Tuesday 30 July 2019

5 Ways To Use The Facebook Pixel To Generate Sales Online

How to use Facebook Pixel to Increase Sales Online


So you've heard about the Facebook Pixel, you've bought into the idea that you need one for your business, but you aren't quite sure about how you are going to (or supposed to!) use it?! No problem - we've come up with 5 ideas to get you started!



1. Use the Facebook Pixel to Create a Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience. 


Use the email list from your current customer base to create a custom audience on Facebook. You can then show the same audience adverts when you have a special promotion, one time offer or new product or service launch. AND you can create a lookalike audience - where Facebook will create an audience of people similar to those that have already purchased (based on various data points). This audience will be more likely to buy than non targeted cold traffic and because you are creating a lookalike audience, the number of people you can advertise to will be vast - compared to your limited customer list.


2. Use the Facebook Pixel to Collect Audience Insights 


Start collecting data from all of your web pages to get a better idea of the type of person engaging with your content and assess this agains your customer avatar. This can include blogs, e-commerce stores, websites and lead pages. It can also include your Facebook page, group and advertising. If they are showing completely different things you can either refine your customer avatar in line with the type of person is actually engaging and buying from you - or you can adjust your online marketing strategy to better target your dream customer.


3. Use the Facebook Pixel to Retarget Interested Prospects 


Create retargeting campaigns for anyone who has enhanced with your online content but not taken the desired action - e.g. registered their email address or completed a purchase. Retargeting is incredibly powerful as cold traffic is hard to convert. However, once it has been warmed up (these people have shown an interested in your company and product / service) it is much easier to convert them. Plus - retargeting campaigns cost a lot less than conversion and traffic campaigns.
Track your Facebook advertising performance. This is crucial in understanding ad performance and conversion rates. If you have been running ads without this data, you will have no idea what is working and what isn't.


How to use Facebook Pixel to Increase Sales Online



4. Use the Facebook Pixel to Split Test & Create Winning Ad Sets  


Split test, split test, split test. Using the Pixel you can split test everything. You can set up an ad campaign with 12 different ad sets testing a number of different targeting variables for example. Because you have the Facebook Pixel installed and you are tracking the specific action that you want your prospects to take, you will see which specific ad, creative and targeting variables delivers the best results. Whether you are looking for lowest cost per clicks, highest number of website purchases, lowest cost per lead etc. you will be able to see it all within your ads manager instantly.



5. Use the Facebook Pixel to Track Traffic to Your Amazon Listings  


If you are running an Amazon store and sending traffic to your listings through Facebook ads, you lose access to those people the minute they leave your Facebook ad. But fortunately there are 3rd part apps, like Pixell.me, that can provide you with links that can have the pixel code installed within them. That way you can still create an audience, for retargeting, of all the people that clicked onto your Amazon listing, using the data collected through their specific link.

So now are you seeing what all the fuss is about? It's amazing really, how much insight this little piece of code can give you and the sophisticated level of targeting it provides for your Facebook Ad campaigns. This is why, when you understand how to use Facebook Ads, it can be an absolute game changer for your business.

We hope you found this useful - and as alway - please comment at the end with any questions, suggestions or view points you have on the subject. We are always happy to chat and connect!

Until next time...


Have a great day!  😃

Laptop Lifestyle Living



How to Earn Money on YouTube: Best Tips for Beginners

Wednesday 24 July 2019

Do You Need an Instagram Account for Your Business? A Brief Introduction...

If you are thinking about starting an Instagram account for your business, it look as though you are on the right track (and certainly not alone!). There are some pretty impressive usage stats, last updated on Omincore on 18th July 2019, which include; 

  • Total Number of Monthly Active Instagram Users: 1 billion +
  • Total Number of Daily Active Instagram Users: 500 million +
  • Instagram Stories Daily Active Users: 500 million +
  • Number of Photos Shared to Date: 50 billion +
  • Number of Businesses on Instagram: 25 million + (source)




With that sheer volume of usage for both personal and business, I realised that this was certainly a channel that I want to leverage for my businesses.

What is Instagram? 


Instagram is like Facebook and Twitter in as far as it's a social media platform where users create, like and share posts - which appear in a newsfeed. The difference with Instagram is it's emphasis on visual sharing. You have to upload a picture or video in order to post and then can add text commentary. 

You can follow key influencers on Instagram and interact with them and their followers by liking posts, commenting and replying and private messaging. And you can search for content or images for specific subjects by using hashtags. 

Lifewire has a really useful introduction for Instagram in their blog post; What Is Instagram, Anyway?


How Often Should you Post?



According to a post on Social Buddy (How often should you post on Instagram in 2019)

the optimum number of posts a day is between 1 and 3 - but this can differ between profiles.  

They suggest that major brands are averaging 1.5 posts per day and recommend that you start by posting several times, slowing reducing the frequency to find your optimum amount. The most important thing being that you are consistent with your content, which is true of all content marketing and social media marketing. 

They also recommend that you go with the “quality over quantity”  approach, which again is true across all platforms and online content distribution. 





What are Instagram Stories?


The idea behind Instagram Stories was for users to be able to share snippets of their day with their followers, quickly and easily. This could be as a series of images or videos, which would then become a slideshow when it has been posted onto Instagram. Instagram Stories only stay live for 24 hours and then they disappear - like Snapchat. 


The reason Instagram users like Stories is that they are featured at the top of the home page, beating all other posts and the algorithm. Then if you are to add another part to the story, it gets bumped back up to the top of the feed. Instagram will even post a reminder in the feed about stories that are due to expire to give followers another prompt to see your story before it is removed. 
You can read more about Instagram Stories on Louisem.com's blog This Is Why You Need To Use Instagram Stories Right Now


How to get Followers on Instagram


Now the point of social media marketing is to build an audience that you can connect to and share content with. In order to do this - you will need to get people to follow you. Easier said than done, particularly when you are fighting to be heard amongst the 1 billion other users. 

A post on later.com has an interesting and detailed article, on this subject and provides 8 different ways to get more Instagram followers. [see blog post here; 8 New Ways to Get More Instagram Followers in 2019

In summary these are:

  1. Making sure you have a branded and complete Instagram profile
  2. Using hashtags and location tags in your Instagram Stories 
  3. Sharing selfies (apparently these really work!) 
  4. Using Instagram Ads
  5. Cross-promoting your Instagram content across other platforms
  6. Creating a Custom Instagram Stories Filter For Your Brand
  7. Collaborating with leading brands to get exposure to their followers 
  8. Creating relationships with leading influencers to be exposed to their followers

These are pretty basic tips, but they will be enough to get your started. I will be investing a lot of time into Instagram and will be more than happy to share my learnings, insight and successes as I go. 



In the meantime, I hope this was helpful and I will leave you with a really useful Instagram Infographic from Social Media Pilot






5 Steps I'm Using To Make Money Online Right Now [Tai Lopez]

Tuesday 23 July 2019

Feel Stuck in Your Business? Stop Trying SO Hard....


It might sound counter intuitive, but have you ever considered that trying SO HARD in your business, could actually hold you back rather than push you forward?

As a child I was always told I had to work harder than other people to get the same results. Low and behold, this is now a deeply ingrained belief that I hold (but am trying to remould!). I will literally work myself into the ground, I will try and try (and try)... until I can’t go on anymore. Then I will be forced to take a break (against my will of course) as I completely run out of steam.

In fairness, half of this is down to my obsession and passion for my businesses and the fulfilment I get from creating, achieving, expanding and growing them. But it’s equally down to the fact that I 'believe' I have to work myself into the ground, to have any chance of success.

But this is simply not true.  And this belief, always gets in my way!

Yes - you have to work hard to create a successful business. Being an entrepreneur IS hard work and requires a significant amount of drive, determination, commitment and even sacrifice. It's certainly not for everyone!

But it also requires thinking time. Time where you can simply let the ideas and inspiration flow and where you can transform thoughts and ideas into reality.  It's not all about the action you take, it is also about being creative and almost quieting your mind to allow clarity within the chaos.

When we are so consumed with action and pressuring ourselves to 'do', we are not always allowing this thinking time. Trying too hard can get us all wound up in a knot. We get caught in a vicious circle where the more we try, the more we do, the more we do, the more stressed we get and the more pressure we put on ourselves. And there never seems to be an end.

We then find ourselves spending more time working 'in' our business, rather than 'on' our business.

Taking time out every now and again, can be incredibly productive and allows you to think, contemplate, reflect and just take it all in. I find by doing this, I get to the result much quicker and with far less work as I am able to think more intuitively.  It's easy to lose sight of our own guidance when we are so heavily wrapped up in thinking and action.




So... what am I trying to say? I guess I am trying to say that taking the foot off the gas every now and again is not just O.K., but it's actually fundamental for the business and you to thrive! It's incredibly productive - even if it doesn't feel like it at the time.

For me, it's often a time that solutions to problems randomly pop into my head, amazing ideas come to me and inspired thinking gets into full flow. And now make a conscious effort to allow myself this time regularly. It might be something as simple as swimming a few times a week, which is a great time to ponder a question or come up with some ideas.  Or if I've been working hard on a project that has completely taken over, at the end I will force myself to at least take a day off and just focus on having fun. It does wonders for my mind, my health and my business.

Yes we have to work hard to make our dreams a reality, but we also have to find a balance. A balance that allows us time to relax, unwind and allow that one amazing idea to come!


If you're feeling stuck-in-action or are wandering if you are trying too hard - check out these other useful articles!
  1. Inc.com: 25 Simple Ways for Entrepreneurs to Find Inspiration
  2. Inc.com: 10 Signs You Need to Stop Trying So Hard
  3. Business & Leadership: How To Succeed In Business Without Working So Damn Hard  

I'm sure this post will being a whole array of opinions - and I would love to hear them all, so please do comment, let's start a discussion and share any ideas that we can use to help each other when finding the balance between trying and achieving.


Have a great day!  😃

Laptop Lifestyle Living

4 Principles of Marketing Strategy [Brian Tracy]

Friday 19 July 2019

What is a customer Avatar and why would you need one...?



A customer avatar is a profile that represents your ideal customer. It's a very specific and detailed view of the type of customer you want to attract into your business. When I say specific, I'm not kidding! You want to give your customer avatar a name, an age, a relationship status.... you want to know what type of job they have, what car they drive, what they like doing, their aspirations and so on. 

The more detail you can go into, the better. 


Why is a customer avatar important for your business? 

  • It's essential to your success to know who you are trying to attract - how could you reach them otherwise? 
  • To avoid broad targeting and have a better chance of attracting the customer you actually want.
  • If you try to appeal to everyone, the likelihood is that you won't appeal to anyone (you can't be all things to all people)
  • If you know exactly who you are trying to attract, you can create marketing messages and sales copy that they resonate with them effectively. 


But this reduce my reach and so my ability to increase sales and profit? 

  • No. Because you are being very specific, your advertising is much more targeted and your copy and messages are more likely to attract your desired audience. This means that ad costs will go down and your sales and conversion rates will go up!
  • By being more specific with your niche you are increasing your chances of being seen. If you target too broad a niche, your advertising will be swallowed up by trying to compete with the big players. 
  • You are more likely to reach people that will become avid fans, referrers and repeat purchases as you will be adapting your products or services around them

OK, so you have created a customer avatar. Now what?


Great! This will help give your business much more focus and clarity!  There are many ways you can use your customer avatar.

  • Now you you know who your customer is, you can reveal their pain points and identify the problems that they need to solve
  • You can create your content around this, making your brand and product or service very appealing to your target audience. 
  • When paying for advertising, use your customer avatar to target your audience effectively and efficiently. This will avoid huge advertising costs being wasted on audiences that aren't genuinely interested.
  • Not only will your targeting be more effective, but your copy and creative will also generate better results.
  • Everyone in your business should be familiar with your customer avatar, particularly those that are likely to come in contact with them and affect their experience with your brand.
  • You will be able to create and develop products more specifically around their needs
  • Your email marketing will become more presonalised and develop a stronger and longer last relationship




What information should you include when creating your ideal customer?




  • As I mentioned before, it's time to get specific. Really Specific. Try including all of the following information; 
  • You should include their age, sex, income range, relationship status, familial set up, likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears, desires, what they read, what they watch, where they work, what they drive and much more. 
  • Anything and everything to help you connect with them on an emotional level is key.
  • Give them a name and even take it another step further and find an image online that you can use for them. 



We hope that post was helpful. Please feel free to comment below with any additional ideas you'd like to discuss or to ask any questions.

For further reading, there's an interesting article in Entrepreneur on the customer avatar:



Creating a customer avatar and defining your audience is just one out of 7 essential steps to growing your business online. Want to know the rest? Download you free eBook here, to streamline your focus and smash your goals!



Have a great day!  😃

Laptop Lifestyle Living


What is a Sales Funnel? And How To Create One that Actually Makes Money [Russel Brunson]





Like this video?

If you want to learn more about marketing and sales funnels, Russel is the go-to guy and I'd strongly recommend these two books, which you can get for free by using the following links.

I've read both and strongly recommend Dotcom Secrets if you are serious about growing your business and how to attract customers into your business and keep them! And Expert Secrets if you want to find out how you can use your own life experiences, knowledge and skills to provide value to the marketplace and create an income.


Dotcom Secrets - Order Now

Tony Robbins said that it's: "A simple process that ANY company can use to geometrically improve their traffic, conversion & sales online"












Expert Secrets - Order Now!

Robert Kiyosaki Said "Expert Secrets is the map that will allow you to turn your specialised knoweldge, talents and abilities into a business that will work for you. This is one of the shortcuts of the new rich"






One Funnel Away Challenge - Join the Next Challenge!

If you want to go a step further and take a deeper dive into understanding marketing fundamentals and strategies, identifying niche markets and customer audiences, creating value through your own products and services, creating and designing sales funnels, driving traffic and creating follow up campaigns - this is an excellent training course at a ridiculously low price of $100!



This is outstanding value for what you will learn, trust me. You will come out with a much deeper understanding of how to run and market your business and you will have the knowledge and skill base for life. I really can't recommend this enough, it's a complete no brainer.

Happy Learning!

Thursday 18 July 2019

How to Attract Customers - 5 Marketing Strategies to Dominate Social media (Tyson Zahner)



5 Questions to ask to ask yourself when promoting your product or service - or creating relevant content for your audience.

  1. What kinds of questions are my target customers making prior to their purchase decision. Answer this question for them to attract them into your business.
  2. What problems and frustrations are my prospects currently dealing with that my produce or service can solve?
  3. Has anyone ever experienced something awful because they did not have your product or service? 
  4. Has anyone ever gotten great results from using your product or service? 
  5. What tips could you give a passionate audience? 

Sunday 14 July 2019

Is Your Money Mindset Getting in the Way of Your Success?

I recently finished a book by T. Harv Eker called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (which I strongly recommend by the way). I found it incredibly enlightening, which came as a surprise! It's not the first book I have read about Money and mindset, in fact I have been reading, listening and taking a lot in about how to curate the money mindset required to succeed - yet I still found myself in moments of self-discovery as I read.


Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - Money Mindset - Laptop Lifestyle Living

What is a Money Mindset anyway? 

When I refer to a money mindset some of you will know what I am talking about, while others may be thinking what the......?!?!  

Your money mindset refers to the feelings and thoughts that you have around money. These have mostly been subconsciously developed from your own life experiences and your upbringing will have had a huge impact on this.  

They will also form the bases of your core beliefs around money and how it works in the world - since beliefs are just thoughts that we keep thinking. 




Why is this important?


Our thoughts,  emotions and beliefs control our actions. If your thoughts and emotions towards money are negative, this can create a barrier between you and the financial success that you have been striving for.  If you have always focused on not having enough money, believed old sayings such as 'money doesn't grow on trees' or are always saying 'I can't afford that' then you have been living in a place of lack - a shortage consciousness. 

The universe has a funny way of showing us that what we believe is true. And so, if you believe that money is hard to come by, then you will find that it is hard to come by. If you feel and believe you never have enough - then you will never have enough.  

You will be too cautious to take chances, you won't see opportunities sitting right under your nose, you won't have the faith or belief in yourself to make your financial success a reality and so you won't be open to receive the ideas and inspiration that will take you forward and attract more money into your life and your business. 

On the contrary, if you feel abundant and that money is a limitless resource, you are more likely to find yourself seeing more opportunities to make money, getting more ideas and more inspiration that will lead you down the path to your financial goals. 


What does the book teach you?


The Millionaire Mindset is enlightening and practical. It provides a wealth of information about how our minds work and why our relationship with Money is so important. T. Harv Eker also providers a number of exercises and processes that will help you to; 


  • Identify your current beliefs about money
  • Work on improving your mindset and relationship with money
  • Create a new positive and healthy way of looking at things
  • Stop complaining, blaming and feeling resentful
  • Replace jealousy and resentment with gratitude for your life
  • Become solution focused rather than problem focused
  • Develop healthy mindset habits
  • Calculate and track your network
  • Manage your money to create long term wealth
  • Work smart not hard and leverage other people
  • Become a warrior and act in spite of fear, doubt and worry 
  • Only focus on empowering thoughts that will take you forward - not hold you back

And actually, many of these processes and habits to live by, are valuable in everyday life as they are designed to keep you focused on appreciating what you have, rather than spending all your time focusing and complaining about what's wrong in your life.  

Have you ever noticed that the people around you who complain the most and never seem to have what they want, continue along that path in rotation?  Whereas the people who seem to appreciate life (no matter what is thrown at them), never complain and instead focus on where they are going - seem to have everything they want float into their lives... ?!  

There's a reason for that. 


My personal take outs....


I thought I had my money mindset nailed. I knew there were a few issues I needed to iron out - but after reading this book I realised I had quite a bit more work than I'd anticipated and I truly believe this is what has been holding my back from reaching my next financial milestone. This is what I realised;

  • My beliefs from childhood are still very much integrated with my money mindset. I have even recently heard myself saying to my children 'we can't afford that'. I am focusing on not having enough rather than focusing on and welcoming abundance. 
  • I appear to still have a hindering false belief that seems to suggest I am not worthy of significant financial abundance. Whilst I acknowledge that this isn't the 'truth' - it was an interesting realisation that I can now address. This probably explains the next a-ha moment I had...
  • My ability to receive. I am terrible at receiving anything. If someone gives me a compliment I will dismiss it with a joke at my expense or a justification; If someone offers to do something for me I feel guilty and say it's ok (and therefore find it difficult to accept help) and if someone buys me a drink at the pub I feel I absolutely have to buy them one back. I can't just accept a drink or anything else as a nice gesture. So I will be working on my ability to receive and appreciate anything that comes my way. 
  • I am not managing my money effectively enough and whilst I do save and Invest, I still need to work on excess and impulse spending! 
  • Turning problems and obstacles into opportunities, not allowing myself to get consumed and emotional about the issue but instead thinking about all of the solutions and how this challenge has helped myself or the business grow and improve. And how resolving the issue could help me, help others facing similar challenges. 
  • That there is a part of my business that I am not genuinely passionate about - and that the reason it hasn't taken off, is because it's not truly what I want to be doing in life. Reading this book has helped me admit this to myself and be ok with letting it go for the time being, to focus much more on the things I love and enjoy doing. 

If you are interested in what you are reading here and would like to know more, I would definitely recommend giving this book a go. It's an easy and fascinating read / listen and will hopefully give you as many a-ha moments as it gave to me. You'll love it  ;o) 



Saturday 13 July 2019

Cash Kickstarter - 7 Ways to Make Money TODAY from your Home

I'm guessing that you already have a business or are looking to start working for yourself, otherwise you wouldn't be here. But what could you do today - to generate some quick cash that you can use to  invest into your business or kick start an advertising campaign to generate leads?

Here's 7 ideas.....
  1. Sell unwanted items on eBay. You may have done this in past or perhaps even considered it but dismissed it. You'd be surprised at how much money you could have hidden in 'stuff' that you no longer need, use or even know is there. 
  2. Sell unwanted gifts, old toys or household items through Facebook Marketplace or local Facebook groups FOR FREE. This is a great way to de-clutter and those purchasing from you are likely to be local and able to collect quickly. It's ideal for larger bulkier items that would have cost a lot to post or courier if selling through eBay.  
  3. Sell old tech boxes and accessories. Yes - really! If you are one of those organised types that keeps all the packaging that comes with a brand new iPhone or gaming system - your luck is in. You can actually make money selling these through sites like eBay, Gumtree and Facebook - so long as they are in tact of course. You could even bag as much as £5-20 for an old tech box (do a quick search on eBay to see what the going prices are). 
  4. PPI - Last chance! Did you ever check if you were eligible for a PPI claim? Is it worth doing? As of 29th August 2019 you will no longer be able to make a claim with your old bank or building society, so if you think there's even a small chance that you could claim - you need to do so quickly. 
  5. Check your pension. If you have been paying into a pension, or like me - did, but then stopped many years ago - it's definitely worth seeing how much is in there now.  I certainly had a nice surprise when I checked after not paying in for the last 8 years. If you are in property, your pension pot CAN be used to invest in commercial property so long as it is transferred into a required fund (please check with your financial advisor for advice!). This means I can use mine for a deposit to purchase a property for my Serviced Accommodation business.  
  6. Get paid listening to music! I know... but it is true. Here's a handy article highlighting 10 different sites that will pay you to listen and review their tunes: https://ivetriedthat.com/get-paid-to-listen-to-music/ . This could be a job for anyone in the family!
  7. Rent out a room. If you have a spare room and could do with the extra income, you can earn up to £7500 per annum by taking a lodger and letting out a furnished room, through the Governments Rent a Room Scheme. 
There are so many ways you can boost your cash, as a quick google search will show. Get yourself into the money making mindset and watch the inspiration flow into your business too! 



Friday 12 July 2019

5 Business Ideas to Make Money From Your Laptop

Are you fed up with the 9-5 grind; sitting in traffic twice a day and working for a boss you can't stand? Do you want to escape the rat-race but have no idea where to start?

Then you're in the right place ..... here are 5 simple business ideas to get you started - any of these you could start to implement today.


Set yourself up a side hassle with the intention of going full time, once your income matches your salary.


It's never too late to start!



  1. Affiliate Marketing. If you don't have a product or service to promote, that's not a deal breaker. You could start with affiliate marketing and sell other peoples products instead. You can get some pretty good commission rates up to 40% for information based products and sometimes higher. You can find affiliate programmes everywhere online so you can simply chose what you want to promote and make a start, with very little set up cost. 
  2. Consultant. Do you have a lot of experience or expertise in something in an area that will allow you to market as an advisor? This could be in your current line of work. You can teach people the best codes of practice and how to learn from the mistakes you have made in your own career (note you would need to be licensed and regulated if you were going to offer legal or financial advice).  
  3. Freelance. Do you have a skill that you could offer to business's looking for one-off projects or monthly support?  There are numerous sites that allow you to promote your services to other businesses including Fiverr, Upwork and People per Hour (to name a few). This could include administrative support, website design, copy writing, any other kind of writing (blogs, books, articles etc), social media marketing, book keeping, telemarketing, video editing and creation - and many many more!  Have a look at these sites to see the depth of services people are currently promoting and earning from. 
  4. Lead Generator. Every business needs customers and if you can bring quality potential customers into a business, most will be happy to pay you for it. Make sure you understand the businesses you are targeting and the their industry - then run strategic advertising campaigns to attract hot leads and sell them on. 
  5. Middleman. Using the services mentioned in the Freelance section - you could act as a middleman or matchmaker, selling a service to a business and outsourcing this service to a specialist on a freelance site. This could be for video marketing, website creation, social media and much much more. You would need to make sure that the person you are using provides quality work but you will be able to judge this from the number of reviews they have and by testing them out with a project of your own first. 
These are only 5 ideas to get your brain juices in flow. Have a look around on some of these sites and have fun with it. You are bound to get some inspiration and ideas of your own. Opportunities really are limitless - you just have to be open to them and use your imagination a little! 

Good luck and more importantly - have fun! ;o) 


Have a great day!  😃

Laptop Lifestyle Living


STOP Using Facebook Ads - The Best Alternative Ad Platforms

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