(Image Credit)
My Virtual Blog Tour 2010! Has come and gone. I thank all of my hosts for allowing me to visit their blogs. Thank you for participating. And thanks to everyone who stopped by along the way. I could not have done this without you!
I did not want to do my tour the same time Marvin Wilson and Alex Cavanaugh had their blog tours. And I wanted to stay away from the week of Thanksgiving. So The first half of November seemed like the logical time to plan the event. I did have to compete with Nano. But hey, we don’t live in a perfect world. Overall, I could not be more pleased with the results.
Spots filled up very quickly. The tour was originally scheduled to take place over two weeks. But only one person volunteered to host me on the weekend, so I spread out the stops over three weeks. I filled one weekend with the Weekend Follies. This was a nice break in the tour. Looking forward, I’m putting something together for the first quarter of 2011 similar to a blog tour. It will be shorter, maybe seven or eight stops this time.
What Went Right: First and foremost, I met some terrific new blogging buddies and budettes. And I gained new 40 followers.
A few people said I am a nice guy. I agree. I am a nice guy. I’m one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. In fact, I am THE nicest guy I ever met. Thanks for the compliment folks.
Its difficult to accurately measure sales. I know I did sell some books by activity in Sales Rankings at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The numbers spiked and dipped many times over the three weeks. And I do receive real time sales info from Amazon and Smashwords for electronic downloads. There were numerous comments people made they were putting Breakthrough on their Christmas list for themselves or for family and friends.
But most important was the exposure I received. This is really what I was after. Meeting new people and expanding my blogging world. Mission accomplished! The visits to my blog skyrocketed during the tour as new people stopped by.
What Went Wrong: Overall, everything went rather smoothly. One blogger dropped out because I did not get my post in on time. Totally my fault. But other than that everything went very well.
What Was My Best Post: Well, that’s like asking, who’s your favorite child? But I have to admit the SCIENCE FOR KIDS post on Shannon O’Donnell’s blog Book Dreaming was the most meaningful because this venture concerns helping out youth. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you so check it out.
For my hosts who participated in this blog tour, I give you all the SuperNova award. I thought this is appropriate because supernovas are exploding stars that become extremely luminous and can briefly outshine an entire galaxy. The can seed the nebulae with heavy elements and initiate new star and planet growth. I feel you have helped initiate new growth for me. You guys are truly the best!
If you feel this blog is worthy, go ahead and make my day. Retweet it
46 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful success to me and I like the sound of sales!
Glad you found the blog tour a postitive experience. It's a lot of work for you...so it's good that it worked out well.
I'm glad you felt the tour was worth it. Doing a tour is a lot of work. More work than just posting on your own blog.
I thought your tour was great, but it did sound exhausting.
Hi Stephen -
Congrats on a job well done! I enjoyed your articles.
Blessings,
Susan :)
I'm glad to be part of your successful blog tour, Steve! Good luck with book sales!
Gail, this was my first virtual blog tour and overall I'm very happy with verything. Sales of course are great and the more the better!
Liza, it was a lot of work. Most was done in the month leading up to the tour. That really helped.
Helen, that's the truth. You have to make people happy, not just yourself.
Holly, thanks for stopping by as often as you did. I really appreciate the support.
Susan, thanks for the blssings. I can always use some of those!
And along with being a nice guy, you have a great sense of humor. Congrats on the smooth tour. :)
And thank you for the kind comments Stephen.
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
Glad it went so well for you...happy sales!
Congratulations on your success. I enjoyed visiting you around the different blogs. I found all your posts interesting.
Glad it went well! Should've caught you in with the tour tips with Marvin and Alex.
Kelly, I enjoyed stopping by your blog. Just about everyone who commented was new to me. Always good to meet new people. You have a great group of followers.
Jukles, you have to have a sense of humor in this business. The quirkier, the better.
Mary, thanks for stopping by. Happy Sales! I like that.
Susan, I did see you a lot during the tour. Thanks for your support and helping make the tour a success.
Diane, thanks for the afterthought. Who knows what awesome things 2011 holds.
Congratulations on your tour. It was an interesting tour with such diverse posts. You put a lot of time and hard work into it and it really showed.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
I think the tour went very well and I was happy to be a part of it. And I continue to encourage people to buy and read Breakthrough. I'm looking forward to the next book! And be happy to host you again on the next tour.
Lee
Tossing It Out
It was a terrific tour Stephen - you made such an effort to make each post unique and I think that really paid off! Well done :)
Nice work Stephen--glad your effort paid off...
Mason, diversity is the name of the game. I didn't necessarily tailor a particular post for an individual's blog. I simply tried to make the content interesting.
Arlee, thanks for the advanced offer. ANd for helping spread the goof word!
Jemi, thanks for the comment. Making fifteen unique posts was fun. I like writing so it was fairly easy. And I had some past blogs I could draw from.
Slamdunk, hopefully there will be a payoff that lasts through the holiday season.
Loved hearing your thoughts on how the blog tour went. I've never done one of those before so it's interesting to see how you found it. I'm glad it went so well!
Jai
I enjoyed following you and it was a nice mixture of topics, but I, too, am especially interested in the Science for Kids. We really need to get our kids re-engaged in science.
Truly an awesome tour. I wasn't able to hit every spot - sadly Shannan's was one I missed - but I do intend to remedy that soo.
You never know what simple exposure will do for your career.
I'm looking forward to more posts about your publishing and writing experience.
Dude: I agree, you are a nice guy. Hmm, not sure about THE NICESEST . . but hey, everyone is entitled to their own opinion :)
Happy Thanksgiving.
......dhole
That's a cool-looking award, Alex. I hope the tour continues to translate into sales. And you're right, the big gain is the exposure.
Awww!! I had a thoroughly great time stalking - er following you! around your tour!! WELL DONE you!!!!
I think you can relax a little and take it easy over the thanksgiving hols now!! Take care
x
Glad to hear you had a successful tour. Always fascinated by the behind-the-scenes stats. Thanks for the wrap up.
Pleased all went well and what a lovely way to say Thank you to your host.
Yvonne.
Jai, you should try it. It's a great way to meet people around the world and across the industry.
Linda, thanks. I think its important to give something back and what better way than to help the youth.
Donna, you never know who you will meet. Could be someone high up in the publishing world or a potential agent.
Patricia, exposure is the name of the game. I hope to keep the ball rolling right through the holidays.
Kitty, I immediately thought of stories like Misery. She wasn't necessarily a stalker, but just as dangerous. Great story.
Thanks for the award. I'll do a recognition this Saturday for it. If that was there yesterday I totally must have missed it or something..
Lee
Tossing It Out
I enjoyed being part of your tour. I plan on doing one for my novel when I get the release date and info. I've not done one before for either of my books. When they came out I wasn't blogging & had no idea what great opportunities I was missing for networking and friendship. Thanks for asking me to be a part of your event.
Your blog tour was awesome, Stephen, and I was totally wowed by your science post - I'm so glad I got to host that one! :-) Thanks for allowing me to participate and for the cool award. I love the meaning you've attached to it. You rock!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
It was awesome Stephen! Very cool thing to be a part of, thanks for having me.
This was a LOT of work for you and I'm glad it was so successful! I enjoyed being a part of your tour and hope your sales bloom through the holiday season!
Arlee, Iyou and the rest are most deserving of the award.
Karen, it may not be too late to put together a tour of some kind. It could be about writing and promoting and such.
Shannon, I like the meaning too. I think I need to spruce up the visual of the award.
Matthew, this was a win-win situation as we both benefited. Glad to have you as one of the stops.
Woo! Thanks for the award, and the very thoughtful post you provided for my blog where you were there. I'm glad the tour went so well - you deserve it, because you are such a nice guy. :)
I'm glad that you had a good blog tour! It was fun . . .
I think I gained about 40 new followers as well and it was cool to see my book go into the top 10,000 on Amazon. It's the after effects that really surprised me, as book reviews and mentions keep appearing everywhere!
Nice Stephan. I learned a lot from your tour. I learned about you book of course, but I think I learned that posting something unique was far more interesting for those who followed than rewording the same post repeatedly. Koodoos. I wish you all the best and yes, I will buy Breakthrough at some point.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author
Laura, I'll be tracking the sales all through the holidays. I hope to continue the momentum for the next six weeks.
Talli, there's that Nice Guy reference again. It was great to stop at your blog. I picked up a number of your followers that day.
Golden Eagle, glad you enjoyed it and thanks so much for participating.
Alex, the after effect and exposure of course is part of the tour. Shows that the tour was successful.
NR, coming up with fifteen different topics was challenging but half the fun. I love a good challenge.
Stephen, I’m glad your tour was a success and I was happy to be one of your stops. Thanks so much for the Supernova award – I love it.
Congratz on the blog tour success! And that is a really awesome-looking award!!!
Thanks so much, Stephen! And...you did a great job with your tour. Best wishes for your release!
I really enjoyed your blog tour - I'm glad to hear it was such a success!
Yes, Retweeted!! Great blog!!
Thanks for stopping by mine and for the very nice comment! Really appreciate it!
Have a Wonderful & Happy Thanksgiving!!
Blessings & Many Hugs,
Coreen
Hi there!
Thanks so much for commenting and signing on at my blog. I greatly appreciate it. I see the names of several people here I know. I'm going to tag along also. Thanks!
Jane, I'm glad we could hook up on the tour as we go quite a way back. Thanks for hosting me.
Carol, one has to b creative as the award thing is a bit competitive, meaning bloggers are creative with their award designs and names.
Elizabeth, we had a lot of fun with the Food and Wine post. Hey, why not write real establishments into your book?
Susan, thanks for your support. You were there just as often as anyone else. I always appreciate support. We can't do these things alone.
Velvet, thanks for stopping by. And thanks for the Retweet!
Glad your blog tour netted you success.
Hi Steve .. it certainly worked for me .. I learnt lots, met new bloggers and generally learnt something about writing a novel.
I love the approach you've made & the 'breakout' into helping kids, Shannon's post & your science tab make absolute sense for a really interesting new opening & opportunities.
Love the supernova take too .. thanks - have a lovely family Thanksgiving weekend .. Hilary
Hi Stephen. Glad the tour was a success. Always nice to get new blog followers. I hope you continue to see the sales for Breakthrough.
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