The Incredible Pinterest Hoax - Driving Targeted Traffic To Your Site

Women seem to like Pinterest
for some weird reason.

For those of you that don’t know, Pinterest has been around since about 2010 and it is a unique spin on Internet photo-sharing.  The easiest way to describe it is that it a digital, online version of a bulletin board that you can pin pictures of things that interest to. (Hence the name “Pinterest”.)  

You can take a look at and follow other people’s boards, you can invite people to join you, (similar to Facebook), and you can re-pin other people’s pins.

People use Pinterest to not only pin personal pictures and things of interest to them, but what entrepreneurs have the ability for businesses to showcase their wares and business messages on Pinterest.

If You’re Going Down That Road…Make Sure You've got the Horses!

Since we can probably all agree that using as many social networks as we reasonably can to get our marketing message out is important, we can all probably agree that since Pinterest is a site we probably can’t ignore. 

And since we can’t afford to ignore it, we need to know how to use it.

However, don’t think for a second that using Pinterest is going to be easy-cheesy-peasy.  Just like all other social networks it’s a HOAX to believe that you can just do a few simple things and get away with it. 

This requires work, persistence and care, just like all other forms of social media marketing.

I would like to point out that this is another one of those dirt cheap methods that requires no money to market your business.   It merely requires a free account with Pinterest to post your pictures and get your compelling message out to the masses.

Pimp Yo’ Board with Blog Pictures!

Here’s a great way to get followers to follow your blog or website.  Some people refer to the area on your Pinterest site wherein you post articles a “blog-board”. All you have to do with this little gem is to post the URL of your Blog post to Pinterest using a very simple and easy interface that they provide.

So, each time you post on Pinterest, you can merely drop your URL in the box they provide you and an image and a link will appear on the board where you are posting.  

Even though this is a dirt-cheap method of marketing, I wouldn't use this as a sole means of driving traffic to your blog or website.  Mostly what you'll get on many of the social media sites are folks that are looking for people to sell their own wares to and tire kickers.  

Selling YOUR Stuff On a Pinterest Board

If you want to sell items on Pinterest you can easily do so.  You need to make sure that your items

I said you could sell stuff on
Pinterest....I didn't say you'd like it!

have very good, high quality pictures with them.  Pinterest usually has a drop down menu on it that will allow you to look at different types of items to buy that range between different price points.  

When someone on Pinterest clicks on a price range, ( like the $100-$200 range)  Pinterest will then take them to a board that has items that are selling within a price range. Personally, I think this is a huge waste in time looking over items like this versus going on Amazon and typing in exactly what you need.

Once you've clicked on a product, you are taken to similar screen that has pictures of items that are similar and similar in price.  

I kind of look at buying things on Pinterest like a huge browsing tool for people that just want to blow money.  Like it's burning a hole in their pockets and they're going to float around on there until something strikes their fancy.

Let's Go Grouping!

Not to say that the site doesn't have its merits.  For one thing, Pinterest will allow you to network with other people that are in the same niche as yourself or in the same industry.  However, it is hard to find other groups that are similar to yours because there is no search feature that will help you find groups.   

You can get re-pinned if people find what you have to offer interesting, but finding groups to hang with that are similar to your interests are slim.  There is a site called PinGroupie that will allow you to look through a list of Pinterest boards that you can search through.  

There is a drop-down menu that allows you to go through entire categories and determine which ones are relevant to your search.

The Big Hoax...Revealed!

Just like other social media sites, using Pinterest to market your business isn't a real significant way to generate traffic.  

In order to get a decent amount of traffic from social media sites, you'll have to work a bunch them simultaneously before you get any significant traffic, and then that will only occur on days that You are posting on them.  

After that, you'll have to go back and re-post several times before you will notice a spike in your traffic.  However, if you couple this with all of the other dirt-cheap methods I've shown you to generate traffic to your site, you'll be a heck of a lot better off than someone that went into hock to get started 

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

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

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

How I Found My First Niche and Made My First REAL Money On eBay!

Yesterday I told you how I got started on eBay and how I finally figured out

You can make money from
eBay if you know how!

where in the heck I went wrong.  

If you want to really get the lowdown on how all that happened, you can go back and read the previous post here:

eBay!- How I Made My First REAL Money on the Internet!

The Reason Why eBay Is so Easy to Make Money From…

eBay was instrumental in my getting started in Internet marketing, because it had so much going for it.

For one thing, you could know absolutely nothing about building a website and still be able to set up a site on eBay in a reasonable amount of time.  Since I already had some HTML experience to begin with, eBay was an absolute snap. 

All I had to do was take pictures of the products I wanted to sell, make a brief write up about them, and boom! -- I was in business.

The other wonderful part about selling things on eBay, was the fact that you got TARGETED TRAFFIC to your products.  If you had a website, you had to somehow drive traffic to your site that wanted what you had to offer.

For people just starting out, that meant shelling money out on ads, which sometimes required lots and lots of money.

With eBay, all you had to do was put your item on the auction block in the category that was relevant.  Once you did that it was duck-soup getting people that were in your target market bidding on your stuff.

Finding My Niche and Making Money…Finally

So after a few bad attempts at selling random stuff on eBay, my wife and I decided to go into the embroidery business together.  And as I mentioned in my last post, I threw a rather wide net and started making any kind of embroidered item that I thought people wanted.

Once again the old marketing adage, “Marketing to everyone is marketing to no one.”

So, my feeble attempts at making any kind of good money fell flat. 

Our Master-Blaster Hat

It wasn’t until I came across the idea to mix two of my passions together that I got the idea to mix embroidery with music.  I created Ellistrations music apparel.

I made all of the digitized designs myself.  Hats for every type of musical instrument you could think of.  Trombone hats, shirts, and jackets.  Trumpet apparel, etc. 

And I must have been some sort of pioneer in the niche, because at the start, people were fighting over my stuff. 

I remember designing an oboe hat and putting it up on eBay.  It had a cool design with an oboe crossed in front of it and it said, “Double Reed Disaster” in the design.

Two or three women started bidding on it and it quickly escalated to $65.  Man, I was elated.  After wholesale the hat only ran me about $6.00 total and I didn’t pay shipping because I had already included it in the price.  So, I made about $60 on just one hat.  

We even sold flute purses!

I started to make other hats and shirts as well. Sax hats, trombone shirts, bassoon jackets and every other piece of apparel and musical instrument I could think of.

 

I digitized my own designs and came up with my own catchy slogans and ideas.  Flute shirts that said “Fluteaholic”, Bagpipe hats that said “Piping Hot”, and tuba hats that said, “Blastissiomo Con Forte” on them. (That phrase is kind of a joke with brass players.  It means blow the *$%@ out of the instrument as loud as you can.)

How I Expanded on My eBay Business

I quickly recognized that there was real market for this music apparel stuff, so I created the Ellistrations website.

Since I’m cheap as they come, I decided to get the cheapest hosting plan I could find and build the site myself.  I needed a merchant account, but during the year 2000 merchant accounts ran about $500 just to get started.

I searched the web extensively and found two alternatives: PayPal and another site called 2Checkout.  Since PayPal had not evolved to a full blown merchant service yet, I needed a way for people to pay by credit card if they wanted to. 

That’s where 2Checkout came in.   

This site would process credit card orders for you without the commitment or outlay of cash that you needed to get started.

It merely took a percentage (2.5%) of each of your sales.  All you had to do was go to the 2Checkout site, type up the prices and label the merchandise, copy and paste the code into your website and you could take credit card orders!

It was perfect for a cheapskate lie Moi.  (That’s French, I think.)

A Huge Lesson in Internet Marketing From the Trenches

Everything was going real well, I was making sales from putting my stuff up on eBay and then directing those happy customers to my website and making sales there. 

It worked perfectly.  I was in business and making money doing something I loved.  

That is... for about a year…

For some reason, I started losing sales on eBay; sales just weren’t coming in as fast as they were before, and I was starting to feel the pinch. I did some investigating, reading and searching. 

Turns out I had made a big miscalculation.  You see in business, if your idea is can easily be replicated, you’ll have competition sooner or later. (Watch Shark Tank if you don’t believe me.)

I started searching eBay and found out that other businesses were duplicating me with much slicker marketing and material as well.  They weren’t making high quality embroidered apparel, they were cranking out silkscreen designs of all sorts.

Anyone can duplicate your business...
if you aren't careful!

Pretty soon, I had at least 20 other businesses competing with the same types of ideas as mine.  It didn’t take long before burn out and long hours multitasking took their toll on me. 

So, I made as much money as I could, socked the money in the bank and sold my machine. 

Turns out that I made quite a bit of money from my little venture, better than I had expected, actually.

But the BIG IDEA I learned from this was: If your business is easily replicated by others, you’ll have loads of competition.  

The key to creating a unique, hard to replicate business is to figure out a way to make it so complex, it will be difficult for other businesses to follow.

So I was pretty much out of the online embroidery business.

However, while running my business I discovered an easy way to make money that was so lucrative, and easy to create, it blew my mind.  This is an idea ANYONE can do if they put the time and effort into it.

However, I’ll tell you more about it in my next post.

Until we meet again…

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

Blogging The Web Savvy Dirt Cheap Method To Get the Word Out and Generate Traffic

Google loves blogs.  

Don’t ask me about all of the technical SEO babble that goes along with Internet Marketing, but I've read countless articles about this and the results are in:

Google Loves Blogs.

It’s just that simple.  Or is it?

If you've glanced at my articles for more than five seconds, you’ll see that I’m cheap.  I've mentioned this before, but I don’t like getting a second mortgage to start a business. That’s just the way I am. (Actually, I don't even have a first mortgage ;I paid my little house in the country off years ago, but that’s another story.)

The Upside to Blogging

So, blogging is one of those dirt cheap tools you can use to generate interest in your business and get people to actually go to your site.  There are several reasons for this that you should know about:

1.  As I said before, search engines like Google love blogs.  The reason that they do is because if you write brand new hunks of content every day, they’ll consider you to be an active web page rather than a stale, inactive one. 

2.   It can give you a good reason to stay in contact with your client and customer base.  Every time I finish a post, (which is usually once a day) I post it online and immediately tell everyone I can online about it.  I send out email, tweet, Google +, Facebook, and let everyone I do business with know about it. 

 I also have a physical newsletter that I send out as well and I mention that I just made a post somewhere in the body of the article.  It is very effective that way.

3.  People can feel like they are a part of your business and that they actually know you.  They can leave comments and feel like they are contributing to your cause.  If they follow you on a regular basis, they’ll feel like they really know you.  The evidence is in that people will spend their hard earned cash if they know you and trust you.  So, look at blogging as a trust building experience.

The Downside to Blogging

The problem with this blogging strategy is that it is labor intensive and requires massive amounts of discipline.  There are quite a few reasons for this.

1.  You have to research your posts before you write them.  You can’t just sit down and blather on about nothing.  Even if you're going to write highly personalized accounts about yourself or a particular subject, you need to sit down and think the post through.   

If you just sit down and dash out crap, people can smell it from a mile away.

2.  Keyword research is important too.  You need to find low competition keywords that are somehow related to your niche.  If you have a Google AdSense or AdWords account, you can use their free keyword research tool.  

They’ve changed quite a bit about it over the years, to include the name of it, (they now call it Keyword Planner) but it’s still pretty effective. 

If you don’t want to use that tool you can always pay to use WordTracker or MarketSamurai.  These have been rated pretty well by SEO specialists, but I can’t vouch for them because I’m too cheap.  

I just use the free Google tool.  That’s good enough for me.

3.  Formatting Text and Pictures on a Screen - You’ll need to go back into your blog and make sure that you format the paragraphs so that they are readable to your audience.  This is one of those times you need to put your grammar book away and think about the way people’s eyes work when reading a computer screen.

People see things as blocks of text on a screen much differently than they do when they read a book.  You can use all sorts of word processor conventions to do so.   Bullet statements, headings, underlined areas, highlighted text and paragraphs that are shorter and different length can be used.

Word count is important. Remember the reason why Google likes blogs is because it loves to see well written content as frequent as possible.  I personally like to write every single day.  However, posting every single day is sometimes impossible due to scheduling problems.  

So, post as frequent as you can.

You’ll need to post 500 words every other day to gain favor with the search engine gods.  Be patient with them though, because they might not to notice you for a while and you’ll need keep working at it without a lot of visible success right off the bat.

4. Spreading the Word – Once you get your post written, I would spread the word throughout the social media net as fast as I could, merely highlighting the posts and giving teaser information about it.

Here's a video on how a lovely young lady built her blog.  The rules are pretty much the same no matter what the niche or market is.

5.  Add on Videos and Charts – Not only do the search engine gods like new content frequently, but they also like other relevant information as well.  If you can produce relevant charts and graphs backing up your information, then you’ll find favor in their eyes. 

Relevant video is another area that search engines like if they are relevant to the posts.  If you can find video you can use that helps illustrate a point, then use it. 

If you want to read an excellent article on search engine optimization then I would highly recommend SEO Book’s Guide to Blogging.  It is one of the most extensive and well written posts on the subject.

The Most Important Facet of Your Blog that’s Dirt Cheap

I know I've spent a considerable amount of time talking about the things you should do for the search engine gods.  However, the main focus of your blog is to provide your readers the best information possible on your business niche.  You want to be seen as an authority, a valuable resource site and a place to go to share opinions and ideas. 

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

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. 

Web Savvy Strategy for Using Forums For Traffic Generation

Using forums is a very powerful way of getting free traffic to your website or blog.  One of the reasons I like this method is that if it is done correctly, you can get a load of traffic from it for years to come.   So here are the steps to going to forum in a logical order.

 

Since I am an avid user of the Warrior Forum (WF), I’m going to use that as an example whenever I talk about forums, because I’m so familiar with it.  Just like the stars in the sky there are bazillions of forums on the web, each with their own sets or rules that you’ll have to follow.  Some make it easy for you to join and post, and others can be a stiff pain in the pants to post or comment on. 

Step 1 Do Your Research First – You’ll want to figure out which forums your niche is applicable to before you decide to join and post.  (You do know what niche you’re in, don’t you?)  You sure as heck don’t want to join a forum about “gold panning” when your niche is “cat breeds”.  So, know what types of forums you’ll need to participate in before you join one.

Step 2 Register and Lurk – Make sure you register and look for a section that either welcomes you

or has a help section.  Usually most forums want you to read their rules because if you break their rules there may be repercussions. 

You might get suspended or have your account banned, so make sure you find out what the rules of the forum are.  The next thing you should do is get a feel of the forum.  You need to read what other people are interested on it, what their problems and ambitions are and how you can help them.

Once you get a good idea of what the forum is all about you can move on to the next step which is…

Step 3 Leave Comments and Help Other Members with Their Problems – Once you have a good feel for the forum, you can then participate.  Once again, make sure that you’re following the rules.

NOTE:  Most forums have all sorts of rules concerning posting with your website address.  Usually, to get that privilege you’ll be required to participate in the forum for a certain number of posts or buy your way in, as in the case of the Warrior Forum.  (Very cheap $10 lifetime membership)  So, I wouldn’t even think of posting my web address right away.  On the Warrior Forum you can use a signature if you pay, but more on that in a minute.

Step 4 Create A Signature That Automatically Follows Your Posts  - This is complexly legit, however most forums will only allow this privilege after you’ve made a number of posts or started a bunch of threads.  If you are allowed to create signature file, make sure that it grabs people’s attention, and has all of your contact information on it.  Many forums will allow you to advertise your services on your signature line, but I wouldn’t overdo it.

Step 5 Try To Deliver A Real Good Post At Least Once A Week – This is where you can really gain some solid ground on being an authority in your niche.  You should write about a 500+ post talking about some facet of your niche that’ll actually helps people.  You want to make sure that it is well written, concise, and is aimed at your target market. 

Warning!  Do not, and I repeat, do not jump on a forum and start selling your crap.  That’s just not the way it works, and at best you’ll be seen as another snake oil salesman.  Just like social media, if you haven’t taken the time to nurture relationships and help people out, you’ll be doing nothing more than hurting yourself. This sales process works best over time, but it has great rewards if you work it the right way.

Step 6 Follow And Answer People That Respond To Your Post   Once you’ve written and posted follow your post and see what the response is.  If you’ve pushed the envelope a little bit and ruffled someone feathers, then you’ll definitely get responses.  Respond to these super politely. 

You should never get offended by anything anyone says because there will people on there that are just plain nuts. You don’t want to be seen as a jerk and a bad attitude and foul language can follow you around for a while.

Step 7 Rinse and Repeat – Remember, your goal is to create a great reputation and help people.  Don’t be selfish and always be kind.

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

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

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Use Your Personal Facebook Page to Gain Massive Appeal for Your Business

Years ago, I remember watching the Osbournes, a reality show about an aging rock star and his dysfunctional family.  I believe it was the first really successful reality based show and it got a lot of attention.  President George W. Bush even said it was his favorite TV show. 

The reason why shows of this nature got so popular was because people genuinely wanted to see what these stars actually lived like.  

Looking back at it, in a weird way it was like going to the zoo to see what animals do in their natural environment.  Not to denigrate the nice people in the Osbourne family in any way, but that’s what it kind of what it reminded me of.

So, people want to know more about the folks they follow or like, and if you’re doing business on the Internet, then people will want to know more about YOU.

Hence the reason why it’s a good idea to use your personal Facebook profile to relate to your herd, tribe, or crowd.

Getting Personal with Facebook

Just to let you know, Facebook tries to discourage using your personal business page.  In the Facebook Terms of Agreement, under Registration and Security section, line #4 states:

“You will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain,* and will use a Facebook Page for such purposes.”

(*Underlined emphasis added.)

So according to Facebook you can’t OVERTLY use your personal account for business advertising and marketing.  However, that does not mean you cannot use it to communicate with people that want to follow you. 

Quite frequently, I have people that I do business with through my business Facebook page and they want to follow my personal page as well.  I don’t see any reason not to add them to my friend list.  But this is a personal issue that you’ll have to consider for yourself. 

NOTE:  If you have strong political convictions, you may want to keep them in check on social media sites.  I personally know a local photographer that just can’t keep his mouth shut on Facebook and the result is he has lost a TON of business.

 I keep my personal views to myself for several reasons.  For one thing, I realize that many people have different views than mine, and they will be offended by my views no matter how nice I am about it.  Another reason I don’t engage in these conversations is it is very time consuming.  I have no time to hammer out the problems of the world through Facebook, so therefore, I avoid political conversations like the plague. 

Finally, no matter how much proof I have on a certain point, no matter how great my debating skills are, I have never, ever in my lifetime moved an adult from their political conviction.  It’s like Simon and Garfunkel sang in their famous song, “The Boxer”:

“... still a man hears what he wants to hear,

And disregards the rest, hmmmm…”

So, I’m not even going to try to dissuade people from their political persuasions on Facebook.  That’s just the way it is.

Announce Cool Things about Your Business

If you have achieved a particular goal, you could use your personal profile to

crow about it.  Just make an announcement that you have achieved a particular thing related to your business.  For example, I’m planning on sharing a goal I have for having 200 blog posts on my blog.  I’m just going to mention that I have achieved a personal goal, and mention that friends and family can take a look at the work I’ve do by visiting my site. 

See?  It is very non-business threatening that way!

Just make sure that you a talking about it in your normal writing voice, as if you were writing a friend. 

Give Congrats to Friends!

Just like patting yourself on the back, you can also use your personal Facebook profile to congratulate people you've made friends with on there.  If you are networking with like-minded business people, you ca be sure that they will really appreciate your notice.  Also if they post an interesting piece of information, thank them.  A few words of thanks and encouragement will go a long way.

 Tell a Story

This works real well in the realm of advertising copy.  If you can tell a real good story about yourself or something you’re involved in, it’ll go a long way.  People relate to stories especially if the story is real and believable.  So, if you can use your personal profile to tell a story, especially an inspirational one, so much the better.

Post Pictures

If you have an event like an award ceremony or get together, take pictures, post them and then make sure you tell what they are about.  Also, make sure that you tag the pictures to let the people you are trying to honor see that you value them and their service.

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 Methods of Converting Facebook Visitors Into Buyers

In my last post I wrote about how you should know where your Facebook business page fits in your sales funnel.  If you didn’t get a chance to read that post, here’s the link:

Method of FillingYour Sales Funnel 

The Traditional 3-Step Process

In case you don’t know, I don’t claim to be an expert in all areas of Social Media. I do use it on a daily basis, and over time I have seen results from it.  However, to be totally honest with you, I don’t claim to know some Top-Secret Super Guru Method of using social media to generate thousands of dollars daily.  

If you are looking for a good resource like that, you may want to hire this consultant:

So, this is what I've been doing in social media, it is what is called by some marketers as the 3-step process.  Very simply, it looks like this:

Breakdown of the Steps:

Step #1 - Facebook With this step, you are going to update your status in some way.  If you look at the Nature Valley Granola Bar Facebook page, you’ll see that they have all sorts of updates.  They don’t promote their items every day, because when you’re selling all of the time it is “Big-B” BORING! 

Nature Valley shows pictures taken by fans of the great outdoors.  Once my wife and I were hiking around Colorado, and Nature Valley was asking people to post pictures of themselves holding their product in the great outdoors.  My wife was only too thrilled to have her picture posted with a granola bar.  Sheesh!

This is a case of Nature Valley promoting AND getting customers to add to their Facebook Fan page.  So they were getting customer involvement and getting their Facebook page updated at the same time!  Double the Fun! (Wait, that’s a gum product!  My bad!)

Step #2 - Your Blog or Website Once you've engaged your prospects, you can now get them to your website or blog, where they can read information that is of importance to THEM.  (You always want to make sure that you’re not writing things that interest you; it’s your audience that counts!)

You need to have links to your coupons, squeeze page, irresistible offer, or whatever else on the page that they are reading.  Don’t overdo it, but place the links where it can be plainly seen and if possible make them a part of your website’s landscape. 

You can do this several different ways too!  You can have an advertisement close to your valuable content while at the same time, you can also have an RSS feed next to your content and an opt-in box as well.  

What these last two options will do, is allow you to build your marketing list so you can send them a well written offer…eventually.

Step #3 – Conversion…Cha-Ching!  In your final step in the 3-Step Process, you’ll have your sales page work its magic.  In reality, this is the page that’s going to require the most skill to craft, because you’re going to have to use words to sell your service or product.  Not as easy as it looks.  The best way to do this if you have no experience yourself, is to hire someone to craft your compelling copy.

Depending on what you are selling and how much you are charging for your goodies, your message can run from about a page or two, to ten pages!  I just read a sales letter a few days ago, and it was over twenty pages in length!!!

Usually, if you’re selling a high ticket item, you’ll have to use a pretty long sales letter to overcome the load of objections in the mind of a prospect.

  I can tell you that if you hire a good copywriter it will run you big bucks.  In some cases they’ll charge you a minimum of $3000 and half of that is up front, non-negotiable and non-refundable. 

On the other hand, you can hire a cheap copywriter and have low conversions.  It all depends on how much you really want to make.

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