As we edge nearer publication date of the book – I will launch the book officially on this website in the next 7 to 10 days – it’s worth taking a look at some of the things I learned in putting this together
Sex 3.0 The Facebook Page
Social media marketing 101 – you need a Facebook page. I don’t just mean that I need a facebook page, I mean the book needs a facebook page. So I put one together.
Many of you will have found this site via a search engine or via one of my articles you might have read elsewhere like at inmalafide.com so you might not even know that Sex 3.0 has a facebook page, well it does and it is here :
http://www.facebook.com/sex3.0
First question might be how did I get the cool personalised url, well unlike personalised urls on personal pages (which are dished out on a first come, first served basis), you have to earn them. You have to setup a fan page and get 25 people to ‘like’ the page before you can even apply for the personal url. I didn’t know that before.
Another thing that I learned is about creating a landing page for the Facebook page. Now, I won’t bore you with the techie details here but it involves learning about facebook apps, SSL certificates, canvas URLs, iFrame and the like. Fun!
Anyway, I did it and the facebook landing page – which is what anyone who has not previously liked the facebook page will automically see – looks like this :
The main things to note being that I am prompting people to ‘like’ Sex 3.0, letting them know that they can buy the eBook via a neat little eStore that I set up right inside facebook itself, letting them know the URL of the official website for Sex 3.0 and giving them a little look at the cover of the book all at the same time.
Of course, if you want to see it in context and see how nicely the arrows line up with everything then you can see it here even if you have previously ‘liked’ the page before.
If you have previously liked it and you are still logged into facebook then obviously you won’t see a like button and the arrow won’t line up with the facebook eStore.
To see it exactly as a person who had not previously ‘liked’ the page before ( for example a first time visitor – exactly who a landing page is designed for) then just log-out of Facebook and visit http://facebook.com/sex3.0
Facebook eStore
This allows people to buy the book using a credit card, debit card or PayPal with all payments going straight to my PayPal account and no third parties taking any commission. Because of this, the cheapest versions of the books will always be available directly from this site.
People have been already asking me how I did this. Well, I started out by doing it using a WordPress plugin and that was easy to get working but I did not like the look of the store. The plugin basically does not give you any control of the look and feel, only of which items you list and at what price.
So, I decided to do it myself. Firstly I setup an eBookStore right within this website and you can see it here and also listed in the header right at the top of every page.
After that, I decided to re-use the exact same code on the eBookStore right within Facebook too. Check it out :
https://www.facebook.com/sex3.0?sk=app_271726439556295
One of the nice things about the way I designed it is that, after payment goes through, customers will automatically be directed to a “Thank You” page which a WordPress page hosted on this website.
In other words, even if they start on Facebook and in the eStore there, they will end up on this website and will be able to subscribe to Sex 3.0 and join the community over here. Cool huh?
What else did I learn? SEO. Type “Sex 3.0” into a search engine and the top search results will show you this website as well as the Facebook page. Result !
Apart from that I have been busy this week working with a photographer to get a cool mug shot to use in the book and as an official mug shot in general. Results look promising.
Not long until “Sex 3.0 – A Sexual Revolution Manual” is launched now. See you on the other side.
