After a press release about my novel went out, I received an e-mail from an internet radio site called Global Talk Radio. They wanted to interview me on their radio show "A Story to Tell".

Here's the catch. They ask each of their guests to sponsor the show for $35.00, and for that $35 you get a 10 minute interview and a link to your website from theirs for a month.

So at the beginning of September I paid my sponsorship fee and did this interview exclusively so I could find out if I would get any publicity from it (so I could share the info with other writers).

Here were my results:

The first day the interview aired - I did not experience any more web traffic than normal. Nor did my sales numbers jump on amazon or Barnes & Noble. Second, I only received about 10 click throughs from their site to mine, and no click throughs to purchase my novel that I'm aware of.

It wasn't a complete loss though!

The experience of the interview alone was probably worth $25 (so $35 is a bit expensive IMO) because it gave me a chance to answer impromptu questions and listen to myself and how I responded to being interviewed by a complete stranger.

But I don't think the link on their website was worth much at all.

IMO, my future $35 will be been better spent on a three-month ad in my local writing org's blue mailer. I'm not saying writers shouldn't do these interviews, because they do have their uses -- but if you're looking to put your *advertising* dollars where they'll be well spent, internet radio interviews (at these sites that ask for sponsorship fees) really aren't the way to go.

Just my two cents.