Bookfunnel - Serious Question

[R. C.]

This inquiry is directed to those who use, have used, the site: Bookfunnel.com.

I am feeling a little dense. Okay, more dense than usual.  After reading their site, every page, I came away confused. 

Is the intent of the service to build a mailing list?

The FAQ states they are not Search Engine Optimized. How do they build a following?

If you do not yet have a large following/mailing list, how does their service attract new readers?

Cheers,
R.C.

UPDATE 05-FEB-2021

I reached out to BookFunnel for guidance and information.  They reverted with a link I did not find while scouring their site. Here is the link: BookFunnel

[notthatamanda]

I need the answer to this question too.

My understanding is you send people to your website to sign up for your mailing list, which I use mailchimp for. Then when you have a free reader magnet you use bookfunnel to distribute that to your mailing list. Possibly by using mailchimp to send people to bookfunnel to get the free reader magnet. The basics of building your mailing list depends on getting people to sign up for it, either because they like your books or website/blog/posts or both.

Please correct me if I am misunderstanding this. I haven't signed up for bookfunnel yet.

[idontknowyet]

I am not book funnel savvy, but here is what ive come to understand.

We the authors have to drive traffic to our own books. They just provide a way to download and a landing page. they way i find new subscribers is through joining promos. everyone advertises to their newsletter and to people on social media. basically pooling our newsletter lists for interests.

[Simon Haynes]

You can integrate Bookfunnel with Mailerlite (and probably others).  So, if you put a reader magnet in the front of your books, and people go to Bookfunnel to grab it, you can insist (or ask, either way) that they sign up to your mailing list.  You can tag those subscribers so you know where they came from, too.

The shared promos are part of it, but for example if your forum sig here said 'Get my first book free' with a bookfunnel link, people could go to that link and decide whether to join your mailing list or not.  Some join, grab the book and immediately leave, but that's normal. Anyway, if they enjoy the book they'll most likely stick around.

[LilyBLily]

BookFunnel initially was a convenient way to give people our books digitally. We upload all the files, give people on our mailing list or anyone we have an email for a BookFunnel link or have BookFunnel send them the link. If there are any technical problems, BookFunnel holds their hands. BookFunnel also warns them that they get a unique link they can't pass on and there is code in the file to reveal who did pass it on if they do. The link to the book is time-limited, too, to encourage the ARC readers to pick up the book immediately and start reading. I can customize the message they receive and even include a direct link to reviewing on Amazon, for instance.

I first used BookFunnel to send ARCs to people already on my mailing list. It works just fine.

Now, like many of the other companies we've gone to for one service, BookFunnel has expanded its offerings. The cross promotions are very enticing because you can drill down to the exact kind of promotion you feel comfortable promoting on social media or on your newsletter. You can choose a newsletter builder or a sales promo with or without a free book. You do not have to discount your books necessarily to join these promos. They cost nothing extra in the BookFunnel system, so if you have a tiny newsletter or none at all you can still get a cheap BookFunnel account and do the promos either to start building your list through cross promotion, or simply to sell books.   

BookFunnel isn't the only company doing this. Book Cave also does; I just received a link from Book Cave to a free novella for joining a mailing list. Book Cave also runs a discount newsletter. It may be into other things, too. Hidden Gems and Prolific Works (formerly Instafreebie) also now offer multiple services. There is a lot to compare. Choose what you think will work for you now.

[R. C.]

You can integrate Bookfunnel with Mailerlite (and probably others).  ...

FYI - They list 8 or 10 integration options on one of their pages.

Cheers,
R.C.

[Lorri Moulton]

I use BookFunnel for the sales promos.  As stated above, authors send readers to the promo and we all get more/new eyes on our books.

It's also a great way to distribute a free ebook (mailing list or not).  I'm using it for some free offers on my website to test BookFunnel and how easily my readers can download the ebooks. 

I haven't had a problem, but we had some concerns on the forum...and I want to make sure all my readers find it easy to use.  If they do, I'll try selling ebooks from my website with BookFunnel handling the downloads.