What to do with $2000 ?

[Brendan]

Guys, I have been asked this a few times.. if you had $2000 to spend, how would you spend it so that it made you money?

You would want to make a return on it within 12 months, and are happy to take risks..

So lets hear your suggestions!

[BreTTy]

I would purchase a car. Something pre 1975 preferably that I could take minor work out on by myself. Without dealing drugs there isnt much you can do with 2k in terms of investing it.
cars = classics rising in value, no tax on earnings.

[gerryonline]

I guess you could try and buy a whole heap of stock in bulk from a wholeseller and sell it on ebay maybe things like game controllers mp3 players or the like.. maybe look into drop shipping and see if you can get a supplier to drop ship for u from ebay!

You should be able to make a few $ from that!

[itycoon]

It would be hard to just do it on one project. You might have to work on a lot. The best idea though is to buy an established website.

I know of plenty of people who are selling established sites in the 2k region that are making 300 plus a month. With a site making 300 a month your gross would be $3600 in 12 months. Even if $1300 goes to IT and web costs you still have 2,000 at years end. Not only that you can buy more sites. Having three sites making 300+ a month is not bad for a start.

[Brendan]

Where can we buy the sites from?

[wiiman]

Sitepoint.com and forums.digitalpoint.com. I am a member of both and they have some real nice sites you can buy. From blogs to auto updating sites which means you only have to advertise. The website script will take care of the rest.

[itycoon]

Yep. I would suggest both those sites. They offer some good resources. Plus its best to read the dialog between the potential buyers and sellers of the site. Gives you a little detail about it. One piece of advice. Whenever buying a site remember to ask these two questions. "Why are you selling the site". Can't stress that too much. A lot of the times people are selling a site because they stole it from someone or revanue dropped and they are trying to get it off their hands real quick. Second question: "Is the traffic organic or inorganic?". Inorganic means most of he traffic did not come form domain searches. This can be good in one sense but you generally need to ask them how much time they spent advertising and what are their advertisment costs. Organic traffic. The traffic most people like including myself means it is from search results. This requires little or no advertisment. But requires lots of SEO, backlinks and such.

[Brendan]

Yea I guess buying a site that is making money is a good ideo for online ideas..

Can anyone think how we could put $2000 to best use offline? Like buying shares, stocks.. banks? anything?

[bderich]

I started 0Day Exchange - Research on Demand (http://www.0dayexchange.com) with less than $2k (currently for sale) and the site generates around $25-$30k annually for me since I opened it 2 years ago. But running a business that acts as a third party in the buying/selling of software vulnerabilities does require alot of knowledge in regards to software development/hacking and excellent negotiation skills. The trick to starting a successful project is to find something you are brilliant at, and don't think about the dollar figures at the end of the day. If you work hard enough to build something just for the love of doing it, the money will come. (Yes I'm aware its corny, but it's something thats always worked for me)

[KitKat]

well, i'd probably buy a single handbag and it would all be gone!

I think the buying stock and selling it on ebay is a good idea, only thing is finding the right stockist and drop shipper and finding a product that isn't saturated on ebay, do you know anyone that owns a shop?

Maybe having a website made from an idea you have could be a good idea also.

[wiiman]

Offline. Your best bet is to invest in penny stocks or start a business venture. Currently I have no ideas but I'm sure there is somethign out there. Try thinking of some type of service you need that is currently not available and start a business around that idea.

[crackers]

Invest in FDL!

[rosshill]

If you know much about promoting websites you could probably do a lot with $2k in 12 months I'd think.

One of the sites I started about a year ago has almost had 2 million total pageviews and is making about $250/month with little effort. If you bought an established site surely you could improve the performance of it much faster.

[Carl Taylor]

For a 12 month return.

I would buy an existing business for $2K (yes it can be done)
Improve its performance
And sell it 3-6 months later for lets say $20K

That is a $15K profit, as well as also being able to take drawings from the business while i owned it.

and i could then use that $15K to buy another business before the 12 months was out and do it all over again but with an even higher profit again.

In my opinion Business gives the highest return on and of investment.

[Brendan]

Interesting Carl.. where could we look at buying an existing business for $2k?

I know we could easily do it with established websites, but it would harder to turn that sort of profit in that amount of time in a website.#

Would be good to hear more about what you suggest

[Carl Taylor]

Brendan

The idea is that you buy a business at wholesale rather than retail (the price advertised)

So for example, a business could be advertised for $20K, and you would go in and negotiate it down to $2K. (This can be complicated, you dont just call any old business you must choose the business thats for sale carefully. eg. People looking for fast sales - owner leaving country, family reasons, health etc...)

Billionaire In Training (http://www.fishpond.com.au/product_info.php?ref=436&products_id=3063539) talks about the ins and outs of choosing and negotiating to buy a business.