$5000 Marketing Budget - What would you do?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by Jack700, Apr 18, 2007.

  1. #1
    Hey Everybody,

    If you had $5000 to launch your new site what would you do? I'm talking about a brand new site with a 3 month old URL. You have a good amount of content and a unique value proposition in the marketplace.

    Paid directories? Text link ads? Oodles of Adwords? All of the above? In what proportion? How would you split up your marketing budget?
     
    Jack700, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  2. InternetWebsiteDesign

    InternetWebsiteDesign Banned

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    #2
    Buy Loads Of Strong Back Links From Me...

    ;)
     
    InternetWebsiteDesign, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  3. Fewski

    Fewski Well-Known Member

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    #3
    $300 in Adwords

    $4000 in creating STRONG backlinks

    $500 contest

    $200 extra for upgrades

    It is kind of hard to say though without knowing the subject of the site.
     
    Fewski, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  4. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #4
    See my signature for my site :)

    I feel like I'm just sort of shotgunning everything at the moment and I think that I need to settle down and make a plan. If I have a plan I won't be as cost averse as I am right now. Right now I don't want to spend ANYTHING because I don't want to waste my budget.
     
    Jack700, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  5. tradeya

    tradeya Notable Member

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    #5
    the must do is buying a strong PR back link. also paid for SEs and Dir submission services. (make sure they not doing duplicate sumit though). Paid for SEOs expert to improve ranking. do local advertising. (newspaper, magazines) and giving prize in site if visitor participate... many more ideas with those money XD
     
    tradeya, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  6. charlinks

    charlinks Guest

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    #6
    -www.prwebdirect.com/catalog.php

    Get the premium package or hire someone REALLY good to write an article about your site. Once your article is submitted, you will be on many sites that signed for RSS feeds. On top of that journalists are going to read the PR and write their own article about you if it has something interesting to offer.

    Can't go wrong with PR!!! It's a sure way to build a PR :))
     
    charlinks, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  7. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #7
    I was planning on writing my own press release once I got a few more cities up but using one of their services looks like a great time saver.

    Thanks for the link char.
     
    Jack700, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  8. charlinks

    charlinks Guest

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    #8
    You are welcome! I like the site. It seems really slow, but may be it's just my connection.

    In fact if this turns out to be really successful, you could release a new PR every time you added a new major city :)
     
    charlinks, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  9. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #9
    Yeah my VPS has a slow patch every single night and my ISP doesn't seem interested in finding out why or fixing it. It responds with a full page in under 5 seconds during the day, but late at night it slows to a crawl.

    As far as the PR is concerned, maybe I can get them to write a template for me so that I can just drop in <city_name> and release it with minimal cost.
     
    Jack700, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  10. himanuzo

    himanuzo Well-Known Member

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    #10
    The $5,000 will be used...

    1. Autoresponder system - Aweber
    2. Keyword research software - Keyword Elite
    3. SEO software - SEO Elite
    4. Press release - PRWeb.com or PRnewswire.com
    5. Article distribution - submityourarticle.com
    6. Reciprocal link service - LinkMetro.com
    7. Adwords

    Insane traffic!!!
     
    himanuzo, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  11. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #11
    Thanks Himanuzo,

    I'll definitely be looking into Aweber once I get phase 2 off the ground and actually have some persistent users/accounts to handle.

    I went to the SEO Elite website... talk about melodramatic! I thought I was stuck in a 3am hard sell infomercial for a minute there. I'll have to do more research on that one.

    submityourarticle.com seems to be run by the same people :) A wall of promotional text and INCREDIBLE CLAIMS!!!!!!~eleven Another candidate for additional research.

    Has anyone ever hired an SEO consultant? I might be interested in just having someone do all of this for me heh.
     
    Jack700, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  12. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #12
    None of those methods will work for every single type of site. You really need to put together a marketing plan before you think about how to throw the budget around. :)
     
    jhmattern, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  13. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #13
    Hi JH,

    That's exactly what I'm endeavoring to do. Just looking for input from as many points of view as I can get :)

    Shout out to SE Pennsylvania! I grew up in Ambler, Montgomery County.
     
    Jack700, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  14. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #14
    lol I live right on the Chester / Montco border. :)

    The point I was trying to make (and I put it much too simply), is that you shouldn't be jumping into "tactics" yet. You need to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, competition, target market and what influences them, goals, general strategies, etc.... all of that has to come before thinking about specific tactics if you want to end up with the best ROI. :) Since you were talking about press releases, and since I'm yammering on about marketing plans, here are two things I have that might save you some time (a one page abbreviated marketing plan template and the press release template I use in my own PR firm). :)

    One page marketing plan
    Sample press release
     
    jhmattern, Apr 19, 2007 IP
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  15. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #15
    Congrats, you've just finally forced me to create a del.icio.us account so I can keep track of your great links :)
     
    Jack700, Apr 19, 2007 IP
    jhmattern likes this.
  16. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #16
    I feel like such a tyrant. lol j/k
     
    jhmattern, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  17. CraigslistGuy

    CraigslistGuy Banned

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    #17
    Paid directories - $1000
    Text link ads - $2000
    Oodles of Adwords - $2000
     
    CraigslistGuy, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  18. aletheides

    aletheides Banned

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    #18
    Jack whatever you decide to do make sure it´s nice and natural - don´t go gung-ho for one month and then the next you have no more budget to play with.
     
    aletheides, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  19. hav0k

    hav0k Active Member

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    #19
    1k-2k for site development.

    1k-2k for an amazing writer to write articles everday.

    1.5k for advertising.

    500 for a contest of some sort

    and what ever is left will buy me lunch! :D
     
    hav0k, Apr 19, 2007 IP
  20. Jack700

    Jack700 Guest

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    #20
    It looks like my first decent expenditure is going to be on a dedicated server. I just had my first linkbait attempt hit the front page of Digg.com

    My server fell down and went boom :( heheh
     
    Jack700, Apr 19, 2007 IP