Building A List Funnel Can Be Complicated !

So, I’m getting into list building a bit more these days and it takes a bit of time to get your head round the whole process. It’s so much more complicated than a good old website with a link to an affiliate product. But this simple approach is so limited and vulnerable, if you buy into the merits of building a list.

For instance,  you can’t build a relationship with your visitor if they visit your site once, never to return again. Plus, you are limited to the types of visitors that you can receive – mainly free or SEO traffic. This makes you vulnerable to changes from search engines like Google.

So list building it is.

You can develop a relationship with people that sign up and you can use some forms of paid traffic which makes you less dependent on Google and their search engine pals (well, pals might not be the word for it)

The basics of list building are to create a squeeze page. This is a one page website that gives something away (a free gift) in exchange for an email address. When you have an email address, you can reconnect with the person that signed up (now your subscriber).

The more you connect with the person through email, the more likely they are to trust and value your opinions (or get fed up with you and unsubscribe).

At some point you can suggest products that you are affiliated to or own yourself that the subscriber should buy. In this way, you make a bit of money (or a lot depending on how much you sell).

To take this on a bit further, you could create what is called a list building funnel. This is slightly different to the previous example in that it makes a pitch to the new subscriber in between them signing up for their gift and getting the gift.

The pitch is for another product that complements or relates to the free gift in some way. This other product is for sale at a fairly low price such that it doesn’t put the person’s nose out of joint too much.  After all, they were expecting something for free so having to buy something is not high on their list of priorities.

With this said, some people will buy, depending on how well you pitch the product and how well it complements the free gift. When this happens you have immediate revenue.

This revenue can be used to subsidize your list building efforts. In other words, you re-invest it into paid traffic or it pays for other costs needed to build the list. When you start using paid traffic you can build the list faster and, of course, you are less reliant on free traffic.

What’s more, when you know the statistics on how often this paid offer converts a subscriber to a buyer, you can make more strategic decisions about how you build the list.

When you know how much a subscriber is worth to you, you can also make more strategic decisions on how you build the list and ultimately grow a business (of sorts). The standard internet marketing lore or old charter (phrase shamelessly nicked from Robert Rankin ) is that each subscriber is worth $1 a month to you.

So with this revenue or projected revenue inked in, you can buy more traffic or invest money in creating products that might interest your subscribers. You could employ (outsource) people to do things for you. This would free up your time to do things that are more important or revenue generating.

But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

The nuts and bolts of a list building funnel are quite complicated.

• You need a squeezepage which offers a free gift.

• Then a thank you page where the people that want the free gift can get it.

• You need to set up a list to keep the email ids of these people.

• This list needs one or more email messages set up that can be sent out to the good folks on the list.

• If you are offering a paid product, you need a pitch page for that product.

• You need some form of payment processor on the pitch page – a paypal buy button for instance.

• If people buy the product, you need a download page where they can get the product.

• You also need to set up a list for these people that bought the product.

This is an important distinction as there is a big difference between the people on the free list and the people on the buy list. Namely, they are willing to spend money. You should treat them differently.

• This list will also need some email messages set up to keep the people interested in you and what you have to say. This is where you develop your relationship with your subscribers.

So as you can see there is a lot to set up and a lot to test to see if it is working. What’s more, it something that has to be constantly tinkered with. You need to track what is happening so that you can improve various aspects of the funnel.

And you should also be adding to the email messages all the time. This could be as part of the regularly  delivered auto-responder series or special one off broadcasts.

As I say, it takes you a bit of time to get your head round it all….well, it does for me anyway.

I am getting into list building more these days. It’s taken a long, long time for me to finally get round to it but I seem to be really focusing now which is good…I guess. But it brings up all the usual uncertainties and insecurities.

A point in case is that I am developing an auto-responder series. If you know what this is, then you probably know that it is a fine art getting a perfect ar series written. There is so much to consider.

Is the title catchy ?

Is the content engaging ?

Is the message the content delivers right ?

Who are you writing the content for ?

What mix of content and promotion is right ?

Should I send it out once a day/once a week or when ?

….and many more questions.

Some of these questions have entire courses devoted to them.

In short, an auto-responder series requires that you understand copywriting. And copywriting is a craft that people devote their lives to. And even then, it’s takes time and careful consideration. You’ve got to think…a scary concept !

And this causes people to slow down until they grind to a halt.

In my instance, I’ve created the titles for 24 emails that I will be putting in the auto-responder series. I know that they aren’t perfect. In some cases I don’t even like them. But they are the best I can do at this particular time. So I accept them in the knowledge that I am completing the more important goal – getting the ar series down and ready to be read.

When the series is stacked up in aweber, awaiting subscribers, I can refine the writing, including the titles.

But until then, it doesn’t really matter whether I have a lame title, a crappy ps or whatever.

So what’s my point ?

Well there’s two…..

The first is to fight to right battles….or rather knowing when to fight which battle.

Getting the right title for an email is a battle that has to be fought after getting an auto-responder series done. Understanding what is most important and setting priorities that keep you moving is key. Set tasks that are achievable.

This raises the second point.

Nothing is perfect. Everything can be improved and the best way to improve it is on the job. As painful as that might sound, that’s the way it is.

Your email title may suck big time but unless you put it out there, you will never know. You can only learn by doing.

Learning theory can set you on the right path but that’s about it. To keep the battle analogy going…education and theory can give you an idea of the battles you will have to fight and the order. They may also give you a few tips on how to win them.

But ultimately, doing is where you learn what really works.

So you have to accept that you may look foolish at times or that you are doing things that evoke criticism. Get over that and always try to improve on what you have. Lose the ego is one way of putting it I guess. Of course this is hard to do at times, especially when you are trying to come across as authoritative.

So here are 5 internet marketing methods to consider when first starting out. My advice would be to pick one and stick to it. Tune out all the other noise and focus on it solely. It’s the best chance you have of being successful.

1.Offer a service to other IMers

If you are new to IM, a great way to get started is to off a service to other online marketers. This could be as simple as writing articles or if you have another skill, like programming or graphical design, then you could offer this service.

This is good because you can be paid for your work and you can also learn from what they are doing and how they run their businesses.

It may even be a way to make contacts in the industry. I’ve heard of quite a few people that have gone to top names in their industry and offered to work for them for free or a nominal figure.

2.Offline marketing

If you offer a service to other online marketers, it can be easy to transition to offline. You simply offer your services to real businesses in your local area.

As you learn more skills these services can be more wide ranging. You could even outsource many of the services. When you do this, you can work on the parts of the process that make you the most money – finding clients. And you are also running a real business as opposed to just working a job, like in the first option.

3.Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is another method that is doable for newbies. It takes the need to create or have a product out of your hands. This means you can focus on other skills needed to be successful. Notably, getting leads and selling. This too can be turned into a business rather than just a job. Most of it can be outsourced as you get more experience.

4.Website flipping

Website flipping is basically selling websites but it’s a bit more than that. It’s a quick way to create a business. You can buy websites that are already making money and make an instant impression in a market. Or you can look for poorly performing websites, fix them up and sell them at a profit.

Whatever you decide to do, it requires seed capital to get started so it may not be an option for everyone. But if you do have seed money, you can be up and running an internet business in a matter of days.

5.product creation

Product creation is the final method and is often the culmination of many of the skills you have learned in the previous methods. Most people have to go through the other methods before they are comfortable creating a product that they will sell.

Others have a good idea and the gumption to put it out there. Some of these folks are lucky and it’s a hit but most people slow burn and pay their dues before releasing a product.

Having your own product is a great goal to set as it sets you at the top of the internet marketing tree.

You can really utilize the power of internet marketing when you have a product to sell. For instance, you can recruit affiliates that do the selling for you or you can partner up with other people in your market/industry.

Start 2013 off with a bang by planning ahead

If you have a IM blog (or even a blog in general), it seems almost obligatory to talk about your plan for the new year around about this time. I do buy into this idea on the whole – you have to set some goals or targets to aim for and that act of writing them down does make you more accountable. It may even make the plans more real too. So if you do internet marketing in any shape or form, have you got any goals and plans set out to achieve these goals?

My Goals

• My goals this year are to create 2 e-commerce stores. I have a few niches selected and I’m in the process of narrowing it down to two.

• I also want to create an IM product, which is 75% finished to date.

• I also want to create a non IM product (a hobby niche). This will be a step by step guide to make something. It will be in pdf and video form I’m thinking at the moment.

I am quite excited about this product as it will be a great starter product and the niche will accommodate plenty of other products in a classic funnel marketing strategy. Provided the first product delivers, I’m pretty sure that people would lap up the follow up products after that.

The starter product would go on Clickbank with a high commission to attract affiliates. Hopefully this would get the sales going and I could do my own promotion too.

• I also want to start offering services such as article writing and a few other simple services. This may start on Fiverr or one of the other outsourcing marketplaces. I also have a few local people that I’ve written for and done seo/promotional activities for recently.

All up, there are quite a few new skills I will be learning this year. Firstly, setting up an ecommerce store will be an exciting challenge and involve many skills. I have many of them already but some will be new. Ecommerce is really taking off in Australia at the moment so I think there is a bit of opportunity there.

The non IM product I plan to create will involve real video which I haven’t done before so that could be interesting. Setting up the product funnel will also be a new experience.

The general theme of all the goals I have set is to create real businesses. In others words have an offer and promote it or let other people promote it. It’s really simple in theory but of course a lot has to be done behind the scenes to make it happen.

Over the coming few days, I will flesh out the plans so that I know what I’m doing for the next 3-6 months. I will break the months into weeks and the weeks into days so that I know what I’m doping each day and can stay busy doing things that are important. Towards the end of this year I kind of let the planning slip and found that I wasn’t very productive. I hope to change that this year and it all starts with knowing what you have to do and when you have to do it.

So it’s off to the planning room for me (well, virtual planning room anyway).

photo : Rob Chandler

You could say that the season officially kicks off on Black Friday (or Cyber Monday in the online world). This is the day after Thanks Giving which means November 23 this year. And about a month until the world ends according to some interpretations of that Mayan calendar…but that’s another story for another blog.

As I am a self respecting and occasionally self loathing internet marketer, I have been tweaking a few of my sites. My main site focuses on toys and I have been steadily adding a few of the “hot toys” for the year to the site each day.

Since the site got slapped by the various Google updates this year, it lost most of it’s traffic and I am still at a loss to work out how to get it back. My current theory or test is just to write good and relevant content and update it each day.

I’m not promoting it in anyway…well I might book mark a few new pages but that’s about it. No article marketing, spinning articles or any traditional promotional strategies.

My focus is purely on good helpful reviews of the products. I have noticed that I am getting traffic with this approach but it’s mainly from Bing and Yahoo rather than Google. But it’s painfully slow and I do wonder if this is what people interested in toys are looking for.

Many toy review websites seem to be big on video reviews these days and I think this is a better content model (well, maybe a video with written content would be the best of both worlds) as you can actually see the toy in all it’s glory.

Things like the size and color of the toy can be instantly conveyed in a video. All the features of the toy can be demonstrated rather than written about. It’s so much easier to watch something being used than have to read about how it is used or works. Plus, if the video has a child playing/reviewing the toy then the viewer can often put their child into the scene, making the video far more emotionally powerful than a plain old video or written review.

Video reviews work but the problem is getting the toys to review. Buying hundreds of toys doesn’t seem like a plan. I’m not sure how easy it is to get review copies. This is something I will be looking into.

Given that I live in Australia, this could be a problem as my site caters to the American market. Anyhow, that’s something to look into. It actually sounds like a fun way to run a website and earn a living – playing…errr, I mean reviewing toys.

Many of these sites also have giveaways of the toys or gift vouchers to get some social interest in their site. I think this is a good promotional strategy as it attracts real people and builds the site as a brand in it’s own right.

People will return to see what is going on and even become a part of the community if the site has a forum or a Facebook presence.

You could also build a list of people based on the giveaways and remind them to come back to your site whenever new content is published or maybe a new contest/giveaway is happening.

It seems to me that this is the real way to develop a review site nowadays as it really helps real people and goes above and beyond what most run of the mill review sites might do. Keeping it real you could say It also gives you a website property that can be genuinely promoted and may even spread virally when people see what’s in it for them.

But at this stage, this is just future thinking.

As of now I am putting up written reviews of the latest toys, hoping to get some traffic and sales. Not the best strategy but for now it will have to do. You should be doing the same too if you have a toy website or something that covers gifts.

Infotainment is information dressed up as entertainment to make it easy to consume but finding the balance between providing solid information about a topic and making it fun to consume is quite hard to do. Some people that practice it even contend that infotainment material is more about the fun than the information.

It is essentially a tidbit that leaves the consumer wanting more. As most people are overloaded with information resources, breaking through the overwhelm with an appealing style is more important than the substance of the message (within limits of course). This is also referred to as “dumbing it down” by people that are critical of this approach (and college professors too ).

I’m digging the style at the moment as I can really identify with the information overload. This really applies to internet marketing and marketing in general for me. I will spend the whole day working or reading “marketing” type material and never read anything else. Often pitches that people are making at me.

I used to read quite a bit of fiction and other materials, but at the end of the day I find that I’m “all read out” and struggle to read anything else.

Brand Kardashian

That’s why I like the Gruen Transfer. For me it is perfect infotainment for people interested in marketing, advertising and persuasion techniques. It’s fun to watch and you feel like you are really learning something by watching it.

The thing I also like about this program is that you can also use some of the information discussed in these programs to formulate your own infotainment material – notably posts and emails.

It’s well worth watching when on TV but of course all the best bits are on youtube too. I like to watch one or two during a break or when something is uploading/downloading or such like.

It’s a way I further my marketing knowledge ad it’s a bit of fun too.

How it all began and what Gruen actually means…

You Don't have to wear a toga to participate in a forum...unless you really want to !

Participating in forums is a good way to get a better understanding of a typical visitor and the kind of issues they are having in your niche.

Simply reading the forums on your niche topic can give you this information but if you participate in the forum by initiating new discussions and answering questions, it can also be a source of traffic to your website too.

Finding Forums To Participate In

It’s not very hard to find a forum.

Go to Google and type in your niche topic and “forum” or “message board” or “discussion”.

It’s sure to bring back some results. If your niche is a sub niche or very small then think about more general niches that it fits into. For instance, there may not be many forums that specialize or talk exclusively about gender selection of your baby but there might be a sub section in a forum about pregnancy or health in general.

There are other places to find forums or discussion groups, like big-boards.com which is a directory of message boards (an old name for forums). Personally I haven’t found these very good.

A simple Google search is good enough in most cases.

If you have got to the stage of publishing a website in a particular niche, there is a good chance you know many of the important websites in that niche anyhow. You will probably know if they have a forum and how active it is.

Again, the important websites in the niche can be found by doing a simple Google search or looking in website directories like DMOZ.org, Technorati or the yahoo directory.

You don’t want to go overboard though.

Finding 20 forums in your niche will only dilute your efforts if you participate in all of them or overwhelm you to such an extent that you give up.

Find one or two that you think fit your niche or that you like and focus on those.

Making A Contribution

Once you have a couple of forums, start to participate. It’s as simple as that.

You probably want to try to answer questions more than ask them but it really depends on your goals.

If you want to be seen as an authority or somebody that knows what they are talking about, then answer questions. You could also initiate new discussions provided you aren’t asking “newbie” style questions.

The aim is to showcase your knowledge on the topic without being arrogant about it. That’s why answering questions is good because you are helping people without forcing an opinion on people.

In keeping with this respectful approach, you don’t want to splash your website url all over the place.

Adding your website url is how you are going to get traffic to your site but I would suggest you are very low key about this.

You want to put the url in your profile and the signature box at the bottom of every post you make on the forum.

People will either see your signature box as a consequence of reading a forum thread or they will click on your forum name, which also accompanies any post you make, which will take them to your profile.

They can then decide if they want to visit your site.

Some people get very creative with their signature box. In other words they make it very enticing to click through to the site mentioned in the signature box but this really depends on the niche you are in.

For instance, there are some very creative signature boxes in the Warrior forum but this is a marketing forum so people accept this. It probably wouldn’t go down as well in a knitting or cake decorating forum.

So tailor your style to your audience.

I would suggest you don’t put your website url in your profile until you have 20 or so posts on the forum. The same goes for putting something in the signature box at the bottom of any post you make on the forum.

By this stage, you should be an established member of the forum and not a blow in or drive by forum abuser.  You have established credibility and value to the other forum members and they will accept  and maybe even welcome a chance to find out more about what you think on the topic.

Don’t put links to your site in the message part of a forum post except on rare occasions or when you have really established trust and value to the forum members.

Again, play this by ear.

Once you have been on a forum for any length of time, you will know what is acceptable and unacceptable.

Evergreen Link building Method ?

My thinking is that, if you do commenting right, it develops your relationships with other people inside your niche and can side step many of the problems that other link building techniques have.

By commenting right, I mean reading the articles and making insightful comments. In other words engaging in the conversation, demonstrating some knowledge of the topic and getting noticed. You may want to add an image of yourself too, a Gravatar or such like. Becoming a real person in the niche in fact.

This is something that is hard to automate so it won’t have the problems that automated link building methods have. Automated methods eventually get penalized or lose their power because they get over used.

So the first thing that you have to do, using this method is to find relevant blogs to comment on.

Technorati (Go to http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/) is a good place to start as it is a directory that lists the top blogs by category. Since all the sites are blogs, there will be some facility to leave comments.

If your site is a health related site, let’s say on anti-aging the you want to start with the health subcategory.

But you also want to think about the general demographic of your website visitor. You also want to comment on sites that your typical visitor might be interested in.

So for instance, a person interested in aging may also be interested in fashion. They have an interest in health so they might also be interested in eating healthy, so the food sub-category may also be an option.

Click on the health sub-category and you will see blogs with the highest technorati authority. Technorati authority is a ranking from 0-1000 (1000 being the most authoritative). Authority seems to be a mix of new content on the blog and links to the blog over a short period of time. They don’t go into the time span but it is within the past 6 months.

So it’s safe to say that high authority sites are getting visitors and are active which make them perfect for leaving a comment or two.

Another thing you will notice when you click a category is the top 10 movers column on the right hand side. Obviously blogs that are moving are good candidates for leaving a comment.

So basically start looking around and noting down blogs that have potential.

Organizing The Information

I like to keep three separate files.

• One is for on topic blogs – blogs that talk about the same information as the blog I am promoting.

• The other is blogs that my typical visitor might also be interested in making them eligible for leaving a comment.

• The third is the urls of any blog that I leave a comment on. When you leave a comment, it is generally in moderation. Record this url and you’ll be able to see if it gets accepted. It also helps you develop a profile of all the links to your site.

If you become a regular commentator on a blog, it helps to get you noticed by the owner which can lead to other opportunities. These could be an opportunity to guest blog or even work with the owner in some way.

I split the on topic blogs from the other ones because on topic blogs are also a great place to do some spying. You can get ideas for content and you can see how they are monetized. It’s a way to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry.

Most of the blogs you will find are quality blogs so you want to leave quality comments. This means reading the article and adding to the article in some way. Do some research based on the article and add a new fact or insight to it.

This will ensure that the comment is accepted but also gives you credibility. With credibility you will be viewed in a better light by the owner and visitors to his/her site. They will also be more inclined to click through to your site.

Try to leave at least one comment a day on a blog. I try to get 1 to 3 comments a day. You could probably do more depending on the age of the site and the niche you are in.

Advantages of Single opt-in

• Single opt-in is just that. It makes it easier for a person to subscribe to whatever you are offering. By filling in their email address and whatever other information you ask for, they are accepting that you can send them emails.

• The main advantage of this is that it is easy for a potential subscriber to get on your list. This low barrier of entry means you are likely to build your list faster than using the double opt-in method.

But it’s not all good.

Disadvantages of Single opt-in

• Single opt-ins may attract people that are not really interested in being on your list. They may just want the free offer that you are using to entice people to sign up. Consequently they will use a throwaway email id or simply make one up.

They have no intention of becoming a subscriber, which kind of defeats the purpose of creating your list.

• Also, if they don’t have to confirm that they are opting in, they may forget that they signed up with you. The next time you send an email to them, they may wonder who you are and either unsubscribe or, worse still, complain that you are spamming them.

Even though you aren’t spamming them, you don’t really want the spend time convincing your internet service provider that you aren’t a spammer.

Advantages of Double Opt-in

• Conversely, using a double opt-in approach, where the potential subscriber is sent an email asking him/her to confirm that they want to be on your list, is likely to get you round this problem. If they make a conscious decision to join then they will probably remember you the next time one of your emails lands in their inbox.

You can also make this even more obvious by having a consistent tag line prefixing any email title you send out. You could also mention that you are going to do this and that they should whitelist any emails like this. You can set expectations about what they will receive which also conditions them and reduces potential complaints.

• Double opt-ins also get round the freebie seekers using throwaway email ids. As they have to go into the email account and click on the link to get the free offer you are giving away, it proves that the email account is valid. And the action of clicking denotes some kind of acceptance that they are happy to become a subscriber.

Of course most people have throwaway email ids so it doesn’t completely get round the problem but it’s the best option.

Disadvantages of Double Opt-in

• The disadvantage of double opt-in is that you may lose someone along the way to being fully subscribed. Figures vary depending on the offer or the attractiveness of being on the list, but some people claim up to 30% of people fall by the wayside because they have to double opt-in.

It could be claimed that these people aren’t worth being on your list in the first place anyway.

Which Approach Is Best ?

This ultimately depends on how you are getting leads to your opt-in offer and what you want to do with them.

In a perfect world, you want to develop a strong relationship with your subscriber base. This will lead to a more robust and longer lasting business.

In this case you would probably go for a double opt-in for the reasons listed above. You want a quality list of subscribers to match the top notch service you will be providing.

However, there are situations where you may not be interested in developing a long term relationship.

For instance, you may be trying to sell a one off product without any back end to it. Maybe an ebook that solves a desperate but very specific problem a person may have.

The extent of the relationship could be a 7 part series of emails that push the product. You may even give away a free report that has an affiliate link in it for the product.

So the purpose of the relationship might be

a) to get them to read the report and click an offer you make in the report
b) to read the 7 emails and click an offer that is made during the communication

Again, this is probably a short sighted approach, but if you having no time or intention to do anything else with the list, then a single opt in is fine.

Like most things, testing is the only way to can ultimately be sure which way is best for you or the list you are building.

It seems that more people are talking about Memes in internet marketing circles these days. In fact, I’ve seen two products released recently that seem to be cashing in on this trend. More shovel sellers giving people an opportunity to mine fools gold or are memes the real thing ? Let’s find out…firstly, what are  Memes ?

What Are Memes ?

Memes are something that is trending. A story or an event that captures the imagination, seemingly, of the world. An incident that goes viral you could say.

• Tiger Woods crashing his car and the ensuing story could be considered to be such an incident. Talk Shows lampooned or satirized the incident. Halloween costumes were made of golf clothing and a fake golf club that you could wrap around your neck.
  

  I took an arrow in the knee and all I got was this stupid T-shirt !

• “I took an arrow in the knee” is another example of a meme. This occurred with the release of the “The Elder Scrolls : Skyrim” computer game. The quote was part of the game and was basically an excuse for not doing something. It captured the imagination of the game players and they started adding the quote to photos of people/animals making excuses and failing. It even became a t-shirt.

• Another example of this was the “Keep Calm and Carry On” quote. I think this was originally a poster or slogan created by the British government during the second world war. It has since gone on to be a range of products.

Keep Calm And Carry On Witticisms

It seemed to be a meme to me as I kept on seeing it pop up in places like Pinterest, Facebook or Digg. People would change the quote slightly to mean something different but keep the same poster style of the original.

• A more recent example is the Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney. She was expected to win a gold medal at the London Olympics. Unfortunately she had a fall and ended up with the silver. Her expression when receiving the silver, one of disappointment, became a meme. So her picture would be added to a photo of disappointment and a message to the effect of McKayla is not happy.

It’s hard to spot a meme initially but looking on sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Digg or even what is trending on Twitter, Alexa or Google trends could be a way to do it. Also, major news stories, TV shows or movies are generally sources of memes.

I would say that memes are generally humorous or try to see a funny side of an incident. They are light relief….internet style.

These days, people are changing the definition of what a meme is to be a picture with a satirical or humorous caption. I don’t think this is really the case but it could be if the picture goes viral and captures the imagination of the internet.

Why Are Memes Popular For Internet Users ?

Memes are popular because they are popular…..but it’s a bit more than that. As already mentioned, they are generally humorous or make you think. They could have an arresting image with an inspiring quote or humorous adage attached to it. For the internet user they are a fast and interesting way to consume content. The trend for more visual content and less reading is on the rise. People don’t want to spend time reading (or not all the time anyway). If you have got this far, you must be an exception

How do you make a meme ?

You find a photo of a trendy story or incident and add your humorous take to it.

I don’t really know about the copyright issues of using a photo that somebody else owns. I would say that most people that do something like this are infringing the copyright of the original owner.

But since a meme is viral and short lived, you may find that it’s pointless for the owner to do anything. They may even appreciate the added attention that the photo or product gets as a result of it becoming a meme.

Once you have your photo or image, you simply add it to your graphic software and make an alteration.

You could use Photoshop or Gimp. You could even use  something like picmonkey.com that is tailor made to creating such images.

Why create a Meme or jump on a meme bandwagon ?

Well, this is pretty obvious, it’s for the attention that the meme gets. For instance, if you could tie your product into the McKayla Moroney or the “I took an arrow in the knee” meme, then you might get plenty of people seeing your product. So it’s a form of marketing or advertising.

People without a product may even do it simply to get traffic to a website.

It could even be used as content on a website. I think that “I haz cheesburger” site is an example of this. It seems to be pictures of animals that have funny quotes attached to them. They aren’t really memes as such, but some have gone on to be really popular in the internet.

How do you promote a Meme you have created ?

You simply publish it on common places on the internet so that it gets a chance to “go viral”. So Pinterest, Youtube, Facebook, digg and things like that. You could probably do more than that but it really depends how much time you have and how good you think your idea is.

The reality is that most things that people create aren’t going to make it. Creating something that goes viral, even if it is getting boosted by a current trend, is not something you can just schedule.

“I’m going to spend 45 minutes creating a viral image based on a current meme” isn’t something you can put on your to do list. It takes a bit of luck and knowledge on the current trend to even stand a chance to create an epic image. Then a bit of creative thinking.

What do you think…are you creating images based on memes ? Or even humorous images ? Why ? For traffic or for fun….