Ahh, is this like egosearching for book authors?
Now that our book is actually out I’m finding that I’m watching Amazon’s sales figures every day. Today we’re at 2,160 and still have a five-star ranking. That’s out of hundreds of thousands of books.
Well, OK, that’s fun and all, but what we find interesting is how few people buy it by visiting our book blog and clicking on the link on the site. It used to be that having a link on your blog or Web site would bring a lot more direct sales. I wonder if people are starting to ignore anything on the sides of a Web page cause they know it’s probably advertising?
If so, that trend will impact the big advertising companies eventually (er, MSN, Yahoo, Google) and will mean that the industry will need to bring out a new form of advertising to grow revenues and profits.
Remember, we’ve been through this before. I remember in the late 1990s when everyone in the advertising industry assumed that banners were the way to do internet advertising. Remember what came next? Google.
Back to the book. Dan Gillmor, former tech journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, just endorsed our book. That means more to me than anything. Dan’s one of the main reasons I’m on this journey.
Scobleizer 
A big factor in wether or not someone clicks your ads is their mindset when they visit.
If they are looking for information, and you provide it, they are more likely to follow your ads to the purchase site.
If they are just seeing what you have, they are less likely to buy your product.
And I think promoting books is harder too… since most people just go to Amazon and search for it there..
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A big factor in wether or not someone clicks your ads is their mindset when they visit.
If they are looking for information, and you provide it, they are more likely to follow your ads to the purchase site.
If they are just seeing what you have, they are less likely to buy your product.
And I think promoting books is harder too… since most people just go to Amazon and search for it there..
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If you have an affiliate link to the US amazon.com site will you still get the love if I then go to the UK site and purchase it there? That might be one of the reasons for a lower statistic from the links. I have always wondered whether they do track the information across the sites.
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If you have an affiliate link to the US amazon.com site will you still get the love if I then go to the UK site and purchase it there? That might be one of the reasons for a lower statistic from the links. I have always wondered whether they do track the information across the sites.
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Colin, I don’t know that. I’ll check into that and get back to you.
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Colin, I don’t know that. I’ll check into that and get back to you.
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Soory, to dampen your enthousiasm. A few years back my then bro-in-law Ted Heller wrote a novel called “Slab-Rat”. It went to about nr 460 on Amazon if I remember correctly.
It was not a huge commercial success.
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Soory, to dampen your enthousiasm. A few years back my then bro-in-law Ted Heller wrote a novel called “Slab-Rat”. It went to about nr 460 on Amazon if I remember correctly.
It was not a huge commercial success.
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Sluggish sales via blog ad links may be attributed to increasing concerns about identity theft and shopping online.
If the weather’s nice, I imagine people like to get away from the computer, go out, buy a book at the b/m store, as I did.
I am the first person at Barnes & Noble in Peoria, Illinois to buy this book, the clerk had to go in the back to get a copy, it had just arrived.
Great job.
Outstanding design and writing.
The new Blogger’s Bible, it will greatly advance the cause of ethical, effective business blogging, give it the resuscitating second wind it needs.
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Sluggish sales via blog ad links may be attributed to increasing concerns about identity theft and shopping online.
If the weather’s nice, I imagine people like to get away from the computer, go out, buy a book at the b/m store, as I did.
I am the first person at Barnes & Noble in Peoria, Illinois to buy this book, the clerk had to go in the back to get a copy, it had just arrived.
Great job.
Outstanding design and writing.
The new Blogger’s Bible, it will greatly advance the cause of ethical, effective business blogging, give it the resuscitating second wind it needs.
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Electrica: that’s awesome!!! You should have taken pictures.
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Electrica: that’s awesome!!! You should have taken pictures.
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Ron: that’s interesting. I keep telling Shel I don’t expect to make any money on the book. Why? Cause only a very very very small number of authors ever make more than their advance. Just the way it is.
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Ron: that’s interesting. I keep telling Shel I don’t expect to make any money on the book. Why? Cause only a very very very small number of authors ever make more than their advance. Just the way it is.
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starting to ignore anything on the sides of a Web page cause they know it’s probably advertising?
Just started noticing that? It’s been rumbling up for a few years now, the eventual bubble that will pop Google.
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starting to ignore anything on the sides of a Web page cause they know it’s probably advertising?
Just started noticing that? It’s been rumbling up for a few years now, the eventual bubble that will pop Google.
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Hey Scoble, congratulations on the book hitting the streets. I look forward to reading it.
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Hey Scoble, congratulations on the book hitting the streets. I look forward to reading it.
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Robert: Aren’t many of your regular readers going to be reading you in aggregators (as I do). I know it’s only saving people a couple of extra clicks but maybe you should put the “buy at” links directly into a post.
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Robert: Aren’t many of your regular readers going to be reading you in aggregators (as I do). I know it’s only saving people a couple of extra clicks but maybe you should put the “buy at” links directly into a post.
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Dan Gillmor, former tech journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, just endorsed our book.
What’s he gonna do Knight you with Honor Tags? Eh? Dan rubbers stamps anything gushy and Web 2.0 bloggy. Now if some biggie CEO, or someone bigger than just a “citizen journalist” whore, gives a thumbs-up, that might mean something. Dan’s just parta the groupthink cheering squad. It’s you pat my book, I will pat yours. Now give it to Yardley at the Post, see what HE says. 😉
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Dan Gillmor, former tech journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, just endorsed our book.
What’s he gonna do Knight you with Honor Tags? Eh? Dan rubbers stamps anything gushy and Web 2.0 bloggy. Now if some biggie CEO, or someone bigger than just a “citizen journalist” whore, gives a thumbs-up, that might mean something. Dan’s just parta the groupthink cheering squad. It’s you pat my book, I will pat yours. Now give it to Yardley at the Post, see what HE says. 😉
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In an email exchange with Shel I had asked about whether there was a link to Amazon.ca. He checked with your publishers; no such luck. You would need to have an independet link (and registration) with each individual country version of Amazaon to have credits via your site for purchases in Canada, UK, etc.
I have ordered via Amazon.ca about ten days ago; as of tonight I have not received notification of its shipment. Should hear within the next ten days.
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In an email exchange with Shel I had asked about whether there was a link to Amazon.ca. He checked with your publishers; no such luck. You would need to have an independet link (and registration) with each individual country version of Amazaon to have credits via your site for purchases in Canada, UK, etc.
I have ordered via Amazon.ca about ten days ago; as of tonight I have not received notification of its shipment. Should hear within the next ten days.
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Christopher,
To bubble won’t necessarily hurt google when it pops as long as they are the company that figures out the new advertising model. Since they have so much of their income coming from advertising, I would imagine that they are doing a lot of research to figure out what the next advertising model will be.
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Christopher,
To bubble won’t necessarily hurt google when it pops as long as they are the company that figures out the new advertising model. Since they have so much of their income coming from advertising, I would imagine that they are doing a lot of research to figure out what the next advertising model will be.
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If you’d have added the amazon link to your blog page earlier than you did I would certainly have used it (because I’m lazy!). However, I preordered it, but my mind didn’t link from here to the book via the book blog site, so I went straight to amazon. I also don’t really want to look too much at the book blog until I’ve read the book – a bit like spoiling a film by reading loads of web reviews before watching.
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If you’d have added the amazon link to your blog page earlier than you did I would certainly have used it (because I’m lazy!). However, I preordered it, but my mind didn’t link from here to the book via the book blog site, so I went straight to amazon. I also don’t really want to look too much at the book blog until I’ve read the book – a bit like spoiling a film by reading loads of web reviews before watching.
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