Exposing myself

Minds outta the gutters, people! I mean Advertising.

I’m taking the plunge, and putting up some Ads for the Midnight Reading site this week, and taking yet another of the steps one must climb all by one’s onesie – or, something.

I may have mentioned a few posts back that I was looking into using a site called Project Wonderful, a place that acts as liaison between you, the advertiser, and them, the popular websites / blogs. My friends mentioned this site to me months ago, as a source of advertising that perhaps wouldn’t break the piggy bank. And I admit, when I first checked it out, I freaked.

At Project Wonderful, you’re faced with hundreds upon hundreds of sites to pick from, but instead of a simple “price tag” for an ad, you bid on ad space and time – – something that confused me to the point of running in the opposite direction. But then, a few days later, I caught my breath and wandered back, then started seriously checking it out.

Well, okay, I was bored one day and had the time.

But I’m glad I did, because as one would expect – upon further and more calmed exploration, I realized it’s not all that scary. A little odd, but after reading everything and seeing some examples, I realized it’s really pretty damned nifty. You create your own ads per their size templates, then pick from a massive list of sites available – and yes, you have to put in a bid for space and time – but instead of paying massive huge amounts for ad space, you’re only paying what you WANT to pay. You bid a minimum, and a maximum, and you can set total limits so that, regardless of what happens, you’re not spending a penny more than you say you want to.

And you’re not charged for any time your ad isn’t on display.

I have a feeling it will require some fussing and watching, to make sure your bid is the highest often enough to give your site some exposure. And in time, I might learn to time it along with a new release, and up my bids to ensure more exposure when I have something new to offer. But it’s a start, and a step in the right direction.

And in keeping with my Indy mindset, I’m using ONLY profits from my book sales to fund the advertising, via Paypal. One hand washing the other, or perhaps the snake eating its tail, but it works. I vowed when I got into this that no money was coming out of my pockets for the books that the books hadn’t already put in there.

Again, your mileage may vary, that’s your business.

I’m still setting things up, and checking out some sites, but I hope by Friday to have some bids in, and I’ll be watching my stats to see if there’s any affect. Naturally I’ll report back, pro or con, in case some of you are teetering on the edge and wanna see someone else hit the ground first.

I can happily report I learned today that Keeper was reviewed by a blogger and thanks to him, my page stats increased – prompting me to finally get my advertising stuff together and get moving.

Power to the People!

Make Love, Not War!

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