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Starting With Nothing

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by Jake Howard, Mar 24, 2008.

  1. #1
    G'day All

    If you were to have all your resources and funding taken away from you overnight, and you had to try and rebuild your empire from scratch, where would you start?

    If all you had left was a computer, an internet connection and the money that was left in your wallet, what would be your first step towards re-establishing yourself.

    Bearing in mind that you have next to nothing, you need to start at the bottom and work your way up. Would you start with any of the following, or try something different:

    - Set up a Blog of some sort?
    - Trying to sell something through Ebay, then continue trading your way up?
    - Try and scrape enough money together for a domain and hostage?
    - Start affiliate marketing through Clickbank?
    - Participate in online surveys?
    - Write articles?
    - Try and offer your skills on a forum?
    - Start a blog/site and sign up for Google Adwords?
    - Try and get in on 2nd Life or the next new thing?

    Cheers

    Jake
    www.atrec.com.au
     
    Jake Howard, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  2. webcosmo

    webcosmo Notable Member

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    #2
    Hmm if you have start from scratch, blog is not a bad idea. You would have a story of starting from scratch to tell. Blogs can earn good money if gets somewhat popular.

    Then again it will take some time to get the blog established. I am sure you have expenses. So you could start selling your skills. That would be the easiest way to earn some bucks to bear the livings.

    Hopefully nobody would have to get in this kind of situation.
     
    webcosmo, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  3. bhaque

    bhaque Peon

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    #3
    start by asking for help on dp
     
    bhaque, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  4. akdiver

    akdiver Well-Known Member

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    #4
    I would go with a blog. Very easy to set up and market. Just requires some decent writing skills and something to write about. As webcosmo said I would write about how my empire was taken away overnight that would be good reading.
     
    akdiver, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  5. Jake Howard

    Jake Howard Well-Known Member

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    #5
    I wouldnt say that I am in such a desperate situation, but I guess I am starting out from the bottom, so I am in need of some advice as to which way to go.

    You have mentioned Blogs, how would you be hoping to generate immediate cash from your blog? Would it be by selling an affiliate product through your blog, or selling advertising space to someone, or by signing up to adwords or something else?
     
    Jake Howard, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  6. hatifahanna

    hatifahanna Peon

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    #6
    last time I started with blogger.com ...build some blogs and then doing some paid post ...then started yo buy hosting and own domain ...selling blogpost ...now started to trade in ebay , buying and selling domain names ,ebook ect ....my paypal from zero to $$$ ...that's how i started in internet marketing
     
    hatifahanna, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  7. daniell

    daniell Active Member

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    #7
    Affiliate marketing, every time.
     
    daniell, Mar 24, 2008 IP
  8. turbulence

    turbulence Well-Known Member

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    #8
    a blog with an affiliate marketing of some sort would be a good start I guess
     
    turbulence, Mar 25, 2008 IP
  9. Mikesblank

    Mikesblank Active Member

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    #9
    Blogs with adsense I guess.
     
    Mikesblank, Mar 25, 2008 IP
  10. cucr3

    cucr3 Peon Affiliate Manager

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    #10
    Hmm, if I had to, or if I did... Try this:

    Find the newest and hottest affiliate product out there, and jump on the bandwagon. It has to be something that you believe in. That is going to be the hard part. Find something that looks promising and do some research on it. If it looks promising, run with it...

    Set up a blog where and do a review of the product. Make it an unbiased review even though you can use your affiliate link which you get during the research phase. When I say unbiased, I mean reveal what I thought was good AND bad about the product.

    Write up an article and submit it to Ezine Articles. In the resource box put the link to your blog. Make the article a review of the product but from another point of view. You son't want the blog and the article to be the same content.

    Sign up with some safelists that you aren'tt already a member of making sure that they were credit based. You want to make sure that these people had to open my emails to get credit for looking at it. Write an ad that was NOT a sales pitch. Guess what it was? You got it...another review. Why? People don't want to be sold to. They want information. Here, give them a review of the hottest thing on the Internet right now. Then send them not to a sales page but to a page to get...more info.

    Go to forums that allow affiliate links (they do exist) and post...you guessed it...reviews of the product and put my affiliate link in your signature. You'd be surprised how many forums there are that allow affiliate links in sigs and their Alexa Rank is pretty darn high.

    Hit the message boards. You know, like WAHM and stuff like that. There are a ton of these online. Post to a few because you don't want to spend too much time on this. Again, post a review of the product and NOT a sales pitch.

    Get a hold of Jon Olson's Hit Exchange News and look to see what the top traffic exchange is right now. Signe up for just the one. Create a quick splash page for a free report. The splash page I made from a template so it took me about 15 minutes. Inside the report, I had a review of how to use TEs PLUS a review of the product, tying the two together. This was tricky and took a little thought. Then include a link in the report to a page to get...more info. Notice that in NO point in this process are you sending them to a sales page. You want to gain their trust by not trying to sell to them.

    That's it. Wait for people to read reviews and come and check out your product and buy it... Voila!
     
    cucr3, Mar 25, 2008 IP
  11. LStroupe

    LStroupe Peon

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    #11
    I would write a BLOG. Everyone has a story to tell and it's amazing how interested people are in every detail of someone else's life. Even if you think your life is normal, boring, or average, you have stories to tell.

    I've written over 600 posts on my rabbit BLOG (I raise and show Holland lops with pretty good success). Sometimes it is the post where I think I'm just saying the obvious that gets the most positive feedback.

    Great topic.
     
    LStroupe, Mar 25, 2008 IP
  12. sspoldir

    sspoldir Guest

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    #12
    I would create an info product CD or DVD through Kunaki (www.kunaki.com) and then get some initial sales rolling through forums.
     
    sspoldir, Mar 25, 2008 IP
  13. Inersha

    Inersha Active Member

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    #13
    As long as I had enough money for hosting and a domain, I would look for a nice niche and build a blog or site on that niche. I would then just write as much content as I could, working on on-page SEO and guest posting on other blogs to get links and get my name out there. Depending on the niche, the majority of money would probably come from advertising or affiliate sales. Probably afffiliating because that's what I'm most familair with.

    Actually, I think before that I would do some writing for others and save up for a good, unique website design. Luckily I'm in a field where content writing is well paid, so it wouldn't take too long to get enough money together for a half decent design.
     
    Inersha, Mar 25, 2008 IP
  14. Chancey

    Chancey Well-Known Member

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    #14
    I'm just re-starting my blog now and hoping to sell on eBay on the near future.
     
    Chancey, Mar 26, 2008 IP
  15. Al Capone

    Al Capone Well-Known Member

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    #15
    That's the wonderful thing about the internet and our current knowledge (considering that your still left with that). We (web building/seo/marketing knowledgeable DP members) could be well off even if we did lose our sites/money because we have knowledge.

    I personally would just start 2-3 new sites on a shared host - it would cost 9.95x3 + 10/month so initial investment would be $40 - what I would be carrying in my wallet. After I created the sites I would market on free directories. I would do some basic free marketing and link build that would cost nothing.

    Considering that I wasn't in school (I am, but I think most DP members are full time, right?), I would have a few PR 4 websites raking in 500-800 a month within 6-8 months.

    We're all building assets in this business, our websites are assets that don't need a lot of capital to be funded - just a lot (*A LOT*) of time.
     
    Al Capone, Mar 27, 2008 IP
  16. wantmomoney

    wantmomoney Peon

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    #16
    I would start a blog based on promoting an affiliate marketing program or product. Then submit articles to ezinearticles with resource links pointing to the blog.
     
    wantmomoney, Mar 27, 2008 IP
  17. Raisin

    Raisin Active Member

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    #17
    If I woke up one morning and discovered all my money gone then there would definitely be a hostage situation involving whoever took my money. :D
     
    Raisin, Mar 27, 2008 IP
  18. SurfSam

    SurfSam Peon

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    #18
    Broker services through Craigslist. Example: Advertise SEO services under different cities. Once you receive project inquiries, you simply outsource the SEO work to sites like elance[dot]com or guru[dot]com, etc. Just make sure you can outsource cheaper than you are being paid from your client or else it wont be a profitable business. Think of it as starting up your own SEO Consulting business and you hire freelancers to complete work. Takes $0 to get started and you can start making money right away. IF you do this over and over you basically can make as much money as you put effort in to.
     
    SurfSam, Mar 27, 2008 IP
  19. pka77

    pka77 Peon

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    #19
    I believe I'd go with a free affiliate program
    and try sending out articles and learn from
    the forums.
     
    pka77, Mar 28, 2008 IP
  20. Sockmoney

    Sockmoney Peon

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    #20
    I'm not sure I could do it again... 8 years I've put into building my online business... 8 years of working 2 jobs and about 16 hours a day until I finally quit my day job... Lost many good times over those years... time I can't get back.

    I may just not do it again... Sure I am grateful where I am at today... but man it takes a lot of work and luck to be really successful at it... there are thousands of folks who work their tails off and make a few hundred bucks a month... there are even less that make a few thousand a month... and even less that make enough to live off and support their families... it is a tough market to just be starting out in... I might just go the route of independent contracting/web development... might be the best approach to making money right away in this market...
     
    Sockmoney, Mar 28, 2008 IP