$500 Marketing Budget. Where would you spend it?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by davexd, Aug 31, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi all, I recently asked "If you could use any marketing method, what would you choose?" but realized that some people might be limited by budget. I decided to leave the discussion going in that thread, but would like to open it up to PAID marketing only.

    So, If you had $500 to spend on marketing, where would you put it? Feel free to include your site type with it :)
     
    davexd, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  2. Tobidotman

    Tobidotman Peon

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    #2
    I would spend $300 of it on PPC, $100 of it buying banners, $100 of it buying links.
     
    Tobidotman, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  3. alohanema

    alohanema Banned

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    #3
    I would spend all on Adwords
     
    alohanema, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  4. chance2b007

    chance2b007 Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Spend your money paying people to do the following SEO (unless you do it yourself - then it is free, just time consuming)
    1. Article writing:
    2 unique articles for your website so that google will find fresh article on your site

    2. Manual Article Submission:

    write and submit articles for your site on over 1000 article directories with your site link as reference. It’s very much effective for your site SEO


    3. Manual Submission to free general directories:

    Slow submission to avoid google sanbox effect


    4. Do follow blog commenting service:

    500 comments on 250 do follow blogs (blog that don’t have no-follow attribute) with keywords instead of name. so your site will be in higher position for particular keywords.


    5. Social bookmarking:

    bookmark your site on over 150 high quality social bookmarking site like digg.com, del.icio.us, stumbleupon.com.... etc...

    6. Link building by wordpress theme sponsorship:

    design and develop a custom wordpress theme related to your niche and releases it for free sites and forums with a encrypted footer link of your site.

    So if 1000 people use that theme your site will get 1000 quality relevant back links.


    7. .edu and .gov backlink building:

    .edu and .gov site that accept external link. google likes .edu and .gov backlinks very much.


    8. High PR back links:

    high PR (PR7-PR8) links that accept external links.


    9. Link building by forum signature:

    place your site link on signature of many Search Engine friendly forums. You can find high posting users to use your link for a small monthly fee


    These are just suggestion, in which I have had a lot of luck doing!
     
    chance2b007, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  5. mmerlinn

    mmerlinn Prominent Member

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    #5
    I probably could not spend $500 on marketing as I simply do not know anything that would cost-effectively improve on what I am already doing as noted in my reply in your other thread ("If you could use any marketing method, what would you choose?")

    I have enough pre-paid internet space for 6 million webpages for the next 2 years, like I will ever come close to filling it up. I have plenty of computing power to last me the rest of my life. I do my own website improvements, updates, etc with website generation software I have written myself. Google thoroughly indexes my pages. The cost of buying adwords, links, banners, PPC, etc would not generate enough sales to recover their cost. What else could I possibly spend $500 on that even comes close to "marketing?"
     
    mmerlinn, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  6. justinlorder

    justinlorder Peon

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    #6
    if the keywords are competitive, what is your daily budget for the keywords.
    I guess usd 500 will be consume with in two months?
    What can you do to promote your site after two months?
     
    justinlorder, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  7. n3o

    n3o Well-Known Member

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    #7
    adwords i think would be the worst investment .. i think u never know when google is ripping you off .. and they hardly pay the publishers(beside the selected few big player)

    i would hire some experience cheap free lancer from india to do link building .
     
    n3o, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  8. himanuzo

    himanuzo Well-Known Member

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    #8
    $500 for article writing in 100 articles. Then submit all articles to top article directories.
     
    himanuzo, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  9. ajalexjon

    ajalexjon Peon

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    #9
    yes ppc is good
     
    ajalexjon, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  10. Claymation

    Claymation Peon

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    #10
    I think chance2b007 deserves a small award for that very well thought out post of his.
    What that posting illustrates is efforts spread across a broad spectrum.
    The only caveat I have is whether a few of them are too tight to get a foothold on any longer.

    An excellent question though, one we have all asked ourselves many times.
     
    Claymation, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  11. mentos

    mentos Prominent Member

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    #11
    I would buy some quality backlink and blog post at popular blog
     
    mentos, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  12. copper12

    copper12 Peon

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    #12
    If I am selling something, and wanting quality traffic, strictly ads.
     
    copper12, Aug 31, 2008 IP
  13. Scripter

    Scripter Peon

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    #13
    Adwords was a nice suggestion, since you can monitor the performance of an ad pretty well this way, but let's face it, 500$ is barely enough to test and tweak a campaign for best pperformance at cheapest price.

    So, I'd rather invest it all in links, since that's a lasting long term effect.
     
    Scripter, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  14. hireme

    hireme Member

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    #14
    paid links are good but paid reviews could be better especially in related blogs. :)
     
    hireme, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  15. tankard

    tankard Well-Known Member

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    #15
    It depends on various factors. First, what kind of product are you promoting? Then, what volume do you anticipate. If it is a high-volume product, $500 with PPC will either have minor effect or be spent within a couple of days.

    If it would be something that appeals to masses, I would go with article marketing and viral marketing. For example, you do a viral story, create a viral video + flash banners, distribute unique articles wherever you can (in this case it will take some $$$) and then pay bloggers to display your viral video or wacky flash.

    I like this approach very much. It is the story that sells the product and the way you spread your story...

    I remember, I had this client, who wanted to sell products aimed at young non-conformist people. We created an urban myth and the myth sold the product. You can do it without the budget it only takes helluva lot of work and too much time. That's why I'm suggesting that you have to actually spend on viral marketing in order to see the results.
     
    tankard, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  16. Dreads

    Dreads Well-Known Member

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    #16
    Go and buy 10 premium vbulletin skins for $50 each and then encrypt a link on each skin

    Then go and release them across all the vbulletin sites

    That off the bat can generate 10000s backlinks
     
    Dreads, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  17. aldolinares

    aldolinares Peon

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    #17
    Thanks for the tips.. :)
     
    aldolinares, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  18. mad_hatter_29

    mad_hatter_29 Peon

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    #18
    Dave,
    it depends what you're doing with the traffic, will you be selling a product or doing CPA offers (including affiliate sales)?

    If you're doing affiliate sales or CPA spend a chunk of the money on an auto responder and create yourself a good landing page.

    Spend the rest of the money on banners and blog links to your landing page.

    The auto responder isn't going to be cheap but it will allow you to go back to your visitors repeatedly (and therefore hopefully make repeated sales).

    You can also look for a yahoo PPC coupon, it might only be $20 or something cheap like that but it will get you indexed quickly and get 'some' traffic to you quickly.

    Hope this helps,
    Paul.
     
    mad_hatter_29, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  19. EcoTaz

    EcoTaz Peon

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    #19
    chance2b007, one of the best tips collection i have found! thanks

    i personally believe that adwords is simply not worth it. maybe, if you promote one exact product but for constant traffic building to one website it would be a LOT better write and distribute articles, hubpages, squidoo lenses, etc and (buy) build backlinks. then you have to focus on good content quality and watch the figures grow.
     
    EcoTaz, Sep 1, 2008 IP
  20. zeroalive

    zeroalive Guest

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    #20
    Depending on your theme, there are sites for your category.
     
    zeroalive, Sep 1, 2008 IP