What's a good way to build traffic and sales?

[draggar]

I have a friend who had a book published and I'm trying to help him reduce his inventory (he has a few hundred of each book).

Traffic to the site is steady but very few sales, I've incorperated the ability to pay though PayPal and I've also listed them on Amazon.com.

Sales are still very low.

Any suggestions on how to boost relevant sales? I've contacted some relevant sites but none seem interested in some advertising revenue.

I've been debating offering DNF$ for Diggs, linkbacks, and so on but I'm not sure how it would affect the site. I'm sure traffic would take a very short term jump but that's it.

The site is a wordpress blog, I ask him for frequent updates but he doesn't have too much time to write articles.

Any other suggestions? Funds are very low now. I've thought about Ad Words but, again, very little in the means of funds right now and I've heard horror stories about people's bills going from $10-$30 a month to over $12,000.

I know the main key is getting relevant traffic to the site, people who want to view his articles and buy his books. SEO is good for searches for "His name", his name, and a few other keyword sets but not overall.

[Carter]

Argument of the book?

[accomatic]

1. Write really good sales letter. Describe all the benefits the buyer gets upon reading the book(s). Put down some fears too (what will happen if the surfer reading the ad will not buy the book/visit the site).

2a. With the letter ready, hire professional PPC (Adwords & others) consultant to run ad campaign. Setting up the right ads and monitoring the campaign will cost about $200. These money are definately worth spending because of effectiveness of the CPS you'll get.

2b. If you don't want to outsource ad campaign, you should first learn at least the basics of PPC advertising yourself BEFORE draining the first dollar down the PPC stream. I recommend Perry Marshall's AdWords guide (find it yourself, it is worth its cost).

PPC advertising is the only reliable way to get guaranteed motivated traffic at reasonable cost. All the other traffic generating techniques either bring in loads of junk traffic or cost enormous amounts of money.

Hope this helps.

P.S. What's the topic(s) of these book(s)?

[ezimedia]

HI

Have you tried to sell the books on ebay.... is he building a mailing list of the people coming to his site..

Does he have testimonials on his sites from customers that have bought his book in the past. it will help new visitors decide if they want to buy the book.

Also maybe he can offer the books as digital downloads and a reduced prices...

Make sure the sales copy on the website is good and strong and to the point...

Article submissions relate to the topic of his books will help..

Also you may want to try yahoo search it is pretty cheap..

Thx
Tom

[WebsiteTraders.Com]

are you getting organic traffic from your targetted keywords?

[draggar]

Originally Posted by ezimedia

Have you tried to sell the books on ebay.... is he building a mailing list of the people coming to his site..

I've thought about eBay but it would be a hard sale - most people sell his books second hand (the only way to get a 100% new book is though him) for pennies on the dollar for a new book. How can I sell a book for $80-$85 when people sell older and used copies for $5?

It is hard regardless but I don't think it would be too lucrative though eBay, but not a bad idea.

Does he have testimonials on his sites from customers that have bought his book in the past. it will help new visitors decide if they want to buy the book.

We've been trying to get them but no one likes to write. :(

Also maybe he can offer the books as digital downloads and a reduced prices...

We are both dead against this. One a digital copy goes out, there is no way to control it, it can be copied and distributed illegally.

Make sure the sales copy on the website is good and strong and to the point...

He knows his niche / potential clients better - it's not the best but people looking him up are already looking for him.

He has the reputation that you either love him or hate him. When he was an AKC judge, clubs hired people just to boo him (because he judged on the correct end of the leash and didn't judge to hype).

Article submissions relate to the topic of his books will help..

No issues here, he has articles witten on several popular and related sites, even has a breed's parent organization supporting him (both factions).

Also you may want to try yahoo search it is pretty cheap..

I'll look into that.

Originally Posted by WebsiteTraders.Com

are you getting organic traffic from your targetted keywords?

I'm assuming we are - my old host gave me good reports (one of the few good things baout 1&1) and people would browse the site and we got several contacts from the site (we have a contact forum).

Traffic has jumped a little ever since I got HisName.com, too (we use the HisName.org).

[WebsiteTraders.Com]

One way you can know about the intentions and requirements of your website visitors would be to ask them for their feedback and suggestions in your contact form. If you have their e-mail list you can contact them and seek this information from them. Knowing wats going on in the minds of your visitors is very important. Are they coming to the website to buy? If yes then are they finding the price too high? If not then what are their other requirements etc. You can put up a small questionaire which would help you get to know all this info abt them.

[ezimedia]

HI

You said.... We are both dead against this. One a digital copy goes out, there is no way to control it, it can be copied and distributed illegally.

Did you know there are programs out there that can lock an exe or pdf ebook to only 1 computer and with out the correct serial code the user can not read it... and you even have control to turn off a serial code if the customer does a refund or passes it around, you will be notified...

Thanks
Tom

[draggar]

Originally Posted by ezimedia

Did you know there are programs out there that can lock an exe or pdf ebook to only 1 computer and with out the correct serial code the user can not read it... and you even have control to turn off a serial code if the customer does a refund or passes it around, you will be notified...

The person I deal with is not too tech / web savvy (I recently changed hosting and since he is a contact on the WhoIs for the domain, he got the DNS change notification from Domain tools - he FWD it to me in a panic thinking someone was trying to steal it (after I told him I was moving it)).

These books also are not the type that people who read ebooks would want to get. The second issue is that probably 50% of the people who would buy the books are long term dog professionals, mostly over 50, who generally are not to web savvy either (I said GENERALLY). The books are also meant as reference guides / coffee table books (neither of which do well as ebooks to the non-techie community).

His books are in demand - he takes as many as he can when he flies to dog shows and sells out 99% of the time (he'll pocket over $1200 in books sales in one weekend at a show).

I've been asking him to keep sending me articles for the site, preferably one a month so the spiders see that the site is updated frequently and therefore gets a higher results for searches. Luckily, his writing style is natural for SEO.