Underdog Writing discussion

I want to open the floor to advertising as well. I started doing it myself about five days ago and have had good results.

Here is what I did. I went through microsoft ads which runs them through bing and yahoo. I'm not a huge tech person, so I had a little difficulty figuring out what the 'click-thru-rate' percentage stuff and bids meant. I'm lowballing the bids at 10 cents and max out my daily budget of three dollars everyday (companies don't even go up to the 10 cents, it's around five cents). And though I don't understand it fully, I can see there is more traffic to my site.

It's crazy going to bing and typing in 'free comics' and seeing my website right there in the ads. It's nothing like hundreds of people are going to it so my budget is so low, but it's just another way to cast out a net and seeing what you can catch.

I'll probably go through google ads as well.

I can't speak if my book sales are up since my short stories are free, but downloads are up so I can see a difference. Just wanted to share my experience with everyone.

Thank you for the valuable information. I'm not high-tech either. If I can't figure it out, maybe someone I know can.

Sounds interesting =)

I got some add credits when I purchased hosting through GoDaddy. $50 for FaceBook and $100 for Google. Hubs and I finally took advantage this week.

The biggest drawback I found with Google is my ad links to Amazon.com and since they have deeper pockets they are more likely to be seen than I am. I'm going to experiment with linking to my own site instead to see if my click rate is any better.

FaceBook lets you target by their member's interests, country, etc. So I have set that up as well. Their site tells you if I'm not being seen on folks' pages and it's usually because my bid rate is too low. I'm spending $0.60 to $0.90 per click right now.

In terms of social media...

Most of my followers on twitter follow and are followed by thousands. Some of them are writers I enjoy who are always kind in their replies to my mentions and twitter seems to be working for them. It's a great tool in the right hands.

Hubs set up my FaceBook page for me and I struggle to get around with FB. He's been using it for years. We have a page for my book but I'm not holding my breath. It's outsmarting me so far =(

I'm looking at finding homes for review copies at the moment as I let the advertising play itself out.

My plans are more long term anyway so I try and keep that outlook in perspective. The big players out there didn't all reach the moon overnight.

Happy Holidays!

I'm preparing ad campaigns around various dates when I'll Kindle Select promo one or two and put others on sale. The key is getting a trailer on a couple of the bigger SF fan sites, which I may be able to do.