(Please enjoy this guest blog post from ANDREW T DRAUGHON)

Imagine being late to a gold rush.

Imagine leaving everything behind for a chance to strike it rich, feverishly anticipating your chance to stake a claim and start searching for the fabled “mother lode”…

But on your first night in boomtown, you get word that your fellow prospectors just aren’t finding any more gold.

Disappointing—to say the least, right?

Well, that’s what exactly happened during the California Gold Rush of 1849.

At first, loose nuggets could be easily found in the creeks and rivers, so people assumed there’d be a near-infinite supply of gold in them thar hills.

Stories soon started circulating in papers across the nation, regaling readers with wild tales of the riches to be uncovered on the untamed West Coast.

Unfortunately, there turned out to be a lot less gold than those first riverbeds suggested…

By 1950, all the remaining gold deposits required expensive technology and tools to extract.

For the average person, that meant giving up and traveling back home empty-handed.

Now that’s a bummer!

But frankly, timing is everything.

And it doesn’t matter how bad you want instant riches if you’re a laggard…

Once an opportunity’s gone, that’s it. Game over.

When conditions change rapidly, quick fortunes are made, and late arrivals leave the table down-and-out with their bellies rumbling.

Now, some may say the gold rush era is over, but the truth is…

People strike gold every single day in the digital world

After all, companies like Snapchat, Evernote, and Slack—none of which existed a few years ago—are worth billions today.

And at the rate things are changing on the web, there’s always an opportunity to make a fortune.

Here’s an example…

According to Forbes, 31% of non-search engine traffic in 2016 comes from social media.

That’s up from 23% a year ago.

Which is a 35% jump!

That’s a lot of new traffic—and a lot of new leads, sales, and cash…

If you‘re positioned in the right place, at the right time, and have the right skills!

So what should you do if you’re not currently getting steady traffic, leads, and sales from social media?

How do you avoid being that latecomer who gets gold fever, but winds up with nothing but heartache?

Well, you could ignore the potential of social media and hope for the best.

Or…you can do the the Wayne Gretzky thing where (and I’m paraphrasing) you skate where the puck is going, and not where it’s coming from.

Check this out…

According to a recent article in Fortune, Facebook is already leading Google it generating traffic to many industries.

As hard as it is to believe, Google is facing a serious threat as more and more traffic comes from social media and not the search engines.

Now, I know first-hand that social media can be intimidating.

I mean, I’m a young guy, but even I can’t keep up with all the new “bells and whistles,” and the older I get, the less excited I am about the latest and greatest “hot new thing.”

But, believe it or not…

You can use social media to generate leads and make money—even if your computer skills aren’t terribly literate and you’re a semi- (but-not-quite-card-carrying) Luddite.

Sound good?

Read on to learn 8 tactics to generate traffic, leads, and sales on social media…

With no fancy computer ‘wizardry’ required!

Are older professionals spending time on Instagram? Probably not too much, no.

Fortunately, today’s ad platforms allow you to target your intended demographic groups easily.

You can choose things like age, location, marital status, gender, and even religion and ethnicity when picking your audience.

This is an effective way to avoid targeting the wrong crowd for your offer.

Click here for 16 ways to refine your Facebook ad targeting.

Remember: it doesn’t matter how clever your ad is, if the wrong people are seeing it.

Mess up your targeting and you’ll waste money showing your message to people who won’t buy anyway.

That’s why you need to keep tabs on the interests of your potential leads.

One cool trick is to target your competitors’ Facebook Pages. 😉

When Polaroid started losing money to digital photography, they didn’t know what to do.

So…they did nothing. Then…they did nothing some more.

By the time Polaroid realized it had to go digital, it was too late.

The ironic thing? Polaroid had boatloads of money.

They could of afforded to test numerous products and strategies to find one that worked and adapted to the current trends.

Instead, they skipped testing and experimentation and went bankrupt.

The moral?

Without innovation, you’ll quickly be left in the dust!

So don’t be afraid to spend a few bucks on testing new ideas.

Who knows, you may be that lucky “fool” who finds gold where nobody else thought to dig.

Don’t be afraid to use a few dollars to test a new idea—even if it’s a bit of a wild guess.

On social media, most marketers make the mistake of…

Overestimating what they can do in a week…and underestimating what they can do in a year.

(Hat tip to Tony Robbins for that verbiage.)

Here’s what we see all the time…

The normal pattern is for someone to sign up for a social media account, post a couple of posts, run a couple of ads, and then give up after a few days (or maybe a few weeks) of seeing slow results.

And it’s a shame because Facebook rewards pages where valuable content is posted and fans are engaged, consistently.

There’s no magic shortcut here.

You need to get serious about building long-term relationships with your audience.

Remember: results will come, but only if you put in the work!

Thinking you don’t know what to post for content?

Don’t worry. The next point is all about that…

So you know your audience; you’re ready to share your content on social media.

Great! But first—a word of warning…

You need a significant amount of content to keep people engaged.

We’re talking daily content.

But a popular misconception is that all of your content needs to be original.

Not so!

Your audience wants valuable content…but the good news is, they don’t care if you wrote it, as long as it’s solving their problems.

In fact, most of our affiliates here at Elite Marketing Pro simply share the posts on this very blog.

Easy peasy.

It’s an easy way to keep your page active, engage your followers, and get on Facebook’s good side—which is definitely what you want!

It’s easy to forget your audience are real-life people.

And as real-life people, they’re more active at some hours than others.

They may see your posts on Mondays, but not Sundays. Or, they may spend their entire weekend on social media, but never log in the rest of the week.

What I’m saying is this: your audience is most active at specific times…and you should put out more content during those times to get the most traction possible.

Thus, you want to schedule your content ahead of time.

Here’s how you do it…

According to one study, the best time to post is Tuesday through Friday, 1:00 to 3:00pm.

So when you’re starting out, you can schedule your content to go live at such peak times, even if you’re not online yourself.

(And once your audience grows, you can analyze your own data to see when your fans are most active.)

Cool, right?

With a little effort, you can plan your content weeks and even months ahead with an editorial calendar.

And once you do, you can get off social media—and focus on developing your offers, building your list, and actually creating great content that positions you as an expert.

(Which is hard to do if you’re busy running around, posting on Facebook all day, scrambling to keep your tribe engaged!)

Every audience behaves differently, so get familiar with yours—and keep an editorial schedule to keep your content timely and consistent.

Social media isn’t just for sharing.

You can now use social media to directly build your list, too.

Here’s what I mean…

Long-form content is available on platforms like Medium, LinkedIn, and even Facebook (via Notes).

This means you can post your best content directly to your social media, in full or in part, and then send your readers directly to an opt-in once they’ve consumed your content.

Not only that, but nowadays, Facebook Pages have a Call to Action button right in the header.

If you need inspiration, just take a look at what Tesla’s doing.

Their social media is synced with their blog content and they’re leveraging a “Sign Up” button, which takes visitors straight to an opt-in form.

Neat, right?

Because at the end of the day, a Like doesn’t show up in your bank account, but you know what does?

A lead that buys your $70,000+ car. 😉

Your headline is the first thing your readers will see in their News Feed.

And if it makes an uninspiring first impression, that’s how people are going to remember you.

So make makes a bad first impression?

Being boring.

If your headline’s boring, it doesn’t matter how good the content is…nobody’s going to read it.

That means your headlines must arouse curiosity.

There must be some mystery, intrigue, or unanswered questions to pique their interest.

Factual accuracy isn’t important—attention is what drives sales.

Case in point…

In 2008, Apple promoted the new iPhone 3G as being “twice the speed” at “half the price.”

When customers realized neither was true, several sued.

Apple responded by saying “no reasonable person” could believe this marketing message.

None of it stopped them from breaking sales records with the product.

Now, you shouldn’t flat-out lie like Apple did, but learn something from this story…

Don’t be afraid to court attention by any means necessary—it’ll drive more leads than facts do!

One mistake bloggers make is giving away too much value.

Your prospects want information, yes—but if you give too much away for free, they won’t value it.

Ideally, your content should trigger a pain or desire and then suggest a solution to that pain or desire, which you’re in a position to provide, of course!

To make sure you hit the spot, remember this simple formula:

Tease and release.

I’ve got no idea where I first heard this phrase, but it works like this…

In your content, you’re teasing a benefit and agitating whatever problem your readers have.

And then you position your solution as a means to release the tension and desire you’ve created.

Basically, you provide enough information to tease your prospects, but not so much that they’re satisfied with your content alone.

Otherwise, why would they want to learn more about your offer, right?

Just remember one thing…

People need TRUST to make a buying decision

If your visitors don’t trust you, they certainly aren’t going to buy whatever you’re selling.

So what’s the best way to win over your reader’s trust?

Get ’em on your mailing list by offering a small yet valuable bribe.

I’m talking about a “lead magnet”:

An eBook, video, or email series that gives your readers a specific, concrete benefit for giving up their email address.

You’ve probably seen dozens of these, right?

After all, lead magnets are everywhere.

(Because they work.)

And they’re highly effective because they continue to scratch your prospect’s itch, as you continue to build their trust and warm them up to your offer.

Look, sometimes you’ve got to ethically “salt” the riverbed for the folks to see the golden opportunity that awaits…

And a lead magnet provides the visible-to-the-naked-eye proof that your claim’s good!

Not sure how to create your lead magnet?

Think it takes weeks, months or—gasp!—years?

Well, I’ve got news for you…

Tim Erway (CEO of Elite Marketing Pro), put together an exclusive free report that reveals how to quickly create lead magnets that effortlessly convert your audience into ready-to-buy subscribers.

Click here and get started with the 7-Step Lead Magnet Quick-Start Guide today!

Tim’s generated 1,420,134 leads and counting, so he knows a thing or two about crafting irresistible bribes and building responsive lists.

And this is the EXACT technique we use to average 401 leads a day.

The best part is this method is totally hands-free…

You just set it up and go away, and your list grows all by itself.

Ready to get started?

Click here and get started with the 7-Step Lead Magnet Quick-Start Guide today!

Until next time,

Moni Arora’s Blog