Recently, I have run two Instafreebie giveaways. The first one was for Exile. I ran it for 14 days and I made signing up for my newsletter mandatory. The result: 46 copies claimed. Which I was happy with. It is fa short story, and I have no problem giving away that for free.

Last week I decided to giveaway the Cauldron Bound, since it was Thanksgiving. This time, the giveaway was shorter, just 5 days and I required nothing. I just gave copies away. And the result: 27 downloads. Which I am also happy with.

The results of the giveaways is interesting. I will admit that I thought that the difference would be bigger. Because while 20 more people downloaded Exile, that giveaway ran 10 days longer than the Cauldron Bound giveaway.

The difference makes me wonder what impact the mandatory newsletter had. Probably bigger than I thought it would have. Which is something that I wish I had thought about before I set up the giveaway.

The next time, I will do newsletter sign-ups non-mandatory, and see what happens. Because I am definitely doing them again. These giveaways cost nothing, they gain me more downloads that e-mail blasts does. The next time will probably be an arc giveaway of some sort, since I want to build word of mouth. And I think Instafreebie is the easiest way to do that.