Spending more than I'm making

[Dragone]

I seem to have found myself in a rather ironic position. I'm trying to market my products yet I get enticed by so many other marketing products too. I have bought a domain, a course(appears to be worthwile) and am now thinking about getting some articles written. I will nearly be at $100 down and I've yet to make a cent... Am I wasting my money?

[David Chamberlain]

Hi

When you start you have only one fixed cost. Your domain hosting.

The rest is up to you - many programs offer free membership. I've got a few suggestions if you want any.

Have you thought about writing your own articles? Or blogs?

You can get in contact with via my site below.

Thanks

David

[Oskars]

It depends how much money you can now afford to spend. Do these purchases will help you to market (promote) your products?

[expertcapper]

Well you havent put up any content yet it seems like...get things going as youve already purchased a domain...

[activetrader]

Originally Posted by Dragone

I seem to have found myself in a rather ironic position. I'm trying to market my products yet I get enticed by so many other marketing products too. I have bought a domain, a course(appears to be worthwile) and am now thinking about getting some articles written. I will nearly be at $100 down and I've yet to make a cent... Am I wasting my money?

It depends on your personal strategy. Mine is don't spend what you haven't made. When you start making money allocate 5-10% to expenses to grow your business. I started off on a free blogger, then wordpress, then once I made money I started investing some; bought a domain, that domain made me money (proven to be a worthwhile investment), ok buy a reseller hosting package; that paid off; buy more domains; those investments paid off, start buying PRL articles, PHP scripts, software, etc. I have to see that my investment will yield returns first.

[Kay King]

If you are spending on a domain, hosting, outsourcing articles - that's investing in your business. You are getting the basic tools of the trade and that's getting a business started.

One course is good if you are learning from it.

If you find yourself buying loads of ebooks or memberships or WSO's - that would be a problem.

kay

[Jagged]

$100.00 for an education? Not a bad investment if you ask me. Actually your getting off lucky at only $100.00....many here including myself pushed way over 1000.00 before we made anything. Even at that rate, it was a bargin!

Invest in knowledge...invest in yourself...the rest will come soon enough.

Good Luck,
Ken

[daisuke75248]

Well, you could spend a lot more money to go to a university to learn about business or spend a little money here and there and teach yourself.

That doesn't mean spend thousands of dollars to buy those things, though.

Hopefully you still have your job.

[BizBoost]

Dragone,

I won't laugh out loud, but more people than I care to enumerate are down not merely $100, but $1000s... some even well into 5 digits. In that regard, consider yourself fortunate.

It sounds to me like you're not lacking for products and courses but rather for a "plan." What is your plan?

[brand-all]

Bizboost you just reminded me how poor I am now compared to 12 months ago. You $@#*&%!!!
I agree with what you are saying there tho. So Dragone, stop draggin it on buddy and get some action going.
Another tip for you, find a mentor that fits your ideals and stay with him /her. Don't flip around from one thing to another just because the sales copy is so convincing. Keep in mind it's called "sales copy" for a reason and some IM marketers are damn good at it.

I said that from hard experience and a handful of melted credit cards.

[OmarNegron]

You may not necessarily be wasting money per say because the knowledge is great but your saying you want to outsource some articles. Why not do it yourself?

If you have extra time, I suggest you do. You shouldn't outsource your articles until you at least try to do some yourself.

take care man!

[yesacpow]

Once you are spending wisely it is good. But I would say draw a line until you atleast see a return on investment, that way you will know that your methods work and you can spend even more to get more profits.

[itsliz]

Before you purchase something, ask yourself if it will REALLY move you closer to making money or not (if you are investing in things that will help your business grow - that is not a bad thing, so long as it actually will help you.)

If you already know the basics of what you need to be doing, stick with doing (and investing in) the basics. Don't buy the latest fad product - stay focused on what will help you grow your business.

[lacraiger]

$100 down is nothing. just remember that it takes money to make money.

[googleplex]

Originally Posted by lacraiger

$100 down is nothing. just remember that it takes money to make money.

I could not have said it better myself, a lot of the times you can find yourself in the negitives before things really kick off and send you shooting into the profits.

[Asher]

From the looks of how you're asking this, it seems that you're a
very cautious person by nature or you are totally new in the
whole using-money-to-make-money idea.

It's just how it is =)

Once you get the hang of it, you won't be wondering if you're
"wasting" your money any more.

Asher

[Samuel Lee]

Would agree that this is largely dependent on your personal strategy. I think its better to not spend what you don't have. Usually its a good idea to allocate a small percentage of your funds on expenses to expand your business. When starting out its a great idea to make full use of all of the free sources you can before spending money, like free domain hostings and free blog resources. Make money then invest, and buy a domain, or a reseller hosting package; page flipping is a great way to start! Hope this assists!

[Dragone]

Thanks for the responses guys. Very much appreciated.

My current plan is having 3 niches(A,B,C), A on my own domain, A on squidoo as well, B on squidoo and C on a free .biz.nf domain.

A on my paid domain will be my main one and its on a wordpress blog theme and I've installed an auto responder with the incentive of a free eBook. It's the FREE getresponse for now. I have one or two articles waiting to get accepted on eza for marketing purposes. I did some backlinking on yahoo answers and Digg the other day. It comes up on the first page of google for the "" phrase with 1000 comp and around the 4th page of google for the un"" phrase with around 550k comp. I would preferably like to get some more articles done as well as a proper sales autoresponder 5 series done as i'm new to this.

The other niche B on squidoo has had over 120 views and only about 20 clickouts to my link.

HANG ON!!!!!!!!

Just seen I've made $27! YEAH!!!!!! About time. My first sale ever!

That sale was from 1 hop link only. Its the same niche as i'm following in the course and he's making quite a few sales. The one product has over 35 links to clickbank and still no sales. Think this one is definitly the one I should be working on.

[Vassago]

It's all a case of refining your gameplan.

I pretty much built my team through free classifieds so I advise my affiliates to do the same. No-one knows EXACTLY how or why free class work but they do and by tracking the results we know which ads on which sites produce results.
I never used to be convinced by the THEORY of result tracking, but after using it, I can't deny the repeat success is better than looking for new sites and testing new ads each week. I now preach what I practice!

Why do they work? People want to start a home biz or "work from home" so they use the search engines and free class sites to find what they want:

Internet Marketing
Home Business
Work At Home
Work From Home
Affiliate Marketing
Business Opportunity

Once you have built a team and refined your process it is easier to reproduce and build another team, or give to your downline to duplicate.
One of the goals for each Leader (IMHO) should be to identify potential leaders they have recruited and show them how to duplicate your method and become a Leader themselves. Whatever they call it, duplicating a proven method zeroes in on success.


V

[Chase Beach]

That is so Right on Vassago!!

It just doesn't make sense to cheap it on the upfront.

Chase

[steveka]

I am not gonna say that spending money is unwise, but you should be careful what you're spending on. Information is very valuable and you can find lots of free content on google. But first, you have to decide what you want to do. Do you want to promote other peoples products or do you want to promote your own products? Once you decide what to do, then you can break it down into pieces.

What should my website be about? One niche or multiple niches?
How do i get traffic?
What are the cost affective advertising options?
Where do i find the laser targeted customers?
How do i keep the potential customers interested?
What should i do to promote my own products?

As you can see, once you decide what to promote it becomes easier and clearer. Just go step by step. And for every question in your mind, do research and gain knowledge. But maybe the most important thing is "take action". If you get stuck in reading information, sooner or later it will be an information overload for you and this will cause to procrastination and you will be overwhelmed. Don't be afraid to make mistakes but make sure that you learn your lesson and don't repeat them. Once you define your goals and your strategies, it will be much more easier for you to get on track. Don't give up and keep trying. If you be persistent, you will be successful for sure. Good luck!

[Vassago]

I wrote this a while back about keeping motivated:

Having small goals and achieving them one step at a time, create a pattern of success.

Having goal like "I want to be a millionaire" is not very helpful. How will you achieve this and in what time frame? (Because people do have this kind of goal is the reason that the Lottery is so popular.)

Set a small goal with a realistic timeframe:

I will sign up 10 affiliates in my first 3 months.
I will sign up 100 affiliates in my first year.
I will be making £100 a month within 6 months.
I will be making £200 a month by the end of my first year.

Once you've achieved this it's easy to go for more ambitious goals:

I will be making £500 a month by the end of my second year.

Then:

I will be making £2000 a month by the end of my third year.

So within 3 years you are making enough to really run your home business full time. Give up the day job.

Then it is time to set the really big goals, like Six Figure Income (and we all know where that came from), and go on from there.

Even the Great Wall of China was built one brick at a time.


V

[Michael Travis]

Dragone,

It sounds like you definitely have what it takes to be an internet marketer. The qualities of which are:
a) like to read and learn
b) have good intentions of doing some marketing
c) too darn lazy to actually do it

Notice I never spoke about being a successful internet marketer because to be successful you have to do a lot of work.

Try writing some articles and submitting them. It costs $0.

Hey, look I just gave you 2 cents.


Michael

[Paule123]

To put it bluntly I think we all start off on the same track
but get derailed purely because of the fantastic amount
of stuff that is available.

There are so many offers that we don't know
which way to turn or even who to turn to?

So in the end I think it is best to join a forum
like this and watch, learn, ask and listen!

But above all we have to get Focused!!!

Paul.

[aboutalhah]

Nope!

You didn't lose money, you are just investing in your business. You are on the right track, outsource all this stuff.

All the best,

Franck

[Mrs S]

I'm in the same boat - I spent a lot of money in December buying content and training courses - I'm yet to break even but I figured without that stuff I wouldn't be making what I am now. Of course you can get a lot of the stuff for free but I didn't know that in the beginning!

[BizBoost]

Originally Posted by Paule123

To put it bluntly I think we all start off on the same track
but get derailed purely because of the fantastic amount
of stuff that is available.

There are so many offers that we don't know
which way to turn or even who to turn to?

So in the end I think it is best to join a forum
like this and watch, learn, ask and listen!

But above all we have to get Focused!!!

Paul.

Paul, you are so right on that everyone should read what you wrote at least 3 times, if not more.

It's in part due to what Robert Kiyosaki continually reminds people that they need to start thinking like business owners and investors rather than consumers. The consumer gets distracted with every little new thing that comes out. But wouldn't you think a business owner would go to a forum, as you suggested, and either ask or read for what is the bigger PLAN and what is the list of ingredients and venues needed to fulfill that plan?

Good job, you hit the nail on the head. Your point is so simple and direct that people might even overlook it, expecting that the secret to success is something far more complex.

Best wishes,
Eric

[bombdiggity]

It's true that you have to spend money in order to make money. Just get something solid (focus on the niche) and go with it. Since you've already put this much down, it shows that you're dedicated. Now all you have to do is take some action and see your plan realized.

[hernan10]

make a business plan mate....
calculate all ur expenditures and possible revenue amount @ of 2% conversion....

dont do ppc.. market through ezine....its as targetted and well... free!!!

find JVs in the JV section here...

[Aldiyar1]

Hi!
I have started the same. Of course, it is fixed cost for domain, hosting. You are not wasting you are investing. If you don't have that money for paid options. There are too many free ones. Like forums, ezines, your own blog, SEO.

[Vassago]

Fail to plan, you plan to fail.


Vassago

[Steadyon]

Originally Posted by Dragone

Am I wasting my money?

Probably...


Unless you figure out what people are willing to spend money on in your niche, work out how you can offer it to them, then offer it to them and then deliver what you promised or even better.

Oh, and you need to put about 10 times more effort into it than you thought you would have to.

Otherwise you may as well spend your next $100 on a new pair of shoes.

[mel ramsay]

I have spent almost $3000 on my IM education.Just keek going and stay focused.You can learn all you need to know from the guys here on the forum
best of luck
Mel Ramsay (trucker)

[nick1123]

Originally Posted by Dragone

I seem to have found myself in a rather ironic position. I'm trying to market my products yet I get enticed by so many other marketing products too. I have bought a domain, a course(appears to be worthwile) and am now thinking about getting some articles written. I will nearly be at $100 down and I've yet to make a cent... Am I wasting my money?

Try looking at the sales letters of the stuff you're buying. Try to figure out what is was that triggered you to buy and do that for your products' sales letters.

[RedSynergy]

Firstly: kudos to you for being budget conscious. It's great that you are keeping tabs on your expenses.

I suspect however that you are making the same mistake that a lot of new internet marketers make. In order to make consistent profits, you must view this the same way as you would a "real offline business".

Do you really think that spending $100 in the business world would net you any kind of profit? If you don't have much capital then you need to invest time. It can take 2-3 years to get a grip on the skills needed.

I wish I could say that all I invested was $100. But I'm afraid I'm looking closer to $7k-$10K and 3 years now - but yes starting to turn a nice profit.

Good luck with it all. My advice is to take some small business courses, stay focused and keep a tight rein on the budget.

[Vassago]

"He who wants to do something finds a way. He who does not finds an excuse."

I tend to read more than I post here, and post to my blog more than to the discussions. Reason being there are so many successful people here posting advice and stories. Nobody should ever fail becuse you can find so many successsful ways here.

Start by using free ad methods - spend time not money.
Once you start making money set up an ad budget, using some of that money to save you some time.

Then teach your affiliates to do the same - duplicate your success.

One step at a time.


V

[Vassago]

There's that story about the sculptor who created a great statue (think it was originally attributed as Michelangelo with David). When he completed it everyone said what a great statue he had created. His reply was that the statue was always there - hidden in the rock - he just chipped away the rough edges.

That's probably the same when you mentor a leader.
Nobody "creates" a leader - they were always there, you just mentored and trained them and cleared away the rough edges.


V

[Vassago]

What newbies need to know is not to throw away money on worthless untargeted leads by those rip-off companies you see everywhere. All these companies are doing is selling off “leads” they couldn’t use. Someone new to IM needs to take the time to learn how to spot the difference before spending money.
Caveat Emptor – as always.

I HAVE found a great lead source – my concern is that other people have not and will be throwing way money – money they cannot afford to throw away.
This has been discussed at length before.

It is the same as the TE debate – yes they work, but only if you use them properly – we know advertising affiliate progs direct on TEs just gets you “lots of hits and no signups”, while using TEs to build a list and then send them the info works great.

But to be more specific, scientific testing has four steps:

1. formulate a theory
2. test the theory
3. gather the results
4. draw your conclusions from the results

To skip from step 1 to step 4 is ASSUMPTION – and we know what that make of U and ME don’t we?

I only EVER draw conclusions after going through steps 2 and 3 thoroughly – and that applies to lead generation as with TEs as with anything else.

As I said – Steps 2 and 3 are what lead to the conclusions drawn at Step 4 – this is the info we present for others to benefit.


V

[absolutelee]

It really depends on where you are on the IM learning curve. If you're just getting started, then yes, you have to spend money and time learning the business. Look at it like school. If, however, you know at least some valid ways of making money, then you should probably allocate a percentage of your earnings for education and stick with that. (I'm responding to the fact that you mentioned a course). You have to buy the domain, otherwise you've got nothing. As to the articles, if I were just starting out, I would write those myself. Hope that helps throw some light on your plight.

$100 to start a business not bad...its all an investment! This is a business for the long haul...learn as much free stuff as possible and keep going going going...dont give up...article marketing is free, so that would be a good route I think.