Friday, January 14, 2005

Sell more books on your website

Q:
How can I change my website to improve sales of my book?

A:
I have a couple of ideas already, but would love to know your conversion rate as the site is now. Can you tell me how many visitors you get per week and how many sales are generated from these visitors? If the weekly numbers are less than 300, please give me monthly figures.

Q:
The numbers are bad! I've had the site for about two months. I get about 900 visitors a month (30 a day) and the conversion rate so far is zero.

A:
First, I want to caution you to be certain that the numbers are correct. You are looking at VISITORS, not visits, right? If so, then you are right to be concerned about your sales.

OK, if you get 900 visitors per month you should be selling AT LEAST 9 books per month. That would be a 1% conversion rate. Ideally, you would go for 3-5%. Set your sites on 1% for now.

While it would seem like the answer is more complicated than this, what you need to do is re-write the copy you have on your site. Or hire a professional to write it for you.

In order to sell more books you have to change what your site says to visitors. You must grab them with a headline that immediately provides a huge benefit to them. Then your copy must lead them through what your book has to offer them. It also must make them respond emotionally to your words.

It is my guess that you already think you have done this. However, your visitors are telling you otherwise. They are not being convinced that your site offers what they are looking for. The good news is that 900 people per month are interested enough in your subject to click in – so getting site right should pay off nicely in book sales.

I am going to suggest a couple resources in a minute, but I want to offer a tip that almost always seems to make a huge difference in conversion.

Write your site to ONE person. Not to a large group of people. If you can, write it like a letter to one person in your target market. Think about what an individual person who is about to land on your website is thinking RIGHT BEFORE they click in. Then write to that one person and make them feel like they found exactly the answer they are looking for. If possible imagine an actual person you know and write to them as if they asked you, “How can I solve my problem?”

I know this seems like a big undertaking, but it is doable if you use some of the excellent resources available to you. Here are a few we recommend:

Instant Sales Letters
Yanik Silver

Instant Sales Letters is the best resource for writing your own sales letters. It makes it a fill-in-the-blank experience. Well worth the small investment.
www.marketability.com/salesletters.html


Red Hot Copy to Woo Your Target MarketA By-the-Numbers Guide to Writing Your Own Promotional Sales CopyLorrie Morgan-Ferrero
www.marketability.com/red-hot-copy.html


Dan Kennedy's Sales, Marketing and Advertising Tools
Free 6 lesson course on how to apply Dan's "Magnetic Sales and Marketing" techniques to increase your sales, profits, income and wealth.
www.marketability.com/dankennedy.html


Hope this helps.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Book Proposal Help

We highly recommend the following books to you for help with your book proposals. Between the three of them you will have everything you need right at your fingertips.






Writer’s Market


Thursday, December 16, 2004

Book Packagers

These companies will handle it all for you. Design, printing, and the details like ISBN, Library of Congress numbers, etc.

Pneuma Books
Brian Taylor
Elkton, MD
(410) 996-8822
www.pneumabooks.com

Paros Press, LLC
Judy Joseph
Denver, CO (303) 893-3332
www.parospress.com

Jenkins Group
Jerrold R. Jenkins
Traverse City, MI 1-800-706-4636
www.bookpublishing.com/

Greenleaf Book Group
Meg LaBorde
Austin, TX
(512) 891-6100
www.greenleafbookgroup.com

Book Cover Designers

Desktop Miracles, Inc.
Barry T. Kerrigan
Stowe, VT
(802) 253-7900
www.desktopmiracles.com

DUNN+ASSOCIATES
Kathi Dunn
Hayward, WI
(715) 634-4857
www.dunn-design.com/

Foster & Foster
George Foster
Fairfield, IA
515-472-3953
www.fostercovers.com

Orbit Design
Andy Cleary
Denver, CO
(303) 433-1616
http://www.orbit-design.com/

Book Printers

BOOK PRINTING QUOTING SERVICES:
Use these one-stop shops to get quotes from multiple printers.

Printellectual
www.printellectual.com

BooksJustBooks.com
Mike Vezo
Redondo Beach, CA
310-406-8300
www.booksjustbooks.com

INDIVIDUAL BOOK PRINTING COMPANIES:

BookMasters
Shelley Sapyta
Mansfield, OH
(419) 589-5100
www.bookmasters.com

Color House Graphics Inc
Phil Knight
Grand Rapids, MI
(616) 241-1916
www.colorhousegraphics.com

Delta Printing Solutions
Ryan McMurtry
Valencia, CA
1-800 323 3582
www.deltaprintingsolutions.com/

Edwards Brothers, Inc.
Mark Livesay
Ann Arbor, MI
(734) 769-1004
www.edwardsbrothers.com

Fidlar Doubleday Inc
Scott Vander Beek
Kalamazoo, MI
1-800-248-0888
www.fidlardoubleday.com

KIMCO
Scott Laudenslager
Denver, CO
(303) 295-1172
kimcoprinting@qwest.net

KNI/CODRA
Mike Daniels
Buffalo Creek, CO
(303) 838-8990
www.codra.com

Malloy Incorporated
Eric Platou
Ann Arbor, MI
(630) 305-8296
www.malloy.com

McNaughton & Gunn, Inc.
Ron Mazzola
Saline, MI
(313) 429-8712
www.bookprinters.com

Sheridan Books
Mary Heim
Ann Arbor, MI
(734) 662-3291
www.sheridanbooks.com

Thomson - Shore, Inc.
Kay Stevens
Dexter, MI
(734) 426-1721
www.tshore.com

Copywriting Resources

COPYWRITING SERVICES

If you want to hire someone to right your sales copy, here are a few copywriters we can recommend.

Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero
Red Hot Copy
818.508.1108

Scott T. Smith
CopywritingNet
406.586.4112


COPYWRITING TOOLS

If you want to become a better copywriter yourself, we highly recommend these tools:

Instant Sales Letters
Yanik Silver

Instant Sales Letters is the best resource for writing your own sales letters. It makes it a fill-in-the-blank experience. Well worth the small investment.

Red Hot Copy to Woo Your Target Market
A By-the-Numbers Guide to Writing Your Own Promotional Sales Copy
Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero

Another excellent how-to tool, Lorrie's Red Hot Copy manual will have you cranking out sales copy in minutes.

Dan Kennedy's Sales, Marketing and Advertising Tools
Free 6 lesson course on how to apply Dan's "Magnetic Sales and Marketing" techniques to increase your sales, profits, income and wealth.