That was the E-Year that was

[PosterBoy]

Would you like to share information on which banner groups or ad sites are the most effective, or economical?

I would just look at rpgnow. It's all pretty cheap. Enworld is the most expensive. So if you're not d20, I would not buy it:

http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?cPath=11&

RPGNow vendors can get a speical deal on rpghost network ads.

Would you like to make some reccomendations for e-zine publishers who are receptive to the bartered ad idea?

Ficition Reaility is a great one.

http://www.fictionalreality.org/

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

A lame business model would be something like releasing a title, then two weeks later, re-releasing it with an "update" so as to get twice the time on the front page (which figures so small in your business model) while its still a "new" product.

This problem is another issue RPGnow needs to deal with. Depending upon which member of the RPGnow staff you talk to and when, putting revised products on the front page may or may not be official policy.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the email, but back during last summer, one person at RPGnow told me that revised products aren't supposed to be listed at all, another told me they only get listed if they're added as an entirely new catalog entry, while another has told me "just email me about it and I'll make sure the revised product gets listed". I'm assuming it was thre people who told me these things, though it was long enough ago that I could be mistaken and its simply a matter of one person changing his mind repeatedly...

But needless to say, none of my revised products has ever been listed on the front page, except one that was added as a new catalog entry.

 

[PosterBoy]

This problem is another issue RPGnow needs to deal with. Depending upon which member of the RPGnow staff you talk to and when, putting revised products on the front page may or may not be official policy.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the email, but back during last summer, one person at RPGnow told me that revised products aren't supposed to be listed at all, another told me they only get listed if they're added as an entirely new catalog entry, while another has told me "just email me about it and I'll make sure the revised product gets listed". I'm assuming it was thre people who told me these things, though it was long enough ago that I could be mistaken and its simply a matter of one person changing his mind repeatedly...

But needless to say, none of my revised products has ever been listed on the front page, except one that was added as a new catalog entry.

Any product that is expanded or vastly updated (like going from 3.0 to 3.5) can get place back on the homepage. Since I've been operating things, it's alays been that way. Only James and I deal with vendors, so there was no other staff.

But you need to ask for it and explain how you expand it so it doesn't get abused. People update pdfs all the time for little things.

 

[rpghost]

Any product that is expanded or vastly updated (like going from 3.0 to 3.5) can get place back on the homepage. Since I've been operating things, it's alays been that way. Only James and I deal with vendors, so there was no other staff.

Not 100% accurate as GMS handles general customer service emails and he might have made a guess as to how things work without checking first. So there are technically 4 contact people at rpgnow:

Owner - webmaster@rpgnow.com or sales@rpgnow.com (me)
Product specilist - sage@rpgnow.com (Chirs - he ads products)
Customer Service - custserv@rpgnow.com (Gareth)
DM Editor - editor@rpgnow.com (Brett)

Sorry for the confusions. If you have any problems getting a link or product after you order, you should contact customer service. If you are a publisher and adding/updating products you'll work with Chris. If you're new to RPGNow and have legal/sales questions or have any accounting/payment issues then you contact me. If you want to submit something to our newsletter, then you write Brett.

Hope that helps.
James

 

[jgbrowning]

My comments regarding the fact that I didn't think of the DM were from a consumer's point of view, not a publisher's. The first step in the buying process is awareness. It is the *publisher's* job (in this case RPGnow) to make sure his potential customers are aware that the product is out there.

I have to disagree with you here. It's not lame for me to expect James to make his site's visitors aware of my new product. He's got a business to run and it's in his benefit to make his customers more aware. However, this isn't to say that I shouldn't also be making customers aware of my new product.

Ideally we'd both be doing it to help maximize revenue for both of us. If there's something James would like me to do for him, I'll probably do it because it's also in my best interest. Conversely, If there's something I'd like him to do for me, he'll do it if it's also in his best interest.

He's got two customers to please at his site which is a difficult thing to do. The purchaser and the publisher are both his customers. So far, I'm impressed by his flexiblity to work out these (sometimes conflicting) issues as they come up. He's doing somthing that's pretty much brand-new, and he seems to be reacting and proacting positively.

joe b.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I have to disagree with you here. It's not lame for me to expect James to make his site's visitors aware of my new product. He's got a business to run and it's in his benefit to make his customers more aware. However, this isn't to say that I shouldn't also be making customers aware of my new product.

I'm not sure why you disagree. I agree with everything you just said.

My only point in the quote you cited was that it is primarily the publisher's job to make customers aware of his titles.

That's not just my opinion, they teach you that in marketing classes. Awareness is the first step in the buying processes. People can't buy (or in this case, download for free) a product if they don't know it exists. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the businessman/salesman/publisher to make potential customers aware.

Obviously, since you and RPGnow are, in some cases, selling the same titles, your marketing efforts will supplant and help each other.

Sure, RPGnow takes a small percentage of your sales with the understanding that some of that is going for advertising. You and I both benefit inadvertently from those efforts. They are a nice boost to our sales, but RPGnow's promotional plans should not be the center of our marketing mix.

RPGnow is in business for themselves, not for you and me. Although they help us out a lot (and we help them), at the end of the day, we are all responsible for our own success or failure. We shouldn't rely on other people to insure our success.

Based on what you just said, I think you understand that already, which is why I don't know why you disagree.

In other words, I'm saying:

It's not lame for me to expect James to make his site's visitors aware of my new product.

I didn't say it was. Chuck insinuated that anyone whose business model revolves around convincing James to change the site was lame, but he has since apologized and clarified his statements. He has gone on to say that he also understands the situation as accurately as you and I. And I think we all agree that RPGnow should not be the centerpiece of your marketing mix, that would be lame.

I said it would be lame if someone wrote a book with the deliberate intention of holding some material out and leaving a lot of errors in just to re-release a couple weeks later in an obvious attempt to grab as much front page space as possible. Not only would that be “lame” that would be abusing the system.

However, I don’t think that is what anyone has done. I believe Chuck when he says that it just worked out that way. It wasn’t their plan.

 

[PosterBoy]

.
I said it would be lame if someone wrote a book with the deliberate intention of holding some material out and leaving a lot of errors in just to re-release a couple weeks later in an obvious attempt to grab as much front page space as possible. Not only would that be “lame” that would be abusing the system.

However, I don’t think that is what anyone has done. I believe Chuck when he says that it just worked out that way. It wasn’t their plan.

At the risk of beating a dead horse… I want to add few comments about updating products.

Chucks doesn’t really control the release of any RPGObjects (of he gets a good say). Since I’ve been publishing at RPGNow, I’ve made it a practice to update our books based on user feedback (suggestions or corrections). Sometime we even expand it. At first, I thought the practice would make me book bad, highlighting the mistakes made in the initial release, but the opposite occurred. People really appreciated the dedication to making it as prefect as we could.

When we started work on DW 2, I decided to take this to the extreme. I updated the survivor’s handbook nearly 8-10 times before it went to print! Many times expanding material based on the tremendous amount of customer feedback. Heck, we even created a new Psionic system because customers overwhelming didn’t like the d20 mechanics (in this setting). No of these changes was meet with any negative feedback. People really enjoyed watching it grow and improve with each update.

Since Legends of Excalibur was also going to be big projects (like DW2), we decide the employ the same design strategy. We didn’t expect the first update to be an expansion, but after some great feedback and some ideas that came from working on the campaign guide, we ended up with 5-6 pages of new content.

I was concerned other publishers would view negatively if it appeared on the home page again so soon, but I wanted customers to know it was expanded already. In retrospect, I won’t do that again. I don’t want to start a trend of abuse. We’ll update this book 2-3 more time over the next couple months, but we won’t put it on the homepage again.

But I just want to note how well this design method has been received by customers. If you have a big project (setting, new system, etc..), you might want to consider employing the same method. It worked for us. People really appreciate the extra effort. And it one’s one of advantages we have publishing in electronic format compared to print.

 

[rpghost]

We have implemented a new front page at RPGNow. Now before you spaz, please give it a some time and see how you like it. If people are ok with it, we'll get better looking buttons.

One of the biggest complaints we get at RPGNow from the publishers is that all their product falls off the front page after only a week or 2. Thus sales dip. I disagree with the front page being a major source of their revenues, and it should definatly not be the major part of their marketing plan. RPGNow has just grown too big. We are not posting 5-10 products a day. The front page loads slow and it's cluttered with things not everyone is interested in.

If you look at sites like Amazon or Ebay you'll see they don't just list their newest books or auctions on the front page, they highlight/spotlight items and leave it to the customer to make the first pick of a category to concentrate on.

This is what we intend to do. I think it'll result in easier to find products of personal interest to you. Thus result in better sales overall.

Once you've given it a chance, we'd like to hear your vote on wether to keep this or go back to the old tons of thumbnails on the front page concept. We're also open to any input you have on the current method. Or what else you think we should remove/move.

VOTE/COMMENT AT THIS URL:

http://forums.rpghost.com/showthread.php?threadid=13093

James

 

[jgbrowning]

I'm not sure why you disagree. I agree with everything you just said.

My apologies. I appear to have failed my "comprehend english" roll. Happens quite a bit. Shouldn'ta taken barb as my first class.....

joe b.