Beginner's/Newbie Dilemma

[Terence]

I've read countless blogs, followed a few "super" affiliates and essentially soaked up as much knowledge as I possibly could over the past year. (You can never stop learning, right?)

The truth is no matter how much you read, you will never succeed if you're not taking action. It's common sense and we all know that.

Here's the dilemma: Every blogger or affiliate has their own recommendations for you. What network to use, what tools, what platforms, etc. The truth is some of those recommendations are way out of some of our "beginner" budgets.

Now before someone goes on to hamper me about you need to spend money to make money, YES I UNDERSTAND THAT! I'm still well in my learning stages and although I'm willing to "lose" some money, I intend on gaining valuable insight at this stage. I understand it is just part of learning the trade. Heck, traditional educations costs are even more ridiculous.

That said, my question is: What would you recommend for a $200/month budget?

My focus is on getting a reliable tracking software, a good VPS, hopefully a spying tool and spending the rest on traffic.

ALL answers and suggestions are welcome. If there's anyone who has been in this particular situation before, your input will be very greatly appreciated.

Terence.

 

[Bloody Tourist]

I've read countless blogs, followed a few "super" affiliates and essentially soaked up as much knowledge as I possibly could over the past year. (You can never stop learning, right?)

The truth is no matter how much you read, you will never succeed if you're not taking action. It's common sense and we all know that.

Here's the dilemma: Every blogger or affiliate has their own recommendations for you. What network to use, what tools, what platforms, etc. The truth is some of those recommendations are way out of some of our "beginner" budgets.

Now before someone goes on to hamper me about you need to spend money to make money, YES I UNDERSTAND THAT! I'm still well in my learning stages and although I'm willing to "lose" some money, I intend on gaining valuable insight at this stage. I understand it is just part of learning the trade. Heck, traditional educations costs are even more ridiculous.

That said, my question is: What would you recommend for a $200/month budget?

My focus is on getting a reliable tracking software, a good VPS, hopefully a spying tool and spending the rest on traffic.

ALL answers and suggestions are welcome. If there's anyone who has been in this particular situation before, your input will be very greatly appreciated.

Terence.

200/month is extremely tight and I would go so far as to say it's not enough to start with paid traffic.

Don't think in terms of monthly budgets. What are you going to do when you find a winner and need to scale? Wait till next month?

As for total budget to start buying traffic I say:

• 0 to 2K paid traffic is not for you (yet)
• 2 to 5K check out mobile pop and display traffic
• 5 to 10K check out native (if you have some experience

 

[squeak]

Hey Terrance,

Good that you are taking action, however I agree with Martini. $200/month is probably not going to be enough for paid traffic, especially if that includes all your other costs (tracker, VPS, spy tool etc). You won't be able to get anywhere near enough data to optimise and then scale.

Having said that, the quickest way you'll learn is by running traffic. Obviously you don't want to lose more than you can afford, but reading blogs and websites can only get you so far.

 

[Terence]

200/month is extremely tight and I would go so far as to say it's not enough to start with paid traffic.

Don't think in terms of monthly budgets. What are you going to do when you find a winner and need to scale? Wait till next month?

As for total budget to start buying traffic I say:

• 0 to 2K paid traffic is not for you (yet)
• 2 to 5K check out mobile pop and display traffic
• 5 to 10K check out native (if you have some experience

@Martini thanks for the insight.
Does make sense. I know I need to increase my overall budget to get better data and run more tests.
So do you think it's a better idea to sit on sidelines till I can grow that budget or do you have any other recommendations.

 

[Terence]

Hey Terrance,

Good that you are taking action, however I agree with Martini. $200/month is probably not going to be enough for paid traffic, especially if that includes all your other costs (tracker, VPS, spy tool etc). You won't be able to get anywhere near enough data to optimise and then scale.

Having said that, the quickest way you'll learn is by running traffic. Obviously you don't want to lose more than you can afford, but reading blogs and websites can only get you so far.

Thanks @squeak
What do you think is a good starting recurring investment. (Obviously with all other things considered)

 

[Bloody Tourist]

@Martini thanks for the insight.
Does make sense. I know I need to increase my overall budget to get better data and run more tests.
So do you think it's a better idea to sit on sidelines till I can grow that budget or do you have any other recommendations.

E-whoring! Nah just kidding

There's lots of ways to get paid with free/organic traffic. It's usually slow and hard to scale. But if you're willing to go little blackhat...

I would not start buying traffic until you get around 2K total budget. After that launch campaigns like a mad man in your first month. Otherwise your monthly overhead will eat your budget.

Edit: Dont forget you can already prepare by manually spying and reverse engineering campaigns you would like to run once you get your budget.

 

[Terence]

E-whoring! Nah just kidding

There's lots of ways to get paid with free/organic traffic. It's usually slow and hard to scale. But if you're willing to go little blackhat...

I would not start buying traffic until you get around 2K total budget. After that launch campaigns like a mad man in your first month. Otherwise your monthly overhead will eat your budget.

Edit: Dont forget you can already prepare by manually spying and reverse engineering campaigns you would like to run once you get your budget.

hahahaha @ e-whoring. I'll pass lol.

Yes, I've been looking at other ads and downloading some of the interesting ones to see how the funnel works.

 

[Bloody Tourist]

hahahaha @ e-whoring. I'll pass lol.

Yes, I've been looking at other ads and downloading some of the interesting ones to see how the funnel works.

Good start! Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Find out what's already working, reverse engineer and build your campaigns from there. Good luck!

 

[Terence]

Concentrate on SEO and Social Media and try to build up a traffic base to market to -- this will cost time and perhaps $50.00 a month maybe. Save the other $150 for 12 months then you will have a $1800.00 *war chest* and some experience with traffic and interacting with the traffic. You need strategy more than you need tactics *today*

Thanks @Graybeard

Great suggestion. It's definitely looking like SEO & organic may be the way to go for now.

 

[AstroBoss]

I've read countless blogs, followed a few "super" affiliates and essentially soaked up as much knowledge as I possibly could over the past year. (You can never stop learning, right?)

The truth is no matter how much you read, you will never succeed if you're not taking action. It's common sense and we all know that.

Here's the dilemma: Every blogger or affiliate has their own recommendations for you. What network to use, what tools, what platforms, etc. The truth is some of those recommendations are way out of some of our "beginner" budgets.

Now before someone goes on to hamper me about you need to spend money to make money, YES I UNDERSTAND THAT! I'm still well in my learning stages and although I'm willing to "lose" some money, I intend on gaining valuable insight at this stage. I understand it is just part of learning the trade. Heck, traditional educations costs are even more ridiculous.

That said, my question is: What would you recommend for a $200/month budget?

My focus is on getting a reliable tracking software, a good VPS, hopefully a spying tool and spending the rest on traffic.

ALL answers and suggestions are welcome. If there's anyone who has been in this particular situation before, your input will be very greatly appreciated.

Terence.

Hi dude, i will tell you that this budget is really small, for you to handle easily, i think you should gather a little more money, and start something with ore security, cause you know if you want to run a successful campaign, you need to spend some money on tests, and this takes money, i mean you could have some tools that will be free, or even offer you trials, but still the budget is really not enough for this. save some more, and then get back to it.