Greetings my hobbit-loving friends. I have some exciting news to share with you regarding my big push of “Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits” in my Top the Charts event on Hobbit Day.

The Plan

Our goal was to push the single “Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits” to the top of the charts on Amazon and iTunes by buying the single on one or both of those websites at noon on Sept 22, 2012 (Hobbit Day).

Why?

The hope was that if that song topped the charts then it would gain greater visibility, earn more sales, and even give an extra push for the movie that's coming out in December.

How Did We Do?

As with all things there are different levels of success. But let me start by saying that YES, it was a tremendous success!

It's success was most prevalent on Amazon. The highest I saw the single climb was #464 of all singles on Amazon. That's pretty dang good for an indie track. However, it hit #1 on Traditional Folk and #1 on Traditional British & Celtic Folk. It also hit #12 under Soundtracks. I think someone said it was the #1 Folk Single as well.

The album also topped those charts, but it also hit #8 for all paid Folk Albums.

The iTunes promotion was not nearly as successful. The song climbed as high as #141 on Singles charts for Singer/Songwriter. The album climbed to #64.

Lessons Learned

As with all of these Top the Charts, I learn a lot. Here are some of my lessons:

Pick a Good Date: Hobbit Day might've been an okay day, but a Saturday while I was at a gig was not a good choice for promotional dates. I really need to spend the day promoting the event to as many folks as I can. So I probably should pick a better date in the future. That said, there were a lot of competing events on Hobbit Day and the week preceding it which made it a little more difficult getting the word heard.

Select a Good Category: I think the iTunes promotion suffered greatly from the category selection. The album is listed under Singer/Songwriter, which covers a WIDE variety of folk and other music. World music as a category is typically easier to make an impression in. I'll confirm that when I hold my next promotion in January.

iTunes vs. Amazon: I was a little surprised at how much better Amazon did over iTunes. I don't know if that is entirely a Category issue. I kinda wonder if more of my fans prefer Amazon over iTunes? That wasn't the case with the podcast, but as a solo musician… I'm not sure? But I'll check the final numbers to see for sure. If that's the case, then maybe my next promo might focus on only one of those digital distributors…

Thank YOU!!!!!

I want to thank each and every one of you who were so kind and generous to help me with this promotion. It was an awesome success for this wee hobbit CD that was released nearly a year ago! That is just brilliant. And I couldn't have done it without your amazing help. So thank you thank you thank you!

What's Next?

In January, I will officially release my next album, Not Every Day Is St. Patrick's Day. I can't wait to release this album of traditional Celtic songs. It is packed with great songs with lots of stories behind them. I still need to pick the single we will promote, but I'm confident that we will be able to skyrocket it through the charts using the lessons we learned above.

Again, thank you for kind support.

Slainte!

PS. If you didn't already get your copy of “Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits“, order it now and save 20% when you follow this link.