Advertising on Facebook and MySpace
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2660
- WEALTHY: How to handle the biggest deficit in history (Ted Peroulakis)
- HEALTHY: Should you be on HRT? (Dr. Ray Sahelian)
- WISE: Seth Godin on Facebook
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Google wins again (Edwin Huertas)
- Why “I don’t have time!” isn’t a good excuse (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about scientific terms that came from science fiction
- Add “froward” to your vocabulary
Record Deficit Spending for Fiscal 2009
As a result of expenditures for economic relief programs and government bailout programs aimed at getting us out of this recession, the U.S. budget deficit for fiscal 2009 is already close to $1 trillion, the biggest in history. In fiscal 2008, the deficit was a record $455 billion, and this year’s could be four times higher, possibly hitting $1.8 trillion.
And that’s not all. The recession took a bite out of tax revenues and put millions of people out of work. Higher jobless benefit claims are pushing government expenses higher. In addition, defense spending is elevated and Social Security costs are growing.
If an individual consistently spends more money than he takes in, he will eventually go bankrupt. But the U.S. government will never go bankrupt because it can just print up new money whenever needed to meet its debt obligations.
A projected deficit of $1.8 trillion this year and a current national debt of over $11 trillion could lead to a big spike in inflation. So make sure you protect your wealth and purchasing power. Invest in hard assets like gold, silver, copper, land, and oil.
[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis keeps a close eye on the markets and government efforts to keep this recession at bay in Investor's Daily Edge, ETR's sister publication.
You can meet IDE's financial experts - along with other top names in the industry - in person this June. Find out more here.]
“When someone goes to Facebook, they’re not looking for stuff. They’re looking for people. But people don’t buy ads, stuff does.”
Seth Godin
Are Social Media’s King and Queen Worth Your Advertising Dollars?
With 200 million and 125 million users respectively, Facebook and MySpace have got marketers everywhere frothing at the mouth. “Look at all those potential customers!” they say. “How can we harness the overwhelming popularity of these sites to our benefit?”
Alexis Siemon has written before about marketing your business via social networking websites like these. Usually, that means interacting with members of the network, answering questions, leaving comments, and branding yourself as an expert in your field.
And now, not only can social media networking help you build a relationship with potential customers – which is essential to getting them to trust you enough to buy your products – this marketing channel can (apparently) help you amp up your traffic by increasing the number of inbound links to your site.
Facebook and MySpace have given us a way to use social networking sites to market a business or product by setting up banner ads on the sites themselves. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as you might think.
Let me tell you about my experience…
I’d been reading a lot about the new advertising possibilities at Facebook.com and MySpace.com, and I figured I should start testing ads on both to determine if they would be effective marketing channels for ETR. So I decided to open accounts on both of these social media platforms.
The first one I tried was Facebook – and I have to tell you… they’re going to be leaving BIG money on the table if this is how they plan to run their program.
I’ll explain.
The sign-up process for Facebook was simple. I managed to set up an account quickly, so my experience started out as a positive one.
Then the problems began…
I started to create an ad using their (somewhat user-friendly) system, and I found that it was similar to Google’s AdWords interface. So I thought, “Great. I will zip through all of my ads quickly and begin tracking the results.”
That wasn’t the case.
For openers, they ask you to make choices from a set of audience-targeting criteria, including such things as Location, Age, Sex, Education, and Relationship Interests. It made me feel like I was putting up a personals ad to look for a lover.
When I finally finished my ad and clicked Submit, I was told that it had to be approved… and I had to wait. (Awful compared to Google’s instant reviewing system.) After a few hours I received an e-mail from Facebook telling me the ad was declined, but with no explanation as to why. Instead, they told me to look at their guidelines, which outline so many different things that I had no idea what the problem(s) could have been.
I tried to clean up my ad (using EVERY rule they had in place) and resubmitted it. After a few hours I got the same e-mail telling me it was declined. Again, with no explanation – just pointing me to their stupid guidelines page.
I tried five more times and finally gave up. Maybe they didn’t like my landing page. Maybe the verbiage was wrong. Or maybe there was a misspelled word. Who knows?
So I decided to try my luck with MySpace.
I created an account for ETR and was pleasantly surprised by their interface. They give you much more control over how your ad looks and have an easy-to-use system that allows you to customize it down to the last detail.
I created and submitted my first ad. As with Facebook, I was told that the ad had to be approved. I understand the need for quality control, but considering how quickly you get feedback from other programs – like Google AdWords – the slow response is ridiculous.
I waited more than 24 hours but didn’t hear from them. I logged onto my account and there was my ad… still pending.
I can’t believe that posting ads to these websites takes so long. I want to give them money, but they don’t seem to want it.
I started writing this article when I started submitting my ads to Facebook and MySpace, and decided to wait until at least one of them was approved so I could share my results with you. But it’s been six days… and NONE of my ads have made it through.
At this point, I think I’ve done enough research to confidently say that Facebook and MySpace ads are just not worth it for us.
Listen, despite their massive popularity with users, these sites just aren’t making sales. According to an article in the MIT Technology Review, “The sites seem largely incapable of generating revenues commensurate with their popularity.”
In an interview for the MIT Technology Review, Anthony Acquisti of New York-based emerging media agency OMD says this about advertising on social media sites: “You don’t want to be there.”
Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs, Inc. and Mahalo.com says, “Social networking is second only to chat rooms as the worst place to advertise.” He adds, “When you’re on Facebook, we know you’re looking to meet a girl or talk to your friends. It’s a terrible platform for advertising.”
Says Ryan Hupfer of HubPages, writing for TechCrunch.com about advertising with the social media giants, “The one thing that I do worry about is how much noise their users will take before the ads begin to get in the way of what they’re actually there for – communicating with their friends.”
These comments all add up to some serious problems with the existing advertising models on Facebook and MySpace.
For now, based on my experience and on what my research has turned up, I can’t imagine Facebook or MySpace becoming a competitor for ETR’s advertising dollars.
Here’s the way I see it…
1. Google offers a much quicker turnaround time for new ads. Your ads are reviewed quickly, and there’s no waiting hours (or days) for them to be approved and get posted.
2. Google is the leader in PPC advertising, and there’s a reason for that. Their advertising platform is extremely user-friendly.
3. Google’s conversion ratio (from the anecdotal evidence I can find) is MUCH higher than that of either of the two social media giants. This could be due to the fact that most of the (young) surfers on those portals are there for socializing and nothing else. They’re not looking for information or ads.
Of course, you never know how these sites will work for you until you TEST. So, yes, go ahead and test Facebook and MySpace. Still, in my opinion, they need to do some major overhauling if they plan to develop serious ad revenue. And you will never get the results that Google AdWords provides.
[Ed. Note: You should test out multiple marketing platforms - social media sites included. For 12 proven, effective marketing channels and how to use them, pick up a copy of the Amazon.com bestseller Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business.
You may want to get started right away with easy, user-friendly Google AdWords. You can get a step-by-step guide on just how to do it right here.]
The Missing Piece of the Internet-Riches Jigsaw Finally Revealed…
All this time, so many of the “gurus” kept this a secret, while they use it to make themselves big online profits.
I’ve had enough, and I’m telling all. If you want to make money online, all it takes is 3 easy steps and a push of a button. No kidding. And there’s nothing stopping you from doing this time and again, until you are tired of the profits that come in. You’ll be shocked to see how much money is out there for you, and how you were kept in the dark all this time.
To discover the truth and get started on the road to making real money, click here…
ETR Insider Report: Have You Sharpened Your Axe Lately?
“I just can’t make the time management seminar tomorrow,” Amy announced to the editorial team during a recent meeting. “I’m so busy, it’s going to kill my productivity this week!”
Amy expected Charlie to excuse her from the seminar. Instead, Charlie asked, “Have you heard that old allegory about the two lumberjacks?”
“Lumberjack A never takes time to sharpen his axe because he’s so busy chopping down trees. But Lumberjack B sharpens his axe every week, no matter what. Guess who cuts down more trees? Lumberjack B with his super-sharp axe.”
If you’re like most folks, you are constantly busy. There are a hundred things on your low-priority to-do list that you just never get to. So why would you take time you don’t have to go to seminars on marketing… or workshops about growing your e-mail subscriber list… or industry conferences?
Charlie’s allegory says it all: Taking time to “sharpen your axe” can actually save you time.
A time management seminar can help you learn how to be more efficient and get more done. A marketing seminar can help you reach more customers, faster, and improve your sales. An industry networking event can put you in contact with potential partners or employees who could take some of your work off your shoulders.
[Ed. Note: Think you don't have time to make it to ETR's 5 Days in July conference? Once there, you can put together a fully functioning business in 5 days. Which means more income for you. Which could mean cutting back at your current job and having more time to spend doing the things you enjoy with the people you love. Check out the details here]
What You Should Know About Hormone Replacement Therapy
One of the most controversial subjects in the medical world today is hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women going through menopause. Many doctors bitterly oppose synthetic HRT in favor of bio-identical hormones. Others note that bio-identical hormone use hasn’t been around long enough to know if it’s safe.
Keep in mind that there is a physiological reason for hormone levels to drop when you get older. As the body ages, it was not meant to be exposed to high levels of certain hormones. Therefore, any form of hormone replacement – through pills, creams, or shots and whether synthetic or bio-identical – is not something the aging human body is genetically adapted to.
Every woman has to decide for herself whether the benefits – relief of menopausal symptoms and the potential reduction of osteoporosis – outweigh the increased risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke, and other serious conditions.
If you must use hormone replacement to relieve your menopausal symptoms (or because of other health issues you may have), use the lowest dosage that works and for the shortest period of time. And be aware that there are plenty of natural, proven methods for limiting your risks of age-related disease.
Exercise, weight training, calcium, and vitamin D are a few good options for reducing the risk of osteoporosis. The risk of heart disease, stroke, and mental decline can be reduced through diet, exercise, lowering stress , yoga, deep sleep, and by taking certain natural herbs and supplements.
Humans have lived on this planet for a long, long time – but only in the last few decades have doctors been prescribing hormone replacement therapy to a large number of women. If, a decade or two from now, research shows bio-identical hormone use to be safe, I will wholeheartedly promote it. Until then, women who are using these hormones, particularly in high dosages and for prolonged periods, are taking a gamble.
Does HRT increase or decrease mortality? The answer is not yet in.
[Ed. Note: For more on HRT - and dozens of nutritional supplements - visit the natural healing website of Ray Sahelian, MD, at www.raysahelian.com.
You can find plenty of all-natural methods for staying healthy - including the latest breakthroughs in weight-loss programs... healthful recipes... and other ideas for achieving optimal health - all from one of the largest integrative-medicine practices in the country. Learn more here ]
It’s Fun to Know: Scientific Terms That Came From Science Fiction
Scientists have drawn inspiration from science fiction when naming theories, phenomena, branches of study, and more. Here are six examples:
1. Robotics – first mentioned in Isaac Asimov’s 1941 story “Liar!”
2. Genetic engineering – first mentioned in Dragon’s Island by Jack Williamson
3. Zero-g – first mentioned in Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke
4. Deep space – coined by one of the earliest science fiction writers, E.E. “Doc” Smith, in 1934
5. Computer virus – from Dave Gerrold’s 1972 story “When Harlie Was One”
6. Computer worm – from Shockwave Rider by Dave Gerrold
(Source: Oxford University Press)
== Highly Recommended ==
How to “Unscrew” Yourself from Life’s Little Frustrations (and the Big Ones, Too!)
When you get stuck in a royal mess – and we all do sometimes – here’s how to get out of it looking squeaky clean and grinning like a Cheshire cat…
Got a speeding ticket and afraid your insurance premiums are about to skyrocket? Don’t sweat it. I’ll show you the smartest way to legally beat the ticket – without hiring an expensive lawyer to plead your case.
Hate jury duty? Let me show you how to escape it – even if the court clerk refuses to grant you an exemption. Frustrated with airport waiting times due to tightened security? I’ll reveal how to cut your airport waiting time in half!
Listen: No matter which of life’s frustrations come your way, there are clever ways to easily get out of most of them. I’m even willing to share them all with you – FREE! Click here to learn why.
Word to the Wise: Froward
“Froward” (FROH-werd) – Old English for the opposite of toward – means contrary, not easily managed.
Example (as used by Oliver Goldsmith in his play The Good Natur’d Man): “Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humoured and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
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