I sent in my first request for a KindleBoards Book of the Day some 12 hours after it was announced on the forum (in early October), and the first day available was today, November 14th.  It cost $35.00 (USD).

A couple of weeks later, I put in an order for another Book of the Day ad, this time for “The Year We Finally Solved Everything.”  I was hoping there would be something available in January.  The nearest available date was April 20th.

And that was more than 3 weeks ago.  I can’t imagine how far into the future they are now booked for.  As well, KindleBoards now offers banners space for sale ($40 a day).  These could be an interesting idea–you design them yourself and can make them quite eye catching, especially if you’re a graphic designer wannabe.  People on the forums seem to be really appreciative, and it is great for indie authors to have more avenues to advertise.

But I think it’s overpriced.

Today, I sold only 4 copies of “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper.”  I never expected this promotion to pay for itself, but compared to the success I’ve had at Kindle Nation Daily, DailyCheapReads and the Amazon Customer Discussions, I would have hoped for more.  I think the problem is that people (including me) don’t really look or click on banner ads.  People ignore them.  There are too many ads on too many websites as it is already.

Now, counting daily sales can be a little dangerous.  Firstly, I don’t know how many people downloaded samples and may choose to purchase at a later date.  Secondly, advertising is not about the instant sale.  It’s exposure, and so having an ad does help in this respect (although, then I’d think the banner ad would be more beneficial for this).

But, this isn’t my first attempt at paid promotion, so I have some reason to be disappointed.   Not that I think $35 is a lot of money for an ad.  But, considering the price of Kindle Nation Daily sponsorships ($80 USD with which I generated almost 20 times the sales), I think a more reasonable price would be $20.  Maybe post two or three ads a day.  Once a website starts having ads, I don’t think there’s much of a difference between having 1-2 and 3-4.

That said, these ads are clearly very popular, so perhaps other people have had better luck with it.   And on a final note, I’m noticing more and more websites and blogs with advertisements, and I’m a little wary of how quickly this is happening.  The more ads on the sites, the less powerful they become.  Hopefully prices stay constant.

Sorry, KindleBoards.