Low barrier investments

[Kung Fu Steve]

I would like to start a thread, or resource, for myself and others to talk about low barrier investments. Maybe all of them are low barrier and if you're an expert in that field, please give your 2 cents on the type of investment and the requirements it takes; including knowledge, time, and even the monetary costs. And even if it's not a low barrier investment, share your knowledge on how you made it low barrier for yourself!

I will start with my own low-barrier investment:

B&M Business (Brick & Mortar Business):

My cost:

• $100-200 informational books and audio programs on start up businesses & sales
• Time/Frustration to find an investor.
• Time/Frustration to create a presentation that convinced said investor to loan the money.

Challenges:

• NO money
• Youth (19 yrs old started asking for investment money).
• Inexperience
• Poor financial skills

Resources:

• Knowledge of the martial arts
• Basic understanding of business
• Basic understanding of how to present an idea for investment money

The short story:

I asked a ton of people with money if they would be willing to invest in a martial arts school. After proving I could teach better than most for a few years I finally got an opportunity. The investor has taken care of the financial aspect (investment money and accounting) and I have done the rest. I developed a buy out plan that made him happy starting with a 95/5 ownership plan, I currently own quite a bit more than that and it is on it's way to being 100% mine.

 

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[ZDS]

I love hearing stories like this, rep++!

 

[Andrew]

Here is how I got started:


Content site publishing.

Costs:

- Web hosting, $10 a month
- Domain names, $8 each, may be 4 or 5 starting out.

Challenges:

- I had to develop my own content. I spent a whole summer making profiles of computer games.

Resources:

- I already knew all of the basics: HTML, graphics editing, uploading the site with FTP.
- I was a modestly capable writer

Profit from the first 365 days: $0
I learned a lot, the first few years were a real bootcamp. At some point I made enough money I quick my part time job in college and was able to re-invest all my work time in to the business. That meant buying 30 packs of hotdogs and shopping at the dollar store.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

No one else has a low barrier investment for our fellow fast-laners?

 

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[NerdSmasher]

I think you may be right about them all being low barrier with expertise and knowledge.
However, here are a few of my own experiences:

Investing in Stocks
The stock market can be a fairly low barrier investment, you can get started with as little as $500. The problem with small amounts of money is that making a profit that exceeds the commissions can be difficult. To solve this problem, I recommend dabbling in penny stocks, if anything, with this little amount of money. And, yes, someone actually just recommended investing in penny stocks
Though, with penny stocks, it's usually more trading than investing.

Investing in/with Options
For options, you only need about $1,000 to start, and open an account. These, much like penny stocks, can be highly volatile, however they are much more...interesting. Because of the ability to control risk/reward ratios, the time frame, and other things, these can be quite complicated, and profitable.
I think there are many people on these forums who would agree with me in saying options are a lot of fun

Online Affiliate Marketing
Considering you can get a domain name for as little as $0.99, and hosting for like $6 a month, this one has a very low cost of entry. Once you find a product on a site such as Clickbank.com, or cj.com, you can make a simple (or complicated) website about it, and advertise using PPC methods of advertising, start making money your first day.
Granted, it's usually better to be the person that owns the product and has affiliates, this is still a very easy business to get started in. But, it's very saturated because of the simplicity, and so it has mostly turned into a bidding war for keywords and the like, so it can be difficult to profit from now.

Those are my experiences, feel free to ask for clarity, or anything else that may come to mind

 

[Runum]

Steve I think we have another thread about this.

http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com/general-business-discussion/16896-how-ucceed-no-money.html

Is this along the lines of what you were looking for?

I will say that even low barrier investments are not really low barrier. You have to invest either money or more time. If you have no money it's going to require a lot more time from the beginner. Internet businesses can be started for less than $200 easy but it may take a lot of work before turning a profit.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I think affiliate marketing is one of the best "low barrier" investments/businesses you can make. Jonleehacker's video at BP was a great example how to make $$ in that venue.

1) Find an affiliate program that pays well and has an optimized landing page. (These ads here on the RIGHT side are affiliate offers that have AWESOME LANDING PAGES -- these are great examples on how to build landing pages)

2) Advertise the offer (Google Adwords/Craigslist/SocialNet)

3) Test Results / Change.

Your cost:

1) The web page (if need be)
2) Your ad costs.

Pretty low barrier.

Here is a guy who did $3900 in one day with an affiliate program.

Neverblue - $3,939.30 In One Day

I'm not a big fan of affiliate programs because they are PASSENGER relationships -- I'd rather OFFER affiliate programs, not join them.

HOWEVER, and its a big however, they are great for making extra money, monetization of traffic (like the ads I have here) low barrier, and some guys can make a full-time living doing it.

Nothing wrong with that and it affords a great opportunity for people to expose themselves to the world of internet marketing.

 

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