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Should Authors Use Paid Advertising or Free Internet Opportunities?


Which works better, paid advertising or free internet opportunities? I still think (and have the numbers to back it up) that informative and attractive blogs provide the best marketing for your book. After all, you are the expert on your book and who else better to talk about your book than you.
I recently ran an experiment with LinkedIn and Facebook. If you’ve read Get Rich in a Niche, you might remember that I loathe advertising. Against my better judgment I reluctantly decided to once again pay to advertise my books and publishing company.
Using Facebook, I created four ads; three for books and one for Red Bike Publishing. Each ad is a pay per click ad and I set my limit to $10.00 a day. I gave each ad a max of a $100 limit before pausing it. I also limited my ads’ exposure to demographics likely to buy my book.
For example, for my security clearance books, I set the ads to be visible for 22-55 years old and/or small business owners and/or professionals with technical backgrounds and living in the US. For my novel, I set it for women 18 and older, with interests in novels, eBooks and Christian Fiction.  I tailored each ad with carefully selected demographics.
I could tell the ads were enticing as I received many clicks. As a result, I saw my bill running higher and higher, but no sales. The ads rang up costs with no return on investment. You might argue that the audience did not like the link they clicked on and I would agree with you.  The point being, it is incredibly hard to advertise niche books to the general public. The public might not understand what they are clicking on until they click. If they buy great. If they don’t, you’re out a buck fifty. The ads provide just enough room for a sentence or two, not enough to really understand the product. Once they click, they can read more and either buy or move on.
Let’s dig further. I went to Google Analytics to see how these ads were performing. Proving my point, I could see that though the audience clicked on my links to see the books, they did not buy.  Now I really my advertising budget is going down the drain pretty quickly.
So, what does work? My blogs of course. Looking back at Google Analytics, I see that all online sales were a result of referrals from my blogs. Out of the thousands of sales annually, I can tell you none came from advertising.  That’s why I’ve rarely advertises unless to a specific industry related niche newsletter.
You can see more about making good use of your blogs @ http://redbikepublishing.blogspot.com/2012/04/blogs-great-way-to-connect.html


Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
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