You Do Not Get Paid With Rebates

You go shopping and spend $300. A month later the store where you spent that money sends you a check for $25. The question for you is did you just earn $25?

You better hope not because the IRS will come knocking on your door for tax on that $25.

The good news is this is nothing more than a rebate and the IRS treats it as a discount. It's as if you spent $275.

The point of this entire post is when you read about offers online for making money with rebates, don't expect to make any money. Earning money comes when you receive MORE than what you pay out.

This is an important distinction and it is what will be used by the IRS to determine whether you need to send a check to them.

For instance, banks often like to entice people to open an account by giving them cash or products. Is this considered income?

Yes. The point is, you made more than you spend and therefore that is considered income. Whether or not you will have to pay to the IRS depends on many factors. Your tax bracket is going to be a big determinant here. It' likely that one income offer here or there isn't going to raise any red flags.

This blog post is not meant to offer any financial or tax advice. Please consult a professional before using the information contained in this post.

Are Rebates Worth the Effort?

People love deals. However, how do you know the companies aren't raising their prices just to be able to offer a rebate? To see if they are worth it in the long run, make sure you are comparing prices among different sellers. Check Amazon, Walmart, and even eBay to see if those rebates will amount to anything significant.

Sometimes, searching for deals takes more effort than it's worth. Do you really want to spend two hours finding a rebate of $5? If you feel getting $5 is worth it, then by all means, knock yourself out!

Coupons Are Similar to Rebates

​When you find online coupon codes to plug into your shopping cart, these act in a similar manner as rebates. The big difference is in the timing of when you receive the benefit. With coupons, they are applied instantly whereas with rebates you need to wait a while before receiving them.

Coupon codes also do not add any income. They are simply discounts.

Selling Old Items

You go through your closet and find items you'd like to list on eBay or other online selling places. You find a buyer and they proceed to pay you. The deal is done when you ship out the product. Is this considered income?

It depends on what you initially paid for the item. If you received more for selling online than you paid, then it would be considered income.

Again, it's going to depend on many on whether the IRS will come-a-knocking at your door. If it's a one-off deal, you probably won't run into trouble. If you make a business out of it, you can expect a call.

Don't Spend for the Sake of the Discount

Many of these rebate sites get people so hooked into using them that they end up spending money on unnecessary items. There is an old saying, "when is a bargain not a bargain? When you don't need the item."

The rebate sites make money whenever you spend. Usually, they receive an affiliate commission from the vendor. That is how they make their money. The takeaway is they will do whatever they can to get you to spend.

Beware the Recurring Income Schemes

Rebate websites would love nothing more than to get you hooked into a recurring income setup from one of its vendors. Think memberships here. When they convince you to take a trial into the membership, they receive hefty fees from the vendor. In many cases, they continue to receive fees as long as you stay a paying member.

The catch is they rely on you to forget that you signed up or the vendor makes it extremely difficult for you to cancel.

These schemes have come under fire of consumer groups lately so they many have made it easier for subscribers to cancel. This does not address you forgetting to take action and cancel the membership, however.

The enticement by the rebate company is high payouts for these types of offers. Usually, they amount to the cost of the first month's membership which means you get that month for free.

Most of these memberships are not worth the cost to stay a member. You can usually find as good or even better deals online. So, signing up just for the sake of getting the payout can become a dangerous game to play, especially if you let several slip through the cracks and forget to cancel.

Another issue is that it's a fuzzy line as whether you received income for the membership. If you get paid more than the cost of the membership than the difference is considered income.

Always understand the terms of the deal before signing up for anything. Know how to cancel the membership before you get billed and consider contacting the company before signing up to see how customer service handles the call.

Debt Forgiveness

Although this doesn't have anything to do with rebates or coupons, be aware that should you take advantage of a debt forgiveness deal, the IRS will consider what you don't pay as income. Since the amounts are usually in the thousands of dollars (creditors won't offer deals when it's only in the hundreds), the benefit you receive is likely to be significant enough to warrant IRS attention. In fact, creditors are required to register the debt forgiveness event with the IRS, so don't think you may be able to skate by. You won't!

Conclusion

Don't fall for the hype of making money when you sign up for rebate websites. You may still find some value in the websites but don't look at it as a means to generate income. It's a quick way into the poorhouse!​

If you are looking for a great way to generate income, consider using my #1 Recommended Method. You'll be shown how to build a legitimate business capable of making some decent income.

Do You Really Need to Spend Money to Make Money?

You hear this advice all the time, i.e., you need to spend money to make money. But, is it true? Has anyone ever made money without spending something to do it?

This article will give some insight into this oft-spoken statement. My view on this may surprise you. Read on.

What Will You Spend Money On?

I don't doubt that if you put money into some kind of investment and it pays off, you will join the Spend Money to Make Money (SMTMM) club. If you learn about a business that costs $100,000 and you end up making $500,000. Then, that may have been a wise use of your money.

But, in this day of the internet, why can't you start an online business, without having to give up a chunk of your savings (in many cases, all of it)?

Getting back to what will you spend, do you know what you need to spend in order to start earning on that spend? Most people don't. This is why they find themselves spending needless amounts of money with no gains to show for that money.

The answer is to create a business plan. This is crucial. It helps you understand exactly what you need to spend money on so that it has the highest chances of earning.

But a business plan requires knowing what kind of business you want to start and how you are going to make money with it. I'll get into this in more detail later.​

Take on a Mentor

Most people are not savvy in business. They shoot off-the-cuff and haphazardly try whatever comes their way. It's not a character flaw. This is simply the way we are wired and we need to take measures to correct this. The best advice is to find people who are experienced and can guide you to take the right steps. They can also help you focus on what you should be spending your money on.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of hacks that will claim they are mentors or business coaches. The truth is many of these people have never succeeded in business. This is why you need to be critical about the people you choose to mentor you.

Time is Money

You have probably heard this phrase about as much as you've heard SMTMM. But, the truth is, most people don't equate time with money and end up wasting much of their time on activities that won't amount to increasing their rate of investment (ROI). Scanning your email every fifteen minutes is not a business activity that will reap rewards.

Know What You Need to Get Done

You may ignore my advice to take on a mentor, and that's okay. Just make sure you have a solid plan that contains actionable goals and tasks. Also, measure the success of the plan at certain milestones. Otherwise, be prepared to flounder.

To know what needs to get done requires you to learn. Too many would-be business owners think they know everything. They opened a business after all. They must know what they are doing, right?

Along those same lines, make sure you are really critical about what is working and what needs adjusting. We all get too caught up in finding excuses. God forbid we should reflect on efforts and introspect about what we are doing!

Be Willing to Take Criticism

If you are looking for someone to say yes to every question you ask and never challenge your decisions, I am available for a reasonable fee. I'd be happy to say yes to every email you send me as long as you continue to pay me.

I hope you take that in the joking manner it was meant. I care about your success and want you to realize that you need people who are willing to be upfront with you. As long as they have your best interests at heart, you should listen to what they have to say, especially if they hold authority.

The ultimate responsibility of your business rests with you. If you listen to the advice of mentors and fail, you can't blame them for it all. If it turns out you got bad advice, find others who will give you good advice, or at the very least, learn what went wrong and pick up the pieces from that.

A Business Where You Don't Need To Spend Any Money

I am not going to lie to you. If you have a decent sized budget, and you know what you need to do to earn with that budget, you'll get to where you want to be much quicker. However, most of us don't have budgets. But, we don't want to miss out on creating a viable business that can earn a job-busting income.

There's good news - you can set up a business and start out with no spending whatsoever. Do yourself a favor, though. Once you start earning with this business, consider putting some of your earnings into growing the business.

This is a mistake many newcomers make and in every instance, they wished they had put some of their earning back into the business!

So, now that I have answered the question of whether you can run a business at no cost (you can), the next question or concern to answer is what kind of business is this? How will you know what to do?

Before I answer that, please don't make the mistake most new business owners make - they try to start a new business without any training.

Huge Mistake!

And totally unnecessary. I know, you probably think I am about to spring some expensive training program on you. Don't Worry! When I said no cost I meant it.

Most marketing hacks will try to convince you that while you can start your business for free, you need to pay huge amounts of money to learn about the business. And they just happen to be the ones who will train you!

Don't Listen to these jokers! Most of
them have never made a single sale!null

Why Listen to Me?

That's a fair question. Because I have the experience necessary to bring you to a place where you can start earning real money. I do it because I like helping people. It's the personal satisfaction that I get in doing so.

But, there's an underlying, hidden reason I like to help people with their businesses. To break the shackles of corporations. I hated being a slave to the corporate titans. They control every aspect of your life. If you're five minutes late they look down upon that. But, they have no problems making you work overtime for no pay. They could care less about your personal life.

I want to let every person I can, know that there are alternatives to "working for the man!" Some people love the corporate world. Good luck and God Bless! For me, and most others, you need a low cost (in this case, no cost) way to earn as much (and usually more) than what these corporate whores are paying you (pardon my language!)

Would You Try to Fly a Plane Without Training?

Let me know if you will and what your possible flight plan is going to be so I can be as far away from your journey as possible. I think you see where this is going. While learning how to create a business online isn't as detailed as learning how to fly, there are plenty of nuances you need to be aware of.

The biggest is knowing what kind of business to create. One of my biggest tips for newcomers is to create an affiliate business. Essentially, this is a partnership between you and vendors, like Walmart, Amazon, and Target, etc. You send traffic to their product sales pages and if that traffic buys from your link, the vendors send you a commission on that sale.

Seems easy enough, right?

It is. But, inexperienced business owners make the mistake of throwing a few banners up on a web page and hope for millions of dollars in sales. It doesn't work that way.

You'll get into the details when you go through the training. But, you need to provide something to your readers that will differentiate you from others who are doing the same thing (think competition!)

Starting an affiliate business is a good choice for beginners. You don't have to worry about finding suppliers and stocking up on pallets of merchandise.

BTW - if you decide to sell in bulk and think that you can load up your garage with merchandise by the pallets, expect to get a nasty letter from your town or municipality. A neighbor or two will complain about you doing this. Just a word to the wise!

With the affiliate business model, your neighbors won't know anything about it (unless you tell them) because everything is done online!

You won't need to set up a shopping cart nor payment processors. The vendor does all of this for you. As you can see, this is one of the few business models that you can implement completely free of charge.

If you happen to come across affiliate managers who ask for payment for the "privilege" of selling their products, head for the exits!

This affiliate arrangement exists across several vendors in just about every industry. The good news is you can earn commissions on industries that you find interesting. This includes hobbies!

The takeaway here is you can get paid for your hobbies! Schweet!!!

​It's a No Brainer!

Several people who I have introduced this concept too, get excited and exclaim to me this seems like a no brainer. And they are correct. You could even do this type of business model while you are still working in you soul-sucking corporate job.

How would your attitude change if you knew you were making money even as you continue to work in your current job! I am going to go out on a limb and state that you would be a whole lot happier, no?

Why Don't More People Take Advantage of This?

I think there are several reasons with the biggest being a lack of knowledge. Also, due to the ease of entry, people go into it thinking there's no work involved. They get disillusioned when they discover it takes time and effort (but not necessarily money)

Another possible issue is not having the time to develop the business. Maybe you are stuck working 12-hour days. The last thing you want to do when you get home is to work on a business. In this case, you could get someone else to do the work for you. This would leverage your time and develop your business at the same time.

If you are consistent with this strategy, you could quickly develop your business to the point where you can leave your current work situation. Even if you don't having extra cash on a frequent basis never hurt anyone.

Next Steps...

What if you waited five years and didn't develop some kind of income-generating business? You would be pondering what life would be like if you had.

Conversely, if you start something now and develop it to the point where you are making some money, your life is going to only get better. You will no longer need to worry about whether you're going to get a raise or bonus from your company. You can create your own.

Of the two choices, i.e., pondering what might have been or actually doing, which would you choose? You've got nothing to lose by taking action. It's a head rush when you start earning money online. I can state this from experience. When you see the emails stating that you received a payment, it's exhilarating.

Use this link to get started on one of the most exciting business available!