Two nights ago I became addicted to the website www.fiverr.com. If you haven’t heard of fiverr, it’s a website that allows people to offer to do a variety of things for five bucks. There are hundreds of different kinds of things people are willing to do – and at $5 per job, many of them are fantastic bargains. Here are a few of the more interesting things I’ve found and am testing in my book promotion and marketing:
1) Improve your PR-rank. If you have a blog or website, it’s important to have a lot of high quality links back to you, which improves your “PR” or page-rank. The higher page-rank you have, the more likely your articles will show up early in search engines. For $5, there are a variety of people offering to give you backlinks; either by posting comments, adding your link to their website, adding you to edu sites, etc.
2) Promotion. People with a ton of Facebook fans or Twitter followers offer to spread your news on their networks (to tens of thousands of people). They can also do things like “get 1000 likes on your Facebook page” (social proof) or get 1000 page hits to your website, or 1000 Twitter followers, etc. People with a good blog and high traffic offer to put up your ad on their site. Some people with radio shows offer to promote you, or YouTubers with tons of subscribers offer to do a video about you. Pick a handful of ones that you think will work, and do them when you want to do heavy promotion.
3) Hand out fliers. A lot of people offer to print or handout your flier or business card. Imagine putting your book’s flier around 10 different cities, or on specific university campuses.
4) Testimonials. You can pay people to leave a testimonial. $5 may seem a little expensive, but having 10 comments on amazon will make a huge difference in your sales. You can also pay $5 to have someone do a positive video testimonial you can use on your site or youtube.
5) More creative stuff. You can get models to take a picture of themselves with your book. You can get a fat guy to write the book’s name on his stomach and dance. You can get a guy in a chicken suit to talk about the book. You can get a dance crew to dance out a song for you. You can get a magician to write your book’s name and message on a card he displays after doing an awesome magic trick. You can get a girl to write a song about your book and perform it. You can get pictures of your book taken at famous landmarks around the world. You can have a comedian do a gig on your book.
You can even cast runes or get a tarot reading about the future success of your book, or get a spiritual healing when you’re getting burnt out!
Definitely worth spending some time on the site to see how you can make fiverr.com work for you.
Ps) You can also pay $5 to get copy editing for a few pages – an easy way to check your press release or sales copy!
Pps) If you have a self-help or how-to book, think of something cheap and easy that you could offer to do on fiverr.com. Mention in your post that you’re the author of XXX book, and you can provide (some related service). This could be another marketing avenue.
Derek Murphy is the author of “Jesus Potter Harry Christ“
Get an Editorial Review | Get Amazon Sales & Reviews | Get Edited | Publish Your Book | Enter the SPR Book Awards | Other Marketing Services
I just bought a Facebook fan page one – what’s $5 to see if it works? But here’s the flipside – be careful you don’t get ripped off by people who don’t do the work: http://geekswithblogs.net/james/archive/2010/07/03/fiverr-fail—why-fiverr-sucks.aspx
I also tried a similar fiverr deal months ago, both for my author blog and the Favorite Thing Ever site. They worked as advertised, and brought hundreds of new fans to my facebook pages. But facebook traffic to my sites never jumped much because of these fans — I wasn’t reaching people who actually cared about my stuff. All those fans make my facebook pages look super popular, but that’s about it.
I didn’t think of that; but if you read the comments on the link you provided, a lot of them are positive. At least for $5, it’s very low risk. Most of the projects send proof (ie they took pictures of my book flier that they had put up); or you should be able to see an increase in traffic/backlinks. Let us know how it works for you!
I got exactly 1 follower – the guy who posted the service. I did it for my band page b/c he’s a musician but this one at least didn’t seem to work.
It’s a featured fiverr
http://www.fiverr.com/users/alanletsgo/gigs/like-and-become-a-fan-and-suggest-or-invite-my-3500-loyal-friends-to-like-your-facebook-fan-page-application-event-or-group?ref=glst-g-ttl
That’s too bad! I saw his post, it says he’ll promote it but doesn’t promise more likes. Were you able to customize the message or did he just share the link? Next time see if you can write the perfect hook – it’s one thing to get in front of a lot of people, another to catch their attention.
I used the same person Henry…My son is an aspiring musician and I thought Letsgo services would deliver. I was wrong. He even had some nerve to delete himself from my son’s page.
Well, a $5.00 lesson learned. I still love fiverr.com, not all experiences were bad. Just that one! Good luck!
Derek, I’ll take a look at fiverr.com as soon as I get the chance. But I’ll do it with Henry’s warning and your instructions in mind. In the meantime, Derek, I’m reading your book and enjoying the adventure. Don’t be surprised if you get another good review on Amazon.
Thanks Ron – it was a pain to write but I think I did alright in the end.
I think my biggest concern with the $5 folks would be control. If you struggle to portray yourself as professional in your own efforts and they do something that is ‘spammy’ or otherwise unprofessional, it’s still your name and your book. I can’t believe you’ll get a lot of control for $5, and that small investment might turn into a big liability in regards to reputation and credibility. Just a thought.
I tend to agree with Bob. I would also add that most people probably don’t buy books just because they’re juxtaposed with attractive women (books are not like beer or other cheap consumer goods – they require a bit more investment from readers) or randomly named dropped into some other completely inappropriate setting/situation. Rather, people buy books that look like good reads based on their individual tastes. I’m still trying to figure out how best to reach my own demographic (if one exists), so maybe I’m not the best guy to take advertising advise from, but if I saw someone else’s book on display in such a cheap marketing effort, I think I’d actually be LESS inclined to buy!
Perhaps I’m still clinging to the naive assumption that if my book is good people will eventually discover it through more legitimate means, but I don’t think I’ll stoop to plugging it through “fiverr” any time soon.
Thanks for your feedback – so far I’ve only used fiverr.com to get more backlinks and to have people put up fliers in real places. (Both gave me more traffic). I don’t know how well other things like the Twitter or Facebook posts are, but I’ll be trying them anyway. Yes people read a good book on its own merits, but they have to hear about it first. Typically consumers need to be exposed to a message or product at least 7 times before they take any interest in it – which means you need to get it in front of them as much as possible. Yes it depends on the book project, but there are plenty of different ways to get your project in front of the right people without spending much, and you may find some of fiverr.com. I also don’t want to seem ‘spammy’ – but what’s better, to be thought of as a shameless promoter or not to be noticed at all?
Hey Derek – Just to clarify. I didn’t intend to imply you (or anyone else) was ‘spammy’ or unprofessional, so I hope it didn’t come across that way. In fact, I’d spam like hell myself if I thought it would result it good sales numbers. My concern really is that on the social media sites in particular, aggressive sales tactics are (at least so I’m told) anathema. My observation was just to point out that perhaps by that yardstick, the risk might be more than just the five bucks. Having said that, I hope it works for you and, if it does, you’ll keep the rest of us up to speed. I think this is unexplored territory for all of us, so there is strength in sharing. Publication through cooperation.
I’m just glad to hear you didn’t go for the “get a fat guy to write the book’s name on his stomach and dance” option….
To be fair, I could see fiverr being utilized in more professional ways. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind being on the other end of the deal – I’d probably make more money editing short documents at $5 a pop than selling books!
I’m just glad to hear you didn’t go for the “get a fat guy to write the book’s name on his stomach and dance” option….
To be fair, I could see fiverr being utilized in more professional ways. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind being on the other end of the deal – I’d probably make more money editing short documents at $5 a pop than selling books!
I tried this the other day, just to see if it worked. I paid someone $5 to tweet links to my blog every hour for a day, to a handful of high-follower accounts. (Something like 30,000 people.) Looks like it generated one unique hit. I’m sure if I did some more thought-out task in conjunction to a book launch, it would probably do slightly better, but I think for any SEO gaming stuff, you’re probably only going to get backlinks from spam farms, at best, and not genuine hits from people who want to read your stuff.