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What is a resonable budget to start with?

by xatsmann
23 replies
My brother and I would like to get started in Internet Marketing, specifically affiliate marking and I'm trying to come up with a reasonable budget for us to set us aside for the first six months to a year, after which I would like to shoot for having the business pay for itself.

My question is beyond buying a basic unlimited account for hosting our webpages and some money for domain names--what else do I need to account for? (Yes, I realize you don't even need that much but I don't think I want to start a business using "free" space and accounts anymore than I would start an offline business using donated space.)

I notice, for example, warriors say that you should only recommend products you feel comfortable about so does that mean I should buy and use whatever I am trying to market? What about tools like Market Samuari? I've looked at some many tools and for niche market mining it seems like MS is worth the money since it is only a one time fee and not a subscription.

As for the niches were are going to use--right now we're looking at three to five different niches such as removable tattoos, business planning and book reviews, but nothing is set in stone yet as we're still doing some keyword and product research.

Thanks for your help.

Xats
#budget #resonable #start
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ten
    There is a book called The $100 Startup. You might be interested in checking it out.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tayman
      Will need more details to answer this question.

      What methods will you be using to drive traffic?
      Do you both have jobs (or another means) to take care of the bills while you learn your craft?
      How much time do you have to devote to this? Lack of money can be substituted with time in the beginning.

      Only buy tools to automate tasks that you understand yourself. It's much smarter to spend the money you would buy on tools on traffic than automation. Treat it like a business and invest most of your money on things that will potentially deposit more money into your bank account. If you automate a task that you don't fully understand you will just get more shitty results. heh

      Don't announce what niches you are in(on a public forum) if they are unique or with low competition. You're just asking others to saturate your niche. This can be disastrous if you are just starting out and don't know how to kick people out of your pond.

      Track everything. This is not stressed enough on these forums.

      There literally isn't enough time in the day to chase after and master all the different methods to generate traffic free or paid. Focus.
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      • Profile picture of the author xatsmann
        Originally Posted by Tayman View Post

        Will need more details to answer this question.

        What methods will you be using to drive traffic?
        Do you both have jobs (or another means) to take care of the bills while you learn your craft?
        How much time do you have to devote to this? Lack of money can be substituted with time in the beginning.
        He's working but I am not but I am looking to get back to work ASAP since my unemployment has run out--I will probably substituent teach for now since I have a BA and MA.

        My brother is willing to put up a small amount of money per month which I will augment with some of my own as soon as I get back to work.

        The plan was for me to do most of the work for two reasons: one, I am out of work and two, I'm the technical one who does tech support for a living so I have a better grasp on the whole internet-web site thing. My brother is more of a business man than I am as he has run a few businesses in his day.

        My plan is to keep the cost as low possible since I'm sure we'll make plenty of mistakes and to try and get the business to pay for itself, e.g. cover the costs of the business, within a year and hope to see some income beyond that in 12-24 months.

        Only buy tools to automate tasks that you understand yourself. It's much smarter to spend the money you would buy on tools on traffic than automation. Treat it like a business and invest most of your money on things that will potentially deposit more money into your bank account. If you automate a task that you don't fully understand you will just get more shitty results. heh
        I agree--the only tool I'm looking at right now is Market Samauri--I had done some research a few years back but never really gave the business the attention it deserved so it went nowhere (thus my join date back in 2010.) I know there are other tools like Spyfu and Complete.com but I want to just use one tool for now.

        Don't announce what niches you are in(on a public forum) if they are unique or with low competition. You're just asking others to saturate your niche. This can be disastrous if you are just starting out and don't know how to kick people out of your pond.
        Well I was trying to avoid the inevitable statement you started your response with "we need more information" . You'll notice that I didn't get into any details and I don't think of the ones I mentioned are unknown anyway. I also think they are quite large and can easily accommodate lots of IMers.

        Track everything. This is not stressed enough on these forums.

        There literally isn't enough time in the day to chase after and master all the different methods to generate traffic free or paid. Focus.
        I intend to track everything, that's why I only want a few sites using a handful of tools--mostly low cost or free--perhaps following one or two guru's advice in affiliate marketing.

        Thanks for the advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author andreabolder
    My suggestion is to #1 determine how fast you want or need to make money. Can you leverage time where you lack money or put in the money where you lack the time.

    To get started as an affiliate you really only need to have a site to build a list - which requires a domain name and web hosting.

    Some additional things I'd invest in are graphics to make sure your site look professional, you need an autoresponder service to manage your leads and perhaps an offer of some sort to encourage visitors to subscribe to your list. You can create an ebook, free report or shoot a video series. If you choose to go the ebook/free report route you will want to get a nice looking ebook cover which you can get for as little as $5 on fiverr.

    Once you begin making money you can reinvest 20-30% into paid marketing methods to speed and automate the growth of your business.

    The thing is the just get started! Promote with the resources you have now and go for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author xatsmann
      Originally Posted by andreabolder View Post

      My suggestion is to #1 determine how fast you want or need to make money. Can you leverage time where you lack money or put in the money where you lack the time.
      Ideally we'd like to make money quickly but I don't think that's realistic since we're both n00bs when it comes to IM. I think we need to learn the business by doing before we can expect to make money--don't get me wrong, if we do make money that would be great but I don't want to count on it and then quit cause we didin't make any money in 30 or 60 or even 365 days...

      To get started as an affiliate you really only need to have a site to build a list - which requires a domain name and web hosting.
      I agree from my own research so far I think we can get started with less than $50 per month with about $8 on the host account and then rest on buying domain names.

      Some additional things I'd invest in are graphics to make sure your site look professional, you need an autoresponder service to manage your leads and perhaps an offer of some sort to encourage visitors to subscribe to your list. You can create an ebook, free report or shoot a video series. If you choose to go the ebook/free report route you will want to get a nice looking ebook cover which you can get for as little as $5 on fiverr.
      Yes, I see Aweber has a deal where you can sign up for $1 for the first month so that appears to be a no brainer on using that. I may delay signing up for a month or two to keep our cost down and allow some traffic to develop before I try and sign people up.

      Once you begin making money you can reinvest 20-30% into paid marketing methods to speed and automate the growth of your business.

      The thing is the just get started! Promote with the resources you have now and go for it.
      I agree completely on reinvesting into the business...our plan is to reinvest 100% after the business pays for itself in the first year--or at least put the money aside to reinvest if we generate more than enough to cover our costs. I am still planning on only investing after I understand what I am investing in and why.

      thanks for your advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

    As for the niches were are going to use--right now we're looking at three to five different niches such as removable tattoos, business planning and book reviews, but nothing is set in sand yet as we're still doing some keyword and product research.
    So we're talking about an affiliate marketing business, then?

    It depends, a bit, on whether you want to set all the niches up at once (surely not?) before deriving any income from the first one or two?

    You need to budget for some domain-names ($30?), two or three months of hosting at $8 - $10 per month (another $30?) and say three months' autoresponder subscription at GetResponse (first month free, then $15 x 2 = $30?). About $100 will cover it. Maybe $150 to leave room for error. That's actually quite a bit more than I spent, when I started.

    This is assuming you don't want to pay for traffic, and don't need any special software, of course. (I don't even know what Market Samurai costs - have never needed it, myself).

    "Capital-intensive" it's not!
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    • Profile picture of the author xatsmann
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      So we're talking about an affiliate marketing business, then?

      It depends, a bit, on whether you want to set all the niches up at once (surely not?) before deriving any income from the first one or two?

      You need to budget for some domain-names ($30?), two or three months of hosting at $8 - $10 per month (another $30?) and say three months' autoresponder subscription at GetResponse (first month free, then $15 x 2 = $30?). About $100 will cover it. Maybe $150 to leave room for error. That's actually quite a bit more than I spent, when I started.
      Yes, affiliate marketing--correct. We believe it is the fastest and most inexpensive way to get into the IM world.

      Do you recommend GetResponse over Aweber? I heard only good things about Aweber but I'm more than willing to consider other products. Aweber is only $19 per month at less than 500 names and then gradually ramps up to $130 at <10000 names.

      Yes we would start multiple niches at once--but no more than five as we want to be able to monitor them. From your response you think that is too many? I don't plan on getting an income from them--beyond the business paying for itself for 6 to 18 months. Do you think I am not being ambitious enough with regards to turning a profit?

      This is assuming you don't want to pay for traffic, and don't need any special software, of course. (I don't even know what Market Samurai costs - have never needed it, myself).

      "Capital-intensive" it's not!
      Market Samuri is one time fee of $149 which I would like to get to do niche research but I agree it is not necessary but I think it would shave a few months off of us becoming profitable. This is based on my research of the product but of course, that is my best (gu)estimate only...

      thank for your response and i've enjoyed reading your posts over the last few weeks since I've been researching this for my brother and myself...
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

        Do you recommend GetResponse over Aweber?
        I think either is good. I use Aweber, myself, but will try GetResponse as well, next time I start a new list. These are the two to look at, clearly.

        Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

        Yes we would start multiple niches at once--but no more than five as we want to be able to monitor them. From your response you think that is too many?
        Well, I recognize that there are two of you, but it would be for me.

        Many (maybe even "most"?) people think you should start one niche at a time. I've always thought two, to reduce your chances of having a complete failure. But it's not easy: there's a lot to do, and at the start you're putting in all the work for none of the money - not easy doing that for multiple sites, especially if you're concerned about start-up budgets?

        Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

        I don't plan on getting an income from them--beyond the business paying for itself for 6 to 18 months.
        Ah, ok - I see that changes things a little.

        Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

        Do you think I am not being ambitious enough with regards to turning a profit?
        Difficult to know. When I started I earned almost nothing for 4 months because I was doing a huge number of things wrongly and generally didn't know what I was doing. But once I identified and corrected my mistakes (in itself not an easy thing to do, at that stage, given one's lack of experience), I was then earning $3,000/$3,500 per month within another couple of months. Of course, at the time it felt to me as if I'd completely wasted a lot of time and could have been earning that after my first two months, but that was only with "acquired knowledge" which I hadn't had at the start. So this is why it's so difficult to advise people on this point: you can't foresee what they're going to do right and wrong. (And believe me, I did some things wrong which were "ridiculous", with hindsight: things which were always going to prevent me from earning anything, and which, since then, I've regularly seen preventing large numbers of other people from earning anything!).

        Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

        Market Samuri is one time fee of $149 which I would like to get to do niche research but I agree it is not necessary but I think it would shave a few months off of us becoming profitable. This is based on my research of the product but of course, that is my best (gu)estimate only..
        Yes, sounds fair enough, to me. I've certainly heard enough people saying good things about it. And niche research is clearly worth doing. So that puts my $150 estimate up to $300, and it would be more if you're going to start off 3 - 5 niches all at once, rather than a couple. I'm gradually starting to agree with the people above who are telling you $500!

        And good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Spin17
    Opportunity like mine starts $70.. and no more ! In 3rd month BUSINESS is FREE !

    And Not an MLM and not A SALES JOB ! You WON'T be selling ANYTHING ! There are NO meetings to attend, NO investing, NO selling, NO fake posturing, NO product Expertise required, NO membership FEES, NO inventory requirements, and NO hidden FEES !
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  • Profile picture of the author peteJ
    It really depnds on what your planning to do, where you host, how many domains, how you'll drive traffic ect.

    I got started using 1 domain (about $15 but if you look for coupons you can get for way cheaper) and hosting (about $10 a month). This means about $135 I would have spent on my first year. Now I bought a few more domains and programs during the year, but you could make due and at least get a start with that, and then use any profits to fund further ventures.
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    • Profile picture of the author xatsmann
      Originally Posted by peteJ View Post

      It really depnds on what your planning to do, where you host, how many domains, how you'll drive traffic ect.

      I got started using 1 domain (about $15 but if you look for coupons you can get for way cheaper) and hosting (about $10 a month). This means about $135 I would have spent on my first year. Now I bought a few more domains and programs during the year, but you could make due and at least get a start with that, and then use any profits to fund further ventures.
      Yes, I agree the initial cast investment can be quite small and I don't think we'll need more than a few hundred US dollars for the whole year--although if the business makes any money it will be reinvested back in the business as well. And we plan to carefully reinvest the money so we may hold some back if do better than make our cost back until we can do our due diligence and make sure the money is worth re-investing.

      thanks for your advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author Royce Space
    $500 is a reasonable budget.

    Cheers,

    Royce

    P.S. Get a credit card, it really helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author xatsmann
      Originally Posted by Royce Space View Post

      $500 is a reasonable budget.

      Cheers,

      Royce

      P.S. Get a credit card, it really helps.
      I agree and I just spoke to my brother he is a member of a credit union so I would like to see if he can get us an account for the business through the credit union since I know credit unions are generally don't require minimum deposits to avoid account fees...I'm not sure if they will allow it since it is a business but there is no harm in asking. If not we'll just use a bank and deposit $300 or $400 for the first few months and either add more ourselves or hopefully the business will be adding money in.

      Thanks for the advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author apkkadam
    Originally Posted by xatsmann View Post

    My brother and I would like to get started in Internet Marketing, specifically affiliate marking and I'm trying to come up with a reasonable budget for us to set us aside for the first six months to a year, .............................
    .................................
    If you are planning to do all the hard work yourself, around $100 to $200 is a reasonable budget.
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  • Profile picture of the author napoleonwill
    Start with nothing. Turn your words into wine. The less you start with, the better. If you ever lose all your money, you know you can build it up from nothing. It is possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author shane_k
    In addition to hosting, domain name, and an autoresponder, I would add these below.

    hitsconnect or hypertracker

    Both of these sites allow you to track where your traffic is coming from.
    This allows you to know which of your efforts are paying off, and which ones aren't so you can then drop the ones that aren't and focus only on the successful ones.

    Both of them also allow you to track any advertising that you might have, such as banner ads, solo ads, links in your email, sig links in forums, etc.

    Again this allows you to see which of your advertising is effective, and which is not.

    A lot of people might tell you that you can just use Google Analytics which is free, but I think these programs are better, and a good price for the value that you get $19/month.

    Also what you might find is that there are people who feel that learning how to track, and test are skills for intermediate IMers but I personally feel that every newbie should be learning these skills from day #1, or as soon as possible.

    Banner Advertising or PPC

    Obviously this depends on your budget but I have gotten way, way better results from banner advertising than any of my other traffic sources and wish that I started it alot sooner in my business.

    PPC I heard has been the same for alot of people. I am still learning about this strategy

    You will also hear that you can lose money on banner advertising and PPC and it's true you can.

    What I done was I took 2 months to learn about banner advertising, before I started to apply it. This also gave me two months to put aside money from each paycheck for when I started.

    I am doing the same for PPC. I have been learning more about it, and at the same time that I am learning I have been taking a small amount from each of my paychecks and putting that aside for when I do start my PPC campaigns.
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  • Profile picture of the author TotalWebsiteControl
    You need about $20 for a domain and hosting.

    And $50 for war room membership. Best 50 i ever spent
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    • Profile picture of the author Walter Parrish
      500 to 1k should cover it, but again we don't know what you want to do.
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      • Profile picture of the author SEOlover
        Have a look at hosting services from greenyhosting and marblehost.
        These companies offers resourceful plans with high uptime and their pricing policy is simple and straightforward.
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    • Profile picture of the author xatsmann
      Originally Posted by HenrySEO89 View Post


      And $50 for war room membership. Best 50 i ever spent
      I agree and I'm a member--I'm just going to try and get my brother to sign up as well but he only got an free account tonight (he just got his laptop the other day and I went over to hook up his wireless mouse for him.) I'm sure he'll see the value and get one fairly quickly.
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  • Profile picture of the author VictorNST
    I start my internet marketing live with $200, i tried many things using these money and lose most of the money, i earn some new experience from failed and wont do same mistake again. Domain-Webhosting-Article- and cheap link building =D
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  • Profile picture of the author JFSG
    Please check us out if you need web hosting services. We provide free domain registration for selected plans too! Our website is in my signature. Thanks!
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