My ranking today...

Still learning what all of this means:

Amazon UK Product details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 250 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
• Language English
• ASIN: B004XJ4NI4
• Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #14 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #3 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Contemporary
  
  

  Amazon US Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 250 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004XJ4NI4
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• On the FREE list
  
• 

  91.

  Maid for the Billionaire (Legacy Collection)

  Ruth Cardello (Author)

  5.0 out of 5 stars (3)

  Auto-delivered wirelessly

  $0.99 (Why is this not free?) Amazon Bestsellers lists are updated hourly. Between list updates, the price of an item may change from being free to having a price and vice versa. Although the item's price changes immediately, the list and its rankings stay the same until the next hourly update.

Questions and goals

Daily downloads tally:
3533 on Smashwords.com - ^ 101 since Saturday
346 on AmazonUS ^ 184
1825 on AmazonUK ^ 925
9 on Barnes and Nobel

At this point I have more questions than I have answers:

• Is tagging via forums acceptable or not?
• How does that tagging really work?
• How does a book move up on the Amazon list? My book appears to be more visible now.
• Tweeting is working -- although I'm not entirely sure how.
• Stumbleupon is also driving visitors to my site -- and how that one is doing it really baffles my mind. You've got to check out that site. At first I thought it was silly -- now I'm somewhat addicted to it.

I'm going to do something crazy. I think I'm going to try to do an online book "signing". I really don't even know how that works yet, but half the fun is learning how to do it and then the adventure is watching it unfold. I'll post websites I find that describe how and keep a log of what I end up doing. With 5,000+ people having read my book....I should be able to find a few who have questions or would like to chat. Maybe? lol We'll see.

Also:

Just found a wonderful community for new and published authors:
http://agentqueryconnect.com/
chuck full of great information!

Downloads still on the rise

Daily downloads tally:
3442 on Smashwords.com
162 on AmazonUS - wow, this is the most downloads I've seen on Amazon
900 on AmazonUK -- until yesterday this was barely over 10 downloads
9 on Barnes and Nobel (sadly, not sure why I keep checking it...lol)

Suddenly people are downloading my book at Amazon (priced .99). After weeks of watching 10 or so downloads....it's hopping now. Over 100 since yesterday. Was it Stumbleupon? Is it the tweeting I'm doing? The blogs? I don't know, but I sure am happy!

Amazon sales start to shoot up

Daily downloads tally:
3423 on Smashwords.com
119 on AmazonUS - nice jump today
433 on AmazonUK -- since it went free
9 on Barnes and Nobel (sadly, not sure why I keep checking it...lol)

Traffic to my blog seems to be coming from Stumbleupon right now. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I wonder if it is playing into why I suddenly am being found on AmazonUS. Still, it's about a fourth of the numbers I'm pulling in from AmazonUK now that the book is free there. Prior to being FREE, my UK numbers stayed so low I didn't mention them...but about 400 ppl downloaded my book yesterday and last night. Can I possibly hope for the kind of numbers Smashwords brought in?

I'm hoping and continuing to plug away at promoting my book for about an hour every day.

FINALLY FREE

Getting a reader base is the reason even well published authors put ebooks up on Amazon for free. Not really sure why Amazon only offers this service now as a publicity courtesy to established authors, but it has been my goal all along to get my book on there for free. It's why I originally found Smashwords.

Well, today Amazon UK finally dropped my price to FREE and I instantly had 280 downloads....up from a pretty stable 8-10.

I don't know if Amazon US will drop it next. I had a spike in downloads there even though it is still priced at 99 cents. Today about 40 people downloaded it....bringing me over the 100 mark. Now, considering you only make 35% profit...we're not talking about much money, but I'm thrilled to see that people are beginning to find me.

Promotion that is working

Daily downloads tally:
3400 on Smashwords.com
106 on Amazon.com - nice jump today
9 on Barnes and Nobel

What's working so far?

• Tweeting brings more people to my blog and is increasing my downloads.
• Contributing to other blogs brings over traffic directly to Smashwords.
• I try to send my book or something out each day and that is finally showing results. I'll have to post a list of where I've sent.
  
• I'm slowly making connections with wonderful ebook writers who are giving me advice on where else I should promote my book.
• I just joined Ilovesmashwords.com and will start contributing to that page...as soon as I figure out what I have to say that is worth reading...lol
• Facebook brought a good number of people initially until I exhausted all of my friends of friends.
• Stumbleupon sent several people over to my blog.
• I have received several emails from people around the world -- so making an email more accessible to readers is a new goal of mine.
  

New sites I found

Daily downloads tally:
3323 on Smashwords.com
67 on Amazon.com
9 on Barnes and Nobel

Just discovered some new sites worth checking out as your promote your ebook:

• stumbleupon (I signed up late last night and it seems to already be bringing some traffic my blog)
• Ilovesmashwords.com (great information/tips regarding promoting for Indie books.)
• www.getfreeebooks.com (this one was recommended to me by another Indie author who said it directed 3,000 hits to her site when she did it.) I'll try it today and tell you how it goes.