Support for Indie Authors discussion

Has anyone had any experience with blog tours? Looking for general feedback on the effectiveness of the process and possible recommendations. If there is another thread on the topic I wasn't able to find it.

I do blog tours regularly for sales promotions, new releases for reviews, for anniversaries, anything. The key to a successful tour is understanding your goals, your objectives, and building relationships. I have never seen a blog tour company that talks about any of that, which is why I do my own blog tours and don't hire companies.

Crikey! I didn't know you could hire companies for blog tours.

I do love Goodreads - I learn so much.

Not going to use one though!

Heidi--kudos to you for doing your own. That is one task I don't believe I want to attempt.

Anna--I didn't know about them either until I got an email from a company wanting to set up a blog tour. It got my interest, and I went looking. Lots of companies.

Alex--Thanks for your comments. Many of the reviews I have found pretty much say the same thing.

Anita wrote: "Heidi--kudos to you for doing your own. That is one task I don't believe I want to attempt.

Anna--I didn't know about them either until I got an email from a company wanting to set up a blog tour..."

It's really not that hard if you plan ahead. I was working a full-time job and was able to plan a month long, 27 stop tour that garnered 18 reviews and the rest were just guest posts. It was awesome!

I am impressed.

but if you aren't up to it, or would rather hire out, I would create a list of questions to ask the tour company based on your expectations. Know up front that you shouldn't expect sales if you are going on blogs full of people who've probably never heard of you. your goal should be something more toward the top of the sales funnel such as adds to Goodreads TBRs or Facebook likes, sign ups to your e-news letter, etc. think of it this way, if a stranger walked up to you on the street and asked you to buy something, you'd run screaming. (Advertising in general does this.) and it would take many times meeting that stranger before you might listen to what they have to say. If your friend introduces you to someone at a party, you might listen to them because your friend referred you, but if they tried to sell you right then you'd say no. (The typical blog tour of cover reveals and guest posts.) But if your friend tells you about how awesome this person's product is, you'd take the card for later (a blog tour that provides reviews and incentive to like your social media page or add to Goodreads.) Still, odds are you won't buy in that moment and it will take several more exposures to the product before you buy. (Your engagement and interaction with them on social media.) 12 stops on blogs that get little to no traffic isn't worth much more than SEO. 12 reviews is worth a bit more. 12 reviews from bloggers who average 1500 visitors per article is worth much much more. all of those could lead to very few sales at first, but one of them (if you cultivate your audience right) could lead to massive sales later down the road.

Thank you. I am still researching the subject and still not sure if this is the right promotion for me.

Alex wrote: "I did a blog tour, including a gift card giveaway, as recommended, and was very disappointed with it. It was one of the costliest things I've tried and while I had a lot of blogs sign up to take pa..."
I had pretty much the same experience, but I'm thinking of hiring a company to do a review tour for my preorder. Hopefully, that will be more effective. I did the first one on my own.