Probably the cheapest answer would be bitcoin.

I have more than 15 years of marketing experience and this includes experience in growth hacking. I look forward to the possibility of talking soon.

I recommend targeting the brand owners/marketing departments directly. You then can likely find out the decision makers and can make your pitch directly to them. I have found this easier than going through ad agencies.

If you consider yourself one of the best (which I assume you do, given that you're looking for high-paying clients), you should look into TopTal https://www.toptal.com/talent/apply TopTal is a freelance site similar to UpWork, Freelancer, Odesk, etc...the difference is, TopTal ONLY hires the top 3% (so bring your A++ Game) and they only allow the top companies to hire their freelancers, so you don't have to worry about competing lowball bids to get work. Supply is low, demand is high, and you could literally pick up full time work immediately after being approved. The application process is pretty intense but if you get through it it's worth it. They are rabidly looking for UI & UX designers. If you're not already using Upwork, I would get on there too. Some of the companies on there are looking for quality over price and willing to pay more for good work, but the demand is much lower.

A good question. The fact that you don't have revenue yet may be result of a number of factors. Without knowing more specific information about your product, key customer segments, your team, and other key data, it's not possible to give you a definite continue/or shut down recommendation. That said, generally, I would recommend adding a third decision point - the pivot. Many businesses don't see the expected returns after initial launch or MVP testing, and decide to pivot to a different direction, ultimately finding success. The pivot can be a slightly different product (product-based pivot), a slightly different market segment (market-based pivot), or both. Here are some recommended action items to help you uncover extra insight as you examine whether to continue, close down, or pivot: 1) How did you organize the initial customer's interviews? What kinds of questions did you ask them, and were any of them leading questions? 2) Review your core customer segment(s) at this point. How did you determine a product-solution fit to them? Are the customer segments clear and specific enough? 3) Did you run a MVP (minimum-viable product) to test potential product-market fit? Were any findings contrary to your initial assumptions? 4) Consider running another set of quick interviews. Determine any differences between the new interviews versus the initial customer interviews. 5) Make some hypotheses on the key assumption or factor that could have contributed to zero revenue. Run a basic test to confirm that hypothesis. If correct, you may be able to pivot by eliminating that factor or substituting with something else. For example, pretend that your core assumption is that young urbanite foodies will appreciate recommendations on best dishes. If that assumption turns out false, then you may need to consider pivoting to a different customer segment (professionals who don't have time to research the best dishes?) 6) Examine your pricing model. How did you determine it? What tests have you made? Try running a few simple tests with alternative pricing schemes, and see if anything changes. 7) What is your current monthly burn rate, and how long can you project to last at this rate?

Can you give more detail about what you mean by backup your projects? This question is super vague... I can tell you about backup software, and backup systems if you are just looking to backup your work so you don't lose it in a disaster. I just am not sure that is what you mean seeing as you seem to want to share income with whomever helps you on this.

First, you need to make sure you have the conversion funnel set up properly. Enter the urls for all of the checkout steps (cart, login/register, checkout page, etc) and then look at the conversion funnel. This will help you to see if there are any bottlenecks or major problems causing a huge portion of your customers to drop-off at any point in the checkout process. Ideally a checkout should be one page, the more clicks, the higher the drop-off. Also look at all of your individual pages, see which ones have the highest abandonment and the highest conversion. That will help you see what you are doing right/wrong. I'd also highly recommend doing extensive A/B testing. You'd be surprised how much difference the wording of a button or even the color can make on whether or not a user clicks on it. Same goes for navigation elements, position of items on a page, promotions, etc. You can never A/B test enough!

I've had a bunch of my own 'maker' / hacker projects publicized. Here's what I suggest: 1) Write up a project and suggest it to Make Magazine (http://makezine.com/) 2) Tell hobby electronic supply shops about it to see if they want to stock it (e.g. https://www.sparkfun.com/ https://www.adafruit.com/) 3) Subscribe to HARO to be able to get your stuff written about in the press 4) Tweet links to the project your wrote up to relevant designers or instructors at fashion institutes (e.g. google the professors at FIT, etc.) 5) Other ideas If you want to discuss these or other ideas with more specific tailoring to your specific kit let me know. best, Lee

Hey Slava! I actually have a ton of experience with this. For the last year myself and my partners have built out Rocketlaunch (www.rocketlaunch.co) to a growth agency focused on marketing and sales for Startups. We work on core items internally and outsource when possible. My caveat on outsourcing would be to ensure the work is good. We have worked with outsourcers in the Phillipines and Colombia and had some great successes. We have also had issues where we have passed work across to a client where we didn't do enough QA and it was poor quality. If you can find partners that deliver good work, consistently, nurture them and reward them as much as possible. We have been working with an agency in Colombia to great success, but we've also cycled through a few that didn't work out. QA is king, and if you can ensure the work is quality, reselling can be highly profitable (just ask any retailer). Feel free to PM me if you want to have a more direct conversation!

You are comparing apples to oranges. WordPress is a platform, Ruby is a web framework. If you are looking to develop a completely custom platform, you could certainly do it in Rails, but you could also write it in PHP (like WordPress). I'd do some digging and see what is out there for pre-made software first before you build something from scratch. I'd imagine there are already plugins that would do this sort of thing for Expression Engine, Joomla or WordPress. No need to re-invent the wheel!

Some suggestions on how to pitch to journalists: 1. Pitch with a very interesting sentence headline (the title and headline needs to capture the journalist's attention and interest) 2. Convey an interesting storyline or something that is impactful. Everyone likes a good story. 3. Be concise and use associations that journalists can relate to. E.g. maybe your startup is the Uber for X or Airbnb for Y. Some suggestions on how to search for jouralists: 1. Search for big publication's twitter account and find associated journalists' twitter handles. Send a tweet to the journalist. Concisely summarize your pitch in 140 characters. 2. Search for big publication's LinkedIn account and find associated journalists' Linkedin profiles. Send an Inmail. Refer to previous section on best practices in pitching.

It very much depends on what your core objectives are as to whether using an online newswire is effective and also what niche your business operates within. The success of using the likes of PRWeb may differ on a case by case basis. Some tips to determine the success of a Press Release: - Review some of the latest Press Releases within the most related category of the particular online newswire site you are looking to use e.g. http://www.prweb.com/newsbycategory/business/ - Search online for related keywords within the headline to see if they appear in Google News results or within the main Google search results for the company brand name - Check where the release is visible online by searching for the headline in inverted commas in the search engines e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Vollrath+Company+Showcases+Latest+Smallwares+and+Equipment+Innovations+at+National+Restaurant+Association+Show%22&num=100&espv=2&rlz=1CAHPZT_enGB672GB672&filter=0&biw=1366&bih=631&gws_rd=cr&ei=udQ_V7WXFce90gTwwKDwDQ - Analyse how many times a press release is shared via social media by using the likes of www.buzzsumo.com or the Impatana Content Marketing Toolbar (available via https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/impactana-content-marketi/gidhppoakegddkkpmgoejeadomghnkie?utm_source=chrome-app-launcher). Many online press release websites offer "social media booster" packages for extra cost but are not likely to be as effective as if you promoted the release yourself via social media and your influencer network. From a pure PR perspective, I'd recommending reading The PR Masterclass (https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Alex_Singleton_The_PR_Masterclass?id=2UJOAgAAQBAJ) which quotes.... "Although I don't recommend pay-for newswire services, there are proper newswires, funded by media organisations, which are worth contacting. Indeed, newspapers and broadcasters rely heavily upon them to find and filter news. In the UK and Ireland, general news is covered by the Press Association. The equivalent in Australia and New Zealand is the Australian Associated Press (AAP). In the United States and Canada, the Associated Press and The Canadian Press, respectively, take the lead. Reuters and Bloomberg are the main wire services about finance. Each newswire service will provide you with details of how to submit your press release. They are, in my experience, extremely good at sorting through the material they receive by email." For Search Engine Optimisation benefits using online press releases as a tactic have significantly diminished over the last 3 years so don't use online press releases if improving organic search visibility is one of your main goals. My personal opinion is that online press release services are becoming a little outdated unless you have a particular niche targeting a local area that you may be able to gain PR traction in. Many online newswire services have pivoted to more social media listening and promotion tools over the last few years which shows how the impact of newswire releases has declined. My suggestion would be to avoid these automated newswire services and instead: - develop good direct PR relationships with relevant people in your relevant industry niche - builds up your social influencer network by using tools such as Buzzsumo, Followerwonk, Buzzstream and http://klear.com/free-tools?source=whiteHeader and then promote your message via a blog or another type of engaging online content format - Develop a targeted email list over time using software such as https://sumome.com/app/list-builder. CRM and email marketing are becoming more advanced every day and there are many success stories of how you can gain significant brand awareness through good email marketing.

I think your best bet for an answer has three answers, 1. You need to take the time and call around, no one is going to do this for free for you. 2. Hire a function planner, and let them do the work 3. go to Zirtual.com, and hire a person to do all that research for you, and get your answer. In the end, your question is really a job request, and you should be browsing through the people on this site who may do that kind of work and hire them.

There are many routes you could take this with different membership plugins or subscription based plugins which would accomplish what you are looking to do. However, the best starting point for you is probably using an LMS (Learning Management System) plugin or theme. An LMS will provide everything you need out of the box and will be scalable for your future needs as you develop more courses, integrate quizzing or surveys, award badges or certificates, etc. The LMS will integrate the membership or subscription tools you'd find in those plugins with all the other tools you'll need to create your coaching course. Let me know if you want to dive in more.

Develop a good sense of who these type of users are... you might find that they congregate on Twitter - therefore you should focus on building a good following there. Maybe your demographic doesn't use social media in which case you have find them in person and find the common places of where online do they go to when 'online' and or what do they subscribe to. Local listings are also a big help when wanting to leverage google searches in your area, obviously good SEO. Facebook groups could be a good place just as meetup could be... but depending on your target market.

Some suggestions: 1) Create a Google Adwords campaign 2) Create a Facebook campaign. Facebook campaign setup page gives you a great hack to estimate the market size based on interests and demographics. 3) Apply SEO (search engine optimization) tactics, such as: a) Highlighting key words on your site b) Optimizing design and code in your site for easy search and access c) Include a discussion forum and comments section on your site, in order to increase engagement level and produce more keywords from customers Another way to find prospective clients is to go on housing forums and even Airbnb.com or HomeAway.com. Do what Airbnb did when they started to growth hack - namely, they posted on Craigslist and got a lot of customers that way. Do via Airbnb what Airbnb did via Craigslist.

Happy to offer a call to discuss specific questions you have. It seems you have several regarding product, solutions and funding?

You can simply use Microsoft Excel and its filters. Filter the data and click on the filter of the colum where similiar texts are. After that use "contains" filter and put a kew after the last column of your data. Excel is a great tool that you can use it also for grouping the data and analyse it. It dependa on which phase of your study you are but google form is a great tool also.

Paid advertising on social media, particularly Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be highly targeted and so I am sure you could find relevant keywords and topics to target using those platforms. Depending on where you are in the world, look for events on meetup.com and/or Yelp. There are almost certainly going to be groups and events related to your target demographic. Think book clubs, wine clubs, sports, theatre etc. Digital signposting - e.g. screens at medical establishments, local public transport, gas stations. Lastly, perhaps advertise at night-schools or venues that host a lot of evening classes.

First, you will need to figure out a brand strategy for your company/product. From there, you will have a better picture on the following: 1) Who you are 2) What you do 3) How you are different 4) What you stand for 5) Why people should put their faith and trust in you After that, a marketing strategy can then be developed to figure out how to get the word out and with what tools.

I have worked in and with insurance companies for more than 10 years in underwriting- and pricingroles and -projects. So I am familiar with how the processes in an insurance company works. For insurance companies in general, they are used to working with external suppliers, so you should be able to screen time with relevant people, if your service creates value for them. However, you should be really sure how your service creates value in the company and for whom, and be very clear on that. Insurance is very numbers-driven, and your success will depend on the business case you provide. How much claims cost can your solution create? Will it reduce head count? Will it help the customer experience? And if you can show, that you understand the needs of the company you are talking to (current market position, size, prodcutivity, etc.), that will increase the likelihood of success. The size of the insurer will also affect your selling process. The larger the insurer, the larger the need to identify the relevant decision maker. Does this company have a central supply chain-team, or are the individual departments doing their own buying? With a larger insurer, there can be a risk that the responsibility is were silo-split, which can make it harder to get a decision from them. So the more you can document the value you create very specifically - both with numbers and what people changes it can lead to, the higher the likelihood of success. If you would like more discussion on this, feel free to set up a call. Good luck with your proposition. Best regards Kenneth Wolstrup

I'd recommend both. That's what I've done, and I've never hurt for work. The thing is, many marketers offer lots of ideas, but are unable to implement the solutions. This means that a client has to hire a marketing consultant to create a plan, and THEN hire a designer/developer/etc. to actually implement that plan. This, to many clients, feels like paying twice. Many of the people I've met will value development over marketing, and therefore cut corners on the marketing budget. This is bad news when you're a contractor who relies on other contractors or teams to build the things you offer as a service. However, by building the skill set to not only design a marketing plan, but implement it as well, you're now able to market yourself as a 2-for-1 deal. As a freelancer, this is HUGE, because it creates a higher perceived value, and allows you to charge a higher rate. (They only need to hire you, vs. two separate contractors who will likely take longer overall to complete the job due to meetings, etc..) Web development is the easier role to land early contracts. There are far more small projects for web dev; marketing tends to be a bit harder to break into (in my experience). So for quickly building a stable income, start with web dev — but always continue learning. Every skill you add to your toolbox means one fewer contractor your clients need to hire, and that means happier clients, faster turnarounds, higher hourly rates, and a better overall experience for everyone involved. I've been adding skills to my repertoire for over a decade now, and I bill my services as a one-man research and development team, because I can plan, design, develop, market, test, and manage a new business idea on my own. It took a lot of work to get here, but I'm now able to effectively write my own ticket because I can offer so much value and experience to my clients. I'd be happy to discuss specific strategies if you'd like to put together a career development plan. I coach several entrepreneurs, and I think I'd be able to help you hit the ground running. Let me know if you'd like to schedule a short call. Good luck!

Without knowing where in the world you are it's hard to name any specific institutions but here are some things I've learned over the years: 1. Don't do business banking virtually. By having a relationship with my local bank officer I was allowed to go over my line of credit limit by $5,000 for 14 days on her authority alone. The only reason she let me was our personal relationship. People matter. 2. Ask if you'll automatically be offered credit limit increases based on account activity or if you need to apply each time you want to expand credit. Applying each time will likely create a 'hit' on your credit score. I once had my credit expanded by $20,000 simply because of the account activity. 3. Get a clear understanding of the fees and understand that dealing with you costs the bank money. I'm very suspicious of 'free' accounts of any kind. There is always a cost. 4. Make sure the branch is convenient. I don't like waiting for an hour on the phone to speak to someone in a call center. When there is a royal screw-up in your banking nothing beats marching down and talking to the commercial manager. They'll want you out of their office fast and that means getting a resolution most of the time. 5. If you're going to be doing business internationally, ask about foreign branches or brands. Here in Canada most of the banks own US banks so it can make things easier for business in the US to open a US account in the USA from the comfort of home. Set up a call if you'd like to talk about your specific needs. David C Barnett

Sorry, this is too late for the contest, but ou should be trying to direct market to one of the groups you mention on your website.... Interior Designers Based on what I see on your site, those would be the people that will want to buy from you most likely.

There is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding content marketing and its need within a brand’s overall marketing strategy. Doing content marketing is much more than publishing on your blog occasionally and posting your thoughts on social media. “Do stuff and maybe it will work” is not a strategy, it is a gamble. A risky and expensive one, at that. Even so, many brands have yet to create an effective content marketing strategy. What does such a strategy look like? Where are the examples of brands doing it well? Here, I will show you examples of an effective content marketing strategy and offer ways for you to craft your own for your business. What is Content Marketing Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it. This generation of customers are taking drastic steps to avoid marketing messages. As consumers, we use DVRs to skip television ads, pay internet radio subscription fees to avoid commercials, mentally block out — or use plug-ins to avoid — internet click ads, and gloss over road-side billboards, rendering them useless and ineffective. So how are marketers supposed to combat this shift? Education. Consumers are still buying and making purchases, but the way they go about making a decision has changed. With all of the world’s information at their finger tips, savvy consumers are doing enormous amounts of learning and self-education before stepping into a showroom or talking to a salesperson. Knowing this is a huge opportunity for brands. If you know consumers are looking for information, be the source of that information. Not with sales-y content that puts your priorities before theirs, but information that the buyer really wants and needs. The Marketing and Sales Departments must align to create a buying path for this new era of consumers that provides authentic and transparent information about a product or service (the mission of Marketing) and closing the sale (the mission of Sales). Content marketing closes this gap by using brand-created educational content to satisfy the prospective buyer while helping the sales team convert anonymous visitors into buyers. Thought leaders and marketing experts from around the world, including the likes of Seth Godin and hundreds of the leading thinkers in marketing have concluded that content marketing isn’t just the future, it’s the present (see the video below on the history of content marketing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHgMMpGLzk The key ingredient to using content to attract new customers is in the advanced planning. The strategy. What is a Content Marketing Strategy A content marketing strategy is a roadmap; a “User’s Guide” to how your brand will do the following: - Meet the customer at their specific point within their buying cycle - Align the customer’s needs with your knowledge and expertise - Use your brand’s assets to meet these objectives Business-to-Business marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy are 66% more likely to consider themselves effective compared to only 11% of those without a documented strategy. A content marketing plan helps you see the end-game before you have even started. Further, it gives a clear, articulable vision for your entire team and keeps you on track throughout the campaign. Just like New Years resolutions often fade into a foggy memory, our intentions are good – but we allow resolutions to fail. To be successful in any strategy, we need to be intentional. For proper sales and marketing alignment, and for the success of your bottom line, you must have a plan in place. How to Start Your Content Strategy The framework of a content marketing strategy is fairly straight forward: - Who are you targeting? What are their needs? - How are you going to reach them? (Attract new and nurture existing) - What content do you have now to get started? - What is your plan to develop and share more - How will you measure your efforts 1. Personas Take some time to consider who you are targeting. Are they male or female? Does it matter? Do they have a career? Children? Are they affluent? Coupon cutters? What are their goals? What happens if they do not reach them? Is their a monetary penalty for them? Will meeting this goal further their career? Will it make them happy? Clearly defining your targeted personas will save you a lot of time, energy, and money as you continue your business. With this person in mind, your content marketing strategy will begin to fall into place and you will feel that you are having a conversation with this “person”, rather than blindly throwing stuff out there. 2. Outreach Content marketing and social media are often used synonymously. This is a mistake. Content marketing is a broad method of marketing whereas social media is a tool that complements getting your content seen. Imagine your website as your online hub, where all of your brand-controlled content resides, your social media profiles are spokes that lead back to your home base. Social media has the power to reach incredible numbers of potential customers, influencers, existing customers, and even the opportunity to convert customers from competitors. Social media, in and of itself, is not content marketing. It is one of your outreach tools. 3. Available Content Next, take stock of materials you have on hand already. Many of us sit in offices filled with brochures, flyers, handouts, manuals, and documents loaded with helpful information, but we do little to extend that information to potential customers on the web. Make a list of the content available to you immediately and start identifying which persona is most aligned, where they are within their sales process, and what pain point they are currently facing. Getting started, you can use what you have on hand. But I recommend expecting this low-hanging fruit to run out. You should plan on developing your own, unique content. For a number of reasons, search engines reward fresh, unique content. Further, your prospective customers will be looking for information that is not available everywhere. Your unique perspective and “voice” (the tone in which you talk, the way you communicate, and what you share) may be the first experience a prospective customer has with you. This is the beginning of a long business relationship. 4. Schedule and Share Your Content After you have compiled your educational materials, grab a calendar. I recommend looking out 3-4 months to start. Mark holidays, special events, and milestones. Working backwards, prepare your marketing message for these campaigns. For example, one client of ours hosts 4-5 annual sales. They all surround major US holidays (New Years, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving/Black Friday). By knowing this, it is easy for us to prepare everything from banner ads, Pinterest images, blog posts, Facebook Status, videos, and even newspaper ads (don’t shoot the messenger). Once you have those events marked, consider a “theme” of the week for those 3-4 months. With that theme, and your personas in mind, write out the following for each week: - 2 Blog Posts - 8-10 Facebook updates - 20-30 Twitter updates - 4-5 product photos for Pinterest - 3-4 Instagram ideas - 1 Video By no means is this list all-inclusive. It is a starting point to get you thinking about how to plan content. To get a specific content marketing plan designed for your brand, I need to interview you and understand your goals, personas, and timeline. 5. Analytics Finally, how are you going to measure your work? Remember when we set up our goals earlier? Were you specific in identifying how many leads you want to generate? “Get more leads” is a horrible strategy, better is “Gain 50 new leads by September 1st” or “increase from 6% conversion rate to 12% conversion rate” These types of goals are easily measured and tracked. Do you have a mechanism in place to measure, monitor, and gauge your efforts? Further, do you have the right people on your team to help you know what is working and what is not? Can you explain why certain marketing dollars are generating a return on your investment while others fall flat? Final Thoughts Just like runners know the course of the race before they start, your brand should know the route you will take to your finish line. Having a strong content marketing strategy in place will ensure your team is setup for success. I'm happy to help and provide more specifics. All the best, -Shaun