What to Invest in Next on My Website.?
I have a question to put to everyone - to those who are making a lot affiliate income, to those just starting out...
What do you think the order of purchases or investments for your website/business should be? And at which stage should you invest in each?
.... How should all the pieces fit together?
I have a small amount that I can reinvest into my site right now, but am overwhelmed by the choice of investments I could make.
I would love to know what the Super Affiliate's think about how to build out your business :)
So you have my overall question above, and I ask a few more questions below, so if you have an answer or advice on any, I'd be much appreciative :)
My current "investments" (and I know I have a number of tools, that maybe I jumped the gun on (and many of these, I only got because I could subscribe, and have a monthly fee, which may have been erroneous in hindsight). It may have been better, rather to have purchased a logo and premium theme...
1. WA Yearly
2. Jaaxy Pro - I had to go back one level to save costs a while back
3. Buffer (social media scheduling)
4. Tailwind (I'm doing really well with Pinterest, and Tailwind amplifies this)
5. Aweber - I jumped the gun here, as my mailing list is still very small - in hindsight, going with Aweber could have waited till later.
6. Milotree - a nifty little plugin that helps social media growth (should have waited for this too)
7. Canva - Work Plan - because I'm doing a lot of Pinterest and social media marketing now, and having the upgraded plan definitely helps and saves a lot of time resizing.
This is my current list of ideas of "investments" I would like to make on my site:
1. A new logo. I could go with Logojoy for something cheaper, or should I wait, save and get a professional one done? When is a good time to invest in your logo?
2. A Premium Theme. This has been on my mind for the longest time, especially since I can't seem to change the colours or insert my Canva created logo into my site. I am looking at the Studio Press themes, and have found a nice creative one which should do nicely for multiple websites.
At what point should you buy a Proffesional Logo and Premium theme?
3. Content - I could outsource some articles, to help me with my publishing, since I'm always running behind. This is a tough one, though, and I have to admit, I don not have a great, great writer who can pull off what I'm after - I think I just answered my own question...
But at what point should you start outsourcing?
4. There's more, but they're escaping me right now - I think I wanted a couple of Premium Plugins...
What Premium Plugins do you recommend and at what point?
5. Further down the line, I'd like to get SEMrush and maybe Moz, and other tools such as these.
In the end, I think I'm pretty sold on buying the new Premium Theme and updating my site. That alone will have a huge impact, redefining my brand and getting my home-crafted logo on there.
How have you made your investments on your website? I'd love to hear what you've done, and what tools/investments have made the biggest improvements to your business. And what have I missed off here? I know I've missed something important....
Please leave a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
Just Keep Writing!
Erica
Recent Comments
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I'm not a Super Affiliate, but I'm in the boat with you growing an affiliate biz. I can tell you from my experience and from clients I've worked with. As for the logo, why don't you make one with Canva? Some of these things are going to come down to preference and may not shape your sales at all. People get sales without premium themes and premium logos, but you may want a different image for branding purposes and that's okay. I was the same way. I chose to buy the premium theme early on in my affiliate biz because I wanted to enter the market a certain way. When I started in affiliate marketing, I had already been offering freelance digital marketing for one year, so I wanted to carry that impression into my website. I felt confident in my skills to make a logo so I didn't buy one. Many of the Super affiliates haven't bought logos, but I have noticed many of them buy premium themes: some studiopress and some others. Often, many people don't do this upfront though, and maybe not until they can cashflow it thru the biz.
My vote would be:
1. WA yearly
2. Everything necessary to build your traffic (tailwind, social media schedulers, Canva--if it's part of your lead gen, etc.)
3. After traffic is bringing sales, then focus on conversions (email marketing, conversion plugins, and so on)
4 The whole time, you should be investing little by little in improving your client fulfillment system (making your UX better, making your services and products better, etc,). Probably 10-20% of profits (maybe the theme)
5. Pay yourself consistently and after you're full time and have excess, then save
5. Once you have a few month's pay for someone else, then hire a writer and give them the gift of consistency. If anything fluctuates in your biz, you can have your reserved pay to weather storms and ensure they can have consistent pay.
If the logo doesn't bring any additional leads, sales, or conversions, I'd shelf it and save it as a reward for a biz milestone since it's simply a noncalculated preference.
That's my vote.
Wow, Tiffany, what an awesome reply! Thank you so much for taking the time to spell it all out.
This is exactly what I was after, for myself and others confronted by the endless options of upgrades and add-ons.
Perhaps I haven't gone too far off course with my purchases to-date then :)
I think I'm pretty sold on buying a new premium theme. You are right, this is one area that can make a big difference in your impression to viewers/readers, and is one thing that many successful affiliates do early on.
Thank you so much!
Erica
You're welcome. I try to categorize my purchases based on which system it helps me build. In the startup phase, the lead generation system takes first priority until sales are regular and at an optimal growth rate. Then, the lead conversion system. Branding, client fulfillment, management, and leadership are gradually being worked on all along. You have to have training manuals and savings, so when you hire, you can give clear direction and consistent pay. I'm glad my explanation helped. My niche is entrepreneurship, so I'm studying business startup, phases, and growth all the time.
When I bought my theme, I went with the Thrive membership, it comes with lots of conversion options and plugins. I don't use them all though. I'm still focused on lead gen right now.
I do like the look of Thrive and am so tempted about the membership. I know Jay doesn't use them, however, and prefers Studio Press
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I think a premium theme should have been one of your first investments.