Making money online is a lot more complicated than most people think, and when a new marketer begins the quest to make money online, they may soon realize that there is a lot more to it than expected. Then, they are bombarded with tons of offers for infoproducts, membership programs, tools, services, coaching… all to help them make money.
Sure, I totally recommend you get help, and if that costs money, so be it. A lot of these things can greatly speed up your learning process, or even become quintessential in your online affiliate marketing endeavors. But, while most tools do help, we don’t always need them.
I’m sure you frequently get tempted, and probably indulge, in many internet marketing related purchases, but ask yourself, do you really need this?
Read more tips, and where to look for money drains after the jump!
It’s quite simple really, to prevent bleeding money, ask yourself a series of questions to determine your actual need for a product or service:
- Does this product help me with something I am having trouble with NOW?
- Will I USE this product to it’s full extent?
- Do I have TIME to apply this product?
- Is this product within my BUDGET?
This is just a sample list; you need to analyze what your priorities and needs are, and decide according to those.
Now, a simple reminder like this gets the picture across really fast. Preventing frivolous spending in this field can be pretty easy. And, if not, then just avoid any offer being made to you 
A bit harder to eliminate in my opinion are pre-existing money bleeds. These frequently come in the form of memberships and services. That’s because once you get over that initial spending hurdle, it’s much easier to just let technology take over and rebill you at will.
Heck, I’ve taken part in a few money bleeds myself, and it’s the worst looking back and realizing how much you’ve wasted over months. But of course, when things only cost 10-20$ a month, they don’t seem so bad at the time, when you are due for a rebill.
Here are a couple of common sources that may be costing you hundreds a year in useless spending:
Web hosting
I really hope you are using web hosting and building sites, and if so then obviously this isn’t wasted. But the problem is, that sometimes you could be paying for multiple web hosting plans, and may not even be using them all to their full extent.
I actually have 4 hosting plans over 3 different companies right now >< 2 are on GoDaddy, from way back when I first started online marketing, which only cater to one site; but luckily they did pull in enough money to pay for themselves. Another is from HostGator, which I use every day and love.
But there is one rogue web hosting plan, that I sort of thought I needed, so I let a $100 year long charge go through… Big mistake. The sites hosted on that plan aren’t doing anything, and I’ve pretty much completely lost interest in them.
Of course I’m going to cancel this before another rebill, but if it were for say $7 a month, I might forget, since it’s such a small figure.
Autoresponder
Autoresponders are great, but ONLY if you use them to their full potential! I’ve had a membership to AWeber for months now, and while I constantly renew because I always want to build a list, I have not yet done so.
I guess I’m an optimist 
What I should have done (and will now do), is just cancel the service until it is absolutely needed. Not in the pre-build phases of a website, or in the planning stages; only at the exact time needed.
Membership Programs
Are you in a membership program? How important is it for you? I know a long time ago, I won a subscription to a membership service for 6 months, and I barely visited.
You might be lured by knowing one day, something useful may be offered to members, but really until that happens, perhaps you shouldn’t be paying them.
So these are just a few common money drains I’ve noticed, what have you seen? Have you had many money bleeding experiences? Leave a comment so that others can hopefully avoid the same situations!
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