7 Ways To Cut Costs In Your Online Marketing

There’s a common misconception that you can make money online for free. This is possible but in actuality is very difficult to pull off.

In order to have control over your online business, you’ll need your own domain, hosting, autoresponder and so on. Leveraging other people’s web properties for free will mean giving up control of your content and so on.

Building your house on rented property is NEVER a good idea and this includes using social media, such as Facebook pages or groups.

So it goes without saying that you’ll be spending money to build a successful online marketing business. That said, it’s nowhere as expensive as a brick-and-mortar business.

In fact, with around $200-$500, you’ll be able to build your very own online business from scratch and bootstrap it up to a 5 or even 6 figure business.

Below you’ll find 7 tips to help you reduce your costs so that if you’re on a tight budget, starting an online business will not seem so burdensome.

Start Small

This is the most important rule of the lot. When buying a domain name, use an affordable service like Namecheap. Choose a 1-year plan rather than choosing 5 years just because you get a discount.

When choosing hosting, go with a starter plan and pay monthly rather than paying yearly because you want a cheaper price. Use good providers such as A2Hosting or Siteground.

This is what starting small is all about. When your business is doing well, you can opt for the annual payments to enjoy cost savings – but not when you’re a beginner who’s scraping by.

Don’t Follow The Herd

The online marketing space is filled with sheep who will jump on every bandwagon that comes their way. You need to be more astute and alert.

When you’re first starting off, you may need a page builder for your sales pages. Software like OptimizePress or Thrive Architect are one-off payments that are much more affordable than Clickfunnels or Convertri.

Yet, you’ll see marketers praising the latter 2 all the time. The question now is, “Are you ready for these expensive options if you’re a beginner?”

The answer is probably no. So choose the cheaper options that work for you and reduce your recurring bills as much as you can.

Track Where Your Money Is Going

If you’re paying by PayPal, most of your recurring bills will be automated and it’s easy to lose track of your pre-approved payments.

Make a list of all the monthly expenses in your online business. You may be shocked to find that you’re paying for services you no longer use. For example, you may have a Stencil or Snappa subscription, but you’re hiring graphic designers from Fiverr.

So you’re wasting money here. By tracking your expenses, you’ll eliminate wasteful spending.

Making The Most Of Free Trials

A lot of software, tools, etc. come with free 7-day, 14-day or even 30-day trials. Make sure you use these free trials to save money – but before you sign up, ensure that you’re ready first or you’ll be wasting the trial.

For example, if you have a 30-day trial for an autoresponder, make sure your opt in pages are ready and you’re getting traffic before signing up for the 30-day trial.

In this way, you’ll hit the ground running from day 1 and build your list instead of wasting precious days getting the other components in your funnel ready.

Quality Is Important

You get what you pay for. Sometimes, it’s better to pay more for a product to get a better service. You’ll often find cheap self-hosted autoresponders sold by dodgy marketers.

Their selling point will be that you only pay a one-time fee. That’s true. But once you start using their software, you’ll find that the cheap software breaks down or has atrocious deliverability rates and so on.

You’d be better off paying monthly for a solid service like Active Campaign, or Aweber or and you’d have not wasted money on junk. You must find the balance between cost and value here and it might not always be easy.

However, if these services are making you money, and, more importantly, more money than you are paying for them, they are an investment rather than an expense.

Shop Around For A Bargain

You may find that some infoproducts, courses, etc. are priced differently in different places.

For example, you may find a PLR store selling you a resell rights product for $9. That same product may be sold in another website for $3.

This happens all the time and is no different from a can of coke costing 3X more in a cinema than at a supermarket. Shop around and see if you can get the product at a cheaper price.

Look Out For Coupons

Another way to save money will be to do a Google search for ‘product name + coupon’. You may find coupons that help you get a few dollars off.

Always be alert. Sometimes software is discounted during times like Black Friday, etc. Now is the best time to grab the opportunity and save yourself some money.

But it is important to only buy things that you will use in your business immediately. Don’t grab a bargain just for the sake of it because the likelihood is that you will never use it and probably forget that you even own it!

Alternatively, you can contact the product vendors directly and ask for discount coupons, etc. Many vendors will accede to your requests if you’re polite. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.

At the end of the day, you want to run a lean, effective online business that makes money round the clock without incurring too many costs.

One of the easiest ways to increase your bottom-line will be to trim your expenses and when you start looking, you may be shocked at what you are wasting money on!

Constantly look for ways to do this and your business will see higher profits and you’ll be able to earn more and save more.

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