In this tough economy, I’ve had clients approach me and tell me heart-wrenching stories. I’m sure it’s world-wide but I am talking the good ole U S of A.

I am also talking about clients that were cash rich in 2007, either via their self-employed business or they were employed full-time and had part-time internet driven businesses that they dabbled in, hoping to become the next garage to Inc. success.

Unfortunately, as 2009 reaches the last quarter, news is not so good. This week alone I’ve been approached by long-term clients telling me:

(1)  Mark, I’ve got no cash-flow to feed the family, I need to get an employed position.  Can you help me with an online Bio/Website about my skills and awesome PDF /Word Doc version of my resume. We’re talking an ex-stock-broker turned entrepreneur.  I was shocked to learn of his situation, he just seemed so together and successful.

(2) Mark, I got laid off last week, can you help me with my online business that you’ve helped design and develop to monetize my business – fast!  This man is a strong family man that has supported his family since early manhood.  He’s also a very giving person and one that I know would offer you the shirt off his back if you needed his help.  A remarkable and compassionate individual.

(3) Mark, I know we’ve got to spend more on advertising but how can I reach an audience on a low budget?  I mean seriously, my ecommerce store sales have declined by over 50% this year and PPC costs have sky-rocketed with a lot less conversions?  You should know Mark, you helped me set it up!

(4) Mark, I know you tendered for that SEO  job and gave me a reference to your old Agency where you were a Consultant. From your discussion, I understand it  is a multi-million dollar company, but you were right when you said “Don’t be fooled by the CEO, he’s a salesman and would perhaps try to ‘poach’ your business- he did!  Good call and I’ve sent over the NDA and look forward to working with you.”

These are just some of the emails and phone calls I have received. I can tell you, it hurts no matter what.  ALL of these people are just struggling to make ends meet.

My clients are generally long term as I run a boutique firm that survives on customer service.  Indeed, even though most I never meet as they are nationally and internationally located, there becomes a strong bond during our working relationship and as we all do naturally, that leads to personal discussions about family, life and more.

So how can you survive and make your online business work?  There’s got to be some way to get your message out to the audience and on a budget.

Well, I propose you look at Clickbank.com as one marketing alternative if you have a digital or other related product to sell.  For $50 you get to launch your affiliate program to over 100,000 budding marketers to help you get your product to the market-place.  They are aggressive and you can see them promote your products on social networks like Twitter, FB, MySpace, and others as well as their own web sites.

Just make sure you have your own web site that allows only Clickbank as your merchant.  In other words, the website domain or sub-domain needs to meet Clickbank criteria which in layman terms means it should be a landing page or squeeze page that directs buyers to purchase via Clickbank merchant account.

An example is shown below.  Here’s to your success!

THE HISTORY We started writing applications due to custom coding requirements for social communities we launched. Then we got more and more personal requests from the Dolphin community – as you find you quickly gain trust of the community as your applications are installed and you respond timely to bugs, issues and questions raised.

We like to help as much as possible and our reputation for quality is one we admire and attempt to exceed client expectations. PAYPAL ON JOIN – MONETIZE YOUR WEBSITE

Licensing and Installation

Single License $60.00 with Installation $90.00 Multi Website License $200.00

Some of the mods we have created that have caused a stir generally assist in monetizing the free script.

Dolphin is really geared for free sign up and while it would be nice to think that all small business owners ideas are going to be a huge hit within 2 weeks of launching, reality is that unless you’ve got the support of private angels and investors, you should monetize your web site by memberships – paid monthly subscriptions, well that’s our thought on the matter, each to their own but we don’t think affiliate or google ads is going to support the costs and time invested in getting a good social community started and maintained, unless its really just a hobby.

Most we talk to don’t want it to be a hobby, they want their ideas to become commercially marketed and investments are high and serious in this field for those who wish to succeed. So that said, we started developing mods that help owners monetize their communities.

One of our more recent launches: Paypal on Join v1 and v2  :  Want to offer premium (paid) membership when visitors come to your web site for the first time and are ready to buy? Why defer until they sign up for a free account and don’t know where to locate the upgrade section of the member page.

No problem, now “close the sale” at the beginning of the paid membership process. Get more sales from your community with this mod that processes the sale via your paypal account on a recurring billing basis. Three simple steps to checkout – select membership type, fill in join form and click to go to paypal.

Once payment is confirmed and the visitor now comes back as a paid up member, only then does the site send the confirmation email. Give visitors the option to go for a paid membership as well as a free option and you’ll be surprised with how easy it is to monetize your community!

After requests from the community we have upgraded Paypal on Join to offer Paying members a free trial at sign up for X days and then the premium is collected automatically via Paypal. Fully automated and controlled via admin, also upgrades the Member status to VIP Member in Member’s account.

Also we have just finished a similar mod for earlier version of Dolphin 6.0! Testimonials on our Paypal on Join mod….

Awesome Mod! Mark did a truly remarkable job in getting this integrated into my site. No Hurricane can hold this guy down!! I would HIGHLY recommend his mods to everyone. VERY RELIABLE!!  – Tom.

Very good mod your site. Now I am sure to make some money from my site. The service was very good.I strongly recommend. – Sako, akwacity.com