~ WHY DO YOU HAVE TO MARKET YOUR BOOK?
Your book is about
to be published, and now it’s time to talk about the facts of life: marketing and promotion.
STORY MERCHANT
BOOKS is proud to have gotten your book into print, and will focus at this
point on marketing it in two ways:
1) Opportunistically—meaning when we
see an opportunity in our wide web of experience and contacts, we will work
with you to take advantage of it.
2) Now that we have your book to give
to our network of television and motion picture agents, financers, and fellow
producers, we will be intent on finding a way to the screen for it. That is the
primary reason I founded the imprint, to get books into the hands of Hollywood
storytellers desperate for stories to tell.
That leaves the
selling of books, for the moment (until you have a feature film or television
series at your back), squarely in your hands—exactly, by the way, as it would
be if you had chosen traditional publishing.
The American
marketplace, nearly 300 million strong, is the most lucrative market for books
in the world—and the gateway to the global marketplace. Amazon now has websites
in United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Canada,
Mexico, and Brazil—and is adding more each year. Your book’s reach can truly be
GLOBAL—
—IF your BOOK is VISIBLE.
One book in a
million launches to instant sales while the author does absolutely nothing.
It’s the most common fantasy to think you’ll succeed without promotion or that
the media will cover your book with little effort on your part.
The other 999,999
books require MARKETING (promotional) efforts to become VISIBLE to the American
and global marketplace.
And promotion is
an ongoing thing that never stops.
But before I discuss those efforts,
you need to know this formula by heart:
o
PROMOTION has no direct relationship with
sales.
o
But DEDICATED MARKETING produces
VISIBILITY.
o
Without VISIBILITY there can be no sales.
Consider BMW,
Veuve Clicquot, Victoria’s Secret, and many other brands that are embedded in
the American consciousness. They know that spending millions of dollars a year
in the big slick magazines with sexy ads has NO direct relationship with sales.
But they do it because it keeps their brands in the forefront of the browsers’
awareness.
They don’t dare NOT spend the money. For one
thing, they know if they don’t spend it, someone else will be spending it and
that someone else may take their place in the buyers’ awareness.
The same is true
of the massively crowded world of books.
So one way or the
other, you must PROMOTE YOUR BOOK as fervently—maybe with even more fervor than
as you wrote it.
I suggest setting
aside a minimum amount of time EACH DAY. Time upon time produces results.
One
last preliminary: Make it a principle from now on, NEVER to give an interview
in ANY media without having something to sell. That means until your book is
available for purchase, hold up any potential interviews—internet, radio,
television, print—until you can give the audience the information on how you can buy this book!
SUGGESTIONS FOR
PUBLICIZING YOUR BOOK
What are some of
the best ways to market your book? From years of trials and errors, both my own
and those of my clients, here’s what I suggest:
1) Come up with your own marketing
plan, and monitor it as you continue forward. Send it to us for our feedback
and suggestions.
2) Put time into it. Nothing happens
unless you invest your time and/or your money (money buys time).
3) Get help. If you don’t have the time
or desire to do it yourself, use help—ours or someone else’s--to make your book
visible. That’s Story Merchant Book Marketing recently brought on Cindy
Villareal Hughes as our new director of marketing. Cindy is happy to provide an
initial free consultation and can be reached at cindy@storymerchant.com or at 512-659-2268
Focus by promoting exclusively for your
listing on amazon.com—which has over 100 million subscribers. Get that “Author
Central” page up as soon as your book is launched. Amazon is the 500-lb guerrilla,
so set the other monkeys aside until you’ve sold 100 million books.
5) When in doubt, build a Facebook page instead
of a blogsite or website (if you can’t do both). With 1.3 billion users
globally, where can you find a better marketplace? Maybe you’ll find that
limiting when your book has sold a billion copies. Then you can expand beyond
Facebook. Meanwhile here’s the biggest market imaginable—nearly 250 million in
North America—right at your fingertips. The service offered by Chi-Li Wong
helps you address this.
6) Focus on book reviews. First aim for 30,
then 100, then 300. Magic happens when the Amazon computer’s algorithm starts
paying attention to your book, and reviews make that happen inevitably.
7) Send out a press release about your book
through a service that reaches Internet reviewers. You will surely receive
requests for review copies—and at least half of those will end up as reviews on
the Internet. We have a service for that purpose.
8) Social networking is where it’s all
happening today: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked-In, YouTube, and Tumblr.
Set up accounts and send out postings regularly until you grow your following.
If you want help with that, we can do it (see attached menu of services).
9) Report to us anything that’s working for
you so we can share it with your fellow Story
Merchant authors.
10) It’s invaluable to get endorsements for
your book–authorities and/or well-known people who will say great things about
your book to display on the jacket.
Let’s break down
some of the above steps.
Endorsements
There
are numerous ways to request endorsements (aka “blurbs”):
●
Ask
your colleagues! If you are a professional, it’s always a good idea to ask your
colleagues for their endorsements, or to recommend you to well-known others,
especially those who are writers too. Busy people often have good hearts but
not enough time. We’ve found the most effective way to approach them is by
composing the endorsement on their behalf, sending it to them with a sampling
from your book, and asking, “I’m wondering if you could see your way clear to
saying something on behalf of my book, something like, xxxxxx.” You’ll find that many people will
tell you to use what you’ve composed, while others may decide to read the
sampling first and write their own. Either way, you’ve got the endorsement!
●
Does
your topic deal with a timely issue? Can you think of anyone in entertainment
who may relate to your topic? Try and seek out celebrities (actors,
best-selling authors, athletes) to endorse your book (it never hurts to have a
famous name on the cover!)
●
STORY
MERCHANT recommendations! Being a part of the STORY MERCHANT family includes
you in a circle of writers and creative people. We have many authors in our
pool who can give you endorsements, in return for one from you.
●
Brainstorm
with your editor. Check out the STORY MERCHANT BOOKS website, and suggest
writers who might appreciate your book. We’ll let them know about it.
Hire a Publicist!
It’s rarely a bad idea to hire your
own personal publicist to help spread the word about you and your book, but
focus on visibility not the expectation of sales-for-dollars spent. A publicist
can help you land radio or TV spots, get you interviewed in newspapers or
magazines, and much more.
Costs for a publicist range,
depending on what kind of service you’re looking for. Generally $2500-$5000 per month is the going
rate.
STORY MERCHANT has contacts with
several publicists we’ve used over the years to great success. If you need a
recommendation, contact us. Otherwise, contact the following publicists and
tell them you’re an STORY MERCHANT client:
Rick Frishman, Planned
Television Arts
516-308-1524
Devon Blaine, The Blaine Group
310-360-1499
Robyn Spizman, Robyn Spizman Literary Works
770-361-6320
When
it comes to promotion, think outside the box.
Reviews
●
Whether you do it through your publisher, your publicist, or
your own personal sweat equity, make sure “galley copies” (aka “Advanced
Reading Copies, or ARCs”) go to book review editors at these trade outlets, as
appropriate:
▪
Kirkus Reviews
▪
Publishers Weekly
▪
Book List
▪
Foreword
and these consumer outlets:
o
NY
Times Book Review
o
LA
Times
o
SF
Chronicle
o
B
& N.com
o
BookReporter.com
o
Salon.com
o
American
Way Magazine (in flight Magazine for American Airlines)
o
Esquire
o
GQ
o
Giant
Magazine
o
Book
Page
o
Entertainment
Weekly
o
People
o
FHM
Magazine
o
Hollywood
Reporter
o
Men's
Journal
o
UAS
Today
o
Washington
Post
o
Chicago
Tribune
o
Chicago
Sun Times
o
Washington
Post
o
Wall
Street Journal
o
Pages
magazine
o
Time
o
Time
Out NY
o
AP
o
Atlanta
Journal Constitution
o
Boston
Globe
o
Creative
Screenwriting
o
Dallas
Morning News
o
Denver
Post
o
LA
Daily News
o
San
Diego Union Tribune
o
San
Jose Mercury News
o
Miami
Herald
o
Minneapolis
Star Tribune
o
NY
Daily News
o
NY
Post
o
Orange
County Register
o
Philadelphia
Inquirer
o
Variety
o
Seattle
Times
o
Ft.
Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
o
Deadly
Pleasures
o
SciFiHaven.com
o
Locus
o
Fantasy
& Sci Fi
o
CFQ
o
Starlog
o
Interzone
o
Cinefantasy
o
several
major freelancers such as Tom Nolan, Merle Rubin, Dick Adler, Harriet Klausner.
Story Merchant Books has a service that gets your book in front of them.
o
Others
as appropriate to your particular title—e.g., Today’s Black Woman, Black Star
News, Black Reign magazine, Ebony, Black Essence, etc.
Teach a class at the Learning Annex, STORY
MERCHANT Client
Does your nonfiction
book have something educational to share?
The Learning Annex is always looking for new teachers. This avenue is a great way to share your knowledge and contribute to the
world. There are Learning Annex
locations in many cities across the U.S., and their bi-monthly catalog (a good
place for ads!) reaches 2 million people.
But please note, only the serious need apply. If you are scheduled to teach a class and do
not show up, that’s it. All ties with
you and this association will be severed.
This policy is strictly enforced.
What we need
to make this happen:
(a)
You
study the most recent Learning Annex catalog (call us if you can’t find one on
your own); and
(b)
Construct a 1-page “catalog copy” proposal
that can be forwarded to Learning Annex program directors. Note that the title of all successful classes is 90% of their success. It must be crystal clear, focused on what the
student will get out of the course, and practical.
Go after Corporations
Corporations have deep pockets, and it’s easier to make
sales to them than you might imagine! They’re always looking for ways of
endorsing or sponsoring worthy messages—and multiple copies of an innovative
new book often fill that bill.
But nothing can take the place of your own associations,
ideas, and efforts in this regard. One recent client got a major corporation to
advance-order 25,000 copies of his book—which led to a much more favorable
publishing deal than we might otherwise have made for him.
Keep Us in the Loop
Please make sure that you, and your publicist,
copy us on all email and news about your book (atchity@storymerchant.com and Chelsea@storymerchant.com ). We will, for starters, post the latest
developments on our sites, and link our sites to yours—but we will also look
for synergies that can advance the cause of sales.
Other Suggestions
● Writers’ Conferences—Get yourself invited, and
they will automatically order your book to sell at the conference bookstore.
●
Place products in your book and make a deal with the company
that makes them to cross-promote your book (see attached story, “Product
Placement Deals Make Leap from Film to Books”). See http://money.howstuffworks.com/product-placement.htm for great detail.
● Make personalized postage using your book
cover, and ask all your friends to use them as stamps (available at stamps.com
among other places on the Internet).
● Make decals for your car—and all your friends’
cars--of your book jacket.
● Put ads on buses and subways in cities where
you think your book has its most likely audience.
● Buy billboard space.
● Print up fancy bookmarks and send 50 to every
bookstore you can get the address for.
Exploit the Internet
The Internet is chock full of opportunities to get attention
to your new book—and you can do it from the comfort of your desk. But start at
least six months before your book comes out. Contact websites such as the
following:
http://www.bookmarket.com/
http://www.dearreader.com
--“the Oprah of the Internet”
http://www.avidreaderbooks.com
http://www.nsaspeaker.org
http://www.awpwriter.org
http://www.chud.com
http://www.imdb.com
(especially if you want to get film attention)
http://www.nerve.com
http://www.pennyterk.com
– sign up for your own web page!
http://www.promoteabook.com
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com
http://www.freebookdude.com/2014/03/list-your-free-amazon-kindle-books.html
http://digitalbooktoday.com/12-top-100-submit-your-free-book-to-be-included-on-this-list/
http://www.itswritenow.com/submit-your-book/
http://www.freebooksy.com/editorial-submissions/
http://www.bargainbooksy.com/for-authors/
http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/forum/171
http://www.iloveebooks.com/for-authors.html
http://ebookshabit.com/for-authors/
http://www.theereadercafe.com/p/authors.html
http://bookgoodies.com/submit-your-free-kindle-days/
http://form.jotformpro.com/form/21078469493969
http://www.rachelleayala.com/p/promo-sites.html
http://www.armadilloebooks.com/submit-free-ebooks/
http://bookangel.co.uk/submit-your-book/
http://awesomegang.com/submit-your-book/
http://support.hotzippy.net/?p=459
http://bookdealhunter.com/submit-free-book/
http://bookpinning.com/?sws=home/submit-book
http://www.digitalinktoday.com/submit/
http://www.ebooklister.net/submit.php
http://ereadergirl.com/submit-your-ebook-2/
http://www.freebooks.com/submit/
http://www.free-kindle-books-4u.com/promote-your-book
http://www.indieauthornews.com/p/promote-my-book.html
http://bookhippo.uk/
http://indiebookoftheday.com/authors/free-on-kindle-listing/
http://www.justkindlebooks.com/submit-your-book/
http://www.moreforlessonline.com/free-listing.html
http://sweetiespicks.com/submit/
http://www.freeebooksblog.com/contact/
http://hunt4freebies.com/submit-freebie
http://jungledealsandsteals.com/submit-your-kindle-freebie/
http://kindlebookpromos.luckycinda.com/?page_id=283
http://www.daily-free-ebooks.com/suggest-free-ebook/
http://christianbookreaders.com/submit-your-free-books/
http://www.bookgorilla.com/advertise
http://wantonreads.com/authors-tell-us-about-yourself/
http://pretty-hot.com/submit-your-book/
http://snickslist.com/books/place-ad/
http://www.freebookclub.org/kindle-books/book-submissions/
http://www.bestebooksworld.com/addlinks.asp
http://www.digitalinktoday.com/submit/
http://www.kornerkonnection.com/
http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog
http://ereadernewstoday.com/bargain-kindle-books/
http://www.freebookshub.com/authors/
http://www.xtme.de/submitting-a-free-e-book-to-xtmeenglishbooks/
http://ebookblitz.com/
http://booksends.com/advertise.php
http://ebookdealofday.com/free-book-feature/
http://www.flurriesofwords.blogspot.co.uk/
http://freediscountedbooks.com/submit-ebook/
https://readersfavorite.com/book-reviews.htm
Social Media
Do you find
“social media’ confusing or overwhelming? Are you unsure how to get started, or
wondering if the time you spend on Facebook , Twitter, Pinterest and other
social media platforms is worth it?
Networking on
Facebook is one of the most important ways to meet and develop relationships
with thousands of potential customers as well as other authors, experts, and
key influencers in your field or genre. But it can be a real challenge to
figure out how to take advantage of Facebook's full potential. Chi-Li Wong (clw@aeionline.com) offers a service to help you with
this.
The Story Merchant
Book Marketing team will build, activate or update your Facebook page and
implement our trusted and proven strategy tailored specifically for the needs
of authors to stay competitive, current and cool. By expanding your fan base
through increasing “LIKES” you will gain more potential customers on a daily
basis. Let us do the work that gets you results! Our social media strategists
offer the following services:
• Set up your
Profile and Page for maximum marketing
• Add book covers
and other images to Facebook
• Run ads for new
friends on Facebook
• Use Facebook
Events to promote your book
• Get your status
updates noticed by your friends and fans
• Import your blog
posts and tweets
PINTEREST
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is one
of the hottest new social sites! Think of it as a giant online bulletin board
that people "pin" images to. As a user, you create "boards"
geared to different topics or interests. As you're cruising around the Web, you
see an image that you'd like to share with others and you "pin" it to
one of your "boards." When someone clicks on the image, they will see
a description of the image and they can be directed back to the website that
the image came from. Everyone's buzzing about Pinterest, a rapidly growing
social site that's all about creating and sharing collections of images that
you find around the Web or create yourself.
Why does Pinterest matter to you?
Pinterest is
gaining nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors, and Shareaholic says that
Pinterest is driving more referral traffic to websites than Google Plus,
LinkedIn and YouTube combined. Referral traffic means more visitors who land on
your book website through a link from another site!
STORY MERCHANT BOOK MARKETING, under Executive Director Cindy
Villareal, has built a team that knows how to master this hot new site and
leverage your Pinterest account to promote your books. We provide the services
that will:
• Set up your
account and create your profile
• Manage Pinterest
terminology
• Create Boards
• Pin images to
Pinterest
• Re-pinning
images to your own boards
• Interact with
others by sharing and commenting
• Attract
followers on Pinterest
• Promote your
books and products through Pinterest
• Find buttons and
other tools to enhance your Pinterest experience
Networking on
Twitter is terrific way to meet and develop relationships with potential
customers as well as other authors, experts, and key influencers in your field
or genre. But, Twitter can be baffling at first and most important need you
will ever have to reach broad customers similar to texting!
STORY MERCHANT BOOK MARKETING will create an action plan that is
tailored to meet the unique needs of authors to master the power of Twitter.
• Attract the
right followers on Twitter
• Configure your
profile page for maximum marketing effectiveness
• Properly use
Tweets, Re-tweets and Mentions
• Choose the right
user name
• We use multiple
Twitter accounts to your advantage
• Manage tweets,
re-tweets, hashtags and Follow
• Write effective
tweets
• Twitter contests
to increase your followers
• Link tweets to
Facebook
•Weekly Growth and
Status Report
•Weekly Conference
Call
•ACTION “To Do”
lists coordinated with your personal Social Team Manager.
LET US GIVE YOU
THE FREEDOM TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST: WRITE!
EBook Marketing Strategies
Hashtags:
If used correctly, they can help you gather more attention. If they relate to
your book, using current trends can also help gain awareness. For example, if
your book is a political thriller, use real-life events with similar tones to
your story as points of connection.
Interaction:
There are millions of different types of people on Twitter. Search for people
looking to read new books and interact with them. Don’t exclusively talk about
your book though; discuss the things they’re talking about. When you talk with
them, they’ll probably check out your profile and hopefully click on your
book’s link.
Giving advice, interviews, and writing
tips away for free can also increase awareness.
Pinned
Tweets: When users click on your profile, you want to make sure
that your most relevant tweet is at the top.
Promoted
Twitter: If you’re willing to spend some money, you can pay to
advertise on Twitter and have your tweets, your twitter handle, or your trends
show up more often.
You can set your own budget and you are
only charged if someone were to actually click on your profile.
You can set very strict or very loose
keywords and demographics that you want to target.
Facebook :
● Using
either Facebook pages or a business Facebook page is a great way to get more
exposure. Being the biggest and most popular social media outlet, this is where
you’d attract the largest audience.
● You
can do a lot of activities similar to Twitter with pinned and promoted
messages, but Facebook gives you another way to connect with your fans
and gives you a chance to send longer
messages.
● Most
of the social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have a “stat page” that
allows you to track what posts are doing well and see what changes you should
make in an attempt to get more attention.
Other Social Media:
● Other
social media sites, such as Pinterest and Youtube, have promotional ads and
other advertising methods that can be used to promote key abilities.
● There
are a ton of social media sites out there that have very different demographics
and strengths. You don’t need to use them all, but taking advantage of the key
ones such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn
would be very beneficial to you.
● You
can schedule your posts in advance so you don’t have to remember to log in
multiple times a day to stay updated.
● It’s
very important to update each of your social media pages. You don’t have to
update all of them every day, but make sure you update each one at least a few
times a week. Facebook and Twitter should probably be updated at least daily; a
few times a day would be even better.
Don’t use auto-follower or auto-responder
services, as those are not user-friendly. If someone follows you and you want
to send them a message thanking them then take the time to send them a
personalized message.
Mobile:
● With
so many people using the internet from their mobile devices it makes a lot of
sense to create a mobile site for your personal website. If your site is not
accessible people will just get frustrated and move on.
Google Adwords:
● Use
Keywords to put Ads on certain Google Searches.
● Pay
Per Click.
● You
can target specific areas or ranges.
● Google
Analytics allows you to track your ads so you can see what exactly is working
and make necessary adjustments.
Giveaways:
● Using
contests is a great way to help promote your book.
● Social
media sites like Twitter and Facebook can launch promotions to a lot of people
at once for free.
● Don’t
always give out free copies of your book, other items such t-shirts, coupons,
autographs, etc. can also get people very excited and curious about your book.
● Craiglist
is also a great place to give away your book for free.
Book Readings:
● Book
readings are useful for people not on social media and the Internet (and these
people do still exist!).
Sending Free copies to famous writers,
politicians, and talk show hosts:
● Sending
books to famous people could attract attention—if it’s a great book, they might
mention it on their social media sites and other networks.
Blogs:
● Using
a blog can give people personal insight into you as an author and a person. The
more people know about you the more accessible and intriguing you become.
● You
need to keep it up to date on interesting things. Don’t just talk about items
and events relevant to your genre, but expand to include things that truly
interest you and others.
● Using
keywords is very important to help draw people to your blog, which will
ultimately draw people to your books.
● Comment
on other blogs that are similar to yours. That will help draw people to your
blog and books.
● Try
to respond to everyone that comments on your blog. It will help you keep your
followers and promote yourself better.
● Keep
your messages short.
● Do
reviews of other authors’ books. Not only will it help you get viewers for your
book, but it could send that author’s fans to your blog as well.
● Chi-Li
Wong has built blogs for many of our authors.
Podcast/Radio:
● Appearing
on other’s writers’/authors’ shows is a great way to find other potential
consumers. Talking about similar topics is a great way to attract attention.
● There
are many different podcast and radio stations, the more you help them the more
they can potentially help you.
● Unfortunately
people have short attentions spans nowadays, a quick book trailer could draw a
different audience.
● Keeping
it short and to the point is very important as people unwilling to take time to
watch even a two minute video.
● There
are many free sites out there such as Vimeo, Youtube, and Dailymotion that can
be used to upload your videos.
● You
can also use videos for interviews, speeches, and other things that you think
might be interesting to your potential consumers.
● Hosting
a video contest with fans submitting videos they made is also a great way to
interact with your fans.
● When
you send out a press kit, make sure you attach any important videos to it. All
media is important.
Special Holidays:
● There
are many holidays that gather national attention. Use these to help promote
your books.
● Holidays
such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Groundhog Day, Grandparents Day, and
Employee Appreciation Day are neutral holidays that gather national attention
but won’t offend people if you advertise on those days.
● You
have to be very careful when using holidays to advertise. One wrong comment
could offend some people.
Networking:
● Networking
is very important, just like any other industry or situation. The more people
you know and help, the more likely they want to return the favor and help you.
●
Using sites such as LinkedIn is very
beneficial to promoting your brand and your books.
●
Giving people a face and personality
beyond the pages of your book could be very beneficial. Of course if you use a pseudonym, then you need to more
extensively plan hour you’ll achieve your face-to-face networking.
Permission Marketing:
● You
can send mass emails to prospective readers with incentive for them to buy the
book by a certain date.
● Use
a mailing list that you have and use frequently, or create one in order to
target a lot of people at once. Contacting people you don’t know will cause the
emails to be ignored or spammed.
● Add
a signature to the end of your email with your name, book title, and website
for easy access for your potential consumers.
Tips for Creating a Mailing List:
● On
your website, it should be very easy for consumers to sign up for you emailing
list.
● Don’t
require an address or occupation from them, just get their name and email.
● Make
sure you have interesting content; don’t just spam your list with repetitive,
unhelpful information.
Second Life:
● Second
Life is an online virtual reality that allows you to interact with many
different people in a 3-D virtual world.
● It
allows you to do whatever you want to advertise including organize events,
virtual book signings, and host conferences.
● There
are a ton of different groups on Second Life that enable you to try and sell
your book to many different kinds of people.
● Many
companies, such as Overstock.com, Careerbuilder.com, and IBM have online stores
in Second Life, where you can list and purchase products.
Libraries
Library marketing is an effective way to
help make your book visible—one library can mean hundreds of readers.
Effective library marketing is essential to ensure success in publishing.
Public libraries and university libraries often order in bulk, require little
or no discount, and always pay on time.
We
offer mailing lists of public libraries and university libraries. Our library
mailing lists can be an important piece in helping you solve the book marketing
puzzle.
Our
highly targeted lists of public libraries and university libraries include
libraries with the largest number of volumes and the largest acquisition
budgets. Our lists of librarians are those that buy the books for thousands of
branches. You will not be wasting your marketing budget on public and college
libraries that are unlikely to purchase your books.
Now
that we’ve discussed the how’s and why’s of marketing your book, allow us to
lay out the packages that we offer to help you get started!
If you’d like our direct assistance,
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