Facebook uses offline purchases to target ads

If you head to a department store to buy a pair of jeans, you might start seeing a lot of ads for pants on Facebook.

For the first time, Facebook ads will target specific users based on their past buying history -- even if the purchases happened offline. Facebook unveiled the new feature for advertisers, called "Partner Categories," on Wednesday. 

The feature works with information from massive consumer data companies Acxiom (ACXM), DataLogix and Epsilon. These are companies that know all about you: your income level, your online activity, your Social Security number, what you've bought recently, and even whether you've served time in prison.
Facebook (FB) Partner Categories matches the social network's user-generated data with the information from the data companies to create dossiers on its users. Facebook then groups those specific users into categories like "people who are heavy buyers of frozen foods," and advertisers can serve ads to those curated groups. 

Previously, advertisers could target only general groups based on user-supplied information: for example, women in California who list surfing as an interest. 

In a blog post about the new product, Facebook was quick to note that the data are anonymized on both sides. That is, while advertisers can target groups of specific users, they never know the identities of the users they're advertising to. 

Partner Categories advertisers see only the size of the group, and details about why these users were grouped -- for example, they're customers with a grocery store loyalty card who buy three times as much cereal as the national average. 

The pairing of these data sources is sure to incense critics of the company's data practices, though Facebook also noted in its post that "companies have long used this type of targeting off of Facebook."
"We think that this new type of targeting is both more relevant for people and can be even more effective for advertisers," said Elisabeth Diana, spokeswoman for Facebook. "We think we can serve both in a privacy-safe way." 

At launch, advertisers can choose from 500 of these "partner categories," and further refine by data like gender or age. Facebook said users will be able to see how and why they were targeted for a certain ad, and they have the ability to opt out of ads from certain advertisers or from partner categories altogether.
By adding this type of highly targeted advertising capability, Facebook clearly wants to create more value for advertisers -- which could result in more revenue for Facebook. 

The social network has over a billion users, but in 2012, the company's average revenue per user was just $5.32. That's only a 6% increase from 2011, and it's far lower than other companies that report the metric.
Still, advertising remains Facebook's bread and butter. Ads accounted for 84% of Facebook's revenue in 2012, and the company has continued to release site updates that toe the line between calling attention to ads and not annoying users. For example, last month's News Feed revamp centered around a more visual design that also includes bigger graphics for ads in users' news feeds.

 Article Courtesy of CNN Money

3 Tips to Attract and Retain Mobile Consumers

Every day mobile devices improve the way we shop online. As the market grows — 45% of American adults own smartphones — it becomes even more important for businesses to adapt to mobile payments.

Today's businesses need strategies that not only attract mobile consumers, but also retain them, which can be infinitely more profitable. In fact, gaining a new customer is six times more costly than retaining one, a figure which should highlight the importance of loyalty programs. But that isn't your first priority if your business is part of the surprising 55% of American small businesses that don't accept credit card payments. That's major revenue loss!

Check out the graphic below, researched and created by Merchant Warehouse, for more information on how your business can embrace the mobile revolution and gain connected customers.

Homepage image via iStockphoto, Erikona; infographic courtesy of Merchant Warehouse

Article Courtesy of Mashable

Increase Brand Awareness and Engagement on LinkedIn: 10 Tips

Are you on LinkedIn? I love LinkedIn, and I'm very active on it. If you aren't on LinkedIn, you are missing out on some serious opportunities from a personal and business standpoint.

In previous posts I've talked about engagement strategies for what I call the BIG 5 social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, and LinkedIn. These are the 5 most important social networks that you can use to engage your audience socially. I am not saying these are the only ones, but as they are the most populated, these are the ones you should consider right now.

As you will hear me say often, find out where your audience or potential audience hangs out and spend a larger portion of your time, money, and resources there.  For my business, Social Media, LinkedIn has proved to be a huge traffic driver for me and a valuable lead source. 

WHAT MAKES LINKEDIN SPECIAL?

There are 200 million registered LinkedIn users worldwide. 64% of the users are based outside of the US, which makes it great for reaching an International audience. 35% of LinkedIn users use the network daily, primarily for business purposes.

LinkedIn is no longer just a resume holder. It is a robust network of individuals representing employees in over 2 million businesses. From a B2B standpoint, this is huge! In this post I am going to show you exactly how you can use it to engage with customers, clients, and potential business partners.

HOW TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT ON LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is one of my favorite networks for a few different reasons, the most important being that it is strictly related to business. Where Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are a bit more personal, LinkedIn is all business and it is great for small businesses. In fact, LinkedIn generates more leads for B2B companies than Facebook, Twitter or blogs.

1. Upgrade Your Account

Before I get into the nitty gritty of how to use LinkedIn to increase engagement with your audience, I want you to consider updating your account. The prices are very reasonable and the benefits are great. With a premium account, you can send InMails to reach just about anyone on LinkedIn. You'll also be able to see more in the search and see who has viewed your profile.

2. Connect With People Who Have Looked At Your Profile

 

A quick warning: if you have viewed my profile, I am going to add you, because it shows you are interested in me. I have also noticed that as I increased activity on LinkedIn, I have been viewed by more people, which is a clear sign of how my engagement is helping me grow my audience and network on LinkedIn. As LinkedIn is the most open of all the networks (it doesn't have a private setting), people are more likely to accept your request than on any other network. Most everyone is looking to grow their business, which is why I see no problem having as many connections as possible.

3. When Connecting, Write a Personal Message

To distinguish yourself on LinkedIn, try to steer clear of the default message. Instead, write a little about yourself and why you are interested in connecting. Remember, first impressions are important in life, and this is your first impression. Your LinkedIn profile is also very important, which I will devote a post to. I wrote about it here a few years ago. As social networks are constantly changing and updating their features, I am due for a follow up post, so stay tuned for that.

4. Join Groups

There are over 1 million groups on LinkedIn. This means there is no excuse- you can always find a group that is relevant to your industry. 81% of users are in at least one group, which means that your prospective clients are already members of, and might even be active in, a group.

I have discussed the value of joining groups in my article about where to promote your blog posts. But beyond promotional, LinkedIn groups are a valuable tool with which to brand yourself as an expert in an industry or topic, and to gain insight and knowledge.

Once you join a group, it shows up on your newsfeed. As you know from my previous posts, newsfeed marketing is crucial to social media success. If anything, it puts your name out there. Another benefit of being in a group is that it connects you to people which means you might not have to add their email to add them as a connection. It also shows the person you are connecting to that you have something in common. Common ground is a good thing.

5. Share Your Content With Relevant Groups

Sharing content is the number one way to engage on all social media networks. It's what makes these networks social in the first place. And social media is all about the shareable content. Having a blog is social media bait. It gives you something to share. And if you provide valuable content (which I hope you do) you will notice your influence grow.

I share my blogs to a variety of different groups on LinkedIn. As I blog daily and people are interacting with it (commenting and liking) I have found that I show up on the "Most Influential" list day after day. For branding within a network of business-minded individuals, this has been very critical to the growth of my blog. As the ConvertWithContent blog is set up as a funnel, I have seen an increase in leads as I continue to blog on a daily basis.

If you don't have a blog, you can still participate in sharing content. Find articles that are relevant to your business and encourage people to comment on them. This tactic goes for your own posts as well. The more comments and likes a post gets, the more often it will show up in the newsfeed. Each time a person likes or comments, it will show up on their newsfeed and open you up to a whole new audience, their connections.

NEWSFEEDS ARE THE KEY TO SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS. 
To encourage people to comment and like, add a question to your post. I often comment on it myself to get the conversation going. An active post encourages more people to comment. There is nothing quite like an active discussion.

6. Comment On Posts

In your newsfeed you will see that people are sharing tons of content. The platform gets over 2 billion network updates viewed weekly. Do a quick scan and see if anything relates to your industry or if there is anything you have knowledge about, and let your knowledge shine. It will help to brand you as an expert in a certain industry or topic, help brand your business and introduce you to new people.

Beyond commenting on posts in your newsfeed, you can comment on posts in groups as well. Make sure you are thoughtful in your commenting and encourage more conversation.  Don't be a know it all, be a know it and want to learn it all. Of course, there is the newsfeed ripple effect when you comment on posts as well.  If you know me by now, you know how much I love newsfeed marketing.

7. Build Your Company Page

Company pages are relatively new. They are becoming more and more robust as we speak. You can have a cover photo and you can now update with photos. As you know, photos rock in the social media world, so utilize this tool.

Again, share content about your business here. This can be articles, photos, videos, and slide show presentations. The key is consistency. Make sure you share your company page with your network to start building it up. This is a great place to showcase your business and take on a more corporate profile.

Make sure your personal profile is connected to your business page in your "About Me" section. If you are just creating your business page, you can edit your profile to link to your company page.

In order to have the most complete and engaging company page, make sure you fill out the Product & Service portion. You can include a special offer for LinkedIn members here as well.  Exclusive content goes a long way.

8. Follow Other Companies

Following other companies in your industry, or those who can become potential partners, is a great way to learn what they have to offer. There might be something you can partner on now or in the future.  In never hurts to poke around a bit.  The more you put yourself out there, the more you are going to get in return.

9. Search

LinkedIn just updated their search capabilities. The new search is called Unified Search. It is simple to use and set up a lot like Facebook's new Graph Search. The search is more filtered and more personalized. Search for keywords that are relevant to your business. Now group and post content shows up in addition to jobs, companies and people.

Once you find relevant content, comment and like. By commenting on others' content, you are likely to pull them into yours as well. Never forget that social media is a two-way stream. The more you put in, the more you are going to get out. 

BONUS TIP:

LinkedIn endorsements are the new Facebook poke. So go ahead and endorse away. Of course I only recommend this if you actually are familiar with the person's work. By doing so that person is going to get a notification of your endorsement and you will show up on their radar. If you get an endorsement make sure you thank that person. A thank you to their inbox can go along way.  Not only does it open up a conversation for you to build that relationship, it is just plain nice.  As Peter Shankman says, "Nice Companies Finish First." That goes for people, too.

Double Bonus Tip:

LinkedIn just added a way for you to tag your connections on LinkedIn in a similar fashion to Facebook.  This is a great addition to LinkedIn lineup as it allows you to have conversations in a new fashion.  By tagging someone in a conversation, they will receive a notification and they can comment directly.  As this just launched today, I will keep my eye on it for you.
Stay tuned and make sure you connect with me on LinkedIn.

Top 5 LinkedIn Stats - Nov 2012 infographic

Question

How are you using LinkedIn?  Have you had success in building your list, finding new customers, or increasing traffic to your site? What challenges do you face with your LinkedIn profile?

Article courtesy of Social Media Today

Facebook: Understanding the Business Benefits

Introduction to Facebook pages for business

Facebook is the king of social networks and as such, almost doesn’t need an introduction.  It is likely that you are already familiar with Facebook and probably have your own profile. With over a billion users, it’s the biggest social network with a user base that is still growing.


As with other social media platforms, Facebook allows businesses to build a community with the potential of turning a proportion of those community members into customers. By clearly showcasing a combination of the attractiveness of your goods and services, your customer service and your brands personality and/or USPs, you can use Facebook to attract new customers to you and foster brand loyalty in your existing customers.  Just like on your website, your aim is to make people stick around long enough that you get the opportunity to persuade them to buy in to your brand  and become a customer.

Don’t make the mistake of using Facebook like a one-way sales channel. Bombard your Facebook fans with offer after offer, and you’ll find this is the quickest way to lose potential customers (unless you have a deal based business model such as Groupon or Wowcher).  As a rule, no one wants constant hard sell filling up their timeline. The key to successful use of Facebook for businesses lies in your ability to engage followers, listen to them and to balance the content you are publishing.

What’s the point of Facebook?

Facebook provides businesses with the ability to create and grow an engaged community of customers and potential sales leads.

Building communities and individual relationships

Facebook provides an excellent means by which a company can not only demonstrate their expertise in any given area, but they can actively create a brand personality, in keeping with brand values and marketing strategy and promote their unique selling points.

Facebook is all about engagement and adding value. As a result of reaching out to your customers, you’ll obtain highly valuable insights that will shape your communications (extending to other social networks and even transferable to your traditional marketing channels), making them even more effective.

Successful use of Facebook relies upon effective engagement and in your ability publish fresh and interesting content.

Building a community doesn’t come easily and it certainly won’t happen overnight.  You will need to commit to and invest in a long-term strategy that will underpin all of your social media activities.  If you are after a quick win or instant results, then social media is not going to provide that, unless you are using paid advertising.

Whilst this introduction to Facebook deals primarily with the free page all businesses can set up, you do have the option of enhancing your presence further by taking advantage of promoted posts and Facebook ads. Similarly enhancing your page with free or paid-for Facebook apps, can help to improve the quality of your content and help you to attract more visitors.

Facebook pitfalls to avoid

Ignore your Facebook Wall at your own peril

Checking your social media pages every now and again just isn’t enough, and for any page with more than a few hundred Likes or followers, it is critical that you are regularly monitoring interactions.

Consider this scenario.  An irate customer posts on your Facebook wall complaining about a customer service issue.  Respond to such a post quickly, providing an apology, reason and resolution and you can effectively turn the situation into a positive PR opportunity.  Consider that same irate post on your Facebook wall left un-answered for several days.  This makes it look like you don’t care about customer service and also shows that you don’t pay attention to your Facebook wall, sending a very negative message to anyone visiting your page and it certainly won’t help you convert new customers.

Once set up, the single most important thing to remember is to monitor your Facebook wall.  Whilst daily monitoring is acceptable, for active Facebook communities, then you are going to want to check your wall for any mentions, pre-sales questions or customer service issues several times a day.  

Fake likes are largely worthless to you

You are likely to come across companies offering to sell you ‘Likes’ and for a new page, this can certainly be tempting.  Consider this though – why do you want to buy likes?  What benefit do you get from appearing to have more likes? The real value of Facebook comes in the form of genuine fans, which should largely be made up of existing and potential customers – these fans are receptive sales leads and so have an intrinsic value, making it worthwhile to invest your time into engaging them.

Buy likes and your new fans will have no real interest in your brand and as such can’t be categorised as potential sales leads, in which case they are of little or no value to you.

Failing to engage sends out negative signals

To make Facebook work you need to give people a reason to come to your Facebook page; when they are on your page, your goal is to ensure that they see something they are interested in, resulting in a desirable action, such as clicking through to your website.  If you rarely update your wall you aren’t giving people a reason to come back.  If however your content is interesting and fresh, then people will like your page and will keep coming back.

Facebook and all social media, is about crafting two-way conversations.  Engaging fans isn’t about constantly pushing out content; it’s about publishing content and then pausing to listen to your fans responses.  This way you will learn what they like and will be more able to understand how to reach your target audience.  When a fan is actively engaging via activities on your wall, they are highly receptive.  Give them what they want and engaged fans can turn into customers.

Controversy can increase the viral potential of content but is unlikely to win you customers

Some believe that posting controversial content will help that content spread and go viral.  Whilst this can be an effective strategy for achieving viral spread, it isn’t recommended.  Controversy often stirs up strong emotions which can have very negative implications.
Stay away from being too controversial, you don’t want to polarise or alienate people; you might have strong political or personally held views, your business’s Facebook wall however is not the right place for you to express them.

Beware of the Facebook Troll

Lurking online is a special breed of person, known as a Troll.  Simply put, a Troll is someone who is purposely antagonistic, argumentative and/or offensive.  They will often respond to posts just to create an argument or cause a reaction and will frequently use abusive or offensive language.

Depending on your point of view, you might see them as a harmless nuisance or you might see them as anarchistic trouble makers.  Once identified as a Troll, my own stance is to block the offender from posting.  Blocking or banning should not be taken lightly though – if someone has a real customer service issue or complaint to air, it is always advisable to deal with it rather than simply removing the post and banning the user.

Don’t be tempted to deal with the potential threat of the Troll by locking your profile down and stopping people from posting on your wall altogether though. If you do that, you will no longer see any of the true benefit that social media provides, as you will no longer be inviting two-way conversation, turning Facebook into just another one-way marketing channel.

Part two of this introduction to Facebook will be published later this week and will provide you with some facts and tips that will help you get the most out of your Facebook activities, as well as some suggestions for engagement activities that you can take away and implement.

Courtesy of Social Media Today

10 Facebook Page Tips to Avoid Looking Like a Fool!

The following Facebook tips are pretty straightforward and easy to follow. It amazes me to still see businesses get it wrong! This is not just for the newbies; I’m seeing well established brands and businesses make these mistakes as well.

So here's a recap of what every Facebook Page owner should know to avoid looking like a fool.

1. Know the Difference

Facebook profiles are for personal use, not for business. This is where you share pictures of your kids and connect with your family and friends. It’s okay to network with people using your personal profile, but you can’t conduct business. Remember that personal profiles represent individual people and must be held under your individual name.

Business Pages have many specific benefits:

• Pages are public so anyone can read and follow your posts
• You can install apps and tabs on your Page
• You can run ads for your Page
• You can run contests and promotions
• You have Facebook Page Insights which helps you see how your Page is performing
• You can have several people managing a Page with different roles assigned to them

Additionally, Facebook’s terms doesn’t allow for you to conduct business on a personal profile. Beware that Facebook has been known to shut down accounts without notice.

2. Make It Easy to Share Your Page

Customizing your Page web address will make it much easier to share your Business Page in your marketing communications, website and business cards. You can only change it once so make sure that you’re careful and think long term about this. You can change your URL here https://www.facebook.com/username.

Here’s an example of the difference between the two:
Default URL: www.facebook.com/pages/vasimpleservices/177767078381
Custom URL: www.facebook.com/vasimpleservices

Remember that if you change your Page URL address, you’ll probably have to go change it everywhere else on the web, including your website, so that you don’t get broken links.

Bonus Tip: To make it even shorter, you can also use www.fb.com/vasimpleservices (use FB instead of Facebook) to share your Page after you’ve set your custom URL.

3. Don’t Make Me Work 

Make sure to fill out the “About” section properly, including a link to your website. Please tell me in one sentence what your Page is all about; don’t make me look around or click on anything to figure it out! Most people never click on the About box to get additional information.

If your About section on your Page doesn’t allow you to add a proper business description (this will depend on the Page category you originally picked), make sure your cover image tells your story.
Just keep in mind the Facebook rules on covers which allows for no more than 20% text.

4. Use the Proper Picture Size

If you don’t use the proper image size for your cover image and profile picture, the quality usually will look bad. Make the first impression count and pick good quality graphics! You may get a higher quality result by using a PNG file.
Cover image size: 851×315 pixels
Profile Picture size: 180×180 pixels (displays at 160×160)

5. Know the Rules

Running contests and promotions require that you follow some rules. There are Facebook terms that you must follow but also laws that you must respect. Playing the “I didn’t know” game usually doesn’t work and it’s your responsibility to keep up with the rules.

6. Not All Your Fans See Your Posts

Even when someone Likes your Page, it doesn’t mean that they will see your posts. Actually, depending on which type of post you’re using, probably less than 16% of your fans will see your content.
This is due to the Facebook algorithm formula called EdgeRank which is used to control the amount of content people see in their newsfeed.
If you want more people to see your posts, you have to get your audience to engage with your content (like, comment and share) which will help increase your Edgerank. As well, you always have the option to pay to promote your posts.

7. Post as Your Page

When posting on your Page, it’s best to post “as your Page” and not as yourself. When you post on your Page using your personal profile, your posts end up in the box on the right called “Recent Posts by Others” which is only seen if you go on your Page directly and your fans will not get your updates in their own newsfeed.

Remember, less than 2% of people who Liked your Page will ever return to your Page after Liking it. Most of your fans will consume your content directly in their newsfeed and not on your Page.

8. Be Relevant

If I’m going to follow your business on Facebook, I want to see posts related to your business. If you’re a website designer, why are you constantly posting inspirational quotes?

Try to stay focused and don’t stray too far off your main business topic or you’ll confuse your audience. 

9. Spam is Bad

Don’t Spam! Really, this seems pretty obvious but I see it all the time! I consider it spam when I continually see your sales messages in my newsfeed.

Try applying the 80/20 rule: 80% of your content should provide value and less than 20% of your posts should be promoting your products or services.

Some of the biggest offenders I see are people in the Real Estate industry who often post 100% of their content about their home listings. 

10. Don’t Go MIA

Being consistent is the key with your Facebook marketing.  Avoid falling off the map for a long period of time. Remember, out of sight…out of mind!

If you know that you‘ll be away or have a really busy day or week, use the Facebook scheduling tool to plan your posts ahead of time which will help you avoid going MIA (missing in action).

Facebook marketing is not rocket science but you have to keep on top of the changes and know the basic rules to avoid making mistakes. How do you keep on top of it?

Article Courtesy of Social Media Today

 

Infectious Social Media Marketing: What Advertisers Can Learn from "The Walking Dead"

Social media is like a zombie outbreak: you start with one person who spreads or promotes something, and that one person can end up turning into thousands.

The season finale of The Walking Dead was this past weekend, and the hit show, which only has three seasons under its belt, managed to come out on top of last week’s social TV rankings. People across all different social channels are talking and promoting the show, and it’s helped make it one of the most-watched series on TV.

Trenderr, a tool for measuring social media activity related to specific TV shows, has The Walking Dead beating out Game of Thrones, the NCAA Basketball tournament, and NBA basketball: Heat at the Bulls, which was one of the biggest games in recent NBA history (thanks to the undefeated streak the Heat had heading into Chicago).

The Walking Dead had a weekly activity of 2,263,258, which made it the most talked about show on social media last week.

So what can social media you learn from a show filled with zombies -- one that wasn’t even sure it would see a second season?

1. Advertising on TV is slowly losing importance. When we take a look at the success of The Walking Dead, part comes from the solid fan following of the comics, while another part is from people who love the zombie craze.  Still, the show might not have made it out of its first season without the help of social media.  Other shows like The Event (11.19 million viewers during the season premiere) or The River (8.35 million) didn’t make it past season one, even though both were on major networks and had a strong television backing. The Walking Dead has been more successful (12.3 million viewers for the premiere of season three) on a lesser known channel, and with smaller television backing because of how social media has played a role in getting people to talk about the hit series.
2. Word of mouth is still social king. The key to using Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media is clearly word of mouth.  In the case of The Walking Dead, part of the show’s popularity clearly comes from how many people talk about it online, and if your friends are talking about it, not only is there a stronger chance an advertisement will end up on your social media wall, but you’ll be more inclined to watch it for yourself.
3. Social media is both the judge and jury. If there’s anything to take away from the social media buzz of The Walking Dead, it’s that social media can play both the judge and jury. How successful something is can easily be judged by how many people are talking about it on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.  If people are talking about your product on social media sites than you know you’re advertising the right way.  If you’re still struggling to generate buzz, it may be time to shift gears and move in another direction.

The Walking Dead has managed to capture the attention of fans, and the benefits are clearly showing on social media platforms.  The series has used social media to help push itself into the spotlight, and as their fan base continues to grow, the show doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. 

The Walking Dead proves that like a herd of zombies, a good product can be infectious on social media.

Article courtesy of Social Media Today

Why You Need To Build An Email Marketing List

Succeeding online takes some core elements. First, there is generating traffic. Second, there is site monetization. Third, knowing how to build a large audience base. Creating a large audience base is the pinnacle of online success. To really blow your audience up, you need to collect emails.
Rich, online gurus have huge lists. Many possess lists that have over one million subscribers. This is how they make the bulk of their money online. They promote their own products and offers simply by writing up a good email and sending it out to their subscribers. They have already established trust so thousands of their subscribers will purchase. Imagine the math here. If a person has one million subscribers and they send out an offer that converts for $100, if only 0.1% purchase the offer, the person makes $100,000. This is why you need to focus on collecting emails and building a gigantic list.

The Process Of Building A List

The standard way to build a list online is through attracting people to a landing page. Generally, something is offered for free in exchange for an email address. Often, eBooks and newsletters are offered. Internet marketers then drive relevant traffic to that landing page. This is how people begin building a list. Aggressive marketers will put up to 10-20 landing pages across the Internet to build their list fast. It works well, but you need to know that this strategy takes a lot of cash.

How Do You Drive Traffic To A Single Landing Page?

It is difficult to get one landing page ranked on search engines. You can rank it for less competitive keywords, but that will not generate enough traffic. The best way to drive relevant traffic to your landing page is through buying lots of ads. This is an expensive method so most experts won’t mention it. If money is not an issue and you know how to advertise online, this is the perfect route to build a giant list in few months, or even a few weeks.

Here Are Four Things To Help You Build A Successful Email Collection Campaign

Focus On A Popular Niche
The niche does not have to be as big as health and fitness, but it has to be good sized and popular. Some experts recommend focusing on smaller niches because conversions are higher, but traffic will dry up faster. It can be tough to pitch the same offers to the same people over and over. I advise going after medium to large niches so it will be easier for you.

Have Something Valuable To Give Away
If you are giving away an eBook, make sure that it is filled with great information. You need to offer something of value so that you can build up credibility and trust with your audience. You need trust to sell things to them later.

Make Your Landing Page Stand Out
Design your landing page so that it looks different than average, generic squeeze pages. People are cautious of those types of pages because they have seen them before, and have been burnt by them before. Make your page look unique.

Use An Introductory Video
The video will describe your free offer and why you want to give it away. Add content to the page that talks about the specific issues your offer will address. Add your own picture to the page so that people know there is a real person behind the offer.

Not A Lot Of Cash To Spend?

If you do not have a large budget for ads, you can build your business and list through a blog. You can create tons of content and over time, search engines will pick up your content. Within your blog, you should have lots of anchor text and banners pointing people to your offer. In WordPress, you can put your offer in the widget section and it will appear on every page. For an example, visit my blog at www.OMTWiredUp.com. Click on the eBook image and you can see my landing page.

Autoresponders

An autoresponder is a piece of software that allows you to send emails out to people automatically. You can set up a sequence of prewritten emails and send them out to your followers at regular intervals. The emails are collected and stored in a database on the autoresponder platform. Once there, a subscriber can receive emails from you.
Get a good autoresponder and set up a series of emails with good information and products to sell. This will all go out automatically. I recommend Aweber, Constant Contact and Get Response. I prefer Get Response because the inbox delivery rate is higher than the others. This is important because you want your emails to go to the inbox, not spam or junk. It has lots of management tools to make your emails look professional and the cost is low to use Get Response.

Maintain A Good Relationship With Your List

There are some things you should do to keep a good relationship with your list. First, respect it. Always send your subscriber’s grade A stuff, whether it is information or products. Do not abuse your list and send them emails everyday. They do not appreciate seeing their inbox full of crappy emails. Send your emails out on a weekly basis. Do not send them offers with each email. Give them lots of great content and send out offers that will help them. Only sell products that you believe in too. If you sell crap, your list will be crap. People often focus on the money and promote any product to make them some money. Do not do that. You will destroy your list.
If you are looking for a way to make money and have a long sustaining income online, you should begin collecting emails right away. If you are going to use multiple landing pages, make sure you have deep pockets and learn about online advertising. Make sure your landing page is unique. Use a video coupled with images and great content. If you are going to use a blog, build content and bring people to your site through search engines and social platforms. Make sure you are giving away a great offer. Focus on a niche that has plenty of traffic. Lastly, respect your list.

Article courtesy of Search Engine Journal