How I got 5000+ people interested in my book with a Christmas giveaway
This story happened a year ago when I finished the first version of my ebook Command Line: A Modern Introduction. I didn't have any reviews, I didn't know if people would be interested or find my book useful.
I thought I should do something big to promote it and so I decided to do a Christmas giveaway. It would help me see if people wanted it, if they would rate it positively, and at the same time I could make someone's Christmas a bit better.
I decided to go with reddit for the announcement. Even though my posts eventually got removed by the admins, they still got many upvotes. For example:
- r/programming 875 upvotes
- r/commandline 173 upvotes
Getting exposure on r/programming is huge given how many people this community has!
All in all:
- More than 5000 people decided to get the book
- I received ~70 great ratings for the book (4 and 5 stars)
- Some people even decided to pay for it when it was offered for free!
The last point was surprising to me! I earned $210 during the giveaway.
This month I significantly updated and improved the book. So if you want to get better at command line skills, consider getting a copy :) Read my post where I explain why →.
So what about you? Do you utilize command line in your indie hacking life? Have you ever did a giveaway? Let me know below :)
