What kind of Sales can you expect from PDF?

[tensen]

Re: Re: Re: Does this seem reasonable?

This would be a hard sell to me and I already like PDF products. Most printed fiction books sell for about $8. That's a small enough amount of money that I wouldn't give up paper to catch a price break. Frankly, I'm more than willing to spend $8 for a printed version of an excellent book that I could download for free (Guttenberg project for instance).

If I was looking for online books I'd go to Baen books website. They apparently have made quite a name in the book industry by this. They sell web subscriptions to their books for rather cheap. They expect people to read it online. And it has majorly increased their sales on Hard Covers.

 

[Terra_Ferax_Mark]

Originally posted by rpghost
--------------------------------------
Problem is, I need to figure out a way to get the database drive HTML pages to actually store as HTML that is locally navigated. If I use a program to spider the whole site I'm afraid it may spider a lot of places I don't want... anyone know a tool to do this sort of thing? I want the output in HTML not PDF.
-----------------------------------------------------

HTTrack is a free (open source) and easy-to-use offline browser utility.
http://www.httrack.com/index.php
When you set up the job, you'll get to a -Mirroring Mode- page (you enter the URL to scan on this page). Enter the Url. Click the "Set Options" button on this page. In the dialog box, choose the Scan Rules tab and remove the line in the box that reads
+*.png +*.gif +*.jpg +*.css +*.js -ad.doubleclick.net/*
and replace that line with
+http://www.rpgnow.com/*.html
+http://www.rpgnow.com/*.htm
+http://www.rpgnow.com/*.gif
+http://www.rpgnow.com/*.jpg
+http://www.rpgnow.com/*.jpeg

These can be on multiple lines. Once you have entered this, you'll click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box. Go up to the preferences menu and select "save options as..."
Now whenever you want to scan, you can load those options (The program eliminates the job when it successfully performs the task, so saving it will save you from a typing mantra...)

I used this to scan my stormpages.com message board and it stayed on that site, even though I have links back to my website, d20 magazine rack and some other websites (normally other websites appear in separate folders). Your mileage with it may vary, but it works for me.

 

[rpghost]

Re: Re: Re: Does this seem reasonable?

Do you mean fiction PDFs, like putting novels on sale via RPGNow?

No I meant the people out there buy all the print RPG books but don't know who the heck we are. We have a lot to offer them - from early editions of books to books they'll never see in their FLGS. So how do we get the people who frequent the FLGS to come to RPGNow?

James

 

[Morrus]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Does this seem reasonable?

No I meant the people out there buy all the print RPG books but don't know who the heck we are. We have a lot to offer them - from early editions of books to books they'll never see in their FLGS. So how do we get the people who frequent the FLGS to come to RPGNow?

James

That's not a problem unique to you. For example, how do I get people who frequent the FLGS to come to EN World? Well, actually I have some plans in that regard, but I know where you're coming from.

 

[Arnix]

Re: RPGNow category pages and reviews

Thanks Terra. I'll see if I can make sure that I have at least a review or two posted for the stuff that we release, might take some work to get a reviewer to do it but... hopefully it will be worth the extra effort.

Arnix (tm)

 

[Rifter]

Is there a way to get this in stores?

The biggest advantage that print books have, is they have people pushing them at a store, because they turn a profit. .PDFs do not have that same luxury. Is there a way to move the .pdf business to the store? I know some stores have PCs hooked up already. Throw on a decent black and white laser printer, and you have the perfect set up. Another idea, that would be far cheaper for a store, is having a CD-ROM burner.

So, a store would have a setup, where they have the books online. They make a sale, and that gets wired back to RPG Host that a purchase has been made... or maybe, it is done once a night, or what not. The store charages probably double what the RPG Host price is... and that person gets either an electronic or printed format. I can see a lot of problems with this, right now, but others may be able to take this concept and make it better. There are a few tradeoffs though.

If you go printing route, you have all the products, and don't have to pay to keep a physical inventory, which is a good thing. Though, you have paper costs and toner costs, which really are not all that much. Though, the time to print could be an issue, and printer maintenence.

If you go the CD-ROM route, you still have the advantage of no inventory, plus, CDs are very cheap, and reliable, as well as extremely fast. I think the CD version is the way to go. Any other ideas/comments?

I know the store owner of the store I work at kind of frowns on me trying to sell the .pdfs I find in his store, since he doesn't make a dime off of them.

 

[Asathas]

Perhaps a catalog in the stores?

I'm neither a PDF publisher nor a distributor like RPGNow but I'll toss this thought into the ring... What if you had a catalog in the FLGS and a postcard/bookmark/whatever that had a store code on it? Customer finds something interesting in the catalog, takes the printed item (shape/size up to you more knowledgeable folks) home and enters the URL in their computer. The URL could even include the store code so that information is passed automatically.

Then when the consumer buys something from RPGNow, the FLGS gets a cut (I know there ain't much left but perhaps the publishers would be willing to pay RPGNow a tad more for sales that originated in an FLGS).

With the FLGS getting a cut on the deal, there's incentive there for them to push the product. Your catalog printing costs are dependent wholly on how much you put into the catalog. For that matter, you can offer the publishers the opportunity to "upsize" their entry/entries in the catalog for a small fee.

The main issues I see with this are:

1 - Making sure that the additional FLGS-driven revenue is sufficient to overcome the cost of the catalog and still allow profit.

2 - The catalog has to provide sufficient information to encourage the consumer to take the time/trouble to get the printed item with the URL on it home and go to the site.

3 - The catalog has to be sufficiently eye-catching to encourage a consumer to peruse it.

I'm not sure that the idea is entirely there but perhaps between the publishers here, RPGNow, and the folks in this thread who run FLGS, you could find something in this idea that might work.

 

[Asathas]

Further thoughts...

As an alternative to the catalog, you could just do something like the bookmark/postcard idea with a bit of a twist.

If the RPGNow data/UI could be made exportable (i.e. something I could access by putting a CGI or equivalent script on my site) and preferably easily brandable, you could offer the FLGS something truly unique. I can probably better describe this with an example:

Let's say I run FLGS Gaming Store and I've got a web site set up at www.flgs.com. I make a deal with RPGNow to become an associate site. As an associate, I get to put a small CGI script or it may just be a link to RPGNow.com with my having given them my store name, address, main URL, and a logo graphic. Where the data/UI is hosted is kinda up to you folks.

Now when a customer comes in and wants something new/different, I can tell him to go to our store web site, www.flgs.com, and from there he can browse/purchase/download PDF's. I can explain that from there he can get D20/other RPG material that he can't find in any store. I can do promotions. I could even (with the appropriate enhancements to the RPGNow software) take cash payments in store to give credit on the FLGS/RPGNow site so that my customers who don't have a credit card can buy stuff.

Now to make it truly worthwhile for the FLGS, the FLGS can set up a pricing table... for example, items purchased through the FLGS site under $3 get a $1 fee tacked on, items from $3.01 to $5 get a $1.50 fee, and so on. These are numbers made up off the top of my head so please don't put much stock in them... just the idea.

Basically, this gives RPGNow the opportunity to have the FLGS pushing RPGNow. The FLGS gets a minimal or even no investment revenue opportunity. The publishers get a wider audience and the benefit of the FLGS hawking their products.

The main downside on this is that RPGNow would then be competing against the FLGS which use their product library because RPGNow would be migrating its role from that of a retailer to that of a wholesaler (more or less). But again, that's a strategic decision for you guys to make.

 

[jezter6]

Well, like james said, the margins on PDF sales aren't that high for RPGNow, and it just wouldn't be profitable to have an affiliate program like that.

But, as someone who's in the process, I'd LOVE to see RPGnow publish some sort of monthly or i'd even take quarterly...just to have something on the shop floor to let our people know they can get stuff that I don't have on the shelf.

Charge the publishers if they want to be in the catalog. Send the catalog free to FLGS with no mention of the other online stuff you do at RPGshop or whatever. That way our customers could get what they need, regardless if the FLGS makes a dime on it (and i'd be willing to bet that it's the MAX the FLGS would make on an affiliate program...and think of how many sales monthly an FLGS is going to make in pdf's...probably not more than 100 or so...so you're only making $10...not really enough to scream "I want profits")

Anywho, done with my rant.

 

[rpghost]

But, as someone who's in the process, I'd LOVE to see RPGnow publish some sort of monthly or i'd even take quarterly...just to have something on the shop floor to let our people know they can get stuff that I don't have on the shelf.

Maybe not exactly what you're saying here, but what about a monthly E-Zine that has publisher features and highlights of new products and such. More then a newsletter or mailing, but something that requires an editor and maybe some unique content.

Seems like an offical RPGNow PDF Magazine wuld fit in well with the site. A free download for customers. Something that's going to help promote products on the site. But also even some helpful tips/hints/training for people wanting to get into the PDF publishing business... Then I suppose FLGS could print it out and leave it on the counters... but again, I doubt they'd bother as we're sort of a competitor and there's no money in it for them.

Anyway, need to find an editor and staff and a reason for them wanting to help (discounts, frebies, fame) - Anyone out there been iching to do an e-zine?


James
http://www.RPGNow.com