Today is an exciting day for me! I believe I have completed and assembled all of my components to start collecting my list of subscribers. I am ready to focus entirely on the four main things to make this business work (driving traffic, capturing traffic, follow-up, and offers).

July 1, 2024 – Driving Traffic

Weeks ago, I started a test run to analyze and learn a few things about Microsoft search ads (Bing.com). Today, I’ll start cranking it up to increase traffic to my blog.

I’m dividing my traffic into three groups or three devices.

Let me explain: Some people will visit my blog using their desktop, others will use their mobile, and the last group will only use their tablet. I will eliminate the group with the device that brings me the worst traffic results and continue focusing on the other two.

July 2, 2024 – Bing Account Suspended!

Damn, haha! 😂 What happened?! A lot of things happened throughout the last few weeks! I got into panic mode because it only took one day to run into my most feared obstacle: getting my paid ads account suspended.

I guess they didn’t like me cranking things up, uh! 😅

In my previous post, I talked about using Microsoft Bing search ads to bring people to my blog because my Google search ads account was suspended. Well, it happened with Bing as well. Their vague explanation was that I violated a policy called egregious violation. I tried to appeal using a simple form they provided, but it was useless. Maybe they thought my story was an exaggeration or I was lying. Which I’m not! I’m trying to be as accurate as possible, which sometimes can be emotional in my writing because I’m reliving past experiences.

All those recent months of testing and re-learning, in addition to the last couple of years when I had to learn that platform from scratch, all went to waste!

Now, you might say, why can I just start a brand new account? Well, that doesn’t always work either because they already have my personal information. If I open a new account, they might suspend that one, too, which makes things worse. If I ever decide to appeal again, Microsoft Bing might make it more difficult because of that second attempt to open a new account.

I found a company out there that can work on my behalf to reopen these types of suspensions, but their price is in the thousands, so I’m not going to bother.

July 6, 2024 – Moving On With Facebook Lead Ads (NOT Regular Facebook Ads)

Anyway, after a few days of feeling annoyed, worried, and betrayed by Bing, 😔 I felt hopeful again.

The first thing that came to mind for advertising my blog was Facebook Lead Ads, so I started investigating.

The coaching program has a one-hour and forty-minute video with instructions on advertising using this specific platform, so I played it and took notes.

When I went to Facebook to create an account for this platform, I ran into a surprise after I opened it. It said:

Account Suspended for not appealing within 30 days! 😡

What?! What do you mean!

I guess back in 2018, when I was attempting to do traditional affiliate marketing, I opened an ad account on Facebook. However, I left it alone because I decided to use Google instead. I completely forgot I opened one in the past! But why was it suspended in the first place when I never even advertised anything there? I have no clue!

July 8, 2024 – Trying To Learn Multiple Platforms Now

I’m like a chicken with its head cut off here. I’m running left and right, not sure what to decide. Should I do native ads? Should I advertise on Instagram? Should I focus on organic traffic? Quora? Pinterest? Should I make short videos?

Those are possibilities for the future, but I don’t know; my head is clouded with frustration right now, and I can’t think straight!

I visit the Facebook advertising page throughout the week to see if there’s anything I can do. There’s no chat with an agent feature or phone number to call—Facebook doesn’t provide any of that.

But it seems like there’s some hope. I see a slightly different message. Facebook asked me to provide my driver’s license so that I could verify my identity, so that’s what I did!

After a few minutes, the ad account was back and running again! 🙄

July 15, 2024 – Straight To My Email List

Now, I’m trying not to waste time and apply what I have learned thus far about Facebook Lead Ads. Facebook, in general, is confusing to me; there are too many unnecessary options and too many routes to take, but it is what it is. I’m just glad I can bring traffic to my blog.

But wait! Facebook Lead Ads is a little different. People can skip my blog and become subscribers straight from the ad, which means Facebook doesn’t necessarily need the link for my blog in the ad. Well, this gives me some peace of mind, to be honest. I can write without worrying if I ever offend Facebook “unintentionally.”✌😁

If my account gets suspended again, it’s because I did something on the ad itself, not because of what I said in my blog.

Affiliate System (Website Builder/Email Marketing Platform)

The platform I’m using to build my funnel and collect my email list of addresses from subscribers is called Affiliate System. So, to bring a Facebook subscriber directly to my email list, I had to use a feature in the Affiliate System that integrates with Facebook. Their live chat feature helped me with the setup, which wasn’t complicated at all.

My Observation

Based on my situation, I noticed that Facebook Lead Ads was a better option for me than Microsoft Search Ads. So, in the end, it works better anyway. I’m collecting subscribers much faster than I would have using search ads. The main reason is that people would skip the blog and go straight into my email list. Now that I have my subscribers on my email list, I can follow up with emails to build relationships and finally direct them to my blog as the last step. I guess it’s a reverse approach, so let’s see what happens!

Microsoft might have worked similarly if my setup had consisted of collecting emails first with an opt-in page and a free lead magnet before the blog, but at this point, I’m speculating.

I’m just glad this is over. Those suspensions have been persecuting me since 2020, starting with Google Ads. 😞