How long do you spend on social marketing?

[Alan Cheng]

I just submitted a post to my blog. Spent about 2 hours on it - spell checking, tagging, keyword research, linking to others, getting pictures for it etc...

Then I buzzed via Web2Submitter, ASBUZZGROUP, other social sites etc...

It took me about 4.5 hours in total.

I have not stated work on my remote blogs yet.

Are the rest of you having similar work hours, or should I be quicker?

[Walt Goshert]

Alan,

You'll get quicker and develop a system that works for you. (even though you're spending lots of time doing stuff now, document everything you're doing so you can make it systematic... know what to automate and outsource)

Something that helps me is to use my Google Alerts to feed Remote Blogs which becomes my research of articles and info that I use to craft my weekly Buzz article. Also, Buzz with a purpose in your niche. Stumble, Digg, Del.ic.ious ,or whatever social marketing network best fits your niche, with a research eye.

Finally, having a publishing schedule that fits your affiliate or own product promo time lines keeps you focused on the topics you know you have coming up.

I know I easily spend 4.5 hours to crank out a good, well-researched, well-promoted post. But, sometimes, a gem will pop out when you pick something you're passionate about, and share it with your readers. Look at Rick Butts' "Unsubscribe" article. My guess is Rick simply sat down, wrote from his gut, and caused quite a stir.You will get faster. Also, keep in mind, you're building blog equity with each and every Buzz-worthy article you write.

Alan, keep following the ASC/SPL game plan. You have a great blog with lots of solid content.

Walt

[Alan Cheng]

Hey Walt,

Thanks for the encouragement. I believe that what I'm doing will work. I'm just questioning am I spending the right amount of time doing it. I guess was looking for replies such "Wow. You're dumb man. I spend about 3 hours max."

Then I'd be revising my actions. I'm happy with what you replied, Walt. Cheers.

[Alan Cheng]

Hi Everyone,

Check this out man. I did a linkbait to my blog yesterday and finally worked on a total of 7 hours on it. All in one day!!!

I checked my stats today and got 389 unique visitors to my blog. I'm over the moon!!! Seriously, I can't quite believe it myself.

I must get back to work now.

[JohnT]

It depends on what I write for my blog, as to how long it takes. The Blog post I made on Spam was the culmination of about 10 years of research and observation, but the post itself actually took me about 2 hours to write and another 2 to proof read it and re-edit the thing. I also spent 2 days finding sources to use that were new and fresh.

The Blog post I did on The Golden Path took me about 3 days to finish, but writing the post and proof reading it actually took about 90 minutes.to 2 hours.

On the other hand the Paris Hilton to wed Benji article I did took about 15 minutes to do, I should have taken a little longer but it was a fluff article anyway... I didn't write it to send in to places like The Onion. lol

[Chris Lang]

I actually do this full time, so my 10 - 15 hour work days are different. Also just submitting your own posts to social bookmarking sites has little to do with traffic or SEo, unless you have a focused and receptive friends list that will rate your articles highly. Especially if you are only submitting your own stuff, that is actually only going to hurt you. Read the Digg thread here on SMC.

Look at Rick Butts' article, it has 18 Diggs. I could easily get that article 200 Diggs in the next 24 hours. It depends on your social interaction and your friends list.

That is where you should be spending your time, building targeted friends lists on your various social networks. When we were analyzing Digg, JohnT, Sexy Social Marketing and I all had 300+ friends lists and we could easily get Diggs in the 100s if we wanted to.

It also depends on what your topic is when it comes to Digg, email marketing, SEO and Digg traffic content does not do well there. If you want to know more search "digg mafia".

Also your efforts have to be weighed against conversion. Did that article that drew 300+ convert into RSS subscribers, email newsletter subscribers and at least produce alot of comments?

If it did not then I would say you are wasting your time writing an article that took 4.5 hours to write and did not produce conversions. Don't take my comments the wrong way, I am not being negative. I am passing on what I have learned the hard way. Boy have I learned it the hard way.

When a real internet marketer called me and told me that anything less than a 50% conversion rate to his newsletter pisses him off I kind of rethought my sites and their conversion rate. He also enjoys a 10% + sales conversion rate.

So what is it you are selling that your blog supports? Add your link here and we can then talk about how much time you should be spending writing articles.

Hope this helps, Cheers = Chris Lang

[Walt Goshert]

Chris,

50% conversion to newsletter subscribers landing on a blog, or landing on a squeeze page?

Hard to imagine 50% conversions to newsletter subscribers on a blog? Also, is this with exit opt-n block hovers? Reminder block after the post? What specifically is he doing? .

Take it you're referring to Paul Myers with the 10% sales conversions...

Yeah... Rick should have gotten more than 18 Diggs. I did the original Digg, but should have deferred to a Digg power user. I'm sure not.I did the Digg with no shouts. Plus, while I agree he no doubt could have gotten up to a couple hundred Diggs, not sure if that would have brought him converting traffic.

You raised the right question the other day...sure would like to here from Rick on how the dust settled on that one.

Walt

[Chris Lang]

I tried not to do this but I feel the Chris Lang rant that has been building for a while now.

How much time should Alex be spending on an article?

How much does he stand to make from a post?

What kind of conversion rates does he enjoy?

What kind of ROI do his blogs bring him?

Let's answer those questions before we go any farther.

Alan if you can't answer those questions then you shouldn't waste your time writing another article until then.

I am going to go all out and not hold anything back here.

Alan, you have enough of a site that my comments should do you good.

The rest of you that have sites without even a newsletter signup form or god forbid a visible product or squeeze page, don't read this, it will just hurt your feelings.

Walt,

Remember the whole damn Digg thing, 60 replies and all the posts me and my two friends added here? 1000s of visitors at my site? Yeah, I made a handy little $500 for my time. And I even have a product that targets the market, social bookmarking.

What a waste of time, everyone continues down the same road and refuses to even think that all the documentation I presented is correct. Most are too headstrong to admit what they are doing is wrong.

Now if I look back on this, I would never have released all that information until I wrote a $20 report about Digg. Then I would have done everything just the same but I would have embedded "How to Get More Diggs" the eBook, in every page.

I have said this before here, real internet marketers don't do anything that does not directly relate to a product they sell!!!

Walt look at your profile, it is a mini ad that lands on a squeeze page.

Look at mine, the same thing.

Too many people here have no product of their own. Why are you doing anything besides developing a product of your own? You can blog till you are blue in the face, but you are wasting you time if you are not selling a product that you keep 100% of the profits from.

Alan, I took a quick look at your site, nice and clean, I don't believe it, a newsletter sign up form!! You have all the correct pieces in place, I am pleasantly surprised. Why am I surprised?

Do you know how many of the 200 friends I have here have failed to implement even this most basic items? Most bloggers don't even have a contact page. God forbid a phone number.

I know most of you are going to read this and be insulted, butthurt or just plain pissed off, but so many are missing even the basics of internet marketing and then you want to come here and give advice.

Alan, if you do not know what your opt in rate is....

If you don not know what your overall ROI is....

And I don't mean what they are, I mean what percentage you are pulling.

Google Analytics should be your project for the next few days to come.

If you already have GA in place and you are enjoying an opt in rate of 20% and an overall sales rate of 3% then you don't need any help, you have got it all goin on and we should be talking about how to speed up your writing process.

If you do not have you own product, do not know what these metrics mean to you, then you should not do another thing until you have a web site analytics package in place, have you own product to sell and get an email list and sign up form in place (ignore that alan cuz you already do).

If you or anyone else wants to contact me off list and talk about this further my contact info is on my SMC page. If I have insulted you or your site, well it's about time someone told the truth here and if you are a sucess in the future on the internet you will look back and know that everything I said here was true.

From the brutally honest department of Chris Lang

[Bob Scheller]

Chris, great rant and I think you have filled in a couple of missing pieces for me. I am new to using the Social Networks for Marketing, but not new to conversions, ROI, etc. for online initiatives. I think the best piece of advice is "..don't do anything that does not directly relate to a product..." I can also see the challenge is not to flood with links and become spam either. That being said, I believe you have provided the link I was missing to convert readers to subscribers and start them down the buying path. (I have a strong tech background so I need to see connections to get from point A to point B. Repeatable outcomes don't occur without a system to move step by step to the next action.) I am sure it is out there in everything I have been reading, but the connection back to Google Analytics is where I have been trying to get in my research. I am putting this together for a current client, so ROI is going to be the measurement.

In addition, while I set my first blog up to be my testing ground, I will be making some changes to it also to get revenue working from it as well. Thanks

[Chris Lang]

Good reply Bob,

When I said that real Internet marketers don't do anything that does not relate to a product, I did not mean that they should do it here.

Whenever the Internet gods that I have followed for years write a blog post (they weren't called that then, blog posts) they tell a story laying out a problem and give some of the solutions, and good ones, in the end there is a link to where you can buy the whole shebang.

I am a programmer myself with 5 languages under my belt and I have a problem with ad copy. I talk way to much about features instead of benefits.

It was one of my top 5 Internet marketing gods, Paul Myers that pointed out that my sales letter sucked (his words) for my email delivery eBook.

After just changing a few things to make the leads feel the pain that comes with not having you email delivered I am starting to see more conversions.

If that is your problem then get Bob Serling's book on Power Copywriting for the Internet.

This is when I learned what real Internet marketers do:

I posted some data relayed to me by Tom Kulzer of AWeber. Paul who is a subscriber to my email delivery newsletter, read the post, called Tom, recorded the conversation and sold the MP3 for I think $30.

I about cried, (I think I did a little but don't tell anybody) when I saw that I had the chance to do that and never thought to make a product of the damn thing. In fact I was promoting AWeber's affiliate program at the time.

Paul totally took what I had and turned into a product by picking up the phone. It would be easy for any of you to do the same thing.

Pick up the frakin (Battlestar Galactica reference) phone and call people. Don't sit around sending emails that get caught in spam filters and just come off as self promotional pitches.

Heck you all have access to Jack Humphrey here, why not do an interview with the guy?

You have access to many other marketers here that make their living on the Internet, call them and talk to them. Just because they are millionaires does not mean they aren't real people.

[Walt Goshert]

Chris,

You gave me a great product idea...

I'm gonna call Tom Kulzer and Paul Meyers, do a video, ... and sell it for $49, with a hard copy up-sell CD, DVD, Print Copy of call transcript for $79

You wanna throw in your e-book as a Bonus? :o)

[Chris Lang]

Let's work on that. I am going to release the Digg info as a free book so I will throw that in.

Since this is on email delivery let's do some kind of joint venture with each other on your transcript and my $69 eBook on email delivery. I will send you a copy when I go back thru and update it one last time next week.

I will be ready when you are done.

We should definitely think co-reg on this too.

Think about an upsell package where we offer both our products as a double whammy or I will throw my email eBook as a bonus if you throw in yours and we can both go $129 on the package with each others help, call me tomorrow morning if you want.

http://www.emaildeliveryjedi.com

First I gotta get KeyWebData.com up to speed, just sent out 1000 new friend requests and I gotta work my wickedly evil social marketing on them. In fact when the eBook cover comes out it is going to be called "Wickedly Evil Social Marketing Tactics"

[Walt Goshert]

Social Email Tactics... Put aWeber on Steroids

( Wickedly Evil Marketing...in a Good Way)

I just realized... aWeber is located outside of Philadephia, less than an hour away from me... maybe I'll pop in and do a Robert Scoble with Tom Kulzer.

I'll call you and we'll kick it around.