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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orcus" data-source="post: 1122262" data-attributes="member: 1254">No, I am saying "answer your core business question."You guys arent answering that core business question. You are dodging it by blaming bad PDF sales on lack of marketing. That isnt the problem. I am encouraging you to actually look to the core of your business decision to use PDF. If you cant exploit the medium why are you using it?PDFs are universally recognized as:1. cheaper2. worse quality layout and design since the budget is smaller3. poor art and maps for the same reason4. some few may have great ideas but in general the writing and ideas are inferior to print products again because they dont command professional writers and editors.If you are trying to make a PDF just be a non-printed book you will lose every time unless it is a situation like Monte where they purchaser knows they are getting a professionally written, edited book with art that is exactly the same as a book.But PDF publishers are generally not PDF publsihers by choice (except Monte) they are PDF publishers by situation. If you had the money to do a printed work you would. But you went on the cheap (like I did initially) because you had to.No manner of marketing or advertising is going to ever fix the problem that those products are low rent versions of books that people just dont want to spend their money on.That is why I gave my advice (which is not build a better mousetrap) it is make a core business decision: "why should someone pay $3 for your PDF when they can pay $12 for a printed book which is their clear preference?" YOU HAVE TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION for your business and your format to succeed. This is pure business theory. Just like I cant sell audiotapes of me reading my product (who would buy that?) you shouldnt think that you can just sell a PDF of a print product and have it be accepted. If your answer is that PDF is nothing more than an electronic book and that it doesnt do more that a print product then maybe that is your answer. But the problem is that fails to address your core business question. If you cant give people a reason to buy your product, all the marketing and banner ads and inserts and demo CDs wont change that.Because right now it sound like at a game table without computers people would rather have print products and at a game table with computers people would rather have true programs rather than PDFs. If that is true, this is a doomed medium. But I dont believe that.The brutal truth is that PDFs that are essentially poor man's print products dont sell and wont sell ever unless and until you answer your core business question. You are selling the wrong product. I know many of you dont want to hear this but it seems demonstrably true.If you had quality and reliability (a la Monte) your PDFs would sell. BUT if you had that, then you would have a budget and wouldnt be PDF publishers.It isnt enough to just say that "but my ideas in the PDF are GOOD!" That has never sold a product. Because purchasers dont know that.I'm not trying to be down on PDFs. I love them. I think it is crazy that they aren't more widely accepted. But I think I understand why they arent and I am trying to communicate that here.Now I could just blow sunshine up your skirts and say "yeah, hey all we need is more 'awareness'" but that isnt true. Look around. People are aware. When there is a free PDF download this is good, it is downloaded thousands of times. But charge $3 and it is downloaded 100 times. If it is less than good, maybe 20 times. I think the unfortunate reality is that you cant just make a cheap book and try to sell it as a PDF and succeed. That is why I am trying to encourage people to make that core business decision."Why should a kid spend $3 on my PDF when he can get a print product for $15 that is professionally written, edited and has quality art?"If you cant answer that question, you dont have a viable business. Period.Clark</blockquote>

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