The Magnificent 7
Well, I hope they are going to be a Magnificent 7.
Eventually, after many hours of research, I was left with a list of 7 sites that I decided to apply to for my big promotion on MTYY. As mentioned in previous blogs, a large amount of research went into this, largely looking for anecdotal evidence based on other's experiences.
Here's another tip that might come in useful: When I was assessing the sites, I subscribed to all of them so I could monitor the performance of the books they sent me as their daily deals. This is a great way to gauge a site's effectiveness and something I'd definitely recommend if you are considering signing up to one of them for a promotion.
What I suggest doing is as soon as the daily email comes out, go to Amazon.com (better than the UK as most of the sites are based in America) and check the book's rank before the promotion kicks in. Let's say for example, it's #50,000.
Then go back the next day and check again. If it's showing something like #20,000 then I wouldn't be massively impressed. Yes, it's gone up, but it doesn't take a huge amount of sales to move a book from #50,000 to #20,000, and if it's on a price deal, it may have gained that much anyway. If however you see that it is now at something like #2000, you can start getting pretty excited - that's shifted some serious copies, and bearing in mind the money most of these ads are costing - around the $20 - $30 mark, that's a good return on investment.
Of course you still have to be accepted by the sites, and they can be very choosy about which books they do and don't accept - they have to be. After all, they have their reputations to think of. I'm pleased to say that despite my earlier failure to get into Bookbub, all of the other seven sites I applied to for this promotion accepted me.
The perfect scenario for me would have been to have had each of these sites promoting on a different day of the week (hence why I picked seven) however, in practice it did not work out like that. The sites are very popular and get booked up very quickly so to give myself the best possible chance of being accepted I gave them a window of dates and asked them to fit me in as best as possible. Ultimately I've ended up with the following but I'm quite happy with the outcome, Here, each partner is listed next to the day their promotional activity starts on:
Monday 15th: Books Butterfly $25, People Reads $15, The Fussy Librarian $16.
Tuesday 16th
Wednesday 17th: EReader News Today (ENT) $20, The Choosy Bookworm $38, Booksends $25
Thursday 18th: Bargainbooksy $35
Friday 19th
Saturday 20th
Sunday 21st.
NB: These prices are for a Science Fiction feature - other categories cost more or less, depending on the popularity, with Romance usually being the highest.
I'm quite pleased with the line-up. Effectively I've got two bursts of activity, the first three sites kicking off the first day of the Countdown Deal in style, and then another big push on the Wednesday and Thursday. The deal runs all the way until Sunday, so hopefully I'll have enough momentum to carry me through until the second half of the week.
All of that adds up to $174 by the way, which comes in well within my budget. I have every confidence in these sites and their ability to deliver but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I'll be reporting regularly as the week progresses and hope that I'll have some positive news that may be of use to you when planning your own promotions.
Latest update on the 1000 sales challenge:
Day 3 Sales: 27
Running Total: 68
Running Target: 100 (Behind by 32).
MTYY UK Rank: #5,555 (up from #8,284)
MTYY US Rank: #26,071 (down from #25,291)
Jason Ayres is the author of six books, including his brand new novel, My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday, available here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00UDHAD0M
Eventually, after many hours of research, I was left with a list of 7 sites that I decided to apply to for my big promotion on MTYY. As mentioned in previous blogs, a large amount of research went into this, largely looking for anecdotal evidence based on other's experiences.
Here's another tip that might come in useful: When I was assessing the sites, I subscribed to all of them so I could monitor the performance of the books they sent me as their daily deals. This is a great way to gauge a site's effectiveness and something I'd definitely recommend if you are considering signing up to one of them for a promotion.
What I suggest doing is as soon as the daily email comes out, go to Amazon.com (better than the UK as most of the sites are based in America) and check the book's rank before the promotion kicks in. Let's say for example, it's #50,000.
Then go back the next day and check again. If it's showing something like #20,000 then I wouldn't be massively impressed. Yes, it's gone up, but it doesn't take a huge amount of sales to move a book from #50,000 to #20,000, and if it's on a price deal, it may have gained that much anyway. If however you see that it is now at something like #2000, you can start getting pretty excited - that's shifted some serious copies, and bearing in mind the money most of these ads are costing - around the $20 - $30 mark, that's a good return on investment.
Of course you still have to be accepted by the sites, and they can be very choosy about which books they do and don't accept - they have to be. After all, they have their reputations to think of. I'm pleased to say that despite my earlier failure to get into Bookbub, all of the other seven sites I applied to for this promotion accepted me.
The perfect scenario for me would have been to have had each of these sites promoting on a different day of the week (hence why I picked seven) however, in practice it did not work out like that. The sites are very popular and get booked up very quickly so to give myself the best possible chance of being accepted I gave them a window of dates and asked them to fit me in as best as possible. Ultimately I've ended up with the following but I'm quite happy with the outcome, Here, each partner is listed next to the day their promotional activity starts on:
Monday 15th: Books Butterfly $25, People Reads $15, The Fussy Librarian $16.
Tuesday 16th
Wednesday 17th: EReader News Today (ENT) $20, The Choosy Bookworm $38, Booksends $25
Thursday 18th: Bargainbooksy $35
Friday 19th
Saturday 20th
Sunday 21st.
NB: These prices are for a Science Fiction feature - other categories cost more or less, depending on the popularity, with Romance usually being the highest.
I'm quite pleased with the line-up. Effectively I've got two bursts of activity, the first three sites kicking off the first day of the Countdown Deal in style, and then another big push on the Wednesday and Thursday. The deal runs all the way until Sunday, so hopefully I'll have enough momentum to carry me through until the second half of the week.
All of that adds up to $174 by the way, which comes in well within my budget. I have every confidence in these sites and their ability to deliver but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I'll be reporting regularly as the week progresses and hope that I'll have some positive news that may be of use to you when planning your own promotions.
Latest update on the 1000 sales challenge:
Day 3 Sales: 27
Running Total: 68
Running Target: 100 (Behind by 32).
MTYY UK Rank: #5,555 (up from #8,284)
MTYY US Rank: #26,071 (down from #25,291)
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