Priorities of re-investing into a site

[Nat]

I've got a new website going. I have no money. Currently, I'm grinding out some content and trying to make my free template look 'okay' (I'm not a designer).

Right now all of my time is being devoted to writing paid content (I'm hoping to sell as an eBook on the site). Once I've gotten the digital product finished I'm going to focus on getting some traffic. Once I start making a little bit of money where is the smartest place to immediately 'invest' it back into my site?

• Buying Thrive Theme Annual Personal License (Making the site look a lot better)
• Buying unique (well-written content) for the blog
• Buying a GetResponse mailing sub
• Other?

 

[Kevin]

The smartest place to invest it back into the site is the one that you have the highest confidence (high % likelihood) will accelerate the growth of revenue from the site. I don't think we can answer this for you, but you can definitely answer it for yourself, or simply best-guess it based on the limited info you have now.

 

[CCarter]

• Buying Thrive Theme Annual Personal License (Making the site look a lot better)
• Buying unique (well-written content) for the blog
• Buying a GetResponse mailing sub
• Other?

All that buying nonsense is a waste of time. Nothing to do with adding immediate revenue, since you have "no money". And I can't actually believe you have "no money", cause then why aren't you out getting a job? The reality is you have fear of losing whatever money you do have in failure. Unfortunately failure is a key ingredient to success. Every high successful person in the world has failed, lost money, and wrote that "lost money" off as a learning lesson.

You need to prioritize what you do on a daily basis by shifting your mind to revenue oriented results.

1. Will this generate new revenue immediately? Yes or No? IF Yes Do It. If No, go to #2.
2. Will this maintain current revenues (Customer Support)? Yes or No? If No, go to #3.
3. Don't waste time with that shit.

Especially if you have "No Money".

The reality is you can put up the default 2012 wordpress theme onto a site, throw up ads, amazon commissions, or a lead form, and start generating traffic RIGHT NOW - if you seriously have "No Money". Instead people want to make every single pixel perfect, and waste 6 months developing some Taj Mahal website, then by the time It's 99% perfect, they are burnt out on the project, cause there was no magical free SEO traffic or whatever already coming.

The reality is there is no "Build it and they will come" - That shit only exists in the movies.

Here is another piece of reality - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". If you've been doing this "plan" of building websites till they are perfect, and then trying to monetize them, and it has only resulted you in having "No Money"... You need to scrap that plan. Turn off the "smart" sector of your brain, cause it's clearly not generating revenue, and turn on the "stupid" sector of your brain. What do I mean by that - just fucking throw up a 2012 theme, buy some fucking content, cause clearly writing is going to take too fucking long as you analyze all the details, and then generate traffic from it - period. The pretty website mentality is a stalling tactic, like reading books.

"People think that reading books is part of the action plan, it's not. It's an excuse so you don't have to pull the trigger to take action..." Dan Peña​

All those books you've read and wasted time on have gotten you to "No Money". It's clear what you are doing is NOT working. So YOUR plan is NOT working.

Reinvest anything you get into creating better content. That can be video, infographics, or just a better caliber of content. Traffic is everywhere, and it's free... if you are willing to crawl through the mud, shit, and piss (Shawshank Redemption) until you eventually get to your goal.

 

[Nat]

All that buying nonsense is a waste of time. Nothing to do with adding immediate revenue, since you have "no money". And I can't actually believe you have "no money", cause then why aren't you out getting a job? The reality is you have fear of losing whatever money you do have in failure. Unfortunately failure is a key ingredient to success. Every high successful person in the world has failed, lost money, and wrote that "lost money" off as a learning lesson.

You need to prioritize what you do on a daily basis by shifting your mind to revenue oriented results.

1. Will this generate new revenue immediately? Yes or No? IF Yes Do It. If No, go to #2.
2. Will this maintain current revenues (Customer Support)? Yes or No? If No, go to #3.
3. Don't waste time with that shit.

Especially if you have "No Money".

The reality is you can put up the default 2012 wordpress theme onto a site, throw up ads, amazon commissions, or a lead form, and start generating traffic RIGHT NOW - if you seriously have "No Money". Instead people want to make every single pixel perfect, and waste 6 months developing some Taj Mahal website, then by the time It's 99% perfect, they are burnt out on the project, cause there was no magical free SEO traffic or whatever already coming.

The reality is there is no "Build it and they will come" - That shit only exists in the movies.

Here is another piece of reality - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". If you've been doing this "plan" of building websites till they are perfect, and then trying to monetize them, and it has only resulted you in having "No Money"... You need to scrap that plan. Turn off the "smart" sector of your brain, cause it's clearly not generating revenue, and turn on the "stupid" sector of your brain. What do I mean by that - just fucking throw up a 2012 theme, buy some fucking content, cause clearly writing is going to take too fucking long as you analyze all the details, and then generate traffic from it - period. The pretty website mentality is a stalling tactic, like reading books.

"People think that reading books is part of the action plan, it's not. It's an excuse so you don't have to pull the trigger to take action..." Dan Peña​

All those books you've read and wasted time on have gotten you to "No Money". It's clear what you are doing is NOT working. So YOUR plan is NOT working.

Reinvest anything you get into creating better content. That can be video, infographics, or just a better caliber of content. Traffic is everywhere, and it's free... if you are willing to crawl through the mud, shit, and piss (Shawshank Redemption) until you eventually get to your goal.

First off, you're brilliant and truly an inspiration. I wrote the OP quickly, and I didn't mean to come across as an impoverished street rat or an absolute perfectionist. On this particular project, I would like to avoid investing too much money in the very beginning. I'd like to grind hard, and feed the money I make back into the site for a while.
I haven't ever built a perfect website, or spent too much time perfecting a website. But, we all know that certain 'parts' of a website without a doubt help the website look like an authority/trusted source/ etc. I only knocked out the essentials, and later on I'll outsource.

Sincerely, thank you for your advice and comments.