How to get your Facebook friends to help out

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I often hear about the negativity of friends and family when it comes to what we are accomplishing as Affiliate Marketers.

Building our websites with a portfolio of blogs is stressful enough without having to face all the negative tones from loved ones and friends.

But what if we could involve them in some way?

I've often thought about sending my close-knit Facebook community sample ideas of my blogs to test my audience who I am writing for without them feeling I'm trapping them.

I feel fear of the negativity is what could be holding some of us back.

The feeling of not being good enough can hold us back, and I'm sure many of us feel the same way.

When we are new

When you are new to affiliate marketing, we are not sure of what to say in our blogs or posts initially, more so if English is our second language.

So how do we engage our loved ones and close friends?

I thought of an idea.

Before attempting to write up your blog and publish it, we could send out a message on Facebook messenger to family and friends about the topic you are covering related to your market niche. It could be an outline of your review or how you have used a product, and you would like them to read it before publishing it online.

I've written up a request sample message that you can send to friends and family.

EXAMPLE

Hi [name] - how are you?

I know you haven't heard from me for a while, and maybe you're wondering what I've been doing.

Guess what? I have been busy establishing my online website. I'm creating an online affiliate marketing business, and I write product reviews and helpful topics on my favourite niche, which is [insert your niche].

As I'm new [or not so new], I would like it if you would read my blogs or posts before I publish them and offer me some feedback to make some necessary changes.

Once editing is completed, I will send you the link so you can leave a comment.

Your help will assist me build trust and credibility with Google.

Kind Regards

[Your name]

As I said, this is an idea.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Many of you may have already been down this road; if so, your feedback would be appreciated.

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Recent Comments

53

Very good idea, @YvonneBray
But, to me there could be a side effect, as not a 100% of our friends on social media will be happy of our success, especially in Affiliate Marketing where some negative comments can ruin the whole business.
Here I join @Trodvies to say that ''Revealing what we do online is actually a 50-50 'gamble'''.
Thx for sharing

Thank you for your response on this. I agree we would have a mixed response.

I think this strategy has merit particularly if you have a strong affinity with your FB friends. Once you are providing information that is helpful within your niche and it does not come over as just being salesy then it should have some positive effect. Once you get started the quantity and quality of feedback will determine if this approach has merit. If it does keep. If not then oh well.
Hugh

Thank you Hugh. I agree it must not be salesy in any way. It’s more helping a friend out by reading your post before publication and getting editing feed back. They will either say yes or no.

Exactly

Revealing what we do online is actually a 50-50 'gamble'. There are those who will not embrace the 'news', but there will certainly be others who will be supportive, and may even be interested. (You could possibly get a number of referrals from doing so).

However, I've personally adapted the 'don't reveal' approach - for two reasons. I know how supportive folks close to me will be. That is sure. But the truth is, the negativity of the rest (who will get to know at the end of the day) will have a worse effect on my business. And because my business will suffer more than it will gain, I decided not to share - at least not for the time being.

Sometimes, I'm tempted to share, especially with those who I think love writing (and may love the idea of having a blog), but I eventually hold back for fear that 'my secret' will end up in the 'wrong hands'. I know this approach causes me to miss out on possible opportunities. But as I mentioned, weighing both options, I choose to keep silent.

And secondly, my approach actually leads me to discovering true customers/clients for my business - people who are genuinely interested in what I do, and who I can 'count on' to make sales.

This approach is based on MY social reality. Others will not necessarily do the same; their reality may not be the same as mine.

Thanks, Yvonne, for posting about such an interesting issue. It's so interestingly, that many are pouring their heart out here.

Thank you for responding to my blog. I totally understand why so many of us are hesitant to reach out to those who are negative towards our new adventure, Affiliate Marketing or Money Marketing.

You have made a valid point about reaching out to genuine people. Much appreciated.

It is a good idea and one method that is highly recommended for getting good results. In addition to engaging in the relevant FB groups to your business, like blogging groups or affiliate marketing groups.

Linda has a very good point related to negative reactions, that will for ceratin arise form some friends and family members.

But you will never know which of your friends and family members that will be triggered by what you do, and then the snowball starts to roll.

I haven´t shared much of what I am doing yet, because of the same factors that Linda has written about. But I am nevertheless making sure to drop some info into my private Facebook profile, to trigger curiosity.

And it works. I haven´t yet gotten any negative feedback, although I know that it will come sooner or later.

Thank you for bringing up this very important side of what we do.

Roy

I thought I would test the waters as they say, so I am prepared for the negative or the positive outcome.

Asking close friends and family to read your blogs can be done through a PDF file. It's like asking someone to proofread your article before publication. Doing the editing and then publishing.

It is a way to get close family and friends to see what you are doing. Hopefully, become interested in your journey.

Thank you for responding and leaving a comment Roy.

This idea sounds worth trying. What are you really trying to achieve by taking this route? If it just to let your friends know what you are doing and asking for feedback, that can help you to some extent. How do you plan to implement the changes they will suggest? If you do not agree with all their suggestions and pick and choose just some, how do you feel the ones whose suggestion you did not select will feel?

You should also consider are your family and friends the ideal source to get the best advice for your blog post?

As I said at the start, this is worth trying and see where this leads you. Be critical though on the responses you receive and do not consider this a panacea to the growth of your website.

Hope this helps.

Edwin

Hi, Edwin thank you for your comment. When I was at uni, we used to get someone to read our assignments before handing them to our lecturer for marking.

I often took advice from other people and family on sentence structure, spelling, grammar and suggested ideas; that's how I got my High Distinctions.

To me, blogging is no different, except we use conversational voice. I hope to rid negativity in what I am doing by asking them to read before publishing to my website.

I have found this topic quite interesting, especially the responses, which I am finding worthwhile.

I don't want to be afraid to say to friends and family I have my own website, my business is affiliate marketing, and my niche is.....

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