In yesterday’s post, I divulged the #2 guideline I used to judge whether or not I was ready to start spending money to make money online. Today, in the last part of this three-part series, I’ll talk about my last guideline.
Before I do, however, I just want to back up a minute to say that these guidelines did not come as a result of any planning I did. I wish I was that organized. As I said in Pt II of this series, I never thought of my ebook publishing and writing as a way of making a full-time living.
Only when I started to get steady, consistent sales did I look up and realize, “Hey, you may be on to something here.” So, these guidelines have developed over time.
The #3 Guideline to Consider Before Spending Money to Make Money Online
If you’re a reader of any of my work — ie, my blog, my website, my articles from anywhere on the net – then you know that I only believe in using marketing tactics and strategies you can afford to repeat.
So the last guideline I put in place before I started to spend money to make money online is answering the question, “Once I start spending money, is it something I can continue to do moving forward?”
Luckily, this was a resounding yes. As my ebook sales are consistent, I allocate a certain portion of those sales each month to marketing. As I said in yesterday’s post, I’m in a niche where it’s relatively cheap to advertise (freelance writing).
The Golden Rule of Spending Money to Make Money Online
I placed a $25 ad on a freelance writing blog back in September that paid for itself several times over.
Just this week, I paid for an ad on an extremely popular freelance writing website that will start to run in November. It was only $25 for three months. The site gets over 100,000 unique visitors per month, with an average of 250,000 page views.
If you spend money to make money online, remember this one golden rule: the ad must make its cost back. If it doesn’t, don’t advertise with that outlet again. Even if you break even, it might be a good idea to continue to advertise with that outlet – within certain parameters.
Spending Money to Make Money with Ebooks: The Series Continues
Because of the questions that have come in during this series, I’m extending it because I realize there’s so much more to cover on this topic. So next week, I will address the following topics.
On Monday I’ll tell you the advertising outlets I’ve either used or am thinking about using to advertise my ebooks.
On Tuesday I’ll tell you how to find affordable paid outlets in your niche if you’re an ebook writer.
On Wednesday I’ll talk about how to go about placing an ad (ie, for how long should it run, how to parse the sales numbers, whether or not to use the outlet again, etc.).
Hope you’ve enjoyed the series so far, and will join me here next week as it continues.
I think you’re doing it the right way. Many writers simply spend the money they earn through blogging but they could spend a small % of it and advertise themselves and their services.
Sure you can do this yourself but it can be timeconsuming and that’s time you could be spending writing.