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Readers who shop or browse on Amazon - do you ever use tags?

If so, do you use tags just to find books you might like, or do you vote on a book's tags, or add your own?

If you don't use tags, is that because it seems too much effort, or because it doesn't improve the quality of your search results noticeably, or for some other reason I haven't thought of?

If you shop or browse for books on Amazon and have no idea what tags are or why anyone would care about them, I'd like to know that, to try to get a representative sample.

Suggested categories:

Entertainment & Music -> Magazines

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Beauty & Style -> Fashion & Accessories

Update:

Amazon doesn't tell you how many people have downloaded the free sample of your book, or just looked at the book's product page and moved on. They probably don't want to have to deal with clueless writers who think that downloading the free sample is a promise to buy the book later...

Since the book went live about a week ago, I've had (mumble, mumble) three sales on Amazon, and two on Smashwords. I wouldn't say no to a few more...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0059HBSRI

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/72540

Update 2:

Not as many answers as I'd hoped, but you've sort of confirmed my suspicions - the only people who seem to care about tags on Amazon are those who have something for sale there. People who want to buy something generally know what they want, having discovered it by some other means, and so aren't interested in finding products that some random stranger thought were similar to what they want to buy.

I've added some tags, since it takes only a couple of minutes, but I'll be surprised if anyone else shows any interest in them. When you look at the tags for a product, you can choose to agree or disagree with them, and for each tag, there's a chart of which products have had the most agreement. Some authors recommend trying to get all your friends to click on "agree" for all your book's tags, to get to the top of the charts for those tags... but if readers don't look at those charts, or search by tags, what's the point?

9 Answers

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  • 10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I'm going to be honest and admit that yes, I occasionally use the tags. It helps me to discover new authors, particularly ones whose work is not on sale or not heavily promoted in Australia.

    My own book is available on amazon as both POD and in eBook format. I've put some tags on there that I felt were relevant to the book and its target audience. See:

    http://www.amazon.com/Being-Abigail-Kathryn-White/...

    I have no idea whether the tags have helped my sales figures or not, as I tagged the work quite early on. Also, as you have stated, there is no conclusive way to discover how many people have viewed the page - as the author, I can only go by the sales figures.

    I think that people who use tags probably are in the minority, but seeing as they take less than a minute to do, its an easy way to promote your work.

  • 10 years ago

    Never used tags. I do go onto Amazon fairly frequently, but when I do I usually already know what I am looking for. That and whenever I look something up on Amazon, there is a huge list of stuff including similar items, reviews, discussions, etc. in which the tags kind of get buried and lost. In fact I hadn't even heard of them until you mentioned it now.

    By the way, how is it going with your book? Do you get much traffic on the Amazon site?

    EDIT: Well, you're selling more than I ever have, at least. Once I get my latest effort cleaned up I think I will try posting it somewhere for sale. But it still needs a lot of work. For now I have a hard time trying to sell something that I wouldn't buy.

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    I've never even heard of tags.

    I shop on Amazon, but I generally know exactly what I'm looking for, so I just type the title into the search bar.

    Five sales a week is about what my friend gets for her e-published book. Her book's in a similar genre to yours and her writing is similar quality (this is a compliment, btw).

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Nah i dont. When i do shop on amazon i'll just search because i know what im looking for. Oh and thanks for answering my question. I appriciate that an author who has actually had some success selling their book is giving me advice. (Im not being sarcastic im serious)

  • 10 years ago

    I don't use tags. Whenever I go to amazon, I know exactly what I'm searching for.

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    I don't use them. Usually I rate the books that I know that I have or read or bought, then shop along my recommendation list.

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    in line with hazard for this reason the blind guy ran off scared after he bumped in to me.. he replaced into yelling it replaced into as sparkling because of fact the writing on the wall.. he examine my moles, i knew they have been evil, evil i show you how to recognize..

  • ?
    Lv 5
    10 years ago

    Nah. I usually just rate, you know?

  • 10 years ago

    No

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