Do you have products that you sell as part of your online earning strategy? I’m talking mostly about things like e-Books or special reports that you offer to your readers? Well, first thing, if you don’t have such items you really should. Not only are those kinds of items real money makers, but they may also well be your best way to earn money from your blog or website. I have been offering eBooks for over 10 years now. For the first 5 years or so, I had only 1 eBook and did well with it. Since 5 years ago or so, I started offering a wide variety of eBooks, and I’m glad I made the effort to do that because I make a nice bit of change from my eBook sales.
In the past 6 months, though, I found a way by which I increased my eBook sales by nearly 40%. Want to know how? Read ahead then!
Giving people a special offer
You see, I get many e-mails from people who ask questions about my various books. Sometimes they are asking questions, needing that extra little push to make them buyers. Sometimes they write to me asking questions, not even knowing about my e-books on the topic they are asking me about. There are lots of different reasons why people write to me.
In the past, I would write back and let them know about my e-books and that the answer to the question they are asking is available in my book. Over the years, I would estimate that only about 10% of people that I had e-mailed with this information would actually buy the book. Starting about 6 months ago or so, I tried an experiment to see if I could increase that 10% response to a higher number.
What did I do?
For every such e-mail I sent to people, I started offering coupons for money off on the books, but the coupon was good for 24 hours only. So, for example, if somebody wrote to me and asked how they could live in the Philippines like I do, and still be able to earn a living, I would write back and tell them that I have an eBook on that topic. The books are $39, but if they buy within 24 hours they get $10 off. Guess what… now, about 7 out of 10 people who get a message like that end up buying the book!
So, let’s say that in the past 25 people sent me such an e-mail inquiry in one week. That would mean that on average it would result in about 2.5 sales, or revenue of $97.50 for me (2.5 books at $39 each) that week. Now, if the same number of people inquire, the resulting sales, on average would be about 17.5 books per week, resulting in revenue of $507.50 (that’s 17.5 books at $29 [remember I give $10 off]). That’s a big difference in revenue generated!
But, Bob, why do you make the coupon only good for 24 hours?
Well, think about it. Let’s say I made the amount of time open-ended, or I gave them 2 weeks. Probably 75% of the people would think to themselves “Oh, that’s great, I’ll do it tomorrow (or next week, or next month, etc).” Problem is, once they delay the purchase the vast majority of them will never make the purchase. They will forget, or they will have moved on to some other item they want to purchase. With a 24-hour time limit, it gives a sense of urgency, so that they think to themselves, “Oh, I want to take advantage of that deal, I better do it now.” Giving the potential customer the sense of urgency is very important, and it makes the sale happen. I mean, they can still buy the book anytime they want, but they can save 25% if they do it now, or within 24 hours of me making the offer.
So, if you want to do this, you need to be using some kind of shopping cart business that allows you to offer coupons, and in particular time-sensitive coupons. For this, I use e-Junkie for my e-Book sales, and it gives me such flexibility. There are certainly lots of shopping cart methods that will offer this, I just mention e-Junkie because it is inexpensive, reliable, and I have been very happy with their service.
Give this a try, I hope you have great success as I have. Not sure how to publish and sell an e-Book? Check out my e-Book which will tell you everything you need to know!
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