[Ancient Awakenings Publications] VoFT now $5.00 / Observations of PDF prices...

[Crothian]

Out of curiosity as a reviewer I've always wonder what if any effect if any a review has on the sale of a product. Obviously, the place the review is posted, the review itself, and the reviewer probably all play in as variables of some sort.

 

[mroberon1972]

Frankly we've been struggling with the same thing, but thus far with little success. We've tried adding "window dressing" in the form of html tables and artwork from the game (compare this to this. Honestly, it hasn't seemed to make a significant difference. We're also experiementing with better descriptive text, but it's just hard to isolate all the variables to tell what makes a difference. Any constructive thoughts are always welcome.

No improvment? At All?

Hmnnn... I don't know what to make of this at all...

It does sound like an interesting thing to try...

 

[philreed]

Getting back on topic here...

Based on the little bit shared by other publishers and our own experiences, a conversion rate of 1.6% (sales / visits) is about average. I'd be very interested to hear other publishers come forward with their own sales conversion percentages demonstrating otherwise.

These feels very close to the numbers I see on my own products after about six months. Earlier than that and the % is all over the place, from 0 to 100 depending on the day and product.

When you start looking at the numbers, it makes much more sense to figure out a way to get more people who already visit your page to actually buy than it does to drive new people to the site.

One thing that I've found useful is exchanging links with publishers on product pages. Also, including links to backstock on new product pages also seems to help.

 

[mroberon1972]

These feels very close to the numbers I see on my own products after about six months. Earlier than that and the % is all over the place, from 0 to 100 depending on the day and product.

One thing that I've found useful is exchanging links with publishers on product pages. Also, including links to backstock on new product pages also seems to help.

Oh... I like that idea!

Got anything we could trade links on?

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

And I say that they could all be lumped into one big release titled "Lots of Guns." I'm also not complaining about your releases by calling them "annoying, catalog crowding" so I would appreciate it if you could try to also keep from complaining. If you're going to release products you need to deal with the market as it exists.

Well, if you actually owned a copy, you'd understand why they cannot all be lumped into one big release.

If you're right and my shorter PDFs are "annoying" and "catalog crowding" then sales will prove it and I will switch to another model. So far, my model seems to be working just fine so I'll stick with it.

While sales may not prove it, the complaints have been voiced though I guess you didn't pay much mind to them. Those miniproducts you enjoy releasing are one of the major contributing factors to the changes RPGnow has had to apply to its site design a few months back. If my memory serves me, James even mentioned at one point he was considering banning such products. They started a vicious cycle; rather than releasing one larger product, you folks were releasing numerous smaller ones in a given time frame, accelerating the exit of new product from the front page. Other publishers figured the same thing and as they joined the race, the syndrome worsened. In a period of under 8 months, the average staying time of a new release went nearly 3 weeks in April 2003 to about 36 hours by November 2003.

While they are different beasts I would be happy with my best PDF if it had sold 1/4 the number of subscribers Pyramid typically has at any time. What you consider "mediocre success" I see as numbers I can envy and strive for.

Well, I consider it mediocre success, because I have done online and print publication work outside the RPG industry. Back in the mid-90's, I saw pay rates more than 30 times the average RPG author gets, and one subscription site I designed the back end software for (yeah, a porn site) probably pays me more in residuals every month than Pyramid pulls in each month.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

More statistics for the fire:

The product page for Poisoncraft: The Dark Art has gotten 446 hits to date, and we have 21 sales. That's 4.71% for those playing at home.

I think some of the discrepancy may be associated with the type of product. Poisoncraft is a d20 sourcebook as opposed to an adventure book/module. Historically the sales of the latter are always a little slower than the former.

Crothian: I would love to tell you what effect a review has on sales, but I haven't gotten anyone to review it yet. If you review it, I'll let you know.

 

[Crothian]

Crothian: I would love to tell you what effect a review has on sales, but I haven't gotten anyone to review it yet. If you review it, I'll let you know.

I'll get to yours, it's slightly down on the list at the moment. Right now it seems to be about a month between when I get them and when I get to them. If that holds true, the review will be in early June.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

Dana:

If you can't keep the nastyness out of your posts, then keep your posts out of my press releases.

End of discussion.

1.) You really need to work on making your press releases look like press releases, rather than structuring them like an open discussion.

2.) you do not own enworld, and therefore do not have any control over any aspect of the site once you've made a post.

 

[philreed]

While sales may not prove it, the complaints have been voiced though I guess you didn't pay much mind to them. Those miniproducts you enjoy releasing are one of the major contributing factors to the changes RPGnow has had to apply to its site design a few months back.

So what you're trying to say is that the success I've had with a release model has destroyed RPGNow? I've actually seen an increase in sales since RPGNow made changes.

And it's not that I ignore posts. It's that I consider posts on message boards, comments on my website, and e-mails sent directly to me. I also share information with other publishers and try to learn as best I can.

Well, I consider it mediocre success, because I have done online and print publication work outside the RPG industry. Back in the mid-90's, I saw pay rates more than 30 times the average RPG author gets, and one subscription site I designed the back end software for (yeah, a porn site) probably pays me more in residuals every month than Pyramid pulls in each month.

I have no desire to get into "I have more experience than you" debate. I've seen your posts here before and can see that I've let myself be drug into a discussion that has no value for myself or the readers. If you can make so much money in the porn industry please feel free to go back there and leave the rest of us alone to enjoy games.

 

[philreed]

Oh... I like that idea!

Got anything we could trade links on?

Take a peek at the Ronin Arts page on the RPGNow site. If you see anything you think we should swap links on feel free to e-mail me and we'll discuss it.

Also, I'm sorry for what I've done to your thread. My intention was to discuss PDFs and publishing and I let myself get drug into something else.