Getting Techie with Facebook...not

 I took the plunge. Having read how so-and-so spent x amount of $/£ promoting their book/blog/facebook pages/whatever and three hours later they had six squillion new followers/customers, I thought I'd take the plunge and try a Facebook ad.
  I took the modest option. All right, the cheapest option. £4.00 a day for 7 days, trying to encourage more than just my dog to join my mailing list. I'm offering a free copy of Vernon the Pirate, which is not to be sniffed at, in my view. It is an epic and lengthy poem and a darn good yarn to boot.
 But on to the ad. Not a lot of instruction. Some of it, you have to guess why nothing's happening when you click next. And sooo slooow. I checked with the P&J. No, the internet was fine- least-ways, the bit he was using was. Other web pages were acting as you would hope. But Facebook's business page? Soo slooow!
  About every three letters (yes, letters, not even words) everything would stop while the page reloaded. Sometimes I could only get away with a space. Half an hour two write three sentences. Then it asked me what places I wanted to target. I thought of all the English speaking countries, and ended up with Austin, Texas as one of my prime targets. Why? Predictive text- I'd started typing Australia after I'd clicked on United States, so Facebook decided I wanted Austin, Texas, USA. Hate predictive text.
 Then it was time to pay. Waiting and waiting for the page to load. Then I'm presented with two options- Paypal or direct debit. I've no idea what my Paypal details are, so I take direct debit. Eventually I manage to complete the form in a manner that the system will accept. The direct debit will take up to 6 days to process. Would I like to pay by another method- such as my credit card, my preferred method of payment on-line. Why didn't you give me that option in the first place? And no, I am not going to give you my credit card details when you've just taken my bank account details. I know, I just know you'll end up taking the money out of both of them.
 Anyway, I received an e-mail from Facebook confirming a direct debit will be set up within 6 days, and then, presumably, the ad will go live over 7 days. And we'll see if there is any result. Try back here in a couple of weeks and I'll tell you if it was worth the time or money. 

And see this to the left? Don't try clicking on it. It doesn't work. If you want your free copy of Vernon the Pirate, click top right of the page, where it says Subscribe to Our Mailing List. And then, all together- AH-HARR!