DPG Darrin
First Post
We at Dark Portal Games received this notice today from RPGNow.com. Most of you should already know them as the current leading distributor of online PDF products. As you will see from this notice, they are enacting a policy whereby RPG company's websites will no longer be linked from their site if that company has the capability to sell directly to customers.
Here at Dark Portal Games, we feel that this new policy is counterproductive to us, the publishers, as well as to customers that may wish to learn more about the companies that produced the products for sale through their website. As a result, we are ending our arrangement with RPGNow and bringing this matter to light so that you, the gamers and publishers who will be affected by this policy, understand both the character of the people you are buying from, and the reason why you may not be able to find information on the publishers you are interested in when visiting this site. Note that this policy not only will affect us, but other notable names such as Malhavoc press, Bastion Press, and others.
What they may fail to recognize is that some of us had our own e-commerce sites active before we allowed them to profit from the sale of our products. E-commerce sites are not cheap to set up, and also require a monthly fee to maintain for a predetermined period of time. Encouraging us to remove our ability to sell directly to customers in order to maintain a link from their site is impractical and blatantly wasteful. Since we had been willing to share our products with them as well as a cut of the profit that we would otherwise generate from our own sites for greater exposure, we had felt that this arrangement was mutually beneficial.
Needless to say, we are disappointed with this new policy, and we encourage anyone else who feels the same to contact RPGNow with comments. Below is the email we received:
RPGNow.com Vendors,
We has focused extensively on promoting our RPGNow.com site and the PDF publishing concept. We have spent thousands of marketing and advertising dollars promoting both RPGNow.com and the products contained within, which helps all of our vendors to be more successful.
If our customers click through to your website and find options to buy a product that do not involve us, we gain no revenue and have wasted our ad dollars. Obviously, we cannot afford to do this. RPGNow.com therefore has a policy of only directly linking to vendor's sites who sell products exclusively through RPGNow.com
We don't blame our vendors for wanting the best exposure or trying other methods of sales or even to attempt to get a bigger share of the sale by selling it themselves. We welcome the opportunity to continue to be one of your sales outlets in the future. We hope you understand that our advertising budget comes from continued business of our strong customer base. We cannot afford to fragment them.
If you have any questions about this policy, or choose to change your sales policies, please let us know. We are open to your feedback! We will be reviewing vendor's websites on a regular basis.
RPGNow.com brings over 500 customers through the doors each day and is constantly promoting and spending money on your behalf. We have become THE place to find RPG materials online. We look forward to continued success in bringing your products to market.
RPGNow.com Staff
*** RPG Host Network *** http://www.RPGHost.com
Here at Dark Portal Games, we feel that this new policy is counterproductive to us, the publishers, as well as to customers that may wish to learn more about the companies that produced the products for sale through their website. As a result, we are ending our arrangement with RPGNow and bringing this matter to light so that you, the gamers and publishers who will be affected by this policy, understand both the character of the people you are buying from, and the reason why you may not be able to find information on the publishers you are interested in when visiting this site. Note that this policy not only will affect us, but other notable names such as Malhavoc press, Bastion Press, and others.
What they may fail to recognize is that some of us had our own e-commerce sites active before we allowed them to profit from the sale of our products. E-commerce sites are not cheap to set up, and also require a monthly fee to maintain for a predetermined period of time. Encouraging us to remove our ability to sell directly to customers in order to maintain a link from their site is impractical and blatantly wasteful. Since we had been willing to share our products with them as well as a cut of the profit that we would otherwise generate from our own sites for greater exposure, we had felt that this arrangement was mutually beneficial.
Needless to say, we are disappointed with this new policy, and we encourage anyone else who feels the same to contact RPGNow with comments. Below is the email we received:
RPGNow.com Vendors,
We has focused extensively on promoting our RPGNow.com site and the PDF publishing concept. We have spent thousands of marketing and advertising dollars promoting both RPGNow.com and the products contained within, which helps all of our vendors to be more successful.
If our customers click through to your website and find options to buy a product that do not involve us, we gain no revenue and have wasted our ad dollars. Obviously, we cannot afford to do this. RPGNow.com therefore has a policy of only directly linking to vendor's sites who sell products exclusively through RPGNow.com
We don't blame our vendors for wanting the best exposure or trying other methods of sales or even to attempt to get a bigger share of the sale by selling it themselves. We welcome the opportunity to continue to be one of your sales outlets in the future. We hope you understand that our advertising budget comes from continued business of our strong customer base. We cannot afford to fragment them.
If you have any questions about this policy, or choose to change your sales policies, please let us know. We are open to your feedback! We will be reviewing vendor's websites on a regular basis.
RPGNow.com brings over 500 customers through the doors each day and is constantly promoting and spending money on your behalf. We have become THE place to find RPG materials online. We look forward to continued success in bringing your products to market.
RPGNow.com Staff
*** RPG Host Network *** http://www.RPGHost.com
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