$20 Marketing Challenge - Ideas Needed!!!

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by dcoops, Jan 5, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi Guys,

    I'm considering setting a challenge for myself and seeing how it goes, if it works well I'll share all experience etc.

    I'm trying to see how far $20 can go in marketing a site - how much traffic it will bring, how far I can stretch it, how much time it takes. I know, $20 is nothing, and some may say that it's not worth it, but the object is to see how far it goes!

    Any suggestions? A good place to offer any services! So far I have:

    1. Adwords
    2. Directory Submission
    3. MySpace Bulletin or Advertising in an email newsletter

    Pretty boring and simple, I know there are better ones out there. Any other ideas?
     
    dcoops, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  2. smattering

    smattering Peon

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    #2
    PPC on Facebook...$20.00 can go a long way.
     
    smattering, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  3. gyoumans

    gyoumans Guest

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    #3
    Hi dcoops

    With PPC at .01 you could get 2000 clicks
     
    gyoumans, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  4. gyoumans

    gyoumans Guest

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    #4
    Hi dcoops

    Hay you could have sign made an put on your car.
     
    gyoumans, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  5. radiskulllesbo

    radiskulllesbo Guest

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    #5
    You can get 20,000 hits from adbrite.
     
    radiskulllesbo, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  6. tibberous

    tibberous Well-Known Member

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    #6
    I know!

    Make a video of yourself with the $20 on youtube. Say you are trying to get traffic to your site, and whoever visits your site will get a chance to win the $20. Have them post their youtube name so you'll know how to get back to them.
     
    tibberous, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  7. infopackages

    infopackages Peon

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    #7
    How about spend the $20 on lotto tickets and pray a lot between not and the draw.

    That way you'll either get lucky and have a much larger advertising budget, or you'll have the same return I get on my lotto tickets, and you'll have to dip into your wallet for another $20 to start from scratch again.

    BTW if you run with this plan and it turns to gold I'll expect a slice of your new advertising budget!
     
    infopackages, Jan 5, 2008 IP
  8. dcoops

    dcoops Guest

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    #8
    OK so this might highlight how little I really know but here goes...

    Awesome! Love facebook... What do you think of those people that say that the facebook ads don't really work? How would I find out the CPC?

    I may be mistaken, but are there any keywords with 0.01 CPC left?

    Creative, but I'd have to get on the news to match the 2000 clicks above!

    0.001 CPC? I don't believe it. Tell me more!

    Again, creative. Possibly a little time consuming though, and I'm not sure how targeted the traffic would be. Could be a good idea for some sites though...

    You believe in prayer? Me too!

    Any other ideas?
     
    dcoops, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  9. Antoledo

    Antoledo Active Member

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    #9
    Buy4 Virtual Credit Cards. Use 4 Adwords coupons ( you can find $25, $50 coupons for free ). Use VCC with Adwords. You got yourself at least 100 bucks worth of traffic. With a CPC of 0.25 you can get 400 clicks ( hope this numbers are more realistic ).
     
    Antoledo, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  10. fiftyfifty

    fiftyfifty Peon

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    #10
    I bet you could buy 4 existing sites with small traffic for 20 bucks, and drive some traffic that way, plus you'll be long 4 websites, that with some time and effort may be worth more than 20 dollars each!
    Interesting idea, and I wish you the best of luck :)
     
    fiftyfifty, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  11. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #11
    If you site is well designed and has valuable info and can keep its visitors and might even bring more by word of mouth then by all means do an adwords campaign or a banner ad advertising on facebook
    which will have immediate effects in terms of traffic

    but if you are looking for long term search engine traffic then you might as well go with some directory, article submissions or other means of getting anchored links to your site (TNX, articleMarketer, and Squidoo links have helped me personally)
     
    Chios, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  12. markab10

    markab10 Peon

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    #12
    For $20 I would pay somebody to write 4 articles at $5 an article. Submit it to Ezine Articles optimizing for your keywords in your title. You will get immediate traffic from Ezine Articles, later from search engines and even more traffic when other publishers publish your article on their site. You will also get quality one way links to your web site improving your rankings.
     
    markab10, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  13. dcoops

    dcoops Guest

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    #13
    I'm surprised you didn't point em to the link in your sig! I can't read it at work though, so I'll look tonight. I've done a bit of article submission to Article Directory powered sites. It didn't help at all :(
     
    dcoops, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  14. Andy Peters

    Andy Peters Peon

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    #14
    Article and directory....weren't people talking about this like 3 years ago?

    I'm sure there has to be a much more creative way of doing this. I know the best way to get something good going is to go 'viral' but going viral is by no means easy. I would say you need to think about targetting a very specific niche, and making sure they stick.
    I have a book website. With £20 ($40?) i purchased a laminator and 100 laminator sheets, i then designed a bookmark, put 5 to an a4 sheet, laminated and cut them all and then i had 500 bookmarks. Then i went down the library and local bookshops etc and put them inside the popular books.

    It's a potential 500 members and it worked a treat too.
     
    Andy Peters, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  15. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #15
    Yes they were !! They still talk about them, I don't expect them to stop talking about them any time soon. This whole forum is full of discussions about them ...

    Links are the bread and butter of the internet and they still work !!
     
    Chios, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  16. Andy Peters

    Andy Peters Peon

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    #16
    Yeah, if you're marketing to webmasters that's great, who reads directories compared to who submits to them? Who reads the articles for that matter? It's filling the net with crap and there has to be a more effective way of doing it.
     
    Andy Peters, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  17. rahizzle22

    rahizzle22 Banned

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    #17
    Make sure your site is fully monetized first. If you do it right. The ads will pay for your advertising and much much more.
     
    rahizzle22, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  18. dcoops

    dcoops Guest

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    #18
    @Andy, I think the idea is that they are reposted by webmasters and then read by users?!

    @fiftyfifty - i like that idea! I can't believe you can buy sites for that cheap!!! :p

    @rahizzle - so true, I wish I did that earlier, especially when I got some good spikes and was holding off ads. If anyone reads this: monetize asap! hehe.

    Here's the list of suggestions so far:

    1. Adwords
    2. Directory Submission Service
    3. Myspace bulletin or Newsletter etc
    4. PPC on Facebook (anyone know how far this can really go?)
    5. PPC at 0.01c. - If there is such a thing!
    6. Make a sign on you car
    7. Use Adbrite - APPARENTLY 20,000 hits?!
    8. A $20 YouTube Comp if you don't need targeted traffic
    7. Scam Google Adwords with some VCCs (although the time factor might make it not worth it?)
    8. Get someone to write you 4 articles and submit them to an AD.
    9. Write your own article and get someone to submit it to more article directories!

    Any more? Or is the $20 a little too low?
     
    dcoops, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  19. JohnG

    JohnG Peon

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    #19
    In my personal opinion I would not spend it on directory submissions.

    They are not nearly as effective as they were in the past. It would probably
    take up half your budget anyway.
     
    JohnG, Jan 7, 2008 IP