The Unexpected Source of My Book Sales!
Can this also be a part of your marketing strategy?
I have more than 10 books published on Amazon and other digital stores. And while I cannot say that is my main source of income, I’m still happy whenever I see some sales coming in!
When I first started selling a book online, I didn’t even know where to start. I relied on the number of visitors coming to my website and I sold the book directly from there.
Today, I get more book sales since my books are visible from several platforms like Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and even Gumroad. Still there is much room for improvement and I experimented a number of times in using some advertisement to increase the sales.
At present, however, I stopped those experiments for a while as I focused on free methods of promoting my books such as through content and social media marketing.
I include my books whenever I have a relevant article on Substack, Patheos, Medium and my personal blog I Take Off the Mask! I also put a link in my social media channels like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
But what surprised me one day was when I discovered an unexpected source of sales for one of my books.
I discovered it when I searched for some of the most viewed pages from my personal blog. From there, I was able to trace that visits from those pages where coming from one social media I even neglected for some time – and that is Pinterest!
Yes, I received sales for my book “Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief” from my Pinterest posts (pins). I recalled how I posted many relevant pins about grief while linking to my e-book on Amazon.
And while that may not have yielded immediate results, they eventually picked up traction later and I received many outbound clicks coming from there.
Did you know that the traffic coming from my Pinterest posts far exceeded those that came from my website?
As of this month, I had about 39k impressions from there!
When I did some digging over the net, I found out from an article by Scott M. Graffius, that while the lifespan of posts in Facebook and Twitter is 76 minutes and 43 minutes respectively, the lifespan of posts in Pinterest is more than 3 months!
This means that while the active engagements in your Facebook and Twitter posts can only last in minutes, or at most more than an hour, your Pinterest Pins can still gather clicks for as long as 3 months or even more.
I think that’s what happened with my Pins that led to my book sales. It was truly an unexpected source for me.
On top of that, according to DataReportal, Pinterest ranked 14th among the most active social media platforms in 2023 with 463 million monthly active users.
We can definitely utilize Pinterest’s traffic to have more engagement for the products we want to promote more.
Below are some simple suggestions in using this social media platform.
Tips When Posting On Pinterest:
1. Mind your keywords
Put relevant keywords on your Pin title and description. Don’t forget to save your pin to a Board that bears the same topic. This would make your Pins SEO friendly. This would also make it easier for people to find your posts.
2. Use attractive photos
Pinterest uses the power of visual appeal to entice its visitors. It’s not only a search engine where we can look for direct answers to our questions.
It is above all, an entertaining experience for its viewers. People go there to view various mouth-watering recipes, appealing views and fashionable clothes. Even if you intend to pin inspiring quotes, you should make them attractive to your viewers.
3. Post regularly
While my experience proved that good things can still happen without regular posting, just imagine how much more can happen when you post regularly!
Some people post as often as three to five times a day. For others, the minimum is posting at least one pin per week.
4. Schedule your posts
To help you post in the right frequency, post your pins in advance. You can use some tools like Hootsuite to help you with this or you an avail of Pinterest’s own scheduling feature.
With Pinterest, you can post up to two weeks in advance from the website. You could post up to a month when using the mobile app.
5. Don’t forget to put your link!
Remember to put your link on your Pin. You don’t want to learn that your Pin garnered thousands of views later on without any outbound clicks to the product you’re promoting.
Even if you don’t have a book or a product to sell at the moment, you can link to your website or Newsletter subscription page.
6. Study your metrics
Look at your Pinterest’s Analytics page and see which Pins are working so you can do more of those.
Don’t forget to look at the Pins with the most number of outbound clicks.
Some Final Thoughts
I’m now rethinking my promo strategy for my books and I may just prioritize using Pinterest over some social media channels for now.
What’s your experience in using social media in promoting your books?
Paid subscribers get free access to all articles in the “Writer’s Resources” , Single Life and Questions to God section. You will receive all posts when it comes to my discoveries and other important references to succeed as a Catholic writer in a secular world.
You will also get the following:
Free e-book: “The Secret To Answered Prayers”
Free e-book: “My Journal on God’s Love”
Support Jocelyn Soriano with your prayers and subscription to Single Catholic Writer.