About one month ago I offered my best selling (for me) eBook, Sample Personal Development Plan and Workbook free to my mailing list and to Select Author’s readers. The resulting statistics were interesting and a bit disappointing to me.
I was hoping to receive a few reviews from those accepting the free eBook. I didn’t make this a condition for receiving the books, but did make it clear I would appreciate reviews from those taking advantage of my offer.
The offer was sent to 2100 members of my mailing list and an unknown number of visitors to Select Author’s Facebook page. The results:
- Email to 2100 subscribers, 100%.
- Less 120 bounced emails due to full mailboxes, changed addresses, etc. = 1980 potential readers, 94%.
- About 150 viewed the eBook page, 7.1%.
- About 40 downloaded the free book, 1.9%.
- None of the 40 have as yet reviewed the book, 0.0%.
- The latter stat, 0%, reviewed the book is the most disappointing.
- A positive is that 26% of those viewing the book page downloaded it.
Lessons Learned
Give your books or other services away if you wish, but don’t expect to receive voluntary feedback. Fortunately, my decision to give away the eBooks was primarily to provide a gift to my mailing list. The hope for reviews was secondary.
If you give away a product or service, capture email addresses so you can send a reminder or other follow-up email. I had no way to do this using the process I used.
Still Seeking Reviews
If you’re seriously interested in reviewing my eBooks contact me, jerry@purposefulgrowth.com, and I’ll send you a free coupon. I don’t ask for a biased review, simply a well thought-out, balanced review of the book(s).