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

Use eBooks to Cheaply Drive Free Traffic to Your Website or Blog

I have written eBooks, and as a marketing tool, they work pretty well.  There are two schools of thought on how to create them.  One is to sit your butt down and knock it off and the other is to hire a ghost writer to make one for you. 

Since most of you are like me (lazy), in this post I’ll tell you how to hire a ghost writer to create an eBook. In the next post, we’ll explore how to write your own and some of the pitfalls to avoid, but for this episode we’ll go the ghost writer route.

What Are eBooks and Why Does Everyone like Them So Much?

Just in case you’re brand new to Internet marketing, here’s a brief description of electronic books or eBooks. You can easily become a publisher without having to print up books the traditional way.

These are electronic books that you can get online and read on your computer.  These are sometimes called .PDF files. (PDF is the file extension that means that the file is basically text and graphics in book format.) You can have great pictures, and text laid out in such a way that makes the book look great, and the book can be as big or small as you want it.

One of the best thing about eBooks is that you could really load one up with pictures and graphics and you’d save a lot of money over traditional publishing because using traditional methods, you’d have to spend butt – loads on money getting full color pictures into a book.

Not only that, but distribution costs are super cheap.  They can be downloaded as file from one place on the Internet to the other, and they can also be sent as an email attachment from one place to another.  You can also sell them from a variety of places online such as Clickbank, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.   

Another super-plus benefit to eBooks is that they can also be Interactive.  Just like the Internet, you can place links to websites and products you’re trying to sell, and you can even embed video into them.  However, the computer that you are reading them on needs to be connected to the Internet for the links and video to work. 

The main benefit of creating an eBook is that no longer will you need to go through a publisher and all of the traditional routes to become an established author.  You can call yourself an author without needing anyone’s backing or permission and you can do all of this for next to nothing.  Amazing!

The Downside of eBooks and How to Overcome It

As I see it, there are two main setbacks to using an eBook.  First, everyone is making them and giving them away.  Some of the best eBooks I have read were eBooks I’ve gotten online for free.  (I’ll leave links to these at the end of this post.) 

However, a lot of the eBooks that are given away SUCK.  Plain and simple. We’re not going to go that route.

The other drawback is taking the time to sit down and write them.  The two disadvantages go hand in hand when overcoming them, as you’ll see in a moment.

 So, let’s tackle both problems at the same time in steps.

Step 1: Identify the Niche You’re Operating In.  If you don’t know what your business is all about, you are in an extreme disadvantage.  You’ll need to figure out where you are and how you’re going to get there.  If you haven’t taken the time to read the post I’ve already written on exploring niches, check it out here: Ways to Find Niches

  

Another method of finding out what your niche is, as well as your unique selling proposition (USP) is to actually sit down and write out a business plan.  The way I wrote mine was I got a copy of Conrad Levinson’s Guerilla Marketing Workbook.  This book is not only a great marketing book, but it will help you write out a fairly decent marketing and business plan.

Step 2:  Gather Resources.  Once you’ve identified your niche, go online and

peruse books and courses in your niche from Amazon, eBay and other book – type resources.  Find out what’s really hot in your niche and start buying and gathering information from them.  If you have to buy books from Amazon, you can get them cheap by buying them used.  You are looking for the absolute best information you can find in your niche.  The best way to determine this is by looking at the Amazon ratings as well as the number of comments that are on the site. 

TIP: Another awesome place to get this type of information from is forums.  Start reading and copying and pasting the best posts, questions and answers you can find from them.  Some of the most incredible advice I've gotten is from forums, so copy and paste your favorite readings into a word processor and keep them.

You’re going to need quite a stack of resources on your subject.

Step 3: Start Reading and Highlighting Your Resources.  Now, take the resources that you’ve been gathering and start reading.  Whenever you find something in them that you think is dynamite or useful, highlight it with a highlighter.  Do this to all of your resources. After doing this, you should have quite a pile of information.

Step 4:  Get reasonably priced writer and have theme write your material.  There are many places on the Internet to find writers that will do your ghost writing for you.  Here’s a partial list of places you can go to on the Internet to outsource writing:

Moving AheadCommunications 

Ghosts R Us – Specializes in outsourcing eBooks     

Fiverr - A unique site that vendors can only charge $5.00 a gig.  

oDesk 

eLance 

Freelancer 

99designs 

Hire the World  

There are loads of outsourcing sites and you’ll need to get used to using the one or two that you’ll feel most comfortable with in order to get your eBook or eBook written.

Step 5: Send your highlighted material to your ghostwriter and have them rewrite it.  Once you have your ghostwriter hired, send them your highlighted books and have them rewrite the material for you.  You are not plagiarizing, but rewriting the material into someone else’s words.  Not only that, but you are picking material from a variety of resources.  So, you are not copying, but using the material you highlighted as source material. 

Step 6:  Brand your eBook.  Make sure all of your marketing information is in the eBook before you give it away or sell it.  Make sure that your Web address, email, business number and any other contact information that you have is in the eBook.

Pretty much, that’s all there is to it.  One thing to keep in mind, you’ll need to check and read the material sent back to you by your ghostwriter.  You don’t want to have your name on anything substandard because you’re trying to build an excellent brand and reputation, here.

To Your Success!

Mark "Elmo" Ellis

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

Free eBooks that are just outstanding:

How to Make MoneySitting on Your A** by T.J. Rohleder

Magnetic Marketing by Dan Kennedy 

Blow Away the Competition Using This Traffic Generating Method of Giving Away Free Content

One of the biggest words in marketing besides “New” and “Sale” is the word “Free”.  If you read my last post, you’ll know that I’m an advocate of “Paying it Forward”.  It’s one of the best things you can do for yourself and others, and a super easy way of building a loyal group of followers as cheaply as possible.

However, before I give you some great FREE ideas, let me just mention that just because you’re giving away something as cheap as FREE you don’t have to make it cheap.  You still need to make your gift as high quality as possible.

Recently, I heard a podcast by a young guy that mass produces eBooks on Amazon. His business model was to pick a group of pen names, (a different one for each niche he was targeting) have someone ghostwrite eBooks for himself - dirt cheap, and then sell them for $5.00 each because there wasn't any pain for prospects in parting with such a small amount of money.

He claimed he was raking in the dough.  Maybe he was...don’t know.

The problem with this business model, as I see it, is he will always have to rebuild his customer base.  People that buy cheap items that are just thrown together probably won’t be back, and probably aren't successful enough to buy anything that you’ll want to sell them later at a higher price. 

That’s just my way of thinking.

Why the Big Boys are Big

The reason why marketing experts like Dan Kennedy can command $300 an info product, or charge $3000 a seat at a seminar is because he DELIVERS super-high quality information, products and services and carries that reputation around with him wherever he goes.  And he’s been doing it for over 30 years.

That kind of clout comes with putting YOUR back into it, rather than hiring a ghost writer to dash out some fast junk. The Dollar Store does well at selling super-cheap stuff because that’s exactly what it is--super-cheap stuff.  

You won’t find Dyson vacuum cleaners that will last for 10 years or more there, because that’s not their niche.  (Of course you won’t find me buying a vacuum cleaner there either, no matter how cheap they sell them.)

Now, I know what you’re gonna say.  “Wait a minute Ellis! You’re telling me on one hand to give stuff away for FREE, but then you’re telling me that I don’t want to have a cheap reputation.  What kind of double talk is that?”

They Already Have the Job

People that want to become teachers go through a gauntlet you wouldn't believe.  In order to become a school teacher in the U.S. you have to go through at least 4 years of college, take a whole battery of certification tests, do your student teaching for at least a semester in a regular school, and then make sure you follow the rest of your certification requirements in the state you’re teaching in. 

In the state of Kentucky, for example, you have to go through an extra year of a state run program.  That program requires you to be observed and monitored by other teacher’s at your school as well as administrators and state administrators.  

By the time you’re done with that program, you’ll have a book full of state forms and lesson plans that’s as thick as a New York City telephone directory.  If you pass all of that, you still have to teach in your subject area for 3 years or take some upper level graduate classes.

Full-fledged teachers don’t make that much money for the first 10 years they’re teaching either.

I remember when I was doing my student teaching in college, there was a professor that was prepping us for that experience.  She really hammered out the fact that she didn't care what the rest of the staff at the cooperative school was dressed like, we had to be dressed to the hilt, very professionally.  She went through the whole laundry list of what women and men were to wear while doing their cooperative teaching.

Some of the students asked why we had to get so decked-out if the rest of the school teachers were dressed more casually.

Her response was quite blunt. “They already have the job.”

So, consider what other professions have to go through just to get started before you start whining, please.

The Reasons to Provide Free Content

•        Your customers, prospects and fans want it, plain and simple. 
• 
  
•        You are trying to establish and prove your knowledge and expertise in your niche. Cheapest way to do it.
• 
  
•        If done correctly, it could be used to provide an online watering hole for your fans to congregate, comment and exchange ideas on a regular basis. 
• 
  
•        If you use offline newsletters, online eBooks and other wonderful vehicles, they could be passed around so you’re ideas and reputation could be spread virally.

The Grateful Dead Goes Live

A real good example of this type of FREE activity actually working, is from the famous rock group the Grateful Dead.  From a marketing perspective, they were unique in many ways.  But one thing stands out that they did which nobody else was doing at the time:  they’d let you record their concerts for FREE.

As a matter of fact, there was an area right next to the mixing board, where the best recordings could

be made called “taper sections”.  This is where people recording their live events could make their own recordings of Grateful Dead’s concerts.

Most music moguls would freak out at the revenue lost, but not the Dead.  They went viral before the Internet. People were exchanging recorded tapes, talking about them, and spreading their fame very quickly, and it paid off handsomely.  Hardly anyone hasn't heard of the Grateful Dead.

Google Gets a Jump on Free

Still don’t think high-quality FREE works? Take a good look at Google.  They have great free services that would take pages to list here.  It’s even been rumored that one of their latest ventures is to provide free Internet services to anyone that wants them, but that’s a future goal I’m not sure will happen.   

Google, like the Medici banking family of the Renaissance is collecting geniuses; there’s a whole battery of tests you’d have to take to get in their doors.  These people work in an environment that does nothing but give them freedom.  

Freedom to think, play around with ideas, and learn more.  People that work for this company don’t want to go home, so they stay and put in many hours. 

They are keen on FREE.  If they’re that smart, perhaps we should follow their lead.

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

The Top 3 Web Savvy Facebook Traffic Generating Tips

Over the last week, we’ve explored strategies and tactics for using Facebook as a traffic generator for your business.  These strategies will get you started as quick as possible, and to make sure you get off on the right foot with Facebook, here are the links to those posts:

Your Competitors Are Using Facebook

Facebook Scheduling Tactics

Creating a Facebook Presence

Dirt Cheap Facebook Tactics

Boosting Your Business with Facebook

What to Do With Facebookers Once TheyCome To Your Site

Getting People to Leave Facebook and Come to Your Website

Today we are going to look at 3 ways to easily get people to come to your blog or website.  Up till now we’ve been mostly talking about what to do with people when they get to your site.

Now I’m going to show you what you should do on Facebook itself to motivate your crowd to move in a direction that is conducive to your business.  We’ve already talked about what you should be posting, now we’re going to look at how you should post.  (If you don’t know what to post, please look at the video I’ve posted: HERE) 

Tip #1 Post Web Address of Post or Web Page into Facebook

The primary way I use Facebook to promote my site is by posting a blurb about what I wrote on my blog for the day.  I pretty much write 500 to 1000 word articles as frequently as I can.  When I do this, I go to Facebook and on my business page, I’ll post a brief message about the subject I’m writing about as an intro.  Then, I paste the URL of the blog post into the message field. 

Automatically, a picture will appear from the blog post itself as well as the title and link to it. I also do this on Google + as well and here is what it looks like right after you paste the URL into the field:

Facebook and Google + are almost exactly alike in this nature.

 If your blog post or landing page does not have a picture on it, you can always add a picture directly from your computer.  As always, make sure that it is relevant to your post. 

Tip #2 When Posting - Use a Dynamic Headline

This is a tactic where learning how to write a little advertising copy might help.  You want to have headlines on your posts that are relevant yet DYNAMIC!   The best way to learn these is to start going to well written squeeze pages and make copies of the headlines that impress you the most. Then, keep them in a file so you can use them as a basis of a headline later. 

For Example:

“My $10 Million Dollar Discovery!”

That was a title of a book by Internet marketing specialist Yanik Silver.

You could easily create a headline for your post that read: “My $5 Thousand Dollar Discovery”, or “My Massive Cash-Flow Discovery” or even “My Amazing Facebook Marketing Discovery!”

Please bear in mind that when you are collecting these ideas to not use the exact same words, but learn from them and draw ideas from them. 

If you are going to stay in the Internet marketing arena for a while, then you’ll need to keep a swipe file and learn as much as you can about writing copy.  You may not have any desire to be a copywriter yourself, but you need to at least understand it when you hire someone to write copy for you.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you need to make sure that you are not misrepresenting the content you are directing them to.  If you do that prospects will automatically see you as a waste of time.  You can still make the lead – in exciting and on-topic at the same time.   

Here's a good video that'll give you a few pointers on writing a good headline.

Tip #3 Make Sure You Post at the Right Time

Using Facebook and other social media sites is an awful lot like fishing.  My dad was an incredible fisherman. A natural, actually. He always told me the best fishing hours were from 5:00 AM and 8:00AM and then later on in the day from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. He almost always brought a load of fish home to clean.

Facebook is almost the same way.  When people get up first thing in the morning, they are looking for something to read and when they start getting home from work they are on usually. 

So if you can get yourself on just before those peak hours, you’ll get the most eyes on your postings.

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

What to Do With Your Facebook Prospects Once They Come To Your Site!

Over the last couple of days I’ve written about how to use a social media site like Facebook to cultivate and nurture relationships with prospects.  Now we’re going to talk about what to do with them once they get to your site. 

Unlike direct mail, which has a marketing process that looks like this:

Using social media to sell your, service, product, or ideas has a marketing process that looks something like this: (Facebook = Your Facebook Business or Fan Page.)

So as you can see there is a distinct difference between the two processes. 

The Big Differences

The difference between the two is obvious; the direct mail method is a simple two step system that requires the medium (sales letter) to sell whatever it is you are trying to push.  The Facebook method requires multiple steps is more complex, requires more time and work and is more difficult to track. 

The direct mail method is simple, delivered exactly to the person or persons you want to connect with, and is much easier to track.  Let’s face it if you send out 100 direct mail pieces and 4 of them lead to a sale that’s 4%.  

However, finding out your rate of success with social media of any kind is going to be a daunting task.  Direct mail does require a lot of work, because you have to have the skill set to write copy that will convert to sales.  That is a lot of work on the front end.

The Hidden Benefits of Using Facebook to Market Your Business

The hidden benefits with the Facebook method are it’s much cheaper, and your message has the ability to hit larger numbers of people over and over again. 

  You can sell to them, and if they love what you sell them, they will spread your message for you virally.   Not only that, but you can easily stay in touch with people that subscribe to your Facebook page.  That means if they like your business and products, they may buy from you over and over again. 

THE REASON I’M TELLING YOU ALL OF THIS IS BECAUSE ONCE PROSPECTS OR FANS OF YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE COME TO YOUR SITE, YOU’LL WANT TO TAKE EVERY MEASURE YOU CAN TO MAKE SURE THEY TAKE THE ACTION YOU WANT!

After you go through all of the necessary steps to get prospects to your site, you’ll want to have the opportunity to eventually sell them. However, don’t get too excited yet!  We still have a trick or two to perform before we unleash our irresistible offer at them…

A Proper Pop-Up That’ll Eventually Convert

One good way you can use to build your list is to use a “Welcome” pop-up.  The Welcome pop-up will drastically increase the number of subscribers to your list. 

It has even been reported that one Internet marketer increased his opt-in rate by over 700% in just a few months by doing this.  I can’t confirm this, but I’m sure you’ll have a better opt-in rate using a Welcome pop-up than a static box on your page. 

Bench Prep Uses a Welcome Pop-Up

With the Welcome pop-up, you won’t send them to a sales page yet.  You will want so ease into the sale eventually at a later date.  At this point, you are merely growing your list of humble, yet starving followers. Yes, starving to hear more about your niche, service or product, and it can all be done very cheaply.

Overt - Subliminal Advertising

Here’s an idea that has been around for a while, and yet when we see it, we stuff it into the subliminal backs of our minds. It’s very, very common to see an ad at the top of many popular sites.  Because we have seen these advertising banners so much, we have a tendency to automatically think of it as being a vendor’s banner, rather than a banner of the SITE OWNERS. 

So, it would be a good idea to create your own banner as if were someone else’s!  Don’t lie, just advertise your product at the top of your page just like a banner.  Perhaps use different fonts and colors than the ones which are on your blog or website so that it register’s in your visitors mind as “just another ad”. 

You can either sell your stuff from the banner or use it as another way to get more people to sign up for your email newsletter. 

The Warrior Forum Sometimes Advertises It's Own
Products on Its Site Like WSO Special Offers

Another way to have banner advertising is to make them relevant.  In other words, if you are talking about kayaking, you could have a free video on how to put a kayak on top of a car, if you can get the person’s email.  So have a banner or button that your visitors can click on that is related to what you are talking about.

Keep Your Landing Page CLEAN!

One last piece of advice about these strategies, keep your landing pages clean.  Google gets it.  If you look at the search engine objectively, you’ll see just how clean it is.  While all of the other search engines like AOL, Yahoo and Altavista were busy putting more crap on their pages than you could stand, Google went with a very clean and elegant design. 

The reason?  The folks at Google wanted to make sure their visitors were focused on one thing: getting nothing but awesome search results.  If you went to Google you had only one option: SEARCH.

It's Easy To See Google is Very Focused on One Function...Searching!

So, when you have a page that’s supposed to make your visitor take a specific action, make sure NOTHING can get in their way.  Keep that page very simple and devoid of distractions.

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 Facebook Method of Filling Your Sales Funnel

Social Media, especially Facebook is very popular.  The Internet is loaded with entrepreneurs that are jumping on the social media bandwagon, thinking that it will reel in loads of customers and prospects. 

If you don’t believe me, just hop onto Facebook and type “Make Money” into the search field.  You’ll see volumes of people that are trying to get you to immediately buy their wares.

Usually, these are big picture ads telling you to “click here” to find out how to make boatloads of money by either following their advice or selling you a product.  Unfortunately, this is not the way social media works.

Sure, you might get lucky and out of 5,000 or so posts of that nature, you could sell a person or two.   However, the chances of that are slim.  You first need to identify and clarify your sales funnel and its relationship with your Facebook business page.

TIP:  By the way, many people think that if you just use social media channels,

you can make mega-bucks with your business and walk away a winner.  I recently saw an episode of Shark Tank wherein a woman did just that.  She would post items she saw in stores and different places and people would buy similar items from her through her social media site.

However, what if the social media site goes down because it was hacked into?  What if someone banned her account or in my case, the hosting company wanted to charge me a large fee for bandwidth because there was a flood of people on my site buying stuff. (True story!)

The fact of the matter is, to quote Dan Kennedy, “If you are using only one channel or method of selling your product or service, then you are in a very dangerous position. And that’s because if something were to happen to that channel, you’d be out of business!”

‘Nuff said!

So getting back to our Facebook strategy, ask yourself a question:

How does my Facebook page relate to my sales process or where are my prospects at in the buying process?

Will Facebook fans actually buy from me?

How can I track my conversions so I can see whether or not Facebook is worth my time?

Dealing With the Reality of Facebook Marketing

If you cannot answer at least two of the questions above, then you may be wasting your time.  There are social media forces at work that you won’t understand and that could lead to you wasting a lot of time and money. 

Let’s take a good look at question #1 “How does my Facebook page relate to my sales process?”

You first need to have a sales funnel for your product.  Usually, Facebook pages are very early on in the sales process, thus putting it near the very top of the funnel.  On very rare occasions, you’ll have someone that will but from you right out of the starting gate, but that is rare.

You need to keep in mind that Facebook pages, like other social media pages, are trust and relationship builders.  (That is actually the answer to question #2!) 

Once a person likes what you represent, they will join your page and begin to participate.  However, in the scheme of things, very few people out of many will join your page, very, very few will participate.   Social media experts will tell you that a whopping 90+% of the people that go to your Facebook business page are browsers or lurkers. 

They know what they’re talking about.

I think the very first marketing book I read years ago, was by Jay Conrad Levinson in his CLASSIC marketing book, Guerrilla Marketing.  I say “classic” because you should go back and read it once a year.  Mr. Levinson made the observation that in order for people to trust you, they need to see you over and over again. 

This is the reason why mainstream businesses like Progressive Insurance and McDonald’s are always in your face.  Billboards, TV commercials, coupons in newspapers, magazine ads, etc.  The more you see these companies’ ads the more you feel like you know them.  No matter how bad Mickey -Dees hamburgers are for your health, you still want to buy from them.  This generation can barely recall a time that you didn't see the “golden arches” in almost every town you went to.

Not only that, but I think their Big Macs taste good, and people like them.

Checking Conversions from Your Facebook Page.

I’m sure that there are all sorts of high-tech methods, but being a cheap skate marketer, I like to do it up right and NOT spend money on tracking. So, here is my method…Cheap and easy.

Have an exclusive page on your site or blog with which to send your Facebook traffic from.  Google Analytics is a tool a lot of people use to track their traffic with. If you follow the directions on Google Analytics, which usually is nothing more than dropping a bit of code into your site, you should be able to see how much traffic that’s being generated from your Facebook page. 

If you’re like me and use Google’s Blogger, you can use the “Stats” checker in Blogger.  There is a menu in Stats that lets you check traffic sources.  The cool thing about Blogger’s traffic checker is that it is built into the system already, so you shouldn't need to place code into any of the Pages I’m sure that someone will tell me that this is not the most accurate way to go, and they would probably be right. 

However, most businesses on the Internet are not MASSIVE BEHEMOTHS, and therefore in the early phases of client and customer acquisition, can keep it cheap for a while. But this should give you a good idea if you’re getting any traffic from your Facebook page.

Reference Section:

Ten Ways to Check Traffic to Your Site

Getting Started With Google Analytics Video

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