Sweepstakes Results

Over the past year I've learned the importance of a mailing list, and probably the most effective means of building that list is through having a sweepstakes giveaway.  So I've done three sweepstakes over the past few months to build up those subscription numbers.

Each one has generated about 250 new emails.  It's important to note that when I initially put up the sweepstakes, I only get a couple dozen entries.  But when I do a little paid advertising, about $20 worth, the number jumps and I get many, many more.  So it's worth it to do that little extra.

I ran the giveaway on Shortstack, then made a post on Facebook and boosted it, and did a Google search on sweepstakes promotions where I found several sites that show ongoing sweepstakes and I simply found the button for entering my giveaway.

I lose about five subscribers every month due to attrition.  Therefore, it's good to do a new giveaway about every season.  This way the numbers grow faster than the attrition, and I'm not spending too much by having it every month.

The most important thing that I find in holding these giveaways is to have the prize be something that's relevant to my series.  This decreases the decaying numbers from the list because they're getting things in their email that they want.  The first giveaway I did was a Kindle Fire, and even though what I have to offer is book related, it's a specific niche.  Therefore, people were entering the sweepstakes who like different types of books and wanted a Kindle Fire for them.  Then, when they saw what I had to offer, they were less interested.  However, when the prize was a book about a fan film of Indiana Jones, they were more interested in sticking around to read adventures of an Indiana Jones-like character.

My next giveaway will likely be in the spring since I've had one for the summer, autumn, and winter now.

Using a Mailing List

As time has gone by I’ve been hearing more and more how important a mailing list is.  I disregarded its importance as I felt that emailing people was more of a nuisance to both me and the people I’d be emailing, and I didn’t see how it would be effective.  I figured that if someone was interested enough to give me their email address, they were already looking at my work, and they didn’t need me to bother them with reminders about it.

            However, I heard about mailing lists being important enough that I finally looked into it, and I began to see the value.  First, it’s really only helpful if you are regularly coming out with material.  So if you have a mailing list for you as a writer, then you need to regularly be coming out with books or other written materials.  If the mailing list is about a series, then you need to be regularly coming out with written materials for that series.

            The problem with the former is that your list will likely be made up of people who became interested in your writing because of one specific book.  So you’re going to need to stay within that genre in order to keep their interest.  If your newsletters become about a subject they’re not interested in, they’ll unsubscribe, even if you’re just taking a short break from that type of writing.

            So it’s best to focus on a particular series and collect names and addresses of people who want to follow along.  For me, that’s been Relic Worlds because not only is it a series, but it’s a series with a lot of ancillary elements.  There are short stories, games, a comic book, etc.  There’s something to talk about every month, and more material to release, so the newsletters have material and aren’t just empty ramblings of me saying, “something more is coming sometime, I promise!”

            I’ve found that there are two methods to build the mailing list that work the best, conventions and giveaways.  At conventions, you’re trying to get people to look at your books, but they’re not sure whether they’re ready to commit to buying or even reading them yet.  So a mailing list is a good way to get a taste without a commitment.  It’s also a way to remind them that you exist, as opposed to a flyer which will likely get thrown away once they’re home, no matter how interested they are in your product.

            Giveaways are the way to do it from home.  You need to get a prize people will want, and it’s a great idea to get something that matches what you’re selling.  In my case, I gave away a Kindle Fire and I included one of the Relic Worlds books.  That way they not only get a prize they want, they also have a means for which to read my books, and a starter.  But the real prize for me was all the email addresses that people had to give in order to enter the raffle.

            Now, I don’t want lists of people who won’t be interested in my series.  That wastes everyone’s time.  Even once I have their email addresses, when I send them a newsletter, they’ll just unsubscribe because they’re not interested.  Or, worse yet, they won’t unsubscribe and I’ll continue to send them information that’s useless to both them and me.  So I promote it on sites where I think my readership will go, and I make sure keywords are always included that have scifi, adventure, books, etc.

            I use Shortstack as my sweepstakes provider.  They help collect all the email addresses, and provide a means by which to make a good looking sweepstakes page.  I might switch this out as I wasn’t extremely impressed with their service considering the cost.  But it wasn’t bad.  They’re at: http://www.shortstack.com/

            I use Mailchimp to create and send the newsletters.  They’ve been fantastic.  They’re at: http://mailchimp.com/