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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Paid Advertising with Faith Blum

Hello! I have Faith Blum here today to talk about the tricky waters of Paid Advertising. It's something that I've not really done yet, outside of an ad that I ran on Goodreads, but it's incredibly helpful and wish that I had the money to do it.

Find Faith on the Interwebs:





Why in the world would you pay someone to advertise your book? How does that help you make money? 

I was skeptical, too. Until I tried it. And sold more books than I ever expected that not only paid for the advertising, but also gave me more income than I had made for a while. And great rankings on Amazon. So why pay, how do you do it, and what sites are the best? I'll answer each question in order.

How do you do it?

What I have found to be the best thing to do is to put one of your books on sale for free. Sound counterproductive? It did to me at first, too. Then I tried it. Did you know that if you make one book free, people often buy other books in the series? Me neither. Probably because I don't usually do anything like that.

Anyway, I can't say how other people do this, but the way I do it, is this way.

Step 1: Pick a Book
First things first, you need to decide which book of yours that you want to set free. If you have never done this before, I would suggest the first book in your series.



Step 2: Set a date (or not)
Depending on which sites you choose, you may want to not set a date. Especially for Bookbub and EreaderNewsToday (see below) since they are usually a little more open when you are flexible. Sometimes. However, if you have a date or dates you want, for instance, you have a new release coming out in the series, you can pick the date that works best for that.

Step 3: Set up the promos
This is one of the hardest things to coordinate sometimes. If you have a date picked for your freebie, make sure you give them the range of dates and a preferred date if that is an option. Then set up the promo on KDP. My recommendation would be at least a three day promotion.

Step 4: Day of
On the days of the promotion, you can post on Social Media, too. Include the links from promotion sites if you can. 

What sites are best?

 Here are my favorite promotion sites to advertise on:


  • BKnights (Schedule only 7-10 days ahead, $5)

  • EreaderNewsToday (Pricey, but good. Sometimes picky.)

  • Spirit-Filled Kindle (Schedule 7-14 days ahead,$20)

  • Christian Book Finds ($5-10, super sweet to work with)

  • Robin Reads ($40, very few genre choices, slightly hard to get into)

  • Bookbub (Expensive, difficult to get into, but super productive)

  • For a list of other promotion sites, you can check here.

    15 comments:

    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I've just published my first novel (Martin Hospitality) in both paperback and Kindle. By making the Kindle edition $0.99 as a part of this e-con I sold 18 copies! I'm definitely interested in trying some of these other paid promotions. Thanks for such an extensive list of resources, Faith!

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      1. That's great, Abigayle! I'm glad you've had so many sales by making it cheaper. I'm happy to help. :)

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    3. Great information Faith. Thanks for sharing!
      Keith
      thegurns2005@yahoo.com
      Twitter=@thegurns
      https://amzn.com/153338763X

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    4. Thank you for sharing this info, Faith! I've never heard much about this subject before, so it was great getting to read this post.

      ~ Savannah
      scattered-scribblings.blogspot.com

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      1. You're welcome, Savannah! I'm glad I could present some new information to you.

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    5. Huh. This is actually a topic I've heard next to nothing about before now. Thanks for sharing!

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      1. Yay! More learning! I love it! :) You're very welcome.

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    6. Nice overview, and the list of sites is especially helpful! I've tried some advertising in the past with very mixed results. This post is making me think I should give it another try!

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      1. I've had mixed results, too, but most of them were good results. Some were even REALLY GREAT results, so it's definitely work another try.

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    7. Thanks for these. Some of them are familiar and others are not. I shall be using them in the future. :)

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    Hi! Now that you've read my post, hast thou any opinions that thou wouldst like to share? I'd love to hear them!