Where should I spend my money?

So I have a budget of $500.00 USD a month to spend on my website, a funny pictures website. I have a lot of options here but I really don't know where should I go.

1. I can spend money on Facebook to drive traffic to my site, which is what I am doing now. But the problem is that the ROI is very low because the conversion rate is low, very low.
2. I can spend money on acquiring Facebook likes which then I can promote my content on and acquire more organic likes.
3. I can spend money on creating great content, because now the content I am publishing is a bit of low quality. It's funny, but you can find the pictures anywhere on the web.

It doesn't have to be one of these options, I am open to new suggestions.

 

I would say content first, no point spending money driving traffic to the site if the content isn't good enough to engage the visitors.

 

I agree with malky66! Content is king and you'll sure you will waste your money on Facebook if you don't have good content.

 

The content is the most important thing nowadays, especially when it is a good quality.

 

Like everyone mentioned content is king, other option is you can hire someone with that money who can either create content or market it for oyu on regular base. In this way you can focus on your job and your hired employee will provide you extra hands.

 

Gotta confer with the above, content is king at this point. I'd recommend working on some solid quality content and at that point, when you have a good flow of quality content, then start spending money on marketing the site.

 

For you it is better to place banner on another funny picture or funny story website. I believe it is the best way for you to target your audience.

 

Focus first on content. You can promote your site for free on social media. Building content will give people more reason to keep coming back.

 

Wow! Everybody said content. Thank you guys very much for this. It really helped. Now I have to figure out how to build great content.

 

If you needed to find a balance, it could be focus on good content for 3 months, (after 3 months you should have a good pool of content) then spending 50% on content, and 50% on promoting the site.

There are alot of funny images type of websites. It is not a project that I would want.
Sites such as dilbert, explosm, business cat, all create their own content. They all have established their own niche, have their own following. And each one, has alternative ways of earning money, not just from ads. Check them out.

Even if the revenue is low, and i mean, really really low when they were first starting, they were/are able to spend some time daily, and simply create good quality content on their own.
If, when they were first starting, if they had to pay for content, then I doubt they would have survived a few months at all.

Other funny images sites, (funnyjunk comes to mind), the content seems to be random images, and they seem to get it solely from stealing content from other websites, rarely, if ever, linking to source. Members contribute content, as well as the admin(s).
If you make your own content, and people steal it, your gonna be pissed. But if you spend $500 a month, and content gets ripped, your gonna freaking lose it.

Even if you pay people to make "memes" for you, if they use images from google, it could still be considered 'theft' as your artists might not have legally obtained permission to use those images.
Here is a suggestion. IF you are making a site, solely for memes, under each funny image, I would allow for users to create their own meme (from the same image), let them:
1. submit it for review, and if it is deemed ok, then potentially publish it on your site crediting the user. OR
2. Have no review, but let it show the image as a comment underneath your content. Dilbert has this, where you can re-write the last panel, and you can scroll through a comment style section, finding the same joke, all with hilarious and different punchines, and some of them are brilliant. Of course, that increases the chances that people will share "their joke or another users joke" and actually promote your site for you. I would make it very easy for users to share their funny to facebook, or other. More shares = more traffic.

If I was to make my own content, or pay for it, (which I did in the past), I would stick to a specific niche. I would not do random funny images, but more like, keep to a specific theme.
I previously hired a really talented artist, was about $20+ per comic, depending on complexity, number of panels, etc. I often went for greyscale, or quick pencil shading, came out nicely. For me, I tried to get one comic weekly, and as it related to specific niche, I was welcomed on several forums where I was able to promote it.

In all honesty, I do not think that funny image sites are worth the risk. I cant promise that you will get a ROI. Spending $6000 a year on the site (on content, and promotions), does not make your site worth $6k. You *might* be better off to throw $1000 in the bin, and walk away....

 

I will say change the niche, you will burn your time on it. Talking from experience. Like my comment after a year or two.

 

I think you should have a contest where people get the chance to upload their funny pictures. Then you reward the funniest contribution with a prize sum of money. This will give you traffic to your website. I'm also sure that this will be shared and discussed on social media.

 

I would say that you do a risky job ,first paid traffic its har for beginers etc and you dont get much rturnment you must have a lot of patience with your blog .I think you should start to learn email marketing . Just search for Anik Singal ,this man its an expert it makes milions with emails etc .Invest a portion to learn how process work ,build a funnel etc and when you have a nice list you simply print money ,you dont stay at the mercy of google where you must work all the time etc