My “OMG, I’m Starting From Scratch” Super Fast Build-Up Plan

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 at 7:55 am

Someone recently asked me:

“If you had to start over again from scratch what would you do”

They asked what I would do if I woke up tomorrow only to discover that everything I had built up over my past three years online had disappeared.

If all I had left was a computer with an internet connection, $100 dollars, and the knowledge I’ve got from my three years in online marketing.

First….I’d spend some time in SHOCK!

Lol.

Then….I’d follow this plan:

My “OMG, I’m Starting From Scratch” Super Fast Build-Up Plan

1. Grab a Free Email Account – $0

Obvious…but don’t want to overlook anything!

2. Get a Leveraged Blog – $25

It took me a good two years to get the blog traffic up on my self-hosted blog. The blog traffic on my leveraged blog…only took about a month! If I was starting from scratch I would want to take as many short-cuts as I could. One is to host your blog on a high-traffic, high profile domain that ranks easily in Google and is fully optimized for spreading content virally in social media.

I would cut out the cost of hosting, plug-ins, technical help, etc and simply get an Empower Network Blog. But I would try to find a sponsor who provided some sort of free e-book to use in my marketing (like the Rebel Marketer’s Manual that I allow my Empower team to use with their links in their marketing), so I could do step 5, 6, and 9.

Empower Network would also become my primary source of income, until I could afford to also invest in other income streams.

3. Get on Facebook – $0

I would open a Facebook Account and add some personal details, pictures, etc. Then begin adding friends. The best way to add friends actually starts on Google and makes people feel compelled to check out your website. I did a little 2 minute tips video on how to do that here: How to Get Friends on Facebook

4. Get on Twitter – $0

I would open a Twitter account, personalize it and start sharing great Tweets. A couple good quotes is a good starting point. Then add Followers by interacting and actually using Twitter. Again, I did a video on how to do this best so people actually want to read your Tweets and click your links here: How to Get Followers on Twitter

5. Get an Aweber Account – $1 for One Month

I really think there’s n0 point even being online if you’re not going to start to build a list you can market to. Any big numbers you hear from Gurus, like “I made 30k my first week!” etc…. It’s nearly ALWAYS because they started with a big list to market to. It’s the real leverage of the internet.

I would create my first list in Aweber giving my new list members the free E-book (mentioned in step 2) as part of their first message and as a thank you gift.

I would then create a good opt-in form and have Aweber host it for me (in the web-form publication options). This would then become my freeby offer.

I would also create a second Aweber list and link that to my Empower Blog so that I could use their lead capture pages and systems to grow my list for me. (This is how I would get new list members and leads through the blog).

6. Kick-Start My List With a Solo-Ad – $50

Next I would place a solo-ad to get my list started. For $50, you would usually get about 200 clicks on your ad. Basically, you are paying someone to email their list with your freeby offer…they would guarantee a certain number of visitors to my opt-in form. They don’t guarantee sign-ups, but if the opt-in form is good you can get around 50% opting in.

I would find the solo-ad seller through Safe-Swaps. That way it is automatically tracks how many clicks I’ve received from the seller and I’m less likely to get ripped off!

7. Write Relationship Building/Viral Blogs – $0

I would spend about one hour a day writing blogs that help build up relationships. There is more detail on how to do Relationship blogs in the Rebel Marketer’s Manual on the right side of this pages… but in a nutshell, I would write blogs on topics people are already interested in. Make sure they include some personal stories… make sure they touch on feeling and emotions my leads are likely have.

I would ALWAYS post my blogs in Facebook and Twitter. Particularly in Facebook I might ask a question with the link to encourage people to join the conversation.

I would then create an email blast to go out to my list telling them about my new blog post and encouraging them to check it out (with a link included).

8. Socially Syndicate Blogs – $0

I would join Onlywire and submit my link to up to 40 different social sharing sites automatically. I would also join Pingler and Ping.fm to ensure I am getting the maximum social sharing. It would take about an hour to set all these up the first time, but then I would be able to socially syndicate all over the web in less than 5 minutes per post.

9. Use Ad-swapping to Grow My List – $25

Finally, I would use Safe-swaps to help grow my list. Basically, I would find ad swap partners with a similar size list as mine, get them to exchange a solo-ad for free. I would email their freeby offer to my list and they would send mine to theirs…helping us both grow our lists. I would be careful with this strategy though, and fully investigate all ad partners before agreeing to a swap and only doing one per week to ensure I don’t damage the relationship I am building with my list.

And that’s my not-so crazy plan to go from scratch to making money online with only my computer, internet, and $101 dollars (ok…I’d have to borrow a buck from someone, lol!) It would only take $101 and about 2 hours per day.

Now if I had a bit of a bigger budget I could scale this out even faster leveraging more strategies…but I will save THAT plan for another day