Blogs that moderate every comment don't work well when you're on tour because you must wait for the blog owner to approve the comment. A lot of time is wasted seeing if there are any new comments. And a blog tour only works if the one touring responds to people's comments.
Captcha codes discourage people too. If a person has to do a captcha code more than once to leave a comment, they probably won't. As the one touring, sometimes it took me four times to get the code right and I knew a visitor would not bother. Because some of the most popular blogs used captcha codes I'd probably use the sites again.
I still haven't gone back through and made sure I've counted every single person who commented so I can announce who is the prize winner. (The person who commented on the most blogs gets to have a character named after him or her in my next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery.)
I also had someone ask me to pass on the names of the blogs that were most popular. I probably will try to figure that out for me as well as her.
When choosing blogs to ask to be hosted on, my criteria has always been to find ones that aren't all linked to my publisher or friends. Oh, yes, I do use friends, but what I'm looking for are blogs that have different visitors/followers.
One thing that happened on this tour is I had far more unique visitors who commented, names I didn't recognize.
The big question everyone always asks is, "Did the blog tour result in sales?" I'm not sure. My numbers changed a bit on Amazon, but the final tally will come when I get my royalty statement which is a ways off.
Will I do it again? Right now I'm not sure. What I need to do is get back to the book I'm writing which is a Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.
6 comments:
I have chosen the winner, Paul Fahey, he commented on the most blogs, and there were a couple of close runners-up.
Congratulations on surviving another successful blog tour.
I think it would be interesting to know which blogs got the most views. I wonder whether some days of the week garner more view or whether some topics piqued interest, or whether some site get more visits generally.
JL Greger, author of medical thrillers/mysteries - Ignore the Pain, coming Flu, & Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight
There are some very popular blogs that get lots of people commenting, but the only way to know about the views is you are the host.
I hope it helped you!
I'm in the middle of one, which is really a series of posts over three months. I think your conclusions are spot on, and I too am wondering if it's worth it. There seems to be less and less writing in the life of the writer these days.
Thanks everyone who commented. I do think in the long run it is worth it--and I have to admit, I enjoy doing it. Especially the writing part.
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