Have you heard of the World Domination Summit? If you haven’t, it’s OK. It’s not even all that important what the event was, but what happened after the last speaker of the 2012 conference finished their talk.
The creator of the conference, because that’s what World Domination Summit is, Chris Guillebeau went on stage to share a story… and make to an investment. He invested $100 in each of the 1.000 attendees of the conference. Yes, 1.000 people. As they were leaving, each attendee was given an envelope containing $100 to invest in a project or in someone else. People were emotional, surprised, excited. The author of the “The $100 Startup” book was actually giving them $100 to invest in something they loved.
What’s so magical about $100?
The simple answer is that it’s not a lot, but it’s also not nothing. And it’s a round number. It’s the right amount of money to actually buy something of value, to make an investment. The way we choose to spend $100 tells people a lot about ourselves, and today I want to know what did you spend $100 last time you decided to make an investment in yourself or your business or your comfort? What would you buy with $100 that you think would impact your life in a positive way?
If you just jump to the bottom of this article and let me know, I won’t even be mad you didn’t read the whole article, although my feelings would probably be a bit hurt.
What would you buy online with $100 dollars?
What is that investment that can make a difference in your life?
Don’t have an answer? Then let these people’s choices tickle your brain.
I’m not the only person interested in what you’d buy with $100. I’m no lunatic. Or if I am, then so is Tim Ferris because this guy asked celebrities and world-class professionals what was the best thing they bought with $100 and included their answers in the “Tribe of Mentors” book. See for yourself:
Whitney Cummings, the Los Angeles–based comedian and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated CBS comedy “2 Broke Girls”, said that the best thing she bought under $100 was a weighted blanket. If you’re not familiar with the weighted blankets, you just need to know that they press down on your body and that calms you down and helps you go to sleep faster. Sounds good, right? Is this what you’d spend your $100 on? Thinking of buying your own? Then check these out, made by Mosaic Weighted Blankets.
Liv Boeree is a professional poker player, currently ranked #5 on the female all-time live poker winnings list, who studied to become an astrophysicist. Her favourite under $100 product is actually an app – Blinkist, which saves people time by condensing non-fiction book into 15-minute reads. What about you, would you get the Premium Blinkist Membership for $79?
Ben Stiller, whom you must know from “Zoolander” or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” or “Meet the Parents” or “There’s Something About Mary”, found the perfect backpack for his needs – one from the Incase City Compact Collection. He said that his new, just under $100, backpack “makes a big difference” because it’s his portable office. “Getting one with a good top compartment for wallet, keys, etc., really makes life easier.”
Gary Vaynerchuk aka Gary Vee is the CEO of VaynerMedia, an early investor in Uber, Twitter, Venmo, and Tumblr, and a serial entrepreneur. The best $100 purchase he ever made? T-Shirts. Not any type of T-Shirts, but a variety of 1980s wrestling T-shirts.
Sam Harris – an author and TED speaker you might know was proud of another discovery – the WaterField Designs MacBook SleeveCase he bought online for just $69. “It is so well made that I carry my computer with me much more than I used to, and this has led to some very satisfying sessions of work in public places”, said Harris. Would you bet on this laptop sleeve to make you more productive?
Tim Urban is the creator of Wait But Why, the website receiving over 1.5 million unique visitors each month. If you haven’t seen his TED Talk on procrastination, well, you should stop procrastinating and check it out. The thing he bought was the New York Times Crossword Puzzle App. He says solving the puzzle is “a delightful part” of his day and that he’s getting better at it with time.
Brian Koppelman is one of the people behind “Billions”, a co-writer of “Ocean’s Thirteen” and a very committed Ping-Pong player. At least that what we get from reading between the lines of his under $100 purchase – a Butterfly Petr Korbel table tennis racket. Would you invest your $100 into your hobby? What would you get?
Michael Gervais is a rockstar in the world of sports. He’s a highly acclaimed psychologist and entrepreneur, best known for his work with the American Football team Seattle Seahawks which won the Super Bowl, and as the high-performance coach of Felix Baumgartner – you know, that guy who jumped from space (!!!).
I have to admit that is the sweetest answer I’ve included in this list. His answer to the question Tim Ferris asked almost everyone – what thing costing $100 or less had the most positive impact in their life was:
“A book for my son: Inch and Miles, written by Coach John Wooden. We read it together on a regular basis. The joy that I get from hearing him understand Coach Wooden’s insights is fantastically rewarding.”
As you can see, when thinking of something that had a positive impact people think of very different things. Which one would you buy?
Do you already own some of these things? What do you think of them?
I’m not ‘do or die’ about the law of attraction concept, but what do you have to lose if you just put it out there? And by “out there” I actually mean in the comments below. So, come on…
Let me know what you would do with $100 if it just landed on your lap together with a note that says “invest this in something you’ve always wanted”.
Who knows? The Universe might be eavesdropping.
I’d buy groceries for the homeless people that congregate near the little mini-mart down the street.
Awesome!!! I LOVE doing fun stuff like that 🙂 You’ve given me an idea too – I’d love to do something as a Wildfire Concepts community – thinking, maybe… a “Pay It Forward Friday” type thing. Lemme kick around a few ideas and see what sticks! If this jumps out for you (or anyone else too) let me know.
Cindy, I think that is a good idea. Start the basics and I’d be one to participate / help.
Jim, it sounds like you may be doing this from the goodness of your heart. It’s good to see others taking an active role in helping. Sometimes people say that I’m “enabling” their homelessness and that I should direct them to the homeless shelter in town.
I don’t agree with that idea because there are more homeless here than there are facilities to feed and house them.
Keep up the good work.
I will invest my $100 into a traffic or list system that can bring me more traffic or opt-in to my covert commission affiliate platform. I need that more than anything.
Funny you mention that! I was just revisiting an idea I had months ago – about creating a managed traffic syndicate type thing – where you’d contribute a fee towards advertising/traffic costs and my team would run traffic for you. It’s gonna take a few months I think before we’re ready to do anything solidly – I like to test things and really get them working optimally before offering anything like this, but could help solve that issue 🙂
when will that be please?
I haven’t properly planned it out, but i’m thinking in about 2-3 months. 🙂 I’ve got a few other projects in the works first.
I’m another person who would like to participate in that idea, Cindy.
Count me in
Hi Cindy, I’m interested in how this idea has worked out.
Honestly? Sadly… as happens WAY too often, the winner of the prize never followed up to claim his $100. We did a surprise bonus to reward EVERYONE who had commented on this post in the first 48 hours too – giving them all a $10 cash reward to thank them for participating, and just… celebrate the fact that they are taking action – there were about 20 people I think. Only around 12 contacted to claim their cash prize too. Lesson = If you’re involved in something … stay IN it. 🙂 At least open my emails and flick through… Read more »
Cindy, I’m an entrepreneur so my thoughts went immediately to things that might help my business grow. I must admit that I was tempted to go straight to the bottom of the article to leave a note about an investment in my Kypron business, but I figured “what the heck?” I’ll take the time to see what some other people did with the $100. After having read what Dr. Gervais did, it made me think. If I had $100 to invest, I think I would put it toward something to help my children also. Dr. Gervais spent time with his… Read more »
Interesting point, with Dr Gervais it was more than a small investment – it was the time invested too. Just throwing it out there, but from what I’ve seen of you – you sound like a perfect candidate to mentor your kiddos yourself! 🙂 In fact, I’m sure you’re probably doing a lot of it, living by example etc. Maybe the $100 would be best invested in some personal training/mentorship tools for yourself, to find a way to build/train/guide your guys. I know for myself, that as a parent those dedicated teaching moments… the ones that come separate to everyday… Read more »
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll definitely look into getting the mentorship tools. Any suggestions?
I’m studying this at the moment https://www.landmarkworldwide.com/ – i’ve done a few of their courses and I’m finding it’s helped a lot for me to know how to relate to them better and step into a more powerful/fearless parenting role. For the Landmark Forum course it’s about $800 for entry which includes the weekend intensive and you also get the 8 week seminar series. (Once a week) It’s a bit different than our normal online stuff, you need to physically attend and – it’s really full on weekend (9am-10pm with a few small breaks). Was challenging and worth it to… Read more »
Great to know you did Landmark, Cindy. Life changing. I did that, the Leadership and Advanced programs.. and something else. Not remembering now. 😉
Oh yay! A fellow graduate! How long ago was that? I’m just about to register for the Introduction Leaders Program – which is a huge investment, a 7 month program. I’m looking forward to staying in it – keeping things fresh and transformational. 🙂
I would invest in my home businesses
I’d buy $100 worth of Bitcoin and see what happens in a year.
Well, now is a GREAT time to buy for sure! ETH and LTC are also super low right now 🙂
I agree with Cindy. I’ve heard that NOW is the time to buy cryptocurrency. The main investors are Asians and many have withdrawn their money to spend for their New Year. Now is the time to buy low.
Spend for their New Year? On what? lol – that’s a hell of a lot of fireworks!!!
I’d invest it in a a couple of quality solo ads (I know a really good solo ads seller on Udimi) run for the two big promos I am in the middle of right now (2 new products I am an affiliate of). I’d eventually double or even triple my $100 from the leads I’d get with my follow-up emails!
Well aren’t you a clever cookie! It’s exciting when all the ‘bits’ come together 🙂 If you ever want to share your solo ad resources with me i’d love to know who you are using. (I get it if you want to keep those to yourself though… lol)
Invertiria 70% en productos de uso abitual, 10% en publicidad y mercadeo , 10, para transportar los produtos hasta la puerta de los clientes y 10% como fondo de reinvercion. Desde chico aprendi que es mucho mejor saber pescar y alimentarse para toda la vida, y no pedir un pescado que te dure un instante.
Hey Rubby! I don’t speak Spanish sorry – but Google translated it to: It would invest 70% in products of abitual use, 10% in advertising and marketing, 10, to transport the products until the door of the clients and 10% as reinvestment fund. Since I was a kid I learned that it is much better to know how to fish and feed for life, and not ask for a fish that lasts a moment. I hope that’s close! GREAT mindset btw – investing in learning HOW to get food on the table rather than just short term ‘now’ options. A… Read more »
I would invest my 100 into solo ads
I would use that money to buy tents for the many homeless whose homes got burnt in Kenya.
<3
I’d use $50 to sponsor my daughter to build her own on-line business. I would use the other $50 to build my own. My daughter is losing her disability as of May and needs a source of income. I hope that between us we could build enough of an income for her to support herself and her 5 kids. The oldest will be off to university this fall.
Wow, big changes coming up in your life! Good luck re: the $100 – and in the meantime (and in the future), if you think of any special direction or training that might help you reach your goals faster let me know too. I create content based on what I see happening in the marketplace, but want it to be also guided by what really matters to you too, an awesome combo for success!
saya akan memasarkan produk dan bisnis saya untuk meraih mimpi, cita-cita, dan kesuksesan saya.
Translation = I will market my products and my business to achieve my dreams, my goals, and my success.
Which is great! I wish you all the best and hope that I can bring more opportunities to make that happen 🙂
I bought InstaNiche Bundles: Details as follows – Transaction ID: xxxx
Invoice ID: InstaNiche Bundle (xxxx)
Regards Mako
Hey Mako! I’ve removed your Transaction ID’s ’cause those are also your license codes – but awesome! Thanks for supporting my products! 🙂
I bought a life time membership from Shaw Academy on a super-duper special offer.
Cindy, thanks for the offer of the $100 for showing you just what I did for my business. I hope you don’t mind me using this as a TEACHING MOMENT . . . one of my boys is interested in making money using Internet Marketing. I know that ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. That’s the concept I take on to my business as well. I think I stayed well under the $100, but here’s what I did. 1. Tim Robert sent me an email (Yes, email marketing still works, in case you wanted to know). The subject line read .… Read more »
1. I downloaded the offer and found the “Special Report” came with a rebrandable WORD document file that could be turned back into a PDF after I added my affiliate info. 2. I then copied the receipt info for Tim Robert using “Jing” (this is a tool to copy and remark on screen shots – provided FREE by http://www.TechSmith.com). Tim wanted some PROOF that I had purchased the product. (Smart request). 3. I realize that if I’m going to market a product, it makes sense to direct people to a domain that is titled similar to the offer, so I… Read more »
Hey Larry! I didn’t see the rest of the message – but this is totally on the right track. Have you seen Covert Commissions btw? What you’re talking about is very much along similar lines except there’s nothing for you to set up, write, host or anything. You just choose the item you want to giveaway, add your JVZoo, Clickbank, Warrior Plus and PayKickstart ID’s into your profile and all of the promotions etc get sent out for you on your behalf – so you can just focus on getting people to sign up for the giveaway gifts. 🙂 It’s… Read more »
Cindy, the rest of the information seems to have been held up by the moderator waiting to approve the “reply”. I finished that almost 8 1/2 hours ago. Do you have any influence on when that might be approved?
Anyway, I’ll check out the Covert Commissions. I was impressed by JVZoo’s ability to use STRIPE as a payment method. THAT means commissions can come within 48 hours of the sale instead of the 4-6 weeks of other systems.
Larry
I found it – it had gone to spam, have published it now – was a good outline 🙂
Stripe is ok, except when people do chargebacks … Paypal fight chargebacks for me now – Stripe take the payment away and then add an extra $30 fee on top of it. As much as people complain about Paypal – I prefer it.
The best thing I ever bought under $100 was an infra red heating pad. Whenever my back is sore, just lying on it for 20 minutes and I feel good enough to dance! If I was given $100 today, I’d invest it in Litecoin….it has gone down quite a bit in the past month, so now is a good time to buy. I think it’s going to skyrocket this year.
oh wow! cool idea! I get a sore shoulder sometimes when I spend too much time at the computer – I might check that out, thanks! I agree with you about Litecoin, well – any of the major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has gone up and down so much these last 12 months, but with a finite number of them out there, not many left to be mined etc – the value of them (and consequently other crypto’s like Litecoin and Etherium etc) are sure to rise. Obviously, this is not official trading advice etc – I’m still a bit of a… Read more »
Lot’s of things on codecanyon.net for my sites – and no this is not an affiliate link, I don’t get anything – they are great for scripts
That place is such a goldmine! It’s fantastic to get ideas too – and – better still, owned by an Australian company (Envato) – Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!!
I would give it back to you to keep up the good work, sharing reliable NO COST or LOW COST traffic solutions with every aspiring publisher here. Call it “Pay It Forward Traffic” if you like. Regardless the name, for most of us, a huge jump in TRAFFIC to our websites will change our lives more than $100. Every publisher here likely that would not profit from an extra 1,000,000 visitors. So please share the secret to a cool million visitors in 30 days. BTW, love the many great ideas for traffic you already share. (just in case you don’t… Read more »
Ha! Thank you. I love doing what we do – and will keep on doing it, and I especially love hearing feedback, suggestions etc – so I’m ‘flying blind’ as such. It helps me guide our team to work on training and software that really counts and helps you faster. If you’re the lucky guy who wins it you’ll need to think up another plan for where it goes though, me taking the money back isn’t the plan… lol – but maybe you could use it to buy a software to help you get more traffic (SQZin is AWESOME especially… Read more »
See, there you go again… SQZin is another excellent recommendation. Currently using Sociautomate and the functionality of SQZin would work nicely. So… I’ll spend my $100 on SQZin and some PAID traffic as you suggested. Mahalo
I would use it to buy a couple of apps that are in my want list. I’m going to buy them anyways regardless of winning or not, but it’s always nice to have a little extra to help facilitate things. One app will help with my processes, i’ll be able to share these processes with others so that we are all in the same page and things don’t fall trough the cracks. The other app will help me schedule social posts for a 12 month period. I have posts that date back years so this will be especially helpful to… Read more »
Awesome stuff Mario. If you’re looking for help to get your systems set up and have everyone on the same page etc – for our company here, we use Asana.com (it’s free!) – I love it 🙂 And good luck with the draw too!
With $100, I would invest in DomainerElitePro (price $97.00) to find valuable domain names. Then I’d sell them for $200, $300 or whatever. Then with that money, I’d build on that by investing in Forex with great indicators that work and are trusted. I’d keep adding funds from selling domain names, building up funds to invest in Forex. Eventually 1 pip or point equals $10.00, depending on the lot size purchased. So when the price of ,for example, EUR/US goes up or down 100 pips (not unusual), that is a profit of $10.00 X 100 pips = $10,000. And that… Read more »
What a cool plan! I haven’t tried out Forex, but that sounds exciting – as long as you’re giving things a try with money you can afford to lose, it’s worth a try. 🙂 I’ve heard good things about DomainerElitePro. Something i’ve been doing lately, which you might find interesting – is using a guy on Fiverr to find domains for me. He charges $25 to find a premium (silver, he calls it) domain, and then you need to register it – so it works out to $35 per domain. Could be a good place to start if you don’t… Read more »
The last purchase I actually made was Affiliate Traffic Lab. Although my budget for adding products to my marketing courses and software is low, I will make strategic purchases to grow my fledgling business. At present, I am regularly adding products to sell onto my website. There are some Covert Commissions products there. I have many ideas to drive traffic and make some major improvements on the site in the next few days. My first real go at affiliate marketing was this past week and I ended up with 4 clicks and 3 visits at JVZoo. Baby steps.
Great to hear 🙂 If you’re using Covert Commissions, try and keep things simple for the best results. Keep your focus on getting as many targeted visitors to your squeezepages as possible and you’ll start to see more clicks to your offers – and then SALES! 🙂
I would buy a series of books for at risk teens/young adults that can change their kindsrts. I started by donating anonomously my library of positive books that changed my life and I would expand on what I started. Starting a mentorship program along with the books. Enlisting help along the way to play things forward. I want to build this into a global effort and teach others how to be successful in business, life, school, career. That’s my vision!
That’s INCREDIBLE! Far out – I love it!!!
hi to all
excited about this
i have find a plugin who can help me to build my amazon and ebay and alibaba store ^_^
my new site it will be soon available
so good luck to all
Great! Come back and share the link with us when you have it created – I love seeing ideas brought to life!!!
ok
thx
Hi Cindy. I just received your email about the contest you have set up for “Can $100 Make Your Life Better?”. I think it’s a great idea! Here is my entry. The last product I bought online for less than $100.00 was something called Covert Commissions. You may know of it. 😉 If I should be lucky enough to win this contest, I will invest the $100.00 prize in my business by purchasing the pro edition of Affiliate Traffic Lab that I learned of only last night. I could use the traffic that comes from video marketing done well. I… Read more »
Strangely enough I HAVE heard of Covert Commissions! 😀 Why are you still doing your own printing? What are you printing? lol – isn’t everything digital these days???
Just bought Affiliate traffic lab .
woohoo! 🙂 GL in the draw 🙂
I’d get my lady at Fiverr to prepare my next two ebooks for sale at my site. Finished them both and they’re ready for ‘prettifying’ and book covers.
I recently bought an upgrade for Instant Product Engine.
Hi Cindy, I’ve spent under $100 on so many things to help improve my life and internet marketing success it’s hard to name just one so I’ll just mention a few if that’s OK? 1.) I spent $97.00 on my yearly subscription to Covert Commissions which will hopefully help increase the size of my list over time and ultimately my sales too. 2.) $86.00 for new hosting that provides free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for my hosted domains which is pretty much required now if I want my website visitors to see my site as legitimate instead of being displayed… Read more »
Hey Bryan, that’s really kind of you to say – thank you <3. I'm glad to hear you're digging my stuff. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I love AND help others create freedom at the same time. Seriously, it's the freaking best! This year, now that the company is more established – we're going to be going FULL into bringing quality content, smarter tools and do whatever it takes to build more of a two-way relationship here. I love creating things, but it gets empty pretty fast if I'm making things that nobody wants or… Read more »
I did buy the Affiliate Traffic Lab. Seems great!
Excellent stuff! (and thanks for supporting us too – hope you like your bonuses!)
I opened a new Udemy account (additional discount for initial purchases) and picked up half a dozen business courses for $14.95 each. These weren’t impulse buys; rather they were all on my to-do list for 2018 and coincidentally on my wife’s as well for her own business needs. Learning’s good; a happy wife is better. And if I win the $100, guess who I’ll spend it on…
Well, they do say “Happy wife, Happy life!” haha. Which one are you starting with first and when do you plan to have that one completed? Which one will make the biggest impact to your online business? Are you working together on them -keeping each other accountable?
I would find someone on FIVerr to create an app that would automatically tweet a free gift on Friday to my followers. Could possibly be the lead magnets that we use at Covert Commissions. This would increase conversion for everyone, build an email list, etc. The app would have to give the owner the opportunity to choose the gift that they want to tweet, post, etc. Set up the app to run for 52 weeks.
Virginia! That auto-tweet function would be a GREAT feature for the Covert Commissions WP plugin (free for members), so that you would connect your Twitter account, pick the packs you want to tweet about and choose how often to tweet. We’ve already got pre-written tweets for your Covert Commissions packs, so you wouldn’t need to write anything 🙂 Seriously sweet idea! I’ll write out some details for my devs – it might take a couple of weeks, we’ve got a few other projects on right now – but i’ll get them to work on it when they have some space.… Read more »
I’d invest in some upgrades to my latest software investment, Instagenius. If there’s any left, we have a local mission we’d give it to.
Ken! Great to see you here mate. 🙂 Which site are you gonna use InstaGenius on? We’ve had some great testimonials come in from people using the software, hopefully you can start seeing a bit of a boost in your income too!
I’ve got a few to choose from, so I’ll have to decide once I get a few other projects off my desk. Or if I’m feeling ambitious, I might just start a new site dedicated to e-commerce. I’ll have to let you know later. 🙂
I’d pay for some of my medicine.
If I were one of the haves, I wouldn’t mind $100 sweets bought daily for the poor children but.. Well, I’d invest to get started in online business if I have $100..
I have invested $100 in traffic generation software and mailing software and would continue to invest in this segment.
Can’t go wrong with building a nice targeted list! 🙂
I would spend it on building my list. Probably invest in a good Solo Ad.
Hi Cindy….funny reading this after having just investing the $100 on wpBlazer and Commission Bullseye. Both very useful programs….or as they say nowadays aps.
ha! woohoo – glad you’re digging our stuff!
Invested my keyboard has bad lag …..
keyboard lag? that sounds PAINFUL!!! <3 Hope it's sorted soon.
Great discussion! I would get an Earthing Fabric Conductive Grounding Cotton & Silver Sheet.
That sounds interesting for sure! If you do get one, lemme know how it goes! I wonder if that would stop hair frizz…? (my curly hair is ridiculous after sleep… haha)
Now that the contest is over, I’ll make the $100.00 post. Sure, there are tons of things that you can buy to shortcut success, but I’ll provide you with some free one[s] and the most important one ie: RESEARCH you have to learn how to do your own research to learn what you need to know. Then, advance and improve on that foundation with these free tools: Library Card (for free books, videos and audio) Image Editor (there are free versions) Video Creator (there are free versions) Online Platform (that you will use) Find you and create your voice create… Read more »
Thanks for the great list! That’s an excellent startup list of tools to get people started. How exciting is it though, that we live in a time where $100 can give you a real jumpstart on an actual, in-the-pocket-cash producing business. I freaking love it!!!
Thank you Cindy, glad I could help
I would invest in a certification course on intuitive numerology to learn about the power of numbers relating to everyone’s lives. I think could give me another tool to help the people I come contact with. Giving insight and a direction for living a happy and prosperous life.
Funny you mention that! I’ve just been lucky enough to spend the last 4 days with the incredibly clever founders of Numerologist.com – it’s an interesting time that’s for sure! We’re about to fly to a mastermind this afternoon and talk marketing for a few days 🙂 Let me know if you have any questions for them, I might be able to help you get some answers if that helps!