How Do You Respond When You Find a Low Number?

I stared at the number of views on YouTube in disbelief. How could it be that small? Only 80 views? I recorded the interview a year ago with my friend Al Gansky talking about my work with Billy Graham and my book, Billy Graham, A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist. 

After the interview, I blogged about the interview. All of my people on my blog list received a copy of the interview through their email and also others saw it directly on the site. Why so few views? I looked at some of the other people Al had interviewed and they had many more views.

Then reality hit. I had only promoted the interview at the actual time of the event. I had put no on-going promotion in place with my social media or other ways. Immediately I made a decision to pour more promotion into this interview—and hopefully the numbers will increase. I'm embedding the YouTube interview here to make it easy for you to watch:


Al and I were talking about my unique background to write this particular book. I hope you will enjoy this interview and I want more people to know about it.

For every writer, it's part of the process to receive low numbers. Sometimes it is a report on the book sales of your latest book. Other times only a few people have registered for one of your teleseminars or even a live event. I've taught workshops at large conferences where I have two or three people attending my continuing class.  Other times I've taught at the same large conference and had a packed room. Each time I decided to teach those couple of people as though I had a room full of people. My teaching was recorded and I determined to take advantage of this recording and continue to promote the results. Please check my speaking schedule to see where our paths will cross in the months ahead.

Back to my original question in the title of this article, how to you respond when you discover a low number? Do you blame others? Maybe your publisher isn't working hard enough to tell people about your book? Instead of trying to put the blame on others, I encourage you to look inside first. Ask yourself, if you poured the right energy into producing a great product. Is the cover well-done? Is the book broadly distributed? Did you hire an editor and make an excellent book?

If the product or event is well-done, then the next question is about the marketing and sales. If the numbers are low, take your own responsibility and be telling more people about your work. Make some calls to schedule more local events. Pitch some magazines with excerpts of your book or write articles on similar topics and promote your book in your bio at the end of the article. You can reach thousands of people using such a strategy. Or step up your social media and get more people viewing your work.

Several weeks ago I received the royalty statement for one of my continual bestselling books. Whenever I speak at conference, for years I sell more of this book than any other.  My royalty statement was dismal with low numbers. 

I took action to see what could be done. Would my publisher return the rights to the book? Yes if I purchased all of the remaining copies. It was not a small investment on my part to take this action—but a strategic one.  As the author, I have the most passion about this topic (more than my publisher). If I own all of the printed copies, then I can reduce the price to sell more books. Also I can create marketing campaigns to sell the book—one by one and also in volume. I'm actively working on these details and you will be hearing more about it in the days ahead. I did not let this important book remain at low sales. I have over 130 Five Star Amazon reviews for this book and it continues to help people. The decision will involve hard work but is worth my efforts.

The book is Book Proposals That Sell, 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success. If you haven't got a copy, now is the time because of the reduced price. Just follow the link. Also you will receive a series of unique bonuses that I've created for anyone who buys the book.

If you have the book and haven't reviewed it, then I encourage you to take a few minutes, write a few sentences of review on Amazon and Goodreads. Please do not purchase the book from Amazon since I have all the remaining copies and you will get it cheaper from me (and if you ask, I'll sign it to you. Just let me know the details in the special instructions section of my shopping cart).

Just like I took action, your actions make a difference. If you do nothing, then nothing will continue to happen. If I can help you, let me know. My email is in my Twitter profile.

Tweetable:
What to do when you find a low number? #marketing (Click to tweet)

 

Is It Worth Buying Twitter Followers?

You don't have to be on twitter long before you see the ads and messages to buy followers. Maybe you have been stuck at 1,000 or 2,000 followers on Twitter.  It can be tempting to purchase followers and instantly boost your numbers. Should you buy followers?

In the publishing community, your social media numbers are public record. In a few minutes, any editor or literary agent can check your twitter numbers. Then they can make a decision whether the information in your proposal or pitch is real or exaggerated. Marketing departments in publishing houses are looking for authors with a large reach and social media connections.

I've recently seen a number of bloggers and social media experts tell their audience to never buy followers. To them it is a big no-no. I understand their reasoning and the encouragement for people to naturally grow their followers. In this article, I want to take a contrarian position and give you some ideas why you should buy followers.

First I want to tell you that I've purchased followers—not 10,000 or 20,000 at one time—but I have done it several times. Have you looked at my twitter followers (currently over 152,000). Why would I need to buy followers since I have more followers than social media guru Joel Comm? Several months ago, Joel released the third edition of his terrific book, Twitter Power 3.0 from Wiley.

I've been on twitter for many years (since 2009) and my number of followers has been growing. I didn't instantly get to these numbers. I love to experiment with different techniques to see if it will increase my followers. One of the aspects that I've tried is to purchase followers. 

Before I did it, several people warned me that I will be kicked off Twitter. It's possible but did not happen. Others contended these followers are fake and not “following” my tweets or information. That is maybe true but buying followers is a way to instantly boost your number of followers. This boost can impress new people who follow you and also others who are looking at your work to possibly purchase your books or even publish your work.

I did not spend a lot of money to buy followers. I've seen these ads and costs to purchase followers. They are outrageous and nothing that I would do or recommend. Here's the details of how I added followers. I went to Fiverr and searched for “twitter followers”  You will see pages of ads and possible vendors who will add a certain number of followers for $5.  I have no idea how they fulfill their promise to add new followers—but I know they do it and have experienced it several times with different vendors.

For a minute, let's think about this service. Your twitter following is stuck at 1,000 or 3,000 and you want to increase them.  Would it help your credibility or presence to go from 1,000 to 3,000 followers or 3,000 to 5,000 followers in 24 hours? I believe it would and for a minimum cost. I'm not advocating that you go overboard with this technique.  Yet buying twitter followers could help you in the platform building process or building your presence in today's marketplace.

If you use this technique in moderation, it is not the no-no, never do it that others advocate.  Have you ever purchased followers? Did it help you or hurt? Let me know in the comments below.