Why I gave up on social media marketing (again)
I created this site about a year ago in a burst of book-marketing energy.
I thought The Second-Smartest Dog That Ever Lived would come out about eight months later, as I greatly underestimated how much time it would take to get the book publication ready.
But that's a lesson for another day.
Back to my burst of book-marketing energy.
That burst of energy lasted...drumroll please...almost one month.
For what may be the tenth time I discovered that I am incompatible with social media. I claim to dislike it, which is true on a conscious level, but some deeper part of me must love it, because I always get addicted, and that's exactly what happened again.
I think the gamification grabs me, and this was particularly compelling when I started marketing my book. I wanted to see how many followers I could get, how many views, how many clicks, how many likes, how many everything.
I wanted it all.
And I wanted it now.
Here's what I actually looked like during that time.
When I wasn't clicking my way strategically (i.e., mindlessly) around my Facebook page and Twitter profile, I was on the post-scheduling platform, or the email-list building site, or Book Funnel, or blah blah blah...until I burned to a crisp.
Still, in sporadic moments, I kept this website going, mostly by transferring old blog posts from a now defunct Substack, which I had created as a kind of non-branded site meant to attract readers of speculative fiction (yet another a lesson for yet another day).
Why it's easier (and cheaper) to maintain a website
The nice thing about an unknown author's website, I've learned, is that nobody reads it, and that's liberating.
I can really yawp into the void.
And, unlike social media, which gives users the buzz of success with a variable reinforcement schedule, coupled with the simulacrum of human interaction, websites offer a much slower burn, and interactions are (thus far) nil.
Fortunately I can still access some metrics. My preciousssss metricses.
Through Google Analytics, I can check how many visitors come to my site (don’t ask), and through Google Search Console, I can see how visitors reach my site via Google Search (i.e., what they searched to get here).
That latter ability caught my interest because—beyond the minor cost of running this website—it’s free. In theory, I figured, I could be drawing people to my site, and therefore closer to my book, by providing them with information and nothing more.
That contrasts sharply with most book-marketing strategies, including the ad-heavy approach recommended by Mark Dawson of the Self-Publishing Formula, who spends tens (hundreds?) of thousands on Facebook and Amazon ads each year.
While I do believe that Mark knows his stuff, and I will likely run ads when I launch my book, I felt, and continue to feel, too far from launch to justify any serious ad spending.
I can actually hear a few book-marketing gurus replying to this objection right now.
They are saying, “Build your list."
But building your email list through ad dollars alone doesn’t really make sense when you don't have a book in print.
Now they are saying, "Offer a reader magnet."
Perhaps others can crank out a novella and use that to lure in readers, but I find it too time-consuming to write my actual books without also cranking out related giveaway stories.
What I can crank out, however, are blog posts like this one. And with the help of AI, I can crank out even more. So that’s what I’ve started to do.
I call it my Shameless SEO-Driven Book-Marketing Strategy (or SaDBuMS for short).
My shameless SEO-driven book-marketing strategy (SaDBuMS)
The goal and strategy of SaDBuMS are simple: Draw visitors to my site via content that is A) search engine optimized (SEO), and B) related to the topic of my book.
The first part is straightforward with some basic SEO knowledge, and now it’s easier than ever with Wix’s integrated SEO tools, which use AI to fill in the necessary forms and assist with optimization techniques. For example, if you don’t include your keyword in the body text, it will prompt you to do so.
(Dear Wix, please send that royalty check ASAP.)
The second part is pretty simple too. In my own case, The Second-Smartest Dog That Ever Lived is a novel about a dog with the intelligence of a human. I believe it will appeal to dog lovers and readers of science-fiction and fantasy.
My content therefore covers those topics, with the hope that someone who finds one of my posts via Google will then click around to learn about me or my upcoming book, and then (dream of dreams) buy it.
Whether or not this strategy will actually work remains unknown. So far, to be honest, results are weak, but my efforts have not been strong or consistent.
Back in November 2023, about five months after adding several dog-related posts, I shared the following screenshot from Google Search Console. It shows a total of (gasp) 7 clicks via Google.
Here we are today at the end of January 2024:
Two months later I have (wow) twice as many clicks.
While that might seem pitiful (and probably is), doubling my clicks every couple months could eventually ramp up to something more significant.
I am also proud to note that, on January 26th and 27th, I had one click two days in row.
So break out the champagne.
Here’s to hoping that I one day look back on these metrics and laugh.
Ha ha! Metrics! Ha. Ha. Ha.
In the meantime, I can see that my most clicked post via Google is about Pugs’ eyes popping out, which can happen, and is knowledge I am uniquely proud of.
That post generates far more impressions and clicks than any of my other articles, including my listicles about SFF books and my “noedit” ramblings. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing it's because the post is informative, almost funny, and 100% written by a human.
With this new information, I plan on finishing the transfer of my old SFF-related, AI-generated posts, then focusing more on writing about animal health.
I’ll be putting my expensive education to work.
Mom will be so proud.
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