Integrate with Facebook & Twitter to increase you Adsense earnings!

[born2run]

Hi folks,

If you have a popular site with popular topics, I'd highly advise you to integrate with Facebook & Twitter to increase your adsense earnings and site traffic.

With facebook you create a group for your site. With twitter you create an account with them using your site name. Use bit.ly to create an account and post your latest articles with shortened urls in Twitter and facebook.

Increasing the facebook and twitter followers is another ballgame but it's worth the time spent as now Facebook has surpassed Google in time spent with users on the net. Same with Twitter. The traffic is enormous!

So there's my two cents worth. Happy facebookin' and twitterin'

Regards!

[HuskyPup]

Yikes, is it me or is FaceBook extremely difficult to set-up?

IMHO it's a horrible non-intuitive mess. My daughter looked at it and didn't have a clue what to do, anyway somehow we've got something there however i don't like the fact that it doesn't tell you what name you actually have.

I entered my foreshortened company name as "Example" and it was not available therefore I entered Example.com which it accepted however FB seems to have shortened it to Examplecom which I ain't happy with.

Plus when I enter facebook.com/Eamplecom the site cannot be found however logging-in and entering Example, without com, it is immediately found!

Am I expecting too much too fast?

I suspect I'll be deleting this lot and starting another page once I comprehend what's actually going on...not impressed with the set-up right now.

[HuskyPup]

Another question!

Are you using a personal or business account? It would seem that what I was expecting to do is not available under a business account, from FaceBook:

What is the difference between a business account and a user profile?

Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.

[netmeg]

You should probably find someone to help you set it up who has a little experience. It's NOT at all intuitive. One of the things to know is that you can't actually name your page what you want until you get something like 25 fans. Then, if the name is available, you can take it out.

Also there's a FB for Dummies and FB Marketing for Dummies book that might help.

I agree, the stupid way it's put together is a big hurdle to jump. But if you can bear with it, it gets better.

[HuskyPup]

One of the things to know is that you can't actually name your page what you want until you get something like 25 fans.

So I read in their destructions however how am I supposed to link to my business FaceBook page from my sites if I don't know what I'm linking to? All I have is an enlongated url with numbers.

Do I have to wait until I have the 25 necessary fans first and then when I've got my facebook company url then inform all my clients either by e-mail or through the websites?

I reckon those books seem like a good idea at the moment:-)

[alika]

If you need to spend money on Adwords, it's because you are low down in the SERPS.

Well, I don't spend anything on Adwords. My sites are all high in the SERPs.

Yet I still do Facebook and Twitter. As I've said in a previous post, the benefits to us are not just traffic numbers -- e.g. branding, partnerships, media exposure. It's not all about direct sales or traffic. There's that indirect benefit that's hard to measure.

If you don't want to use it, fine! Leave it to us to use it to grow our businesses -- because if you know how to use them, you can benefit from these social media sites

But that's just my experience :o)

[Lame_Wolf]

Well, I don't spend anything on Adwords. My sites are all high in the SERPs.

Same here, but i'd rather be a wolf than a sheep.

If it floats your boat, tickles your fancy, or any other cheesy cliché, then fine. But frosty the snowman will have to walk out from the gates of hell throwing snowballs before I would even think of joining.

[netmeg]

Do I have to wait until I have the 25 necessary fans first and then when I've got my facebook company url then inform all my clients either by e-mail or through the websites?

Pretty much. I started out asking everyone I knew to "like" it just to get the 25 going, then I could market it with its "friendly" name.

You can put a clickable icon on your page (without giving them the url); the old ugly one will still work even after you get the friendly one.

[HuskyPup]

You can put a clickable icon on your page (without giving them the url)

I'm assuming that until their friendly url has been granted that one links simply to the Facebook index page?

I seem to have spent a lot of time setting-up this and reading loads of their help pages, some of which seemingly contradict themselves, and fortunately I've just found out my eldest daughter's bloke has a successful business page and he's checked it over and confirmed all is as "should be".

Facebook really does need to review its set-up method or is it actually very easy and I, as usual, cannot see the simplicity in it?

That's a code monster for you! :-)

[freejung]

Facebook really does need to review its set-up method or is it actually very easy and I, as usual, cannot see the simplicity in it?

It's not just you IMO. I had a hell of a time setting up the "like" button. It's not so much that it's difficult per se, but that it's badly documented, overly complicated, poorly designed, and buggy as a jungle evening.

I expect it will get better - I think facebook has released a lot of stuff while it's still beta, just because they want to sieze the opportunities that are available to them.

[ThatsBoBo]

Did you people create your fan pages with your personal Facebook account or did you first create a business account to create and manage your Fan Pages?

I have a personal account, but maybe I should keep my Fan Pages for my sites separate and via a business account?

Thanks!

[mickmel]

ThatsBoBo: You can't, as per the Facebook TOS. You get one "account" -- for YOU. That account can create multiple pages and groups, but you're not allowed to create multiple accounts.

That being said, the privacy settings allow that to work out fairly well, so it's not a big deal.

[shyspinner]

I set up a Facebook business account a few years back. The people in my niche are mainly women. Women seem to use Facebook to socialize mostly. I don't like to socialize. I'm not so chatty. I guess you could call me an anti-social networker.

I have my Facebook set up so that when I tweet something on Twitter, it goes directly to my FB biz, and fan page. When my friends "like" (thumbs up) what is posted or my biz page, THEY'RE friends see it in their feed. That saves me some time and grabs more eyeballs.

On my profile page, I have links to my other social profiles and my main website.

I also have found that tweeting about on-site advertising, then having it appear on Facebook pages has always kept my site full of advertisers. It let's site owners in my niche find advert slots on my site. Special price discounts for Twitter/Facebook users has also been successful for me.

I have also just implemented a storefront on my FB profile, but have not yet set it up and let it go live, but I see many others in my niche who have kiosk apps installed to their accounts allowing for merch purchase through Cafe Press and Zazzle type sites.

I do not socialize publicly daily or even monthly on my profile, but cannot even tell you how many competitors, potential customers, paying customers and referred questions I have received through either the FB message system and weekly posting my sales, discount, or site updates. I have won many business contacts and interesting proposals through my "friends".

Posting a link to a new web page has gotten that page indexed by google almost immediately and if adsense is present on that particular page, starts to add up pretty quickly.

I don't post here much, but Webmaster World has grown my knowledge incredibly and I thought I might like to chime in on this one, thanks for letting me ramble, it took me a while to type as I just had 14 stitches put in my left index finger :)

[azblogtips]

most of users from twitter and facebook are aware of adsense ads then you hardly make penny with this type of traffic, in worst case, your account can be terminated by google too.

[HuskyPup]

in worst case, your account can be terminated by google too.

For what? Clicking through from a Facebook business page to an already well-established AdSense site?

That would be the least of my concerns however is there such a thing as attempted co-ordinated Facebook click attacks?

Oh, I forgot, whenever I have had those from "wherever" Google's recognised them immediately.

[mickmel]

@azblogtips -- With 500M+ users, I don't think you can categorize all Facebook users as being AdSense aware. I think it's a fairly well-rounded slice of the internet. Perhaps Twitter users are a bit more tech-savvy, but even then it's not enough to worry about.

[anand84]

Who wants free traffic ? I want decent traffic. I get that from the search engines.

Have you ever wondered about maximizing revenues from your customers? Retargeted traffic? Search engine visitors rarely remember the sites they click on which means a good chunk of your customers actually forget who you are once you've delivered the goods. Getting them to 'like' you on Facebook actually gives you an opportunity to keep in touch with them. Much like email advertising; just more viral and easy to maintain. So next time they run out of their red widget and want to buy one more, they remember you..

/edit : And since Mayday, it does not make much sense to feel comfy with just the nice targeted traffic from search engines. You never know Google drops its bomb on you..

[Lame_Wolf]

Have you ever wondered about maximizing revenues from your customers?

I am not greedy. If I wanted to, I could add adverts to the 65% of the site that doesn't have adsense on it. (about 5000 pages).

I get many repeat customers, bookmarked as well as from other sources. My visitors advertise my site on such places as FB and Twitter. I don't ask them to do so, but it happens.

If you want to waste/spend your time on FB, then do so. But it's not for me. I don't need FB friends, I have real ones. Ones that I can recognise in the street, not some name from a person I will never see or care about.

[anand84]

I'm happy if that works for you. But your business strategy runs completely counter to the management practices of almost all successful companies in the world; not just internet ones.

Every company worries about minimizing customer acquisition costs. And social media is there on top along with newsletter/email marketing as the best ways to reduce this cost on the internet by building a community and getting your one-time visitors become repeat visitors. It's pretty strange that you choose to rubbish away a great opportunity simply because your business doesn't seem to need it..

I'm not here to convince YOU to spend time on FB. For that matter, I have not spent time on social media marketing myself. But I assume this thread is all about exploring a new channel by seeing how it has worked for those who have tried it.

[Lame_Wolf]

But your business strategy runs completely counter to the management practices of almost all successful companies in the world; not just internet ones.

Not all of us live for money. In fact, I have taken some adverts off because I was making too much money.

Oh, and to add to my strange "business strategy", I help my competitors and inform then on how to improve their site. I've even made sites for my competitors.

Some people like to help others, and only need enough money to get them through.

[anand84]

That's great to hear and I definitely hope we have more of your kind.

But to be fair, people visit WebmasterWorld to discuss and learn about ways to improve traffic and website monetization. Rubbishing an emerging area of internet marketing simply because one doesn't need more money isn't exactly charitable to website owners like myself who are yet to establish ourselves in the space or to others with the traditional business mindset.

[mickmel]

While I disagree with Lame_Wolf's ideas about social media, I agree with his "don't try to monetize everything" approach. Even if revenue is your top priority, withholding some ads in the interest of growing your sites is often a wise move. If you read "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick, you'll find that Zuckerberg has been very much against ads on Facebook since the beginning, only to the extent of paying the bills. By keeping his core focus on growing the site and keeping users first, he now pretty much controls the world. :)

[Lame_Wolf]

Rubbishing an emerging area of internet marketing simply because one doesn't need more money isn't exactly charitable to website owners like myself who are yet to establish ourselves in the space or to others with the traditional business mindset.

I disagree. I have been very helpful if you've read my previous posts.

If I had x amount of time to do either SEO or setting up FB, I would SEO.

From what I have found (from long term observations) is that the CPC seems to be better when I am high up in the SERPS. When/if it drops, so does the CPC.

FB won't help with the SERPS. Your "friends" won't all be interested in what you have.

Now, target the keyword for the search engines, and people who visit are more interested in whatever it is on the page than any FB or twitter user will be.

SERPS are far more steady than having to keep writing on those sites.

Being high up in the SERPS means I can do other things. I can go away for weeks on end. No problem.

Whereas FB/Twitter etc. I will have to constantly write something just to get a fraction of them to visit the site.

[mickmel]

Being high up in the SERPS means I can do other things. I can go away for weeks on end. No problem.

Agreed. It also depends on what kind of site you have. For a static site, the social tools are less important (though still worthwhile, IMO). However, for a blog they're quite important; essentially just additional ways for users to subscribe to your content, along with the RSS feed that all blogs provide anyhow.

[true_INFP]

We were considering creating a business account with them and a Page, until we read their terms and conditions, in which you explicitly give them copyrights and any other intellectual property rights pertaining to any content you submit or upload to them (for example, your trademarked product logo) and even to sub-license(!) these rights to others.

They call that "use", which is defined at the end (yes, at the end) of the agreement as modification, creation of derivative works, etc.

Outrageous.

So, no, thank you. We'll happily ignore this fad.

[SwitchFX]

I just got hit with a spammer as soon as I used AdSense in a tweet. No thanks.

[true_INFP]

I should add that I wrote about Facebook, not Twitter.

If they merely requested the limited right to distribute your unmodified logo via their sites, we'd have no problem with that (obviously, that would be the reason why we'd upload it to their server).

Seriously, if any of you already uploaded your trademarked logo to Facebook, you gave them (and their chosen sub-licensees) permission to exercise any copyright and trademark rights you have in the logo (and any other intellectual property rights therein).

(Unless Google and Microsoft have special private agreements with them, Facebook can now use the Google and Microsoft logos for anything they want and in any way they want. And they can permit any of their sub-licensees to do the same...)

[mickmel]

@true_INFP -- Link to the agreement? I'd like to read it all. Very interesting stuff.

[epmaniac]

how many bookmarks each day are indicator of a good site?

10-15 bookmarks on a traffic site of 15k ?

[true_INFP]

@true_INFP -- Link to the agreement? I'd like to read it all. Very interesting stuff.

[facebook.com...]

Relevant sections: 2.1 and 17.7.

2.1 [...] the content and information you post on Facebook [...] For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). [...]

17.7 By "use" we mean use, copy, publicly perform or display, distribute, modify, translate, and create derivative works of.

(Date of Last Revision: October 4, 2010.)

[andyll]

How is the TS any different from most forums TS?

Missing from the above snippets was the line where they say their IP rights to your content ends when you cancel your account.

That is not true with most forums including this one.