# The Fiverr Ad Experiment



## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

While reading Wayne Stinnets great thread about advertising on places other than Bookbub (read here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,185294.0.html ) I was inspired to try a similar experiment for someone like me with a much, much lower budget. I did a quick search to see if anyone has done this before me on Kboards, and I found nothing, so looks like this will yield some new info for you guys.

I'll be running one Fiverr ad a week utilizing different highly rated Fiverrers (I don't know what the time for a fiverr user is) every week. Essentially the plan is to reduce the price of my steampunk adventure novel Discovering Aberration to $0.99 for 3 days starting the day of promo then bump price back up to $2.99 for the rest of the week. Ads will be every Monday because 2 minutes of research told me most people shop online on mondays, not sure if that's accurate or not though. If mondays appear to yield weak results I might change that.

Here are my goals:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Increase sales and rankings in various categories on Amazon.
[*]Keep ad budget at a minimum ($20/month until ROI justifies spending more)
[*]Determine which fiverr deals actually work and which ones I should use again.
[*]Invest minimal time into marketing so I can focus more efforts on writing
[/list]

One last note, at the same time as I'm running these Fiverr ads I am also running a few giveaways and promoting sales through Facebook groups I have built a relationship with. Those sales are a little more tricky to schedule, so I don't know when they'll pop up, but I will make note of it on any days that it does. I'll be able to track the effect of these giveaways and promotions using bit.ly, so the results of the fiverr sales should still be accurate.

So here's the plan:


$0.99 5/26-5/28 http://www.fiverr.com/bknights/promote-your-paid-kindle-book-as-a-featured-book-on-my-kindle-site-for-my-book-loving-audience
$2.99 5/29-6/1
$0.99 6/2-6/4 http://www.fiverr.com/psymon_h/promote-your-book-to-thousands-on-our-promotional-platform
$2.99 6/5-6/8
$0.99 6/9-6/11 http://www.fiverr.com/cwilgus/promotr-your-kindle-book-link-on-face-book-to-my-page-with-over-5000-fans
$2.99 6/12-6/15 - Evaluate strategy, possibly make adjustments (consider timing, day, price, length of discount, etc. Also consider 2 ads per week if ROI is high on promo and low on following days. If sales are high on off days, consider raising price from $2.99 to $3.99)
$0.99 6/16-6/118 http://www.fiverr.com/dreamtheanswer/guest-host-your-article-promoting-your-book
$2.99 6/19-6/22
$0.99 6/23-6/25 http://www.fiverr.com/klevitt70/promote-your-business-on-my-podcast
$2.99 6/26-6/29
$0.99 6/30-7/2 http://www.fiverr.com/lincolnrocks/promote-your-book-on-kindle-book-club-blog
$2.99 7/3-7/6 - Evaluate strategy, possibly make adjustments (same as above)
$0.99 7/7-7/9 http://www.fiverr.com/authorbookbuzz/promote-your-kindle-book-on-our-site
$2.99 7/10-7/13
$0.99 7/14-7/16 http://www.fiverr.com/kindlenomics/promote-your-amazon-book-on-our-book-of-the-month-club--7
$2.99 7/17-7/20
$0.99 7/21-7/23 http://www.fiverr.com/dtongsports/offer-radio-podcast-advertising-mention-and-promotion-to-thousands-of-listeners
FINAL EVALUATION - Should I start again, what adjustments will need to be made?


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

1001nightspress said:


> I'm probably just being dense, but I'm not following how the money works ... isn't everything on fiverr $5? So how is the first one .99, for example?
> 
> Hope it all works out for you! And thanks for volunteering to share your results. It's appreciated.


Yes, everything on Fiverr is $5. During my promos I'll be marking down the price of Discovering Aberration to $0.99 for the sale. 3 days later I'll be raising the price again.

First ad is scheduled now.


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## travelinged (Apr 6, 2014)

For the final evaluation, what is your breakeven sales level for the grand experiment. I take it you aren't using countdown deals, so the 99 cent sales will be at 35%?


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Yes, the 99 cent deals will be at 35%. So to break even on these sales I'll need to sell 15 copies during the sale period. I'm hoping that the sales increase my visibility on Amazon so that the off day will pick up sales as well.


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## travelinged (Apr 6, 2014)

Well, best of luck. I hope you get the visibility and make a profit off the campaign as well.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I look forward to seeing your results!


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## PanGalacticBlog (Apr 11, 2014)

I wish you huge success and will be watching your progress. However what I'm not clear is how can someone do what they are promising in their gig for only $4 and make it profitable?


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

Very interesting. Hope it goes well.


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

Very interesting! Hope it works out!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Very interesting, I didn't even know there were gigs like that on Fiverr. I haven't spent a lot of time there and was mostly looking for ideas for things I could offer rather than buy from others. I'm looking forward to finding out how well this works for you.


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

I have just one concern--your return rate, due to your prices jumping up and down so much. People may see the 99 cent ad, click, and realize that the book is actually $2.99 when they purchase it.

Other than that concern, this should be interesting. I did a non-Countdown sale on my first book using only ENT to promote it and sold 60 copies. So here's hoping for success!


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

You might want to reconsider some of those gigs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9.

Not sure how radio will work. Radio is a fast paced environment. The only way it will be effective is if it is replayed again and again through out the day. The audience level for each of those gigs isn't high enough. 

I once did a one off advert on a radio station with a far large audience base for one of my businesses. It never worked. To work you need like 50 ads running per day over a week or so. It is the only way it will be effective.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

RockyGrede said:


> You might want to reconsider some of those gigs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9.
> 
> Not sure how radio will work. Radio is a fast paced environment. The only way it will be effective is if it is replayed again and again through out the day. The audience level for each of those gigs isn't high enough.
> 
> I once did a one off advert on a radio station with a far large audience base for one of my businesses. It never worked. To work you need like 50 ads running per day over a week or so. It is the only way it will be effective.


Interesting point. You're probably right about that. In that chase I'll probably try the one with the largest platform first and see how it goes, then re-evaluate from there.


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## florabrown (Mar 17, 2011)

judygoodwin said:


> I have just one concern--your return rate, due to your prices jumping up and down so much. People may see the 99 cent ad, click, and realize that the book is actually $2.99 when they purchase it.
> 
> Other than that concern, this should be interesting. I did a non-Countdown sale on my first book using only ENT to promote it and sold 60 copies. So here's hoping for success!


Hi Judy,

What is ENT? Thanks.


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## florabrown (Mar 17, 2011)

Hi Scbarrus, 

Thanks so much for sharing your fiverr plan with us. I'm eager to see how it works for you.


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

Ereadernewstoday.com . They ask for 25% of your profit from the days you post your 99cent book, which even at 35% profit rate (non Select on Amazon) was totally worth it. 

They do have a minimum requirement for reviews, however.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

judygoodwin said:


> I have just one concern--your return rate, due to your prices jumping up and down so much. People may see the 99 cent ad, click, and realize that the book is actually $2.99 when they purchase it.
> 
> Other than that concern, this should be interesting. I did a non-Countdown sale on my first book using only ENT to promote it and sold 60 copies. So here's hoping for success!


Yeah, that's a valid concern. This is one of the reasons I'm making sure I re-evaluate at several points down the road. I haven't tried ENT yet. I'll check them out.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Crenel said:


> Very interesting, I didn't even know there were gigs like that on Fiverr. I haven't spent a lot of time there and was mostly looking for ideas for things I could offer rather than buy from others. I'm looking forward to finding out how well this works for you.


I didn't know about them until yesterday while reading Waynes thread (link at top). He mentioned the first Fiverr on my list and said he got at least a 50% ROI. Not a lot of money, but he's not losing anything. He didn't discount his book though, so it will be interesting to see if I see a better or worse ROI.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

So, your total investment is around $45? Makes sense, if your niche market is really to be found on these groups. If not, and you're advertising just to "get visibility," then find a popular forum with your target audience and put that ad money to work there. Most of these cheap ad venues just toss your book in a pile with dozens of others that day. Not even rudimentary targeted marketing, say, by genre. Why not put the money to work on more proven venues?


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

ThePete said:


> So, your total investment is around $45? Makes sense, if your niche market is really to be found on these groups. If not, and you're advertising just to "get visibility," then find a popular forum with your target audience and put that ad money to work there. Most of these cheap ad venues just toss your book in a pile with dozens of others that day. Not even rudimentary targeted marketing, say, by genre. Why not put the money to work on more proven venues?


Partially out of curiosity. I don't really care about getting visibility if there aren't any results, but I haven't found any info about anyone trying something similar. I'd like to know. If it goes 3 weeks and I've reached my evaluation phase and it's yielding absolutely no results, then I probably wont continue. But if I'm breaking even or better, then why not?

Also, it fits in nicely with my facebook group promo schedule I'm slowly but surely building. Getting those facebook mods to post for you takes time and isn't a sure thing, so it's nice to have something quick, easy and inexpensive to fill the weeks when I don't have a group promo running.

I'm not expecting miracles, but there are quite a few people who seem to be happy with these services. Not a lot of risk if they don't pan out.


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## jamielakenovels (Jan 14, 2014)

I can't wait to hear the results. Please, come back and tell us how the promotion goes. For me, I've found the best form of advertisement is:
1) write in genres that sell (ie: romance, thrillers, sci-fi, etc.)
2) great cover
3) great Amazon description
4) great title
5) great first 5 pages

Wash & repeat.

I also have learned to beta-test all 5 of those elements with readers that love my genre before I even write the entire novel so that I'm stepping out with the best foot forward.

I even let them beta test my detailed outline, the second draft, the final draft, etc before it goes to the editor & proofreader.

Then after that, I think writing a book worth talking about and talking to people one at a time no matter what social media or email platform you use and treating them like a human being instead of a potential sale has worked for me.  Yes, it's time-consuming but it's also less pricey and more effective as well.

That's what works for me, anyway. There's a million ways to do it and I'm anxious to see how your fiverr experiment works.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

scbarrus said:


> Not a lot of risk if they don't pan out.


That in a nutshell is a key selling appeal to Fiverr -- low budget, low risk. It can add up over time, but it sounds like you're prepared to track ROI and adjust accordingly, which sounds like the right approach.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

> Also, it fits in nicely with my facebook group promo schedule I'm slowly but surely building. Getting those facebook mods to post for you takes time and isn't a sure thing, so it's nice to have something quick, easy and inexpensive to fill the weeks when I don't have a group promo running.


Bingo. You've found "the secret" that most people ignore.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Very interesting, looking forward to see how this turns out!


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

ThePete said:


> Bingo. You've found "the secret" that most people ignore.


I've done 2 now and each has done pretty well. Better yet, I used bit.ly to track referrals (thanks for that tip to btw) and learned my blurb was underperforming, so I took it to the kboards, got some advice, changed it, and suddenly my conversion rate doubled. I think that was 99.5% your doing, lol.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Made some adjustments to the plan. Removed one of the fiverr deals that didn't seem relevant enough, added a booksoda ad. I may add more services similar to booksoda that are a similar investment (~$5) as we go along. I'm also scheduling each fiverr ad a week before it's time so I can remain agile depending on circumstances, so the following my change again. Here's what it looks like now.

5/26 - http://www.fiverr.com/bknights/promote-your-paid-kindle-book-as-a-featured-book-on-my-kindle-site-for-my-book-loving-audience - *confirmed*
6/2 - http://www.fiverr.com/psymon_h/promote-your-book-to-thousands-on-our-promotional-platform
6/9 - $0.99 6/9-6/11 http://www.fiverr.com/cwilgus/promotr-your-kindle-book-link-on-face-book-to-my-page-with-over-5000-fans *Removed*
6/9 - BookSoda (also $5) - *confirmed*
6/12 - Evaluate strategy, possibly make adjustments (consider timing, day, price, length of discount, etc. Also consider 2 ads per week if ROI is high on promo and low on following days. If sales are high on off days, consider raising price from $2.99 to $3.99)
6/16 - http://www.fiverr.com/dreamtheanswer/guest-host-your-article-promoting-your-book
6/23 - http://www.fiverr.com/klevitt70/promote-your-business-on-my-podcast
6/30 - http://www.fiverr.com/lincolnrocks/promote-your-book-on-kindle-book-club-blog
7/3 - Evaluate strategy, possibly make adjustments (same as above)
7/7 - http://www.fiverr.com/authorbookbuzz/promote-your-kindle-book-on-our-site
7/14 - http://www.fiverr.com/kindlenomics/promote-your-amazon-book-on-our-book-of-the-month-club--7
7/21 - http://www.fiverr.com/dtongsports/offer-radio-podcast-advertising-mention-and-promotion-to-thousands-of-listeners - if ROI has been good, might pick the $10 add on.
FINAL EVALUATION - Should I start again, what adjustments will need to be made?


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Now I can tell you that one sale had absolutely nothing to do with advertising and everything to do with changing your blurb.  So please don't count my sale in your advertising ROI.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

cinisajoy said:


> Now I can tell you that one sale had absolutely nothing to do with advertising and everything to do with changing your blurb. So please don't count my sale in your advertising ROI.


 Thanks for the heads up. You're purchase won't be included in the ROI. I'm really glad the blurb change went so well, you guys were very helpful and the results seem to indicate that all your help moved my product page in the right direction.


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## RJ Crayton (Feb 6, 2014)

Thanks for posting. Please follow up and let us know how the ads performed, and what kind of numbers you got on your sale days, vs. your off-sale days. Also I'm curious, do you feel you've got the right categories so you can possibly make it into the top 100 of something if you do well?


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

RJ Crayton said:


> Thanks for posting. Please follow up and let us know how the ads performed, and what kind of numbers you got on your sale days, vs. your off-sale days.


Will do. I'll probably update 2 times a week, once after the promo period when I'll let you know how those three days went, and once before I launch my next promo when I'll report on my off days.



RJ Crayton said:


> Also I'm curious, do you feel you've got the right categories so you can possibly make it into the top 100 of something if you do well?


I'm not sure actually. I'm experimenting with categories and keywords right now. Currently I'm not ranking under anything, but I haven't made a sale for the last few days. I'm still a newbie to a lot of this. But I've received some great advice in this arena. Once this campaign begins next week, I'll be checking my rankings and if not much is happening on that front then I'll need to re-evaluate my categories and keywords.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

First, I've changed my strategy after learning a few things over the weekend. I read, and I'm not sure how accurate this is, that constant price fluctuation can impact your rankings in Amazon in the early months of an ebooks release. So rather thank listing Discovering Aberration for $.99 for 3 days of the week and bump it back to $2.99 the rest of the week, I'm going to keep it at $0.99 every day for a minimum of 3 weeks. At that point I'll evaluate my progress and decide if adjustments need to be made.

Also, I've changed this from the Fiverr experiment to the $5 ad, basically meaning I'll be using any ad service I've heard good things about that are in the $5 range. On Mondays, the paid ad will go live, then on Thurs, Fri, and Sat I'll be running free ads to try to keep some momentum going. We'll see.

First, a baseline. On average I've been making around 3-5 sales a week. Not even good, but it's a starting point. As of Sunday, Discovering Aberration was ranking in the mid 400,000's.

So Monday was the first Ad which was a Fiverr Ad through Bknigths, and I realized a little too late that Memorial Day probably wasn't the best day to publish an ad. Oops. I hadn't made a sale in 7 days before this add. By 9:00pm Monday I had sold 3 copies, which bumped me up to 90,000's.

This morning I made another sale which I can attribute to that ad which bumped Discovering Aberration up to the low 80,000's. Not ranking on any genre lists as of now.

There won't be any free ads this week because I was featured on two websites which were kind enough to let people know about my sales. The first was TenMinuteInterviews.com, and the second will be SeattleWrote.com.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, my goal is to make at least 1 sale a day for 3 weeks straight, a goal I've yet to reach.


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## PoppyArcher (Jan 14, 2014)

Good luck! Like many, I'll be watching your results with interest.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

What would be great, if you do not mind, is if you could post summaries from time to time of how things went/going. Thanks!


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## Guest (May 29, 2014)

I'm still watching!  Looking forward to your results!


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

scbarrus said:


> First, I've changed my strategy after learning a few things over the weekend. I read, and I'm not sure how accurate this is, that constant price fluctuation can impact your rankings in Amazon in the early months of an ebooks release. So rather thank listing Discovering Aberration for $.99 for 3 days of the week and bump it back to $2.99 the rest of the week, I'm going to keep it at $0.99 every day for a minimum of 3 weeks. At that point I'll evaluate my progress and decide if adjustments need to be made.


I'm not sure that constant price changes hurts your ranking, so much as Amazon gives a lower value to lower priced books in several of their algorithms. Constant price changing may "confuse" rankings for awhile, to use the least technical term imaginable. 



> Also, I've changed this from the Fiverr experiment to the $5 ad, basically meaning I'll be using any ad service I've heard good things about that are in the $5 range. On Mondays, the paid ad will go live, then on Thurs, Fri, and Sat I'll be running free ads to try to keep some momentum going. We'll see.
> 
> First, a baseline. On average I've been making around 3-5 sales a week. Not even good, but it's a starting point. As of Sunday, Discovering Aberration was ranking in the mid 400,000's.
> 
> ...


I've had great success with BKnight's ads. Mine are all free books though with a skyrocketing sell-through rate.

I'm looking forward to your other results. I will be delving deeper into Fiverr ads soon. It'll be nice to have some info on where to start.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

After my bknights ad underperformed (probably due to the fact that i scheduled it on a holiday), and with only 1 sale generated through the features (that's a total of a whopping 6 sales for the week), I'm trying to bolster this week with a Reddit ad.

The title of your ad can make or break it, and it's hard to know what will work until you try it. Here's what mine says:

*Discovering Aberration - a new novel inspired by classic sci-fi, adventure & horror - on sale now for only $0.99*

I spent $5 for 6,666 impressions on reddit targeting /r/books . The book is selling for 0.99, so I'll need 15 sales over 3 days to break even on this ad. It's running 5/30-6/01. I'll give you guys an update after the first day of the sale.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Look forward to the results


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

BUMP:  I'm also awaiting your results!  Interesting experiment.


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## Pauline Creeden (Aug 4, 2011)

I've always had great experiences with bknights - just my 2 cents - whenever my books are on sale for 99¢ I hit him up on fiverr 

I've tried a few of the "twitter" campaigns on fiverr - and believe that they've all padded their followers - saw little to no difference in sales...

Waiting to see how the rest of your experiment goes!


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Pauline Creeden said:


> I've always had great experiences with bknights - just my 2 cents - whenever my books are on sale for 99¢ I hit him up on fiverr
> 
> I've tried a few of the "twitter" campaigns on fiverr - and believe that they've all padded their followers - saw little to no difference in sales...
> 
> Waiting to see how the rest of your experiment goes!


I hear so much good stuff about Bknights that I'm going to give him another shot. I knew the promo wouldn't be as good as it could have been after I realized when I had scheduled it.


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

Coming in a bit late on this but I was wondering how you were managing with timing short term price changes on Amazon.  I've had no problems when I've lowered the price on books but have had a bit of time lag when it comes to raising them again.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Digital Book Spot (BKNights) works great for a free. Used them twice in the last couple of weeks and got 130 odd downloads on a novella with a 2.5 average (usually gets 1 download per day) and then a couple of days ago got roughly 400 on my perma-free Tube Riders novel, which is my main cash cow. Really can't beat the price. I've done several higher profile promos over the last couple of months and paid A LOT more for barely any more downloads. I'll be using them regularly if I can, or at least until they stop being effective.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

kathrynoh said:


> Coming in a bit late on this but I was wondering how you were managing with timing short term price changes on Amazon. I've had no problems when I've lowered the price on books but have had a bit of time lag when it comes to raising them again.


I've actually decided to keep the $0.99 promo going for 3 weeks straight, so it's no longer an issue.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Put a pause on the Reddit campaign after talking to their tech support. So far $1.40 has been spent and it's resulted in 1 sale (so income of $0.35). The tech support suggested that I narrow my target from /r/books to /r/scifi, but to do that I need to schedule it for 6/5 and the ad will run for about a week. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

scbarrus said:


> Put a pause on the Reddit campaign after talking to their tech support. So far $1.40 has been spent and it's resulted in 1 sale (so income of $0.35). The tech support suggested that I narrow my target from /r/books to /r/scifi, but to do that I need to schedule it for 6/5 and the ad will run for about a week. I'll let you know how it goes.


Just FYI, when counting sales, you can count how much on average one person buys from you, so if the average is 2 books, then you got $.70, it kind of helps get a good ROI, not just a short term one. Knowing this allows you to follow your numbers and increase the spending (if you know your average you can then spend more than you'd be spending if you only counted on-off sales).


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## TAWilliams (Feb 9, 2014)

Awesome thread! These type of threads are exactly why I come to this board!!!


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

I don't know if it was clear why I'm pushing the ad to 6/5 and spreading it out over a week rather than 3 days. The reason is, when you place an ad on Reddit you are bidding on a predetermined number of impressions. $5 buys 6,666 as of this writing. For big, broad subreddits like /r/books, it's easy to get your 6,666 impressions in a day or two because so many people are visiting it, but it's a broad category.

By narrowing my category, I'm advertising only to people who care about my genre. I wanted to do this before, but when I picked the /r/fantasy or /r/scifi subreddits I was given an error which read something like "not enough impressions". What I didn't realize was that I needed to play with the date range, something tech support brought to my attention. The further out you schedule your ad, the less competition you'll have competing for ad space. And the more days the ad runs, the more potential impressions. That's how you get into the smaller subreddits. Very good info to know, I had no idea.

Just thought i would clarify.  I think reddit is a great untapped source for ads if you do it right, but it's a new source so there's a lot of experimentation involved.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Today my second fiverr ad is going live promoted through this guy: http://www.fiverr.com/psymon_h/promote-your-book-to-thousands-on-our-promotional-platform

Again, this cost me $5, so to get a return I'll need 14+ sales. My average sales are still low, currently 0.82 sales per day over the last month.

The data I get from this fiverr might be skewed because the Jules Verne Phantastical Society is doing an ebook giveaway today and promoting the book as soon as the giveaway concludes. But so far I don't think I can attribute any sales to that.

More info to come tonight.


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

scbarrus said:


> Put a pause on the Reddit campaign after talking to their tech support. So far $1.40 has been spent and it's resulted in 1 sale (so income of $0.35). The tech support suggested that I narrow my target from /r/books to /r/scifi, but to do that I need to schedule it for 6/5 and the ad will run for about a week. I'll let you know how it goes.


Very interested to see how this works out.

The books category has over 2 million 'readers'. The Sci fi has around 16k. There doesn't seem to be many active users in the Sci Fi. I guess it is worth a try.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Halfway through the day, no sales on the second promo yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Eight hours (I think) into my $5 Fiverr promotion for my newly-released book with no reviews discounted to $0.99. Nine sales so far. I need 15 to break even, but for the low (KBoarders' special) price I'd still be satisfied even if it stays at 9.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Philip Gibson said:


> Eight hours (I think) into my $5 Fiverr promotion for my newly-released book with no reviews discounted to $0.99. Nine sales so far. I need 15 to break even, but for the low (KBoarders' special) price I'd still be satisfied even if it stays at 9.


Which fiverr did you use?


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

scbarrus said:


> Which fiverr did you use?


The BKnights one.

http://www.fiverr.com/bknights

He offers the full promotional package (all the $5 options together) for $5 for Kboarders. I'm very impressed so far.

Philip


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## Deke (May 18, 2013)

That BKnights neeted me 1200 free downloads last week and 18 sales. I'm not sure if the sales were digital or the hard copy. I'd like to understand the sales side of this…did folks miss the free day and decide they wanted the novel anyway?  Just trying to learn more about the marketing side.


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## RJ Crayton (Feb 6, 2014)

Philip Gibson said:


> The BKnights one.
> 
> http://www.fiverr.com/bknights
> 
> ...


How do you get the kboarders deal? Do you have to message him first?


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

I think when you order, inform him you are ordering the Kindle Boards special


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## Mylius Fox (Jun 2, 2014)

Just wanted to say that I bought a copy of _Discovering Aberration_ today.  I read half the sample and the writing style and the circumstance in the story hooked me.


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## Deke (May 18, 2013)

You buy a $5 option from BKnights, then in the message box where you give him the title, date, etc. of the promotion, you can also mention KBoards.  It confused me too.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

L.R. Panda said:


> Just wanted to say that I bought a copy of _Discovering Aberration_ today.  I read half the sample and the writing style and the circumstance in the story hooked me.


Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. So now I know where my one sale came from, lol.

24 hours have passed after placing my second fiverr ad and it was completely useless. No sales other than the one by L.R. Panda, cementing in my mind the fact that red panda's make the best readers, and this fiverr deals a dud. At least for my genre anyway.

As for the rest of this week, I've scheduled some free ads to carry out the week. No garuntee than any of them will be listed, but we can hope. Here's the schedule.

Thurs - Hot Zippy
Friday - Pixel of Ink
Saturday - Bargain Booksy
Monday - $5 Paid ad - Book Soda


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

RJ Crayton said:


> How do you get the kboarders deal? Do you have to message him first?


I just said I was on Kboards and that I was hoping to get the full promotional package for the $5 as he had announced in the Writers Cafe. When he confirmed my purchase, he said I would indeed get the full promotional package. Seems to have happened - I've had 16 sales of the $0.99 book so far.


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## Mylius Fox (Jun 2, 2014)

scbarrus said:


> Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. So now I know where my one sale came from, lol.
> 
> 24 hours have passed after placing my second fiverr ad and it was completely useless. No sales other than the one by L.R. Panda,* cementing in my mind the fact that red panda's make the best readers*, and this fiverr deals a dud. At least for my genre anyway.


And, hey, if you have any extra bamboo shoots lying around... 
It'll probably be awhile before I'm able to finish reading the book, but when I do, I'll definitely leave a review as well.


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

This is very interesting. I'm impressed.

I have heard really good reviews on Bknights' services. I've just registered on Fiverr, but I am not sure what of his option suits me better? My novella belongs to the mystery genre.


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## Wired (Jan 10, 2014)

Philip Gibson said:


> I just said I was on Kboards and that I was hoping to get the full promotional package for the $5 as he had announced in the Writers Cafe. When he confirmed my purchase, he said I would indeed get the full promotional package.


I asked for the Kboards special but he never actually confirmed it--I just assumed I got it. Now I'm not sure. Is there any way to check?


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

T.S. said:


> I asked for the Kboards special but he never actually confirmed it--I just assumed I got it. Now I'm not sure. Is there any way to check?


Easy way would be to ask him.

When I submitted and said I was hoping to get the KBoards discount, I followed that by asking:

"Will I?"

Philip


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

Cody, have you cancelled the reddit ad?


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## pauldude000 (May 22, 2013)

scbarrus said:


> Halfway through the day, no sales on the second promo yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.


The bad thing is that the test is inherently bias weighted. To perform a serious experiment (of any kind), you have to set up a controlled environment. It needs to be double blind.

To accomplish this, take a period of time in which sales will be normalized with no recent promotions within the last week or so, and then divide it into three equal time periods. These time periods can be three days, three weeks, or three months for each time period. On the first trial time period, run no promotions and check the amount of sales. This is called your blind test. In the next time period, run the promotion and check the sales. This is your active test. During the third time period again run no promotions and check sales. This is your control test.

What should be expected from a successful promotion is a half sine wave on a graph of sales over time starting with a normal period of sales that suddenly rises to a peak, with the control section of the time period on the graph showing a few residual sales.

A great test would have a long time period, but not too long for each section that would allow daily sales averaging to establish what is or is not actually 'normal'.

This can be an issue as I have noted an anomalous periodic rise in sales at the end of the month, every month, as well as on Friday extending into Saturday during a normal week. Such normal patterns will exist, and the test must take such into account. There are also patterns of good months and bad months. For accuracy, one would have to factor in all of this information into the test, pick the best time period/method to eliminate or incorporate expected periodic shifts in sales, and be long enough to get a true sampling baseline.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

L.R. Panda said:


> And, hey, if you have any extra bamboo shoots lying around...
> It'll probably be awhile before I'm able to finish reading the book, but when I do, I'll definitely leave a review as well.


I actually do have bamboo shoots, I have a what I think is called a luck garden, basically just a pot with a bunch of bamboo growing out of it. Pretty cool, and it's the only plant I haven't killed yet.

A review will be very appreciated. Thank you.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

RockyGrede said:


> Cody, have you cancelled the reddit ad?


At the advice of the reddit support guy, I delayed it and narrowed the target audience from general readers to sci-fi readers. It will go live on the 6th.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

pauldude000 said:


> The bad thing is that the test is inherently bias weighted. To perform a serious experiment (of any kind), you have to set up a controlled environment. It needs to be double blind.


A great point and very true. I don't have the time to do a scientific experiment, so we'll call this an anecdotal experiment. Results will also very based on genre, time of week, time of month, etc.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Ok, last post today. I started this experiment because I hadn't found anybody else who had done it before, but now I have. You can read about it and 15 other book selling tactics that this guy attempted here: http://www.stevescottsite.com/book-marketing Very insightful.

Ok, so no more fiverr except for bknights. But the experiment will continue with other low budget ads and zero cost marketing.

I have an idea which I think is killer. I'm going to format a free version of Discovering Aberration which I'll give away on various sites, forums, etc in exchange for a mailing list sign up. In this free promotional version there will be links after each part (there are 5 parts) which say: "Are you enjoying Discovering Aberration? Support the author by telling your friends." There will be links for pre-filled social shares for Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

Shouldn't be too hard to pull off. What do you guys think of this? I'm sure some of you will hate this idea, but I think I'm going to go for it (while the experiment continues). This might affect the results of my ads, but I am in this first to sell book, and second to share data. And hey, if it works, you can do this too!


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

Update: As I said earlier, my nonfiction book got no traction via bknights. My latest novel experienced a very brief spike in sales, then sank. I combined the Fiverr ad with a handful of no-cost free/bargain book sites. I believe genre plays a huge role in whether or not a book takes off. Political/espionage thrillers appear to fare so-so in comparison with Romance, YA and Fantasy. 

I'll run my other novels through bknights just to use up the $15 in credits I have with them, but I don't hold much hope.


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## jamielakenovels (Jan 14, 2014)

If you're going to have links, have a link to a mailing list they can sign up for. It is 10 times more effective to have a mailing list (if used properly) than any social media, in my experience.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

I had 1311 downloads of my UF (free x5 days offer) on the day of the offer. I ran other promos the following day with freebooksy and booksends so I can't extrapolate what the knock-on figures are for the Fiverr promo, and nor can I specify sales of the sequel for the same reasons. But I'm happy with the result. I'll be using it again.


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

*Free Promo Copy Strategy Update*



jamielakenovels said:


> If you're going to have links, have a link to a mailing list they can sign up for. It is 10 times more effective to have a mailing list (if used properly) than any social media, in my experience.


That's a great point. I'm currently building my mailing list, have about 180 people on it right now. The social buttons in the promo copies of my ebook aren't to follow me, they are actually shares of my Amazon page. This way, if you have a free copy, you're encouraged to share the page where your friends can buy a copy, and I make it very easy.

I created the share links to the amazon page here: http://www.sharelinkgenerator.com/
Then I track how many click these links by shortening the links the service above spits out with http://bitly.com

These links end up looking like this in the book (see below). Click if you want to see how it works (and go ahead and share if you want to support this experiment 

*Are you enjoying your free copy of Discovering Aberration? Take a moment to tell your friends. Shares support my writing.*
*Facebook:* http://bit.ly/DiscAbbFacebook
*Twitter:* http://bit.ly/DiscAbbTwitter1
*Google+:* http://bit.ly/DiscAbbGoogle

I'm beginning to give out these promo copies next week. It's free and easy to do, generates awareness, and helps reader who might otherwise not share to share.

*Reddit Update*

My reddit ads went live today. I know I said they'd go live on the 6th, but apparently I misspoke. In the few hours my reddit ad went live, it's already sold one copy.

I also sold 2 other copies today, which I attribute to the Jules Verne Phantastical Society facebook page giveaway they are doing. These free giveaways tend to generate a few sales when they begin, but after a giveaway is when I've seen my sales really jump. I'm hoping that is the case here again. This giveaway ends on Saturday, so I'm expecting a spike in sales hopefully on monday.

Whew, that's a long update. Hope you guys are still finding this useful.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

scbarrus said:


> Whew, that's a long update. Hope you guys are still finding this useful.


Definitely useful in many ways. I've gained quite a few ideas from this and learned things too. For example, I knew you could pre-fill a Tweet in a link... but hadn't thought of that as a way to encourage sharing about a book, and did not know you could do the same on Facebook and Google+. I'm interested to see what results you get with your sharing links, so I hope you don't mind my nosing around the stats pages on those. You're getting a lot more activity on your books than I am on mine, but if I can increase that using ideas from this thread it would be good to know whether presenting sharing links like that would be worthwhile. (I will probably go back and add them to my one multi-part story on Wattpad, since it's free, easy, and quick to do. _ETA: Correction, links don't work in the body of a story on Wattpad, so the links weren't useful there after all._)

I used the G+ sharing link to post about this thread and your book: https://plus.google.com/+StuartWhitmore/posts/1TfbmZ8yL4u


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Crenel said:


> I used the G+ sharing link to post about this thread and your book: https://plus.google.com/+StuartWhitmore/posts/1TfbmZ8yL4u


I'm glad this is useful for you. I know I've always been on a look out for information like this but can never find it, so hopefully it continues to be good. Thanks for sharing too, I really appreciate that.

*Major Update: Something *clicked**

Stats for yesterday. 
Sales: 10
Sales Rank: 24,658
Category rank: #28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Steampunk

This day was 3 times better than any sales day I've had yet (except for launch day when it was included in a Groupon.com deal). This is the first time I made it into the Steampunk sub category for more than a few hours. So somethings working.

*Reddit:*

I can attribute 3 sales to Reddit (only 2 of those sales count towards yesterdays number). As of now, each sale produced by reddit is costing me $.27, and I'm making $.35 from each sale. At least I'm not loosing money, and the sales are real. The ad is scheduled to last a full week, so if it keeps up this pace I should make around 21 sales through reddit. I think that's a 166% ROI, which means it's a valid source of sales. If end up reaching 14 sales or more, I'll be placing 2 more $5 Reddit ads. A nice way to garuntee a few sales a day and keep you ranking.

*Other sales:*

Nerds-Feather: ~2
I was featured as the #1 summer read on their annual summer reading list. This wasn't something I planned on or even knew was in the realm of possibility until he told me it happened through twitter. Pretty cool.

Social Networks: ~6
These four sales got me onto the Steampunk subcategory with a ranking around the #93 or so. I immediately took a screen shot of this and shared it on my social networks just minutes before I fell off the list. But that was enough to generate a few more sales which pushed me back on the list. By mid day I was #45, so I sent out another screen shot thanking everyone for buying copies. That generated a few more sales, getting me to #23 by the end of the day. This morning I had slipped a few slots, but am still looking good at #28.

*Today, or Taking Advantage of a Good Thing:*

I decided to capitalize on this good fortune and high ranking today. Best selling indie Matthew Mather, author of CyberStorm, sent out an Facebook notification when he launched his book CyberStrom, which has since been optioned for a movie. I know about this notification because he sent one to me. Clearly it worked to some degree because, well, look at the results. Of course there were many other things like dropping the price to 0.99 for a month with an aggressive ad campaign 3 months after launch, but this was one of the first things he did.

I took his message and repurposed it for me, telling my Facebook friends that my novel is going up the charts and asking them to buy a copy and share it. This is a one off thing, can't do it twice, so it's best to do at a strategic moment, and I'm hoping that moment is now for me. The long her hope is that Amazon sees the sales that I'm generating and they'll help promote my book (Something they are known to do after a certain point), this way bumping me up from ~7 sales a week to the next level, which I think would be around ~14 sales a week after the spike.

*Here's what Matthew Mather sent to me when his book launched:*

Conversation started March 15, 2013
Matthew Mather
3/15, 9:55am
Matthew Mather

Heya!

So, I am launching my new book, CyberStorm, today. It is getting rave reviews (see stuff at end if you like). It is a techno-thriller, like Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton. I have the book on special all day for launch day just $0.99 - TODAY ONLY - and even if people don't have a Kindle (it's on Amazon) they can read via PC, phone, whatever...it loads into anything.

First - if YOU could click the link below and buy a copy I'd really appreciate it (and you'll get something great to read!)

(AND THEN, if you could spam your address book, mail everyone at work, put up a Facebook post this morning...I'd really appreciate that too!). Link is below: http://www.amazon.com/CyberStorm-ebook/dp/B00BT4QRHG/

(or on Amazon Canada - http://www.amazon.ca/CyberStorm-ebook/dp/B00BT4QRHG/

)

Hope all is well and much appreciate any help!

Best

Matthew

ps. Below are some early testimonials from book reviewers:

"Wow! Entralling! CyberStorm is a must read...this book is such a page turner. I couldn't wait to see what happened next!" - Adria Fraser, book reviewer for Amazing Stories

"A chilling prophecy...well written, and provides a great pacing, a must-read for...any fan of good fiction." - Ian Peterson, book reviewer for Sci-Fi Readers

"The plausible nightmare scenario in this story absolutely terrifies me." - Jeremey Bray, book reviewer for Global Geek News

*Here's mine. His is more impressive with better review sources, but I did what I could*

Heya!

So new novel, Discovering Aberration, is beginning to climb up the charts. As I write this it's the #23 best selling Steampunk novel on Amazon. It's written in the style of a classic science fiction novel, like Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft, and it's getting great reader reviews (see below if you like).

I have the book on special right now to try to keep it on the charts. It's $0.99 and even if people don't have a Kindle (it's on Amazon) they can read via PC, phone, whatever...it loads into anything.

First - if YOU could click the link below and buy a copy I'd really appreciate it (and you'll get something great to read!)

(AND THEN, if you could spam your address book, mail everyone at work, put up a Facebook post this morning...I'd really appreciate that too!). Link is below:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IIGG32M/

And for Canada you can find it here:
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00IIGG32M/

Early reader reviews:

"a well-polished, exciting story. A strange, quirky alternative history world with the type of classic adventure journey you don't see often anymore."

"Discovering Aberration is well-written, with believable characters. Even minor characters, such as Sir Charles Greatworth, leap from the page fully formed."

"the traps, pitfalls, encounters are all the more thrilling because the characters are believable and well-developed"

*In conclusion*

My sales aren't astronomical by any means, but they are the best I've done yet, and I think that the right tactics applied at the right times will help continue to push this book. Luckily I have my BookSoda ad on Monday, and the free ads all weekend, so hopefully this is sustained for a while.


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## Thisiswhywecan&#039;thavenicethings (May 3, 2013)

Was curious about the groupon.com thing. Was it expensive to set up? I looked at their site but they don't really provide a lot of info.

ETA: I found more info. It's an interesting idea


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Laura V said:


> Was curious about the groupon.com thing. Was it expensive to set up? I looked at their site but they don't really provide a lot of info.
> 
> ETA: I found more info. It's an interesting idea


No, I got paid to do it. I just asked them if they had any deals in the future that were steampunk themed. They said they did and it just happened to correspond with my release date. We ended up selling around 8,000-10,000 copies with a total of over $20,000 in sales. If you're book is optimized for it (good back matter to incentive's newsletter signups and sales of other books) it can do a lot for you. Unfortunately I was in such a rush to get my book finalized I didn't add that until it was released through Amazon, so i missed out on that opportunity.


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## Guest (Jun 6, 2014)

I'll be re-reading everything in this thread over the weekend.  Thanks, again, for the information!!


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

Ok, so the weekend was great, but now we're back to normal.

Over the weekend Discovering Aberration peaked in the Steampunk list at #14, then on Sunday I didn't make a single sale and I fell back off the charts. Well it was cool while it lasted. Here's to hoping next time it gets higher and we stay up there longer.

*Reddit* - The reddit ad only has a few days left, and it needs to make up some ground to provide a good ROI. Currently it's produced around 5 sales, well short of the 14 it needed to pay for itself. I began an even more targeted Reddit ad in the /r/steampunk subreddit. Because it's so small it'll take a full week and a half to run through $5 worth of impressions. I'll let you know if this more targeted approach works better.

*ebooksoda* - My ebooksoda ad went live today. It's generated 1 sale so far. Am I doing something wrong here? Maybe Mondays are bad days to be included in these email ads. Or maybe I'm putting my novel in the wrong category. There's so much that could be wrong here, but something isn't right. I need to figure out what is stopping people from these sources from buying my book, I'm pretty sure something is. Maybe it's time to compare my Amazon listing to the #1-3 best sellers in my genre.

*Free Ads* - I submitted a free ad through HotZippy (thurs), Pixel of Ink (fri) and Bargin Booksy (sat). HotZippy may have referred a sale, maaaaybe 2. Otherwise it seems to have been a waste of time submitting free listings to these sites. Won't be doing that again.

*After all is said and done* - What produced the most sales was Reddit pushing 3 sales, DA appearing low on the steampunk list, and them me sharing all over social networks that I was going up the charts. Nearly all of my sales were via Facebook and Google+ (2/3 Facebook, 1/3 Google+). Not sure if that will work again in the future, kind of a one time thing I think.

*This week*

Mon - ebooksoda - paid
Thurs - Books on the Knob - free
Fri - Choosy Bookworm - free
Sat - eReaderCafe - free
All week - Reddit ad /r/steampunk - paid
Ending Friday - Reddit ad /r/scifi - paid


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## Kee (Jun 3, 2013)

Can't find out where you got to the Groupon ad place. How much did it cost, etc


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## SA_Soule (Sep 8, 2011)

Which Bknights / Fiverr promo did you use? And does your book have to be discounted or free to promote with them?


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