Well, actually it’s two sites – I accidentally scheduled two promos for the same day (10 October), and so I will never know which business to thank for catapulting Shizzle, Inc back to the bestseller lists. Yeah, baby, guess who’s back? Isa was back in top 100s – in Humor, Adventure, and General Humor! She’s slipping back down as I write this, but the proof is in the pudding. I mean, this screenshot:
As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve paid $25 to eReader News Today to promote a $0.99 sale on Shizzle, Inc. I have also paid $10 to Awesome Gang – you can get details of both websites on my Most Super-Duper, Exhaustive, Comprehensive, and Current Listing of Free and Paid Book Advertising Websites and Ideas. So what did I get for my $35USD investment?
- 47 copies sold in the first day – more than in the entire previous month!
- Total of 61 copies sold over the promo weekend – this equates to about $20-$21USD, depending on exchange rate. A couple of these were due to my usual efforts – people were nice enough to write and let me know. Thank you!
- Shizzle, Inc ranking going from worse than a 1,000 to #76 on an Amazon Bestseller list.
- 850 KENP pages read, which is about another $5USD. KENP pages are the payment basis for books borrowed through Kindle Unlimited – I am assuming about 0.57 cents per page.
- Hopefully more reviews! If 10% of buyers leave a review, I should get 6-7 new ones in the next couple of weeks – and in this game, reviews are priceless.
I didn’t quite make my money back, although there could be a few late sales at a regular price and more KENP pages read, I will review the results again in a week. Who am I kidding, I will be checking stats every five minutes…
I’m so inspired by this result, that I am staging an all-out assault over the Thanksgiving weekend. The plan is to have 1-2 promos every day on 26-29 November, with a goal of reaching a #1 spot. Can I do it? I think I can – look out for another race in six weeks or so!
Ana Spoke, author 
Well done, Ana! Thanks for the update.
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Awesome! I’m glad you’re having some success!
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I love reading your blog posts, I’m a marketing major and a writer myself so I enjoy all the updates because I would love to be doing this myself
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Thank you so much! Glad this is of interest – alternatively, if you have some ideas to test, I’d love to hear about them!
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I could think up something soon and tell you. Not sure if it would work or not, it’s been awhile since I been in that mind set
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No probs – I’m in this for the long run, just let me know when the idea strikes 🙂
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Okay will do 🙂
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First off I would suggest. Facebook page promotion. I don’t know if you have one but I would get one for the book and yourself. Get a lot of likes, many ways to do it, for free even, just time consuming. But it helps with blast marketing. Also advertise on writer sites, put up previews and get them hooked. YouTube preview work well too, you can do a few things with this, maybe just a narrative of your plot of your book or a small video of a preview of a scene in the book. I got other ideas but tell me if you like any of these or no
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Thank you very much! To be honest, I’m over social media – it takes so much time, for very little result. The way I see it, I would be better off getting a second job and putting the few bucks I make into paid promos. You may find this interesting – the “classic” advice of doing a blog tour resulted in barely a handful of sales. YouTube is the one I have not done or considered yet.
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Yeah social media is hard, boring and rough to get started and maintaining it. If you have the money or getting the money for paid ads that works. And YouTube is hard, but if you get something good out there, it can drive a lot of people in
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I wish I was younger and prettier, I would be all over the Youtube 🙂 I’ve thought about getting an actress to enact bits, but wonder if I should spend that time writing the second book…
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And btw I will be buying your book soon, short on funds this week but I will soon
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Thank you very much, I hope you like it! I will run another $0.99 promo on 31 October-1 November.
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I’ll get it then. Seems like I would like it plus I would like to support your dream. I used to write all the time but I haven’t stuck with it
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Thank you again 🙂 it’s hard – I’ve even used a spreadsheet to keep on track, it’s in one of my older posts. I’m about to try and discipline myself into writing the second one…
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Yeah I completed one book, just never got to the point of mass sharing, I didn’t think people would like it. Sorry if I’m bogging down your blog with comments
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No, this is what the blog is for 🙂 hope you try again!
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Thanks. I been wanting to. I thought of starting up a new blog with short stories but not sure if I should
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I would boldly try anything and everything until you find what works for you 🙂
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thanks. i think ill post some of my stuff then. i guess ill see how it goes.
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That’s awesome! Congratulations! Keep on going, girl! 🙂
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Thank you, Taara! This was such an encouraging experiment…
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Congratulations! I hope your numbers keep going up. 😀
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Thank you, Alicia! They will – I will hustle 🙂
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I’m so glad the advertising service worked for you! It probably has something to do with the cover, it’s really nice!
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Thank you so much! Means a lot – I’ve designed it myself.
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It’s really well done!
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Yay!! Glad it’s working!
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Thank you! 63 sales, actually – 2 late ones came through 🙂
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Fantastic! Well done. Let’s hope it’s even better over Thanksgiving. 😀
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Thank you, Eloise! Can’t wait till Thanksgiving 🙂 Might have to do another “test” before then 🙂
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Let us know how it goes please.
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Don’t you worry 🙂
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Congratulations on all of your success! Thank you also for all of the advice! Have you tried doing a free day promotion? I did one yesterday and was blown away by the success!
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Thank you, Brittany 🙂 I did one early on, unadvertised, there were 139 downloads. I did get a few reviews from it, but it made my rank worse, and the sales dropped off – I only have one book, so giving it away for free doesn’t make much sense yet. How did you go in sales after the free promo ended?
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I sold really well the first day and it’s trickled off since, but still a lot of KENP pages read. I’m thinking of doing another free day and then a Kindle countdown deal for 99 cents. I only have one book also and all of this is so hard to figure out!
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I think it’s a matter of writing as many books as you can and then staging promos throughout the year. Can’t wait for my Thanksgiving promo! I’m also doing BargainBooksy on 31 October
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Good promo all. Money back is not the objective so you are wise to keep going.
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Thank you, John – wise words 🙂
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Best to you.
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Ah, excellent. I just paid Awesome Gang tonight, so I shall remain hopeful of some return on it.
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I’d love to find out how you go – as mentioned, with two promos on the same day, I have no idea which one was the winner, or if they were both good.
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Well, I’ve been with Awesome Gang for over a week and had zero sales or pages read. Alas, that one was a waste for me.
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Wow, that sucks! I should have tested them one at a time…my sales must have come from the other one. In Haloween, I am testing Bargain Booksy by itself, will let you know how I go.
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Great job! I’m glad you’re having such great results. I think you have a great shot at making it to #1!! I love reading these updates
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Thank you so much 🙂 Can’t wait to report on that one…
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You’re welcome! I can’t wait to hear the results 🙂
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I’ve used EReader News too and had some great success rocketing into the #1 spot for a short while (it was for a Free promotion though). But still, yes, they are a solid one to use. Congrats! I hope it keeps up!
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Thank you, Shana – and congratulations! Have you used any other ones?
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Reblogged this on Anita & Jaye Dawes.
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Congratulations on getting off to such a good start. It’s so useful to get honest information about this topic. There’s so much faking it that goes on, I fear.
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First, thank you for posting all your results from your research of advertising sites it will be helpful to a lot of people.It seems your research paid off and it will in the long run just keep at it and the right combination will come up for promoting your book. YouTube is something to consider but it has to be different and entertaining maybe something with the .99 cent sale for a certain date included. Research books on YouTube and see which ones have the most hits and what they did. If I come up with an idea I’ll let you know. Been too busy to think about writing and advertising lately but have been reading your blogs and enjoying them.Hope to use the info in the future. Keep up the good work you’ll be selling 1000’s of books in the future. Look forward to hearing about your progress!
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Great to hear your marketing strategy is paying off! It would be funny if you got the lady on the cover to do your youtube clip!
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I wish I knew her name!! I got her off Shutterstock, maybe I could contact the photographer? Good idea, thank you!
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Shutterstock is a professional site from what I can tell, and I imagine the photographer probably needed her to sign a release. Anyhow, knowing who she is could help, as “she” appears to be the enduring protagonist in your series.
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Sounds like you got some decent results! Impressive jump on Amazon. I hope your November campaign goes even better 🙂
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Thank you, Janna! I got 4 promos ligned up for that weekend already, so have no doubt I’ll hit #1 🙂
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Interesting post regarding the advertising sites. Thanks for sharing. And do you know Bookbub? It’s a curated programs that offers readers deals on ebooks. Categorized. Subscribers get newsletters with daily offerings. My publishing house has had a good response. You might want to check them out.
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Oops. Didn’t see your full and amazing list before I published this. I see that Bookbub is there. Along with lots of other info. Thanks.
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Youre welcome, and hope it helps!
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Thank you, Jan – it is definitely on my list! It seems to be one of the reputable ones.
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Hi, just wanted to know if you have a second book out. If not, why did you decide to do paid promotion? (Curious)
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Hi, Cassandra. No, just started working on the second. Paid promos are to: 1. sell books and build a fan base, 2. create anticipation for the second, so it pre-sells, 3. test what’s available – there are so many, its hard to say which ones create results, and which ones just take your money.
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Excellent & really inspiring. Thank you & good luck.
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Thank you 🙂 Stay tuned – Freebooksy test on Haloween and a major campaign over Thanksgiving…
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Congrats. Thank you so much for sharing trials and successes with us, too. It’s invaluable research.
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Thank you so much, Nic 🙂 there will be more!
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I had an actor read a chapter of my book like an audiobook. I’m using it as a calling card: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSmsapkc7ZY&feature=youtu.be
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Wow, that’s so cool! I might do that too. Did you use Starnow to find the actor?
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No – found him on fivvr of all places! http://www.troyhorne.com/. He did this in two takes basically with basically direction like “read this guy like Ed Harris.” It was not an expensive proposition, for how much value this created.
Hey Ana – if you liked the video, could you do me a fav and leave a comment on youtube? that would be awesome.
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