Is it worth putting money into this at the very beginning?

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MadMaxx

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Mar 8, 2010
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Obviously not very much, but if I start out with say $500, is it actually going to help me learn/make money faster, or am I better off sticking to purely free stuff until I have some actual experience under my belt?

Also, first thread, hi everyone, hopefully I haven't fucked up already.
 


Only way to get experience and to learn is to spend money andto try shit out, just be prepared to lose that 500$.
 
Kinda what I figured, anyone have any general advice for learning as much as possible from that first $500 so that hopefully I can start making some actual money before I sink over $2000? I'm going back and forth between wanting to hurry up stop reading and start doing like everyone says, and trying to minimize the amount of capital I waste trying to get a grip on how to do this right.
 
It depends on your current level of knowledge.

Spend some time reading the WF stickys. Learn how to create basic landing pages, choose keywords, and find offers. This is free (cost is your time).

Once you're ready to drive traffic, you can start spending that $500.
 
or am I better off sticking to purely free stuff until I have some actual experience under my belt
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Here is something to think about.

If you practice/work with the "free" stuff, then the only experience you'll gain will be on how to use the "free" stuff.

Writing articles and submitting them to various sites will not give you any experience of marketing with PPC or media buys just like playing dominoes will not give you any experience of driving race cars.

So the longer you hold off from doing things that cost money, the longer you'll be keeping yourself away from the stuff that really matters.

Also, if you plan on first using free methods to make some money which you could later invest in other marketing, then you might be up for a disappointment.

Such plan sounds nice in theory, but there aren't too many people who actually pulled it off.

It will take you so much time to get up to more-or-less serious level of income with free shit, that you would have been better off getting an extra job and using that money to start with paid marketing methods right from the beginning.
 
Ahh, that's largely the kind of thing I was wondering about bcc423, awesome, thanks everyone.
 
bcc423 said:
Here is something to think about.

If you practice/work with the "free" stuff, then the only experience you'll gain will be on how to use the "free" stuff.

Writing articles and submitting them to various sites will not give you any experience of marketing with PPC or media buys just like playing dominoes will not give you any experience of driving race cars.

So the longer you hold off from doing things that cost money, the longer you'll be keeping yourself away from the stuff that really matters.

Also, if you plan on first using free methods to make some money which you could later invest in other marketing, then you might be up for a disappointment.

Such plan sounds nice in theory, but there aren't too many people who actually pulled it off.

It will take you so much time to get up to more-or-less serious level of income with free shit, that you would have been better off getting an extra job and using that money to start with paid marketing methods right from the beginning.
Click to expand...

I disagree, there is a lot of money in free methods. Although you may not learn about keywords or writing a good ad copy, you do learn about what sort of offers you can convert and how to build effective landing pages.
 
bcc423 said:
Here is something to think about.

If you practice/work with the "free" stuff, then the only experience you'll gain will be on how to use the "free" stuff.

Writing articles and submitting them to various sites will not give you any experience of marketing with PPC or media buys just like playing dominoes will not give you any experience of driving race cars.

So the longer you hold off from doing things that cost money, the longer you'll be keeping yourself away from the stuff that really matters.

Also, if you plan on first using free methods to make some money which you could later invest in other marketing, then you might be up for a disappointment.

Such plan sounds nice in theory, but there aren't too many people who actually pulled it off.

It will take you so much time to get up to more-or-less serious level of income with free shit, that you would have been better off getting an extra job and using that money to start with paid marketing methods right from the beginning.
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QFT

Pozzy, it really comes down to a trade-off between time and money. To see if an offer would convert via a "free" method, it could take a week/month. Whereas in PPC you could spend 15 min doing some research, then sink $50 down and figure it out within half an hour- day tops. Some of us don't have the discipline to keep going at something that won't get us a return TODAY. I think efeezy is the only person I've seen on here who went all out SEO and then transitioned to PPC, and is now making his living doing it.
 
The only time money is a factor is when time is a factor. If you need quick money then you're gonna have to spend money on methods with quick returns like PPC. If you're not in a hurry then there are plenty of ways to get started with a small investment. It really depends on what kind of marketing you plan on doing. If you're dead set on PPC then yeah consider that $500.00 your tuition. However, there are plenty of other options out there that can work but take more time. It all comes down to your personal needs, there really are no guarantees. Just build, build, build, test, test, test.
 
the old saying "you got to spend money to make money comes to mind". Granted you can make money through the free venues but this can take time to really kick in if it does at all.
 
You need to spend money to make money online. Nowhere near as much as you would if you opened up a shop in the nearest shopping centre :-)

Cheers
David Lascelles
 
You learn by doing things. You can DO whatever be it with paid traffic or with time consuming SEO work by hand or you could buy some tools or services that will do that work for you.

You mentioned that you don't want to spend more than $500 to learn the ropes? Or did I just get that wrong? How about you spend that $500 on PPC and see what you learn? Did you learn enough to lose less with the next $500 you spend? Did you find any profitable keywords? Does your lander get a good CTR? If you spent $500 to discover the answers to those questions then I'd say that you'd spent your money well. But I will ask this. Would you be happy spending that money to find out that you can make a bit more back next time? I sure as hell would.

If you've got your hands on $500 at the moment then you can get your hands on another $500 and try new things out. I'll keep on funding my testing budget with my day job until I know enough to begin funding my weekends with my online money.

I've spent more than I care to count on textbooks and other things related to my University education and at the end of it all there's no guarantee that I'll see any return on my investment. None. I feel that money spent in this fashion where you have pretty much 100% responsibility over how its spent can be quite daunting, especially if you hope to see some return on it.

So here is my $2. Spend your $500 on whatever you want. You may learn something, you may not. You may find a profitable campaign, but you might not find one either.
 
Great advice in this thread. Getting your head right at the start will make everything much easier. To make money online you need to expect for it to take time, money, sweat and tears. Just like anything worth doing in life !

I would say go for PPC, grab some vouchers to save money and start trying.
 
As someone who went in with the plan of "I'm going to do free stuff until I earn enough to do paid stuff," I can tell you it is a long, frustrating process. The truth is that no matter what method you pursue, you will need both time and money. While there's definitely a balance you can strike with either, you're going to find yourself losing quite a bit of both.

One thing that's not worth spending money on is books/programs - maybe some will disagree, but I've got several thousand dollars' worth of literature on my hard drive and I didn't pay for any of it.

Based on what I've read and done, the best thing to do is literally lock up your money for 1-2 weeks while you read and learn. Then after you've figured out exactly what you want to do, invest that money wisely - PPC, outsourcing, etc. You're gonna wind up spending money anyhow, and you're probably going to "lose" a lot of it on your first try. But as everyone here has pointed out, you'll learn a lot more a lot faster - nothing works better at searing information into the brain than losing hard-earned money.
 
Fuck everyone who says you need money to make money.

I started out with a computer and not a dime to my name. Got my first domain by doing some work for a dude who offered to host me. Worked my way up from there. Made a few bucks here and there, AdSense at first, got in to AM after...

I now have over 200 domain names, probably 25 of which are seriously profitable. And I sell software to make affiliate marketing easier on 4 more. And I sell software to other people for other stuff on 4 more again.

Edit: PPC ain't everything.
 
Refrozen said:
Fuck everyone who says you need money to make money.

I started out with a computer and not a dime to my name. Got my first domain by doing some work for a dude who offered to host me. Worked my way up from there. Made a few bucks here and there, AdSense at first, got in to AM after...

I now have over 200 domain names, probably 25 of which are seriously profitable. And I sell software to make affiliate marketing easier on 4 more. And I sell software to other people for other stuff on 4 more again.

Edit: PPC ain't everything.
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I respect the way you grew..

People say it takes money to make money. But everyone seems to agree the the knowledge, information, and data gathered is very vital. I'll say this, money must first be in your head before it will stick to your hand. That's why i don't believe in the saying "takes money to make money". The knowledge for how to obtain is the most important thing all in all.
 
I think you should start off with only hard work first. If after a couple of months you think it would be worthwhile to invest some money then go for it.
 
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