“If I spend X dollars, will I likely at least recoup my investment?”

This is a question I ask myself any time I spend money, especially on my business.

I operate on a shoestring budget. Not because I’m so cheap, but because I like to get the best value for my dollar as possible. It’s smart to keep things simple and lean. I am not afraid to spend money on training, tools, etc. if they will truly help me become a more successful author and business person. But any expenditure should, ideally, be an investment.

There are lots of ways to spend money, and some of it is an expense, some an investment.

I try to make sure as many of my expenditures as possible are investments, rather than merely expenses.

With that in mind, I thought I’d evaluate some of the smaller expenditures that turned out to be investments with very good ROI, and tell you why.

Best $14.39 (amazon price) I Ever Spent:

Maria Veloso’s Web Copy that Sells (Second Edition). This is a must-have reference work for any copy (persuasive writing) you do. It will help you with more than web copy; you can use her principles, especially the Trifecta Neuro-Affective Principle, for book titles, email copy, even book proposals. (I also suggest you download a free copy of her excellent ebook, Frame-of-Mind Marketing.)

Best $15.59 I Ever Spent: The Secret Code of Success by Noah St. John. This little book is probably the last “self-help” book you’ll ever need. Full of great insights that turn typical self-help advice on its head, explains why most of what you hear doesn’t work, and shows what does. If all you get out of it is how to do “afformations,” it will change your life.

Best $27 per month: Jimmy D. Brown’s Membernaire course. If information is what you want to sell, then this course on how to create, market, and profit from a “fixed term membership site” is well worth it. Jimmy knows so much about content creation, marketing, repurposing, the whole shebang. And he has a gift for making it easy and doable. I have bought most of his courses, and they are all excellent. A less expensive option, that’s still a great investment, is his Small Reports Fortune course. Here’s a free Special Report to give you a taste.

Best Money ($197) I Ever Spent (period): XSite Pro Web Design Software. This may be one of the best investments I’ve ever made. It’s saved me so much time–I can create great-looking websites in literally minutes. It’s also saved me money–no designers or webmaster needed. Here’s one I did most recently, in around 10 minutes. The template was one of the hundreds I could have used that came with the program. You don’t need to know html or anything like that. You don’t need to know what a plugin is, like you do with a blog. Everything you need is in the program, and it’s as easy to use as MS Word. (Not much different, really.)

Besides the time, money, and hassle I prevent by not needing a webmaster or designer, by being able to change my website quickly and easily, it also gives me GREAT search-engine ranking. Supposedly blogs get greater search engine ranking, but my XSite Pro sites actually do better. That latest website I created, www.developyouraudience.com, was only created 3 weeks ago. Yet if you search “develop your audience” on Google, it comes up #1 on page 1. That’s because of the excellent search-engine optimization already built in. And again, it’s easy to use. All you need to know is what keywords you want to use. The program does it all.

So if you’ve been balking at putting up a website because it seems too hard … if you’re paying a webmaster to do every little change you want to make (and waiting for days for it to get done) … if you are intimidated by what you need to know to put up a great-looking blog … then this will be the best $197 you ever spend as well.

So that’s an introduction to some of the best lower-cost expenditures I’ve made that have given me great ROI. I recommend any of them without any reservation whatsoever.