Set yourself an affordable monthly budget and
don't be tempted to exceed this budget.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
You must discipline yourself with a budget, especially when you are setting up a business and have no sales... no profits... and no experience! Most people fail on the Internet because...
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- They do not set a budget...
- They spend far too much money...
- They don't learn the proper IM success techniques...
- They run out of money before they have even made a single sale....
On the other hand, many people also fail because they try to do EVERYTHING free of
charge.
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The important thing with Internet marketing is to understand that,
- You must set a budget and stay disciplined.
- While you can do many things free, there are some things that you simply MUST HAVE
and that you have to pay for.
- There are some things that, while not strictly necessary, are very ADVANTAGEOUS if
you buy or subscribe to them.
- Your budget should therefore cover ALL of the MUST HAVE items, your chosen affiliate
programs and as many of the ADVANTAGEOUS items as will fit comfortably within the
limit you set yourself.
HOW MUCH CAN YOU AFFORD TO SPEND ON YOUR BUSINESS EVERY MONTH before you start
to see a return?
$100...? $150...? $200...? $250...?
I have set up this course with a monthly budget of $150 in mind, but you may want to
set your personal limit higher or lower.
How ever high or low you set your budget, STICK TO IT!
You should only consider expanding your budget when you are making a profitable
return on it month after month and can be sure that your new budget will reap larger
rewards.
Things You "MUST HAVE" To Succeed On The Internet
Here are the things you need:
1. HOSTING ACCOUNT - I use Host4Profit as it is a professional level hosting platform
and comes with a great affiliate program.
Budget for a professional account: $24.95 per month.
Click here for more info.
2. AUTORESPONDER - I recommend Getresponse, which I use myself. GetResponse is a great service and you
need a professional autoresponder to do business online if you are to build a relationship with your clients.
Budget: $17.95 per month.
Click here for more info.
MONTHLY EXPENDITURE = $45
=== END OF "MUST HAVE" LIST!! ===
That's it folks!
There are just TWO things you absolutely must have for online success, a
reliable hosting platform and a professional autoresponder.
Okay, so you'll also need to
get a domain name, but that is a nominal expense over the course of a year.
The good news is that once you get good at selling online, you will be able to get your
money back on your Host4Profit hosting site and GetResponse autoresponder, and even
make money on them if you also promote them from your website, blog or newsletter
articles if you sign up to their free affiliate programs.
For now, though, you are committed to spending $45 out of a total monthly budget of
$150, so you still have $105 to "play" with. (Of course, you don't have to spend all of
your budget every month!!)
Your job now is to choose which products you want to sell or which affiliate or residual
income programs you want to promote, and also which services you want to use to help
you market your business.
You won't be able to do everything within your budget constraints, so you will have to
choose your priorities.
Choosing Your Affiliate Programs - My Recommendations
Here are my Top recommendations for affiliate programs. These are all well established
programs with excellent products and commission/residual income structures.
Some are free to join at the basic level.
1. SFI: FREE! ($29.95 per month upgrade to Executive Affiliate status.)
Click here for more.
2. Empowerism: $24.95, then $19.95 per month.
Click here for more.
3. Success University: $2 to join for a 14 day trial, and $49.95 per month.
Click here for more.
4. TrafficSwarm: FREE! ($30 per month for Pro upgrade.)
Click here for more.
5. Clickbank: FREE! Clickbank is not so much an affiliate program as a provider of
ebooks, software and other products which can be promoted using a Clickbank affiliate
code. Most sales are one-off, but some products come with attractive built in residual
income potential too.
Click here for more.
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There are many other affiliate programs out there, some good, some not so good, and
some that are nothing else but scams. The ones listed above are safe and established. I
will use them as examples when looking at some model budgets in a moment.
| How To Spot A Scam
By the way, if you are worried about being scammed you might like to check out an article I wrote recently,
How To Spot An Internet Marketing Scam - Quick And Easy!!
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Give Yourself Some Online Oooomph!Punch Above Your Weight With These Powerful Resources
1. Article Submission - You need a good article submission service. I recommend
SubmitYourArticle or Article Marketer. I have used both and prefer SYA. Affiliate program
included.
Budget: $37 per month.
Click here for more.
2. Article Writing Services/Private Label Rights Packages - For the busy Internet marketer,
or for those who lack confidence with writing articles, outsourcing could be the way to
go. One service that I use is InfoGoRound, which also offers an affiliate program and a
subscription refund each month that you write an article that is accepted.
Budget: $24.95 per month (refundable)
Click here for more.
3. Pay per click search engines. I don't use these currently but they are an effective way to
get targeted traffic to your site. You MUST know what you're doing though or you could
lose a fortune. Perry marshall's Adwords course is the definitive guide to Adwords if you
want to go down that route.
Budget: $10-$80+ per month...
Example Budgets
Office expenses, capital purchases and so forth have not been included in these calculations.
One of the advantages of starting a work at home business on the Internet is that you probably already
have most of the equipment and facilities you need to get started.
Here are some examples of the packages that a budget of $150 per month will deliver in terms of Internet services:
MODEL BUDGET #1
- Host4Profit = $24.95 per month
- Getresponse = $17.95 per month.
- SFI = $29.95 per month as an Executive Affiliate.
- Empowerism = $19.95 per month.
- ClickBank = FREE.
- SubmitYourArticle = $37 per month.
TOTAL = $129.80, with $19.20 per month in the kitty for one-off expenses or a small
PPC campaign, etc.
This package gives you some good affiliate programs and allows you to maximize my
marketing potential through the excellent article submissions service offered by SYO,
plus some cash left over.
MODEL BUDGET #2
- Host4Profit = $24.95 per month
- Getresponse = $17.95 per month.
- SFI = $29.95 per month as an Executive Affiliate.
- Empowerism = $19.95 per month.
- Success University = $49.95 per month.
- ClickBank = FREE.
- TrafficSwarm = FREE.
TOTAL = $142.75
This option is heavily weighted towards the affiliate programs that are in featured in the
Plug-In Profit Site. There is little left over in the budget for marketing, so this package
would suit either somebody with a larger budget OR someone who wants to market using
free resources.
Article writing, blogging, submitting to article directories and link-building will all
have to be done manually on this budget. This IS perfectly feasible. In fact, some of the most successful
Plug-In Profits Site owners follow the path of free manual submission of articles they have written.
MODEL BUDGET #3
This budget offers a nice balance between affiliate programs and the means to promote
them via TrafficSwarm and a PPC campaign. Provided the marketer is careful to choose
keywords carefully for the PPC campaign, and write compelling ads for the TrafficSwarm
campaigns, results should be forthcoming.
Aside from that, the marketer should concentrate on writing original articles to post
manually on article directories as well as the marketer's own website and blog, and using
other free methods of building links etc.
Use A Budget To Discipline Yourself!
By working within a budget, the Internet marketer will be forced into a discipline of work
that will reap rewards over time.
Having fixed your budget, the next thing you need to decide is your NICHE MARKET.
That is the subject of the next lesson.
Until then,
Best wishes
David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com
P. S. The Plug-In Profits Site gives you a complete Internet business in a complete ready-
to-start package, including 400 pre-loaded autoresponder messages, membership of the
Warrior Forum (the Internet's premier Onlne Business forum). Some PIPSters are making a
four-or-five figure income per month within a budget of as little as $100.
Click here for more.
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