Should You Incorporate Your Affiliate Business?

Starting an affiliate business is very easy. Obviously, you want to make a lot of money or you wouldn’t be in this business in the first place. But at some point in your affiliate career, you are going to have to make a decision: whether you want to incorporate or stay as a sole proprietor.

I don’t know about you, but I got started in affiliate marketing as a one man show. I did everything from web design to logo design to writing content. It wasn’t the most efficient way to do it, and knowing what I know now, I would probably outsource a bunch of those tasks to get more done. But from day one, I made the conscious decision to incorporate an LLC in my state to make sure I treated my affiliate business as a real business.

Based on my experience, it is always better to incorporate. Incorporation helps you:

• realize tax benefits: in some cases, you can get tax benefits by forming the right business entity. Who wouldn’t want to have more money at hand?
• protect your assets: wouldn’t be tough to have everything you have worked for get taken away by a lawsuit? That’s why you should incorporate a business and protect yourself.
• protect your name: a corporation is a real business, and you can reserve and protect your business name by forming a formal entity.
• gain more credibility: before I incorporated my affiliate business, everybody kept talking about how noble my “hobby” was. Only after I formed my LLC that folks realized I was in a serious business.

Obviously, there are lots of other benefits to incorporating your business (try Surprisingly Simple if you are in a hurry). But you really don’t have to be a legal expert to register your business. Thankfully, there are many incorporation services such as Company Corporation that allow you to outsource this process. So, don’t let the fear of being overwhelmed by all the legal stuff stop you from protecting your assets and business.