# New FREE book promo tool for Indie Authors, all because of a Writers' Cafe post



## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

The original idea for this has been percolating and distilling through this post here. http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,214473.0.html for quite a few weeks now.

Essentially it boils down to the idea of cross promoting each other's books on our respective websites. _'I'll promote your books if you'll promote mine'_ .

Nice idea in principle, and I set out to try and implement it in practice. You can see the results here http://bookpromocoop.com

It's very early days with this, but please feel free to try it out and let me know your thoughts, comments, etc.

[EDIT] This has now been significantly updated, you can even add in your own Amazon affiliate code now.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Looks great!

I'm definitely joining, plus I just added it as a resource to my Author Utilities webpage:

http://www.veranazarian.com/goodies/author-utilities/


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## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

Nice idea. Once the categories kick in I'll be interested if you can make the code more customizable.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

I think it's a great idea too!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

I added it to the bottom to see how it looked, but since nobody ever looks at the bottom I added it to the right sidebar too


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Now if we can just get all those e-book websites and blogs to put up the ad too (they'd probably want click-through-buy-through royalties)


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Okay, it's live on my website. 

I hope it's okay that I tweaked the code to fit it via the vertical instead of horizontal, otherwise it's too wide and hangs off past the edge of my sidebar.

Anyway, now we just hope more folks add their books, otherwise it looks like I am just promoting my own books there...


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Glad you like it. 
Based on feedback from you all I'll try and add in any new features requested like different sized promotional blocks, etc.

I've added in 'Views' so you can see how many times your book has been displayed across the network. You can see it beside your book.

Will be looking at the 'category' filter once there are enough books on board.

Now I'm off to see Mad Max with my kids. Can't believe it's 30 years since the last one...


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Can I add "8 Short Stories" too?


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Rayven T. Hill said:


> Nice idea. Once the categories kick in I'll be interested if you can make the code more customizable.


I'd agree on this. Aside from that (and I realize this is a first pass), this looks like it has promise.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I'm still waiting for my activation email   Feel like I'm missing out on the party 

ETA Just got it


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Playing around with it now. Will try to add it to my website this weekend.

First ask: allow us to select multiple genres.  Would love to promote Fantasy and Horror.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

How do I change the size to make it vertical? It only shows as one and a half books.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> Glad you like it.
> Based on feedback from you all I'll try and add in any new features requested like different sized promotional blocks, etc.
> 
> I've added in 'Views' so you can see how many times your book has been displayed across the network. You can see it beside your book.
> ...


Thanks, I really appreciate your work on this!

Have fun at Mad Max!


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Thanks, I really appreciate your work on this!


Duh! Sometimes I get so excited by a new toy, I forget my manners.

Likewise, a big thanks for this!


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> How do I add the code? The site asked me if I want to add text or a photo etc. Not sure how to add the code


Look for a place to add widgets, then select the text or HTML type of widget, paste your code in it, then drag the widget over to where you want to to be.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Playing around with it now. Will try to add it to my website this weekend.
> 
> First ask: allow us to select multiple genres. Would love to promote Fantasy and Horror.


That's a great idea.

I would love to see a list with tick-boxes where I can select as many (or as few) as I like types of genres.


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## harker.roland (Sep 13, 2014)

That is too cool. I am preparing for a re-branding on this name so didn't add any books yet but will be moving the code to my site.

Just an idea for you, either add a DONATE button or possibly start incorporating a subscription fee or flat fee to compensate you for your time. You could have the free service include all categories and the paid to allow people to customize.

I can easily see this becoming a great tool!


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

harker.roland said:


> Just an idea for you, either add a DONATE button or possibly start incorporating a subscription fee or flat fee to compensate you for your time. You could have the free service include all categories and the paid to allow people to customize.


Two ways around that, off the top of my head. Gerald could (and maybe already does) code this to use his Amazon affiliate ID. Therefore he'd technically make his revenue off of any books sold. Second idea, and the one I'd favor more, is allow for a subscription fee and for us to be able to add our own affiliate IDs for a chance to make this a potential revenue stream.


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

Thanks for this.

Also I have a question.

I am trying to start a coop for fiction podcasters. Code like this would be great for that. It should be an easy tweak now that you already have the basics built. Wanna give a brother a hand?


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Look for a place to add widgets, then select the text or HTML type of widget, paste your code in it, then drag the widget over to where you want to to be.


Thanks  . Found it. Now I need to know how you made yours vertical as I'm having the same problem of overlap.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Thanks  . Found it. Now I need to know how you made yours vertical as I'm having the same problem of overlap.


Here is how you do it:

Find this part of the code in yours:

height="230" width="290"

Now simply change the numbers to be:

height="390" width="250"

Hit save.

That's it!


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Here is how you do it:
> 
> Find this part of the code in yours:
> 
> ...


Brilliant. It actually worked  This kind of stuff is usually nerve-wracking for me as I'm scared of losing everything  
You can check it out on my website http://just4kix.jimdo.com/ down on the left


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Brilliant. It actually worked  This kind of stuff is usually nerve-wracking for me as I'm scared of losing everything
> You can check it out on my website http://just4kix.jimdo.com/ down on the left


Glad it worked! And looks great on your website!

Oh, and sorry that so many of my books seem to be showing up upon refresh -- I hope more people add books, and soon!


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Thanks for the feedback. I will spend some time over the weekend tweaking the filtering.

I had thought about the check box idea for genres, and it's not a problem. As soon as there are enough books in the pool I'll set it up.

Will add in the vertical banner option too.

The key with this is to make it fast, accurate and simple so that people can have confidence in it. Will take a bit of time but it's a good start.

BTW, Mad Max was fantastic, loved it.


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

Just joined and added my books. About to put the code onto my website.


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## Quinn Richardson (Apr 20, 2012)

This is a very, very cool thing you've done.  Good Karma headed your way.


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## mel p (Oct 22, 2014)

Okay, I signed up and am ready to add to my website, which I just created...question for wordpress.com people!!! I went to widget, and sidebar, but not sure which widget I pick? I know I need to copy/paste, but not sure on the widget.
Can someone guide me? And again, sorry for the dumb question....


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

mel p said:


> Okay, I signed up and am ready to add to my website, which I just created...question for wordpress.com people!!! I went to widget, and sidebar, but not sure which widget I pick? I know I need to copy/paste, but not sure on the widget.
> Can someone guide me? And again, sorry for the dumb question....


Just pick the Text widget.


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## mel p (Oct 22, 2014)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Just pick the Text widget.


I picked text, pasted the text in and hit save. But it shows the text (link), not the photos. What am I doing wrong?


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

jdcore said:


> Thanks for this.
> 
> Also I have a question.
> 
> I am trying to start a coop for fiction podcasters. Code like this would be great for that. It should be an easy tweak now that you already have the basics built. Wanna give a brother a hand?


PM me on it


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

mel p said:


> I picked text, pasted the text in and hit save. But it shows the text (link), not the photos. What am I doing wrong?


PM me with the address of your site and I'll have a look for you.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

This is an awesome idea, and thank you so much for putting your effort into it. One problem, though, I can't seem to get mine to "verticalize". I made the height and width changes Vera suggested, and for the first refresh, it was vertical, but now it's gone back to horizontal (I didn't change the code), and it looks goofy. Hope someone's got an idea on this.

This, and only this, is what I have stowed in my text widget:
http://bookpromocoop.com/showbpc.php?aid=23&cid=6&xid=1

Thanks in advance!


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Two ways around that, off the top of my head. Gerald could (and maybe already does) code this to use his Amazon affiliate ID. Therefore he'd technically make his revenue off of any books sold. Second idea, and the one I'd favor more, is allow for a subscription fee and for us to be able to add our own affiliate IDs for a chance to make this a potential revenue stream.


Yep, I would second this idea.

And, yes, this is what happens when you come up with a cool tool for people to use -- you are flooded with suggestions more, more, more!

 Maria


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Maria Romana said:


> This is an awesome idea, and thank you so much for putting your effort into it. One problem, though, I can't seem to get mine to "verticalize". I made the height and width changes Vera suggested, and for the first refresh, it was vertical, but now it's gone back to horizontal (I didn't change the code), and it looks goofy. Hope someone's got an idea on this.
> 
> This, and only this, is what I have stowed in my text widget:
> http://bookpromocoop.com/showbpc.php?aid=23&cid=6&xid=1
> ...


Where it says _height="390" width="250"_ change it to height="500" width="200" and your good to go.

Have also reduced the size of the font for the title.

Have checked this on your site to make sure it will work.

Really need to have a vertical banner option. Number one on the list


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

geraldmkilby said:


> PM me on it


PM sent.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

My widget doesn't show the covers.   I'm out of time at the moment, but I'll come back to this later and read through the entire thread to see what I've done wrong. 

My blog is a wordpress blog (I'll try my author website later, too. Maybe it will work there. It's wordpress as well.)

I used a text widget. Maybe I need to use a different one.

Anyway will come back to this on Sunday.

I think you have a great idea here. 

Thanks for creating this!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Adding this also gave me the impetus to change my blog background and add dedicated links to my stories on the sidebar.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> Where it says _height="390" width="250"_ change it to height="500" width="200" and your good to go.
> 
> Have also reduced the size of the font for the title.
> 
> ...


And, boom, fixed! Thanks, Gerald.

Sure, vertical option would be nice, but we worked around it! Next suggestion, but not top of list: Make it so our own books don't show up on our own website. As Vera said, looks a bit skeevy to recommend "other authors" who happen to be yourself  .

ETA: One more suggestion (you're gonna start to hate me): Make the number of books displayed a changeable setting. I've got tons of space down that right-hand column; I'd love to fill it with great book suggestions!


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Two ways around that, off the top of my head. Gerald could (and maybe already does) code this to use his Amazon affiliate ID. Therefore he'd technically make his revenue off of any books sold. Second idea, and the one I'd favor more, is allow for a subscription fee and for us to be able to add our own affiliate IDs for a chance to make this a potential revenue stream.


I have my Amazon ID on this so _theoretically_ I can generate some revenue from it, if and when books are sold. So, in some respects, it's a good motivation. But to be honest I don't need to make anything out of this for a while as I have access to lots of fancy servers that can handle the traffic. (it's the day job).

I'm more interested in developing something that's a win / win for Indie Authors. Being one myself I know how difficult it can be to get our books out there. It seems there is a quantum jump from starting out with one or two books to getting to a point where we can get some reasonable sales. Something like this could help along the way. I also like the idea that it's Authors helping other Authors, pooling our own resources, one web page at a time.

There is a saying (I thinks it's from Cloud Atlas) it goes something like 'Your own efforts are but a drop in the ocean. But what is an ocean only a great many drops.'


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Maria Romana said:


> And, boom, fixed! Thanks, Gerald.
> 
> Sure, vertical option would be nice, but we worked around it! Next suggestion, but not top of list: Make it so our own books don't show up on our own website. As Vera said, looks a bit skeevy to recommend "other authors" who happen to be yourself  .
> 
> ETA: One more suggestion (you're gonna start to hate me): Make the number of books displayed a changeable setting. I've got tons of space down that right-hand column; I'd love to fill it with great book suggestions!


Keep the suggestions coming. I'm keen to hear what people want.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Maria Romana said:


> And, boom, fixed! Thanks, Gerald.
> 
> Sure, vertical option would be nice, but we worked around it! Next suggestion, but not top of list: Make it so our own books don't show up on our own website. As Vera said, looks a bit skeevy to recommend "other authors" who happen to be yourself  .
> 
> ETA: One more suggestion (you're gonna start to hate me): Make the number of books displayed a changeable setting. I've got tons of space down that right-hand column; I'd love to fill it with great book suggestions!


Yup, after I just came back after being offline and checked, my own vertical stopped working too, so I used the suggested values 500 and 200 and that took care of it. However, now there is a large amount of white space below, so wondering if it can be made more economical to the screen real estate... 

But hey, no rush! This is all good for starters, excellent!

And I like the idea of not having our own books be displayed on our own site!


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Vera Nazarian said:


> But hey, no rush! This is all good for starters, excellent!


Agreed--no pressure! Just really impressed and excited about the possibilities with this little toy. I hope more folks will hop on the wagon.


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## Michael J Elliott (Dec 18, 2014)

Ok I've done everything, signed up added books got my code but I don't know HOW to drag a text block to the widgets area at all! Please clarify for me. I've also spread the word about this to my author group


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

Would this work with Wordpress?  I have a Wordpress site and code generally doesn't work with those.  It tends to just show up as a very plain, small link.


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

I just signed up, listed my books, and installed the widget. I hope I get a few new readers for the books that cycle through on my site.


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## LifesHumor (Feb 5, 2014)

Thank you for taking the time to make this.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Holly A Hook said:


> Would this work with Wordpress? I have a Wordpress site and code generally doesn't work with those. It tends to just show up as a very plain, small link.


Yes, Holly, totally. We're on Worpress, too. Just stick a text widget wherever you want it, and copy & paste the code in. Read upthread if need instructions on making it vertical instead of horizontal.


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

I've signed up, and dropped the book block on my Blog page, but the first books that showed up were not Fantasy book as I had selected.

One was a Mystery and the other Romance. Hopefully the authors of those books simply selected an incorrect category, and this was not a problem with the system.

I would like to be able to display more than 2 books as well.

Here's the page: http://www.triadinesaga.com/index.php/my-blog

One other suggestion. Use a small logo for the link back to the site and some promotional text rather than just the URL.


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## Trans-Human (Apr 22, 2015)

I don't have books of my own to enter and my blog doesn't have much traffic, but I'm willing to help. So, we'll see what happens. I'll go and try to add the code (emphasis on 'try', me and code don't get along very often).



EDIT: Ehhh, asks for an ASIN now. I don't have one! D: STUCK!


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Second idea, and the one I'd favor more, is allow for a subscription fee and for us to be able to add our own affiliate IDs for a chance to make this a potential revenue stream.


I wouldn't be able to afford to pay because I don't earn enough, and the exchange rate would make it very expensive . I also don't have an affiliate link on my website


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> I have my Amazon ID on this so _theoretically_ I can generate some revenue from it, if and when books are sold. So, in some respects, it's a good motivation. But to be honest I don't need to make anything out of this for a while as I have access to lots of fancy servers that can handle the traffic. (it's the day job).
> 
> I'm more interested in developing something that's a win / win for Indie Authors. Being one myself I know how difficult it can be to get our books out there. It seems there is a quantum jump from starting out with one or two books to getting to a point where we can get some reasonable sales. Something like this could help along the way. I also like the idea that it's Authors helping other Authors, pooling our own resources, one web page at a time.
> 
> There is a saying (I thinks it's from Cloud Atlas) it goes something like 'Your own efforts are but a drop in the ocean. But what is an ocean only a great many drops.'


Thank you SO much . Very generous of you (or as they say now, 'super' generous)


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thank you for creating this, I love the idea and hope it helps everyone. I plan to install a new theme on my site this weekend to make it mobile-friendly and will try to give the code a more visible place to sit in the new design, since right now it's at the bottom.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

thewitt said:


> I've signed up, and dropped the book block on my Blog page, but the first books that showed up were not Fantasy book as I had selected.
> 
> One was a Mystery and the other Romance. Hopefully the authors of those books simply selected an incorrect category, and this was not a problem with the system.


Right now, I don't believe Gerald has it selecting books by category, because there weren't enough books in the system yet, so yes, you're going to get a totally random selection.


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## Bronwyn Kienapple (Feb 2, 2015)

Awesome idea! But I'm having the same WordPress issue as others here. I pasted the code into the Text widget but it just converts into a link, not a widget with covers. Can anyone post a solution? Thanks!!


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Bronwyn Kienapple said:


> Awesome idea! But I'm having the same WordPress issue as others here. I pasted the code into the Text widget but it just converts into a link, not a widget with covers. Can anyone post a solution? Thanks!!


I'm no pro at Wordpress, but I wondered why it worked for me and not you, so I went to look at your site. When you look at the source code, the text widget appears to be embedded within a set of html tags called an "aside", while mine is not. I'm guessing this has to do with your theme. I've no idea what you would do about that, but perhaps check your theme's help for how to use a text widget or if it can handle an iframe (the promo coop code is an iframe). It might give you a clue.


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## laklak (Oct 5, 2014)

I'm not a code specialist or anything like that, but if IIRC, sites hosted at WordPress.com won't accept any kind of iframe code like the one provided by BookPromoCoop. You need a self-hosted WP site to be able to implement that.


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## Quinn Richardson (Apr 20, 2012)

I dragged and dropped a text box to the sidebar on my site and pasted the link in it, but it showed up as text, not an active bit of code. So I took a wild guess and told WP it was code by putting "code" before the gibberish, and "/code" after. Except those quotation marks were left and right thingies: < and > . I assume they will screw up this post if I put them near the words...

Someone familiar with HTML, feel free to correct / clarify.

It worked for me.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

The first command on that code has a space before > that needs to be removed

*or not, I dunno


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

I think Wordpress.org sites allow plugins, but not so much on Wordpress.com sites.  I have a wordpress.com site.  Maybe that's the issue some people are having.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

btw0 Another Indie award

http://thebookpromoter.com/book-awards-nominations/?utm_content=buffer5e7a7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer


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## Overrated (Mar 20, 2015)

Signed up - this is a great feature. But darn that wordpress.com. They don't like iframe. I'm looking for a way around - I tried the "code" trick listed upthread - no joy.

Any other ideas?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Those of you having problems with the IFRAME code could try the following workaround. I don't use WordPress (.com or otherwise) so I don't know if this will work, but in my quick test on a Drupal-based site it worked fine.

When you get the code for your site, it will look something like this (this is mine):

```
<iframe style="border:none" src="http://bookpromocoop.com/showbpc.php?aid=41&cid=&xid=1" height="230" width="290"></iframe>
```
The

```
src
```
 attribute tells the browser where to get the contents to fill the IFRAME. Everything between the quotation marks after

```
src=
```
 needs to be copied over to code that looks like this instead, replacing REPLACE-ME with your

```
src
```
 attribute contents:


```
<object data="REPLACE-ME" width="290" height="230">
    <embed src="REPLACE-ME" width="290" height="230"> </embed>
    Error: Book covers not displayed.
</object>
```
If you changed the height and width of the IFRAME, make the same changes to the OBJECT and EMBED code.

Good luck!


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## Overrated (Mar 20, 2015)

Thanks, Crenel, I'm off to try it.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

UPDATE: I have set the category filter working, you may need to check your settings to make sure you're displaying the books you want.

You don't need to change the code, just select the categories you want and 'save'.

I've also added and extra one so you can draw books from two different categories.

Your own books won't show on you own site, have fixed this.

I am staggered by the uptake for this, looks like it has hit a need for Indie Authors.

That's all for the moment. I will be setting up different banner options soon.

enjoy


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> UPDATE: I have set the category filter working, you may need to check your settings to make sure you're displaying the books you want.
> 
> You don't need to change the code, just select the categories you want and 'save'.
> 
> ...


Thanks. Is there any reason why we can't show all genres? (except erotica). I write novels, children's books, humour , short stories etc. and would be happy to have all genres show up on my website.

ETA please put a link to your promo site in your posts


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Thanks. Is there any reason why we can't show all genres? (except erotica). I write novels, children's books, humour , short stories etc. and would be happy to have all genres show up on my website.
> 
> ETA please put a link to your promo site in your posts


Consider it done Jan. I will add in an 'ALL' option. Give me a day or so on it and I'll set it up. I'll set yours to ALL if you like, save you having to do it.

Will also take on board all the other suggestions.

Heads up: next week end I'll be looking at all the sites and checking the code to make sure it's OK and everybody is running it. After that if it's not on your site your books wont be promoted... sorry, but only fair.

The site is here http://bookpromocoop.com

Now, back to writing.... only another 30k words to go


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## Guest (May 24, 2015)

As the original poster, its great to see how youve implemented it. Ofocurse yours is way better than what i originally said. Well done. Ive already signed up!!!


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

JadeWhitfieldWrites said:


> As the original poster, its great to see how youve implemented it. Ofocurse yours is way better than what i originally said. Well done. Ive already signed up!!!


A big thanks for the original post. Only for it this may never have happened. 

BTW, for those having trouble with the wordpress text box, here's a youtube video that shows how to do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0t5ouYVnIY


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

I see that Wordpress.com seems to have a problem with iframes.

I'm going to sign up and create a quick site and see what the issue is. And then I can sort it out for you all.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> Consider it done Jan. I will add in an 'ALL' option. Give me a day or so on it and I'll set it up. I'll set yours to ALL if you like, save you having to do it.
> 
> Will also take on board all the other suggestions.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your prompt response


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> UPDATE: I have set the category filter working, you may need to check your settings to make sure you're displaying the books you want.
> 
> You don't need to change the code, just select the categories you want and 'save'.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much, Gerald, this is awesome!!!


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Forgot to mention, I also think an "ALL" option is great, and want to display all genres of books. The more, the merrier!


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## Annette_g (Nov 27, 2012)

Thank you, I've joined and added the widget to my site, it looks great and seems to fit in with my books on the front page too


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## Blerg et al. (Mar 27, 2015)

As soon as I revamp my website....


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> UPDATE: I have set the category filter working, you may need to check your settings to make sure you're displaying the books you want.
> Your own books won't show on you own site, have fixed this.
> I am staggered by the uptake for this, looks like it has hit a need for Indie Authors.
> That's all for the moment. I will be setting up different banner options soon.


All the hard work over a holiday weekend is appreciated!!!


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

I've had a look at the Wordpress.com issue and there is no solution to it. So sorry to say, this will not work if your site is a hosted wordpress.com one. It seems to be a policy with them not to allow anything that can be used for this type of thing. Bit of a shame really. Nonetheless it seems to work on pretty much everything else. 

Will keep an eye out for a solution but for the moment if you are on Wordpress.com this is not going to work for you.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Has anybody on Wordpress.com tried my work-around of using OBJECT and EMBED in place of IFRAME? It might not work if they block those tags too, but if it does work it would be good to let people know.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Crenel said:


> Has anybody on Wordpress.com tried my work-around of using OBJECT and EMBED in place of IFRAME? It might not work if they block those tags too, but if it does work it would be good to let people know.


Tried that, no joy. Actually tried a few different things, even javascript, but they block that too.


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

I'm really having no choice but to port my site over the Blogger, and not just for this reason.  I've been spending all morning moving my website over.  I'm done with Wordpress.  It's so limiting with these kinds of things.  Also, I need a site where I can post videos without having to pay for the ability to do so, since I have my Sales Challenge going.  Blogger can be annoying in some ways, but at least I can do the things I want to do there.


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

I looked for the "all" category and couldn't find it.   I'd love to highlight as many indies as I can.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I use the free www.jimdo.com and had no hassles. It has a lot more features than when I first started, but I haven't got round to trying them all so my website is quite basic  .


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

OK, I've had an idea on how to solve the Wordpress.com issue. As we have discovered it won't allow any iframe code in the Text widget. But, it will allow a simple image with a link.
Now lots of Indie Authors use the free Wordpress.com service so it would be good to have them on the book exchange network.

So the idea is for them to display a small image banner linking to bookpromocoop.com._ (Need to come up with some text for this)_

This way their books can be promoted and they can contribute by helping to add more sites and books to the over all network.

I think this would be very fair.

Thoughts?

@R. M. Webb, ALL option coming in a day or two.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

All right - so I just signed up.

I know, I know, there goes the neighborhood.


My blog/website is Wordpress.com as well. It is a darned nuisance. Hopefully I can find a work-around here to solve the problem.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Steve Vernon said:


> All right - so I just signed up.
> 
> I know, I know, there goes the neighborhood.
> 
> ...


Glad to have you on board. See my post above for a workaround.... again it will take me a few days to implement, have to keep the day job going first.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

No worries, Gerald. I have a day job as well.


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

geraldmkilby said:


> @R. M. Webb, ALL option coming in a day or two.


Ahhh... That's what I get for skimming the that after ten hours of building a shed in the blazing heat...

Sorry!


----------



## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> So the idea is for them to display a small image banner linking to bookpromocoop.com._ (Need to come up with some text for this)_


I've been putting more thought into this also, and I think that is the best that you can do. If your site included a page/feature to browse all of the registered books, the image could link there. The image could even be dynamically generated using two book covers like now, but of course the link would not go directly to the matching books. Of course it's easy for me to suggest things when it's not my coding time and effort.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Crenel said:


> If your site included a page/feature to browse all of the registered books, the image could link there.


That's a really good idea, easy enough to do, might even break it down by genre.


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## RachelSilbes (Apr 28, 2015)

Holly A Hook said:


> I'm really having no choice but to port my site over the Blogger, and not just for this reason. I've been spending all morning moving my website over. I'm done with Wordpress. It's so limiting with these kinds of things. Also, I need a site where I can post videos without having to pay for the ability to do so, since I have my Sales Challenge going. Blogger can be annoying in some ways, but at least I can do the things I want to do there.


Are you on wordpress.COM? You should be on wordpress.ORG. org is free, com you pay. I don't know why people do .com. You are getting nothing for your money. You can get so much more with .org.


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## RachelSilbes (Apr 28, 2015)

Holly A Hook said:


> I think Wordpress.org sites allow plugins, but not so much on Wordpress.com sites. I have a wordpress.com site. Maybe that's the issue some people are having.


Do yourself a favor and get .org.

Thousands of widgets you don't have to pay for, and there are so many more options. Com is garbage and no one should pay so much for so little.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

RachelSilbes said:


> You should be on wordpress.ORG. org is free, com you pay. I don't know why people do .com. You are getting nothing for your money.


Does .org offer free hosting, or any hosting at all? If not, there is no way to "be on wordpress.ORG." The cost and/or complexity of setting up hosting and then installing WordPress may be too much of an obstacle. The other thread that included a poll about hosting gives a pretty good picture of how average people look at setting up a site. I set up hosting and install Drupal or some other CMS or framework, but a lot of people want or need a simpler solution. Hosting + a simpler solution is what they are getting for their money.


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## Selina Fenech (Jul 20, 2011)

What a great concept! Thanks for all the hard work putting it together. I've just signed up and added it to my book site!


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

Should we look further at spreading the word yet? The more sites showing the ads the wider the net is cast.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

You guys might be able to find some webring software still available that works on Wordpress. There are some links near the bottom of that article to various platforms.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

There are a few more bits and bobs I'd like to get done such as; a vertical banner option, a banner for Wordpress.com users ( I can detect this automatically), a nice landing page with a list of authors and books & an FAQ page.

Once that's done then I think start spreading the word. Probably after this weekend.

BTW, the ALL option is now set up so you can just select this option and it will display a random set from the full pool of books.


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

I signed up but never got my registration email


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Heather Hamilton-Senter said:


> I signed up but never got my registration email


I just activated it for you. You can log in now and get set up.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Will you be able to tell if this is working to increase sales of our books i.e. you will be earning something from affiliate links? (I hope, after all the work you have put in   )


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

geraldmkilby said:


> I just activated it for you. You can log in now and get set up.


Thanks!


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## lee27 (Mar 3, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> The key with this is to make it fast, accurate and simple so that people can have confidence in it. Will take a bit of time but it's a good start.


A very good start, I would say. Setup was simple; link is now on my website. Simple effectiveness, in writing or in anything else, is the hardest thing to achieve. Throwing bouquets of gratitude your way.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Will you be able to tell if this is working to increase sales of our books i.e. you will be earning something from affiliate links? (I hope, after all the work you have put in  )


So far it's running at about 1000 views per day (That's two books per view, with 200 books in the pool, that's appox. 10 per book per day). There has been around 100 clicks to amazon, but it's probably more as I'm not tracking UK. Two books have sold so far, but I can't tell who they are just yet. Total revenue $0.47 (Not time to give up the day job)

At some point I'll track clicks so you will be able to see how many views/click your books are generating. You can see the number of views beside your book in 'BOOKS' area.


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

I've found it eye opening how many people use WordPress. I'm still a 'write the code in a text editor and upload it' kind of guy. The widespread availability of things that let people build a website without code is a real shame - a lost skill along with dry stone walling perhaps...


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

archaeoroutes said:


> I've found it eye opening how many people use WordPress. I'm still a 'write the code in a text editor and upload it' kind of guy. The widespread availability of things that let people build a website without code is a real shame - a lost skill along with dry stone walling perhaps...


beats GeoCities.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

archaeoroutes said:


> I've found it eye opening how many people use WordPress. I'm still a 'write the code in a text editor and upload it' kind of guy. The widespread availability of things that let people build a website without code is a real shame - a lost skill along with dry stone walling perhaps...


I do occasionally feel this way. Learned HTML way back in 1993, then had to live through the dotcom boom where people could get six figure jobs just by having knowledge of Front Page. Used to drive me nuts.

Even so, I'll also be the first to admit I'm lazy and will happily use a point and click tool if it gives me the flexibility I want. Also, the nice thing about Wordpress is its flexible enough so that knowing how to code allows you that greater degree of freedom to enhance things if needbe.


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## Bronwyn Kienapple (Feb 2, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> So the idea is for them to display a small image banner linking to bookpromocoop.com._ (Need to come up with some text for this)_
> 
> This way their books can be promoted and they can contribute by helping to add more sites and books to the over all network.
> 
> @R. M. Webb, ALL option coming in a day or two.


Yes! I would be into that.  Thanks for looking for another option for us WordPress folk.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> So far it's running at about 1000 views per day (That's two books per view, with 200 books in the pool, that's appox. 10 per book per day). There has been around 100 clicks to amazon, but it's probably more as I'm not tracking UK. Two books have sold so far, but I can't tell who they are just yet. Total revenue $0.47 (Not time to give up the day job)
> 
> At some point I'll track clicks so you will be able to see how many views/click your books are generating. You can see the number of views beside your book in 'BOOKS' area.


Great. Rushes off to check views .

Returns to say that it's interesting to see which books are getting the most views. Hope your $0.47 soon gets a few more noughts after it 

ETA - something else to be obsessing about and checking


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

I'll admit to being a dinosaur. I guess it gives me the same feeling when I've climbed a mountain and meet people who've gone up on a train. For me the act of getting there matters. If I was just going up the mountain to work in the cafe at the top I'd be using the train!
I have made sure that html, css and php are kept on the syllabus for Yr7-9 at my school. They are such useful skills. Even if superceded (I switched from perl to php pretty much as soon as it came out) the programming process is the same.


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## TromboneAl (Mar 20, 2015)

I'm in. If someone hasn't mentioned, there are a few typos on the http://bookpromocoop.com page.


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## TromboneAl (Mar 20, 2015)

Will this work in a wordpress.com site?

I'm trying it with a "Text or HTML" widget, and so far I'm only seeing the HTML code. Still trying ...

No, looks like it won't work with wordpress.com. Guess I'll have to drop out for now.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Done! Dead easy to register, add my book and copy the code into blogger. I'm impressed!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

jdcore said:


> beats GeoCities.


rofl


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

TromboneAl said:


> Will this work in a wordpress.com site?
> 
> I'm trying it with a "Text or HTML" widget, and so far I'm only seeing the HTML code. Still trying ...
> 
> No, looks like it won't work with wordpress.com. Guess I'll have to drop out for now.


Not at the moment, but I'm working on a '_workaround_', should have it after the weekend. In the meantime your books will still be up on the network.

Will check for spelling. Never my strong point. You should what one of my first draft's looks like. Sometimes even I don't know what I am writing


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## TromboneAl (Mar 20, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> Not at the moment, but I'm working on a '_workaround_', should have it after the weekend. In the meantime your books will still be up on the network.


Thanks, Gerald. Ignore my email in which I said I needed to suspend my membership.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> Once that's done then I think start spreading the word. Probably after this weekend.


Oops, didn't realize we weren't supposed to share yet.  My book-marketing blog doesn't get a lot of traffic, but the post about BookPromoCoop.com currently has the third-highest views.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Crenel said:


> Oops, didn't realize we weren't supposed to share yet.  My book-marketing blog doesn't get a lot of traffic, but the post about BookPromoCoop.com currently has the third-highest views.


No problem, spread the word. BTW, the book banner looks great on your site.


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## FadeToBlack (May 8, 2015)

...


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Even so, I'll also be the first to admit I'm lazy and will happily use a point and click tool if it gives me the flexibility I want. Also, the nice thing about Wordpress is its flexible enough so that knowing how to code allows you that greater degree of freedom to enhance things if needbe.


This, about using Wordpress (not .com). I love that so much is built-in or can be added, but if something's not just the way I want it, I can change it.



geraldmkilby said:


> So far it's running at about 1000 views per day (That's two books per view, with 200 books in the pool, that's appox. 10 per book per day). There has been around 100 clicks to amazon, but it's probably more as I'm not tracking UK. Two books have sold so far, but I can't tell who they are just yet. Total revenue $0.47 (Not time to give up the day job)
> 
> At some point I'll track clicks so you will be able to see how many views/click your books are generating. You can see the number of views beside your book in 'BOOKS' area.


Whoa! 1000 views/day? That's way more than I expected at this early stage. Truly impressed. I guess all of us prawny prawns have some pull when we work together (unless those are all the result of us just trying it out! ).

Once again, tossing more kudos, thanks, and good karma your way...


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> No problem, spread the word. BTW, the book banner looks great on your site.


Awesome, thanks!


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Maria Romana said:


> Whoa! 1000 views/day? That's way more than I expected at this early stage. Truly impressed. I guess all of us prawny prawns have some pull when we work together (unless those are all the result of us just trying it out!


No, that's real page views per day. So yes, when you add all the sites together it starts to become one really, really... really huge site. The key is to keep it simple, robust and equatable.

BTW, thanks for all the editing. Every little helps


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Just to make your life easier, here are the typos/missing words on the front of the website. See parts in bold:

* * *

What started out as a post on the Writers Cafe has ended up as a new way for Indie Authors to cross promote each other's books... and *it very* easy.

Simply join the network and add your books into our library, then copy some code to your website&#8230; and that's it.

You are now promoting other Indie Authors on your site and in return they're also promoting your books on their sites.

You can opt in or out at *any.*

You don't need a minimum number of reviews to add books.

You can filter the books promoted on your site.

It's completely free.

And you can get started here&#8230;

* * *


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> No, that's real page views per day. So yes, when you add all the sites together it starts to become one really, really... really huge site. The key is to keep it simple, robust and equatable.
> 
> BTW, thanks for all the editing. Every little helps


Do you think we could persuade Hugh Howey to put it on his website


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Hiya - Confused by the categories

I would like to showcase books like my own but there is no category? I tried looking for "Coming of Age" (that's the Amazon one), also looked under Young Adult and under Teen, but nothing there. When I checked my own books they were under "Genre Fiction" so I picked that and it is all kinds of books.

I think any category that shows ten different cats like Genre Fiction is going to get a lot in it but is not going to be good for finding books in just one genre?

I also have some paranormal romance, so I chose Paranormal, but then I noticed that there was also Supernatural _and_ Paranormal, and then to confuse me even more there was a separate Supernatural category, and all three seemed to have different books in them? But surely you only need Supernatural and Paranormal and can dispense with the other two and amalgamate them in?

But if you do want to separate more rather than less, then Romance really needs some subcats, in my case it needs Young Adult Romance, Romantic Comedy, Paranormal Romance.

Sorry to be difficult! And _thank you_ for this wonderful website which I would be more than happy to promote everywhere when it is ready to be

Suggestion: Could we choose how many books we display? I'm putting it as a side bar on a page that will be quite long and would be happy to have far more than two books by other authors showing up than just the two that are appearing at present.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

OK... update time.

Wordpress.com issue resolved: When you enter a wordpress.com url it will now give you an option to display an image banner promoting the service. This takes the visitor to a special landing page which also shows books from your selected categories. I have checked the code on a test site so I know it works.

Vertical Banner: If you look at your 'Site' page it will now give you an option for either horizontal or vertical banners.

Adding more than two books to the banner: You can simply add in the code twice (or however many times you want) on your site. It will display different books for each. You may want to leave the 'Title' blank and you can add your own on your site. See the bookpromocoop.com home page for examples.

Minor change: You don't need to specify the exact URL that the code runs on, just your web address is fine.

@Evenstar. All the books are tagged with category/subcategory but there's not the numbers yet to use this. As soon as the numbers increase I'll get into subcategory filtering. Probably for the big ones first; Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, etc

Over the weekend (or maybe next week) I will pop an email to all subscribers and remind you all to ensure the code is running on your site. After that, if it's not running, then your books will not be promoted.

Spreading the word: I'll put up a post on my blog & FB and send a few tweets, but that's the full extent of my marketing empire. So it would be good if others could spread the word and get more authors on board.


That's it for the moment. I will add in an FAQ / About Page and do a few tidy ups shortly.


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## FadeToBlack (May 8, 2015)

...


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Leah Ross said:


> AWESOME! Thanks, Gerald! I just got finished putting the banner up on my site, and I'm going to put up a blog post about it too.
> 
> YOU ROCK!


Cool, thanks


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I've mentioned it on the UK Kindle Users Forum.


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## mel p (Oct 22, 2014)

Thank you so much for all the work you are doing and also for allowing all of us wordpress.com users to be included! I followed instructions, but it doesn't look right to me...I'm sure it is something I'm doing.

Would someone who has wordpress.com and updated their site please post a url here, so that I can see what it ends up looking like?

Also, I went youtube to watch the example and for some reason it isn't working at this time (again, it might just be me).

Thanks again!

UPDATED: Nevermind, I found an example and sadly mine is not right...I'll keep trying.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

@mel_p

In the 'Site' page in bookpromocoop.com enter the url as authorname.wordpress.com (not authorname.com) . I've changed this for you so if you go back in it will give you the right code.

See https://geraldmkilby.wordpress.com/ A quick and dirty test on wordpress.com, you'll see it on the left. I will update the instructions just in case other people have the same problem.


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## mel p (Oct 22, 2014)

geraldmkilby said:


> @mel_p
> 
> In the 'Site' page in bookpromocoop.com enter the url as authorname.wordpress.com (not authorname.com) . I've changed this for you so if you go back in it will give you the right code.
> 
> See https://geraldmkilby.wordpress.com/ A quick and dirty test on wordpress.com, you'll see it on the left. I will update the instructions just in case other people have the same problem.


Yeah!! That worked! Thank you SO much. Since my actual address doesn't have the wordpress in it, I would have never figured that out on my own. Thanks again for putting so much time and effort into this! Now I just need to actually publish something...lol


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## TromboneAl (Mar 20, 2015)

Thanks, that worked on my wordpress.com site (AlMacyAuthor.com).

Here's tip for other press.com-ers: 

If you have your own domain name that redirects to your wordpress.com site, you will have enter the wordpress url in the BookPromoCoop.com site page. For example, wordpress.com/AlMacyAuthor instead of AlMacyAuthor.com.

Then BPC recognizes that you are a wordpress.com person, and presents the appropriate code.

Copy that code, then go to your wordpress.com site and add a text widget. Paste the text in.

My Site/Customize/Widget/Primary Widget Area/Add a Widget


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Nicknacks said:


> Wow! Thanks so much for this. I'm one of those silly people on wpress.com (Doy!) so really really appreciate your work-around. Setting it up now.


No problem. 
Just remember to enter your url as 'yourname.wordpress.com'. Or just have 'wordpress.com' somewhere in it.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Just received a really nice email from an author who bought a book of short stories after seeing it on their website via bookpromocoop. So It works


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Yup, I bought one of the ones that appeared on my website too


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> Just received a really nice email from an author who bought a book of short stories after seeing it on their website via bookpromocoop. So It works


That's good to know. Now we have to work on getting more traffic to our websites


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## stevenbhow (May 25, 2015)

Sounds like a great idea. Can't wait to try it.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

Just added this to my blog.  Thanks for putting this together.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

I also want to say thank you again for a great fabulous resource for cross-promo! May our numbers and sales grow exponentially!

I just added the nice new vertical code instead of my original tweaked version and it looks fabulous!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Another interesting thing about this service is that it can highlight quirks in how Amazon handles categories. I assume the site pulls everything from Amazon's API using the ASIN (very slick), and I assume it is pulling the top two categories.

I noticed that _Wolf Block_ was getting about ten times as many views as _Journey to Yandol, and other stories_ despite similarities between the two, so I looked closely at the categories. The higher views are presumably due to the science fiction category. For some reason, _Journey to Yandol, and other stories_ has rather useless values for its top two: Short Stories & Anthologies: Anthologies and Short Stories & Anthologies: Short Stories. Science fiction doesn't show up until the third category.

I have no idea how to resolve that, since the categories selected in KDP don't seem to connect to what gets assigned by Amazon. I also don't know if it affects visibility on Amazon or if that's merely their display of their perception of buyer behavior. It's all probably irrelevant for this particular book that never sells anyway, but I'd love to understand it for other books. Anyway, I probably wouldn't have noticed those useless categories without BookPromoCoop.com and the very different view counts.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

The view counts are very useful .
I've noticed that the most views are for the book that doesn't seem to be selling, and I think that's due to some of the reviews I got when I had it in the wrong category. I'm not sure how I can rectify that, but at least I know it's not the cover that's putting readers off  .


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## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

geraldmkilby said:


> Heads up: next week end I'll be looking at all the sites and checking the code to make sure it's OK and everybody is running it.


Thanks for doing this, Gerald 

I don't have the code on my homepage - I put it on 2 book pages by relevant categories. Will you check these, or should I update my website URL(s?)?


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

So, is everyone advertising Gerald's affiliate code, or is there a way that you can put your own affiliate code on your own book?  'Cause I checked a few and it looks like all the affiliate income is being earned by book coop.  Does this get redistributed somehow, or is everyone in the webring just selling books for the coop's profit? 

Which is brilliant if you can get 72 sites advertising your affiliate code for you...


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Which is of course no different from every other book promotion service that uses their affiliate codes to make money - except this one is probably in violation of Amazon's Operating Agreement since you can only use affiliate links on websites you control.


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

This was addressed earlier in the thread.



geraldmkilby said:


> I have my Amazon ID on this so _theoretically_ I can generate some revenue from it, if and when books are sold. So, in some respects, it's a good motivation. But to be honest I don't need to make anything out of this for a while as I have access to lots of fancy servers that can handle the traffic. (it's the day job).
> 
> I'm more interested in developing something that's a win / win for Indie Authors. Being one myself I know how difficult it can be to get our books out there. It seems there is a quantum jump from starting out with one or two books to getting to a point where we can get some reasonable sales. Something like this could help along the way. I also like the idea that it's Authors helping other Authors, pooling our own resources, one web page at a time.
> 
> There is a saying (I thinks it's from Cloud Atlas) it goes something like 'Your own efforts are but a drop in the ocean. But what is an ocean only a great many drops.'





geraldmkilby said:


> So far it's running at about 1000 views per day (That's two books per view, with 200 books in the pool, that's appox. 10 per book per day). There has been around 100 clicks to amazon, but it's probably more as I'm not tracking UK. Two books have sold so far, but I can't tell who they are just yet. Total revenue $0.47 (Not time to give up the day job)
> 
> At some point I'll track clicks so you will be able to see how many views/click your books are generating. You can see the number of views beside your book in 'BOOKS' area.


Speaking only for myself, I hope Gerald makes a boatload of affiliate money. He did the work.


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## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

MyraScott said:


> So, is everyone advertising Gerald's affiliate code, or is there a way that you can put your own affiliate code on your own book? 'Cause I checked a few and it looks like all the affiliate income is being earned by book coop. Does this get redistributed somehow, or is everyone in the webring just selling books for the coop's profit?


Are we looking at publishing and promotion of books as a business, or as a social service to promote the arts? If the former, it makes sense for someone who is providing a promotional service, which consumes resources to provide, to build into that service a way for it to pay for itself and hopefully make a profit. There's nothing wrong with a positive ROI in a business venture, in fact, that's the point. There's a lot wrong with ignoring ROI, though, or expecting others to. Now if this is all a cultural arts event, then a positive ROI might be questionable.



thewitt said:


> Which is of course no different from every other book promotion service that uses their affiliate codes to make money - except this one is probably in violation of Amazon's Operating Agreement since you can only use affiliate links on websites you control.


Each participating site is using an IFRAME, which literally means that they are putting a small segment of his site into theirs. He controls the content of his site that appears in the IFRAME, and he is putting his affiliate code on his site. This is no different from me framing part of any other Amazon affiliate's site on my site, whether using an inline frame or a regular frame. My choice to do that does not mean the affiliate is putting their code on my site. This would only be a violation if Amazon either did not understand the technology (not likely) or ignored it (with what motivation?).


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Crenel said:


> Each participating site is using an IFRAME, which literally means that they are putting a small segment of his site into theirs. He controls the content of his site that appears in the IFRAME, and he is putting his affiliate code on his site. This is no different from me framing part of any other Amazon affiliate's site on my site, whether using an inline frame or a regular frame. My choice to do that does not mean the affiliate is putting their code on my site. This would only be a violation if Amazon either did not understand the technology (not likely) or ignored it (with what motivation?).


This is directly against the Operating Agreement - though it's no point in arguing intent. Amazon may or may not choose to enforce this.

When you select an affiliate link, the referring site information is captured.

When you signed up for your affiliate account, and agrees to the TOS in the OA, you told them WHERE you would be linking your affiliate link. They allow any site that YOU control the content directly, disallowing everything else.

If you go search the Affiliate Forums on Amazon, you will find dozens of posts from people who LOST their affiliate accounts forever for violating the TOS - and I'm not talking about people who create fake search engine capture sites and build dynamic links on the fly.

You also cannot include an affiliate link in an email, or embed it in an Adwords or Facebook advertisement, however we all know that this is done every day.

I'm just pointing out that this is in direct violation of the OA. Do what you want with the information.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

thewitt said:


> When you select an affiliate link, the referring site information is captured.


First, that cannot be done reliably. I would be surprised if Amazon is foolish enough to trust the HTTP_REFERER value since it is widely known to be not trustworthy.

Second, a click on a link in an IFRAME will show different HTTP_REFERER values depending on what browser is used. It's quite possible, _depending on the browser_, that Amazon will see Gerald's site as the referring site, which is technically correct and obviously not a TOS violation.

You can see for yourself what your browser passes when clicking a link in an IFRAME. This simple test is intentionally not fancy.



thewitt said:


> When you signed up for your affiliate account, and agrees to the TOS in the OA, you told them WHERE you would be linking your affiliate link. They allow any site that YOU control the content directly, disallowing everything else.


"Where" is a very nebulous concept on the Web. What appears in a browser window and what is served from a server are not the same thing. As already stated, the links with Gerald's code are being served _from Gerald's site_. This is not debatable, it's a technical fact. Gerald is in control of the display of his site contents; again, clearly not a TOS violation.



thewitt said:


> I'm just pointing out that this is in direct violation of the OA. Do what you want with the information.


So you say, without addressing my original point. Unless you can explain the technical basis for your assertion, this is not "information." It is just an unsupported opinion.

_(Edited to add link to testing tool.)_


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Like I said, I'm not going to argue Amazon's TOS with you.  You can read it yourself in the OA, ask your questions on the Affiliate Forums, and then ask Support any specific question you want for verification.

Using an affiliate link in this manner is in direct violation of the OA.  Period.

You may only display affiliate links to content on a website that you control.  They include your Facebook page and Twitter tweets in this list, howevr that's it.

No exceptions.

It's really not ambiguous.

The penalty, should they wish to enforce it, is loss of revenue paid and loss of your affiliate account for life.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

thewitt said:


> Using an affiliate link in this manner is in direct violation of the OA. Period.


You have yet to explain how Gerald using his codes on his site is a violation of the terms, and you have yet to acknowledge how framing works, so I'll assume that you're either unaware of the facts or intentionally ignoring them. Others can draw their own conclusions.

Edited to add:

To keep this discussion fact-based, the following are true and can be verified by anyone:

1. The "Associates Program Linking Requirements" document makes no reference to framed links.

2.The " Associates Program Operating Agreement" document makes no reference to framed links.

3. The "Associates Program Participation Requirements" document references framed links -- and specifically exempts them from the prohibition against framing Amazon's content::



> You will not frame the Amazon Site, or any part of it, within your site, including by display within an integrated web browser (e.g., WebView) within a Mobile Application. However, displaying a Special Link on your site, including results from the AMA API, in accordance with the Operating Agreement will not be considered a violation of this Participation Requirement.


My analysis: There is no factual basis for the assertion that allowing Special Links to appear in an IFRAME -- _which no affiliate can prevent_ -- is "a direct violation."


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

I didn't see this post- apparently using your own affiliate code is an upcoming feature. 



geraldmkilby said:


> This is just for the BETA TEST.
> 
> For the FINAL SITE there will be a few additions:
> 1. Your website will be verified automatically. If the code is not running on your site then none of your books will show up on other author sites.
> ...


You should be able to plug in your own affiliate code into the code snippet on your own site, making it not only compliant but rewarding the people with more traffic with more affiliate sales. That makes sense.

Gerald definitely ought to be compensated for the work he's put into it- said as someone who's created and supported many tools and was never compensated for it. Ultimately, paid work wins out in the priorities.

If it doesn't generate affiliate income for someone, then it doesn't work. As it stands, I think people really want their books to show up on other people's sites... but since there's no reward for sales made from their own site, the boxes are not very prominently displayed. This strategy only works if people actually buy books through those links.

Just some thoughts.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

MyraScott said:


> You should be able to plug in your own affiliate code into the code snippet on your own site, making it not only compliant but rewarding the people with more traffic with more affiliate sales. That makes sense.
> 
> Gerald definitely ought to be compensated for the work he's put into it- said as someone who's created and supported many tools and was never compensated for it. Ultimately, paid work wins out in the priorities.


It's already compliant -- at least, the only evidence presented so far indicates compliance. As for compensating him, how do you envision that happening if he no longer gets affiliate revenue? I'm willing to donate some page real estate to help other writers, and I'm happy if Gerald gets a cut. If this became a paid service, however, I would necessarily stop participating.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

MyraScott said:


> I didn't see this post- apparently using your own affiliate code is an upcoming feature.
> 
> You should be able to plug in your own affiliate code into the code snippet on your own site, making it not only compliant but rewarding the people with more traffic with more affiliate sales. That makes sense.
> 
> ...


I don't have an affiliate link on my website. I think I looked into it some time ago and it seemed to be beyond my technical know-how. I would be happy for Gerald to use his link on my website.


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Again, I'm not going to debate semantics on the OA.  Ask Affiliate Support if you wish a definitive answer.. The OA is very clear. You may only place affiliate links on websites where you control the content of the site. Not the content of the link, the content of the site. Running your framed links on someone else's website is a violation of the TOS, as you do not control the website content. If you don't believe me, ask them yourself.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

thewitt said:


> Again, I'm not going to debate semantics on the OA. Ask Affiliate Support if you wish a definitive answer.. The OA is very clear. You may only place affiliate links on websites where you control the content of the site. Not the content of the link, the content of the site. Running your framed links on someone else's website is a violation of the TOS, as you do not control the website content. If you don't believe me, ask them yourself.


Not trying to "debate the semantics" of Amazon's terms, but this thread is not the place to try to educate you about frames enough that you will recognize that "only [placing] affiliate links on websites where you control the content of the site" is _exactly_ what Gerald is doing. Continuing to state your opinion without any evidence and without addressing the evidence that _has_ been presented is just a pointless distraction. Regarding your opinions, I will leave it to others to judge and will not reply further unless you can actually present some evidence to back up your claim.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

I built this site because to seemed like a good idea at the time -- a way for Indie Authors to sell more books. I have my affiliate code in so I can cover the cost of running this. Much as I would like to retire on the income, that's never going to happen. Let me give you some figures so far:
290 books, 75 sites, 1500 views per day, 149 clicks to amazon so far, 5 books sold. Total income generated $2.37. Even if it's ten times the size I might make $50 a month, just about enough to cover the cost of the server. So there's no croak of gold at the end of the rainbow. I can do this because I run my own web development business building high end commerce sites, have access to all the fancy servers and I enjoy it. I had considered allowing authors put in there own code but, as you can see, there isn't the revenue in it to do this yet. And authors can do this anyway by using one of the widgets amazon provides. 

So, the way I see it is this;  the win for authors is a free way to promote / sell books, the win for readers (site visitors) is they view related books in context, the win for me is the enjoyment and getting my costs covered and the win for Amazon is they get more people on to their site. 

That's what it is. If I really wanted to turn this into a business then it would be subscription and lots of marketing messages being spat out in emails. But I wouldn't enjoy that, some people do but I don't. I'm an engineer at heart, that's what I love, that's why I write science fiction and techno-thrillers.

If you want to use the service then you're more that welcome. If you don't want to, well that's fine too.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

MyraScott said:


> As it stands, I think people really want their books to show up on other people's sites... but since there's no reward for sales made from their own site, the boxes are not very prominently displayed. This strategy only works if people actually buy books through those links.


I've been giving this a lot of thought for some time now. How to reward someone who has the books block prominently displayed as opposed to someone who just sticks it in some dark corner of their site. There is also the issue that some sites are much busier than others. So how to be 'fair' to all. My thinking is to track clicks. So you would see both views and clicks beside your books. I could then calculate the ratio of clicks to views for each site. The higher the ratio the higher the rank and a site with a higher rank would have their own books distributed more often, so more exposure would be the reward. Hence there would be an incentive to make the book block more prominent.

This is quite a complex bit of coding and increases the load on the server as it has to do a lot more thinking before serving out a book block. But I do like the challenge of it.

Just a thought.


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## TromboneAl (Mar 20, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> I built this site because to seemed like a good idea at the time -- a way for Indie Authors to sell more books.


That's the best kind of motivation. Thanks, G.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

@thewitt To be fair, you have a point. I had a long read through the Zon T&C's and you are correct, they do not like this sort of thing. I did not know this, so thanks for pointing it out before they hit me over the head with a large hammer. However, I don't see any issue with authors putting their own affiliate code so it looks like that's the way to go. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

This definitely has the feel of a first draft. The basics are there but it needs tweaking.

So here's my thinking now. I have taken off my affiliate code and will put in a field for author to add their own. This would be an extra incentive to promote the books. However, I still need to cover the costs of all this at some point. I'll leave for the moment as see if it gains further traction. Maybe I'll put in a donation button or some basic subscription model.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

I had an insane idea   

Maybe to join the network you have to buy my book? Ahhh... that's just crazy talk!


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

You should find *some* way to compensate yourself for the work.....


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

geraldmkilby said:


> @thewitt To be fair, you have a point. I had a long read through the Zon T&C's and you are correct, they do not like this sort of thing.


I don't blame you for being careful with your account. The amount of caution you exercise is absolutely your call.

However, he's demonstrably not right about the terms. Did you ever have _direct access_ to the code of somebody else's site, and use that access to put your affiliate-coded links there? (That naturally does not include _suggesting_ code for people to _optionally_ paste in to their site, any more than me saying "put Hello world! on your site" is actually placing _Hello World!_ on your site.) As long as the answer is "no," and as long as the content that I (and others) choose to show in an IFRAME is a part of _your site_, then you're not violating their terms any more than he is. For this to be a violation, they would need to change their terms, and put every single associate at risk (because nobody can fully prevent their sites from being framed).


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Crenel, rather than debating me - and I understand exactly how the technology works, thank you -  just ask Amazon Affiliate Support. They will answer the same way I did.  Having your affiliate links displayed on someone else's website is in violation of their Operating Agreement.  It's just that simple. Don't take my word for it, by all means ask them.

I'm not trying to keep Gerald from being fairly compensated, far from it. I just don't want to see him lose his Affiliate account because he violated the TOS.

Gerald, allowing authors to use their Affiliate links would be fine.  You might consider charging for that aspect of your program.  Subscriptions or donations might also work, but you are absolutely correct about return being based on visibility, and some people - myself included - don't have high website traffic yet, and may in fact never have a high enough volume to see more than a few clicks a month.

I know my own affiliate banners only get about a hundred clicks a month each.  Pretty low volume. My old ecommerce  store banners did 10,000 a day.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Crenel said:


> I don't blame you for being careful with your account. The amount of caution you exercise is absolutely your call.


You are probably right about it being OK to run it in an iframe. And, generally amazon is pretty OK as long as your are upfront about it. I don't think bookpromocoop would bother them too much. However, I decided to ditch my aff code so that Authors can use their own. I think it's a good feature and would motivate them to make the book block more visible. I've been tracking views from sites and some have put the code in the darkest corner they could find.

I think authors like the concept overall, and I can see it will help to sell a book or two, so my strategy is to get as many authors on board as I can. I will have a new version out later this week that will have the author aff code, responsive design, and will automatically pause books from authors that have not put the book block where it gets some traffic.

I think all these things combined will take it to a new level, we'll see where it goes from there.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

thewitt said:


> Gerald, allowing authors to use their Affiliate links would be fine. You might consider charging for that aspect of your program. Subscriptions or donations might also work, but you are absolutely correct about return being based on visibility, and some people - myself included - don't have high website traffic yet, and may in fact never have a high enough volume to see more than a few clicks a month.
> 
> I know my own affiliate banners only get about a hundred clicks a month each. Pretty low volume. My old ecommerce store banners did 10,000 a day.


I actually think the whole affiliate code thing is a bit of a red herring. Unless you're getting serious high traffic the returns are minimal.

The point of bookpromocoop it to have your books visible across a wide range of sites, so all together they add up to a fair amount of traffic. Most authors have low traffic websites but the traffic they do get is mainly from readers, our target market.

Even with the limited run I've been doing with this five books have sold. That said, nobody's going to hit the best seller lists but it does work, it surprised even me.

So for the moment I'm going to see where I can take it. If it does take off, well I'm sure there are plenty of ways to cover the costs. In the meantime I'm enjoying it... and I might even sell a few books.


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## TromboneAl (Mar 20, 2015)

DebBennett said:


> You should find *some* way to compensate yourself for the work.....


I've got it: You display your own book more often than the other books in the barrel. I wouldn't mind--seems fair.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

OK, after a lot of comments and suggestions I've made some major updates to http://bookpromocoop.com

Firstly, you can now add in your own Amazon code and it will tag on to the link on any books displayed on your site.

Secondly, you must have the code running on your website now, or your books will not be promoted across the network. Login and check the it says 'Active' in the top right of the page. If it says 'Paused' then you either need to add the book banner code to your site or put it on a page that gets some traffic. If it's in a dark and dusty corner it won't work.

Thirdly, I've made a load more updates; new FAQ, mobile enabled, etc.

Finally, this is completely free to for Authors to use to promote their books. However, if you would like to help the upkeep and development you can by making in a donation (see button at the top when you login) or you can even buy my book 

As always, comments and suggestions welcome.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> OK, after a lot of comments and suggestions I've made some major updates to http://bookpromocoop.com
> 
> Firstly, you can now add in your own Amazon code and it will tag on to the link on any books displayed on your site.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much. Now we must start promoting it .


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Thanks Jan. 
I've sent a few tweets and will do a blog post but that's about it for my marketing empire, so any help is greatly appreciated.

BTW, Authors tab is now on the site so you can see who's active on the network.


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Late to the party! Just signed up!


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

geraldmkilby said:


> Thanks Jan.
> I've sent a few tweets and will do a blog post but that's about it for my marketing empire, so any help is greatly appreciated.
> 
> BTW, Authors tab is now on the site so you can see who's active on the network.


Good to see all the names of the authors. I'll start mentioning it on other forums.


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## TaxationIsTheft (Apr 15, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> Thanks Jan.
> I've sent a few tweets and will do a blog post but that's about it for my marketing empire, so any help is greatly appreciated.
> 
> BTW, Authors tab is now on the site so you can see who's active on the network.


I just followed you and retweeted your last Tweet. I've also mentioned it on a private Indie Author Facebook group I'm a member of. Thanks so much for everything you've put into this--the website is looking fantastic and I love the new features.


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## TaxationIsTheft (Apr 15, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> Thanks Jan.
> I've sent a few tweets and will do a blog post but that's about it for my marketing empire, so any help is greatly appreciated.
> 
> BTW, Authors tab is now on the site so you can see who's active on the network.


I just followed you and retweeted your last Tweet. I've also mentioned it on a private Indie Author Facebook group I'm a member of. Thanks so much for everything you've put into this--the website is looking fantastic and I love the new features.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Thanks all... hope it works out. It's been quite a bit of work putting it all together but I've enjoyed it and I think is could be a very good resource.

Finally managed to get back to doing some writing today, 500 more words in the bag.


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## matt44west (Feb 4, 2015)

Pretty darn cool.

Thanks for putting so much effort into this... it's very neat.


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

I just added my books and placed the code on my blog.


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

Nice idea. I'll try it and see what happens.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Another thumbs-up for the authors and books page. It's just cool!


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Can't get into my email account to see if I've received my email about signing up. Grrr!


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Well, I've finally got into my email, but there's nothing to say I've signed up. Will you send again, please Gerald.
Thanks.
Geraldine


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Still no email to say I've signed up.


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## BaronVonWillow (Jul 12, 2015)

Just discovered this thread. Looks like a very interesting idea. Signed up and active...


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

There's a newer updated thread

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,217346.0.html


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## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

This is great. Reminds me of the old school Webring network back in the day. Going to sign up!


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Giving this a bump for those who missed it the first time. Working well on my website.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Giving this a bump for those who missed it the first time. Working well on my website.


I've been meaning to do an update post on this for quite some time, but now that you have 'bumped' it Jan, it's as good a time as any.

Mostly I've been just keeping an eye on bookpromocoop.com to make sure it's all working right. So far so good.

I did reach out to a few Indy publishing gurus for thoughts, tips & advice, and David Gaughran ( of Let's Get Digital fame) was kind enough to offer some truly inspired ideas. The main one being, don't restrict it to just your author blog but to also include your Facebook page.

So something along the lines of an auto-post to your timeline every so often with book recommendations based on your current settings. In other words, it would post to your FB page with books from the same pool as on your author blog.

Technically this is doable, if there is interest... and when I get the time.

Anyone interested in this sort of promotional feature?

Let me know.


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> Anyone interested in this sort of promotional feature?


Not for Facebook.

A few images of other books on my site is one thing. But FB works differently, and most of the people who follow me are not going to want to see ads for other peoples books.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

TimothyEllis said:


> Not for Facebook.
> 
> A few images of other books on my site is one thing. But FB works differently, and most of the people who follow me are not going to want to see ads for other peoples books.


Thanks for the feedback. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what came back. Maybe not such a good plan after all.

BTW, I've been following your own '3rd book' post with great interest, very inspiring. It's got me motivated to finish my next one. Dying to see how number 5 goes for you.


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

geraldmkilby said:


> Thanks for the feedback. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what came back. Maybe not such a good plan after all.


The problem with Facebook is people tend to have diversified friends. For example, among spiritual people, its common for people to have problems balancing their spiritual side with family and friends who are not. So a lot of us have two accounts, one for family and close freinds, and the other is our spiritual/professional. But even with my professional account, advertising books on it wouldn't go down well, since the majority connect with me for the spiritual side of my life, not because we share an interest in books.

The only time this might work on Facebook, is where an author has an account specifically for friends who are also readers.

Tell you what you could think about for FB. Authors will have Pages for themselves as an author, or for their series or special books. Now if you could cross post to pages rather than accounts, it would work because the target markets are similar, although it would need to be very selective of the genre posted. You'd also have to make sure there was no spamming of pages. My own series page doesn't get many posts, so even 1 post a day into it would be spamming it. There is a wordpress addon which cross-posts a blog entry to FB, so it can be done.



> BTW, I've been following your own '3rd book' post with great interest, very inspiring. It's got me motivated to finish my next one. Dying to see how number 5 goes for you.


Thanks. So am I. 

All it needs is actually finishing it. But I'm on schedule, so not concerned about that at this point. I'm more interested in where its going at the moment, than how it goes when released.


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## xinamarieuhl (Dec 2, 2010)

Thank you for all your hard work on this site! I have added my books to the site and featured the code on my blog. Unfortunately it is a Wordpress site, but hopefully that will count for something.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

My thinking is for Facebook Author pages, not personal accounts. Maybe once or twice a month at most. But all that could be set by the author.

Personally I do very little with my FB page. I let Wordpress send a link when I post something on my blog, which is not that often. 
I might set this up on my on FB page first just to test it and see if it could useful for cross-promotion.

But I need to finish 'Colony One Mars' first.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

Wow, this is great. I've just signed up and going to add the code now. 

ETA: well I will when I figure out how to get iframe to work


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Do I need to download the code again to add more books (now that there are even more authors in this thing?) Currently my vertical bar only displays two of four different books. So there is not many different ones being seen. I've put it on a blog page that is going to be updated weekly come September so it might get a lot of the same eyes and it would be good if they saw some variety and not just the same four books each time? Or will it update automatically to add more if there are more in my genre?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm not very technical


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Evenstar said:


> Or will it update automatically to add more if there are more in my genre?


I'm pretty sure it pulls titles at random from the relevant genre(s) each time it's displayed, so if you're always seeing the same books that would imply that the system doesn't have enough titles of that genre to provide variety.


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

I copied the code in 3 times. Sometimes I get 3 sets of the same 2 books. But most of the time, 6 different books.


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

If you look in the 'site' tab when you log in again you will see the potential number of books for your chosen categories. For example; I've selected Science Fiction so it tells me there are approximately 68 books for that.

You can add the code to your site as many times as you want. With a big enough pool of books then there would be less likelihood of duplicates.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

But will it update automatically if there are new books added in the category I've chosen? I have already put the code more than once on the page, but I don't see any fresh books appearing. Does that mean no new ones have been added to that category or does it mean I have to go back to the site and copy the code anew?


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Evenstar said:


> But will it update automatically if there are new books added in the category I've chosen? I have already put the code more than once on the page, but I don't see any fresh books appearing. Does that mean no new ones have been added to that category or does it mean I have to go back to the site and copy the code anew?


New books will show as they are added to the category. You don't need to copy the code again.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

geraldmkilby said:


> New books will show as they are added to the category. You don't need to copy the code again.


Oh great, thanks


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