What would you do with a $2500 Marketing Budget?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by KyleVarner, Nov 25, 2006.

  1. #1
    I have $2500 that I want to spend promoting my blog. I am trying to make it into something big and popular (at least within my niche). I have a few ideas on what I can do, but I think other people probably have some pretty good ideas too, and I think that starting this thread might also help other people to think about how they can promote their sites:

    1) Have a freelancer do some website reviews in my niche. They can write a review, I'll post it and email the site owner to tell them that I wrote about them and ask them to return the favor. I could have 100+ of these done.

    2) Have the freelancer write keyword targeted articles to put on the blog for searches.

    3) Have the freelancer write keyword targeted articles that link to my main affiliate program.

    4) Just have a freelancer do a link-building campaing.

    5) Have a freelancer do book reviews and go with amazon.com affiliates (but this is mostly still fo SEO and adsense)

    6) Buy some advertising? I doubt I would earn back the money.

    ...what else could I have various freelancers do to attract more visitors and add value to the site? Obviously, I'm going to continue with my work on the site, I just want to step things up with some serious freelance work...
     
    KyleVarner, Nov 25, 2006 IP
  2. PoohBear88

    PoohBear88 Active Member

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    #2
    Have a freelancer, have a freelancer, have a freelancer. It's your blog, why aren't you writing your content? The articles you'd get from a freelancer would be poor quality since they don't know much about the niche itself. They know just enough to pump out coherent sentences (sometimes not even).

    I would suggest you hiring a designer to retheme your blog to make it look real nice and unique.

    If you want to increase your success rate by at least 90%, write your own content. Especially when spending $2500, don't think that by spending that all on "content" will bring in the $.
     
    PoohBear88, Nov 25, 2006 IP
  3. qwestcommunications

    qwestcommunications Notable Member

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    #3
    Firstly,I would get some links to it from othe similar themed blogs.
     
    qwestcommunications, Nov 25, 2006 IP
  4. Cheap SEO Services

    Cheap SEO Services <------DoFollow Backlinks

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    #4
    Cheap SEO Services, Nov 26, 2006 IP
    jdR!pper likes this.
  5. SEOBangkok

    SEOBangkok Guest

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    #5
    Dpending on how competitve your keyword is, I'd spend the money on Sponsorship deals and links with other sites with simular content, or sites in the same niche. This will generate targeted traffic and build up search engine rankings!
     
    SEOBangkok, Nov 26, 2006 IP
  6. JEET

    JEET Notable Member

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    #6
    How about splitting your budget and doing a little of each you mentioned? :)
    That should also give you an idea about what works for you and what not to spend money on...
    Bye :)
     
    JEET, Nov 26, 2006 IP
  7. KyleVarner

    KyleVarner Peon

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    #7
    I spend a great deal of time on creating my own content, and it is working well. I want to augment my efforts by hiring freelancers. My thought with having them write articles is that it will help with the long tail search engine results. The various link building things will help with link building...

    I like the suggestion about the blog posts. I'd like to do things like that. I guess maybe my question, better phrased, is: how can I best spend money augmenting my current efforts?
     
    KyleVarner, Nov 26, 2006 IP
  8. money_train

    money_train Peon

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    #8
    with this kind of budget i would split it into 3-4 parts and spend it

    1. Buying links on high traffic sites.
    2. getting content for my site. high quality.
    3. PPC is a good way to get quality traffic and do intial testing.
    4. SEO - if i could do better myself i would do it or hiring a good SEO will surely be worth the price.
    5. Setting up an affiate marketing or CPA campaigns with advertising networks would work well.
    6. paying to get site up in digg or stumble upon is another option.
    7. Speding a some money on advertisment social networking site.

    Traffic is the key and you have to find a way to get traffic and then keep it on your site.

    having said this i think i should start thinking of this kind of marketing budget myself.
    just my 2 cents.
     
    money_train, Nov 26, 2006 IP
  9. Bali

    Bali Guest

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    #9
    Yes traffic is key, the rest are nice theories that only actually work
    if you're a very organized person and able to stick to plans and implement
    them on a daily basis.

    The crunch point regarding traffic: It's one thing to invest in traffic continually,
    another thing to have it materialize itself through natural search.

    And there is a third way: To get it fast by tapping into existing traffic through
    smart advertising and then stimulate the incoming flood to be self-perpetuating.
    What means visitors are the main motor that create new visitors on a daily basis.
    That's the golden way, and only a few find it or even understand its brilliance.
     
    Bali, Nov 27, 2006 IP
  10. KyleVarner

    KyleVarner Peon

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    #10
    Wow Bali, I really like that idea. I've thought about it some more, and I realize that I can have a really nice page on my site that can condense all of the most popular and attractive interactive things that I've created in a great way that is easy to access. I could try some different sorts of advertising that way then and see if the traffic grows by itself!
     
    KyleVarner, Nov 27, 2006 IP
  11. Bali

    Bali Guest

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    #11
    yes Kyle, that's the idea. What you are looking for is the formula that
    will work on and for Your site. And it should have at least an x-factor of 1.1
    what means, incoming traffic increases 'by itself' by at least 10% exponentially.

    Then you're on your way to 'hands-free' promotion. Everything else is not
    only expensive and that on a permanent basis, it's also just not smart.
    Now the question you need to get answered is this: What could it be
    that will generate this effect. And what is in it for them?
    Think "outside your head" for the answer.
     
    Bali, Nov 27, 2006 IP