Video Games are Real

Category: Tests and Studies

  • Day 4 and 5 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Day 4 and 5 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    (Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. No excuses. I just forgot)

    Some of you may have caught wind of the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin free Kindle giveaway that is currently going on now through August 28th. What you may not know is that I am also planning to post details about the giveaway—details such as the giveaway totals and the tactics I used to make people aware of the giveaway—every evening here on my blog as part of my Book Marketing Tests and Studies category. This post serves as the fourth and fifth in the 5(ish) part series.

    For full details about the test, see the first post here.

     Day 4 tactics

    Day 5 tactics

    Day 4/5 results

    As of 8:52 pm, 8/28/12, the metrics are:

    • Total copies downloaded: 1,004
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the free Kindle store: #1,168
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the book’s category/genre (which is Fiction > Literary Fiction): #25 (though I actually saw it at #18 at one point, but failed to get a screenshot)

    How am I feeling after this fifth day?

    Great! I passed the 1,000 downloads goal. However, I’m pretty far away from the other three goals I had for myself (outlined here). All in all, I’m quite happy. Now, I hope that those who downloaded the book actually read it.

  • Day 3 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Day 3 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Some of you may have caught wind of the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin free Kindle giveaway that is currently going on now through August 28th. What you may not know is that I am also planning to post details about the giveaway—details such as the giveaway totals and the tactics I used to make people aware of the giveaway—every evening here on my blog as part of my Book Marketing Tests and Studies category. This post serves as the third in the 5(ish) part series.

    For full details about the test, see the first post here.

     Day 3 tactics

    Day 3 results

    As of 8:59 pm, 8/26/12, the metrics are:

    • Total copies downloaded: 798

    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the free Kindle store: #860
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the book’s category/genre (which is Fiction > Literary Fiction): #24

    How am I feeling after this third day?

    Good. I think the download goal of 1,000 copies is achievable. However, the free Kindle store rank continues to drop, and I’m back at #24 in the overall Literary Fiction category. Fingers crossed for a big Monday.

    Click here to read days 4 and 5 results > > >

  • Day 2 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Day 2 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Some of you may have caught wind of the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin free Kindle giveaway that is currently going on now through August 28th. What you may not know is that I am also planning to post details about the giveaway—details such as the giveaway totals and the tactics I used to make people aware of the giveaway—every evening here on my blog as part of my Book Marketing Tests and Studies category. This post serves as the second in the 5(ish) part series.

    For full details about the test, see the first post here.

     Day 2 tactics

    • I was informed by a generous friend that $50 has been donated to promoting a Facebook message about the giveaway. Thanks to you, anonymous SuperPac donor.
    • 12:00 am (CST): Goodreads CPC ad at a $0.50 CPC bid and a $5 daily cap.
    • 5:28 pm: I sent an email blast to my 145 email newsletter subscribers. I assume many of these subscribers already caught wind of the giveaway via my 8/24 whorings, so I was sure to include a bit of an apology at the front of the email.
    Goodreads Ad

     

    Day 2 results

    As of 9:15 pm, 8/25/12, the metrics are:

    • Total copies downloaded: 677

    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the free Kindle store: #607
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the book’s category/genre (which is Fiction > Literary Fiction): #23

    How am I feeling after this second day?

    Still pretty great. I’ve over half way to my download goal of 1,000. Though I’ve dropped some places in the free Kindle store ranking, I’ve gained a position in to overall Literary Fiction category. I do think, however, that I’ve about exhausted any distribution lists, so now I’m having to rely on word of mouth.

    Click here to read day 3 results > > >

  • Day 1 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Day 1 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Some of you may have caught wind of the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin free Kindle giveaway that is currently going on now through August 28th. What you may not know is that I am also planning to post details about the giveaway—details such as the giveaway totals and the tactics I used to make people aware of the giveaway—every evening here on my blog as part of my Book Marketing Tests and Studies category. This post serves as the first in the 5(ish) part series.

    The plan

    I am giving my newest novel, I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, away for FREE through the Amazon Kindle store from 8/24 through 8/28. No catches. No gimmicks. Totally Free. My hope is a simple one: I want to see how many free copies get downloaded, which I hope translates into a few reader reviews, which I hope perpetuates future readers to buy the book (once the free giveaway is finished).

    Metrics

    I will be measuring 3 things:

    • Total copies downloaded
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen capture) in the free Kindle store
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen capture) in the book’s category/genre (which is Fiction > Literary Fiction)

    What would I consider a successful campaign?

    Honestly, I don’t have any context for success here. How about:

    • 1,000 total downloads
    • 2-3 Amazon reviews
    • a top rank in the free Kindle store of 300
    • a top rank in the Literary Fiction category of 5-10

    The total download count is arbitrary; I just pulled a number out of my ass. The Amazon reviews might be asking too much considering someone would have to read the book within the short 5 day giveaway time. As for the rankings, I don’t know if those are realistic or maybe even if they are ridiculously easy to attain. We’ll find out.

    Day 1 tactics

    • 12:00 am (CST): The giveaway goes live. No way was I going to try to push any books any earlier than 9:00, so any downloads that came during this first 9 hours are just icing.
    • 9:14 am: I sent an email to 70 friends alerting them to the giveaway. In this email I asked if they wouldn’t mind sharing news of the giveaway however they feel most comfortable doing so (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blog, etc.).
    • 9:58 am: I sent a tweet via my personal Twitter account. My personal twitter account has 7,438. My guess is that like 10 of those aren’t auto-follow bots, and of those 10, maybe 3 actually saw the tweet. Takeaway: I don’t put much stock in the reach of my Twitter account.
    • 10:33 am: I posted a message to my Google+ page.
    • 10:35 am: I posted a FB message on my “fan” page. My “fan” page has 871 likes. As of 8:54 pm, 135 people have seen the post.
    • 9:59 am and 3:58 pm: I sent a tweet via my literary news aggregator Twitter account. This account has 3,528 followers. Perhaps there are a lot of bots here, as with my personal account, but I assume the “true” follower ratio is quite a bit better than my personal account.
    • 8:48 pm: CPM Facebook ad goes live. This is a very simple ad targeted to people who are already somehow connected to my Facebook page. I know, it’s probably a bit redundant to speak to people who already know me, but my thinking is that perhaps the people who “like” me have read a book by me that isn’t I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin. I might change this targeting after a couple of days.

    Day 1 results

    As of 8:22 pm, 8/24/12, the metrics are:

    • Total copies downloaded: 390

    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the free Kindle store: #570
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the book’s category/genre (which is Fiction > Literary Fiction): #24

    How am I feeling after this first day?

    Great, honestly. The numbers seem pretty good for the first day. I hope the momentum gets going.

    Click here to read the Day 2 results > > >

  • The Second Conducting: What is the Value of a Goodreads.com book giveaway? 84% had never heard of me. 34% plan on reading my books.

    The Second Conducting: What is the Value of a Goodreads.com book giveaway? 84% had never heard of me. 34% plan on reading my books.

    Does giving away your books lead to more readers, and in turn, more fans?

    A few weeks ago I conducted a pretty in-depth study regarding the effectiveness of a Goodreads.com book giveaway in which I found that 93% of entrants had never heard of me and 88% planned on reading my books. Couple that with 51% of entrants signing up for my email newsletter, and the giveaway was well worth the two books I sacrificed.

    Science must be repeatable, right? A couple of weeks ago I ended yet another giveaway.

    The Setup

    I listed a 2 copy giveaway for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin to take place between 3/14/2012 and 3/31/2012. During this time the giveaway received a total of 378 entries. After the giveaway was closed for entries, I sent a 9 yes/no question questionnaire to 222 entrants. 156 entrants could not be sent the questionnaire, either because I know them personally or because they entered the previous giveaway. I figured sending to these 156 entrants might spoil the results. The questionnaire contained the following questions:

    • Had you heard of author Caleb J. Ross before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
    • Had you entered a Goodreads Giveaway for a Caleb J. Ross book before?
    • Had you heard of the book I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
    • Do you intend to purchase I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin in the future?
    • Do you intend to read I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin in the future?
    • Do you intend to read any other books by author Caleb J. Ross?
    • Do you plan to connect with author Caleb J. Ross on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+?
    • If Caleb J. Ross were to visit your city/town for a reading, would you consider attending?
    • Did you answer these questions honestly?

    The Results of my Goodreads.com Giveaway

    • 84% of non-winning entrants had never heard of me before this contest. Translation: I’m speaking to an audience who might not otherwise have heard me. This is down from 93% from my initial giveaway. Am I becoming more popular among readers?
    • 86% of non-winning entrants had never heard of I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin before the contest.
    • 24% of non-winning entrants said they planned on purchasing the book, even though they didn’t win. This is a strange percentage when compared to the 8% of people who intend to read the book. This number is down significantly from the previous giveaway, I assume because of the addition of the “Not Sure” option into this recent questionnaire, which accounted for 67% of the entries.
    • 34% of non-winning entrants intend to read other books by me. This is a strong number, especially when compared to the 86% of entrants who had never even heard of me. Also, keep in mind the “Not Sure” option which made up 65% of responses.
    • 19% of non-winning respondents plan to connect with me on social networks. Not sure: 57%
    • 78% of non-winning respondents would come to a reading event if I were to visit their town. Not Sure: 19%

     Additional Results Not Included in the Chart Above

    • 62% of non-winning respondents signed up for my Email is Dead email newsletter (not included in the chart above). This is up from 51% from the previous giveaway. I credit a couple of things to this increase: 1) the newsletter purpose was spelled out more explicitly this time around. 2) I gave the questionnaire takers the choice of receiving newsletters for readers, one for authors, or one for both (as opposed to offering just a single non-descript newsletter option). Transparency about the content of these emails I feel made people more comfortable with signing up.
    • 26% of non-winning respondents left additional comments. New to this most recently giveaway, I included the option for the takers to provide feedback in a comments section. Generally speaking they were great comments, most of which I responded back to directly.
    • 31% of entrants for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin also entered the As a Machine and Parts giveaway. This could mean they really liked my book idea and was inspired for another try, or it could mean they are serial giveaway-enterers.
    • The incentive to complete the questionnaire was free ebook copies of my story collections Charactered Pieces: stories and Murmurs: Gathered Stories Vol. One. 31% of entrants downloaded at least one copy of the books. Either people love filling out surveys or they’ve simply forgotten to download the books.

    Why so effective?

    The response-rate for the survey was an amazing 41% (compared to 29% for the previous giveaway. I wonder why). The industry open-rate for Art/Artist newsletters is 17.54% [1]. This isn’t exactly a parallel comparison, as open-rate is not the same as response-rate, but it’s a close enough comparison to provide some valuable insight. The response rate is also likely inflated because of the following factors (these are the same factors as the previous giveaway, so if you’ve read those, you’ve read these):

    • The entrants were already “in the sales funnel” in that they had already reached out with an interest in my book. In other words, I’m not blindly sending the survey to readers. I’m instead sending the survey to interested readers.
    • It’s possible that users may have only considered certain actions because the survey included them (connecting on social networks, for example). Would the respondents have connected with me on social networks had they not been introduced to the idea by way of the survey itself? Possibly not.
    • I promised free ebook downloads to all respondents. Obviously, free books must have a lot to do with the high response rate.
    • My communication was very sales averse. I approached giveaway entrants with respect. Truthfully, I am a naturally respectful guy, so I just spoke the way I would normally speak.
    • The survey was incredibly simple. 11 questions with 9 of them being yes/no questions.

    What are your thoughts? Have you conducted a similar survey? What did your results indicate?

  • Does posting purchase links in social network comments lead to book sales?

    Does posting purchase links in social network comments lead to book sales?

    It’s been only two days since I started my Annoying Links test, and though I originally intended to stretch the test for a full week, I am going to cut it short. Why? A couple of reasons. One, I simply feel dirty posting links everywhere (even though I stated very explicitly up-front that the links were for study purposes only). Two, though only two days have gone by, the test isn’t looking too positive.

    The abbreviated results

    Will posting self-promotional links in social network comments lead to book sales? Maybe. But is feeling like a dirty sales person worth it? No.

    The process

    Over the course of 2 days, I posted a total of 42 comment replies on Facebook and Google+, each containing two links at the end of the post. The posts themselves were genuine responses to comments, things I would have posted even if I weren’t conducting a test.

    The two links at the end of the post were 1) a self-promotional link for my book I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin and 2) a link to the original annoying link blog post which explained why I posted annoying links in the first place. Examples below:

    The results

    44 visits to explanation blog post. During the two day test I received 44 social referral visits to the You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week post. The most important ones to look at are those from Facebook and Google+ (which are the two networks on which I posted links).

    • 19 visits from Facebook
    • 1 visit from Google+

    10 visits to the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin purchase page. The I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin campaign page was established strictly for the purpose of this test, so it was restricted from being indexed by search engines which would potentially disturb the test. In other words, the most likely way someone could get to this page is through one of my comment posts.

    • 6 visits from Facebook
    • 1 visit from Google+
    • 2 direct visits (meaning the URL was likely copy/pasted)

    1 click on a link to purchase a book. I tagged each one of the bookseller links on the buy page with a Google Analytics event tracking code so I would know exactly how many times each was clicked.

    • 1 click

    Was it worth it?

    Out of 44 annoying links I received 1 potential book sale. In short, no, it wasn’t worth it.

    Sure, expanding the networks in which I posted links may have helped. I could have also posted more than 20 (x2) links per day. I might even have had some success by being more strategic with my posts. Or perhaps by rejecting the desire to qualify the links with a comment about their annoyingness could have helped. But, even with those assumptions, I’m just not comfortable with the shotgun link approach.

  • You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week

    You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week

    UPDATE: The results of this annoying link test can be found by clicking here

    (If you got to this page via an annoying social media or blog comment link, keep reading. This is all for the sake of science.)

    I’m a data nerd. I’ve gone record stating such, and I’ll go on record again. Something about seeing charts and graphs and trending lines and mapping the effect of X to Y and…let me pause to catch my breath a bit. I am fresh off a really successful Goodreads.com user study thing, so I’m itching to get back to the spreadsheets.

    So why tell you this? I am going to conduct a week-long test of sorts that will probably be a bit more intrusive than most of my other studies. I’ve noticed a lot of incessant product whoring on forums, blog post comments, and social status updates. You know the kind: “BUY MY BOOK HERE,” and “IF YOU LOVE VAMPIRES CLICK HERE.” Annoying right? But people keep doing it. Why? It must work, right?

    Right?

    Well, that’s what I’m going to find out. Over the next week or so I am going to end as many post comments and social status updates as possible with a link to the purchase page of my book. I’ll track the clicks to my website. I’ll also include a link to this blog post so that people are perhaps not entirely put off by the annoying sales pitches. I understand that having two links may dilute the test, but I’d rather play it safe and hopefully alleviate any hate.

    Once I have the results, I’ll post them here. Check back in about a week. The test may last longer, depending on how things work.

    I know this is risky—If I was smart I’d create fake profiles, rather than use my real ones, but I’m not smart.

    An example of the links you may see:

    Check out I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, my newest novel: http://bit.ly/ReadKevin

    I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, an “American road novel from hell”: http://bit.ly/ReadKevin

    “Covering ground similar to the works of Sherman Alexie and Chuck Palahniuk, this is an author worth keeping an eye on.” -Publishers Weekly. Read I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin http://bit.ly/ReadKevin

    Why am I posting this annoying link? See here: http://bit.ly/AnnoyingLinks