Just got out of prison, with £500 in my name, where do I go from here?

It's also very saturated by very established and professional players and 500 won't make a dent in what you'd need to break into it. I would seriously look into getting a job and a regular income and then trying out Internet Marketing part time and tackle something much less saturated.

Where you've been or what you've done is irrelevant. The internet is a level playing field so go for it.

My suggestions:

1. KEEP your day job - keep it longer than you think you might - it's much easier to build your own business when you have the security of paying the bills each month.

2. CAREFULLY read the thread below.....then look for other similar threads that are true "blueprints" for doing business online. They aren't easy to find here - lots of fluff and bluster normal for an IM forum. However, there are some highly successful internet marketers, offline marketers, copywriters and freelancers who post here regularly.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...do-income.html

3. Read enough to KNOW what path you want to take - then stay on that one path until you reach some level of success. Ignore advice about multiple streams and eggs in baskets. Focus on one thing to create a "trickle" and work on filling one 'basket' at a time.

This is not rocket science - you have a good "stake" to back you up. Be very cautious where you spend money - don't get caught up in the shiny "big money easy now" offers.

Good luck - when you get stuck, ask questions.

You can do this!

kay

First off welcome to the forum. There is a good thread about a 30 day challenge to make money with less the $50.00 that just started. Post any questions there as you need help. Here is the link -
http://www.warriorforum.com/member-c...-7-1-16-a.html . You can start with and e-book or whatever.

Please keep the day job while you learn how to do IM, it is easy to go broke or just get frustrated and quit. Treat it like a business and be serious it takes time and effort

Put the money away for now till you need it. It is way to easy to blow the $500.00 Also don't be surprised you get a few people offering to pm you to tell you how to spend it.

Good Luck

I forgot Shay's challenge - (linked by dwolfe above)....

EXCELLENT way to get your business started...do it!

No, I don't think that is the way to go. You have a job paying your bills - you have funds you can hold on to and use as you grow your business. Don't waste that money on ads and "fast money" products and don't listen to those who tell you 'spend spend spend'.

It's easy to tell someone "run FB ads and get clients" - but where do you send them? Do you have an interactive site or blog - do you have coaching tutorials and videos and other materials? Begin to see the problem? It's a marathon, not a race.

The biggest mistake newbies make is jumping from one "make money easy/fast" thing to another...you need to build a platform that will support a real business - that's how you become self sufficient...and successful a year or two down the line.

Seriously I would start with the challenge linked above - basics and support.

Best thing i find about affiliate marketing is you don't HAVE to spend a dime to get started or very little anyways, $500 in your case will be more than enough. simply sign up to a few affiliate programs, weather that be CPA or just normal affiliate sites (warrior plus, JVZOO, etc) pick a niche, recommend just one to start, sign up with an autoresponder website (get response or aweber) and build your self a landing/squeeze page promoting a free gift of some sort that is related to your niche, your half way there, now all you have to do is build an autoresponder and drive traffic to your optin page.

You can get done for you sales funnel for around $300, I have seen here on WF for that price and start selling your own product. Get affiliates to promote it as well. Good luck :-)

Look into your prison experience. Perhaps there is a need for info products on how to survive prison, what to do after prison, etc. Or combine your knowledge of prison and fitness, perhaps an info product on staying fit in prison or how to get ripped like a prisoner.

Whatever you do, you'll need to learn how to market and drive quality traffic to your website and that's the hard part regardless what the day dreamers and wannabees tell you. It's hard work that changes a lot and can be coslty.

The only part of Kay's excellent post with which I disagree. Your background gives you an "angle" that will help you stand out from the crowd. I'm guessing that while you were incarcerated you didn't have access to Nautilus machines and other high tech gear. Probably a combination of body weight exercise and a few free weights. Use that experience.

I apologize in advance if this sounds disrespectful; it isn't meant that way. But something like "The Yardbird Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding" would definitely stand out.

People love a good redemption story. Give them one.

Personally, I think your mentor is getting ahead of himself. Putting money in the bank and building a business aren't mutually exclusive. I firmly believe that having several months worth of basic expenses in the bank will make you better at business. On the other hand, as a total unknown in the community (bodybuilders and fitness buffs), throwing money at FB ads is a good way to piss away the money you got from your folks.

Better to launch on a shoestring, establish yourself using free or very low cost methods, and once you have a footing and a solid offer, then experiment very cautiously with paid ads.

Right now, I'd suggest investing in two books. "Launch" by Jeff Walker and "Will It Fly" by Pat Flynn. Read, absorb and use what they teach, and by that time you'll be much better able to make reasoned investments in your business.

Start a blog and talk about what you did to keep in shape in prison (which I assume you did) You could really engage people about how your workouts helped you through tough times, and eventually to turn your life around.
I think people would appreciate the personal angle. You could then start a Facebook fan page around your blog. Then add affiliate programs that you recommend .
Its not a quick fix, but may bring you more rewards in the long run.
Good luck to you.

You're right Frank (I know -what is new about that?). But I love John's idea so no one gets slapped upside the head this time.

you have to make you're product seem different, people know all fitness content may be the same so your product needs to be sold differently

I agree with some comments here on the thread, if you are going to write an eBook, tap into your point of difference in this case would be your time in jail. Not only is this fascinating for people to read about it's also unique content which is hard to come by. Good luck with your future, it sounds like you're very motivated and willing to work hard.

Don't give up. I had a serious spinal and head injury. Imagine you losing 30 years of memory. They told me i had no hope of a job their words "98% chance of never working again". Did I listen No, even though I knew nothing (no memory) I ran a marathon 2 1/2 years after accident, did some amazing jobs. When you want something you work for it. Do what it takes and like me made a crap load of mistakes, but you know what 28 years since that accident. There have been some amazing jobs to build my life with no regret.
Create your life again, I did, and never look back. Create a blog and use that as a platform to your ebook. Get people interested post daily. You will succeed if you want it enough. Just don't let the down moments get you down. Think of where you are were you come from and what the future offers

A random thought...

But if you're already using social media (say Instagram which is so visual) why not try to see if you can build a following, with a view to getting them onto an email list.

You have a very interesting, and unique story as a backdrop and I'm sure there is a lot of motivational stuff you've learned from your time inside that makes you unique and someone wiser than their years.

Convict Conditioning is a book that grew into a movement.

Build an audience > send them to an email opt-in > find out as much as you can about your audience and then create (or JV) your product.

It's definitely easier said than done.

Good luck,

"Another Arm Chair Expert"

Hey welcome to the online world


YOU seem to have passion in health and fitness right?


Good start, why don't you create an ebook such as a prison workout or something to do with prison and health.


Marketing sometimes requires a story and people love unique products and angles


Just my suggestion!

I have one idea that might work for you.

Since you have a deep passion for fitness/bodybuilding stuff one option is to make YouTube videos on the subject.

You would need something to record the videos but I think you can do that inexpensively as some people make videos on their phones and edit them in something like Windows Movie Maker.

One way you could get money from this is via the ad revenue, but another way you could monetize your videos is with Amazon affiliate links.

For example, let's say you did a review of Muscle Milk Protein Powder in one of your videos. You could then put your Amazon affiliate link in the description for that video.

You can sign up to Amazon's affiliate program to get your affiliate link for a given product. Keep in mind now that most people don't like the way affiliate links look so you'll want to shorten each Amazon affiliate link you have with a link shortening service. One link shortening service that I see a lot of people use is the website bitly.com. So you take your Amazon affiliate link and enter it onto bitly.com (or equivalent) and then you would post that shortened link in the description part of your YouTube video.

I see so many YouTubers talking about products in their videos who don't have Amazon affiliate links in their descriptions and they are just missing out on so much extra money (and some of these people have millions of subscribers, too!).

Now, another way you can monetize your videos even if you don't have your own products yet is to promote other people's products. Let's say you made a YouTube video on how to have good running form. Well, at the end of that video you could talk about a great book you read on running (for the sake of example, let's say "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall") and tell people that they can listen to "Born to Run" for free on Audible.com and tell them that the link (which is your affiliate link) is in the description. If you haven't read a certain book you can read a synopsis of it and then wing it on camera.

I see a lot of YouTubers promoting sites like Audible.com at the ends of their videos and I doubt they would promote it if it didn't make them money.

As far as the content of your YouTube videos would be concerned, that would be up to you, but of course, if you need any inspiration you can look at successful YouTube channels on fitness/body building. Some successful channels in this niche are HASfit and Six Pack Short Cuts & Abs After 40. In fact, if you look at the descriptions on some of Six Pack Short Cuts & Abs After 40 you can see that they are promoting audible.com, too. So if it works for them it can work for you.

You could also promote ClickBank products on fitness/bodybuilding and put it in your description. For instance, let's say you made a video on 'How to Lose 10 Pounds in 2 Weeks' or "One Weird Trick to Lose Belly Fat Fast". Well, in the description for that video you can put your ClickBank affiliate link that's been shortened.

If you make a fitness/bodybuilding website in the future or if you make a product, you can link to those in your description, as well.

P.S. If you're not sure which tags to use for your YouTube videos you can find out which tags other people are using for a similar video and use them for your own video. Here is a video that will show you how to find the tags on any YouTube video:

Yes, truer words, some here can say build a site, do the SEO thing, and hope that traffic and profits follow.

It isn't that easy, well l spent a few years at it, with dismal profits, and forget about using Adwords for the landing page, they will close your account if you send traffic to a landing page and optin.

You have to build a Google friendly site, and then put the optin at the bottom of a page somewhere, virtually useless in other words.

And l have tried countless times to get Bing to cough up, but it never converts.

Yeah, affiliate products, spent 7 months trying to get that to work, Adword keyword costs are so high now, it is near impossible to sell a mainstream product a turn a profit at the end.

And the list goes on, but after almost 10 years online trying to find something that works, l learned the great secret.

I am only concentrating on hub sites that have their own traffic, (or in other words, they cough up with Adwords) as getting cheap traffic or free to your offer, is the hardest thing to figure out.

But of course that removes a big block from the wall, but the wall is still standing.


Fiverr is one site with their own traffic, some do well there, but it is human resoource based, with a 20 product limit. So not a good place to sell PLR products.

But a good place to make some extra money,

I am mainly concentrating on Creative Market, or fonts, since others there have made a full income from that site and more.


But as Frank has said, it ain't that easy, font software is very expensive, and usually requires Adobe suite, so, 2 to 3k all up, and a good year to learn it all.

Thankfully l have an old version of Photoshop, and Illustrator, with Fontographer, and have a good understanding of it, so l only need to work hard and do a font that makes the grade.

I did flyers before then, but they are trashed, so the income isn't consistent.


But, yeah, you could build a site or sell a product or create your own, and it might work, or you could work hard for months or years, with little to show for it?

I don't know a lot about social media, eventhough l use it, and overall it is crap.


And 500, won't get you very far with Adwords, so my suggestion, (apart from learning) is to go to Fiverr, and make some money, prefibly doing something in your field of interest, it might open up some doors, and at least show your parents that they money is growing, not disappearing.

Good luck

I am glad that you are still serious about your business. I would like to suggest you to start making youtube videos. Youtube can do something for you...If you have real talent.

Hi Bud,

Hope this message finds you well!

I'm going to take this post as you want to know how to spend this £500 wisely on internet marketing. Firstly, i'm glad you have a 9-5 job to pay your bills, that is important at the moment.

With the fitness ebook- have you got all the valuable content you need just yet for it? Like you said, there are so many great products out there for free, what will make your one so unique? Generally ebooks are used for free so that your customers are now starting as part of your sales funnel- from the free ebook, you could then offer something of small monetary value and so on. To get all the content correct takes a lot of time- it needs to be very planned out. It is definitely something i would recommend preparing for, for sure. Just a few quick ones to think about:

What will your name be?
Have you thought about what your cover photo, profile picture will be on facebook? Will you create these yourself or pay for them?
Have you got yourself a domain?
Does your domain redirect to a squeeze page? (a page where a customer would give maybe an email so you can start building your list)
What emails are you going to send your customers? How regularly?

These are just a few of the things to think about- but they are necessary. Spend some time thinking about these things, and if you need any help with it i am more than happy to help out.

For the meantime- it might be worth exploring affiliate marketing- and promoting someone elses product through solo ads/banner ads. With the right research you would see a ROI, and hopefully a little extra.

Get back to me if you want to discuss more

Take care man!

James.

I go with JohnMcCabe and discrat's advice.

You can use your past to tell you experiences.. Remember that's not only the product you sell, but the story you tell that goes with it.
Use the "the Hero Journey" approach. That will make you to stand out.

Before spending money on creating your own product etc. with no experience in IM I would suggest to first start out with affiliate marketing. There are some great fitness products out there which you could sell or build a blog around and see if you can drive some traffic to it and sell some stuff. You could combine products from clickbank and nutritional body building products in your blog, start building a list by offering something for free and once you have some success you then could start creating your own product. But whatever you decide to do I recommend to focus just on one thing. Best of luck, Christina

Hi,
Great thread. Good on you for wanting to give things a go. I agree with the majority of the comments. Put your $500 back in your wallet or bank account and let it stay there until you are ready to use it = after you have undertaken full due diligence on the vendor and product/service first.

You have a unique story to tell and inform others. Go for it.

Forget the Facebook ads for the time being - you can easily blow $500 just on FB ads and still not get anywhere; however, set up a FB Fan Page and start chatting to people via the Fan Page.

I also agree with the idea of making some YouTube videos. If you have a computer either with inbuilt camera you're on your way; then as long as you have a decent headset - you're well and truly on your way.

There are some free video editing software that you can use to edit the videos; then download Handbrake which is a very safe free programme which will condense the size of your video without losing quality and upload to your YouTube account and then share on your Facebook Page.

Then join some FB Groups and leave relevant comments and if they allow, post your link to your FB page as part of your comment.

As you're leaving comments etc. on your FB page and in your videos you're literally writing your EBook as you go along.

Yes, it's a longer way and process, however, is manageable and as you build up your fans/followers you have people who hopefully will turn into hungry buyers down the track; once you've built and maintain your reputation as knowing what you talk about.

Please, ensure you keep your day job all the while you're doing this. So many people literally jump feet first without fully testing the waters and then find they're in major debt as a result.

In other words use the KISS principle: Keep It Seriously Simple - one step at a time which will build upon each previous step taken.

You could even promote affiliate products via your YouTube videos to earn additional income as you go.

In other words: initially invest in your time; rather than trying to take every short cut known to man only to find that 3 months down the track you're broke and the shortcuts are in fact delaying your desired success.

So consider that $500 as the only money that is standing between you and homelessness; choose wisely how to use the $500 and ensure you do your due diligence first before parting with 1c of it.

Create a plan on how you wish to proceed in your chosen niche i.e. body building; then create a financial plan on what type of financial budget you will need - down the track to really scale up and go big; then learn as many free traffic methods as possible to get eyeballs on your FB page and your YouTube Videos.

Once you are posting solutions for people, you have the bones of an E-Book to sell down the track to your fans and followers.

Have been a bit long winded however hope this assists. Good luck. I hope you return often and let us know of your progress, including the ups and downs, twists and turns.