How to Make Money Without Spending a Single Cent?
When we searched for the topic “Why You Don’t Have To Spend Money To Make Money” on Google, surprisingly, most of the results showed otherwise.
The searches showed that you have to spend some money to make money.
This is true, but not entirely.
Just think about all the different options available to us today to print thousands of dollars without paying a single penny or maybe a few from our pockets. And a perfect example of that is social media influencers.
Also, successful bloggers are out there.
They make money, but they are investing nearly nothing from their pockets.
Yes, when your business provides solutions to address customer needs, you need money to produce, package, and sell that solution to your customers.
This is true about companies that build durable consumer products like computers, laptops, and other home appliances. These ventures do not have to invest too much to build a computer from scratch.
Why would anyone want to do that?
There are parts available in the market. These companies must collect those parts, assemble them, pack them properly, and deliver them.
For example –
IBM never created its prototype of a personal computer. Yet, IBM’s PC became a platform “in the revolution that brought computing out of the glasshouse and into daily life.”
What IBM did was it went shopping. It purchased the parts from small suppliers, like buying disk drives from Tandon in California and software from Microsoft.
Yes, they had the resources to build a PC from scratch. But that was pointless. That would have cost them dollars and precious time.
IBM didn’t want to stay behind in the competition.
This is where many small startups commit themselves to grave mistakes – spending money needlessly on things with no extra investment.
And that is precisely what we are trying to explain in this article.
If you wish to sell your products, you don’t have to manufacture them yourself. Yes, you have to package them, but you don’t have to do the packaging yourself again.
You don’t have to spend money pointlessly to make money. You shouldn’t. Instead, you should invest those dollars in areas where you can optimally utilize your money.
Like –
Hiring a competent team of leaders and winners,
Invest in R&D
Invest in brand placement and promotion.
However, digitalization and social media have empowered young entrepreneurs with cost-effective marketing tools to promote their brands and market their services online.
And these tools will never burn a hole in your pocket.
Companies that offer web and mobile app development solutions invest money in hiring the right talent and proper systems to get their job done.
Yes, they promote their company, but such online promotions hardly cost them much. These software development companies rely primarily on word-of-mouth marketing strategies.
Their existing clients are the dominant channel for spreading the word and getting more clients.
For example –
Project 10K is a Tech Incubator.
This company is a living example of making a profit without investing thousands of dollars in business.
Its most satisfying business clientele indirectly promotes its services and spreads the word in its circle.
As mentioned before, app developers, social media influencers, and bloggers don’t have to spend even one penny from their pockets.
Yet, they are making pretty good money.
To launch your application, you should be a pro at coding.
To start your blog, you should be a pro at writing and churning out engaging content.
To become an influencer, you should be a pro in editing, posing, and spinning excellent and relevant content.
And the same goes for the vloggers too!
Do you think they invest money in promotion and advertising? No!
There are cost-effective ways to spread the word about your product or channel.
A few of them are –
#1: Word-of-Mouth
We often share the link to a video we love online with friends and families.
Or, if we come across a great application that allows us to learn and earn, we spread the word to people in our connection.
We commonly refer to it as ‘word-of-mouth,’ and it is considered one of the traditional marketing methods.
Service providers rely on this kind of marketing strategy much if they do not have enough funds to invest in advertisements.
For example –
You get a small project of spinning web content for a small venture. You are a content writer, and you work as a freelancer.
How do you think you can get projects to work on every time?
There are Facebook groups and other platforms like UpWork where freelancers can pick projects and earn dollars.
Even on these platforms, your past performances will help you to get more projects, right?
Your timely delivery of quality content satisfies your client to the extent that the latter go ahead and refer your name to someone in their connections who needs a freelance writer urgently.
That’s how a word-of-mouth marketing strategy works.
Likewise, if you are a food blogger, you must focus on coming up with exciting and helpful content.
What you say or write in your blog can influence your readers to check out a food outlet you described in your article.
Any negative word from you about the same outlet can rob the restaurant of its most loyal customers.
But, if your readers enjoyed the service of a restaurant referred by you, they are likely to check your other blogs for more.
They can also share your blog link with others in their network.
On the other hand, the restaurants referred to by you gain more customers.
In the future, the restaurant owners and you can make more money via affiliated channels.
So you see, word-of-mouth can be a win-win arrangement for both. Or it can be a bane in disguise.
In social media, word-of-mouth does works for influencers, mostly.
Does this arrangement cost you money? You have the answer already.
#2: Networking
Have you ever worked as a relationship manager for a broking company?
Where do you find customers initially?
Your network. That’s where we look for potential customers at the initial stage of our job. We approach our friends, families, and others in our connections.
As we grow our network gradually, finding clients/customers becomes more effortless.
Yes, we are investing our time to get clients through cold-calling or telecalling, but our network remains one of the primary sources based on word-of-mouth referrals.
That’s how networking works for influencers, bloggers, and vloggers.
Or for young entrepreneurs who managed to launch a prototype of the service they are planning to market and sell.
If your service is the much-needed solution to some of the pressing problems in society, people in your network will also share the word in their networks!
Or, if your content is engaging and informative, they will give you a Big Thumbs Up, Subscribe, and share the link with others.
You don’t need to spend one single dollar on promoting your service. Your network does that for you.
That’s why we say networking is so important.
#3: Newsletters
Your prototype or content has created quite a buzz in the market.
Now, you wish to grow your network, increase your clientele, expand your business, and bring profound change.
How do you do that?
Different types of digital marketing tools available in the market will help you promote your business without burning a big hole in your pocket.
Also, these tools will help you to retain your most loyal followers.
And one such tool that can help you remind your customers about your existence without annoying them too much is newsletters.
We all feel irritated by the constant buzz on our phones of notifications from different companies. We do not enjoy getting bombarded with push ads. But newsletters do not annoy readers. How?
You can only share newsletters with your subscribers – only if they want.
And your subject, followed by the content, should be compelling enough to keep them your subscribers. They should be compelling enough to make them open and read through the newsletter and keep them from just ignoring them in the first place. Or worse, unsubscribing after a few days.
Yes, it would help if you gave extra attention to the content. Else, you can lose your subscribers faster than you earn them.
It is true; newsletters have a 50-50 chance of arresting and retaining subscribers. But this is an effective way to promote your business without paying a hefty price.
#4: Social Media Posts
Social media is ruling the world.
How can you stay away from a platform which serves as a virtual marketplace for many businesses?
Your potential customers live, breathe, and sleep on social media. Tapping the platform for your business is the right thing to do.
And social media relies heavily on readable, engaging, and actionable content.
Staying in constant touch with your customers, addressing their queries, and informing them of what’s happening next becomes easy if you maintain an excellent social media presence.
Regular posts, live content, or stories are the best ways to stay relevant in social media mayhem.
Does it cost thousands of dollars? No!
Does it reach thousands of people? Yes!
And, if you are okay with spending a few bucks, you can always opt for paid campaigns on social media.
That’s entirely your choice, and it doesn’t cost you a fortune.
So, you don’t have to spend money to make money from your social media handles.
#5: Paid Ads
Paid Ads can now be click-based digital ads or Print/Television Ads and Outdoor Campaigns.
No doubt, these paid campaigns work well in generating leads.
They are effective in reaching potential customers too! Irrespective of the medium used, paid ads mean you must let go of more than a few bucks.
But, the percentage of dead or bad leads remains high.
For example –
If you spend a minimum of $50 per lead and generate 1000 leads daily, the total cost you incur is approximately $50,000.
But, if only 300 leads turn out to be effective and the rest are either dead or false, you lose $35,000 daily.
Likewise, if you spend around $10,000 for a newspaper advertisement or a few dollars more for a TV ad, and nearly $30,000 (more if not less) for banners, the chances of getting customers via these channels remain as low as 30-50%.
So much money is going down the drain every day.
Our forefathers have done that! But they never had so many options to make money without spending too much.
If we have the freedom to stay away from incurring debts and spending more than we can earn in a day, why do we consider giving paid ads a try?
Instead, we can save all the money for expanding our business and exploring other channels of making a profit.
So, do you think you have to spend money to make money? We believe that you have your answer already.
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So long, happy reading!