rpghost
First Post
As the owner of RPGNow.com I'm obviously very interested in brainstoming this topic:
I've had this idea before and it was talked about on EN World... problems are:
1) we'd have to pay for a computer to be placed on site as no store owner is going to invest in them
2) the revenue shares RPGNow makes now are very slim. There would have to be some sort of up charge for costs of making the CD and paying the retailer.
3) Even then how many retailers have the space to donate to this kiosk/machine instead of books? Esp when it's not a big money maker?
4) We'd have to provide printed examples or some sort of previewing system on the machine. Costs add up...
5) We have a security issue with all the machines having all the products on them. If they don't you're talking a lot of downloads. Worse, you'll have to have some sort of nightly sync to the main site to get new downloads (which are added daily) and upload sales info.
6) Ever try to collect from a store that's not making much money? Ever expect to get your new computer back if they go out of business? Lots of risks.
Ok ok... you get the point I think. I hope you do.
So, what do we do to increase PDF sales? I wish I knew... I've tried:
- Ads in Dungeon, Dragon, KORT, Valkrie, Games Unplug, etc. Also convention registration books (Origins, GenCon, and a couple others). They have all resulted in very little return. At most 10 or so new customers per issue. That's a high price per customer.
- Electronic demos/ads in Game Play CD, Over 1500 Demo CDs handed out at conventions (Origins, GenCon, FlatCon, etc). To date I've seen only a few new customers with this code (granted it's a bit early but still dishearting).
- Customer Drive through online promotions. Was handing out hundreds of dollars of prizes but only got about 10 new customers out of it. So, either everyone online knows about us or the people who know about my network RPG Host already have all their friends on RPGNow. In short, not even big free giveaways helped current users get us new customers.
- Prize and Seminar support. We've set out prizes and demos for seminars at conventions and local gaming shops/groups... Little or no mesurable return other then them buying ePublisher Guide here and there.
- Flyers / stuffers. We've stuffed hundreds of brochers in orders at RPGShop.com but with little results. Probably because most shoppers of our network know about both sites. Trick here would be to get OTHER physical online book stores and also brick and mortor stores to help distribute flyers to raise awarness. Problem is, they consider us and esp RPGShop a direct competitor or don't want to help cause there isn't anything in it for them or its just plain viewed as undercutting their prices.
- Portals: http://www.digitalrpg.org - this has had some small effects on attacting people but nothing overly noticable. Problem is most people who know about these portals also already are well aware of RPGNow. The trick is to use these portals to help drive non-ebook buyers to us.
- Free print product give aways. Full verisons of Ars Magica, Deadlands, Tri Stat system, and shortly on more. This to date has been the one success story in that it has producted 1000+ new customers from all over the world and is directly responsible for about another $1000 in purchases at RPGNow. This is very effective, but very hard to promote. one more
- Convention pressence. We tried to display at GenCon 2002 and even burn disks there and even had some "bundle deals" ... but we sold about 5 CDs the whole weekend. It was a hard concept for people to understand and people wanted books at conventions, not a CD to take home. Granted there was some issue with the fact that I was selling a lot of other things to help pay for the booth (T-Shirts) so it confused people even more.
- Banner ads. Online we have banner ads running on WOTC main site. They do send us some customers on a pretty regular basis. But not much more then any website doing product announcements and such. In other words there is a steady flow of customers coming from here, but slowly.
- Online bid links and search engines. We use Overture, Findwhat, Kandodle, and a few others... we pay for links for e-books and a few other things like "free downloaded RPG" and such... but they result in few new paying customers. We're also listed well on GOOGLE which helps traffic a bit.
- Mailing Lists. I don't have access to much in the way of general RPG mailing lists... I do however make use of the customer base of about 60,000 at our stores, plus mailings to some lists for the industry. All in all, I'm not sure they are of much good other then to promote something like getting a new deal (like TSR products online, or the free Ars Magica). Does anyone know a place to reach non-PDF buyers in a mailing list? I would suspect that would be some sort of REAL MAIL physical mailing list to RPG gamers.
- Acknowledgements: some publishers are greatful for RPGNow and have put thank yous in their print books. I can only hope this helps gain a few more customers as it's pretty hard to track.
One other thing... I'm not so sure that introducing competitors to this marketplace is going to be of much/any help. Not unless it's backed by a publisher that wants to release a lot of old print stock (WW, SJG, etc). RPG.NET failed to make any significant sales. Products that are listed on RPGNow and SVGames.com (non-TSR stuff) sell 10 times or more the volume on RPGNow then they do at SVGames. So in short, listing your products at other shops isn't going to drastically increase sales.
Overall, RPGNow and PDF sales are growing steadly dispite not being able to find any particular effective promotion. As you can see from these two charts I did a few months back (the curve has more or less continued):
http://www.rpgnow.com/customer_graph.jpg
http://www.rpgnow.com/gross_graph.jpg
So what to try/do that I haven't yet? How do we reach more people? To date the most effective methods have involved some sort of partnering with larger publishers or communities.
Since we already sell to most every EnWorld and RPG.NET user, where else is there a large online community? Muds? Everquest?
While at Origins/GenCon most all of the Publishers (even big ones) have some sort of PDF plan or want to specifically work with us. I had verbal commitment from many large publishers, but of course no one seems to ever have the time to follow through on those.
Who else is worth teaming up with? What next product can we hand out for free to draw more users?
James Mathe
Minion Development Corp.
http://www.RPGNow.com
P.S. RPGNow has a "source" field that a publisher can use to help us track where users and sales come from. We also have a generic question of such when a new customer signs up. But the data is usually only filled in about 60% of the time...
I've had this idea before and it was talked about on EN World... problems are:
1) we'd have to pay for a computer to be placed on site as no store owner is going to invest in them
2) the revenue shares RPGNow makes now are very slim. There would have to be some sort of up charge for costs of making the CD and paying the retailer.
3) Even then how many retailers have the space to donate to this kiosk/machine instead of books? Esp when it's not a big money maker?
4) We'd have to provide printed examples or some sort of previewing system on the machine. Costs add up...
5) We have a security issue with all the machines having all the products on them. If they don't you're talking a lot of downloads. Worse, you'll have to have some sort of nightly sync to the main site to get new downloads (which are added daily) and upload sales info.
6) Ever try to collect from a store that's not making much money? Ever expect to get your new computer back if they go out of business? Lots of risks.
Ok ok... you get the point I think. I hope you do.
So, what do we do to increase PDF sales? I wish I knew... I've tried:
- Ads in Dungeon, Dragon, KORT, Valkrie, Games Unplug, etc. Also convention registration books (Origins, GenCon, and a couple others). They have all resulted in very little return. At most 10 or so new customers per issue. That's a high price per customer.
- Electronic demos/ads in Game Play CD, Over 1500 Demo CDs handed out at conventions (Origins, GenCon, FlatCon, etc). To date I've seen only a few new customers with this code (granted it's a bit early but still dishearting).
- Customer Drive through online promotions. Was handing out hundreds of dollars of prizes but only got about 10 new customers out of it. So, either everyone online knows about us or the people who know about my network RPG Host already have all their friends on RPGNow. In short, not even big free giveaways helped current users get us new customers.
- Prize and Seminar support. We've set out prizes and demos for seminars at conventions and local gaming shops/groups... Little or no mesurable return other then them buying ePublisher Guide here and there.
- Flyers / stuffers. We've stuffed hundreds of brochers in orders at RPGShop.com but with little results. Probably because most shoppers of our network know about both sites. Trick here would be to get OTHER physical online book stores and also brick and mortor stores to help distribute flyers to raise awarness. Problem is, they consider us and esp RPGShop a direct competitor or don't want to help cause there isn't anything in it for them or its just plain viewed as undercutting their prices.
- Portals: http://www.digitalrpg.org - this has had some small effects on attacting people but nothing overly noticable. Problem is most people who know about these portals also already are well aware of RPGNow. The trick is to use these portals to help drive non-ebook buyers to us.
- Free print product give aways. Full verisons of Ars Magica, Deadlands, Tri Stat system, and shortly on more. This to date has been the one success story in that it has producted 1000+ new customers from all over the world and is directly responsible for about another $1000 in purchases at RPGNow. This is very effective, but very hard to promote. one more
- Convention pressence. We tried to display at GenCon 2002 and even burn disks there and even had some "bundle deals" ... but we sold about 5 CDs the whole weekend. It was a hard concept for people to understand and people wanted books at conventions, not a CD to take home. Granted there was some issue with the fact that I was selling a lot of other things to help pay for the booth (T-Shirts) so it confused people even more.
- Banner ads. Online we have banner ads running on WOTC main site. They do send us some customers on a pretty regular basis. But not much more then any website doing product announcements and such. In other words there is a steady flow of customers coming from here, but slowly.
- Online bid links and search engines. We use Overture, Findwhat, Kandodle, and a few others... we pay for links for e-books and a few other things like "free downloaded RPG" and such... but they result in few new paying customers. We're also listed well on GOOGLE which helps traffic a bit.
- Mailing Lists. I don't have access to much in the way of general RPG mailing lists... I do however make use of the customer base of about 60,000 at our stores, plus mailings to some lists for the industry. All in all, I'm not sure they are of much good other then to promote something like getting a new deal (like TSR products online, or the free Ars Magica). Does anyone know a place to reach non-PDF buyers in a mailing list? I would suspect that would be some sort of REAL MAIL physical mailing list to RPG gamers.
- Acknowledgements: some publishers are greatful for RPGNow and have put thank yous in their print books. I can only hope this helps gain a few more customers as it's pretty hard to track.
One other thing... I'm not so sure that introducing competitors to this marketplace is going to be of much/any help. Not unless it's backed by a publisher that wants to release a lot of old print stock (WW, SJG, etc). RPG.NET failed to make any significant sales. Products that are listed on RPGNow and SVGames.com (non-TSR stuff) sell 10 times or more the volume on RPGNow then they do at SVGames. So in short, listing your products at other shops isn't going to drastically increase sales.
Overall, RPGNow and PDF sales are growing steadly dispite not being able to find any particular effective promotion. As you can see from these two charts I did a few months back (the curve has more or less continued):
http://www.rpgnow.com/customer_graph.jpg
http://www.rpgnow.com/gross_graph.jpg
So what to try/do that I haven't yet? How do we reach more people? To date the most effective methods have involved some sort of partnering with larger publishers or communities.
Since we already sell to most every EnWorld and RPG.NET user, where else is there a large online community? Muds? Everquest?
While at Origins/GenCon most all of the Publishers (even big ones) have some sort of PDF plan or want to specifically work with us. I had verbal commitment from many large publishers, but of course no one seems to ever have the time to follow through on those.
Who else is worth teaming up with? What next product can we hand out for free to draw more users?James Mathe
Minion Development Corp.
http://www.RPGNow.com
P.S. RPGNow has a "source" field that a publisher can use to help us track where users and sales come from. We also have a generic question of such when a new customer signs up. But the data is usually only filled in about 60% of the time...
