Showing posts with label social networks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networks. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

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!"
(859) 797-9560















Friday, March 20, 2015

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!"
(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Friday, February 13, 2015

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!"

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com



Tuesday, February 10, 2015

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:


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!"
(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com



Thursday, February 5, 2015

How to Turn Your Zombie Facebook Presence into a Living Being!


If you are going to use Facebook to influence people and move them in a direction that you want them to go, you really need to pay attention to this post.  There is a distinct reason why so many companies actually hire people to run their social media marketing programs.  That reason is it takes time.

If you are going to use social media to influence people in a major way, it will take a lot of your time.  Continuous, daily, scheduled time.  You've got to show up…regularly and keep showing up.  This is a relationship game that requires a dedicated time investment.

So, just like all other forms of Internet marketing, the more they see, love, and trust you the better off you’ll be.  This leads me to my topic subject, transforming your zombie like Facebook presence into a persona that people can relate to.





I love meeting people.  Online, offline, I just love human interaction.  In my humble opinion, nothing is worse than talking to a piece of cardboard.  Actually, there is something worse: READING something that was written by a piece of cardboard!

I must confess, this is a facet of writing Blog posts that I need to be more conscious of, myself.  If you can somehow inject some of your REAL personality into your social media efforts, you’ll find that you will have success at a much faster rate. 

On the local news that I watch every morning before starting work, I watch the local news, mostly to see how bad the weather is going to be for the day.  Most of the newscasters or warm and friendly, even when they are reporting accidents and crime in the area (Some of them almost report the death and destruction with glee…but I digress.) 

There is one reporter that is usually at the site of the crime and just about every morning and when she reports the news like a bored zombie.  She looks like she just came from a funeral; her face is sullen and emotionless.  Every time we see her my says the same thing, “Is she really alive?”
So, you need to insert your personality in to your posts whenever you can.  

Talk About Other Things, Even if it’s “World War Z”!

Make sure you talk about off-topic issues once in a while.  Usually, if you do nothing but talk about your niche, no matter how great the information is, you’ll
be perceived as boring.  However, that’s not to say it can’t be related to your core topic in some way.

I used to get Dan Kennedy’s marketing newsletter on a regular basis, and I was always amazed at how easily and seamlessly he could shift to a subject that did not appear to be on the subject of marketing, but was.  He would talk about subjects that were related to his niche like: time management, celebrity issues, TV shows he liked or disliked, etc.  However, these issues did relate to his overall marketing message.

Current Events – Staying Sensitive to Things Around You
If there has been a horrible event caused by natural disasters, terrorism or even a Zombie apocalypse, you will be perceived as unthinking and uncaring if you continue talking about your business.  

So, be very careful when dealing with important social issues.  You can really damage all of the work, time and branding of your business if you ignore other people’s pain and anguish during trying times.

To Your Success!
Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Web Savvy Facebook Scheduling Tactics to Help Jump Start Your Campaign

On my last post, I told you a few things about how you should be using social media to promote your business online.  I also told you that if you weren’t using social media to influence your clients, customers and prospects your competitors probably were.




Plan It Out

Web Savvy Facebook Planning
A planner with lots of room will let
you plan your posts to Facebook
I carry two planners around with me wherever I go.  That’s not an accident, I find that I am far more productive with one than without one.  I hate getting to the end of a day when I’m tired, realizing that I should have completed an important task and I still have to get it done.  

Not only that, but I find that the work I need to do will be done at a much higher level of quality than if I wait until I’m spent.

So, if you are planning on using a social media channel, you may want to plan what you are going to do as far as posting and doing follow ups with people on Facebook.

As I see it, there are 5 phases to gaining popularity on Facebook or any other social media site:

Phase 1 -- Set up your pages.
Phase 2 -- Locate influencers in your market.
Phase 3 -- Contribute to the influencers.
Phase 4 -- Invite them to your Facebook page.
Phase 5 -- Get them into your funnel.

Each of these phases will be expanded upon, but for now, I want to focus on the third phase, “contribute to the influencers”.

Giving Them Something for Nothing

The reason I’m talking about Phase 3, “Contribute to the Influencers” first, is because it’s the one that will take the most time in terms of planning, writing, connecting, and posting your high-value material.

Buy a Planning Book.  Get a planning book that you’ll have plenty of room to write in, and for starters try to write out a schedule of things you want to post about over the next week.  Many social media experts will tell you to try to plan for three to six months, but I feel that most people that are starting out in the social media or the Facebook arena will get overwhelmed. 

Here's how Internet Marketing Expert Michael Hyatt Plans his Posts:



It’s a far better idea to just schedule a week or two at first, so you won’t burn yourself out at the onset.  My way of thinking, is that if you get worn out trying to merely do the scheduling, you’ll never get started.  And if you never get started in social media, you’re leaving heaping piles of cash on the table for your competitors to scoop up.

So…

Step 1 Write out a one to two week schedule on what you’re going to post about. 

TIP: If you get hung up about what to write about in your chosen market, head on over to Amazon and look at books dedicated to your niche.  You need to look at the best sellers in your niche.  There is a wealth of information in the Table of Contents of those books.   You can easily get all sorts of ideas about what to write about by looking at those chapter titles.

Step 2 Research your topics.  Once you have a subject, do some extensive research on what you are going to write about. 

Step 3 Write your post.  For God’s sake, write a well-structured, thought out post.  Your audience is inundated with people that write crap.  I’m not saying that I write incredible masterpieces, but at least their coherent most of the time and I try to disseminate valuable tips and content that will benefit my audience. 

(Personally, if someone writes like a text book or a bestseller, the common man or woman out there might not relate to the message as well.)

Step 4 Post to Facebook and your other social networks.

In my next post, I’m going to show you the best way to set up your Facebook page so that you’ll be asking your herd to go to a page that adds value and enriches their lives.
Until then…

To Your Success!
Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

(859) 797-9560
elmo033057@gmail.com

P.S.  Here's a two links on posts I've made on the subject of researching topics and niches and scheduling posts.



Monday, January 19, 2015

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:





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:




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
"When it comes to high response copy, I've got your back!"
 (859) 797-9560
elmo033057@gmail.com