Investing some money in my blog | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I recently received an affiliate payment for $100 and I wanted to invest the money back into my blog. Up till this point the only money I have spent on the blog is for the hosting and domain name. I really want to take the blog to the next level and I wanted to figure out how I could best spend this little bit of money on my blog. I have researched several options:

- Buying Traffic : From what I can tell this option just doesn't work. The traffic is useless and no one visiting your site will actually read anything or interact with your site.

- Buying New Plugins : I like this idea but I'm not really sure what new functionality I would like to add to my site.

- Run a contest : I also like this idea because I would be able to get some new followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook using rafflecopter.com. I worry about the quality of visitors it would attract. I don't want a bunch of people just looking to win something and never come back after the contest.

- Buy some content : I could offer the money to a professional to provide a great article. I love awesome content.

- Start a complimenting blog : I could start another blog that compliments my current one, but I rather just work on making this one project a success.

Anyways those are a few of my ideas, but I am still not really sure what I want to do. What would you do if you wanted to invest a little money in your blog? Where can I get the most for my money? Thanks in advance for all your help…I look forward to your insights.

A contest is a nice idea, and if people also have an option to subscribe to your RSS feed, chances are many will stick around afterwards.

I currently reinvest the money I make on improving the design of my site (logo, premium theme…) which should increase both user experience, and improve the speed of the website, and its rankings.

Interesting…I can't remember where I reinvested my first dollars. I think it was on a giveaway (or a few), so I'd encourage that along with John and Pauline.

What really helped me was giving away a new book by fairly popular writers. I started by giving Jon Acuff's "Quitter" away and he retweeted the giveaway, giving me tons of hits and quite a few people that entered. I then did Money Saving Mom's Budget book and she promoted it as well.

Getting some extra recognition will go a long way in increasing your twitter followers or FB fans. For the full $100 though I may be tempted to check out Long-Tail Pro if I were you. Although paying the extra $12/month for the Platinum is a good follow-up to that.

Good luck!

My first instinct would be to say invest it in some content. But if you have that covered, then I'd go for a giveaway. I'm with Pauline, though – I like to invest in improving my site's functionality and appearance.  My theme is next on the to-do list!

I wouldn't spend it all at once! Even a $25 gift card promotion could promote some traffic – so you could make that $100 stretch for 4 months if you wanted. Don't worry about buying traffic with ads – the traffic won't stick anyway. You want to attract real eyeballs that are interested in your content. That's the traffic that keeps coming back for more.

I echo the contest… but realize that those too are relatively short lived. The idea of separating it into 4 $25 prizes is great… sustainability is key.

Ok so I am going with the giveaway option.

As part of my Yakezie challenge and giving back to the community I would like to offer any Yakezie members the chance to gain a few more followers or Facebook likes. Rafflecopter allows me to give away entries in exchange for Facebook likes and Twitter followers. I will make a new thread once I have everything organized and the details worked out.

One thing I am working on…how do you promote a contest. I have a few sweepstakes directories I plan on submitting to, but what about a more personal finance type of audience? How can I bring them to the contest?