How would you invest $10,000 to start an IM business?

[Marine0302]

I am a newbie and am studying IM diligently. I am in the process of creating two information products that I believe there is a large market for. I should be online with both products by the end of February and intend to focus on them to learn more about the various aspects of IM before I add additional products to my business.

That said, I was thinking that it would be very interesting to hear the thoughts of experienced marketers regarding what they'd do if they had 10k to invest as a newbie, based on their experience and lessons learned.

In other words, now that you've progressed past the newbie/making classic mistakes phase of IM and are making money, what would you advise another newbie to do if said newbie had 10k to invest in his start-up IM business?

Would you advise him to focus on certain aspects of IM?

Perhaps you'd advise him to simultaneously develop products in different niches to accelerate his growth/scale of operations?

I read all new posts on the WF every day and I sense that most here started with minimal capital and slowly but surely developed successful IM businesses. I wonder what these folks could have accomplished had they posssed a bit more start-up funding? Could 5-10-20k in capital have accelerated their learning curve so they could have achieved in 2 years what it took them 5 years or more to do on a shoestring budget?

I think many folks here would like to here some thoughts and ideas on this topic!

Thanks in advance to all who share their knowledge and wisdom with us!

[Richard Odell]

I would honestly say that it would be better to use the money for living costs and to prove that your product ideas are viable by the free methods first.

It is so easy to blow it all, before you even have a track record.

Please proceed with cation until you have all the demographics and testing in place to prove that your investment is worthwhile.

Regards

-Rich

[Keith Boisvert]

Not that it is necessary, but I would have taken some money(not $10k) and used it to go to a seminar or two. Not so much for the value of the seminar itself, but for the ability to network in person and make friends/contacts. To me this is one of the contributing factors to increasing the time of success.

Of course you can't be a total tool either, so hard work and having a good product and or service is paramount, but combined with great networking will certainly help you along and if done correctly shave years off of your time to succeed.

Just my opinion though. I can't think of anything I would do with $10k that would really have helped me other than that.

~keith

[Jon Alexander]

start an affiliate program? Clickbank the products? That's a low risk way to get it going, so I'm told.

[Katherine Wheel]

Hi,

My advice is sit on it! Make sure your knowledge stays ahead of your spending. As you have capital, I assume you are not on a 'desperate' time schedule. Many of us know to our sorrow that if you take the time to look, such a lot of information is available for free. Paying for information is a great shortcut, as long as the information is good.

What I would have had would have been mentoring. When I first started, it was not around. When I had found some marketers I trusted, (Sara Brown and Tony Shepherd, John Thornhill, Lee McIntyre and Chris Rempel head my list) and mentoring became available, I'd spent my modest start money!

I'd still say, subscribe to email lists, read the information, watch what the marketers are doing (analyze what their business actually is). You can learn a lot this way. You can learn a bit about different types of business, and pick what interests you, and check that it interests other people.

Make sure your market is there! It doesn't matter if loads of people are selling in that market - in fact it is good, because it means there are buyers. But do check before you spend ages on product creation.

There is no end to what you can spend your money on - mentoring, outsourcing, PLR products.... What you need to know before you spend too much is WHAT YOUR PLAN IS. Where are you going? People have likened this to planning a holiday. You research - is it a great destination? What do I need to go - travel tickets, visas, passport, shots against disease, insurance. You wouldn't spend your money without doing the research.

Good luck with reaching your destination in 2009. KW

[doberman]

Hey Champion, I got started for $1 and made over a 1.000 in my 1st 3 days . You don't need to spend 10,000 its about making money not spending it

[Frank Murphy]

Personally, a bulk of the 10k would go into outsourcing..Tasks such as web design, copywriting and a bit of traffic generation is better left to the more experienced marketers, so it would be best to pay them to help you get started. The rest I guess would go to PPC..Thats just my personal view.

[BIG Mike]

Really, it depends on the person you're talking about, their background, present abilities, etc. Have startup capital is cool, but if they've never run a business before or have real business experience, then it's not going to help.

What I mean by this, is give me $10K in startup capital and I could quadruple it in 60 to 90 days for you easily. But then, I've got decades of business experience. Take Johnny Come Lately, who just got his first computer and give him $10K in startup capital and he'll piss it all way on info products and still not have a clear plan when it's all gone.

Personally, and this is just me, I think in the long run, it's better to take your time and learn the ropes without trying to rush through the process. All those "Newbie Mistakes" are a vital part of the learning process, but it needn't cost a fortune (really $50 is good startup capital in this business).

What's the hurry? As long as you're steadily moving forward as your time and resources permit, it just doesn't matter if it takes you a week, a month or years...eventually you'll get there.

I've got one friend online who took a couple of years to really have everything come together for him, but these days, he downright scares me with his ideas, motivation and level of success. He's becoming unstoppable, LOL.

For him, it was the right way to go...because in the end, he had to develop a lot of abilities and learn everything basically from scratch he didn't have when starting out.

If it were me, I'd take that $10K and save it in an interest bearing account for now until I was ready to use it for something I clearly understood and with minimal risks.

Assuming that in this scenario that you are asking what I would do with 10 grand that was set aside specifically for me to spend on Internet marketing and nothing else....

I would invest it all into building a list using Pay-Per-Click.

With 10 grand - I could easily build a list big enough to make my 10 grand back in a month or two through my email promotions.

[Marine0302]

Thanks to all who have shared their thoughts!

See my responses below.

“Please proceed with caution until you have all the demographics and testing in place to prove that your investment is worthwhile.” Noted! I’ve learned to balance caution with accepting certain levels of risk. I fully intend to due intensive due diligence before I commit to any course of action.


“Not that it is necessary, but I would have taken some money(not $10k) and used it to go to a seminar or two.” Great idea! Anyone have any recommendations?

“start an affiliate program? Clickbank the products? That's a low risk way to get it going, so I'm told.” Thanks – I think these may be for a future phase of my IM business. For various reasons, I think it best to initially control all aspects of my product offerings.

“What I would have had would have been mentoring. When I first started, it was not around. When I had found some marketers I trusted, (Sara Brown and Tony Shepherd, John Thornhill, Lee McIntyre and Chris Rempel head my list) and mentoring became available, I'd spent my modest start money!” I am a huge fan of mentoring and have served as a mentor and mentee for decades. I do plan on pursuing this and would love to hear suggestions regarding specific mentors.


I'd still say, subscribe to email lists, read the information, watch what the marketers are doing (analyze what their business actually is). You can learn a lot this way. You can learn a bit about different types of business, and pick what interests you, and check that it interests other people.” Strong advice and I am happy to say that I am already doing so!

“Hey Champion, I got started for $1 and made over a 1.000 in my 1st 3 days . You don't need to spend 10,000 its about making money not spending it” Congrats on your success! Do you think you could leverage your new knowledge and make 10k per week by employing your methods at scale? This is the gist of my initial post; I want to leverage the experience of others to greatly accelerate the scope and scale of my operation.



“Personally, a bulk of the 10k would go into outsourcing..Tasks such as web design, copywriting and a bit of traffic generation is better left to the more experienced marketers, so it would be best to pay them to help you get started. The rest I guess would go to PPC..Thats just my personal view.” My initial thoughts align with yours – I think that I can gain traction quickly by outsourcing many tasks that have a high return on investment.


“Really, it depends on the person you're talking about, their background, present abilities, etc. Have startup capital is cool, but if they've never run a business before or have real business experience, then it's not going to help.” I have significant experience at the C-level in a publicly traded company with revenues exceeding $1 Billion – I oversee almost all support activities for the company. I have extensive experience in integrating acquired companies ranging from 30 million to 300 million in revenue and I also have experience supervising offshore support activities in India and the Philippines. I’m an entrepreneur at heart and have started and successfully operated several non-internet businesses. While I certainly don’t know what I don’t know about IM, I understand business in general.


What's the hurry? As long as you're steadily moving forward as your time and resources permit, it just doesn't matter if it takes you a week, a month or years...eventually you'll get there. I am a planner and I have a strategic plan that has 1-3-5 and 10 year goals. I’m not in a hurry, but I am determined to take action on an aggressive timeline.


“Assuming that in this scenario that you are asking what I would do with 10 grand that was set aside specifically for me to spend on Internet marketing and nothing else....I would invest it all into building a list using Pay-Per-Click.” Thanks. I should clarify that for the initial phase of my IM business (2-3 years) my focus will be information marketing vice the wide range of internet marketing activities. Of course, I may change my mind at some point, but right now one of my major leverage points is the subject matter expertise I have acquired in several fields. I intend to monetize my knowledge and expertise via information products, reports, tutorials, etc., all of which can lead to significant upselling opportunities.

Thanks again to all who responded! I am truly impressed with the collegial attitude displayed on this forum, expecially the patience shown by more experienced toward newbies like me!

[aboutalhah]

Wait a minute!

In your first sentence, you said: "I believe". Please note that in IM we don't believe anything. Tracking and numbers will tell you the truth.

The first thing you need to do is to carry out a market research. (Personally, I do market research with affiliate marketing)

The best advice I could give you for your $10000 is to get a mentor. You can get veterans like Michel Fortin or Terry Dean for less than $500 per month.

There are many GOOD coaching programs out there.

They'll give you the right advice.

I'm not saying that you will not get GREAT advice here, you will. But you need a mentor anyway.

As an example, I am a martial artist. And I didn't have ONE mentor, but several mentors. Now, I am an expert fighter. I wouldn't reach this level without mentors (my teachers).

But a mentor is not enough. It needs to have two main qualities:

1. Know how to teach his knowledge
2. Be really successful with a proven track of records. (Beware of scammers)

Warren Buffet has a mentor, Bill Gates has a mentor, I have a mentor, everyone has a mentor.

It's what I'd do if I was in your situation.

Franck.

[bgmacaw]

My advice is to proceed with caution. There are a lot of ways to blow that much money quickly in the IM marketplace and I've seen several people do that ranging from bad PPC campaigns to buying useless 'make money online' blogs.

The luxury have the capital up front vs. having to bootstrap is that you can afford things like outsourcing content and website development. You can also buy pre-owned, developed, domains, although don't go overboard here. You can also afford more feature rich and expensive hosting plans.

Overall, I'd say spend on infrastructure and product/content/site development, but not extravagantly. Look for low cost and free alternatives where possible, be frugal even though you have cash to invest. And avoid 'IM gurus' who're mostly just trying to selling you a recycled business model from 2006.

[Marine0302]

Thanks Franck - good advice that I will follow!

bgmacaw - your thoughts are on target and well received!


I realize that having some start-up capital will enable me to outsource some things right from the start. As mentioned earlier, I will have two information products ready for sale soon. I prefer to outsource these initial two mini-sites and the majority of other tasks required to establish the sites as viable "customer ready" revenue generators.

I am not a technically adept person, but I do have a strong background in training/course creation that meshes well with my intention to produce a number of information products related to some of my areas of expertise.

As in my military and business careers, I believe I may best leverage my talent and strengths by learning how to organize, supervise, optimize and scale an information marketing business instead of attempting to learn how to actually perform many of the skills/tasks associated with creating/maintaining it.

I realize that this approach may be somewhat off the beaten path relative to how many information/internet marketers here progressed through the ranks. One way to look at this is the fact that as a non-techie I once took over a failing 150 person IT department in a large company and with the assistance of the right people in the right roles, we turned the department around within a year. I served as the CIO for a total of 6 years before turning the department over. During that time we successfully executed several large IT projects (PeopleSoft implementation, CRM system implementation, several mergers & acquisitions, etc) and I gained additional experience and expertise at overseeing simultaneous enterprise level operations and projects.

I don't mean to come off as being ostentatious or aloof by providing some background information on this thread. I have great admiration for those who have the ability to "do it all" as well as those who put in long years of continual trail and error as they developed their expertise.

The reality is that I have some start-up capital, a solid business background and subject matter expertise in several fields. What I don't have is a lot of time - suffice it to say that I am not a "spring chicken" and I think it best to get moving on this business while I still have the "fire in the gut" to jump into a new venture!

I'm approaching my entrance into information marketing as the first step in the development of an internet based business that may eventually conduct operations in multiple areas/niches of internet marketing. I also think that at some point in the future, after I acquire additional industry knowledge, I may become an acquirer of established internet marketing businesses that compliment each other and offer synergies, cross selling opportunities, etc.

No sense in dreaming small dreams, eh?!


As always - thanks for any advice and feedback you are inclined to offer!

[GeorgR.]

1) Outsource 80% of it ($8000 would go a LOOOONG way if i'd to spend on outsourcing)

2) Rest PPC
3) Profit

Your problem is that you dont even know what to do with $10k...so i might have doubt about your future success in IM...sorry to be so honest ;(

[aboutalhah]

GeorgeR,

I doubt Marine doesn't know what to do with the $10K. He already have an idea, but he is validating.

Re-read his post.

Plus... he has a secret weapon that is indispensable for IMers.

If you don't know what is it ...

Military ---> Mindset.

This is good for IM

Aren't we talking about Guerilla Marketing?

All the best with your projects!

Franck

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

1) Outsource 80% of it ($8000 would go a LOOOONG way if i'd to spend on outsourcing)

2) Rest PPC
3) Profit

Your problem is that you dont even know what to do with $10k...so i might have doubt about your future success in IM...sorry to be so honest ;(

[Marine0302]

Thanks for the kind words, Franck!

I am a driven person, like many others here, and I prefer to see opportunity where others are likely to see obstacles!

I am so encouraged by the genuine success stories one can read on WF!

I have a history of entrepreneurship and have associated with a good number of folks who started and sold companies in several industries. Most of these people are not extraordinarily gifted or more intelligent than most, but they all possess determination, discipline and the ability to rebound from setbacks and remain focused on their long term goals.

I really appreciate the feedback I am getting on this thread and hope others will add their thoughts as well!

[derekwong28]

Rather than starting new websites / businesses, I would have put all $10,000 into buying existing money making websites / businesses. The typical selling price is only 6 to 18 * monthly earnings.

If you re-invest the profits as they come in, you could easily have a porfolio sites that earn at least $2000 per month by the end of the first year. However, you must have some experience before you try that out. I am full-time and this is the model I use.

Derek

[Tony M.]

I started from scratch and I do agree that one of the most useful expenses I've had so far is buying a list from PPC ads.
However, the single most useful investment has been hiring a personal assistant who does my accounting, customer support, and lets me focus on the "money making" side of my business.
That's what I would recommend.

BTW-Graphics are not mandatory (have a look at any DoubleYourDating optin page or sales letter...)

Another great way to go is studying from a trusted marketer and learning a SYSTEM (e.g, a complete marketing course, not just a "traffic" or "launch" or "copywriting" course)

And I did hire a coach that costs me $500 a month when I only had so much money to spend, so with $10k I would get some coaching without the shadow of an hesitation.

[GeorgR.]

you dont need $8000 for making website - spend the money wisely

really, MOST of the resources are 100% free

Another interesting idea, yes, $8000 could buy you a good *established* site on sitepoint w/ existing traffic.

[Marine0302]

Thanks for the recent posts - all of your advice is well taken and will be acted upon!

Derek,
I thought about buying existing sites/businesses and I think it best to wait until I have acquired more knowledge. I do think that it is a great way to rapidly expand one's business portfolio. This is a legitimate business strategy that I have seen in the corporate world when a company desires to expand its service offerings or get into a new industry or specific industry niche. There are essentially two main coures of action;

1. Create your own operation from scratch

2. Acquire a company that is already operating in the industry/niche you desire to be in.

There are good reasons why either model is appropriate in various situations.

For now, I will focus on learning the basics of the information marketing aspect of IM.

Thanks again for your comments!

[Preben Frenning]

I'd spend it on a great infoproduct about outsourcing, then outsource tasks I'm unable to do myself to the pro's in each field.

That is really why I'm not rich yet - Because there was so much I wasn't able to do myself, and I didn't invest in other people to do it.

Mentoring is also a great investment. But I would be EXTREMELY careful when selecting a program. Pick a program that YOU get to, not someone calling you to be their mentor.

I'd try the mentoring program the guys from SeNuke is offering. And I would also invest in a few programs from the Rhodes bro's, as they keep you on track, instead of confusing you with information overload.

Anyways, paying people to make things for you and create value is great. You will want to have lots of assets online when you've used up your 10k, and then you will make it back, and have a solid residual income.

And you said you are experienced with working with india and the filipines - Then get a personal assistant from there. I believe you can get a great full-time workforce that way. They work for less than 500$/mo, and that's big money over there.
Replacemyself.com teaches you how to find an affordable workforce, and everythinginet is a website I would recommend for getting plr, and a lot of great training material and software for next to nothing.

Just tell me if you need help with anything, and I will help you for free =) (Just check out a link in my sig)

- Preben

[theinfomaven]

Ten thousand dollars?

1] Spend $500 on MindOS (romantichero dot info) to manage yourself.

2] Spend $29 on chris rempel's advice.

3] Spend $3 on a domain in a highly profitable niche and start writing articles for ezinearticles.com

4] Stash the rest.


You don't need $10k to be profitable. Not even close.


Just buy a domain, hook it up to an affiliate link, and promote the bejesus out of it. You'll get sales if it's worth a ****.

Once you "Get it" when it comes to article marketing, for example, or link promotion of any kind, then you can justify spending more money.

[lavaleekathy]

Some great suggestions, I'd probably spend half on establishing my own affiliate product and program,(a great minimum risk way of starting) and membership site with free updates to my product and valuable information for my members. And spend the remaining half on targeted, well researched pay per click advertising, to generate some money back in the process. Just my 2 cents!

[Preben Frenning]

Originally Posted by theinfomaven

Ten thousand dollars?

1] Spend $500 on MindOS (romantichero dot info) to manage yourself.

2] Spend $29 on chris rempel's advice.

3] Spend $3 on a domain in a highly profitable niche and start writing articles for ezinearticles.com

4] Stash the rest.


You don't need $10k to be profitable. Not even close.


Just buy a domain, hook it up to an affiliate link, and promote the bejesus out of it. You'll get sales if it's worth a ****.

Once you "Get it" when it comes to article marketing, for example, or link promotion of any kind, then you can justify spending more money.

What if you submit your articles to assosicated content instead? Then you will get traffic to your affiliate programs, as well as you will get paid directly

Then you hire some full-time ariticle writer and get him/her to write all day long.


For me, if I had 10k, I would probably develop some software and scripts and sell them.
With a great focus on affiliates and listbuilding. Then I would promote the hell out of it for the rest. I'd probably invest in a great salescopy as well.

[McKay]

I would use it to hire a mentor in the area you are interested in pursuing.

If it's PPC, hire a PPC coach. If it's publishing, hire a successful publishing consultant.

You'll get to where you want to go a lot faster following someone who already lives your lifestyle / business model.

McKay