What To Do When Your Broke?

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Aequitas

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Feb 19, 2007
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A lot of people tell me that they cannot do any PPC advertising because they are broke and that they have nothing they can do until they've got enough money saved up to start a campaign.

THIS IS BULLSHIT PEOPLE PURE BULLSHIT. So stop telling yourself you cannot do anything while your broke.

I'll admit that awhile back I thought the only thing to do when your broke is to learn other ways to do things, or just to learn in general, well one of the main things I learned that I should have noticed right away was their is a TON you can still do when your broke.

Here is an example of what you could be doing with your time until you do get your money. This is assuming you know how to run your own campaign already, hell even if you don't you should be doing these things and learning more about them so your prepared when you've got the money to invest.

1) Start finding products you want to promote (Super Easy To Do)
2) Create 2 to 4, maybe even 6 different landing pages for that single product.
3) Start creating your keyword lists for the product, this will take a bunch of your time and soon I'll be writing up a post to explain how you can do this effectively. (Including making your ad groups)
4) Create your campaign ads, create the same amount of ads as you do landing pages, so if you've got 6 seperate landing pages for one product, create 6 campaign ads to go with it.
5) This should have been number 1 but create a folder to organize and store all of this shit.
6) Repeat this process until you've pre-made a wack load of sites.

Now you'll be fully ready to launch several campaigns when you do get your money in order, you also might be asking why in the fuck would you want to create up to 6 different landing pages?

Well you want to create this much so you can gain as much testing as possible, testing as we all know is very powerful and you should be split testing everything your doing, everything from your ads to your landing pages, it works simple create two ads each pointing to a different landing page, you'll know that both will get the same amount of visitors because Google will show on then the next, then back to the first and so on until your campaign is over.

You'll be able to track what your CTR is for each ad and you'll be able to monitor your conversions from each landing page, after a couple of days switch out the ad that isn't doing so well and if one landing page is making more conversions then the other one, simply get rid of the other one and put a new one in its place until the new one beats out the old one.

Second note pull up excel and save all of this information all the way through your campaign and NEVER toss it away, this information is valuable and you can use it to create better landing sites and so on, its all about the numbers, create your own system to keep track of everything, the more information you can gather the more money you'll be able to make.

So now you have no excuse when your broke, go out their and start creating landing sites for your next PPC Campaign, hell you can even start creating a blog, write a post each day, the trick here is NOT to bring your blog online, keep it on your own computer until you can afford your long lasting domain name then bring it online and you'll have a shit load of posts already made up, this will give it the appearance of being around a lot longer then it already has.

This is of course you care about what your working on, if you don't care about that particular project load it up with Blogger or Free Wordpress, make a few bucks then make it a secondary project once you've got all your other ones on the go.

You want to know why Jon makes more then you do? ITS BECAUSE HE WORKS HARDER THEN YOU.
 


Maybe I should have posted this with a different name, it doesn't seem like their are too many broke people floating around wicked fire haha.
 
Second note pull up excel and save all of this information all the way through your campaign and NEVER toss it away, this information is valuable and you can use it to create better landing sites and so on, its all about the numbers, create your own system to keep track of everything, the more information you can gather the more money you'll be able to make.

Great post and I especially like the part on saving all your info. At the beginning I was really sloppy with this but now I see how important it is.
 
Great post and I especially like the part on saving all your info. At the beginning I was really sloppy with this but now I see how important it is.

I did too but I keep damb near everything and I organize it all now, I usually cross reference some of my campaigns at different times in the year, see which ones did good, try to find trends for the upcoming month's and years, from their see which campaign's did good that are in that niche, look back at the numbers, and pretty much pre-build an affiliate landing site that has quiet a good chance of being profitable.
 
Great post and a good reminder that you can always be doing something for your business even when you don't have any cash. For people graphics or design oriented they can be building or adapting web page templates, creating header graphics, site images, researching domain names to buy in the future and so much more.
 
wicked fuck'n post Aequitas!

Thanks everyone for the great responses on this.

Was this in response to the flurry of DP posts that say "I want 20billiontrillion visitors but I don't want to spend more than $20!"

No I don't hang out on DP, Last night the power went out at my house at around 8pm and didn't come back on until the next morning and I had the time to read up on an old marketing book I had, it gave me a shit load of ideas and sometimes I realize I've over spent on a month (Too much partying), and didn't save enough for my campaigns so this is just basically what I do when I am stupid and don't put aside any money for my campaigns.

P.S. I know the money I make online should be re-invested so this doesn't happen but that doesn't always work out the way you want, in about two month's I'll be registering a company, then I can fully keep my business finance seperate then my personal spending.
 
I started my affiliate marketing career with $20.00.

I did have a $5 a month hosting account and a domain to use already.. but beyond that nothing else.

It took me about 6 weeks to get in a big cash flow situation because things were growing so fast, but otherwise.. it has been rising exponentially.

People spend too much time worrying about what they might do if they had more money, time or good looks. Just do it.
 
I was just going to say that. Register a business name and get a credit card for that business. IRS expects a loss on a business in the first couple of years so take advantage of that. Advertising, domains, hosting is all a writeoff too.

At some point, we all have to realize self-employment isn't meant for everyone. There's a lot of people who need to be bossed around, told what to do, when to do it, etc. So when they try to go it alone, they are looking for that boss that will SHOW them (boss them?) what, when, where, why, how.

People that say they don't have any money will be the same ones eating fast food 12 times a week, smoking 2-3 $4 packs of cigs, and buying beer by the case each week. It is an excuse and a play at your pity.

I had a guy who asked for help who also didn't have any money. Yet he just bought a Wii, Zelda and some other bullshit. So I gave him cheap (not free) hosting. Then I told him to do three things that I knew would start making money. I told him to figure out how to install wordpress, how to manage it, and a few other things related to his domain/market and...

he

hasn't

done

shit!

I can't help people who won't spend 4 hours learning.
 
At some point, we all have to realize self-employment isn't meant for everyone. There's a lot of people who need to be bossed around, told what to do, when to do it, etc.

I'm glad I'm not one of those people, I don't have a problem with a regular job but my dream has always been to work for myself, provide my own income, or at least fail doing it, that way I'd know forsure, I've always said I'll die of old age before I give up and that holds true to this day.

One of my major motivational factors is that I love to travel around and I love to go partying in different cities and I want to travel to a few places in the world, I've always hated the idea of working on job and having to re-align your life around that one job, can't really travel and shit.

An internet career for me is just perfect because their is an internet connection almost everywhere you go, I mean you go to a big city, you've got a connection in your hotel, you go anywhere its like that now, well not anywhere but you get the point.

All I'd ever need was to carry along my laptop with all my information and I'm set, fly to a city, book a hotel, work during the day, party at night, do the site seeing shit, go visit my friends in different town, all while making more money then any of them do.
 
I'm glad I'm not one of those people, I don't have a problem with a regular job but my dream has always been to work for myself, provide my own income, or at least fail doing it, that way I'd know forsure, I've always said I'll die of old age before I give up and that holds true to this day.

I'm the same way and realized this after interning for a mutual fund and seeing the normal 9 to 5 is not for me. I saw that if you bust your ass for the company you still get the same pay as the dude just doing the minimum work.

Fear is a great motivator. When friends and family question me I make it clear I will never work a 9 to 5. It would be a huge disgrace for me to eat my words and this pushes me to keep going.
 
If someone is complaining about being too broke, they shouldn't be in this business in the first place. If they won't throw down $30 bucks to get some hosting and a few domains, it's already a given that they're going to be too cheap to be investing for the long term haul. In this business, it costs money to make money.
 
I was just going to say that. Register a business name and get a credit card for that business. IRS expects a loss on a business in the first couple of years so take advantage of that. Advertising, domains, hosting is all a writeoff too.
So you're saying that if you register as an official business and file at your local City Hall, then all of the money you spend "promoting" that business (ads you buy, etc) you get back at the end of the year if you include that in your taxes?

If that's what you're saying...Then I'm gonna go pick up that damn business registration that I was too lazy to fill out and ended up just throwing away...
 
Yeah and you could also add a few dozen more things to that list of things to do while broke as shit. One thing that makes this business so unique is that you really dont need much money to make money, granted if you have loot to spend you will in most cases make money more quickly.

When I started I was broke as shit, I had just been layed off and was collecting about half of what I was use to bringing in. There are so many more things you could be doing than whining that your broke as shit, if your really that broke you could also consider working on a network of content sites or blogs to start making money to spend on PPC marketing.. This will take some time, but is well worth it.
 
So you're saying that if you register as an official business and file at your local City Hall, then all of the money you spend "promoting" that business (ads you buy, etc) you get back at the end of the year if you include that in your taxes?

If that's what you're saying...Then I'm gonna go pick up that damn business registration that I was too lazy to fill out and ended up just throwing away...
I have to say this again, I am not a CPA but I have a CPA and follow the advice given.

3Motions, no, that is not what I said. What I said was you can write off advertising expenses as a business expense. This doesn't mean you'll get a 1:1 exchange when filing taxes. In fact, you'll get far less. Do NOT confuse "writing it off" as an excuse to overspend because you are still money ahead being frugal with your expenses.

That being said, there is pros and cons with having a proper business setup for writing off expenses. For my operation, an S-Corp was right for me. You can use online services to register a corporation for you. I used incorporatetime.com twice with great success and no issues.

Having a corporation though has its downfalls. Such as when I used to live in California, I had to pay an annual $800 corporation fee every year. That sucked. Thankfully Utah doesn't have any fees and the state is better for my family for all the outdoor activities and cooler summers. :)

Another problem with having a corporation is it is pretty much mandatory to have Quickbooks with payroll service. You'll have to learn how to cut yourself checks, pay dividends, and basically treat your business as a separate person/entity, of which, the money is off limits without documentation (credit card expenses, payroll, loan documentations, etc).

It is a good idea to study this. A S-Corp removes double taxation (28% as self employed!).

........and as usual, hire a CPA and discuss your options. There's a shitload to learn to get out of Uncle Sam's grasps.
 
So you're saying that if you register as an official business and file at your local City Hall, then all of the money you spend "promoting" that business (ads you buy, etc) you get back at the end of the year if you include that in your taxes?

If that's what you're saying...Then I'm gonna go pick up that damn business registration that I was too lazy to fill out and ended up just throwing away...

You don't get it back, you get to write it off as a business expense. And it has to do with federal income taxes, not local.

Great post by the way.

Compare a brick and mortar business to an internet business.

1. Brick and mortar-You need anywhere from $50K to $500K in order to buy yourself a job, which hopefully will become profitable in about 3-5 years.

2. Internet- You can start with $50-$500 and if your smart you will be profitable in a few months. And if not, no big deal.
 
When I started I was broke as shit, I had just been layed off and was collecting about half of what I was use to bringing in. There are so many more things you could be doing than whining that your broke as shit, if your really that broke you could also consider working on a network of content sites or blogs to start making money to spend on PPC marketing.. This will take some time, but is well worth it.
You started like I did bro. I had severance pay + 3 months to get rolling after my job moved 2 hours away. I decided to go it alone much to the dismay of my wife instead of waisting 4+ unpaid hours commuting daily.

I took a little bit of risk by using my credit card to get started. I knew I had 3 months, if it didn't work or show evidence it will work, I was job hunting. It was enough fire under my ass to make it work.
 
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