Fiverr has had no effect on my sales

[alieux]

Over the past year I have unsuccessfully attempted to use Fiverr to help promote my short stories that I have published on Amazon Kindle. The sellers I’ve chosen to promote my stories advertised that they have hundreds of thousands to a million-plus followers that have kindles, and that they would promote my work. I didn’t expect them to specifically increase sales; they stated they wouldn’t be responsible for that. I’m ok with because it makes sense, but I would think that if they really had hundreds of thousands to a million-plus followers that have kindles, that my sales would have increased by at least 1%. The prices of the downloads are $1 to $2.50. That’s not a prohibitive price. How much have my downloads increased with the ‘help’ of Fiverr over the past year? ZERO. Not even one sale. I look at the site every day, I’m wondering if the freelancers advertise their business on fiverr just to collect money with promises of promotion and do nothing.
To repeat, I’ve chosen the sellers that advertise that they have hundreds of thousands to a million-plus followers that have kindles. I have not had one sale in the past year. Before I find sources outside of fiverr to market my work, I wanted to find out why I’m having this problem.

[tomconti]

Hi there, I understand that this is frustrating for you and you probably hoped for much better results 😕 Regardless if you are on fiverr or not, be very sceptical if someone offers to promote your product to thousands or even millions of people. The most important task when it comes to IM is to be very targeted. Not sure what your product is about but only targeting the kindle niche is pretty vague I assume and ideally, you would promote your product only to a very relevant target group. Unfortunately it is also difficult to attempt to promote your download given it only costs $1.00 to $2.50 and you may would wind up paying more for each single click with bing ads, google ads, etc. There are many approaches though - what is your product about if you don’t mind me asking?

[fonthaunt]

This reminds me of something I read about promotion in general. A company can hire a top ad firm and spend thousands on a TV commercial. The firm might have created campaigns for Apple, Budweiser, Geico, etc. A commercial is made and test audiences love it. It goes on air and the public hates it (at best, still draws attention) or ignores it. This happens all the time. Marketing is a gamble.

Fiverr is a much smaller scale, so that TV commercial would still be better. Both are a risk, though, especially if you don’t choose the cream of the crop with the one you hire. I understand your frustration, but I’m not sure there is a realistic single answer.

[fonthaunt]

Hi there, I understand that this is frustrating for you and you probably hoped for much better results 😕 Regardless if you are on fiverr or not, be very sceptical if someone offers to promote your product to thousands or even millions of people. The most important task when it comes to IM is to be very targeted. Not sure what your product is about but only targeting the kindle niche is pretty vague I assume and ideally, you would promote your product only to a very relevant target group. Unfortunately it is also difficult to attempt to promote your download given it only costs $1.00 to $2.50 and you may would wind up paying more for each single click with bing ads, google ads, etc. There are many approaches though - what is your product about if you don’t mind me asking?

what is your product about if you don’t mind me asking?

The OP said they were Kindle short stories.

[tomconti]

what is your product about if you don’t mind me asking?

The OP said they were Kindle short stories.

The OP said they were Kindle short stories.

Yes, that is not very specific. Everyone with a kindle is potentially interested in short stories, but you may find that a story about a farm is for a different niche than short stories about cave mining.

[cyaxrex]

As an author myself (though I should say former author) you really can’t hold Fiverr sellers or even a pro marketing firm accountable for whether books sell or not.

I used to promote my own books via various methods and averaged $20-$100 in sales per month. As soon as I stopped promoting my books, the sales petered down to $5 a month if I’m lucky.

First and foremost, are your books worth reading? If they’re not it doesn’t matter how cheap you price them, they simply won’t sell. Secondly, are your books professionally formatted and designed to scale perfectly on all kinds of ereaders? If not, you can have a lost installment to the Harry Potter saga and your readers will just feel insulted.

Lastly, if you are paying for exposure to thousands of ebook readers, you need to remember that those people are likely receiving new book recommendations by the hour. I personally wouldn’t see this is a viable marketing strategy. However, it all depends on the book in question.

As a rule, a good book is only a viable sales machine when someone who has read it tells someone else about how amazing it is. Without that, you can squeeze sales out of your book month to month by taking it out to a marketing firing range. The down side is that as soon as you take your finger of the money trigger, it will flounder like a Danielle Steele novel dropped into a vat of custard.

[fonthaunt]

As an author myself (though I should say former author) you really can’t hold Fiverr sellers or even a pro marketing firm accountable for whether books sell or not.

I used to promote my own books via various methods and averaged $20-$100 in sales per month. As soon as I stopped promoting my books, the sales petered down to $5 a month if I’m lucky.

First and foremost, are your books worth reading? If they’re not it doesn’t matter how cheap you price them, they simply won’t sell. Secondly, are your books professionally formatted and designed to scale perfectly on all kinds of ereaders? If not, you can have a lost installment to the Harry Potter saga and your readers will just feel insulted.

Lastly, if you are paying for exposure to thousands of ebook readers, you need to remember that those people are likely receiving new book recommendations by the hour. I personally wouldn’t see this is a viable marketing strategy. However, it all depends on the book in question.

As a rule, a good book is only a viable sales machine when someone who has read it tells someone else about how amazing it is. Without that, you can squeeze sales out of your book month to month by taking it out to a marketing firing range. The down side is that as soon as you take your finger of the money trigger, it will flounder like a Danielle Steele novel dropped into a vat of custard.

are your books worth reading? If they’re not it doesn’t matter how cheap you price them, they simply won’t sell.

I can attest to this. I wrote an awful short book just so I could understand how to format books for upload and learn how to do the uploading process. My awful book was priced free. I get a “sale” via free download once a month if someone stumbles onto it, and I doubt anyone reads past the first page or two. It’s kind of embarrassing but I did learn a lot, including that you can’t give things away if they are carp. (Cooked or raw.)

[vickiespencer]

are your books worth reading? If they’re not it doesn’t matter how cheap you price them, they simply won’t sell.

I can attest to this. I wrote an awful short book just so I could understand how to format books for upload and learn how to do the uploading process. My awful book was priced free. I get a “sale” via free download once a month if someone stumbles onto it, and I doubt anyone reads past the first page or two. It’s kind of embarrassing but I did learn a lot, including that you can’t give things away if they are carp. (Cooked or raw.)

Maybe off topic, but I am a granny who is curious.👵

you can’t give things away if they are carp. (Cooked or raw.)

So after reading this, I just had to look up if Carp are good to eat! :thinking: It turns out they are if they grow in the right habitat. I found this article:

Carp – Queen of Rivers or Pig With Fins?

https://www.bigrivermagazine.com/br.story.a.html

[fonthaunt]

Maybe off topic, but I am a granny who is curious.👵

you can’t give things away if they are carp. (Cooked or raw.)

So after reading this, I just had to look up if Carp are good to eat! :thinking: It turns out they are if they grow in the right habitat. I found this article:

Carp – Queen of Rivers or Pig With Fins?

https://www.bigrivermagazine.com/br.story.a.html

😃 I have fished for carp deliberately because they are easy to find and catch in Texas. I am a vegetarian now and I’ve never really been a fish person (I just love fishing and hunting) but I have tried them. They weren’t anything special to me, but weren’t bad. I mostly used the word because some people consider them “garbage fish” and I thought it was a good replacement for the word 💩

[vickiespencer]

😃 I have fished for carp deliberately because they are easy to find and catch in Texas. I am a vegetarian now and I’ve never really been a fish person (I just love fishing and hunting) but I have tried them. They weren’t anything special to me, but weren’t bad. I mostly used the word because some people consider them “garbage fish” and I thought it was a good replacement for the word 💩

I thought it was a good replacement for the word 💩

Lol, at first I thought you misspelled 💩!

[alieux]

As an author myself (though I should say former author) you really can’t hold Fiverr sellers or even a pro marketing firm accountable for whether books sell or not.

I used to promote my own books via various methods and averaged $20-$100 in sales per month. As soon as I stopped promoting my books, the sales petered down to $5 a month if I’m lucky.

First and foremost, are your books worth reading? If they’re not it doesn’t matter how cheap you price them, they simply won’t sell. Secondly, are your books professionally formatted and designed to scale perfectly on all kinds of ereaders? If not, you can have a lost installment to the Harry Potter saga and your readers will just feel insulted.

Lastly, if you are paying for exposure to thousands of ebook readers, you need to remember that those people are likely receiving new book recommendations by the hour. I personally wouldn’t see this is a viable marketing strategy. However, it all depends on the book in question.

As a rule, a good book is only a viable sales machine when someone who has read it tells someone else about how amazing it is. Without that, you can squeeze sales out of your book month to month by taking it out to a marketing firing range. The down side is that as soon as you take your finger of the money trigger, it will flounder like a Danielle Steele novel dropped into a vat of custard.

Question. Are the answers to my concerns being answered by employees of Fiverr or a forum of other people?

[fonthaunt]

Question. Are the answers to my concerns being answered by employees of Fiverr or a forum of other people?

Staff very rarely posts on the forum. When they do, you will usually see a notice by the username like this:

Most of the time it is other sellers who comment on the forum. Even moderators are just buyers/sellers who volunteer to help. There are occasions when staff helps to moderate too, but it is also rare.

[alieux]

Staff very rarely posts on the forum. When they do, you will usually see a notice by the username like this:

Most of the time it is other sellers who comment on the forum. Even moderators are just buyers/sellers who volunteer to help. There are occasions when staff helps to moderate too, but it is also rare.

Oh, so that explains the discussion of carp on my thread.

[fonthaunt]

Oh, so that explains the discussion of carp on my thread.

Yes, sorry about that. We do try to stay on topic and I think most of the responses were on topic. That was just a bit of a tangent. Any thoughts on the other comments about the effect on your sales? 🙂

(I’ll try not to add any more 🐟)