Why Cheap Promo is No Bargain: The Promo Website Empire of Alwin Gnanaraj

A literary agent recently reached out to me to let me know that one of their authors (a well-known literacy advocate) was being impersonated via a message falsely sent out under the author’s name. The purpose of the message: plugging a “perfect” marketing website called AllKidsBooks (I’ve redacted the author’s name and email address):

From what appears on its website, AllKidsBooks (warning: if you click the link, you’ll be routed to a Cloudflare “verify you’re human” page before you can access the site) is one of those DIY promo sites where authors sign up to post their own books, book trailers, events, etc., supposedly to boost their exposure to an eager audience. Additional perks include the promise of social media and email marketing.

Without information about traffic and/or subscribers and followers, such sites are pretty dubious as a marketing strategy, even if they’re free. And AllKidsBooks is not free.

AllKidsBooks has no internet footprint beyond its own listing, and its About page (which could use a copy editor) doesn’t offer any information about site ownership or history. I always check domain registrations, just for thoroughness; they can at least give me a sense of how long a site has been around, even if registrant information is almost always anonymized these days. But to my surprise, AllKidsBooks’ registration shows a registrant name–Alwin Gnanaraj A–and an address in Tamil Nadu, India.

Googling turns up Mr. Gnanaraj’s LinkedIn (full name: Alwin Gnanaraj Aruldhas), which describes him as “an entrepreneur and digital strategist”; and also his X account…which turns out to be quite the rabbit hole.

Mr. Gnanaraj, you see, doesn’t just own one promotional website. He owns 24 of them (that I could find–there’s a full list at the bottom of this post). He isn’t really trying to hide this: the sites don’t link to one another and the non-anonymized AllKidsBooks registration appears to be an exception, but the fine print of most of the sites identify him as the operator (such as here, on the Cancellation and Refunds Policy page of SmartBooksBuzz.com).

Most have the same self-serve structure described above, with extras varying depending on the focus, which spans a range of areas in which people might want to promote their products: mostly books and writing, but also art, interviews, business listings, and property listings. Although a few offer a basic “free” option (with the opportunity to upgrade to paid), and one (AuthorIView.com) appears to be entirely free, the rest have the same tiered fee structure and general price ranges as in the screenshot above.

All appear to be well-populated with creator-posted content–suggesting that, combined, they yield a pretty tidy income.

What Do You Get for Your Money?

$17, or even $67, might not seem like a huge amount to spend on self-promotion–especially considering the kinds of fees that experienced publicists charge. Even book marketing scams aren’t that cheap. But marketing really is an area where you get what you pay for, and cheap marketing is likely to be cheap in every sense of the word.

Above, I noted that it’s difficult to assess promo sites like Mr. Gnanaraj’s without information about traffic and/or subscribers–which it’s rare for such sites to provide. One way to get around that, sort of, is to look at social media activity, especially if social media promo is part of the promised marketing (which it usually is, because social media promo is easy and cheap).

But what social media? An alert author exploring the AllKidsBooks website (or any of Mr. Gnanaraj’s other sites) might notice that they don’t include any social media links. So how does the “Web & App Push Notification” promised in the screenshot above happen, and where do the “Facebook & LinkedIn groups announcements” appear?

The answer seems to be: on Mr. Gnanaraj’s personal social media. Such as this, from his X account:

A few things to notice here. Mr. Gnanaraj is plugging a website–his website, from which he earns money–not any individual book. Although he does occasionally highlight a book, most of his posts are like the one above. Authors who sign up in the belief they’ll get personalized promo may find themselves sadly disappointed.

Additionally, few people are seeing, let alone interacting with, these posts. Mr. Gnanaraj has just over 3,200 followers on X–pretty puny for a marketer, even if all the followers are humans and not bots–and even for that small number, engagement is low: limited views, few likes and re-posts, and comments that are largely ads or spam. From a marketing perspective, engagement of anywhere between 1% and 3% is considered average (engagement = all interactions / # of followers x 100); the post above, which is actually among Mr. Gnanaraj’s most viewed, has an engagement rate of under 1% .

Mr. Gnanaraj is not exactly knocking himself out with social media activity, either. His X feed shows anywhere from zero to four or five (at most) posts per month. Given the very large number of sites he maintains, that means maybe two or three total plugs for each site…or none, which is what you got if you signed up for AllKidsBooks: I could find not one mention of it on Mr. Gnanaraj’s X.

Mr. Gnanaraj also owns a large number of LinkedIn groups, and the same pattern is apparent there. Most of these have a much higher follower count, but posts are similarly sparse and engagement is similarly low. For example, the group to which he posted this come-on for his WritIn site claims 347,279 members, yet the post couldn’t muster more than 72 engagements.

Writer Beware

Inexpensive promotional websites are everywhere online (and possibly also in your Inbox: they can be ferocious spammers). I get questions about them all the time. What I tell authors is this: even if you don’t mind betting $15 or $25 or $39.99 on the odds that what they’re offering could bring you some benefit, don’t take the hype at face value. When you look closely, the claims often quickly fall through.

For example, WhizzBuzz Books charges $49 for a year of promotion; its X account boasts 147K bots followers, but most of its canned posts can’t even crack 100 views. The English language-challenged BookKnocks sells a 10-day promo for $39, but since its website includes no social media links, its claim of “more than 100 thousand readers” on X and Instagram is meaningless, since it’s impossible to verify. The similarly ungrammatical Author’s Glow will set you back between $15 and $95 for a 7, 10, 15, or 20-day campaign; its X account has a paltry 2,700 followers, and its canned posts get anywhere between zero and 15 views. Its Instagram following, at 6,500, is slightly more respectable…but average comments/likes on its posts hover in the zero-to-one range.

Things to check and consider before handing over cash:

• Google the site to see if you can find complaints. Reddit is often a good source for this kind of discussion.
• Be skeptical of any testimonials on the site (these are easily faked), unless you can trace them back to real people.
• Does the site claim a social media following but neglect to provide any social media links? Don’t trust if you can’t verify.
• If they do provide links, does their followership match their claims? If they’re lying about that, they are probably lying about what they can do for you.
• Are their social media posts varied and individualized, or just the same canned content over and over? Why would you pay for that?
• What kind of engagement do their posts get? Comments, likes, re-posts, views–all are metrics that can be evaluated (as I do for Mr. Gnanaraj’s social media, above). If there’s little engagement, what are you getting for your money?
• Do their websites include syntax and grammar mistakes, typos, and other errors? What does that suggest for the quality of their promo? (It also can indicate a scam from overseas.)
• If they claim to have a newsletter, ask for an example.
• If they claim to do email marketing, ask for a sample email.
• If they refuse or obfuscate in response to your questions…or if there’s no way to contact anyone to ask…move on.

Don’t throw your money away on cheap promo–even if it’s not trying to boost its profile by impersonating a well-known author.

The Promo Empire of Alwin Gnanaraj

AllKidsBooks.com (children’s books)
Apenbok.com (general interest books)
Artslikes.com (artworks, including painting and sculpture)
Audiobi.com (audiobooks)
Authoriview.com (self-serve author interviews)
Bizinp.com (business listings)
Bkslo.com (general interest books; this site also includes content apparently scraped from Amazon)
Bookblastboost.com (general interest books)
Bookcoversharing.com (book covers)
Bookois.com (general interest books)
BooksKibo.com (“AI-powered book recommendations”)
eBooksTap.com (general interest ebooks)
Findindiebooks.com (general interest books)
Hiehomes.com (property listings)
IndiePageTurner.com (self-pubbed books)
KidsWRD.com (children’s books)
Kindlebookpromo.com (general interest books)
ListKindleBook.com (general interest books)
LitLinc.com (general interest books)
ReadVana (general interest books)
SampleChaps.com (sample chapters, also general interest books)
SmartBooksBuzz.com (general interest books; this one also includes content apparently scraped from Amazon)
TxtTale.com (general interest books)
WriteZenith.com (general interest books)
Writebk.com (“The best in books, eBooks, music, videos & stationery”)
Writin.com (book listings, author interviews, reviews)