Subtle aspects of selling online

Where can I learn the specifics of this "art"

[aschrage]

I have been experimenting with selling books as an affiliate and I am making some progress. However, I have been looking for a site to pattern myself after to speed up the process. Does anyone know a site that they are sure is successful at this? The best example I could find for selling books was Jakob Nielsens site (www.useit.com). I have a list of tips from Amazon.com which have helped me get "clicks", but people aren't pulling the trigger.

[Putz]

Try [successaccess.com...] as it is the BEST place to learn the PROPER method for making money online.

I know, after being a webmaster online since 1996, I went to Joel and he has me on the right path. And to my amazement, it has nothing what so ever to do with search engine placement!

Try that one on for a great surprise!

[korkus2000]

That site is really a "get rich quick using methods from 1998" place. I really don't want to pump out the cash to see exactly what they are saying but I can guess its "do what we did because it doesn't work as well anymore and we want your money now".

I am not trying to intimidate or bully you. I have just seen this so much. I know tons of people misled by these ebooks.

I assume you are in amazons affiliate program and not selling marketing ebooks. I suggest you find a simple design and write lots of valuble unique content for each. Try to target each affiliate offering with keywords that people would use if they are looking to buy.

[Putz]

korkus2000:

By saying 'that site' you do mean [www.useit.com] don't you?

Go look at Joel's site at [www.successaccess.com] and see what you have to say after joining his Newsletter. You might learn something from him, to even help you.

He's having his own conference call this evening, you may want to inquire into that [as just a listener] to hear why 'keywords' are not as important as even I used to believe they were.

[Grumpus]

aschrage, if you are talking about the site in your profile, I'd have a look at using either amazon's "Keyword" links or develop something with the Web Services they are now starting up. You've got a lot of quotes in your database and you'd be well served to bring up related products from those people. Quotes by Mark Twain could dynamically display his most popular books.

The only trick you'd have to do now is add it so your users list the occupation of the person who made the quote. For example, Robin Williams has some GREAT quotes, but he hasn't written any books (I don't think). If he was listed as an Actor or Comedian in your database, you could teach your site to show is video releases rather than books.

I'm not about to say that I've gotten all of the subtleties down, but I recently discovered a theory that has provided me more sales this month than in the 5 months prior (and I still haven't finished setting it all up).

That bit of wisdom is this - in order to make a sale, your visitor must know that 1) What they are looking at is a product and 2) That you want them to buy it. So many times you see sites where there's an Amazon display and people are going to look at it and say, "If I wanted to go to Amazon I would have." If you can say, "Here is a product that I know you are interested in based upon your presence on this page, and here is how you can buy it," you'll have a lot better rates.

G.