If you were to start from SCRATCH and had $1,500 to spend, how would you get started AGAIN?

by WillST
16 replies
Hi guys,

As the title suggests, if you know what you know now, and had to start your IM career again... and had $1,500 to spend... what would you do?

Build 20 affiliate review sites promoting high end products?
Build 20 adsense sites around high CPC / high traffic keywords?
Build membership sites?

Basically, I've read A LOT of what you can do, and I'm just about to take the plunge and invest some cash (have $1,500) available.

I would be expecting to start earning a return on this investment within 6 months, hopefully sooner, when the SEO kicks in on the sites that I will start creating.

Looking forward to some pearls of wisdom being shared :-D

Many thanks,

JSTEF
#500 #scratch #spend #start #started
  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Wilson
    Some kind of automation software (you can find them on forum), domain names + a ton of high quality content!

    Content takes a lot of time to create + I prefer doing SEO by myself. You must understand that when you start you have no experience yet so I'd stick to simple things that work!
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  • Profile picture of the author WillST
    Thanks man, appreciate that...

    Anyone else got some suggestions? It would be good to get a few points of view to save $1,500 being wasted by yet another noob!
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    • Profile picture of the author Cru
      Originally Posted by JSTEF View Post

      Thanks man, appreciate that...

      Anyone else got some suggestions? It would be good to get a few points of view to save $1,500 being wasted by yet another noob!
      I would say join a membership site. Do your research first though. I am a part of Bring the Fresh and it is a pretty great community, but again, do research for yourself before taking the plunge. There is something nice about a community that has one singular goal. WF is great, but there are so many people doing so many different types of IM that sometimes you can get confused/frustrated.

      To be honest though, I would plan on only spending about $400 of that because after you've planned that $400 out you're going to realize that in order to make that $400 work you'll need another $1000 LOL.

      I have just learned the ins and outs of backlinking... you think you'll buy some great backlinking software and that'll be that, but then you realize that without a way to index those backlinks they are useless and then those indexing services are going to cost you... unless you set up an indexing network yourself which means a further outlay of cash

      In all honesty, I think the best way to go about these things is to be able to have it self sustaining while it builds up. Do some gigs on fiverr, etc. to get a regular cash flow coming in that will support your monthly fees. There is really no way around paying a bit of cash in monthly fees so you may as well figure out a way to subsidize it or your $1500 will be gone pretty quickly.
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  • Probably do a lot of reading, maybe invest a couple hundred dollars in some 'wsos' that looked reputable (although as a beginner it might be hard differentiating the wheat from the chaff), find someone who knew what they were doing and apprentice with them, put together a business plan, then follow and execute it until I got the results I wanted.

    The rest of the money (in terms of how I would spend it to build my business), would depend on the business plan I chose.

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author miserman
    I will go for some good sales page, and than do some SEO for them. I believe affiliate marketing is the best source of earning over internet, and it has the future.
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  • Profile picture of the author Guru_Marketing
    Originally Posted by JSTEF View Post

    Hi guys,

    As the title suggests, if you know what you know now, and had to start your IM career again... and had $1,500 to spend... what would you do?

    Build 20 affiliate review sites promoting high end products?
    Build 20 adsense sites around high CPC / high traffic keywords?
    Build membership sites?

    Basically, I've read A LOT of what you can do, and I'm just about to take the plunge and invest some cash (have $1,500) available.

    I would be expecting to start earning a return on this investment within 6 months, hopefully sooner, when the SEO kicks in on the sites that I will start creating.

    Looking forward to some pearls of wisdom being shared :-D

    Many thanks,

    JSTEF

    I would buy a domain name + hosting and start a single website. Blogging is great way to get noticed, and best of all is FREE. A hosted Wordpress blog would do it.

    Then, I would register at Aweber to collect email addresses from people who visit my site. (Email marketing). Giving incentives on all visitors in order to opt-in and join my list.

    For $500 I can hire a writer (located in Philippines) for a whole month to write articles for me on the topic.

    I would train myself to write a good quality blog post every single day for the next 90 days, until it becomes a habit.

    Affiliate marketing is great, because there's almost no risk involved. You can promote other people's products, based on what you write on that blog.

    You do not need a lot of money to start a business on the Internet.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cru
      Originally Posted by Guru_Marketing View Post

      I would buy a domain name + hosting and start a single website. Blogging is great way to get noticed, and best of all is FREE. A hosted Wordpress blog would do it.

      Then, I would register at Aweber to collect email addresses from people who visit my site. (Email marketing). Giving incentives on all visitors in order to opt-in and join my list.

      For $500 I can hire a writer (located in Philippines) for a whole month to write articles for me on the topic.

      I would train myself to write a good quality blog post every single day for the next 90 days, until it becomes a habit.

      Affiliate marketing is great, because there's almost no risk involved. You can promote other people's products, based on what you write on that blog.

      You do not need a lot of money to start a business on the Internet.
      If you decide to go down this route, which is a perfectly viable option, I just wanted to add that you NEED to ensure that whatever you decide to start blogging about has to be a market with a decent number of products as well as have an audience that has a propensity to buy.

      I know from first hand experience that it is frustrating to put all of the time and energy into blogging and then realize that there isn't a good way to monetize your audience.
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  • Profile picture of the author capone2009
    I would probably invest in Amazon and Adsense sites. I would go for lower competition keywords with lower traffic at first to get some monthly payroll to pay for bigger stuff. If you pay $1 per word, and have (3) 600 word articles on each site this would be $18 per site + $9 for the domain = $27 per website. Let's say you can get SEO done for $50 that would be $77 per website + SEO.

    So you could get around 19 websites done. If each site makes only $1 per day that would be over $500 per month. Of course it's not guaranteed but I'm sure that's possible for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    i have made money online for going on 16 years now.

    if i had to do it starting tomorrow and had $1500 to spend. i can guarantee i would start a micro niche hosting company. you could be up and running in business for less than well under $300 and then you would have $1200 to advertise for paying clients. it would be nearly impossible not to begin making money within 60 days.

    i have setup several hundred of these in my IM career, and it really is one of the best ways for a lot of people. it offers, low startup costs, high pain of separation service, recurring billing, and many other advantages. and it is very easy to sell IM products on the backend to pad your profits.
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  • Profile picture of the author syedakramreviews
    I think you must invest creating a very good content. This is due to nowadays to be successful in online industry only high rated content will ensure your success for long term.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bentley74
      I agree with Guru_Marketing and Cru's additional thoughts (needs to be a market etc) 100%

      We are starting from scratch with what we already know, right? I definitely wouldn't be spending heaps on any more training. I'd stick with the fundamentals, and likely use most of the money to simply support myself while ramping up my efforts with a blog (would likely take advantage of Hostgator's 1 penny for first month hosting - rather than going with free hosting).

      I'd get signed up with Warrior plus affiliate program ($3/mo or something like that) and start putting together really solid reviews for some of the top notch (and very popular) WSO's being released. This can work well since you don't need to wait for an aff network to send your payment months later - you can also earn killer commissions (sometimes 100%). Setting up a paypal account would of course be important.

      I might also just happen to put a link in my WF signature as well (nudge nudge wink wink).

      Cool topic! Always fun to imagine these scenarios
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  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    If I had to start over, I would know not to spend any money except for domain, hosting and an autoresponder and join the War Room here.

    I would know this is a business and I would focus on one thing for a couple months doing everything myself so that I didn't spend any more money until decent money was coming in to cover the costs.

    I would find one niche with good search volume but not too much competition and build a list and then give that list a lot of valuable information and only promote things to them of real value.

    Then once I had gotten some traffic going on some free automatic ways and other free ways and was getting sign ups and making money, I'd start again with another niche and do it again.

    As a matter of fact, that is indeed what I did when I started over and what I do now.

    It takes the same amount of work to get traffic to an offer as to get traffic to a opt in page yet when you build a list you are building for current and future revenues.

    So in summary, I would not spend any money except as stated above, I would find niches and build lists to promote to and then I would continue it with a new niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by JSTEF View Post

    If you were to start from SCRATCH and had $1,500 to spend, how would you get started AGAIN?
    I'd start exactly the same way I did, by spending something between $50 and $100, and just keep the rest.

    I'd just start producing income a lot more quickly, knowing what I know now rather than what I knew then. But it's entirely "education and experience" that produce that benefit, not having money available.

    There wasn't ever a time when spending an extra $1,400 would have helped me, increased my income, or even speeded anything up.

    Originally Posted by JSTEF View Post

    Build 20 affiliate review sites promoting high end products?
    Build 20 adsense sites around high CPC / high traffic keywords?
    Build membership sites?
    No ... I wouldn't do any of that.

    I'd start with one affiliate site, drive traffic to it, and build a list. And then add (just) a second site quickly.

    Originally Posted by JSTEF View Post

    I'm just about to take the plunge and invest some cash (have $1,500) available.
    I think that's extremely unwise and completely unnecessary, for many business models in internet marketing. It certainly wouldn't have helped me at all (not even with the benefit of hindsight).

    I'd need a domain, hosting, and an autoresponder. (And at some point - though maybe not right at the start - War Room membership is a very good way to spend $37). That's all I'd need, too.

    Originally Posted by JSTEF View Post

    I would be expecting to start earning a return on this investment within 6 months, hopefully sooner, when the SEO kicks in on the sites that I will start creating.
    SEO? Ah ... you've already decided you want a Google-dependent business, then? So maybe my advice/comments don't help much anyway, sorry.
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    Is that Google dependence or Google despondence?

    Get close to a bear and sooner or later he'll have you around for dinner.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Necessary first year expenses:
    • Hosting: $5/mo. ($60 / yr.)
    • AWeber: $19/mo. ($240/yr.)
    • 3 Domains: $30 / yr.
    • War Room: $37
    • Squeeze Page Template: $100
    TOTAL 1ST YEAR EXPENSES: $467

    If I were starting over, I wouldn't spend any more than that.

    Step 1: Read Warrior Forum and War Room to get an understanding of the different online business models. Read IM blogs as well. All the info you need to get started is free. There's more than enough.

    Step 2: Choose 1 online business model that appeals to you. BE PREPARED TO WORK. There's no easy method for earning a living online. Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Are you good at writing? If not, you may have to budget additional money for writers.

    Step 3: Choose your niche or market. I suggest going into at topic you like and know. However, this is debatable. Many people jump into niches they don't have any passion for. I'd save the non-passionate niches for when you have income and experience to outsource the entire operation.

    Step 4: Get started producing your product. Your product could be a blog, e-newsletter, product for sale, membership site, etc. In some cases it could be more than one (i.e. blog and e-newsletter).

    Step 5: Promote your product. You can get sufficient backlinks/traffic without spending a nickel. Just be patient.

    Step 6: Monetize your product. The monetization methods will depend on your business model. Most people start with affiliate marketing. It's free and can a great way to earn money relatively fast. Adsense is also great for starting.

    Consider starting with up to 3 sites. Many people suggest start with 1. However, had I done that, I wouldn't have built the sites that took off for me. I had to experiment a little. If you hit it big with your first site, then that's great. However, don't jump around 15 projects in the beginning. You'll get nowhere (I too made this mistake - focusing on 2 to 3 projects is when I was able to go full time into IM).

    Step 7: Once you have income, re-invest. I did this throughout the first year I earned decent income. I plowed it back hiring writers and advanced promotion tools/software. This allowed me to scale up reasonably quickly.

    Also, once you have a project that's generating decent revenue, focus and replicate whatever it is that's earning money. Scale it up fast and large. This is what I did. I had several projects that were stinkers, but as soon as a few generated revenue consistently, I dropped all other projects and focused on the money makers. I still focus on those and will for the forseeable future.
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  • Profile picture of the author blillard
    I would create a product that was kick ass and offer 100% commission on the front end and keep all the backend and let the rest of world make all my money for me lol.
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