Say What...

About 2 weeks ago, I mentioned that I was starting to look at options for marketing book 2, thinking I might try something less absurd than just dropping a manuscript on the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo websites unannounced.  So, over these 2 weeks, I have been exploring the possibilities, sticking to the lower end of the free to take-out-a-second-mortgage price scale.  There really are quite a few choices, even for us penny-pinchers.

To know which of these possibilities I might want to repeat, I watched the results.  Sales on the days of a promotion would be great, of course, but even a change in blog traffic suggests that a listing generated some interest.  Over a few promos of Half A Mind, I have seen a little of both, but not a lot of either…until yesterday.

Yesterday marked the first of a two-day promo that involved an announcement in an email newsletter, a posting on a website, and various other social media listings.  And similar to most of the other books advertised, Half A Mind generated a few likes on Facebook, a few tweets, and a few +1s on Google+.  The response was fine, but nothing too exciting. 

Then, I checked the blog traffic.  I had 3 times as many page visits as I have ever had on a day without a new posting.  Usually, if I am not putting up something new, I only get the occasional friend who is catching up or a random passerby.  But yesterday was different.  Not only was there much more traffic than usual, its source was also different.  I had never had a visit from Russia.  Yesterday, over 80% of the views came from there. 

While all this was strange enough, I was more surprised when I checked the entry URL.  All the visits from Russia came via an app in the Google play store named Vesna – Весна.  It is evidently a social media application designed to ‘find interesting people nearby’, according to the translation.  (OK, I understand that ‘interesting’ applies, but ‘nearby’?)  I also wonder if something more was lost in the translation, as the maturity rating was 17+.

So, anyone looking to tap the adult Russian dating market with their eBook, I’ve got just the promotion for you.

Happy writing,

BmP