My husband and I spent our Monday working on our side projects. As a modern day author, marketing and publicity is just as crucial as writing, so I make an effort to understand the current technology trends.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is the latest rage, and I wanted to get myself acquainted with it. My husband explained Amazon Web Services is like buying a computer at a hosted location. It has less restrictions than locations hosted by others, and best of all, its free for a year!
My husband and I setup my account, following step by step instructions from a youtube video, and patted ourselves on the back when we were done. Then what?
I had hoped Amazon Web Services would allow me to use Google Analytics for my blog. Google Analytics supplies statistics on who clicks on your site. Eventually, I would like to use that information to tailor my blog and website to the interests of my readers.
My Fallout with Amazon Web Services
Unfortunately, I came to the conclusion that most sites on Amazon Web Services use WordPress because they are easy and free to build. This was disappointing since free WordPress sites don’t allow free use of Google Analytics.
Another reason to use Amazon Web Services is to manage the computing power your site needs. While I have dreams and hopes of having a highly read website, at this point, WordPress can handle my number of readers.
I learned a lot, but ultimately, I decided not to use Amazon Web Services. I’d be interested in the benefits others are finding for their blog / author website hosted on Amazon Web Services.
Facebook Advertising
I wasn’t going to let my disappointment with Amazon Web Services ruin my day off. I turned to advertising, and where best to advertise but Facebook!
My goal was to determine what type of ads potential readers respond to the best. I created two ads. One with a cover of the book and one with a witty picture. Both are included below:
Facebook is picky about the amount of characters in the message and the amount of text in your picture. They also require you to create a facebook page for your service or product. Here’s the link to my book series facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AfterlifeLessons
I setup a campaign for these ads with a budget of $100, and after a week I will go through the data and report back. In addition to which ad resonated best, I will also see the breakdown by demographics, age, and geography. Pretty neat!
What other facebook advertising tests are others running?
Optimist Superheroes 