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$350 to invest - What would you do?

by simplewriting
38 replies
Hi there,

So one of my friends from the gym wants to try her hand at IM. She told me that she had $350 bucks saved up and cant afford to invest much more than that because of her current situation.

So this what I told her to do (This is what I personally do):

First I told her to sign up to clickbank and find a niche she found interesting... Then find a high end product (which costs $100 or more) with a gravity of 30 or less. (That was her homework for the day)

So today I'm gonna show her how to do KW-research and find keywords with good buyer intent and low competition (Seo wise) using google keyword tool and a free version Traffic Travis.

Most you guys probably know the rest of the drill:

* Find a EMD domain
* Make a wordpress blog
* Age it for a few months
* Start adding quality content
* start building backlinks etc.

I know this is the standard blueprint for most affiliates out there. But my question to you is.. What if you had only $350 to invest and nothing more... What would you do?

Because she's on a really tight budget and I really don't want her to mess up.

Thank you for your time..

Cheers
#$350 #invest
  • Profile picture of the author Venturetothetop
    What I woud do - would always start with WHAT CAN I DO?

    Just because affiliate marketing works for some, it may not work for others. If I am lazy and cannot be bothered to do repetitive work then affiliate marketing may not be for me.

    If I have a specialist talent or knowledge that I believe has a market, then perhaps product creation is more my thing. Remember for $350 I could get some advice and a good looking site set up with graphics and if I'm lucky a few dollars spare for simply marketing.

    What I would do would always start with the question:

    what can i do?
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacky Murdock
    I would find a lucrative niche and build a professional website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian Tayler
    I'd purchase a relevant solo ad distribution to send out.

    On a side note I must say its refreshing to see someone post a question.. but also provide their answer... not just expecting something for nothing like most. So thank you OP


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  • Profile picture of the author simplewriting
    I am simply going to show her all of your suggestions and let her decide for herself.

    Thanks guys.
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  • Profile picture of the author karlmay1980
    I would question why look for a product on ClickBank with a Gravity under 30?

    If the Gravity is low then very few people are selling and promoting it which means it is very unlikely you are going to make sales either, competition is good in affiliate marketing because you know the product can sell I would be looking at Gravity over 100 and in a market that with a lot of research constantly shows up as very active.

    The next step would be building a blog around that product, ddoing interviews with the product developer, offer tutorial videos for signing up to my list and even a 1 on 1 consultation or walk through to answer question people have, and then an extended 1 on 1 Training that you could charge for people that buy.

    Using social media to gain awareness and by buying ads on Facebook and Google word could get out pretty fast and results could start coming in.

    Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
      Banned
      Originally Posted by karlmay1980 View Post

      I would question why look for a product on ClickBank with a Gravity under 30?
      Why look for one over 30? Why focus on gravity at all? It's just just a silly number that people put way too much stock in because they want some magic number to handle their decision making process for them.

      Originally Posted by karlmay1980 View Post

      If the Gravity is low then very few people are selling and promoting it which means it is very unlikely you are going to make sales either, competition is good in affiliate marketing because you know the product can sell I would be looking at Gravity over 100 and in a market that with a lot of research constantly shows up as very active.
      There is nothing wrong with a few affiliates selling a problem and it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the product and tells you nothing about how your list (you do have a list, right?) is going to react to it. Again, it is just a freaking number.
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      • Profile picture of the author simplewriting
        Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

        (you do have a list, right?)
        No she does not.. She is just starting out. And I don't think she'll be able to afford $20 a month. List building is a long process which takes time and a little bit of expertise. But still, I'll let her decide
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        • Profile picture of the author karlmay1980
          Originally Posted by simplewriting View Post

          No she does not.. She is just starting out. And I don't think she'll be able to afford $20 a month. List building is a long process which takes time and a little bit of expertise. But still, I'll let her decide
          List building will bring the biggest rewards in the end, don't spend money advertising just to send traffic to an affiliate page without trying to collect the details from that traffic first, will cost so much more than an autoresponder in the end!
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      • Profile picture of the author karlmay1980
        Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

        Why look for one over 30? Why focus on gravity at all? It's just just a silly number that people put way too much stock in because they want some magic number to handle their decision making process for them.



        There is nothing wrong with a few affiliates selling a problem and it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the product and tells you nothing about how your list (you do have a list, right?) is going to react to it. Again, it is just a freaking number.
        Joe yes I do have a list and Gravity indicates the number of sales to the number of different affiliates that promote, so if the number is high then it is obvious plenty of people are promoting and making money from it, which increases the likelihood that it is a good product otherwise the number of refunds would be high and people would stop promoting and sales would drop, lowering the gravity, it really is very simple stuff.

        I agree you can't just go on that, I wouldn't promote anything I haven't bought and tried myself to know whether it is good or not, but certainly wouldn't just look at one under a gravity score of 30 as odds are they are crap, don't tell me you have a product with a score this low?

        Yes there could be some that are of decent value but haven't been well publicised so haven't got many affiliates and gravity stays low, but the metric is to help distinguish what people are selling so not looking at that at all and without buying and checking it out yourself but spending time & money developing products/services and ads around something you are clueless about would be a very big mistake on a tight budget.
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        • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
          Banned
          Originally Posted by simplewriting View Post

          No she does not.. She is just starting out. And I don't think she'll be able to afford $20 a month. List building is a long process which takes time and a little bit of expertise. But still, I'll let her decide
          That wasn't directed at you/her lol. With the budget of $350 though she should be able to afford an autoresponder while she builds. Shoot, she can get started with a $0.99 domain at GoDaddy, $10 for hosting, and a good autoresponder and she's set.
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          • Profile picture of the author simplewriting
            Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

            That wasn't directed at you/her lol. With the budget of $350 though she should be able to afford an autoresponder while she builds. Shoot, she can get started with a $0.99 domain at GoDaddy, $10 for hosting, and a good autoresponder and she's set.
            I'm letting her use my aweber account for now.
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        • Profile picture of the author simplewriting
          Originally Posted by karlmay1980 View Post

          Yes there could be some that are of decent value but haven't been well publicised so haven't got many affiliates and gravity stays low, but the metric is to help distinguish what people are selling so not looking at that at all and without buying and checking it out yourself but spending time & money developing products/services and ads around something you are clueless about would be a very big mistake on a tight budget.
          I am promoting quite a few products with gravity as low as 12 and have had a good success rate so far. Again, This is simply how I do it and it seems to be working well for me.

          I simply make sure the sales page converts and I contact the support team and ask them many questions and sometimes even ask the vendor for the product so that I can see how the quality is. Some are reluctant.

          But most vendors who don't have that many affiliates are more than happy to give you access to their product. All you have to do is ask
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          • Profile picture of the author karlmay1980
            Originally Posted by simplewriting View Post

            I am promoting quite a few products with gravity as low as 12 and have had a good success rate so far. Again, This is simply how I do it and it seems to be working well for me.

            I simply make sure the sales page converts and I contact the support team and ask them many questions and sometimes even ask the vendor for the product so that I can see how the quality is. Some are reluctant.

            But most vendors who don't have that many affiliates are more than happy to give you access to their product. All you have to do is ask
            I do this too in fact advised someone to do that on this forum today, and you are right quite often you get the product free at least access for a certain amount of time, and if they don't I just buy it and ask for a refund if it is a waste of space.

            I just questioned why target gravity under 30, like I say odd products can be good, but I find it better to go with what others are clearly selling as their gravity is high, trying to sift through low gravity could take a long time, but I suppose it all depends on how much spare time you have.

            The plus point I suppose from getting products to promote with very little people promoting id if they are good you are showing most people something new and could really cash in because you have no competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nuke07
    simply i will start a web service over the WF so that i can manage the funds for the execution of further ideas for making lot of bucks online.
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  • Profile picture of the author quercus5
    This is what I'd probably do:

    1. Create your own product for free and make it high quality.

    2. Use most of the $350 to build a list through PPC campaigns and build a mailing list.

    3. Offer the product for free when people sign up.

    4. Give your subscribers a few rounds of really high quality content in emails every couple of days.

    5. Eventually create another product (or use an affiliate offer) and promote the heck out of it. Only after they trust you and you have built rapport.

    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Pixel Minisite
    I would start making micro niche websites and invest the $350 for the domains and hosting
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  • Profile picture of the author tristatemedia
    list building would be my choice as well. it does not take that long to build. do simple ppc to collect 300 emails. then go and do swap with another email list....so so....so on...
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  • Profile picture of the author Parry
    I would buy the best WSO or take the best coaching in Pay Per Click and use it to test some campaigns. By the time I've spent the money I will know which are the good keywords that convert and make money!
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  • Profile picture of the author mhaddyness
    I'll build a popular niche website and invest on traffic generation and marketing campaigns..
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    • Profile picture of the author coingroup
      Originally Posted by mhaddyness View Post

      I'll build a popular niche website and invest on traffic generation and marketing campaigns..
      How does one invest on traffic generation? :confused: Could you be a little more specific?
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  • Profile picture of the author weigemeiser
    Use the money to first learn about the basics of internet marketing such as building websites, article/video promotions, social media marketing, etc. Of course, many of these things can be learned for free.

    The next step is putting these puzzle pieces together, namely, a business plan, sales funnels, and high-conversion products.

    I don't think "holy grails" exist so your friend needs to take the time to learn the basics and go from there.
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    • Profile picture of the author simplewriting
      Originally Posted by weigemeiser View Post

      Use the money to first learn about the basics of internet marketing such as building websites, article/video promotions, social media marketing, etc. Of course, many of these things can be learned for free.

      The next step is putting these puzzle pieces together, namely, a business plan, sales funnels, and high-conversion products.

      I don't think "holy grails" exist so your friend needs to take the time to learn the basics and go from there.
      Exactly!! That's where I come in, I have spent years reading up and going through "courses". Why not help another person get past all the BS and lay down a simple system that is proven to work?

      By not pointing her in a 100 different directions... I save her from the misery of suffering through "information overload". Once she starts earning consistently she can start educating herself more if she wants to.
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  • Profile picture of the author superowid
    I would invest it to buy fiverr-gigs such services to build my customer list with real people, real fans, real followers and real pinners.
    And I would just offering a video/audio testimonial/presentation service with my charming face on fiverr and any sites alike.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    I don't recommend someone just randomly pick out a product without buying it. It might be a horrible product and she is going to be endorsing it. If I had $350 to invest I would buy a domain, get a autoresponder, get hosting and invest in my education. I would then decide upon a niche, find out where my target audience is hanging out, find a product that fits the target audiences needs, buy the product, build a website around the niche with an incentive to buy from me, purchase traffic to send to the website and track conversions. I would continue to track, test and tweak the page until I got at least a 3% conversion. I would also be building my list at the same time while offering value through informative emails that build trust.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ken Hoffman
    Asking this question is a great way to blow $350.

    The better question to focus on is what Internet marketing strategy/business do I want to get into?

    Focusing on spending a certain dollar amount is NOT the way to success.

    It put's your attention on all the wrong things.

    She needs to get greater clarity on her outcome first.

    Only then can you ask how best to spend the $350.
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  • Profile picture of the author PRBandit
    Who says it has to be affiliate marketing/clickbank?

    Sign up for leadimpact ($200) and a CPA Network and get to work on PPV advertising!

    If your lucky, you will make the money back in a day or so!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Get a website and domain name, create a sales letter website with strong copy, develop a product, get an ebook cover developed, and use the funds for advertising to bring instant targeted traffic to the sales letter page... price at $20-$30.
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  • Profile picture of the author blillard
    I second the starting a service here on the forums or a number of them for that matter. It is REALLY easy to confuse someone new to this game due to all the methods.

    Me personally I would drip feed the knowledge to her, of course you would need to take time out to PREPARE some sort of study course easy for her to follow.

    Like one day teach niche research then the nexr keyword reseach. Try to overwhelm her with info overload.

    Then I would pick out a few easy business models after that once she has the hang of all the tedious stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author Des Lau
    Save the $350.

    Tell him/her to use the next month to research research and more research on exactly what model they want to apply. After that, they will have more money, and a part of that can be spent on a coach who can teach them exactly what to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author williamk
    Banned
    I would go with a more experienced warrior and do a JV. But if you think you can make decent money than you should go buy some tools and try and get good with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ross Petal
    I would personally stay away from clickbank due to the high refund rates in most niches. I would get into a super niche, maybe an Authority site, premium theme, plugins, add unique content, get some videos done and spend the rest of the money on seo/back linking
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinebizgiant
    I would say, first of all one should have a right mindset to succeed online otherwise everybody who struggle financially would have came and make huge moneyonline, right? so make money online is not simple but easy once you get to know the process. The essentials are

    A Domain
    Your own product or affiliate product
    Autoresponder (build a list if you like to have residual income)
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    • Profile picture of the author tsx
      I think that everybody is giving really good advice. What I would emphasize is choosing the right niche. She should find out what areas she is knowledgeable about, what experience/skills she can bring to the table and focus on those areas. If she likes shoes or working out or whatever, those are the areas she should focus on. No matter how profitable the stock market or SEO niche might be, if you can't add any value for your visitors, it is pointless to enter.
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  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    Entering in IM with zero knowledge will be a 99% money loss. The most friendly advice you can give her is to keep her money and start to study and resarch for few months. Being short on money and using your last savings on IM is a guaranteed suicide.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter29
    Does she have a particular interest about something she could write a product about that would be well sold? Maybe she knows something about dog training or something like that. I'm not saying that she has to be an expert but if she has knowledge about a high profitable niche, that would make a research a lot easier and maybe she could make her own product.
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  • Profile picture of the author redeyegirl
    In order to make $350 wisely, Set up new domain, hosting and autoreponder, remaining hire someone who are Expert in driving traffic and promoting items for me.
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