How Can I Sell My Books?

[josvandoorn]

Dear Group,

Can you help me? Do you have some good tips? I'm trying
to get started with an Internet business. But nothing
is happening. No money. No business.

I'm doing something wrong. I've done a lot. But most
probably the wrong things. Because those things didn't
bring me nothing.

I have got two businesses and a newsletter. The first
business is programming for AutoCAD. The second
business is e-books.

This is programming. I can write an AutoLISP routine
that creates an AutoCAD drawing within one minute. By
hand it takes hours, sometimes even days.

So an AutoLISP routine is a big time saver. I think I'm
offering a very good service. But I do more. I offer
this service free of charge.

It's like this. Somebody comes to me for an AutoLISP
routine. I write it and I give it to them. Free of
charge. They don't have to pay.

What I give to them is a trial version. It only works a
couple of times. It allow them to see how the routine
works. They can make up their mind.

If they want to keep it then they can come back to me.
I'll ask them to make an investment and then I give
them the full version.

Do you see that? People coming to me don't take any
risk. They only make an investment after they see what
the AutoLISP routine does.

I have written a lot of books about AutoCAD, AutoLISP,
Microsoft Office, and Visual Basic. I'm selling those
books for $ 10 each.

Considering the information that can be found in the
books. I think the price is exceptionally low. Similar
books are sold for much more.

I didn't do much for selling the books. I wrote about
them in my newsletter. That resulted in two orders for
my books. Two. That's all.

I can go to AutoCAD message boards and post an ad for
my AutoCAD books there. That's a lot of work. I'm
afraid it will not bring much.

One of my books is about AutoLISP. My book is in fact
an AutoLISP course. This is something new I started. It
starts with a free course.

I invite people to send an e-mail to an auto responder.
If they do they will get a ten lessons AutoLISP course
at no cost.

The last message is an e-mail telling them that there
is more to AutoLISP. I suggest them that they buy the
book from me for $ 10.

I've got a lot of e-mail addresses of engineering
firms, architects, and AutoCAD users. Every day I
submit ten addresses to the auto responder.

I will also advertise this free AutoLISP course on
AutoCAD message boards. And I will mention it in my
newsletter. But is it going to bring something?

For the programming business I did two things. First I
was sending out e-mails to engineering firms,
architects, and AutoCAD users.

These firms form the group of firms I must target. In
the e-mail I wrote about what I was doing. I wrote
about the benefits.

I have send out about 500 e-mails. There was only one
reply. But the chief designer was out of the office. I
haven't heard from them since.

I wrote seven auto responder messages. Next I was
submitting e-mail addresses to the auto responder.
That's the last thing I did.

Again. Nothing. Nobody came to me. Nobody ask me to do
some programming for them. This again as a lot of
effort and no result.

I want to find new subscribers for my newsletter.
Lately the number of subscribers is going down. This is
something new I'm doing.

I had four articles about a subject in my newsletter.
I've put the four article on an auto responder. I'm
submitting e-mail addresses to the auto responder.

People get the articles. In the articles is mentioned
that they come for my newsletter. I invite them to
subscribe to the newsletter.

Just now I started with this one. I don't know whether
this gave me any new subscribes. But I'm pretty sure
this thing is marginal.

With all the things I'm doing I've put in a lot of
effort. To no avail. So I'm doing something wrong. But
what am I doing wrong?

I'm always looking for better ways to market a service
or a product. I haven't found any better way. Maybe you
could help me.

Give me some feedback.

[Farhan]

Welcome to the forums, josvandoorn :hi:


If there is a market for your product/services, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to make a profitable business out of what you offer.

What I can recommend you at this stage is to read and learn about search engine optimization/marketing. If you have the time, you can go on doing it yourself, or you may even hire an SEO (search engine optimizer) to help you, depending upon your budget and priorities.

While reading and learning, ask as many questions as you like about all ways of marketing (including search engine optimization) here and many will be able to help you out.

[Bernard]

Do you have a website to promote your AutoLISP product? If so, do yourself a favor and spend some time at The Association of Shareware Professionals (http://www.asp-shareware.org/). There is a *lot* of advice there for shareware authors like you.

Download and learn to use their PAD file tool. Use it to submit your trial software to hundreds of shareware sites. Put your product out there for people to find you instead of you chasing them.

You may also consider getting an affiliate account at RegNow.com to let hundreds of shareware sites sell the full version for you too.

[Bernard]

Oh, I forgot, there are also many ebook directories (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=ebook+directories) that will list your e-book for download as well.

[josvandoorn]

I've written many books. A lot of them are CAD books.
The books are about AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, and about
SketchUp.

I've got a CAD business. I'm selling IntelliCAD, I
giving CAD courses and I'm doing CAD programming. I
give the books away in my business.

But now I want to sell my books over the Internet. But
I don't want to spend money. And I know nothing about
web site design and so.

How can I do that? Find a business partner? What deal
should I make with the business partner? What deal
could I make with him?

This is what I can do.

- I have written many articles about AutoCAD and about
IntelliCAD. I can post those articles on the
Internet. With resource box.

- I can write the web site copy. The copy for the
landing page and the copy for the sales page. I know
how to that. At least I think I know.

- We can open a forum on the web site. I know how to
make the forum popular and attract a lot of people
to the forum.

- I've been giving away a free book. I can approach
all the people that took a free book. And tell them
about the book web site.

I also have some ideas. These are the ideas I've got:

- I'll write a free e-book. About the first AutoCAD
book. The book is mentioned in the resource box of
articles.

People that want the book can go to the web site
and download it from there. In the e-book are links
back to the web site.

We can also add other links to the free e-book. That
could be links to the products we use for up sell. Or
so.

- We need testimonials. We can sell a book for US $
30. And give a US $ 10 discount if the customer
gives us a testimonial within 30 days.

- I've got the following books:

* Base course AutoCAD
* Advanced course AutoCAD
* AutoCAD and 3D

* Base course IntelliCAD
* Advanced course IntelliCAD
* IntelliCAD and 3D

* SketchUp course
* SketchUp Exercises

We could open a web site for the base course AutoCAD
book, one for the base course IntelliCAD book, and
one for the SketchUp course book.

If people buy the book, the will get the other
AutoCAD books, IntelliCAD books, or the other
SketchUp book for free.

- Open a web site for each book. So a web site for the
AutoCAD book, one for the IntelliCAD book, and one
for the SketchUp book.

They told me that is a good idea. Don't put all
books on one web site.. That only confuses people
visiting the web site.

- I must have an up sell. I haven't figured out what
up sell I can use for the books. Let's do some
spying. Let's see what other book web sites do.

- We could give a 30 days guarantee. Just for starters.
And for seeing how it works. How many books are
returned?

If too many books are returned, then we stop gibing a
guarantee.

- A web site for the first AutoCAD book is opened. The
two ohter books are bonusses as the first book is bought.
So customers will get three books for the price of one.

Do you have any idea how I should proceed? Or maybe you
want to join me. If you want to join me. Under what
conditions?

I gave you some ideas. Of course. If you've got some other
ideas, then I wo9uld like to know about them. Tell me. Let me know.

I've done something with other books. That was a while
ago. I opened a free web site. And I sold for US $ 200
books.

I don't think doing the books is a bad idea. I hope you
can help me.

Jos van Doorn
CAD Solutions

Get the shocking report. About AutoCAD. Send me an e-
mail with "Shocking Report" in the subject line. Send
your e- mail to:

mailto:[email removed]

[Danny]

Jos, i have no idea what you're up to.
Is this the longest spam post we've ever seen on these forums ?

[Connie]

Danny I have no idea. If the individual comes back then possibly it is a legitimate request. If not probably a long Spam post. Not sure if it's the longest but should be in the running.

[josvandoorn]

Danny,

My message is no spam. How can you think that? I just want tos ell my books. Ovewr the Internet. And I'm looking for people that can help me in doing that.

Oh. Belgium is a beautiful country.

Jos

[Connie]

Jos please understand that we get a lot of Spam post.

[Blue]

Welcome to the forums, Jos! :hi:

IMO, You'll need to do one of three things:

1.) Take a LOT of time, effort, and patience, and learn what you need to do to accomplish your goal.

or

2.) Spend money to hire a professional.

or

3.) Find a partner that can help.

Whichever you choose however, you are starting out in the right place to gain enough knowledge to help you make a decision.

:cheers:

[Comeran]

Welcome to the forums!

Blue has the options correct, but there is one more thing to keep in mind.

Do NOT fall for any "get rich quick / get to the top of the search engines" schemes.

Online business is just like a store front business, it takes time, passion, and a lot of work. The expression you don't get something for nothing is doubled on the Internet and there are a lot of scammers out there looking to take your money with promises of such promotion.

[Danny]

My message is no spam. How can you think that? I just want tos ell my books. Well, at the time of posting it was almost 4.30am over here. Given the late hours i didn't read your entire post. Just spotted a few sentences and a call to action. There's also never any need to post an email adress in here. People can PM you if they want to.
As Connie indicated, we get a lot of spam posts and some people don't realise that signing up to a forum with the sole purpose of self promotion is something many of us frown upon.
The purpose of your post was unclear so instead of deleting it, i decided to ask you first :)
I hope you understand.
Belgium is a beautiful country Apart from the trafic jams and the rainy weather, i suppose it is :)
Given your Dutch name i suppose you're from this area as well. Or maybe your ancestors were ?

[Connie]

One way you won't sell your e-books is by posting in forums.

Do you have a website that you promote your product on? If not you need one. If you do then you need to work on it so that it gets you potential customers who are interested in the information you have for sale.

[Connie]

Just noticed you do have a website. So you need to work on the site to attract targeted visitors that are interested in your products.

You might want to ask for a site review. If you do read and answer these questions. Guidelines for site review (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6632) and post the answers here Web Site Review (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=82).

Put you site in your profile.

[Comeran]

Jos,

I would highly recommend the review and adding your site to your profile.

You can get a lot of great information to help you if you take that route.

Sorry I didn't see that you had a site so I didn't mention that.