Okay, now I am doing all the basics such as directory and article submission, link building, ect. I realize it is possible to have a sucessful site without spending any money, however if you DO decide to spend money to help your site out, where is the best place to put it? Links? Paid directories? Advertising? The site I am looking to build upon is a health blog/article site. Initially, the primary money will be made through YPN. Thanks!
Legit advertising such as AdWords, or similar programs is the best way to go. Using the wrong kind of paid links, paid directories, etc. can hurt your site rankings and visitors, not to mention your wallet.
So if you drop (x) amount of dollars into advertising with adwords, you will get (x)+ back through ads on your own site?
Any form of marketing which does not need much knowledge about your business and could be convenient to keep a track of, would be the best to spend money on.. I have done directory submission myself, and found that it needs less specialization and more time.. Same goes with ads submission, and includes Link Building also.. You could spend money on these techniques, while focus on maintaining the strengths of the website. Do email marketing yourself, since this needs craftiness. write articles, write content for your website, write newsletters, there is so much more which needs some knowledge about the business, and here is what interest your visitors..
People neglect the importance of offline marketing, you may invest in that field for your site's promotion.
I'd put the money for some learning courses & information products. I would also consider getting other people to write content for you, while planning the marketing stuff behind the scenes.
As of now, most of the companies invest or used the online marketing in promote their site. Online marketing need a low budget and quite effective but just like offline marketing it needs a lot of hardwork and patience before you got the desired result for a site.
adwords if you have the funds is a good option depending on your niche, but since this is a blog I don't think it would be a logical fit. I think if you could purchase advertising on popular websites within your niche then that would be your best option. Advertising is often a trial and error type of thing, i've purchased advertising that never brought me in over 10 visitors for the month, but currently have advertising for phpgator.com on a relatively popular website and it brings probably 80% of its traffic.
Ya, I'm just not seeing the logic here though... is the purpose of paid advertising to get people to click on the ads on your blog? Or to get traffic and habitual visitors, which will in turn get them to click on ads?