How can I generate interest in my business from social media and forums?

[Luigi Panini]

I'm finding it difficult to get clients for my service business. Or at least enquiries.



I've tried twitter, but it's useless. You post stuff and no one notices or cares.

I've tried making videos on youtube, but no one clicks on the link in the description.

I've tried contacting other businesses asking them if they want an ad on my site in return for a mention on theirs, and some have agreed but I've had no traffic from that.

I've left a link to my site in the comments of about 700 youtube videos, and although I always get a trickle of traffic from that (in fact it's where I get most of my traffic), it's not a lot.

I've written 5 blog posts on my site. I was not expecting a miracle, and I would have been happy to continue writing more, but I've had next to no traffic from that so there's not much point, plus I'm not really a blogger/content producer.

I've tried facebook and I hate it. I joined lots of groups and posted links to my site and I got a lot of traffic. On day one I got 40 views to my site, which for me is a miracle. The next day I got 108, which was amazing. Then I got kicked off because facebook is complete crap. They don't let you do anything. It's no longer an option anyway. I think they can tell it's me every time I try to rejoin as I get banned almost immediately. I hate facebook. And I can't use instagram because facebook owns it.

I've joined forums but I always get kicked off for spamming. The problem is, I can't resist charging in like a bull in a china shop and posting my link. The thought of having to talk shit with people for ages before daring to casually mention my site in the hope of getting any interest, is extremely demoralizing. Most forums won't let you start threads about your business, or mention it, or put a link in your signature, or send private messages about it, so how the hell are you supposed to use forums to drum up business? Same with reddit.



However, I decided to try something a bit different. I've joined some more forums and started a subreddit, and for now, I'm going to focus on nothing other than sparking conversations related to the topic of my business (without mentioning it at all). After that, who knows. I know from all the traffic I got from facebook that there are definitely people interested or at least curious about what I have to offer. Also I've had quite a few enquiries on my contact form although they don't seem to understand that it's a paid service.

So my question is, once I have generated lots of conversations on forums/reddit, how do I direct them towards my business without getting banned? I don't mind having brief conversations with curious/interested individuals from forums or reddit about my service, but I don't want to have to constantly step on eggshells. How can I get people's attention without getting banned/slowed down with rules and restrictions?

 

[perrymason]

You're gonna need to build some value first and get some karma reddit users are the most tricky ones.
There's no useless platform, the way you project your product or company pays a lot in the long run. What may work in one site may not in the other...pinterest tends to have good results with females for example.

 

[Luigi Panini]

You're gonna need to build some value first and get some karma reddit users are the most tricky ones.
There's no useless platform, the way you project your product or company pays a lot in the long run. What may work in one site may not in the other...pinterest tends to have good results with females for example.

The problem is, I can't project my business in any way at all, because I can't even talk about it without getting banned. That's what I mean by treading on eggshells.

 

[GringoMonkey]

What does your business do?

 

[Luigi Panini]

What does your business do?

I help people who want to move abroad. They tell me their needs and preferences, and I do the research and give them a report with profiles (summaries) of the most suitable cities for them.

I'd post a link, but, well...you know.

 

[GringoMonkey]

Is covid not hitting that business hard?

I own multiple properties around the world and am unable to travel to them anywhere near as frequently as pre-covid.

 

[Luigi Panini]

Is covid not hitting that business hard?

I own multiple properties around the world and am unable to travel to them anywhere near as frequently as pre-covid.

I've never had a client. Even before "covid". No I don't think wannabe expats would be too affected.

 

[GringoMonkey]

I've never had a client. Even before "covid". No I don't think wannabe expats would be too affected.

You are wrong about wannabee expats. It is very unpleasant and unstable to travel at the moment, not least with quarantine.

So, if you could not get clients before you have no chance now.

I would be your ideal client. In an average year i live in 2 or 3 different countries. If i really like them i buy a property and keep going back else i just rent and i would not be bothered hiring you to provide that service. You dont know if a place is for you until you go and live there, no report can help.

Sounds like there is no demand for your business model. Perhaps time to try something else?

 

[Luigi Panini]

You're gonna need to build some value first and get some karma reddit users are the most tricky ones.
There's no useless platform, the way you project your product or company pays a lot in the long run. What may work in one site may not in the other...pinterest tends to have good results with females for example.

How do I promote my site on reddit?

 

[perrymason]

How do I promote my site on reddit?

Try to own a subredit, curate it with good content to attract people then add some content related to your business.

 

[Luigi Panini]

Try to own a subredit, curate it with good content to attract people then add some content related to your business.

Thanks. I know this is really hard to answer, but generally speaking, how long would it take to start getting something out of this (enquiries/clients)? Like I say I know it's hard to say but are we talking weeks, months?

I only have 5 articles on my site, plus 60 videos on my youtube channel. I could post those but I don't know if that would be enough to generate interest. I suppose I could start some threads too.

By the way I did try this before, but as I mentioned I do tend to have a habit of barging in and plastering my link all over the place. I'm just wondering how long it would take to get a result if I were to be more subtle.

 

[perrymason]

Thanks. I know this is really hard to answer, but generally speaking, how long would it take to start getting something out of this (enquiries/clients)? Like I say I know it's hard to say but are we talking weeks, months?

I only have 5 articles on my site, plus 60 videos on my youtube channel. I could post those but I don't know if that would be enough to generate interest. I suppose I could start some threads too.

By the way I did try this before, but as I mentioned I do tend to have a habit of barging in and plastering my link all over the place. I'm just wondering how long it would take to get a result if I were to be more subtle.

Start threads around about anything related your niche...lets say swiming, talk about the latest swimwear from speedo, who won the olympic medal last year and so.
Once you have created some audience slowly start sharing few things about your business.

 

[Luigi Panini]

Start threads around about anything related your niche...lets say swiming, talk about the latest swimwear from speedo, who won the olympic medal last year and so.
Once you have created some audience slowly start sharing few things about your business.

Ok I just tried starting a subreddit but I find reddit a bit confusing. I'll try again a bit later. In the meantime I could use the same approach on forums. The thing is, and I'm sure you know this already, talking about my business and posting links would get me banned. I know it's ok on reddit if it's your own subreddit, but on forums I just can't see how anyone could promote their site. In most forums you can't even put a link in your signature or send private messages about your business. It's very frustrating.

 

[MrDenz]

This is something that we have all gone through or are still going through, this is an integral part of our business.

You just feel bad and you're probably frustrated with everything that's going on cause you don't see results and you think you've done your best and there are simply no results.

You have invested too much time in something, too much energy and effort invested, and nothing to get back as a reward.

It’s a very familiar feeling to all of us because we’ve all been through the same thing.

I simply can't tell you that you are doing a great job, but you are definitely going through a period of adaptation, maturing, remember that every time we fall, we learn lessons from that fall, only in that way can we progress.

Mostly when people fall down and lose motivation, it’s very hard to go back because our brain just doesn’t work well in those situations because we think we’ve tried everything, we’ve given everything we have and nothing works.

It is an integral part of all business, we have to go through those periods, we have to learn, of course, if we want to be successful.

Keep researching and testing some new things, read, fail, learn, improve yourself and your business, you will be rewarded when the time comes.

Wish you all the best!

 

[Sweetrevenge]

Paid ads is the only way for you if you hate sharing value before sharing your links. And content may have worked too if you pushed it to at least 30 long form articles. You can always hire people to promote your links online too if you don't like doing so.

 

[IM Dude]

You niche "helping people go abroad" is full of frauds to be honest wth you.
You need a lot I mean a lot of trust for someone to pay for your service.
Try working with immigration attorneys or a travel agencies first. They got all the traffic you want.
If you wanna go alone , try job boards like monster or a local job board like naukri (in india).

 

[Luigi Panini]

This is something that we have all gone through or are still going through, this is an integral part of our business.

You just feel bad and you're probably frustrated with everything that's going on cause you don't see results and you think you've done your best and there are simply no results.

You have invested too much time in something, too much energy and effort invested, and nothing to get back as a reward.

It’s a very familiar feeling to all of us because we’ve all been through the same thing.

I simply can't tell you that you are doing a great job, but you are definitely going through a period of adaptation, maturing, remember that every time we fall, we learn lessons from that fall, only in that way can we progress.

Mostly when people fall down and lose motivation, it’s very hard to go back because our brain just doesn’t work well in those situations because we think we’ve tried everything, we’ve given everything we have and nothing works.

It is an integral part of all business, we have to go through those periods, we have to learn, of course, if we want to be successful.

Keep researching and testing some new things, read, fail, learn, improve yourself and your business, you will be rewarded when the time comes.

Wish you all the best!

Everything you say is true. That's exactly how it is. You take the time to come up with an idea, get a domain and hosting, set up a site, you write a few articles, set up a youtube channel, twitter, linkedin, etc etc etc, you do everything you can think of, and you get nothing.

I don't know how anyone makes money online. The thing is I'm not a content producer, I wouldn't be able to handle having to consistently write posts and make videos.

If having conversations with prospective clients is what I have to do, I'll do it (luckily I charge a enough for my service to make that task worthwhile). But I can't even get to a point where I can do that because most platforms are useless. They don't let you do anything.

I'm a hard worker and I'm ready to dive in and talk to people about what I can offer, and I would enjoy the challenge of converting curious people into clients.

If there is a way to drum up business while being subtle enough not to get banned from forums and other platforms, I'd sure like to know what it is. But right now I'm just lost.

 

[MrDenz]

Everything you say is true. That's exactly how it is. You take the time to come up with an idea, get a domain and hosting, set up a site, you write a few articles, set up a youtube channel, twitter, linkedin, etc etc etc, you do everything you can think of, and you get nothing.

I don't know how anyone makes money online. The thing is I'm not a content producer, I wouldn't be able to handle having to consistently write posts and make videos.

If having conversations with prospective clients is what I have to do, I'll do it (luckily I charge a enough for my service to make that task worthwhile). But I can't even get to a point where I can do that because most platforms are useless. They don't let you do anything.

I'm a hard worker and I'm ready to dive in and talk to people about what I can offer, and I would enjoy the challenge of converting curious people into clients.

If there is a way to drum up business while being subtle enough not to get banned from forums and other platforms, I'd sure like to know what it is. But right now I'm just lost.

Yeah, that is exactly what I was thinking you are going through.

I want you to know few things... [looong message]

I don't want you to understand what I'm going to say as just another story about how someone has a problem [you] and another character [me] comes in and starts talking about his problems, that is, sending attention to himself.

I will take my example precisely for the reason that I am trying to help you in my own way, so it is not me that matters, but the story and lesson that you can learn from it.

When I started with my online adventures, it was enough to write 500 words, with 0 images, put them in a blogger and people would find you, if you do a little advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, for example, you just speed up the process.

Repeat the process a few times and you already have stable traffic.

Today it's a totally different story, today you have to think about the text, the keywords that you have to find first because we can't just serve people anything and expect them to find us, you have to create pictures, you have to do a good on-page SEO, you have to first learn how SEO works in general and that's not a small thing itself, honestly...

Then you have to think about which side to go to and which social networks to use, how to reach followers on those platforms, how to even get first followers, videos, do you know how to edit at all, the time you spend learning those at least some basic things and then the time until a good video is created...

Then when you finish it all you have to think about building a few links to your site, after 10 articles are published, you see 0 visitors and 0 backlinks to your site.

You sit down and start thinking, is everything I do actually normal?

Am I doing the right thing at all, am I wrong, if I am wrong where exactly am I wrong, do I need advice, who to ask, who to turn to?

Then you start building links around the site, most people in these situations have huge expectations, especially today because everything is so accessible to everyone, everything is cheap and the problem is that the quality is nowhere to be found.

Everyone turned to quantity instead of quality, quality is actually, not literally gone, but to a large extent it is, it is difficult to find a quality person who will do a really good job, someone who will really be worth every penny of the money we invest!

A lot of problems, a lot of things we have to think about and in the end we are just people whose brains are not programmed to think about everything, to understand what we need to do, to learn, to maintain our ideas, to remember all these things...

We are not robots, and today it's such a time that we have to fight and finish with hundreds of small things/problems every single day!

When you add it all up, and I haven't even listed it all, because the text would be 20,000 words, when you calculate all this, every normal person would wonder if it's all worth our effort?

Is it worth spending the next year or two in daily grooming, working 15 hours a day, learning, educating, producing everything I need, and in the end having little to no results...?

- 90 out of 100 people will give up after the first year maximum

- 9 out of the other 10 will stay maximum for another year until they fall 100% down in their head and say, I can't do this, it's too much

- And only 1 in 100 people manages to do something

This is purely an example, although I am not far from the real truth.

That's where the charm of this whole game lies, if everything was available to us and everything was simple and we could get some better results as fast as ever, this game wouldn't be so much fun at all.

Now, the problem is how strong we are mental, how much we can endure?

How many times after each fall can we get up, learn our lesson from the same fall and move on?

It's not easy, it's a fact, having money to invest and trying to speed up the process, it doesn't matter, it's not easy even for those with a few tens of thousands of dollars ready to invest in SEO for example, it's not easy for most who don't have a dollar to invest.

Today it is not easy to live, life has become a luxury, happiness has become a luxury, we all run somewhere, we are constantly running somewhere, families are falling apart, people are under constant stress, problems are everywhere, Covid, and we are trying to make something a little bigger on the Internet.

We put so much effort into it to achieve some results and in the end, nothing...

Unfortunately for many who can't get over it and realize that it's just one game, who can't get up after just a few falls, it's an end of the game!

God knows how many really unique and talented people have disappeared from the internet just because of this!

An integral part of the game in which only those who are mentally ready to endure all the downfalls survive, these downfalls are the best lessons at the same time, we will learn a lesson from them and continue to be smarter, stronger, and better, we just have to understand them in the right way.

I hope you will understand me, these are most of the things that you and everyone else mostly know and are aware of these problems but sometimes as I like to say, sometimes it takes someone to tell us what we already know in order to understand some things.

I am someone who lost everything I have 2 times, we are talking about solid 6 digits that disappeared in a second, but here I am, 5, 6 years later I am still here, I am still working, I am still living, I am still trying to be a better person day in and day out, to help others as much as I can, to talk to people and to learn something new every day.

It is not easy, you have to endure 999 falls so that 1,000 fall would be something we dream of and the reason why we are fighting is certainly not easy, but again, on the other hand, that is the beauty of internet business.

The problem is how any of us understands and looks at those problems.

Once again, I hope that you will understand me in the best possible way, that you will learn lessons and that you will continue to build your business, and that you know that only those strongest mentally composed people survive!

Are you one of them?

We choose for ourselves whether we want to be strong or just become a statistician of time, of unsuccessful people on the Internet...

I wish you all the best!