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FreeBookService (FBS) Update ,

92K views 510 replies 77 participants last post by  Ann in Arlington 
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#1 ·
Hi everybody. This is William-- from William & Tom's Free Book Service. Some of you may be familiar with the service that I offer, some are not.

Basically we are an alternative to bookbub, a Promotion/Advertisement service that will bring you a huge number of eyeballs on your book during a free KDP promotion service. We currently offer 3 packages, where we offer a minimum guarantee of downloads (2500+ [$147] , 5000+ [$247] , 10000+ [$327] is the normal pricing), or your money back if we don't perform.

One of the main reasons why we offer this guarantee is because we noticed that self published authors often times buy "marketing" to their book, but this "marketing" never really stipulates what they are actually doing for you. We fill this void as we make a guarantee-- a hard target that we must hit. We have worked with over 200 clients since releasing this service to the public, and we also promote our own books, as we are Kindle authors too.

Where do we get our readers?
I have talked with Tom and we decided to give a better response to this question.
The bulk of our reader-base has come from including opt-in forms on our own books. We placed forms in the description area using HTML, and with that, were able to build our list. We kept this extremely close to our chests, because literally everybody would be using the same method to create their own reader-base, in effect diluting our own list that we worked hard on creating. Since then, Amazon has overhauled their description pages, and you can no longer add Opt-ins to your book page.

Some books are still grandfathered in... Note, that is not my book: (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F23Q9CI/) however this can no longer be done. All of our readers are double opt in and completely can-spam compliant, and this method of promotion, as with BookBub, is in accordance to Amazons ToS.


We have been selling this service WarriorForum, another forum that which is mostly comprised of marketers, but has a section for Kindle Authors that are looking to find ways to increase traction of their book. The thread can be found on warrior forum here: hxxp://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-special-offers-forum/850596-kindle-domination-free-kindle-download-promotion-service-hundreds-sales-afterwards.html

We have many reviews in that thread already, if you wish to see what purchasers of the service think about it.

But we don't feel those reviews alone are enough.

Some users of this forum do not put much weight in threads from warrior forum so we decided that we would give out 3 "freebies" to some members of this board. We are actually currently working on their books right now.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036Z9W00/
http://www.amazon.com/Smell-Leather-Files-Sullivan-SERIES-ebook/dp/B0081WTCQ2
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008X3NCRE/

These are the three books we are promoting today (dec 2), for members of this forum. We are asking them to be a test run for this service, so you guys, as a community have somebody you can trust telling you how it works for them.

We are here for the long run and intend to be a helpful resource for this community. We are here to prove ourselves, and the service.

If you are looking to contact us directly you can send us a message at "freebooksservice@gmail.com" (Please double check your spelling when you email us!).. Please note I am in the Eastern Standard time zone, to get an idea of when you might hear back.

If you are wondering if the service is legitimate, Estelle was kind enough to post her contact with amazon

I have added her email correspondence with amazon below:


eta: further communication from Amazon by members who tried this service indicate that using the service violates the ToS Authors agree to when uploading their books. Please see This Thread for more current information. -- kboard moderators
 
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#4 ·
Hi, William (& Tom):

Welcome to KBoards! [br][br]You're welcome to promote your business and website here in the Writers' Café, but we ask that the same basic rules be followed as we have for authors in the Book Bazaar: you may have one thread about your service and must post to it rather than start a new thread each time. New threads about the service will be removed. Please bookmark this thread so that you can find it again to post to. And, you may not make back-to-back posts to the thread within seven days. If someone responds (such as this post), you may reply but otherwise must wait seven days, thanks![br][br]Also, active members (10 or more posts on our forum, active in the last 60 days) may have a listing in the Yellow Pages for Authors. [br][br]Betsy [br]KBoards Moderator
 
#5 ·
So, my experience with various sites that push FREE BOOKS is that you get more downloads of your FREE BOOK, but the conversion rate is MUCH lower to other books in your series. My experience tells me that people that sign up to be notified about free books want... free books. Shocking I know. :) I am not really interested in another 2,500 downloads if the conversion rate on those downloads will be dismal. If the conversion rate is around my normal 5-7%, then I would be interested in talking with you if its more rank boosting for ranks sake, I will look elsewhere to spend my meager advertising budget.
 
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#6 ·
VydorScope said:
So, my experience with various sites that push FREE BOOKS is that you get more downloads of your FREE BOOK, but the conversion rate is MUCH lower to other books in your series. My experience tells me that people that sign up to be notified about free books want... free books. Shocking I know. :) I am not really interested in another 2,500 downloads if the conversion rate on those downloads will be dismal. If the conversion rate is around my normal 5-7%, then I would be interested in talking with you if its more rank boosting for ranks sake, I will look elsewhere to spend my meager advertising budget.
I guess this is a question of if you feel like its worth it or not. I would say more people use this promo for KDP free days rather than a permafree. We have had a book go to 300 in the entire kindle store after doing our biggest promo.
 
#7 ·
Estelle Ryan said:
My permafree book is one of the 'test-books'. Here are some screenshots I also have in another thread.





It's been about 40 minutes since I took these screenshots. I'm now at almost 9,000 downloads.

We have been discussing this here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,167502.75.html. Everyone is sceptical, hence the test runs. I'm particularly interested in the next two/three weeks' sales of my other two books.
Thanks for this... because frankly their web site looks very scammy. I would not even give them a second though based on their web presentation. I will watch to see... might take the chance. I have been to #5 in the overall kindle store organically - twice, but its been a long while so need a shot in the arm.
 
#8 ·
As of now, the books listed are Nos. 18, 27, and 43 free in the Kindle store. I'd say those are some good results.
 
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#11 ·
VydorScope said:
Thanks for this... because frankly their web site looks very scammy. I would not even give them a second though based on their web presentation. I will watch to see... might take the chance. I have been to #5 in the overall kindle store organically - twice, but its been a long while so need a shot in the arm.
Ha ha thanks for the feedback, we've been looking at updating it into more of a real site.
 
#12 ·
Saul Tanpepper said:
Also, are the three books permafree?
Mine is, yes. I think the others are as well.

I'm sitting at just under 8800 downloads. Just now I registered sales of two others in the series, which is awesome. Looks like I just broke into the top 20. Sitting at #19. Hoping that, being a permafree, this momentum continues well into the holiday season. Thoughts on that?

Quite pleased with the resuts so far. Will start posting updates in this thread rather than the other.
 
#15 ·
@kdarden-- What I do for mine is I upload the screencaps to a service like photobucket. Accounts are free and they're easy to set up. Once the screencaps have been uploaded there, they supply you with the code necessary to copy/paste onto forums. There may be other ways to do it, I'm not sure.
 
#17 ·
kdarden said:
I want to say first and foremost that when I first heard about this, I also thought there was something about this service that was scammy or illegal or ... something. It didn't "feel" right to me, perhaps because it seemed too easy.

However, watching a couple of friends and seeing their results, I looked into it more closely. And I talked to other folks about it, including the providers - who answered my questions to my satisfaction. I finally decided it was no different from BookBub or an other such service.

So I bit. But I was waiting for my prequel to go permafree. So, when it finally did, I scheduled the promo.
Thanks for sharing your results! Can I ask which promo package you went for? (just to know how your no. of downloads relates)

Hsin-Yi
 
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#18 ·
LisaGraceBooks said:
Do you promote paid books, or just free? Since Monique trusts you, I will.
Right now we are only offering the service for free books. We did test paid books but when we promoted one, we would get a lot of unsubscribes. Right now first and foremost goal is to make sure we can continue to provide the service that we do, which includes investing in our readerbase and making sure they are happy with what we are giving them.

In the future if we can figure out a way to do it more effectively, this could be something that we may add.

H.Y. Hanna said:
Thanks for sharing your results! Can I ask which promo package you went for? (just to know how your no. of downloads relates)

Hsin-Yi
Kdarden went for our largest package. We have had clients report that they have gotten over 25,000 downloads total with our biggest package, it really just depends on the book and (sometimes) a little luck.
 
#19 ·
I'm still waiting on conversion rates because ultimately those are the important numbers. That being said based on the previous conversations that were going on here, I'm still hesitant to fully trust this service. The biggest problem I'm having is that your website looks like one of those 'get rich quick' sites and if it turns out that this is actually a decent service, I think it would be in the best interest for everyone involved to improve that.

Dont judge a book by it's cover is a common phrase we're all used to hearing. But we all know the value of a cover and I think the same thing applies to your website. Still, I'm impressed so far.

Good luck to everyone who is running their promos.
 
#20 ·
freebookservice said:
Ha ha thanks for the feedback, we've been looking at updating it into more of a real site.
:) right now it looks just like those "send us money nd we will tell you how to get rich working form home just a hour a week" type sites. 8)

Seriuosly though you are going to very reasonable lengths to prove yourself. I hope that everyone keeps updating this thread. If things go well after the init rush, I will be interested in trying your service out.
 
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#21 ·
K.B. Parker said:
I'm still waiting on conversion rates because ultimately those are the important numbers. That being said based on the previous conversations that were going on here, I'm still hesitant to fully trust this service. The biggest problem I'm having is that your website looks like one of those 'get rich quick' sites and if it turns out that this is actually a decent service, I think it would be in the best interest for everyone involved to improve that.

Dont judge a book by it's cover is a common phrase we're all used to hearing. But we all know the value of a cover and I think the same thing applies to your website. Still, I'm impressed so far.

Good luck to everyone who is running their promos.
Honestly we are not professional website makers, we are professional marketers, and I hope you wouldn't buy a service based on a glitzy website ;)

We have done most of our sales directly on the warrior forum and referral, so, the website is really an afterthought. Thanks for your input though, we will probably work on it to make it better in the coming weeks.
 
#22 ·
When I tried to hit the "back" button to navigate off of this thread, I got a popup message that said something like "WAIT! There's a FREE gift if you stay on this page!" (That's not the exact verbiage; I closed it without writing it down.) I assume that's another one of your little additions? Embedded code on KBoards?

Dude, guys. Scuzzy. Makes me wonder what other kind of crap you're willing to pull.

Clean up your act. I'll pay decent money for any good promotion service. Right now, I'm feeling seriously grossed out.
 
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#23 ·
SMR said:
When I tried to hit the "back" button to navigate off of this thread, I got a popup message that said something like "WAIT! There's a FREE gift if you stay on this page!" (That's not the exact verbiage; I closed it without writing it down.) I assume that's another one of your little additions? Embedded code on KBoards?

Dude, guys. Scuzzy. Makes me wonder what other kind of crap you're willing to pull.

Clean up your act. I'll pay decent money for any good promotion service. Right now, I'm feeling seriously grossed out.
How would I have added anything to this page? I did no such thing, please check with a moderator.
 
#25 ·
SMR said:
When I tried to hit the "back" button to navigate off of this thread, I got a popup message that said something like "WAIT! There's a FREE gift if you stay on this page!" (That's not the exact verbiage; I closed it without writing it down.) I assume that's another one of your little additions? Embedded code on KBoards?

Dude, guys. Scuzzy. Makes me wonder what other kind of crap you're willing to pull.

Clean up your act. I'll pay decent money for any good promotion service. Right now, I'm feeling seriously grossed out.
I get that message only after clicking on the warrior forum link and then trying to navigate from KB. But not just by clicking on this forum thread or the direct link their website. I *think* it's a warrior forum thing.
 
#26 ·
Deanna Chase said:
I get that message only after clicking on the warrior forum link and then trying to navigate from KB. But not just by clicking on this forum thread or the direct link their website. I *think* it's a warrior forum thing.
If that's the case, I'm sorry for being accusatory.

Still not feeling good vibes. And also remembering why I usually don't click on Warrior Forum links.
 
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