I re-started my Facebook ad yesterday, but I tried to mix up this experiment a bit.  My bids to target those in the United States netted nothing.  Not even a view.  The United Kingdom attempt yielded the same result, but I understand why that experiment failed.

Yesterday, when I looked at the recommended bid for the UK, Facebook suggested I bid between 0.59 and 0.82 for each click.  This is the range that other advertisers are willing to pay to reach their market. On my limited budget, these bids would be beyond my reach, although I stood the chance of having 163,160 persons see my ad (by Facebook’s estimate).

Budget constraints considered, I ran another little experiment.  I went for a combination of islands - The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica.  I also added in some other key words that I felt described the book, such as reading, relationships, police story, fiction, customs officer, writing.  The numbers of persons I would reach topped out at 68,920, but that could have been a boo-boo because my attempt to use ‘family’ as a key word kept converting to ‘Family Guy’.  At the end my potential reach was 43,720 persons.

The suggested bid was much lower (the range being 0.14 - 0.25). Based on my understanding, the amounts are what other advertiser have paid to reach the people I’m targetting. Today, I’m up to 160 fans from 102 on Monday and I’m close to 470K views.  I’ve spent an additional $12.00, with the clicks now averaging 0.15 per pop.  I plan to end this campaign at 10:00 am local time.

After that, I ‘ll be working on questions for the book giveaway on April 2, the day of Contraband’s release.

I paused my Facebook experiment at 102 fans. For the most part, I think they’ve delivered what they promised and I’m good with that. I got from 33 - 102 fans within a few days, targetting people from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago.  My initial target toward folks in the United States yielded nothing.  I will alter the settings on that one and try again.

Now I have the task of seeing how many persons will be interested in reading the book. I don’t have the Amazon links up yet for the novel, in case people want to buy, but the publisher does have PayPal links posted to their site. Still, I think it’s a tad too early to ask people to buy. It’s better to encourage participation first and give them some value for their ‘fan ship’.

I’m looking for ideas as to what type of competition to hold to give away a copy of the book. One of my writing pals suggested a best break-up or best revenge scenario. I think I’m going to run with one of these, unless a more brilliant idea comes my way. Feel free share any thoughts you may have.

In the past couple of days, I’ve been mulling over what to do about exposure for Contraband.  I’ve been concerned about Facebook, where the number of fans was pitifully small. I’m reluctant to ask people to be fans. I feel like I’m imposing when I do this. Anyway, I did send out messages to some of my writing pals and most of them were kind enough to ‘fan’ my book.  I knew I was going to do an ad, I just wasn’t sure when.  I thought now would have been an opportune time with the book coming out on April 2.  So I went ahead and penned a simple ad.  I included the book cover, the release date and a short message:

A tale of greed, betrayal, loss and redemption.
Coming April 2 from Nevaeh Publishing.
Follow this Jamaican writer

I had to fill in various bits of information to hit what I thought would be my target market, so I started out with the following:-

Targeting:

Who live in the United States
Age 18 and older
Female
College Graduate
Who like Action/Adventure Suspense, Romance, Marijuana
Who speak English
Who are not already connected to Contraband

Result: Not much happened, other than a lot of clicks, with no resulting fans.

I decided to mix things up a little yesterday.

Targeting:

Who live in Jamaica
Age 18 and older
Male and Female
I left education open to all
Who like Action, Marijuana, Romance or Suspense
Who speak English (US)
Who are not already connected to Contraband

I should note here that I started out with 33 fans.

Look at the difference in the Stats below.

Daily stats for the week of March 14:
Date Imp. Clicks CTR (%) Actions AR (%) Avg. CPC ($) Avg. CPM ($) Spent ($)
03/19/2010    12,114     9          0.07    2    0.02    0.16    0.12    1.44
03/18/2010    75,396   49           0.06  20    0.03    0.18    0.12    9.02
03/17/2010          13     0          0.00    0    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00
03/16/2010          71     0          0.00    0    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00
Lifetime          87,594   58          0.07    22   0.03    0.18    0.12  10.46

Immediately, I saw that people who live in Jamaica relate better to what I’m marketing. Also, it could be that tag line in the ad.  ‘Follow this Jamaican writer.’

I think I’m going to run this experiment for another day and see how many fans I come up with.  Facebook does say that you only pay for people who become fans.  It’s not expensive, and I’ve seen results.  I’d recommend that if you do use their ads, you read up on the process beforehand.  I came across an excellent article by Viriginia Wild, Facebook Goldmine.

Getting the fans is the first step.  Keeping their attention is another.  I plan to find different ways of doing that.  One option would be to give away a copy of the book, but that’s down the road, when I think of a nifty idea to get to that point.

There’s a school of thought in Jamaica that people do not read much.  I know some people who do, but as to how many direct sales will come from this effort, I do not know.  One thing I notice is that most of the fans who have pictures posted are young people.  I’d be thrilled if I can find a way to get them invested in reading the book.

More on this as I go along.

I’m sure you’ve had one of those days when you really should be… insert the appropriate ending here…instead of idling at the keyboard.

I really should be editing, but I doubt that’s gonna happen tonight. I got my fair share of word juggling done earlier this evening and thought I’d do some more when I got home.  But ‘herself’ refuses to cooperate.  My batteries need re-charging, I think.

Sooo, I’ve answered email and checked out Facebook, plus the other places where I’m supposed to be networking.  I’d be lying if I said I did anything useful though.  Think I’m just tired.

Nonetheless, I’m turning over ideas for the next scene of the novel-in-progress. My heroine was kidnapped, and at chapter’s end, had a gun pointed at her. Now for the life of me, I haven’t figured out what the hero is doing in the following chapter, other than wondering why she disappeared.  Meantime, I’m visualizing how my seductress manages to escape in her follow-up chapter.

I’m one of those writers who almost never writes out of sequence — well, except for love scenes — but anyway, if I get bored waiting for the hero’s material to shake loose, I might just get on with writing the escape chapter next.

I read Corra’s blog today, which reminded me that I have a character blog I’ve been ignoring.  Gotta get on that too, because I have some story material percolating in the background. She suggested I link to it from my blog page. Excellent idea.  Then, I’d remember sometimes that the thing exists.

But for now I have to concentrate on the edits for Contraband. After that, I’m free to swan off in any direction I like…or so I think.

More anon…

With a book coming out in April of this year, I should be working on the stand-alone sequel.  Note I said should.  I’ve got six chapters done and put them up for critiques at the workshop where I’m a member. 

In the past, I would have completed twice the amount of chapters in the time I’ve been fiddling with this new story.  I admit that I’m not as focused as I used to be, which I find peculiar.  Before I got a book contract, I worked harder.  I was always on a story, trying to write chapters as quickly as possible to satisfy my readers. 

Thing is, I’m not as focused now.  Partly because I have so many things going on in my head.  I’m thinking about the various things I can do to get my name and book cover out there. I’m also working out how to generate demand, to ensure good sales. 

I can’t deny it, I also like to browse the net.   Not random sites, mind you, just a few places where I hang out daily.  But I’m finally admitting to myself how much time I waste doing that, and this is stuff I do several times per day - mostly when I’m bored or between tasks. 

I started a chapter last night, but then I decided to ‘check on things’ before I got down to writing this morning.  I did an-hour-and-a-half worth of surfing and interacting and I didn’t got a single word written. 
Now, the book in question is scheduled for release in October;  I told myself I’d get it done by the end of February, edited by the end of April and off to the publisher, so they’d have five months with it. Ideally, I wanted them to have it six months in advance.  That’s definitely not possible.

But I know what I need to do to stay on track.  Cram email, Facebook, Twitter, and what not, into two time slots for the day and limit myself to those periods.  I’ll consider rewarding myself with a third slot AFTER I’ve got another ten chapters or so written.  It’s the only way I’m gonna get anything done. 

How do you keep yourself from wandering the net all day long?