Homelink building

Are You A Facebook “LIKE” Exchange Victim?

Are You A Facebook “LIKE” Exchange Victim?
Like Tweet Pin it Share Share Email
faebook likes, like facebook, fan page likes, reciprocal links
I have more likes than you!

I recently wandered into an Internet Marketing forum which seemed at first glance to be advanced. I was hoping to pick up some brilliance to bring back to you. Not so. While I did find a couple things I am going to write about, most was the same regurgitated blah blah blah.

The thread I chose to investigate was a “leave your Facebook page link” and this way everyone who reads this will leave their link and we all “like” each other. Sounds like a great idea. Not a new idea by any means as link exchanges and traffic exchanges have been around forever.

My problem here is that people all of a sudden forget that link and traffic exchanges are mostly crap. Why in the world would this be any different just because we are talking about Facebook?!

Link exchanges will ultimately lead you to bad neighborhoods and traffic exchanges generally convert, well NOTHING. So, did my research into “LIKE” exchanges show me they will work better? Nope. Let me give you my opinion first. I know that’s what you all wait for anyways. 🙂

Traffic VS. Meaningful Traffic

As far as I am concerned, anyone can get traffic to their website or blog. You can pay for it, seo for it, socialize for it, whatever. The end result is what is important. I don’t just want traffic to my blog, I want returning readers.

I want my readers to share my content, learn from me, vote, submit, like, etc…..whatever action is taken is a conversion. I don’t just need to sell something to have traffic convert. To me, a RT is a traffic conversion.

Traffic that hits here one time and never returns is useless. It does nothing for my rankings, my social proof, or ego for that matter. I am running a business and we all know that without “customers” businesses close. Blogs without readers shut down.

The Facebook “LIKE” Results

No mind blowing numbers here. Just a test I performed to see if I could get results. Out of 80 links placed by members of this community, I “liked” all 80. I then waited for my massive fan page liking to begin. *crickets chirping* Didn’t happen.

Of the 80 links (and still counting as more are being added everyday,) 9 people reciprocated The Friendly Blogger with a “LIKE.”  WHAT??!

I read the thread (that rhymes!) and almost every single person left their link and said, “I have liked all of your pages, here is mine.” Liar liar pants on fire. 🙂 Finally, a lot of the fan page links left were for, you guessed it, bad neighborhoods. Your fan page should build naturally as well. Sure,  most of your fans will be in your same niche, but the occasional off niche will like you too. This looks natural and genuine.

Let me also say, this is not some bogus IM forum, it is a highly respected networking site used by people in every field, every day. My problem once again, is that when dealing with Internet Marketing, there a lot of bogus claims and selfish weenies.I have un-liked most of the pages now and feel better about my page in general not being liked for the sake of a reciprocal like.

The Bottom Line

A colossal waste of time! My advice to you is DON’T DO IT.  There is no difference between link and traffic exchanges and the Facebook exchanges. It’s just a new medium. The arena may have changed, but the rules of the game have not. Do not get sucked into the allure of having tons of fans.

Fans are the same as traffic. You want fans who will add to your social proof by sharing on their walls, sending to their friends and possibly linking to your stuff. I personally want my Facebook fan page to bring in real visitors who convert into traffic for my blog. In order to do that, you need to self promote your links. But you need to do it in places that will provide results. You can start that process right here:

Okay, let me hear it. Have you been a “LIKE” exchange victim? (ohh, I “LIKE” that term.)

Have you had any results from it…good or bad? Please share this with your fans, tweeps and readers…even strangers will work too!

*photo courtesy of luxury4play.com*


Comments (63)

  • Thanks for that!
    I looked up ‘link exchange’ on Google and you were the second result.
    I really had no idea of how it worked, but you pretty much summarized it for me.

    In m opinion, traffic should be natural and with people who are actually interested in your content.

    Keep up the good work 😀

    -Ana.

    Reply
  • It is so much easier to make great connections with Twitter. Getting people that will share your content, read it, learn from you, etc… couldn’t be more true. The numbers game seems to be just a time waster of getting people to follow who aren’t active followers or could care less about a post that one makes.

    Reply
  • not only facebook like exchange is a waste of time facebook itself is a waste of time

    Reply
    • njajawa,

      In a sense, you are right. However, if you understand how to play the Facebook game well, you can get business from Facebook 🙂

      Reply
  • Having more people like your site does bring your page up farther on a Google search by the keywords searched for, especially if you pick the most popular blog title or post title. Okay, sure maybe people are not going to technically search for the entire keyword, “Ideas about starting a home based business from blogs”, but the words in that title, “start a home business with google blogs” is a searchable key term.

    Reply
  • What about sites that actively use exchanges…

    i use http://free-facebook-likes.com for my fan pages and i get a decent amount of likes..

    theres a few others out there.

    some people unlike it if you post tons of updates.. once they like it though, but its worth it for increased traffic too

    Reply
  • nice article, i agreed with you about exchange fb like is the same as exchange traffic and the traffic will not bring you any real result. however, doing above things can help your website has a higher ranking and higher ranking can bring the real customer, right?

    Reply
  • Great post. Also people don’t realize that these sites are scams and only use you to have you like other websites and once you are done they wont do anything back in return.

    Reply
  • The idea is not to get traffic but making a page look popular (lots of likes mean social proof). So in the future people will like the page because many have done the same.

    Reply
    • I agree exactly with this comment. Having a fanbox or like total on your page is not particularly about traffic, its more the appearance of popularity of the site for a new visitor. If someone lands on your page and there is 5,000 facebook likes the visitor ‘potentially’ may give the site a bit more credence and hang around longer than if the like tally was not there.

      Reply
  • I forgot to mention one thing.
    By doing this alone I managed to get a website from nonexistent to the 3rd option on the first page of my specialized search.

    All in about 4 hours as well. So if anything, by doing what you say is useless got me from the last page to the first page. Id call that useful

    Reply
  • thanks for info !
    These likes has no meaning which is exchanged !!

    Reply
  • magnificent points altogether, you just won a new reader. What could you suggest about your post that you simply made some days in the past? Any positive?

    Reply
  • haha!
    I dont have facebook account… so im not guilty of wasting my time on this LIKE think!
    lol !

    Reply
  • Anyway, about facebook fans, the more the better.

    Reply
  • What about sites that actively use exchanges…

    i use http://www.workzor.com for my fan pages and i get a decent amount of likes..

    theres a few others out there.

    some people do leave the group once they like it though, but its worth it for increased traffic too

    Reply
  • I have to disagree. If your fan page has less than 50 likes, people are less likely to click it. People are like sheep, they are afraid of roaming to areas where there is very little companion. Soliciting likes is the way to go is your pan page has just started.

    Reply
  • Thanks for your insights.I think the facebook fan page exchange is also less useful, but if a website like exchange it would be more useful to remember for now Google implement “social share” in the algorithm. So it is more useful for SEO. thanks

    Reply
  • Hi

    Both thumbs up for facebook likes 🙂

    Even if they bring in little traffic, and take take to accumulate – website looks much better (if it isn’t coorporate one).

    similar product hasgot Google – called +1

    Reply
  • Hi, you can buy Facebook likers. But often you get fake accounts. That did not work for us. So we have launched a website where you can exchange likes your self. You like pages and they will like you back.

    Reply
  • I agree with your opinion,however,with the recent demise of Twiends(who had their api pulled recently as they do invade your profile) and the like,there are no companies out there to help people get a Facebook page started and the necessary 25 likes plus to get a custom url,like exchanges which are mainly on Facebook do rely on the page you like liking you back.I have devised a system which is completely remote from Facebook and Twitter,click on my name above and have a read.Kind Regards,Adam

    Reply
  • I personally disagree, I think depending on the service you can have good or bad results. I have written an article my self on the positive points of it feel free to have a look.

    Reply
    • Luke,

      If I may jump in, it’s not about how good or bad the results; it’s more how ethical in doing so. “If you rub my back I will rub yours” – back rubbing is socially accepted, these days!

      More back-rubbing culture: The Twitter culture – “I follow you, so I expect you to follow me – or else, I’ll unfollow you!”

      Here’s something more beyond back-rubbing: A few years ago StumbleUpon exchange were popular (maybe today there are people still doing it…) but it’s frowned by SU and considered as unethical. With FB, it’s just the same, IMO.

      Reply
  • Lol ! yep thats true .. but there is some websites that offers like exchanges for FB and its manged and moderated by scripts which gives u points for liking a page and with this points you can get likes to ur pages..

    Reply
  • Yes, I have been a victim. No, I haven’t seen any results. God damn it.

    Reply
  • I didn’t realise link exchanges had evolved into this new format. I can have as much traffic as I want at my Blog, but it comes at a price – integrity. I like your comment that it is all about getting repeat readers. Without them our blogs are useless. I don’t want useless traffic.

    The other thing is that I simply do not want to have to ‘like’ a rubbish facebook page to get somebody to like mine. I am very happy to like pages on FB but when I do it is not with a view to seeing my stats increase.

    I spend time interacting on FB because I genuinely like the people I talk to. It is these folk I want on my blog…not pretend followers.

    Great article and it is good to be kept up to date with the latest crazes.

    Reply
    • Author

      Simon:

      Welcome to my blog and I appreciate your feedback! I was surprised at the evolution as well….it sucks! 🙂
      I think the whole personal interaction, whether major or minor, helps propel our businesses.

      Cheers,
      Lisa

      Reply
  • I really like your articles, as they are eye openers to newbies like me, who are new in this business. Thanks for it. God bless.

    Reply
  • It’s like any traffic – you could send waves and waves and waves but if people don’t do anything than why even bother. What’s worse is that people often pay for this junk traffic.

    Let’s say you spent $100 to have a slew of retweets from people. Let’s also suppose you get paid $10 an hour. You’ve got 10 hours.

    Would be better to:

    A. Engage with a handful of people which could lead to interaction, blog commenting, powerful retweets.

    B. Hope for the best and what little traffic you gain; it doesn’t do anything.

    I go for the first.

    Let things grow naturally. I know it hurts to see the numbers crawl but it’s one thing at a time – it’s better to build a rapid community than one that’s solely built on spikes.

    Reply
  • Hi Lisa,

    Honestly i almost bought fb “likes” from a forum, it costs $40 per 1000 likes LOL..

    But i did not do it, reason is, i have also a client where she bought friends and likes, and now she complains that her likes are so unrelevant, this keeps me thinking 1000 times before i wanted to decide buying it, or even do some exchanges.

    Thanks for the reminder.

    Reply
    • Author

      Good thinking Kimi! It always comes back to the old standard of quality vs quantity. You did the right thing!

      Cheers,
      Lisa

      Reply
    • I wouldn’t by fb “likes” as people are forced to press “like” buttons by fraud. So one day you can have 1000 likes, but next one 50% will unlike you. Of course if somebody is creating spam page it wouldn’t care about this.

      Reply
      • Author

        Exactly Vi! Glad you can see thru it too!!

        Thanks for visiting my blog

        Lisa

        Reply
        • Awhile ago I was stupid enough to buy traffic. Yes, you’ll get visits but no any conversion. So there is no point for such traffic.

          Reply
          • Author

            Vi:

            Exactly!! Been there, done that and what a waste! I continue to say organic traffic and referred traffic is the key!!

            Thanks for your feedback,
            Lisa

            Reply
  • I appreciate exactly what you are saying Lisa and love the way you tell it as you see it.

    I agree that you should work towards good quality or higher value visitors who want to be there because they really do “like’ what you have to say opposed to just press a button (or say they did 🙂 ). Thanks for the opinion! Jayne

    Reply
  • I’ve see a lot of people paying for these facebook ‘likes’ and I never really understood their value. Call me old fashioned but I prefer to ‘like’ or be ‘liked’ because of a real ‘likeage’ for whatever is being ‘liked’!

    Reply
    • Author

      Benjamin:

      i guess that is old fashioned these days, but I am in complete agreement with you! 🙂 Welcome to my blog!

      Cheers,
      Lisa

      Reply
  • I much prefer Twitter to facebook, I don’t know why it is, but it just seems much more productive and enjoyable too!

    Reply
    • Author

      Manda:

      I agree. Twitter has enabled me to build better relationships so far. FB seems to just sit, maybe I just dont know how to use it yet!! 🙂

      welcome to my blog!

      Lisa

      Reply
      • Thanks for the Welcome 🙂
        I wonder if facebook has become a little overwhelming, where Twitter is fairly basic and less junk to contend with like the millions of games requests etc. Twitter just seems much more user freindly I think.

        Reply
        • Author

          I agree. And now that FB is getting into ads, which are great for marketers, it is a bit clustered. A glimpse into the future of Twitter maybe?

          Reply
  • Pingback:

  • This is a good warning for everyone to see. Facebook is only a gold mine if you put a lot of work into it.

    Were there any in those eight that were worth conversing with? If there had been, perhaps adding one or two good Likes might be worth it – if they didn’t require lots of your time.

    Reply
    • Author

      Hi Delos:

      Welcome to my blog. yes there were a few that were worth connecting to. So I did find some value there, but all in all a waste!

      Thanks for stopping by
      Lisa

      Reply
  • I saw many times that people don’t really reciprocate when it comes to stuff like that.
    However, although not real and targeted, more likes on FB bring more like usually. People are hesitant to click on like for pages that don’t have many fans. As soon as they see a nice, high number, they are more likely to click like.

    I have learned (and wrote a review on it) that Twiends is a great way for you to get more likes and those usually result in even more, after the page comes up on the new fan’s wall.

    So I wouldn’t count it as complete waste of time and effort. What I would do is just make a long comment in the thread saying what people did not reciprocate the likes. I am pretty sure it would have effect, especially that who ever joins later will be warned about the pages.

    Reply
    • Author

      Hi Brankica:

      I see what you are saying, however, I refuse to even waste my time calling out the liar liar pants on fire! I see a lot of these threads for what they are, I test it out and then move on. I am going to check out this Twiends though.

      Also, where I differ is that I am not afraid to “like” a low liked fan page. Those could be the next superstars and if they are, I want in on the ground floor! I don;t know why people are afraid of that. It’s like when I go to a post that rocks and there are no comments…best believe I am leaving one!!

      talk soon shooter,
      Lisa

      Reply
  • Great enlightenment post, Lisa. At least now, if someone questions whether the ‘like’ pages are worth while, they can see your post and steer clear. You’ve saved a lot of people a lot of hassle.

    I just always look at how many of a specific item are listed in responses, tweets and follow-up emails. When I get a whole bunch of ‘here’s how I make money on . . .” I instinctively stay away.

    And unfortunately, as long as some huckster has a convincing sales letter of ‘here’s how I make money . . ‘, someone is going to buy it.

    Reply
    • Author

      You are correct Gibson! And it wasn’t even so much “heres how you can make money” as it was “oh boy we can all likey each other!”

      And yes, those sales letters are something aren’t they?!

      Cheers!
      Lisa

      Reply
  • I’m not on FB yet, but I surely do appreciate the head up. 🙂

    Reply
    • Author

      Dennis:

      When are you going to get on FB??? It took me awhile too and Im still tweaking. 🙂

      All the best,

      Lisa

      Reply
  • I too recently realized that building FB likes with exchanges is such a waste. I had a bitter experience recently. Actually I didn’t intend to build fans. But one of my friends asked me to “Like” him for an exchange and this avalanche spread among his friends.

    But all I can say that it was useless.

    Jane.

    Reply
    • Author

      Jane:

      It’s sad when even our friends lead us into bad neighborhoods. Hopefully your friend got out just as quick as you did!

      Cheers!

      Lisa

      Reply
  • nah…I never bothered with it…in fact I seldom troll the warrior forum …Ive been doing something much cooler with Brankica and Tristan. Email me…we’ll talk about it 🙂

    Reply
  • Hi Lisa great as always. If I didn’t get your opinion here I’d be severely disappointed.

    I’ve had more success joining tweeting groups than Facebook Like groups or whatever they are called. I see Twitter as a reach extender, but when it comes to Facebook I only want serious people to be on my fan page, as those are the folks that will be more responsive to what I have. So screw social proof with large numbers, I wants me the cool peeps, and they are coming.

    Reply
    • Author

      Hi Robert:

      I always appreciate your thoughts. I am just beginning to get more involved in Twitter, I do think tweeps are definitely more reactive.
      I As for my fan page, I also want real people with real goals who understand the proper way to market themselves.

      All the best,
      Lisa

      Reply
  • those who know about this never becomes addicted to this and it is a total wastage of time as time is precious

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.