopefully, it will have something to do with what you already sell or something that your customers would likely want (meaning that it is targeted to the people who come to your website). The second scenario is to build a website totally devoted to this one product. This is similar to putting up a coke machine in a busy location. You may not make a living off of one coke machine, but if you put up ten or twenty…you get the idea. You could put up ten to twenty websites each selling different affiliate products.

When a client clicks on your link and buys a product at the product’s website, ClickBank will send you a check. Some of you may want to start a separate business to run these checks through. I am not a tax guru or an attorney, but you may want to think about coming up with a business name and getting a DBA (doing business as) certificate from your local tax office. This allows you to open a bank account in your new company’s name and begin depositing funds there. It also makes it easier to track business expenses that are tax deductible (I may have my wife write a newsletter about all this since that was her degree in college!). For now, though, you could just have the checks written to you personally and deposit them in your personal checking account. You do not need a merchant account to take credit cards because ClickBank will process the customer’s credit card and send you a check. Actually, you will probably not be contacted by your customers at all. They will click on the link that takes them straight to the product’s website…you just get the credit!

My Goal For This Newsletter

I want to disseminate as much information about making money online as possible. Why? Because I want you to be free. Not free to do as you please…free to please God in whatever situation He has for you. I want you to use the extra income to be able to work less at your “day” job and disciple your kids and those young believers around you. Then, I want you to make even more money so that you can begin to start businesses and use those businesses to further God’s kingdom. But, to do this will mean you have to have some extra income…maybe even some disposable income (income not spoken for by bills, mortgages, car payments, rent, etc.).

Now, here comes the pitch. I have spent a great deal of time working with these websites that I will be recommending. Some will be rather involved and will take you a lot of time to navigate through. Of course, after you go through it, it will seem easy. But in the meantime, you will have spent about 3-5 hours learning where everything is and how to find it! Well, here I am to save the day (this is to be sung with the theme of the Mighty Mouse cartoon in mind!). The overall idea and use of Click Bank (that you have just read) is free, but if you want the step by step detail of how to set up a free ClickBank account, how to log in, what to do, what you will need on hand and how exactly to use the tools on the website while doing it with a real life example…you will have to invest $5. I have written down each mouse click and what you will need before you start, as well as used a real life example from ClickBank. Not much money and it will save you a lot of time! (I know from the 3-4 hour experience!)

If you would like the step by step click bank instructions, CLICK HERE.

Otherwise, I will talk to you at the next Family Entrepreneur tip!

Warmly in Christ,

Stephen Beck
www.familyebiz.com
www.curriculumconnection.net
email: steve@familyebiz.com

Click Here for Tip #4