For those people who have been reading my blog for a while know that I’m pretty limited with my marketing budget of $200 per month. This gets eaten up quickly when half of that goes to my probate list provider. That leaves me with only $100 for Stamps, paper, ink and envelopes. Sending out 80 to 100 mailers each month is all i am about able to do.
This causes a problem because I want to send out a multiple mailings to each lead over a 7 month period. Lets quickly do some math and see how much that will actually cost me.
Here are my assumptions
- Sending letter (stamp, envelope, ink and paper): $0.60 each
- Sending Postcards (click2mail.com): $0.35 each
- 100 mail pieces in each list
- First Mailing will be a letter and
- We will go cheap on mailings 2 – 7 and use postcards
Month #1
- List 1: $60
Month #2
- List 2: $60
- List 1: $35
Month #3
- List 3: $60
- List 2: $35
- List 1: $35
Month #4
- List 4: $60
- List 3: $35
- List 2: $35
- List 1: $35
Month #5
- List 5: $60
- List 4: $35
- List 3: $35
- List 2: $35
- List 1: $35
Month #6
- List 6: $60
- List 5: $35
- List 4: $35
- List 3: $35
- List 2: $35
- List 1: $35
Month #7
- List 7: $60
- List 6: $35
- List 5: $35
- List 4: $35
- List 3: $35
- List 2: $35
- List 1: $35
Totals for each Month
- $60
- $95
- $130
- $165
- $200
- $235
- $270
That means after seven months of lists I’ll be at a steady cost of $270 per month to send out all the letters and postcards I need for follow up. Obviously I’m $170 short and pretty much need to double my budget to accomplish my plan.
How am I going to get an additional $200 a month?
If you face a similar situation you shouldn’t just resign yourself to the fact that you can only send out $100 worth of mailers per month. I’m going to figure out a way around this road block because follow up mailers are so important!
I began brain storming some ideas
- get a part time job
- sell some of my belongings like old computers or things I don’t really need
- build some websites for people
- get a loan
- use credit (hurts even to write that)
- get a partner
- use my blog and earn extra money with affiliate sales
- sell advertising space on my blog
- use adsense on my blog
After listing all of these items it didn’t take me long to realize my best option(s). Leverage what I’ve built already and my current knowledge to earn extra money with affiliate sales and adsense.
I already have had some success
From the beginning of my blog I’ve played around with Adsense and affiliate products and have had some moderate success. All the links in the How I learned section to the right are affiliate links. So are the square banners.
If you aren’t sure how affiliate marketing works, it’s pretty simple. You get paid a percentage (up to 50% and more) of a sale if the buyer clicked through one of your links to the sales page and purchases a product. It some cases like amazon, it doesn’t matter what item is bought, just as long as the buyer clicked through your affiliate link to their site.
Another way I can make a few cents is by using Google Adsense ads on my site. These ads you’ve probably seen in my side bar at the top (large square banner ad) and also in posts that are older then 7 days. Adsense ads are CPC or Cost Per Click. This means that every time someone clicks on an ad, I earn a few cents (could be 1 cent or all the way up to $10). There is an entire other side to adsense that I don’t really want to get into, but the simple of it is the ads that appear in Adsense are through another Google service called Adwords.
I believe in being totally transparent with my blog and want to make sure you know that if you see a link for a product on my site, it may contain an affiliate link. Rest assured though that I will only have links for products that I have tried myself and think highly of. I will have no hard feelings if you decide to not click my affiliate link and go directly to the site and buy the product that way.
Over the past 6 months, I’ve averaged between $30 and $50 in additional income from the above methods. about $20 of that pays for my domain name renewals and my hosting fees.
I think I can up my earnings significantly and over the next 6 months am going to work hard to do so. Don’t worry, this blog won’t get over loaded with ads and affiliate links. I plan on creating other blogs and using facebook to build lists that I can leverage. I will give a monthly update on how this is all going.
Has anyone else had any success with affiliate marketing and adsense? Or how about selling ad space on your blog? I’d love to chat with you.
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Scott,
A buddy of mine has a site that has remodel pictures of certain things in the house. It makes him nearly $200 a month and he only updates it about once a quarter. Check out http://www.livelearninvest.com He has some good ideas.
Jason
Thanks Jason, I visited his blog and sent him a message.
Interesting topic, Scott. It will be interesting to hear what new ideas you decide to pursue for making extra money with the blog (especially since you’re more technically savvy than me and all!)
One of the things you may look into doing is just putting an “Advertise Here” box on your blog. Since you have an audience and following, I’m sure there may be some real estate related companies who may be interested. I don’t even have one on mine and have already received inquiries. Though, I am not looking to monetize at this moment as I am focusing on the content.
Hope that helps, thanks for sharing!
p.s. I’m curious to hear how others feel about the “Donate” button or “Buy Me a Cup of Coffee” button on blogs. I’ve read about this on ProBlogger. Anyone have any thoughts on this route? It will be interesting to hear what others have to say. Thanks for reading!
Hi,Mobilehomegurl,how much do you charge for the ad………………Very good idea
Scott – I think you have some good ideas. The one thing I know for sure is that you need to keep the mailings going. Without the leads, you won’t have any business. If you can get a few deals and put the money aside, that will also solve the problem. Have a great weekend.
Hey Rachel, I don’t have a problem with the donate buttons at all. In fact I’ve even donated to a couple blogs in the past. Rachel you could focus on having strategic affiliate relationships with people who have mobile home investing focused books, courses, etc. that you feel confident about. Or you can create your own product….as thorough as you are, it would be an awesome one I’m sure! None of this takes away from your content…just keep providing great value like you do!
Pretty good stuff, I like the post and the website as well, Thanks.
Scott,I’ve had success with adsense (moreso now than ever before…obviously the traffic accounts for that.) Also, have had affiliate success…..some on my rei blog (nothing fancy tho) but mostly with my dating site: http://www.bbwfordating.com And I will tell you I’ve made the most money from selling ad space on sites….so sites….so far the only one I’ve actually sold ads on is my gay marriage site: http://www.gay-marriage-guide.com gay-attorney-services.html plus, I’ve also sold an ad to a “gay and lesbian honeymoon” website.Sooo, that’s been the most profitable, except of course it takes time. And I’m trying to FOCUS and that focus hasn’t been anything other than atm’s and real estate….but I know that my gay marriage site can be a really decent money maker……but I’m thinking I’ll really save the FOCUS on that until I’m making enough passive income where I don’t have to work a job (that way I’ll have more time.)Feel free to call or email me if you have any questions about the process I took to selling advertising on my gay marriage site.Great ideas Scott!
I would like to talk to you about how you marketed for advertisers. Thanks Carey