Newbie Tip: Set Your Minimum Affiliate Commission Payouts To $1000 - Here's why...

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Hey Newbies,


I have a real fondness for you guys. Especially those of you that are eager enough to take consistent action. It's so cool to see newbies "take flight" and finally learn how to develop and maintain long term streams of income.

Here's a tip that really helped me out when I first started affiliate marketing:

Set your minimum affiliate commissions to $1000. Meaning, in your affiliate accounts (ie. Clickbank), you have the ability to edit the minimum amount of commissions earned before they send you a check or electronic transfer. Change that amount from the default to $1000.

Now, before you make a judgment, hear me out. When I first started affiliate marketing, I did what most newbies did and set the minimum at the lowest amount available (it was either $25 or $50).

I wanted to have those commissions in my hand asap. And do you know what happened?

I would work on projects. Make a sale eventually. Get $25 commission checks every few months. Blah blah blah. Boring, right?

And that's the key: getting those little affiliate commission checks were nice, but they weren't very exciting. Meaning, it was hard to get motivated getting those small commission checks.

Now, once you set your minimum affiliate payout to $1000, things change significantly.

What's more exciting? Holding a commission check in your hand from Clickbank for $26.27, or holding one for $1,017.93? The second one obviously.

Now, a thousand dollar check, that's exciting. That's sexy. That gets me motivated. And I know logically that $1000 is the same as 40 checks of $25. But they are much different psychologically.

Delaying gratification forces you to finish the job. You don't get those small checks to satisfy the hunger you feel. And that's critical because sometimes getting that satisfaction causes you to lose the hunger and slow down your marketing efforts.

But if you know that you have to wait until you get to $1000, you will get INCREASING more motivated the closer you get to $1000. It's like running a race. As you near the end of it, you feel totally exhausted and struggling to finish.

But once you see the finish line, you start to pick up your step. You try and finish strong. Even though you just felt totally spent, seeing the finish line causes us to run faster.

Another reason why $1000 checks are better than $25 checks: you are better able to figure out how best to use that money.

Trying to divide up a $25 check is pretty pointless. But dividing up $1000 check is totally different. Now only is it easier, but it's fun. Very fun. You could be like, "Ok, I'll take this check and divided up like this:"

- $100 outsource new articles
- $100 hosting and domain names
- $200 to buy Market Samurai
- $500 living expenses
- $100 gift for myself

A $25 check will be absorbed into your checking account almost instantly. Great, you can get a pizza, some cheap wine, and a pack of smokes. Whoopdeedoo.

But deciding what to so with a $1000 check is incredibly fun.
In the example above, half of it went to easing the burden of living expenses, almost half was re-invested back into the business, and you are still able to spend $100 on yourself guilt-free.



Anyway, that's all I got for today. I hope this thread helps a few of your newbies. Be sure to send me pictures of your $1000 checks when you get them.

Best of luck guys,

KateD
#main internet marketing discussion forum #affiliate #minimum #newbie #payouts #ste #tip
  • I completely agree with you, I don't accept any affiliate payments below $1000.. that trip to the bank must be worth your while

    Plus here in the UK we get charged for putting them into our accounts so it makes sense to put in the largest amount possible at one time.
    • [1] reply
    • You can get paid direct into your bank account now MJ
  • Thanks for that Kate. It's a very good idea.
  • Great idea, but don't forget newbies will have to wait for some time before getting a $1000 check, unless they absolutely know what to do and how to scale it.

    -Shaun
    • [1] reply
    • Very true. But it's that waiting period that will truly motivate them to get to their goal of that $1000 check.

      The reality is that most newbies will NEVER make $1000 in their entire IM "career".

      But, by forcing them to wait, you force them to keep working. And that extra motivation can be enough to get newbies to take actions that they normally wouldn't.

      It's not that newbies are doing the wrong things. It's that they aren't doing enough of the right things in order to finding lasting success. They give up early.

      But setting the bar at $1000 will almost force newbies to succeed.

      KateD

      P.S. And trust me, if a newbie can get to that $1000 paycheck, they are going to get to that second one MUCH faster. And the third will come even faster. Makes sense, right?
      • [1] reply
  • With all my respect, I totally disagree with this idea.

    First of all, it is not likely for someone who just start in this industry to make $1000 in the first month; that will take some time to happen.

    Having to wait, will decrease their motivation. They have never make any money online, they need these $26, $33.33 checks to prove themselves that it is possible FOR THEM too to make money online. This will motivate them to work harder and do better!

    Then, they can start to upgrate it to whatever they want...

    Just my 2 cents,
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [4] replies
    • Yes, that's why I'd recommend setting it to $100, then only set it higher. It's like a trophy to them, a real, solid proof that making money online is possible.

      -Shaun
    • Actually, they start to take money out of your account for inactivity, not because you have money in your account. If you are getting sales, your money will be fine.

      The newbies will never "lose" the money. I mean, if he had a few hundred bucks in CB and just wanted to quit IM (or absolutely needed that money), they could also change the payout back to the minimum and get their money in the next pay cycle.

      But trust me, if a newbie has a few hundred dollars in his CB account, chances are he's far from throwing in the towel.

      KateD
    • As you said, they will get frustrated and give up... and think IM marketing is not for them, or it is not working... why? because they never make any money online.

      Imagining a newbie, having to wait 3, 4 months (if it is not more) before receiving their first check? what will keep them motivated and continue and face the difficulties? Their $1000 goal?

      I don´t think so, they need to be sure that they can make money too...
      And this is a game with REAL money!
      • [1] reply

    • I agree. One step at a time; otherwise, you might end up depressed for not achieving way too high expectations at the start. It is not bad to aim high and reach high; as long as you have the right motivation. But, it is best to make realistic projections.

      Aiming to reach the moon in 1900 was impossible at that time; but it is possile today ever since the early 60's.
  • I'm interested - don't you pay any tax?
    • [1] reply
    • I think that you are missing the point. I just gave a quick example. Sure, you should claim the correct amount when you file your taxes.

      The point is that it's much more exciting to divide up a $1000 check as opposed to a $25 check.

      KateD
  • Another one who disagrees here. I think that it is better to set it to $50. If I had waited until I hit $1000 it would have severly impacted on the growth of my business. I don't understand why anyone would want to slow down their own cash flow! When I started as soon as I hit the threshold of $50 I wanted it in my account to re-invest in the business.
  • I agree with what you have to say.. or I mean I get your concept. I guess the hard part for developing IM'ers is that the cash they make they need back for other expenses.
  • Excellent motivation idea. I think seeing sales add up in your affiliate account is motivation enough to keep you active. It shows success.
  • Raising the bar is always a great way to push yourself to the next level. Great advice KateD. It's simple small things like this that can really change your motivation to get you where you want to be.

    Travis
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • [DELETED]
  • This is an interesting concept and should technically work. But will it?

    My actual opportunity is a high ticket one where most of my commission checks are minimum of $2000. But and here is the big but, I chose my opportunity for that very reason, plus I invested money into it so it was in my interest to make it back pretty sharpish.

    An affiliate, and a newbie at that matter hasn't invested money, or if they have its not a huge amount. But what they are investing is their time.

    How much time are they spending a month? How much is each commission worth to them? Are they working part time? full time?

    How many Warrior members are earning $1,000 a month as an affiliate? How many $2,000 +

    Motivation is good and needed, particularly for newbies. But withholding money they have earnt, whether it's $100 or $900 is mean and unfair and the only person who wins in this situation is the company as they are keeping the money the person has earnt until they reach the goal of $1000.

    What happens if that person doesn't reach that goal or finds a better product and makes more money from that?

    Respect your affliates, pay them what they are due. Motivate them by paying them. Give them bonuses, help them with marketing their products by providing them with an excellent affiliate programme with helpful emails they can send, website copy etc. Don't punish them because they haven't got to $1000.

    Lilach
    • [1] reply
    • Lilach

      I think you missed the point Kate was trying to make. She was suggesting you set your own payout threshold at $1000. Not the threshold to pay your affiliates.



      • [1] reply
  • Interesting arguments to and fro. The idea of $1000 is great but for the struggling newbie $100 would look great too. Maybe if they had a lower amount for the first three months and then pushed it to $1000. We all love to see the money and sometimes the smaller amount is what keeps the newbie focused.
  • Kate...

    I'm with you. All I've seen from the naysayers in this thread
    is a bunch of reasons why something can't be done.

    No surprise... that's how most people think. They think small
    so, naturally, they get small results.

    The people who win in life never ask IF something can be done... they ask HOW.

    I say if a person doesn't start out with a new business BELIEVING they
    can earn $1000 they should really just keep their day job.

    Tsnyder
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I agree but I also disagree.

    Because a lot of marketers will give up well before they ever reach the $1000 threshold. Think about it- if you have worked for 3 months without any kind of reward then you are more likely to give up than if you got a check for $25, then a check for $50 then a check for $100 etc.

    In other words I would recommend starting off small but then raising the limit each time. That way your checks are always for more money but they will be consistent so that you stay motivated also.
  • Kate,

    A really good idea.

    I've done something similar with PayPal. When I first began freelancing online, I used to get these measly payments for little 'errands' that I did for clients. Seeing the small amounts add up in my PayPal account was motivating enough for me to keep going and take it to $1000.

    I even attached a bigger motivation to taking it to $1000. I wanted to gift my mom a check of $1000 to on her birthday. Then, that $1000 (and each $1000 after that) didn't seem like much. It was a challenge and I was on a mission which I DID complete

    So, this works. And it's true that people will give up somewhere in the middle. If so, they always have the option to withdraw whatever amount they have in their account.

    Regards,
    Sagar
  • I think that this is a great idea. Most people including me when I started did not think big like this. Now I set goals like this for myself and I make steps that it will take to reach these goals.

    I will do whatever it takes to reach this goal then make a new goal. So I would suggest that you set a time frame to reach your $1000 and then do whatever is necessary to reach this goal in your set time. Even if you don't make it to a $1000 you would have a great start and have already gotten further than most people do.


    Chris
  • Hey Kate,

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm sorry to see you got such resistance but I'm sure you understand why it happens.

    You have the mindset you're advocating so it seems natural to you that you want to share it and other people will 'get' it, but if you look at where they're at - many people haven't made $1000 yet and have been trying for a long time (sometimes years) and they've adopted a mentality of scarcity and thinking that anything you make online is a bonus not to be expected. So to suggest to someone like that that they should stop taking payments that are less than $1000 just has a massive disconnect with their reality.

    Also, if someone is struggling month to month just to stave off financial problems they may well need that $300 they've made to pay their bills, so naturally it's not going to make sense to leave it with CB just to motivated themselves - their debt might actually be a stronger motivator anyway.

    However - you're still right to raise the idea and let anyone who can benefit from it take it and try it out.

    Why people feel the need to tell you you're wrong when it obviously worked for you is not a reflection on you.

    It's also ok for people to not accept the suggestion as perfect for their situation and I don't believe anyone who try to force such an idea on someone who's not ready for it, so the only reason for any negative feedback is just to raise the issue that it's not necessarily right for everyone - which I'm sure we're all aware of anyway.

    To Curtis - where you see egotistical blather others see someone sharing something that worked for them. No-one really expects that everyone will agree but to respond in such a melodramatic and negative/insulting way says a lot about you and nothing about Kate. You made a bunch of assumptions that were not in here statements and jumped on the negativity bandwagon with them.

    Thanks for sharing and caring Kate.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I had an enormous shock when I cashed my first affiliate check for $52 dollars my bank charged me 10 pounds that's about 30%.

    I soon discover that the same 10 pound charge applied to every check for $ no matter the amount and increased all my minimum payouts immediacy.
  • Delayed gratification is one of the best motivators going around.

    It does depend on you cash flow obviously and the type of account you are delaying but generally I think it is a great idea.

    I also think the gift for yourself is also important. You need to separate yourself from work at some stage.
  • Im in the UK, and I have found to get the best exchange rate back to GBP:

    Set the payout value as high as possible. How high depends on how soon you need the cash and how much you earn per month. Aim for 6 months earnings if you can.

    When you get the cheque pay it into a DOLLAR account run by a bank. The once cashed in transfer the balance to your GBP account.

    You'll be charged about $20 by the processing company and $10 by the bank (in my experience) for the privilege, however on say $10000, that is 0.3% and the exchange rate is not far off the official spot rate, i.e. the best rate possible.

    Using the automated payments, paying into a GBP account or having a low threshold will cost you more money in transaction fees so avoid them if you can.
  • Yes i agree i will change my commission to 1,000 as soon as i get on clickbank
    • [1] reply
    • Very good idea in general. But I think it's still base on individual circumstances. What I mean is, instead of that money sitting at Clickbank for a long long time, I would take what I can get to re-invest to my venture. The earlier I can use the money to work for me the better and will multiply faster and maybe reach that $1000 sooner. Now, this only works if you have the descipline and a good plan like mention above. But then again this is just me, use whaever works for you.
  • I disagree strongly. This is terrible money management. Get your
    money as quick as you can at the most efficient amount. Then you,
    rather than them, can earn interest on it.
    • [1] reply
    • Hmm depends, it takes an hour of my time to visit and queue at the bank to pay the cheque in, so there is a higher cost of my time with repeated cashing in of cheques, plus the fee I pay per cheque. Unless you're earning $100,000's the interest is negligible in most countries that have a low interest rate.
  • Great idea change your mindset and change your bank balance...will make those suggestions over at click bank thanks for the advice...ark
  • I have always done this, but my main reason was to minimise the cheque clearing fee.

    Will
  • Hey that's a great tip! The trick is to become patient enough to do so.

    By following this advice you'll also be saving on their check processing fees they charge you when they send out a check.

    Think about this:

    If you got $1000 paid to you in $25 increments, you would pay $40 in fees!

    If you get it all at once you pay $2.50.

    Those $2.50 hits really add up. Yikes.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for spamming my thread. Much appreciated.



      KateD
  • Not a bad idea But I wanted my first check so bad that I cashed out at $30 .I didn´t bring it to the bank throu,I put it in a frame and hung it by my work desk.I always like looking at it!
  • Good idea but maybe just too high a figure for some. Holding up to 1000 in clickbank may mean 50 sales or more, that's maybe over the top for beginners. I don't even pay attention to my balance, when I get my check I'm always surprised but I don't really do much in affiliate sales.

    It's a good idea to set goals, maybe just out of reach. And it doesn't have to be money, it can be related to the many tasks that need to be completed to be successful. I do a work list every day knowing that I won't get everything done but it helps me set priortities and finish what has to be done.
  • Plus you get big check amounts to use for posting proof of earnings on WSOs.
    • [1] reply
    • I disagree. It's a risk to lose the check and much safer to bring in small sums each month not one big sum every 6 months lets say. Less attention from bank and authorities as well.

      Also - if you get banned by the time you have almost reached the large sum it will hurt much more than with a small sum. Also - companies are more reluctant to pay out larger sums.
      • [1] reply
  • I did this too, but I set it to $500. And I agree, getting a payment of $500 or $1000 is very good.

    But also as one pointed out at the very beginning, when you very first start, is nice to get those little amounts so you know it is working.

    So I would say get those small amounts until you are convinced with the idea that you can make an income and then bump up the payout to $1000 or whatever.

    This way you get the best of both worlds.
  • Don't forget that part of the motivation that keeps a newbie going is actually reaping the reward of their hard work. If that's a $25 check, then so be it.

    It's hard to keep going when you don't see any improvement to your bank account. Especially because it's not like a normal 9-5 where you can count on being paid in 2 weeks.

    On top of this, you bring in problems with cash-flow. I'd rather have the $25 now so that I can reinvest it and turn it into $50, then reinvest that.
    • [1] reply

    • Oh god i just know how much flak i'm going to get for this...

      If $25 is going to make or break you then you really shouldnt be doing this at all.

      And think of kates plan as a saving plan your putting money away for a rainy day, or a special occassion.

      invest $25... make $50 leave it in the saving plan

      next week invest another $25 make $50 leave it in the saving plan

      etc etc

      Get a huge warm feeling about the sum mounting up. you might just find the means to invest $50 the next month and make $100

      Its just a saving plan with 100% interest

      If you found a bank that gave you 100% interest you would find money to put in the damn thing from all sorts of places wouldnt you?
      • [1] reply
  • I am afraid i disagree as well. Having been with Clickbank for years, I put the lowest in, get the three checks and then opt for the direct debit. The checks are usually well over threshold anyway, hold on to the checks, get them all in the bank at once, only one charge then in the U.K. Then opt for direct debit once every two weeks. Seemples!
  • Banned
    Lol,
    Excellent mentality, I see you put a lot of thought into this but when you starting off you want to see some rewards for your work to be motivated. I do agree that the mental motivation would be greater with a $1000 check but if your sales aren't as high it could take a bit long and imagine the wait how demoralizing it is in those moments. Although once you get going on your sales this would be something good to look into.
    Thanks!
  • I agree and disagree!

    It's true that big $$$$ affiliate checks will motivate you but it is also true that many newbies need to have their money on their hands to keep up with their expenses.

    BTW, my first ever money on the internet was 8cents and it motivated me like hell and my first ever affiliate sale was on clickbank and it was $15 and it also motivated me like crazy. So I was the kind of newbie who doesn't need to see big money to actually do something. I made small commissions and I knew that I can multiply my sales and make these commissions even greater.

    All I'm saying is that it depends on the type on person a newbie is.
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