Journey to Growing a Site with $0!

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

I've been caught by the bug of wanting to market a site with $0 - To confirm, I have plenty of money to spend (If I wanted to) and have plenty of time to invest into a project... but I didn't want to do that, I wanted this to be 100% $0 spent on the entire marketing campaign.

I've got the domain & hosting in place = $40/year for both

Theme was Premium from ThemeForest, cost = $35

So total startup costs = $85

Idea:
I'll be building a site up, adding in AdSense (from a FRESH AdSense account) and slowly adding content, which I'll then share and grow accounts from to get traffic to said place for free.

I'll be showing you EXACTLY what I did to do this and the stats / earnings I received afterwards.

Actions Today:
I'll be building the site (in Wordpress, also showing you which theme I used and plugins), adding 2 articles and making accounts on all the sites I'll be doing.

Once I've done todays tasks, I'll post back here of what I've done so you can see it.

Thanks & I hope you enjoy my journey!

kakabong · Mar 31, 2014

will you be applying for a completely new adsense account ? or old one ? It would be interesting to see how much content and quality is required for the application to be approved, seeing as how many people seem to have problems getting their applications approved.

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

kakabong said:
will you be applying for a completely new adsense account ? or old one ? It would be interesting to see how much content and quality is required for the application to be approved, seeing as how many people seem to have problems getting their applications approved.

It's an aged account, that I already have in place - but it's never been "used" as of yet.

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

Site is setup -

URL: DevilsLettuce.Co

Theme: Breeze (on ThemeForest) - Allows cool additions to the sidebar, hence the nice author bio and facebook like box, as well as Adsense integration within the theme.

Plugins used - Facebook Comments by Alex Moss, Limit Login Attempts (just for security), Q2W3 Sticky Widget, Wordpress SEO by Yoast.

Reddit Account Setup - DevilsLettuceCo

First Article Posted - Drunk vs Stoned (Submitted to /r/Trees on Reddit)

Analytics Setup (via Google Analytics)

Facebook Account Setup - Invited a few friends to like that I know smoke + Added a sticky like widget to the posts area and a non-sticky widget to the Homepage.

Next Steps -

Setup a Tumblr & Pinterest Account.

Add more articles to the site.

Build some manual links via Blog Commenting to the site.

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

Analytics code inputted via the theme wasn't working properly so installed "Google Analyticator"plugin and it's now working.

BassTrackerBoats · Mar 31, 2014

I don't know that I would post the url but you have a plan in place there. I would think that the site content COULD be a TOS issue with adsense though... do yourself a favor and just check so you don't get hosed.

Biznik · Mar 31, 2014

Your project is already doomed to fail. Clearly you have not done any research.

https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/48182?hl=en

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

Your project is already doomed to fail. Clearly you have not done any research.

COULD be a TOS issue with adsense though...

Ah, but that's where you're wrong

You see, registering an Adsense account under Uruguay TOS allows you to make anything "weed" related - As it's 100% legal there and not classed as a drug. Don't worry guys... I do my research

I also already contacted Google support and had my friend speak to them (As I can't speak Spanish) it took about 20 mins, but they verified my account.

robertsonzmom · Mar 31, 2014

Good luck with your journey, it is indeed possible to start from $0, that's the beauty of IM. Just make effective plans and keep working on it.

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

Update -

Verified Reddit Account

Added a New Article on Marijuana Tourism (Along with a video to back it up)

Signed up to Pinterest and started adding pins, following people and am Verifying the Website.

Teapen · Mar 31, 2014

That theme is clean as hell. Might have to look into it for my next website. Okay, I'm definitely looking into it!

Edit: Although I'm not too keen on the font -- however that can be changed!

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

Teapen said:
That theme is clean as hell. Might have to look into it for my next website. Okay, I'm definitely looking into it!

Edit: Although I'm not too keen on the font -- however that can be changed!

You can actually edit the font within the theme options, they have Google Fonts available - I'm just sticking with the default for the time being ^.^

I actually found it via Banned member DHSellerUK's personal blog when someone linked to it.. That kid can pick sick themes hahahaha

Pirate Monk · Mar 31, 2014

So, your plan is to make a site like buzzfeed or something where other people are promoting your content on Social Media.

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

Pirate Monk said:
So, your plan is to make a site like buzzfeed or something where other people are promoting your content on Social Media.

Nothing like BuzzFeed xD

But it's essentially me marketing it to gain traffic - Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest and eventually Organic.

Social media is going to play an obvious part in it, yes.. but won't be the fundamental source of traffic to the site.

injjj · Mar 31, 2014

Wow, with your link posted here, I think it will be a boost in you traffic for the meantime. I hope no one will click bomb this when ads came up. Goodluck man! Awesome niche (a word from a newbie here) I think I will learn big things here!

slevim · Mar 31, 2014

why did you post the URL? I only can see bad things on that. Anyways, I like the chosen gif !

Good Luck

CanadianDollar · Mar 31, 2014

slevim said:
why did you post the URL? I only can see bad things on that. Anyways, I like the chosen gif !

Good Luck

Because I want it to actually be a LIVE journey... I want people to be able to see what the site looks like and what kinda stuff I'm doing

Remember, I'm spending hardly any dollars and time on this so I don't really care all that much

Infyrno23 · Mar 31, 2014

I'll be following along to watch your progress. Good luck!

TheVigilante · Mar 31, 2014

Enjoyed your previous share so subscribed!

badut jenaka · Mar 31, 2014

Don't forget to add some "important" pages to serving adsense ads..

good luck to your journey..

Journey to Growing a Site with $0!

BANNED

Registered Member

BANNED

BANNED

BANNED

Support Admin

Regular Member

BANNED

Newbie

BANNED

BANNED

BANNED

Junior Member

BANNED

Junior Member

Junior Member

BANNED

Newbie

Banned - Multiple Rules Violations

Regular Member

Main Menu

Marketplace

Making Money

BlackHat World