The Value of Give-Aways

On Monday, I won tickets to go see Sara Evans in concert. I phoned into the local radio station and won tickets, allowing me to go to a concert last night. Now, I'm not normally a stingy person, but I certainly wouldn't have paid $25 to go see a concert--that's just not what I'd choose to spend my money on. Anyway, because I won the tickets, I went to the location of the concert, the Rockingham County Fair. After a deluge, and the concert being postponed for 45 minutes for fear of the audience being struck by lighting while sitting on metal stands listening to country music, the actual performance began. I was impressed, though glad I didn't spend $25 to hear an hour of singing which I could have heard on a cd and not gone quite as deaf.

Anyway, the point of this ramble is that, as an author, one of the best things you can do to grab the attention of readers, and web-surfers alike, is to offer free things, give-aways, contests, etc. on your website. Since I don't have much published, I have little to no web traffic. However, once things start rolling, I will be giving away books, etc. because it's just nice to give back to the people who support you.