Bum marketing

Name of the pattern:

Bum marketing

Summary:

"Bum marketing" is normally applied to the style of start-up marketing with no out-of-pocket cost whatsoever by using free tools and services available on the Internet.

How to apply this pattern:

The core idea of the bum marketing is to build all the necessary components of the business using the free tools only. Blogger or Squidoo for the website. Some free mailing list service. Social networking, bookmarking, hubpages and article marketing for the traffic. Clickbank affiliate program. In essnece, bum marketing is the implementation of the formula time vs. money to one of the extremes, when time replaces all expenses short of Internet access.

Simplified (and, probably, original) version of Bum Marketing includes just writing an long tail keyword article on the subject with an affiliate link in the resource box, submitting it to an article directory or Squidoo, and getting a few backlinks to it for better ranking, and then moving on to the next article and, maybe, affiliate link.

When to use this pattern:

While some people may think that "bum marketing" expression carries a negative connotation, some people have to start from exactly that. In fact, if somebody was able to start from that and grow into a normal business, that's a very admirable achievement that anybody should proud of. Don't forget, bum marketing is not about getting rich for free or "get rich quick", it's about trading your time and work for money. It's a lot of work and time, and it's not easy money.

That said, it's not recommended to do bum marketing if you can afford outsource at least some of the work, especially the kind of work that you are lousy doing yourself. Also, bum marketing does not scale. Ever. The reason is that you are trading your time for money, and you only have 24 hours a day. So, it's a way to start, to earn initial money, but definitely not the way to continue once you've got some money.

Many marketing experts would not recomend it even for this purpose. However, what's the other choice for the people living in countries with an average per capita income $10 or $20 per month? To stay poor and keep a lot of free time, because there are no jobs either?

Attribution:

I suspect that the idea of people without money wishing to earn some is as old as money. However, using free tools on Internet cannot be older than Internet itself. I cannot attribute it to any specific person, enough to say that spam was born as a bum marketing circa 1990s. I've heard the actual term "bum marketing" on several forums, and also from a Hungarian Internet marketer Gabor Olah. Also Travis Sago is often mentioned as the inventor or guru of Bum Marketing.

Related patterns:

None

Related anti-patterns:

Spam, Flogs (fake blogs), ...

Comments:

Let's say it again: while bum marketing is not really evil (even though some its forms produce tons of various kinds of spam in email, blog comments, social sites, etc.), and in fact quite admirable, it should be your last resort. All free resources come at a price that usually substantially impacts your bottom line, even if you did not spent anything on the tools and services, but your own time. Also, if you put a price tag on your own time, bum marketing won't be free, and in most cases it will be very expensive.

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