Trying to generate income with blogging and absolutely no budget!

[TORSYN]

Hello, everyone!
Ive been reading this forum and a couple of others for some time now and have been working with CPA offers but decided to try something different this time.
I had this idea for some time, to try if its possible to generate any stable income with no budget whatsoever. Here, in this thread i will tell you my journey, its in no way a pro journey and i hardly even know what im doing so any help and interaction is highly welcome.

 

[TORSYN]

First Update
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Hello, guys!
Let me tell you about my idea first, i want to create a blog/site where im gonna review ad networks, cpa networks, trackers and other affiliate sources. I hope to generate income from referral links and AdSense. There are also a couple of others ways to monetize it but its a long shot now.
So, after trying a lot of free hostings like Wix, WordPress, etc., I decided to stick with the old good blogspot. Remember the idea is to do everything completely for free so i choose the free domain. I installed a custom theme to make it look a bit better and applied for AdSense.
I wrote two article, backlinked them together and now im waiting for Google Search Console to index me.

 

[Graybeard]

Best of luck --don't expect instant profits --be patient.
I think if your path is 'free' that is a misnomer --without cash cost only work effort is a better way of describing this... You would be better using social media.
Or ,maybe a combination: Social media -> blogspot -> CPA monetization perhaps.

 

[azgold]

I've had a thought to do something similar, oh for years now but have never done it, so glad to see someone has. My motivation was for the members with no budget who are just starting out.

Are you going to start capturing emails? There are some companies that allow XXXX subscribers for free, you don't have to pay until you surpass whatever their free threshold is.

 

[TORSYN]

Best of luck --don't expect instant profits --be patient.
I think if your path is 'free' that is a misnomer --without cash cost only work effort is a better way of describing this... You would be better using social media.
Or ,maybe a combination: Social media -> blogspot -> CPA monetization perhaps.

I think im going to relay mainly on the social media and google traffic. As far as i know, blogspot rank pretty high on google if done correctly. My main issue is that i dont know all the ways to promote for free.

I've had a thought to do something similar, oh for years now but have never done it, so glad to see someone has. My motivation was for the members with no budget who are just starting out.

Are you going to start capturing emails? There are some companies that allow XXXX subscribers for free, you don't have to pay until you surpass whatever their free threshold is.

Happy to see someone with a similar mindset! No, i didnt think about the emails, please tell me if you know any company with these free plans, i will include it in my strategy. Also any other ideas are very welcome. For now, i guess i will just try to create a decent amount of content

 

[Strickland]

Interesting journey
Hopefully if you stick with it this thread could help a lot of people
Good luck

 

[tyoussef]

blogspot

please if you want to start a blog don't start it there.
get a nice server for 5$ a month, because you won't have much traffic if you just started, and install WordPress in it.
at least your content will be your's and you will have the full ability to do whatever you want.

 

[azgold]

please tell me if you know any company with these free plans

You can check out:

Benchmark
Sendinblue
MailerLite

I've linked to the pricing pages for you.

Vertical Response used to have a freebie section too but looks like they don't, anymore. There are others too but one I didn't trust and two others, I know don't like affiliate marketers.

Don't just grab an autoresponder blindly! You'll want to ask for opinions or check reviews. Aside from number of subscribers and emails per month you're allowed, you want to find the deliverability rate - that's crucial. If a site can't get your emails to inboxes because it's being blocked, you want nothing to do with it. Choose quality over quantity.

Please note that I have not used any of those and so cannot endorse any of them, I just knew they existed.

If you want to do this an easier way, check out if Blogspot has a widget for capturing emails. Assuming they do, check if you have to type new blasts, or if it lets you set something up, like an AR does.

 

[azgold]

please if you want to start a blog don't start it there.
get a nice server for 5$ a month, because you won't have much traffic if you just started, and install WordPress in it.
at least your content will be your's and you will have the full ability to do whatever you want.

That is definitely so true, it's better to own your site and work but I don't think that's what his experiment is about. I could be wrong, though.

@TORSYN , I forgot to ask you what your long term plan or goal is for this. Do you intend to keep it going and switch it over to your own site and hosting down the road, or retire it at the end?

 

[TORSYN]

That is definitely so true, it's better to own your site and work but I don't think that's what his experiment is about. I could be wrong, though.

@TORSYN , I forgot to ask you what your long term plan or goal is for this. Do you intend to keep it going and switch it over to your own site and hosting down the road, or retire it at the end?

Yes, you are right, this is not what this experiment is about. I really want to go without spending a penny. There are a lot of circumstances where people can't even afford 5$ a month and i have been there before so i can relate. i want to prove that with enough hard work you can still make it
After making my first 100$ i will move it into a hosting with custom design and everything but it has to come from the money that come from the blog itself.

 

[TORSYN]

please if you want to start a blog don't start it there.
get a nice server for 5$ a month, because you won't have much traffic if you just started, and install WordPress in it.
at least your content will be your's and you will have the full ability to do whatever you want.

I really understand and agree with your opinion, but i believe for making the first couple of bucks, blogspot is the easiest way to go

 

[Aiden L]

Try to collect push subs aswell if you can. Monitizer network has a very good system in place. I usually use them on my Cpa Lps however I imagine you could implement the code onto your blog. For tier 1 you could get around 0.20 per sub which is decent. Extra income at no real extra effort.

 

[TORSYN]

Try to collect push subs aswell if you can. Monitizer network has a very good system in place. I usually use them on my Cpa Lps however I imagine you could implement the code onto your blog. For tier 1 you could get around 0.20 per sub which is decent. Extra income at no real extra effort.

great idea, but what would be a better strategy, to wait until i get some traffic then install the code or do it from the start?

 

[azgold]

Forgot to ask if you have a tracker set up and ready to go? There are freebies and BETA trackers, similar to free autoresponder accounts.

Or are you just going to use Google Analytics?

 

[Aiden L]

great idea, but what would be a better strategy, to wait until i get some traffic then install the code or do it from the start?

I would personally install it from the start but it’s entirely up to you. In the end you could set up your own little traffic source.

 

[TORSYN]

Forgot to ask if you have a tracker set up and ready to go? There are freebies and BETA trackers, similar to free autoresponder accounts.

Or are you just going to use Google Analytics?

Actually, I have set up "Simple Analytics", i like it more than Google Analytics as it can be overwhelming at times. Also i got it for free, if you are a student, you can claim a whole bunch of goodies for free from GitHub's student pack. Its not advertising, by the way, just for everyone to know where to get free stuff from

 

[azgold]

Its not advertising, by the way, just for everyone to know where to get free stuff from

It's okay, I didn't think you were advertising.

I'm glad you got your tracker, sounds like you're pretty much ready to rock 'n roll.

Can't wait to see how it goes for you!

 

[TORSYN]

sounds like you're pretty much ready to rock 'n roll.

Well, i still have no idea how to drive a decent amount of traffic for free

 

[azgold]

Well, i still have no idea how to drive a decent amount of traffic for free

You'll learn. It won't start as a "decent" amount of traffic right away. You're going the free, organic route which takes longer.

Get everything set up the way you want it to work and post regularly at this point. Make sure you're ready with your social accounts and sharing buttons, too. You'll want to get 'out there' and get known.

I'll keep an eye out for any threads about free traffic I come across. If I stumble on any, I'll share them here.

Meanwhile, keep reading and asking questions, so your fellow 'Fixers can help you.

 

[Honeybadger]

Everyone has a budget
It's called time

 

[GriD]

i want to create a blog/site where im gonna review ad networks, cpa networks, trackers and other affiliate sources.

Great idea... But I wonder how you are objectively going to review the above...
Be prepared to put in A LOT of hours!!! (unless you are not dedicated to make it work...)
To review things in the MMO world you will need to budget some spend...
You will need to buy into ad networks (even run comparative tests) to test their effectiveness.
Not many trackers have free plans to test and the free plans are restricted in some way.
To test the quality of the offers of cpa networks you will need to get approved first and possibly interview their top AM's hoping they will deliver you objective data (you won't be able to verify it...) and see if their offers are scammy or not...

get a nice server for 5$ a month, because you won't have much traffic if you just started, and install WordPress in it.
at least your content will be your's and you will have the full ability to do whatever you want.

Yes, you are right, this is not what this experiment is about. I really want to go without spending a penny. There are a lot of circumstances where people can't even afford 5$ a month and i have been there before so i can relate. i want to prove that with enough hard work you can still make it
After making my first 100$ i will move it into a hosting with custom design and everything but it has to come from the money that come from the blog itself.

I really understand and agree with your opinion, but i believe for making the first couple of bucks, blogspot is the easiest way to go

Don't go the lazy route if you plan to move into hosting after you have made a certain amount... Because you will need to do it anyway... So do it now while you have time... Once the ball is rolling it is much harder to put it on another track...
There are free plans to access servers... I don't have a list of options at hand but I'm running a VPS at Atlantic (just search "Atlantic free VPS")
I'm running Mautic on it (marketing automation) but you can easily throw on your own WordPress install.
You can also run the free ClickerVolt tracker on there if your "simple analytics" does not seem to do what you need...

Don't expect anything will be 'free'! Remember someone once said "time is money"

Keep this one going... Keep motivated, keep focussed... Learn and work on your plan!