Starting Out With $100
I’m guessing that out of these ’starting out’ articles, this $100 one is going to be the most popular. I say that because $100 is the kind of figure that seems like a decent amount to start off with, yet it is not an amount that will be devastating for most to lose if things don’t work out. In my opinion, you have an equal chance of doing well if you started out with just $20 rather than $100, as you will come to realise that $100 isn’t a great amount of money in the poker affiliating world.
Anyway, that is besides the point for this article, so here is what I would do if I was starting out with $100 today (after purchasing a domain and hosting).
Design: $100
Content: $0
Advertising: $0
Design - $100
$100 is just a little too low to be able to get a good quality custom website design, so I’m probably going to be looking at buying some sort of template and customizing it myself. I may be able to get a completely unique design for $100 if I scout around, but for that money I am going to be far better of getting a much more professional looking template and customizing it for myself.
I would be looking to get one of these premium wordpress themes, as they are very sleek and for such a low price you can instantly get a professional looking site up and running. Those themes at the time of writing cost $79.95, leaving me with about $20 left over. This again is not exactly much, but if I head over the the digital point forums and run a contest, I may be able to squeeze out a decent looking logo the customize the theme just a little.
Alternatively, if I decide to create a site with a more blog-style format, I would be very tempted to buy the Milk It theme from JohnCow.com. This is an exceptionally clean theme, and has a few nice touches to help make it a very attractive blog. Seeing as it only costs $59 (without the links), it means I can afford to get a half decent header if I was to again run a contest at digital point.
Content - $0
There is not much you can really do with $100 as far as content goes, because at best you would be lucky to get 3 or 4 solid articles. So I would save the money and keep the content writing duties in my own hands. I would much prefer to have a decent looking site with me at the helm as far as content goes, rather than have 3 or 4 standard articles without much of a base to place them on.
The problem with deciding to spend your $100 is that it doesn’t say anything good about the niche you are deciding to enter. If you don’t have the passion to write content for your niche off the bat, then you probably shouldn’t be in that niche in the first place. It will feel much better to physically have good looking site up on the web than it will to have 3 or 4 articles on your hard drive, so get the ball rolling with a design and leave the content creation in your own capable hands.
Advertising - $0
After getting my website design, I haven’t left myself with much money (if any) to spend on advertising. But this wouldn’t bother me, as there wouldn’t have been a lot that I could do with the $100 in the first place. I may be able to get my hands on one decent link for a few months, but it’s not going to have a significant impact on the success of my site as it is starting out, and I would be left wondering where the hell my $100 went.
As far as advertising goes, I’m not looking to purchase any until I’m bringing in some money through CPAs and MGR. A personal rule of mine is to never spend any of my own money from work or ‘real life’ for advertising. It’s much easier to spend a few hundred from your affiliate payments than it is to pay for advertising with money you have worked for in a ‘real life’ job. It’s going to be better to reinvest your earnings and let the site pay for itself, rather than feed it with money I have earned elsewhere.
Summary
With $100 in my pocket to start out, a good design is going to be the only thing on my mind. I can work on content and advertising for free, so my money would be best spent in an area I have no expertise in. Although I mention that design is not the be all and end all of a top poker site, it is what I would most like to spend $100 on if I had to spend it whilst starting out.
As I mentioned at the start of this article, $100 isn’t a lot of money in the world of poker affiliating. However, for those just starting out and giving it a go, $100 might be a sizeable amount that you really want to see success with. It may seem scary to consider losing this money, but when you think about the fact that you will only need to send one real money player to a poker room before you get your money back (and possibly more), it seems like far less of a dangerous venture.
Furthermore, if you decide the whole poker affiliating thing isn’t for you, I am in little doubt that with the templates above and a few pages of content, you shouldn’t have any trouble in getting your money back on your efforts.