How should I invest $500 in IM?

Hello everyone,

My name is Bill, I am new to IM and am just overwhelmed at the amount of information that's on here. One day I'm looking into one method, the next day I'm trying another and in the end get nothing accomplished. I was looking for some free ways to get started but soon realised that I need money to make money hence the reason I am writing this post.

I will soon have $500 to invest in this venture and was hoping to get some advise on how best to invest this money. I can get a domain & hosting for less than $100 but then what next? What methods would you recommend for this start up budget?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Bill

Which threads have you read so far? Have you read this thread https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/a-couple-beginner-tips-low-cost-free-money-making-methods-for-beginners.999534/ ?

I would recommend to buy an amazon website from marketplace.

I saw some beautiful one;s Done & Ranking - of course you will need to promote even more that store but it's your best shot - my 2 cents

I'm a bit in the same boat. Just a heads up, I'm about as newbie as you can get at this, but I've done a TON of research so far. At this stage, it'd be advisable to pick one method and focus your energy into that. For instance, if I was working with say, clickbank, I would need the cash mainly to fund traffic it seems. However, if I was working with more of an e-mail marketing method, I would probably be using more cash to look for an e-mail server that'll handle the load without raising a ton of red flags. Overall, though, it seems like traffic is the answer. Traffic through ads, traffic through buying links and improving SEO, etc.

Just checked out the link you sent me, question - how do I approach CPA and affiliate marketing? Don't I need to have a blog or some other way to create content first? How do I market when I don't have an audience?

Bill Wilson said:

How should I invest $500 in IM?

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Carefully

lorentzo said:

I would recommend to buy an amazon website from marketplace.

I saw some beautiful one;s Done & Ranking - of course you will need to promote even more that store but it's your best shot - my 2 cents

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How does that work? Are they ready made websites that are already turning a profit?

houdinii321 said:

I'm a bit in the same boat. Just a heads up, I'm about as newbie as you can get at this, but I've done a TON of research so far. At this stage, it'd be advisable to pick one method and focus your energy into that. For instance, if I was working with say, clickbank, I would need the cash mainly to fund traffic it seems. However, if I was working with more of an e-mail marketing method, I would probably be using more cash to look for an e-mail server that'll handle the load without raising a ton of red flags. Overall, though, it seems like traffic is the answer. Traffic through ads, traffic through buying links and improving SEO, etc.

Click to expand...

If I'm trying to get people to click on affiliate links, don't I need a website first? If traffic is the answer, my next question is traffic to where...?

Sephrata said:

Which threads have you read so far? Have you read this thread ?

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Just checked out the link you sent me, question - how do I approach CPA and affiliate marketing? Don't I need to have a blog or some other way to create content first? How do I market when I don't have an audience?

I wouldn't buy anything from the market place straight away.

Spend some time looking at Social Media (free traffic). Look what other people do on there and how they monetise their accounts by reverse engineering.

Bill Wilson said:

How does that work? Are they ready made websites that are already turning a profit?

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hey are already made on low competition keywords with articles and all the things. They are ranking already - don't think they are making money yet as they need some promotion but in my oppinionis your best choice.

lorentzo said:

hey are already made on low competition keywords with articles and all the things. They are ranking already - don't think they are making money yet as they need some promotion but in my oppinionis your best choice.

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ok, thanks. Will def check them out!

lorentzo said:

don't think they are making money yet as they need some promotion

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How can you recommend to someone to buy something that needs to be promoted, especially since that person has asked several times how to get traffic/build an audience?

That's like telling someone to buy a car, when they don't know how to drive.

Bill Wilson said:

Just checked out the link you sent me, question - how do I approach CPA and affiliate marketing? Don't I need to have a blog or some other way to create content first? How do I market when I don't have an audience?

Click to expand...

That was my thread now that I clicked on it

To answer your question, not perse. Some networks will approve you directly but they often have shitty offers but it's good to practice with but I got accepted in the top 3 networks when I didn't even had a website or experience, it's just about what you tell them, fake it till you make it

About those amazon and certain other sites, don't fall for titles like "Make $xxxxx with xxxx sites" for just $30. If a $30 site would haul big profits why would anyone sell them I would have made hundreds for myself

My advice, don't spend anything yet till you at least learned the basics. In my thread I only talk about very very small costs and the methods are good ways to practice and get familiar with IM.

It talks about all the beginner questions.

You will need to learn to walk before you can run

GL

Bill Wilson said:

If I'm trying to get people to click on affiliate links, don't I need a website first? If traffic is the answer, my next question is traffic to where...?

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A lot of methods do use a landing page for affiliate links, some methods don't. Either way, hosting is not that expensive really. I personally like the idea of a landing page to warm up the affiliate offer and hopefully get people to give their e-mail addresses over for more options later on. Me personally, I'm not spending a dime until the methods make sense in my head. I know that if I went and spent $500 right now, I'd probably only profit a little if at all. Instead of jumping right in, I'm spending a lot of time amassing social media accounts and expired web 2.0 accounts, both of which are basically free but are very time-consuming. This allows me to keep researching a concrete method while still staying productive laying down the framework for my first campaigns. One thing I do see a lot of more experienced people doing is starting very small and inexpensive just to see how hard it is to get that first dollar. If it's not too difficult, that's when scaling up and getting the traffic in starts costing.

houdinii321 said:

A lot of methods do use a landing page for affiliate links, some methods don't. Either way, hosting is not that expensive really. I personally like the idea of a landing page to warm up the affiliate offer and hopefully get people to give their e-mail addresses over for more options later on. Me personally, I'm not spending a dime until the methods make sense in my head. I know that if I went and spent $500 right now, I'd probably only profit a little if at all. Instead of jumping right in, I'm spending a lot of time amassing social media accounts and expired web 2.0 accounts, both of which are basically free but are very time-consuming. This allows me to keep researching a concrete method while still staying productive laying down the framework for my first campaigns. One thing I do see a lot of more experienced people doing is starting very small and inexpensive just to see how hard it is to get that first dollar. If it's not too difficult, that's when scaling up and getting the traffic in starts costing.

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Is there a video course I can take that would break everything down for me in a step by step manner? I feel like I'm getting the information in bits and pieces...

Bill Wilson said:

I feel like I'm getting the information in bits and pieces...

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Put the pieces together.

One of the easiest ways to get started is to reverse engineer. See what other people are doing and learn from them. Then build up a picture of what you want to do, taking into account your general skills.

Bill Wilson said:

Is there a video course I can take that would break everything down for me in a step by step manner? I feel like I'm getting the information in bits and pieces...

Click to expand...

I personally don't like watching videos, so I'm no help there, but what I did was take a huge stack of index cards and wrote down steps on them. One index card has like "Buy backlinks" on it. Another has Post to X number of forums related to the niche, etc. You can do this for any of the methods listed on this site. Now with these index cards, you can put them on the floor, wall, table, etc. in the order the method shows. This allows you to visualize what is going on and it connects the dots in your head faster. The reason I use index cards is because what works for one method probably works for another if you think outside the box. You can physically take the card from one method and stick it into another. Anything new that you learn, write it down. The journey pages are where I learn the most, seeing where everyone else had success and failures is a great way to shorten your research time.

The reason everything is so cryptic is two-fold. For one, everyone in here is competing with everyone else, and if the keys to the kingdom were on the front page it would be flooded within an hour. And two, there is no actual one right way to do any of this. The steps themselves are relatively simple. Pick a method, pick a niche, find something in that niche to sell or a problem to solve, find an audience needing the product or solution, drive the audience to the product, convert and collect. How you go about these steps is as unique as your own fingerprints. Trial and error seem to be the main strategy overall. Test, tweak and learn from your mistakes.

Oh, almost forgot. Another little thing I do is go through and try to answer other's questions. Even if you don't publish the answer, it get's you in the mindset to solve problems and do so logically. After answering other people's questions for a week you'd be amazed at how much of what you learned sticks.

Hey Bill and Everyone else,

There is always a desire for more, but to resist the urge to be impulsive is crucial. Listen and be patient, but that doesn't mean waste time!

Questions to ask yourself:

- What is it you want? I mean really want? Is it money or is there a particular passion that lurks in the back of your mind, which you dare not voice, be truthful with yourself, because "truthfulness is the foundation of all things", even more so with yourself.
- Do I need training or am I ready to spend $500? Likelihood of success?
- Can I partner with someone more knowledgeable, which I can invest my $500 as well as my time, which is worth $10,000+
- Long-term or short-term strategy?
- High-Risk or Low-Risk?
- How much time can I invest into this business weekly, monthly etc..
- Current obligations? What can be an obvious obstruction?
- Do I need to work and try this out part-time?

Already 100% I am doing this shit:

- What niche is your passion and where is there money in it? Focus on the money, money, money and more mother-fuking money. People follow passion in the beginning usually don't make money, although there are exceptions of course!
- So, you have $400 left hypothetically, so make a list of what is needed, a complete business plan, create a framework for what needs to be done and prioritise what is most important. For example - if you are creating an affiliate amazon site you might want to learn about site-arc and make a structure that google likes. However, before doing that you will need to investigate the niche, keyword research and create a blue-print before spending a dime. This initial investigation should be done before launching and might save you being committed into something that a month down the line, you realise isn't for you!
- Speak to others, see who is already doing it? Yes, you are doing it here, which is a start. Is there certain people to listen to? Learn to separate the wheat from the chaff, time wasting is not an option right now!

Ok, I am clearly wittering on here, but good luck man!

Peace