That was the E-Year that was

[Bloodstone Press]

When I get some time I'll try to come up with some average product costs.

Don't do more work than you need to. The only reason I mentioned average price is because it seems to be tracked on some of your graphs that you've published. I think a look at units sold over the past 4 months compard to the same period last year will reveal any actual slump in sales. Compareing those numbers with revenue figures from the same times can give you a picture of any possible price changes among popular products without actually figuring it out title by title, sale by sale.

Which is actually why I'm considering allowing vendors to spend their earnings online. Saves us the trasaction fees and we can cut less checks.

That would be a great idea. I would buy more from RPGnow with a feature like that. In fact I was wishing for something like that not more than a week ago.

I have to totally agree with Chris here. Less space for product highlight and more highlighting of the actual sub-categories would get people into a list of thumbnails that would be a much more specific interest to them.

I also think that's a good idea. Especially if it goes all the way, with no product thumbnails on the front page at all, but rather buttons and links to all the subcatagories, equally positioned. There should be lots of subcatagories, including all the "best of" and "hot seller lists."

 

[malladin]

I have to totally agree with Chris here. Less space for product highlight and more highlighting of the actual sub-categories would get people into a list of thumbnails that would be a much more specific interest to them.

I also think that's a good idea. Especially if it goes all the way, with no product thumbnails on the front page at all, but rather buttons and links to all the subcatagories, equally positioned. There should be lots of subcatagories, including all the "best of" and "hot seller lists."

Perhaps we can loose the front page altogether, or maybe just have 'today's new releases' along with these links, that way the customer would have to browse more and therefore be more likely to look at the comments and best sellers in a particular area. Hence I think that combining Shop, Now and Mall would be a good idea as it will increase the number of hits in general and if people are browsing around they might find something they didn't expect to buy.

One concern I have, however, is that if you make RPGNow more effort to browse people might just not bother. I personally don't think it will be a huge problem - maybe even a bonus, to go into the categories to do your shopping. That would be clearer than the shelving policies at most FLGSs.

Cheerio,

Ben

PS. Will, I don't think that we should use the front page of RPGNow as our sole marketing strategy. We used to be able to, which was nice at the time, but now we can't. That is entirely my point. I want to know what ideas other people have for how to tackle this. And so does everyone else who's contributingto this thread, it appears, although we all have different ideas on how to go about it. Hopefully as we discuss the issues we might come to some sort of concensus. I've already had my opinion changed as part of being involved in this thread, so hopefully others will too.

 

[Nellisir]

So what's wrong with the Downloader Monthly we put out? What can we do to make it better? Gain exposure? The point of the magazine was to help people spot the gems in the pond. Is it not serving you in that regard? If not, we need to change gears.

Exposure. Like the others, I've downloaded it once or twice, and it seems nice, but I forget about it. Do you do an announcement here on ENWorld when a new one is released? Also, what about mirroring it at another site, like the d20 Magazine Rack?

Cheers
Nell.

 

[Nellisir]

Especially if it goes all the way, with no product thumbnails on the front page at all, but rather buttons and links to all the subcatagories, equally positioned. There should be lots of subcatagories, including all the "best of" and "hot seller lists."

I like the front page and product thumbnails.

Would it be possible to arrange the site so once someone logs in, the "new products" page only displays material added since the last time they logged in?

 

[madelf]

One suggestion for Downloader Monthly...

Set up a mailing list. Collect email addresses from people buying at RPGnow & send Downloader (or a link) to them automatically every month.
If it shows up in their mailbox, they're likely to take a minute to browse through and maybe see something they like.
If they have to go looking for it every month, a lot of them will forget, or loose interest. Better to smack them in the head with it on a regular basis.

 

[d20Dwarf]

One suggestion for Downloader Monthly...

Set up a mailing list. Collect email addresses from people buying at RPGnow & send Downloader (or a link) to them automatically every month.
If it shows up in their mailbox, they're likely to take a minute to browse through and maybe see something they like.
If they have to go looking for it every month, a lot of them will forget, or loose interest. Better to smack them in the head with it on a regular basis.

This isn't already done?

 

[Vigilance]

I think it is. You just have to have clicked the link allowing you to receive mailings from vendors.

OR, you could just go to the site every month or so, it has its own section about 1/2 down the page on the right side.

I dont see what's so hard about it. Maybe it's just me. I have never had trouble finding it, downloading it, and enjoying it.

Of course, Chris Davis and I posted that 2003 was our best year so far, and some of the ways we keep sales high regardless of products being on the front page, and that didnt stop people from saying "Yeah but we need a magazine! And change the front page too! Oh there's already a magazine? Well make it more visible! Oh its already visible? Well there must be a problem because *I* didnt think of it!"

Apparently if you can succeed in the current environment, and indeed thrive, that isn't worth discussing.

Chuck

 

[madelf]

I think it is. You just have to have clicked the link allowing you to receive mailings from vendors.

OR, you could just go to the site every month or so, it has its own section about 1/2 down the page on the right side.

I dont see what's so hard about it. Maybe it's just me. I have never had trouble finding it, downloading it, and enjoying it.

Of course, Chris Davis and I posted that 2003 was our best year so far, and some of the ways we keep sales high regardless of products being on the front page, and that didnt stop people from saying "Yeah but we need a magazine! And change the front page too! Oh there's already a magazine? Well make it more visible! Oh its already visible? Well there must be a problem because *I* didnt think of it!"

Apparently if you can succeed in the current environment, and indeed thrive, that isn't worth discussing.

Chuck

Of course it's not hard to find, but I thought was pretty clearly explained that people just don't think to look for it. It's not a high priority, it's not on the to-do list.
If it showed up in my mailbox, I'd read it. But I'd rarely think "Oh, the new Downloader must be out. I think I'll go look for it".
If I was in RPGnow's shoes, that sucker would be going out to everybody I could legally send it to. That would be the default, NOT getting it would be the option you'd have to chose.
So it exists, and you can find it if you want to. So? Getting it out more consistantly to more people could only help business. For RPGnow, and the publishers. This is what's called a win/win situation.



I think your methods of thriving are certainly worth discussing. I'd love to hear some particulars.
But that doesn't mean that no one else's ideas are worth discussing as well.
Just because you had a great year means there's no possible way to make it even better?
That would be depressing, don't you think?

 

[rpghost]

In short, everyone can feel free to post and spread the Downloader Monthly. It's got so many direct links to us it doesn't matter to me if it's reposted anywhere.

Yes we should notify EN World each time one is released. I think we've not done so since the editor is mainly a non-d20 guy and doesn't hang here. That was done on purpose by the way.

Yes we should be emailing people... but it's such a bother and system resource load and people still bitch that it's spam. RPGShop server go blacklisted from AOL for mailings and now I can't send mail to many people. If that were to happen to RPGNow it would shut down the operation of the site. I can't afford that risk so I'm very reluctant to send mailings from that server. But I should figure out something I suppose.

Time time time though... sorry. I'm only human.

James

 

[Vigilance]

Of course it's not hard to find, but I thought was pretty clearly explained that people just don't think to look for it. It's not a high priority, it's not on the to-do list.
If it showed up in my mailbox, I'd read it. But I'd rarely think "Oh, the new Downloader must be out. I think I'll go look for it".
If I was in RPGnow's shoes, that sucker would be going out to everybody I could legally send it to. That would be the default, NOT getting it would be the option you'd have to chose.
So it exists, and you can find it if you want to. So? Getting it out more consistantly to more people could only help business. For RPGnow, and the publishers. This is what's called a win/win situation.

Given that the last downloader I got was like 5 MB, I dont think mass mailing it is the answer.

I think your methods of thriving are certainly worth discussing. I'd love to hear some particulars.
But that doesn't mean that no one else's ideas are worth discussing as well.
Just because you had a great year means there's no possible way to make it even better?
That would be depressing, don't you think?

My *point* was that asking rpgnow to make the downloader more visible, and asking rpgnow to change the front page, and asking rognow to change... well... anything... is a really lame business model.

We should be doing for ourselves and not expect rpgnow to do our job for us. It looks like he's doing fine, tons of new product and new publishers.

I really dont think complaining about the number of new products on the website is productive for us. The pdf industry is growing. So time to get in there, mix it up, and market your wares.

As for the "specifics" of how RPGO had a great year, you already got them from me. We go to our customers everywhere we can. I start threads discussing products before they're done, and ACTUALLY change the direction of the product based on discussions I have here and through customer feedback.

That's a simple idea, but it takes work. Work we have to do ourselves.

Chuck