Roland's Rules of Four for Internet Sales:

1. Belief that the old model of book publishing and marketing is no longer viable.

2. TAG, YOU'RE IT!

3. A certain level of computer literacy and internet savvy are required for effective web design and successful cyberactive marketing.

4. You must constantly test your website's message, then be willing to change when and where needed.

Today brings the last post in my year-long "Rules of Four" series on self-publishing--how we succeeded while most self-published authors fail to bring economic success along with literary endeavor. This year-long exercise has been an interesting one for me, to actually develop a paper trail of all the wriggling we've done to succeed, despite all the machinations by the Gutenberg mafia to control the world of book publishing.

To this point we've discussed author sales through conventional means (booksignings, chasing reviews, direct mail sales, etc.); then Jane's very effective marketing to libraries--clear up until she worked herself out of a job. Then my blogs ventured into internet sales: the need for computer literacy and website design. During the last couple of weeks we've touched on analyzing web traffic. I pointed to how my web traffic has increased from just eight visits per day to over three hundred per day in the last three years.

During that time I touched on "keywords" that might bring browsers to your site: in my case, such keywords as "Glacier Park" and the "Bob Marshall Wilderness." But I also hinted, at a certain disillusionment with my own personal success with the use of keywords, particularly well-known keywords that already have a long internet constituency list.

For instance, I typed in the word "elk" as a "keyword" for my webpage, then did a search. Google uncovered over 42-million listings in their search results. So I took a flyer on "Montana elk" (over a million); "Rocky Mountain elk" (a half-million); "Bob Marshall Wilderness elk" (71,000). Similarly, "Glacier Park" results in 9 million; "Ptarmigan Tunnel" (380,000); "Belly River" (27,000).

Obviously there's a drum roll of noise available on the internet about some of the world's most popular places, and for high profile creatures. And oddly, though some places aren't as well known, there are still lots of listings. "Big Prairie Ranger Station" in the Bob Marshall Wilderness is not as well known as the "Chinese Wall" but it still had over 45,000 listings for its Google search results. BUT, when I took a look at the top ten listings, the second one down was a newspaper column I wrote several years ago, advocating that that Ranger Station could easily become the world's first Wilderness museum. It's a column still bringing visitors to my website. But remember "Rule No. Four" above?

You must constantly test your website's message, then be willing to change when and where needed.

I've just discovered, while writing this blog, that I neglected to put either my name to that column, nor added a link that would take browsers to additional past Roland Cheek columns, or into the website. Foolish me! But it's a clear example about how you must constantly double-check your presentation, and improve it where applicable.

The bottom line is I don't have much confidence in my ability to use meta tags and keywords to enhance my web traffic, though the nature of the beast is that I must try. I'm settling now on what I believe to be more effective word choices by selecting lesser-known words and phrases. Maybe "Big Prairie Ranger Station," the "Flathead Alps," "South Fork of the Flathead," "Big Salmon Lake" would return more hits than "Bob Marshall Wilderness," the "Chinese Wall," or the "Sun River Game Preserve" merely because there would be less competition amongst search results for the lesser known features.

So then, Roland, how have you achieved a three-year growth curve of nearly four thousand percent in your web traffic?

I discussed developing my weekly "Campfire Culture" blog that provided outdoors information about America's western outdoor scene. The blog returned browsers to the site in order to find new tips for their own outdoors adventures. I added an email link from my regular Campfire Culture postings, and a link enabling viewers to send the blog to their friends. Word of mouth works slowly, but if one designs worthwhile info, it works inexorably--like James Russell Lowell wrote of the presure of the atmosphere: "You can't see it, but all the same it is sixteen pounds to the square inch."

Inevitably, anyone trying to build web stats considers other means. Two common ones are paid advertising and purchased mail lists. Both are intended to be utilized for driving browsers to your site; both are expensive. and neither are infallible.

Just know this: You're wasting time and money if you utilize this means to inform browsers of your website and expect them to come. In order to be effective, you have to offer them a good reason to take a look. Back in the days before we moved toward internet sales, we used line advertising in newspaper supplements to inform readers of an upcoming booksigning in their town. "Shopper" supplement advertising is usually relatively inexpensive and has the added incentive of "directed" advertising, focusing on a particular audience--local people looking for 1) off-beat product information, and 2) a bargain. Still, advertising in shopping supplements was, at best, marginal and probably a questionable.

Any other type of paid advertising, we found, was not cost effective: display atvertising, for instance. The primary reason for this was the fact that our products were low-ticket items (twenty bucks or less) . Undoubtedly it works for Ferrari sales, or to push split-level homes in a new subdivision. But for low-priced items such as books--no. Internet sales, directed to a world-wide audience, makes print advertising even more chancey. So that leaves mail list promotion.

There are, of course, many mail lists available for sale, both for email promotion and snail-mail distribution. And universally, their promoters extol their list's virtues. But there's only one way any mail list can work, and that is if it's directed to focus on a particular market segment. Don't bother trying to sell fly-tying equipment to Nascar infatuates; or porno movies to religious fundamentalists. And therein lies the weakness of almost every mail list I investigated--they are much too broad in scope, probably because the value of their lists are based on volume over quality. Sure, sure, all mail list marketers will tout how well directed their lists are to particular market subjects. But they lie. Or, at least, all we investigated treated the truth lightly. In my limited experience, both personally and in talking to others, the lists are not only old and out of date, they're fleshed out with inappropriate audience targets. The result was that enemies were made instead of customers interested.

There is one mail list that can be effective, however, and that is one you laboriously construct and conscientiously maintain. An example might be, should your product be archery equipment, developing your own list of bowhunting advocates. How can one do that? Okay, there are lots of archery clubs in many states. Go online to look for their websites. Many of those websites will list club officers' emails. All are prime candidates for your email list of bowhunting advocates. Yes it's tedious, but when you get through compiling such a list it's "gold plated." And it's the kind of targeted list that I'm unaware being for sale. But--and it's a big "but"--don't trifle with folks on such a targeted list. The ONLY time you should make your first contact is when you offer them something directed to their specialiazed interest: breaking news about a new archery product, or a unique bowhunting story. Your objective is not necessarily to sell them something with that inintial contact, but to bring them to your site. Hopefully you will have created a site with sufficient interest to make them want to return.

Naturally maintaining such a list is time consuming and tedious--but utterly necessary for developing web traffic in any kind of Roland-approved manner.

Listen up now, I've just shared the most important piece of information relative to internet sales: When you first contact that targeted list, make sure you do so in a manner that is consistent with both their needs and their particular realm of interest.

Again, selling books on the internet is a numbers game--just as is selling books at a Waldenbooks booksigning in a shopping mall. Hordes of people will pass by in the aisle. A certain number of them will glance at your table. A few might say something or ask a question about your books. One or two might buy. Similarly, hordes of people might click on your website, but never pause. A certain number of them may read a few lines, view a few pictures before moving on. A few may examine several of your pages. One or two might buy.

Thus far, I'll confess our booksale numbers aren't equal to our sales through traditional mediums. But our costs are minimal compared to traveling all over the country to bookstores in Appleton, Amarillo, Albany, and Aspen. In addition, our cut of each sale is much larger than if we were forced to give the bookstore 40 percent, the wholesale supplier 15 percent and our distributor another 15 percent. So maybe it's a wash. BUT there's no limit to our growth opportunities with internet sales, and it's all over for the little guy through traditional sales. That's my bottom line.

 

Next week? Back to outdoors programming!

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