Website Pros and Woes
These days, a website is as important a selling tool as door-to-door and direct mail have been historically. Whenever a company representative is interviewed, one of the first questions is "What is your website?" (not "Do you have a website?" - since it is automatically assumed that you do). It is
that important.
This is especially true with companies that sell information - like books and newspapers. It is hard to find information online that you have to pay for that isn't readily available elsewhere for free, or (in the case of copyrighted works) a free alternative. So a website for information companies must be designed with great care.
My ultimate goal for
TouristTown.com is to provide free travel information online, but without losing book sales. I want customers to be able to view the site not just as an online store front, but also as a place to communicate with other users, find peer reviews for tourist attractions, and learn generally about the covered tourist destinations. These kinds of sites already exist, so the important thing is to make sure the site stands out - still, without detracting from book sales.
I just got around (this past weekend) to uploading the new cover designs to the Bookstore pages of the site, and I realized how far behind I was in keeping it updated. The site should be my next big important step since the books are already starting to show up on store shelves, and the website traffic is inevitably going to increase as more people become aware of the series.
Labels: marketing, website
Google Books vs. Amazon's "Search Inside"
It used to be that customers had to go to a bookstore to read books before they bought them. That trend is fading. The new trend is for publishers to use various online portals to allow people to view books online - looking at the actual book interiors - before buying them. It started with Amazon.com's "Search Inside The Book" feature, which is still the most popular exploitation of this technology. But now Google, Microsoft, and others are getting with the program.
As an experiment in marketing, I have made book content for
Tourist Town Guides available at both
Google Books and via
Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" feature. Both services let people virtually flip through the books' pages. Google Books gives people more access to content (about 20% of the book), whereas Amazon offers less online content, but the opportunity to buy the book (Google Books links online stores). I'm going to be monitoring internet traffic to see if these techniques make any difference.
Google Books is at http://www.books.google.com. To view the interior of books on Amazon, search for the and click on the book's cover.
Labels: marketing, website
They finally came!
The boxes from the printer finally came, though not on schedule and hardly on pleasant terms. At least I can continue at this point to send out review packages.
On another note, I replaced the old covers on the website with the new ones. I also added a "media downloads" section, which is referenced in the various news releases that I have been distributing. Download hi-res cover images
here.
Labels: marketing, website
Handling Book Updates and Corrections
I'm trying to figure out a way to handle updates and corrections for these guidebooks. There is already an e-mail address listed on the copyright page of every book that tells readers where they can send corrections, but how should these corrections be noted on the website?
Obviously the corrections should be listed somewhere, but I'm toying with the idea of going one step further: providing a free, complete replacement page (as a PDF file for download) for every found correction. I'm not sure how really valuable this feature would be, but its unique enough that I would hope that readers would appreciate the thought. Of course, any errors found would be fixed in reprints and revisions.
(Notice how I'm avoiding the word "error"; corrections can either be an actual problem with the book, or an update that needs to be made since the book's printing; the latter might be more difficult to keep track of on a timely basis.)
Labels: website
