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Basics Of Marketing eBooks Online
Does the marketing of digital goods present the entrepreneur, web site owner or self-publisher with problems not
inherent in the marketing of physical goods?
The professional methods of marketing never change. It's the mechanics of marketing, the medium of the message
that change: Instead of billboards, it's banner ads; letters sent through the post are now emailed; web sites replace
brochures and full-color catalogues; live chat with customer service representatives replace 800 numbers, etc.
Eugene (Gene) M. Schwartz, the copywriter that helped Marty Edelson, launch Boardroom Reports, said marketing is
like playing the stock market or being an atomic scientist. Marketing, speculation and science are all alike- they
all deal with immense natural forces, thousands of times more powerful than the men who use them. In science, the
forces are the fundamental energies of the universe. In speculation, the forces are the billion-dollar tides and
currents of the market place.
In marketing, the forces are the hopes, fears and desires of millions upon millions of men and women, all over
the world.
The men who use these forces did not create them; they can't turn them or shut them down; neither can they diminish
them or add to them in any way. All they can do is harness them!
So what works? What can you and I harness this immense power? Gene's answer: Innovation. Continuous, repeated innovation.
A steady stream of new ideas- fresh new solutions to new problems. Created above all not by the impossible route
of memory- but by analysis. And what is analysis? It's a series of measuring rods, checkpoints, benchmarks and
signposts that show you where a particular force is going, and enable you to get there first.
When I visit Internet discussion boards like Tony Blake's (http://www.ablake.com/forum/) or any
of the other high traffic business sites that discuss marketing on the Internet, I continually see posts that say
something like, "I wrote an e-book I want to sell online- but I'm afraid it will get ripped-off. What do I
do? Help!"
Most of the responses try to alleviate the fears of the person who posted. And they all make really good points...
especially those who say it's really unnecessary from a marketer's point of view to worry about your e-books getting
ripped off. You can protect yourself, do what's necessary to prevent it from happening, but it will happen, it
does happen! So why worry?
I think creative individuals, especially those working on their first book, get paranoid about their 'rights' being
violated, their work stolen, etc. They think that what they're writing is so 'special' and 'important' that it
needs to be locked up at Fort Knox. I'm not poking fun at new writers. I remember how I felt when I wrote my first
book!
Books Are A Commodity
They are something useful designed to be distributed: 99.9% of the time commercially distributed. They are an article
of trade. Also remember that they are a 'product'. We tend to think of books less like a physical product than most, because you
do not buy them for their physical properties alone- you buy them for the ideas they contain.
Here's the definition of a 'commodity' from the American Heritage Dictionary:
com·mod·i·ty (ka-mod'i-tç) n., pl. com·mod·i·ties.
1. Something useful that can be turned to commercial or other
advantage.
2. An article of trade or commerce,
especially an agricultural or mining product, that can be transported.
3. Advantage; benefit.
© 2001 by the American Heritage Dictionary. All rights reserved. (My emphasis)
As an e-content entrepreneur, self-publisher or web site owner who wants to make profits from the sale or distribution
of e-books and e-content let's face a fact: All books, including electronic books are a commodity, an article of
trade, something useful that can be turned to commercial advantage. They are to be bought and sold, hopefully for
profit.
Books, just like other types of products and other types of commodities do not sell themselves. It takes people
with skill and knowledge to sell them. That's why most professional marketers are more prosperous than writers.
The US Department of Labor reports that writers (as an occupation) earn an average of $7,500 per year. Most writers
are not able to earn a living from writing alone. Even 'published' authors will find it difficult to make a living
with a single book.
The first question an author is asked upon signing a contract for a first book is, "What else do you have?"
The publisher knows that 'one book' authors will never be able to sell enough copies of their first book to make
any real money for them or the authors. It takes several books, within the same genre, to build the author's presence
in the consumers' mind.
Speaking to yourself, "What else do you have?" should be your mantra as a publisher or content developer/entrepreneur
online.
There are some writers who hit it big with a single book, but that's very unusual.
My own experience writing, publishing and marketing books on the Internet proves this. One book made me some money.
Five books made me even more money. The more books I offered to my web site visitors the more profits I made. Many
other publishers and content entrepreneurs will confirm this phenomenon.
If you publish a book with a traditional publisher, who is responsible for promoting it? If you answered the publisher,
you're wrong. Sure the publisher will announce the book to the trade, get a few reviews, but if it does not do
as well as expected they remainder it and, later when sales have all but died, declare it out-of-print. The poor
writer is lucky to be able to keep his/her advance with that kind of marketing effort!
Accept the fact now that not all the responsibility to market the book rests with the publisher. The author must
take full responsibility for promotion of his or her work- and that's where the majority of writers fail. As a
writer your job is two-fold once you've made the commitment to become a 'writer': 1) To promote, promote, promote
your work non-stop; and 2) To keep writing and write another book, and then another book after that as soon as
possible.
From a marketers point of view, the only job of that first book is to get your readers to buy your second book,
and the only job of the second book is to keep the reader hooked enough on your writing to buy your third book,
and on and on…because that's where the money is.
Marketing e-Books On A Web Site
Let's get back to our discussion of the writer, e-book author/self-publisher who's concerned about copyright infringement
or outright theft.
A problem facing the industry is a lack of standards for e-books. Right now there are NO standards for e-books.
Adobe's Acrobat is about as universal a standard as there is. But there are hundreds of alternatives. Most e-book
sellers (with exceptions such as BookLocker.com and Intellectua.com), are doing what they think is best for them
not their customers.
Until there are standards we either have to rely on the integrity of our customers not to copy, rip-off or share
our e-books or simply market and manage our electronic rights under a new paradigm.
I suggest choosing a new paradigm.
I' take off my 'writers' hat for a moment and put on my 'marketers' hat and suddenly a new paradigm emerges that
says, "Hey they're going to share my e-books with anyone they want anyway (and there's very little I can do
to stop them), so why not give them what they want and even help them do it?"
That's why I grant unlimited digital resale rights on some of my e-books at ePublishingEtc.com. I want my customers
to share my books. And I want them to make a profit doing so. In the process, I help myself to more profits by
figuring out ways to help my business customers make more money by selling more and more of my books.
Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) came out with the report mentioned earlier on the e-book market (Content
Out Of Control (9/2000), that basically said - "digital security won't stop content theft on the Internet.
Publishers must focus on selling better services and products, not 'locking up assets". I couldn't agree more.
It occurred to me that worrying about the illegal sharing of my e-book titles was doomed to end in frustration
and that I can choose to develop profitable long-term relationships with my customers instead- especially those
who are reselling my content on web sites around the Internet.
If the thought of offering resale right to your customers does not appeal to you or you oppose it, you might try
offering two editions of your e-book. One with advertising in it that could be either be free or available for
a small fee with the other edition being ad-free for sale. You'll achieve the same effect- if people are going
to distribute your e-book anyway, you might as well get the ad exposure.
The question then is, "How do I, as an e-content marketer, stand apart from the rest?"
I classify e-books (and online information in general) into three basic categories:
1) "Don't need to know- not interested"; (customer response, "I'll pass")
2) "Nice to know - looks interesting, but…"; (customer response: "ho hum", *insert yawn here*)
3) "This looks great - just what I've been looking for!" (customer response, "Where do I pay?")
When I'm looking for info (especially on-line) I ask myself these questions.
For example, one morning while surfing the net I went to Responsys.com. The service looked interesting (in the
"nice to know" category) so I took the time to sign up for a free demo of their service.
I was ready to leave the site when I noticed a link to a free report they were offering too. The link said "download
now", and since I was at their demo sign-up 'success' page I thought the link would take me directly to the
report. Instead, when I clicked on the link, I got a page with a "registration form"...asking me all
the stuff I just answered when I signed up for the free demo.
Suddenly I'm in the "Don't need to know-no time", category. I simply didn't have the time to enter all
my information again - so I passed on their free offer. Too bad they didn't link the report with the free demo
offer. That would have made a lot of sense and it would have been a nice 'bonus' for signing up for the free demo.
If you want people to buy or download your e-book you have to answer the critical question of your target audience,
"why do I need this info?" - their response will it fall into category 1, 2 or 3 mentioned above.
If it's in category 1 or 2, chances are you need to re-think your e-book's title or the headline and ad for your
e-book. You need to determine the e-book's "appeal", its' primary benefit to the reader and make that
clear to your reader.
This is where Gene Schwartz's idea of marketing as 'innovation and analysis' is so important. You may need to test
several titles in subtle ways to your target audience before you find one that works well. One way to do that is
by writing an article about your upcoming book (what it's about, etc.) and put the proposed titles as a link to
your article. Put the title on your home page. Rotate and change the title once a week and try several different
titles. See which one gets the most click-throughs to your article by using a counter on your page with the article
or by 'coding' the link. For example:
One title might be:
The Sleep Walking Murders
Your link to your article would look like this:
http://www.yoursite.com/article.html
Your 'coded' link would be:
http://www.yoursite.com/article.html?sleep_walking
When someone clicks on the 'coded' link it registers a 'hit' in your server logs. The REAL URL for the article
is everything before the "?"- your 'code' is "sleep_walking". Everything after the "?"
will not affect the visitor clicking on the link to get to your article. Count the number of hits you get for each
title. Just be sure to change the code to correspond with your titles every time you make a change!
If one performs better than all the others, then you have your title. |
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Entire Contents © Copyright 2001 by David Vallieres. All rights reserved. |