Dirt Cheap Offline Methods of Generating Traffic to Your Website

Most of the Marketing Methods I've talked written about has been methods of send traffic to your site online.  Now, we’re going to get into other methods of driving traffic.  Primarily, how to send traffic to your site from the offline world. 

In some ways, marketing offline can actually be more fun to do and you can get very creative with how you do this.

Join Local Groups in Your Community – I live in Lexington, Kentucky and I can tell you that this is not a big city.  Actually, where I live I can have access to 3 cities that are rather small.  However, there are business groups that have regular meetings to discuss their businesses and network together.

These are usually businesses that perform services or products in the bricks and mortar world.  

So their topics whenever they speak of them are usually about what they’re selling or doing.  In my case, since I talk about dirt-cheap marketing methods and also write advertising copy, I have a pretty wide appeal with my group.  If I were a dentist, well, I don’t think I’d have the same appeal, even though dentists perform a super-important service. 

Finding these groups is pretty easy.  Just Google “Business Networking Groups” and the name of your city or town. Once again, don’t try to be a “Johnny Jump-Up” and try to connect with your group too fast.  Just like online social groups, you’ll want to get to know your group before you approach them with anything.

Once they get to know you. They’ll be much more responsive to what you have to say and your marketing message.  At some point you’ll want to give them a business card or offer to speak at one of the meetings. 

I can’t overstate that you’ll want to ease into these relationships before talking to them about what you do too much.  Just be cordial and attend regularly.

Speak at local business meetings.  

Almost every city or large town has a Toast Masters Club.  These clubs are there to give members the opportunity to speak or help you learn to speak.  However, just like any other social network, you will have an opportunity to network and talk to others that are in business.

And guess what?  You’ll be able to give a speech about your business there and hand out business cards and make connections you can send to your website!

The next move you’ll want to make once you get used to talking to crowds is to research different business groups in your area and contact them.  Usually there are business chapters or clubs that meet regularly and many times they are looking for speakers.  Depending on your niche market, you can speak at some of these events.  All you have to do is send a brief letter to the chair person leading the group offering your services to speak. 

The only words of caution I would have is make sure your niche or subject is relevant and applicable to your audience.  A good way to make sure that you’re speaking on target would be to ASK the person in charge what subject (related to your field) that they think would be good for you to speak about.

This method is very effective, especially if you’re addressing people that are interested in your business.  Usually, people will come up to you and ask you for more information. 

However, I have a better plan for you…

Hot Tip!  Instead of just giving out your marketing materials when someone asks for it why don’t you “bump it up a notch”? 

At the end of your presentation, you could say something like this:

“Thank you so much for allowing me to speak at your event.  To show you my extreme appreciation, I’ve got some free parting gifts I’d like to give you at the door before you leave."

You could give them a free report, complimentary items like pens or key- chains that have your web address and other contact information on it.  This way, you can make sure that just about everyone in the room will have your marketing materials as they leave, rather than just one or two people that just talking to one or two contacts that happen to approach you. 

Boosting Your Business and Sales In Facebook with a Great Call to Action!

On my last blog post I gave you the basics of what you’d need to get started using Facebook in your quest to generate traffic for your business.  If you still haven’t read that content, you can access it here:

Dirt Cheap Methods of Using Facebook

Now I’m going to tell you how to get that traffic to move towards your marketing message and eventually your business sales funnel.  There are several things that you will need to do to motivate and influence people in order to get them to move to your sales page or squeeze page. This episode we’re going to focus on…

Using a Call to Action! (CTA)

The first thing you need to do is decide exactly what you want your audience to do.  Basically, you are going to ask them to stay engaged with you.  The whole idea is to get your readers to take several small and easy steps on their way to your irresistible offer. 

This is tricky, because each step along the way must LEAD the prospect in a manner that is non-threatening in a sales perspective. You’re not selling…You’re LEADING!  Once you have them in your sales funnel, there are different ways you can sell to them, but during your multi-step process you’ll need to engage them enough to have them move forward with you.

For example, you've got your Facebook business page set up with articles relevant to your niche.  Every now and then, you could refer to an interesting article on your blog, which in turn has a whitepaper, eBook, coupon or other relevant stuff to offer that’s free.

Take a look at Nature Valley Granola Bars Facebook Page. (My wife’s favorite hiking food!)  About every 5 or so posts, they have a posting similar to this one:

They have a link to their site, which usually has…COUPONS!!!  The next step in the natural order of things is the sale.  Pretty simple, eh?

Hook and Reel

Once you get your prospects to your site or destination, you’ll want to ask them to take the next step.  Depending on your where they are in your sales process, you will either sell them or move them closer to your sale. 

Usually, when the item or items are big ticket, the sales process is longer and probably looks like this:

Facebook page à Blog posts à Free eBook à Small purchase like an eBook ($29.00) à Bigger purchase like a course with videos ($ 100.00) Seminar or coaching sessions ($2000.00 and up).

The ultimate thrill for a marketer of this nature is to get you on their paid subscription because they’ll be making "mucho deniro" from you on a regular basis.

Get Prospects to Act…Fast

Sad but true, if people have too long to think about things, they won’t buy.  A good car salesman knows that the second you walk off the lot to think about it, you won’t be back.  (They call prospects like this “Be-Backs” because they know that you’ll never “be back”.)

So, whenever you give them an irresistible offer to act, you need to put a sense of urgency in there.  In my opinion the subtler you can do this the better.  One of the best examples I ever saw of this was a copywriter that said that for accounting reasons, he wouldn't be able to keep selling his course for a while. 

He went on for three or four pages talking about the course and very subtly, he’d mention that even though he was fighting his accountant for months on this, for tax reasons he wasn’t going to be able to offer it after a certain month and that he wouldn't be able to sell it again for 5 years or so.

I think this is the reason why coupons almost always have expiration dates on them.

Keep it Simple…Smarty!

The last bit of advice is that you’ll want to keep the process of ordering simple.  Don’t give any choices as far as products are concerned, and don’t make the prospect go through too many steps in the sales process. 

The only time you’ll want to give prospects more than one choice is how they are going to pay you! 1-800 numbers, Paypal, Credit Cards, whatever.  The more ways to pay the better. 

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Your Competitors Know How to Use Facebook...Should You?

If you haven’t been thinking about using social media as a part of your marketing mix, you may want to reconsider.  It’s no mistake that almost all of the big business money and marketing efforts are geared toward Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube and any other fast-moving social media upstart that is rising.   

Facebook is clearly the “Big Kahuna” in the social media war, with over 1.19 Billion active users a month.  The reason for this is its age, overall broad mass appeal, ease of use, and other factors which make it the current social avenue of choice. You can see an obvious lead in this February, 2015 Google Trends graphic:

It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a big company or a small business, you’ll always want to spend time with your prospects and customers.  A good way to do that is to spend some time on Facebook.  Not only are your customers and potential prospects on Facebook, but their family and friends are too. 

And what are they doing?  Well, besides socializing, they are looking for and sharing information.  If prospects and clients that are active in your niche market aren’t asking you questions, or looking at your wares, who are they talking to?  I can guarantee you they are talking to your competitors and looking at what they have to offer.

So, it’s a no-brainer to say that being active on Facebook is beneficial to your marketing efforts.

Think About This Social Media Fact…

If you were to take all of the different marketing methods and line them up side

by side:  face to face selling, over the phone selling, direct mail, advertising, the Internet, etc.  The Internet was usually the big loser in the mix because a static web page had to do your selling for you. 

It was very easy for prospects to just click and move on.  On their own, Web pages usually don’t have much of a personal touch, much less have groups of people frequenting them that were related, or friends or reached out to one and other.  

Social media sites like Facebook, changed much of that.

Now, you can easily inject your personality into your marketing.  Prospects that like what you have to offer, refer to you personally and send their friends to where you hang out.  And the best thing about it is that there are loads of ways you can build relationships using Facebook, to help you connect with people and help build the brand and marketing of your business. 

Get a Grip On This Facebook Thing!

Warning:  Let’s think for a second.  As you know from reading my posts, there is no quick fix, or magic bullet solution to your marketing problems.  You’re building relationships, and depending on what type of business you’re in, THIS TAKES TIME!  So, just like any other type of marketing, you’ll need to take the time and plan out your strategy.  If you haven’t already done your due diligence on creating a USP, marketing plan, budget, then using Facebook and any other social media site won’t work out so well, either.

Building More than Just Brand

If you can understand one key concept about social media sites like Facebook, it’s not just about just building brand, it’s about building relationships.  I’ve always said that if people know, trust and love you, you can sell them much more easily. It’s just like looking for a job.  If you have a friend running the XYZ Zipper company and you want a job there, it’ll be infinitely easier to get a gig there than some unknown applicant.

So cultivating individual relationships and eventually a crowd of people that are familiar with you, your business, brand, etc. is what social media is all about. And as I said before, this will take time, but it will be worth it in the long run.

TIP:  Another great aspect of doing business on a site like Facebook, is that you can get almost immediate feedback on your product or service.  Not only that, but you can also correct problems quickly that would normally take weeks to fix through other channels of communication.   People that market their businesses through social media sites of this nature will also ask questions to find out what is needed in their industry or market.

People are almost more than willing to help you out, so you should make good use of social media feedback whenever you can.

How NOT to Create YouTube Videos That Will Get Traffic to Your Site

In my last post, I told you it was very true that getting noticed on the Internet was relatively easy using YouTube.  That you could use YouTube and other video channels to get to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages and I even had an example of how I did it. 

If you want to go back and read that article, you can access it here: Using YouTube to GenerateTraffic to Your Site

Let’s Talk About How Not To Make YouTube Videos

The thing that will separate the men from the boys in video creation is QUALITY!

It’s just like any other information source on the Internet, 85 to 90% of what is out there is done half-way, (if you know what I mean.). Very few people put out quality information that's even coherent, and very, very few do it on a long-term, consistent basis.

So, don’t make videos that are not well thought out.

Pet Peeve Time:   I don’t know how it all started in the Internet Marketing arena, but videos of IM gurus and IM wannabe gurus driving their cars, while talking about how slick they are is rampant on the Internet.  Usually, they are leaning back talking like they have all the time in the world, while driving along the beach. 

To me, it wreaks of snake oil salesmen.

What they are saying in their videos is:  Here I am driving my Jaguar in my Hawaiian shirt, along a beach where beautiful women are walking around in bikinis and I’m making bazillions of dollars while doing it.  

---And if you listen to me and follow a few basic steps, you too can be just like me.  Click on this link and I’ll put you in my slick sales funnel.

Here's what I think ...And don't ever forget I'm never wrong! 

For one thing, THERE ARE VERY FEW NEW INTERNET MARKETING TECHNIQUES OUT THERE, AND JUST BECAUSE THEY DID IT, DOES NOT MEAN FOR A SECOND THAT YOU’LL HAVE THE SAME SUCCESS.  

By the way, you can go to just about any Internet marketing forum, ask for help, and people (victims) that have already followed these gurus will tell you the same thing for free.

Instructional Videos Are Best

Let’s define something here for a second.  I’m not talking about cat videos, viral videos that go viral just to be viral or junk like that. I’m talking about videos that add value to your business and give your prospects something that will help them.  Oh, and being genuine helps too.

The best type of videos to create are those that teach something that people can actually learn.  A well thought out, coherent and high quality video will say volumes about your business.  This fulfills at least two missions of your marketing efforts:

1.  If you post your Web address to your video, you may get some traffic to your site.

2.  It will create familiarity with your audience.  Familiarity is very important because people will buy from sources they know.  And it’s not just in the product and services arena that this works.  Have you ever noticed how much easier it is for people to get hired at a company or business because they knew the people that were hiring?  So, becoming a recognized face in your niche is very important.

3.  If you really know what you’re doing, and your video is well made, then you will gain some “authority status” and thereby be the go-to-guy in your niche.

Not only all that, but you’ll want a video that is relevant to your niche as well.  It won’t make much sense to create a real good video about gerbils when your website and business is built around bicycle parts.

One other thing.  Have you ever watched a video created by some hotshot marketing guru, and you just knew that the video was created for the sole purpose of selling you something?  It really made you doubt in your mind the sincerity of the individual promoting it.  As a matter of fact, whenever I watch free videos anymore, there are some people I know from the past that I immediately smell a major league sale coming on. 

Do you think that kind of a reputation is the one you want?  

I’m not saying that your marketing efforts aren't there to make money, but just be aware of the fact that as time goes on, the masses of people that jump onto the Internet will become more sensitive and aware of the game afoot.

Tomorrow's post, I will show you the actual nuts and bolts of creating videos.  What type of software to use, how to write your script, and other important facets of video marketing that will help you on your way to video marketing heaven.

Until then…

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

P.S.  Here's an interesting video on creating videos I think you'll enjoy!

Use This Overlooked Article Strategy to Get Traffic to Your Site

 Here’s another great way that you can get traffic to your site without killing yourself.  Like all other aspects of Internet marketing, it requires hard work, patience and perseverance.  Oh, and you also have to know how to write…Yep, that would help.

Which Type of Article Marketing Works?

My technique of guest writing, is different than what a lot of people advocate.  Usually, the advice most Internet marketers divulge is to use services like Ezinearticles.com, ArticlesBase.com or GoArticles.com or some other article posting site to write and post your material to.

I have no idea whether these sites actually work or not.  I’m not saying that they won’t do what they say they will do.  Yes, you can write articles for them and yes they will post them for you…Usually for a subscription rate.  Whether or not this system will actually generate traffic to your site is debatable. 

The theory behind posting to article generating sites is that once you have written your masterpieces, you can post the articles you write on their site so that other people will read them.   Once someone has read your article, if it is written well, they may reuse the material and spread it around like the viral EBooks I told you about earlier. (You can read all about how to use an EBook for traffic generation here: Generate Traffic by writing and giving out an EBook: <blog post URL here>)

However, most article based sites require you to pay a subscription rate if you want to put your websites URL (web address) at the end of the article. 

And that’s where they've got you.  If it costs you almost $30 a month or $360 a year, (watch it, they’ll tell you it’s only $1.00 a day…Hah… Marketers!) then you BETTER get some stinking traffic-traction out of it. However, most of the people I've talked to said this wasn't the way to go.  As a matter of fact, Google is very aware of this kind of content and it pretty much ignores it.  So, if you do article marketing and it works, GREAT.  Keep doing it.

But it has been my experience that this is a difficult path.

Posting To Unusual Places

So, what does work in article marketing?  If you are going to write excellent content that has some thought and time put into it, then I would suggest either posting it to your own blog or website, or posting it to someone else’s blog or website.  Actually you can post articles to prominent forums very easily. 

My favorite forum on the Internet is the Warrior Forum.  Because this forum is probably the most popular marketing forum on the Internet, posts that are made there rise to the top of the search engine results pages pretty quick.

Just to give you a real good, actual example of this, here it is:  Today, I wanted to find out what was the best way to get affiliates to sell my products.  So, I typed in: “get affiliates to sell your product”.  Here is what I found on page 1 of Google:

What this is saying is, if you posted on the Warrior Forum and the post becomes very popular that a fairly decent number of people respond to it on the forum, you could wind up on page 1 of Google, with the rest of them.

TIP:  If you were REALLY smart, you could see what posts are prominent on the forum of your choice and write a real good article and post it as an answer.

All you have to do is take a look at which post is popular first, write your article and post it on there.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot better than spending loads of time writing a well-structured article, posting it to some sort of article site and then hope it gets read among the other thousands of articles that are out there.

Most of the forums online are very, very cheap or free.  All you usually have to do is sign up.  The Warrior Forum will run you about $10.00 for a lifetime membership.  Nice. Not only that, but with the lifetime membership, you get to post your web address (URL) to your post as well.  So, if people like what you wrote, they can click on the link to your site.

And this should work well with other subjects like basket weaving, gerbil racing, vacationing in Vancouver or any other subject are besides marketing.  You’ll just have to seek out the forums that specialize in these subjects and find out which are the most prominent ones on Google for your niche.

Posting to Popular Blogs Can Help You Get Noticed Too!

You can also do the same with a comment section in a popular blog.  Usually, you have to somehow give your email address with a blog to be able to post to it and once you've gone through the process of giving them your email, you can usually include your web address as well. 

Once again, I would write a very well written, short article disguised as a comment onto the blog so that it will draw attention to what you are posting.  I have never personally seen a limit on the number of words that can be commented on, so you can write as much as you need to. 

Not only that, but the owner of the blog won’t complain if the content is fresh and relevant to the article you are responding to.

My Step by Step Strategy:

So, here are the steps I would take using this strategy:

1.  Find an locate a blog or forum that is relevant to your niche

2.  Sign up so you can post both your articles and Web address

3.  Cruise the forums and blogs that you’ll want to post at to see if there are any hot topics you can respond to

4.  Write a detailed, intelligent answer or response to the article or post that was put up

5.  Keep an eye on the post to see if anyone responds or reacts to your comment or post

6.  If someone comments on what you wrote, this will give you the opportunity to respond, thus increasing your prominence

Try these out and see if you have any success with them.  I’m always happy to hear from people, so please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

To your success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Web Savvy Success Principles That Can Propel Your Internet Venture

Yesterday, I wrote a rather extensive post about gaining traffic by creating EBooks.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to write about all of the free ways that you can generate traffic to your website. That way, if you are new to Internet marketing (IM) you won’t waste a lot of money. 

Even though I can’t quote an exact figure, I read a recent article that stated 90% of the people that start Internet businesses fail within the first 90 days.

Personally, I believe the figure is even bigger than that, so let’s face it, many of you are tire kickers.  You’ll get on the IM bandwagon all wide eyed and enthusiastic, and then over a relatively short period of time, you’ll give it up thinking that this dog won’t hunt.

 

Just get on any good IM forum like the Warrior Forum, and you’ll see posts with headings similar to this:

“Frustrated…Don’t know what to do.”

“I quit my job to pursue IM, now I’m broke…What do I do?”

“I created a product, wrote my sales page, and nobody is buying it…”

You know, stuff like that. 

There’s probably a lot of reasons for this, but I think you have to look at IM just like most other endeavors in life; many shall come but few will be chosen.  Or, as I like to phrase it, “Many shall come but few will be committed.”   That’s probably closer to the truth.

After listening to motivational speakers, reading books on success, and trial and error over the last 25 years, I’ve come to my own personal conclusions.  These may help you or work for you, or perhaps not.  The main factor in the scheme of things is that the ball is in YOUR court, and it doesn’t matter how many success principles I throw at you or anyone else, it’s what YOU do that counts.

Dieting and Success, What’s the Diff?

Which brings me to another point.  I’m writing this post in January, right after the start of the new year.  Being fascinated with marketing of all kinds, I notice things like what kind of magazine articles and books that are published.  Now unless you’re living under a rock, you've no doubt noticed all of the diet and success books that come out this time of the year.

I’m always amazed at the seemingly all of the seemingly new angles that diet plan hawkers come out with.  Just take a look at this “short” list of diets. (I’m saying “short” in jest, because it is rather long, but in the scheme of dieting it merely scratches the surface of the names and types there are.)

DIET TIP:  I can save you a whole ton of money on diet books right now.  Years ago, I got a book from Men’s Health that was about all the great foods you should be eating. It had wonderful full color pictures of all sorts of hamburgers, steaks, huge salads, etc., and the recipes for them.   This book had all the stuff I love to eat, and the pictures were so enticing, I wanted to lick the page. 

I remember thinking, “Now, THIS is ME! This is the type of diet I want to be on. Where men with six pack abs are telling me to eat juicy hamburgers, spaghetti and all the crap I love! Yeah, I can do this!”

Inside the first chapter, Men’s Health went over the top 10 or so fad diets that people dive into.  Their conclusion:  These diets don’t work because they are not sustainable over a long period of time.  They are ineffective, and sometimes dangerous.

Then, Men’s Health gave you THEIR diet plan:

(Drum roll please…ahem…)

Burn more calories than you consume.

That’s it.  That was the whole plan.  And guess what?  I tried it, and it works perfectly! 

So, there ya go.  I already saved you a crap-load of moola on diet books.  You should never have to buy one again. Actually, the Men’s Health book advocated eating the right way, to preserve and optimize your health, so that book is a great buy, and you can get it used on Amazon cheap here:

Men’s Health Diet That Has Guys With Incredible Abs Of SteelTelling You To Eat Spaghetti And Hamburgers

Success Formulas Are Like Diet Plans

Success books and ideas are the same way.  Just another endless parade of books that promise if you follow the plans they have for you, the world will be your oyster.  Many, many people have made loads of money from that scheme, and just like diet plans, theirs will work for you. 

So here’s what works for me, and bear in mind, I’m telling you all this for free. 

#1 You need a passion, business, vocation or direction to pursue like a laser guided missile.  Without any direction, you are just like a ship without a destination.  You won’t go anywhere.  It’s the same thing with Internet marketing, if you don’t have a specific niche in mind, you won’t get very far. 

(Personally, I think it’s crazy to start a full 4 year degree without having a clue as to what you’re going to be doing after college.  If you are going to be a master chef, don’t you think it would be better to work in the restaurant business for a while BEFORE committing massive amounts of time and money in college?)

So, figuring out what you want to do at the onset, is very important.

#2 You need to be committed.  You need to stick with it. You need to be like Rudy Ruettiger.  You don’t want to bounce all over the place, planning and re-planning your destination.  You want to be committed to your passion through thick and thin.  Once again, I’ll bring up a few case studies to remind you of the importance of this:

Colonel Sanders went to 1000 restaurants with his chicken recipe before one of them tried it.

Edison tried over 10,000 experiments to get his light bulb to work.

Commitment is paramount.

#3 You need to take ACTION.  Yeah, you can decide on where you want to go and how much you want to get there, but without taking a ton of action, you’ll never even get close.  The best way to do this is to plan out what you’re going to do and execute it.  Many of the world’s most successful people plan out where they want to be years in advance and how they’re going to get there.  Then they take action based on those plans. 

#4 Your attitude needs to be conducive to the goals you are trying to achieve.  As Zig Zigglar once said, “It doesn’t matter how great of an attitude I have, I can’t run as fast as Roger Bannister or box as good as Joe Louis, but I could do those things a lot better than someone with a BAD attitude!”

Translation:  Having a good attitude may not get you all of the way to your destination (especially if you have an unrealistic one) but you’ll get much closer to achieving your dreams if you have a good attitude.

The Place You Wind Up In May Not Be Kansas

One thing I want to add to this.  If you are pursuing a dream…a really big dream, like becoming an NBA superstar, or a top-drawer studio musician, you more than likely set yourself up for failure.  I’m not telling you to give up on your dream, but I’m saying that you may wind up close to or in a great position that you didn’t imagine.  I’m NOT saying that is bad, as a matter of fact, you may be better off. 

I’ve personally known people that were trying to become NFL players and wound up being athletic coaches at prominent universities.  Did they make it to achieve their lofty dreams?  No, but they wound up doing something they liked in a great job that they love.

So, my advice for anyone with a goal or ambition is to put your back into your vocation or passion, you may be surprised at where you wind up.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Web Savvy: How to Use Social Media to Generate Loads of Traffic to Your Site

Social Media is a hot topic, possibly the hottest on the Internet, so I guess I better move my rumpus to show you how to generate traffic with it.  Even though there are web savvy gurus that are specialized in how to get loads of followers almost overnight on Facebook or LinkedIn, I’m just going to show you how I use it to get people over to my blog.

Actually, this the last post in my series of blog posts I started writing awhile back, and then for some odd reason, I decided to just write about traffic generating methods.  This is also a method of generating a load of traffic to your site as well, but if you want the whole treatment on how to decide on a niche,  get a blog or website, make schedule for yourself and get started read these posts first:

Finding a Niche 

Blogging Secret &Getting Started 

Setting Up a Schedule 

Loading Up YourCalendar 

Ok, once you have loaded up on those goodies, you can now proceed on to the next step. You’ll want to join as many of the top drawer social media sites that you can.  You can see the list of some of them in the graphic.  I wouldn't join more than six or seven social media sites for starters because as you’ll see in a minute, this tactic will eat up some of your time. 

The easiest way to explain this is with a graphic:

In the center of your social marketing universe is your blog.  It’s the place where you’ll post high quality content for the niche that you have decided upon.  My recommendation is to write at least 500 word posts, include pictures, charts and graphs as well as relevant YouTube videos.  If you really want to get the low down on how to write really great blog posts here are a couple of awesome references:

Problogger How toWrite Great Blog Content 

Copyblogger Thisreference has 7 free Ebooks on content marketing  

SEOBook   The Blogger's Guide to SEO - by Aaron& Giovanna Wall 

The Hardest Part...

In my humble opinion, this is the hardest part of the whole scheme.  You have got to get your readers engaged in what you have to say.  If you don’t somehow connect with them, they’ll come to your site, poke their heads in the door, and then leave probably never to return. So, you need to write awesome content, or at least enough to be seen as a good resource for your herd.

Once you’ve written your blog post, you can now start to work with the different social media sites.  You aren’t going to write entire posts for them, you are merely going to write a brief notice of your post and then place it into the social media sites.  For example:

How I Made a Huge Mistake and Got Slapped in the Face by a Supermodel --- Read it Here: http://www.blahblahblah.com/HowIMade.html  ß (Blog Post Address – Not the home page of your blog, but the specific post page.)

You can then copy that entire message and begin to post it into the different social networking sites you have joined.  (This is why I told you to join only six or seven of them, because it would take you a considerable amount of time to post on all of these.)

Now, this isn't all there is to this strategy.  Make sure that you use the following steps:

1.       Use relevant, exciting pictures. They will draw attention to your post on the sites because they will pop up next to your post.

2.       Make sure your web address is from the post’s exclusive page.  In other words, when you go to your blog you’ll see a bunch of your previous posts on there.  You don’t want your blogs home page address to post with your announcement.  You want to click on the post title and it will take you to the specific post page.  You then highlight that address to post on social media sites!

3.       You will want to post in different groups too on those social media sites. For example, you are on Facebook, you’ll want to join as many of those groups on there that relate to your niche.  You can post to those places as well.  You can usually do that by joining those groups and posting regularly to them. 

4.       Remember, this is a long term strategy, not overnight.  It takes people awhile to know you and love what you have to say.  If you start getting a lot of traffic right away, don’t get too excited.  There are a TON of people out there that will click on your link and not even read what you have to say, much less respond to any offer you have.

5.       If I were you, I wouldn’t try to sell anyone anything for quite some time.  You are building trust just like any other business.  McDonald’s wasn’t built in a year.  It took decades to get to where it is now.

I’m sure your brain is full now.  Go out there and give it your best shot and remember THIS IS A LONG TERM STRATEGY!!!   Slow and steady wins the race!

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

"When it comes to high response copy, I've got your back!"

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Portfolio Site: http://markelliscopyportfolio.blogspot.com/