My newest favorite site is called Instafreebie. I was aware of this website’s scheme quite some time ago but didn’t pay too much attention until I realized the ways it could be useful for an author.
Then I signed up and started using them for different scenarios and they worked very well.
First – I set up a book to give the readers a chance to read the first book of my newest series and I advertised this on Twitter, Facebook and my blog. I wanted to bring attention to that collection “Holiday Heartwarmers” because they were holiday books for Christmas and the season was upon us. I noticed the other book’s sales were picking up and best of all, I saw the “pages read” on Select had doubled.
Next – I realized that I could send the link for free copies of my book to my beta readers and they could choose the format they wanted since one of the functions Instafreebie offers is your book in mobi, epub and pdf.
Then – it dawned on me that I could use these freebies in my newsletters. (Okay – I probably heard about it somewhere online, but I did see the genius in this and tried it myself :-))))
You might think that giving away a freebie in your newsletter defeats the purpose of getting new subscribers since they’re already subscribed to your newsletter. But you need to see beyond that. What you really want is to keep your subscribers, and that means an interesting, fun newsletter that has something to offer them.
And that’s where Instafreebie comes in handy.
You can put as many books free as you want and for as long as you want. They give you options so you’re in control of the Giveaway.
They say the best way to find a new reader is by letting them experience one of your books and Instafreebie allows you to do that. I’ve spent a huge amount of money over the years to promote free books so I could get them into the hands of new readers. Instafreebie has a free option so it won’t cost you anything.
Best of all, you don’t have to lock your book in Select to get 5 free days or make a book free on Amazon at all. Instafreebie works well in Giveaways also when you have to gift a number of books; this makes it easy and cost effective.
So, go to the website and look into how simple it is to use. There you’ll see that you can upgrade, and being as nosey as I am, I had to check out how I would benefit from doing so. And I was quite excited at what was offered there.
If you choose to pay the $20 /month, they give you the option of having everyone who signs up for your freebie a chance to add their e-mail address to your Mail Chimp newsletter directly.
For me, I’m thinking it might be worth the money for a few trial months. The reason it interests me is this: on one of my freebies, I gave away 2,134 copies of a Christmas book. Had I captured even a portion of those readers for my Newsletter it would have been worth the $20.
***Just so you know, these Giveaways and Freebies have been around for some time and are still quite sought after. But we know how overwhelmed the reader can get with so many coming at them at once. When this happens, the popularity will be a thing of the past and we’ll have to move on to the next new craze.
