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Topic: All the reasons to say buy the physical book that is also availabe for free online.

by prouser02
14 replies
Please can anyone let me know a list of all the things you can say to readers to buy the physical book that they already downloaded and viewed online for free or read via PDF. I want to know because, it is highly likely that if you convince them to also purchase the physical copy of your free book, they might just bye it!

So anyone has any ideas for doing it (without selling anything with it like bonuses, etc.), don't hesitate to post!
#availabe #book #buy #free #online #physical #reasons #topic
  • Profile picture of the author Alex Cohen
    If the author is a celebrity, you could offer signed copies of the hardback edition.

    You pretty-much would have to add something additional.

    I guess you could hope that a certain percentage of the book buyers wouldn't know about the PDF version, but that doesn't seem like a very good business model to me.

    Alex
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    • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
      It's not a strong business proposition. If the title is famous,
      as in "Think and Grow Rich", there's money to be made
      publishing it as a book.

      This doesn't mean YOU can make money printing well-known
      public domain works. You'll probably struggle to compete
      against big publishers who really have their numbers worked
      out and know how to write-off unsold books on their taxes.

      I'm not saying you cannot profitably print PD content, just
      that the big gorillas in publishing will kill you if you try to
      compete with them because they get their books printed
      and distributed far, far cheaper than you could.

      Personally I despise reading PDFs. Doing much PDF reading
      gives me headaches, so I prefer books in paper which do not
      give me headaches when I read them.

      My advice?

      Find another product to sell.

      If you must lead with the book that is already free, add
      bonuses only for the buyers of the bound edition. Offering
      bonuses in books is becoming common - and often they
      are unmentioned but I think probably enhance buyer
      satisfaction.
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      • Profile picture of the author Hugh Thyer
        This book is an absolute classic. My copy, and most of my friends who own it have dog-eared copies with their notes down the margin.

        In fact when I started writing notes down the side I learnt so much more. Even to this day I still love flipping my copy open and finding the information I want.

        Better yet, when I was working in the city I used to drag it around with me on trains, buses and when I went for lunch. I wasn't going to waste time staring out a train window when I could be improving my wealth/mindset/health/whatever. And it sure beat getting a headache trying to read all x pages on a computer screen. Only ever got a headache when I tried to read a book on the computer.
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        • Profile picture of the author Hugh Thyer
          Actually, don't forget the offer. Bonuses, extra chapters written by other experts. You name it. Its all about the total value you're offering.
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          Ever wondered how copywriters work with their clients? I've answered that very question in detail-> www.salescomefirst.com
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  • Profile picture of the author prouser02
    Well, what if you book was read by at least a million people? Do you think, their is a need to offer them any free stuff (stickers, bookmarks, extra chapters) that is not so valuable at all?
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  • Profile picture of the author basefunding
    I know quite a few people who will not read "electronic media" and have to have the feel of paper in their hands. Although I read almost everything electronic (on my computer or Kindle) there are certain topics I have to have paper- learning or technical books, something that I need to page through often, etc. I'd look to see if there have been any studies done on information retention based on the source.
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    • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
      OK, folks, this is a REAL honest-to-goodness secret.

      Let's say you have a product you sell for $19.00 online download.

      As an UPSELL, you can sell the physical version for as much as $197.00.

      It happens EVERYDAY.       Many, many customers will take you up on it.

      Do it right and approximately 15 to 20% of the original buyers will take you up on your offer.

      So let's say 100 people a week buy your $19.00 product.

      Let's be conservative and say 10% of the people take you up on your offer for a $97 physical product that's shipped to them.

      That means you customer average customer value goes from $19.00 to $28.70 PER CUSTOMER--IMMEDIATELY. (You do NOT need any gimmicks or additional value add other than the physical product, but of course it would help. Just ship them your product.)

      That's a 50% increase in average customer value!

      So how do you do it "right?"

      Video. Show them what they are going to get. Then make it easier for them to add on to their order. In other words, do not make them re-fill out the order form.

      Good luck and I HIGHLY encourage you to test this. I have never had less than a 10% upsell.

      Best of success,

      - Rick Duris

      PS: Here's why this works: If they trusted you for $19.00, they'll probably trust you for a heck of a lot more if you give them the opportunity.
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  • Profile picture of the author n.r.puryear
    Rick
    When you sell the hard copy do you go through another website that ships for you or do you do all your printing and shipping in house?
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    • Profile picture of the author prouser02
      Well, what if your book has already read by millions of people within a month, then will their be a higher chances of people also want to buy the physical copy of it? For example, lets suppose, The Da Vince code was FIRST given freely as a download copy or view online for free, and then it was also available for purchase as a paperback copy at a later time (without no bonues). Will that make peole still want to buy it because of its being a popularity that was read by millions of people within a month, for discussion, buy it as a gift, etc.? What will be the estimate likelihood of people also buying it as a physical copy just because of its being popular?
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      • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
        You're grasping at straws man.

        People will pay for real books. I dislike reading PDFs and
        I don't want to print up everything I read, bind them, and
        have a bunch of 8.5" x 11" books around. A printed book
        is smaller, easier to carry around, not as flimsy as a self-printed
        PDF booklet.

        You get the idea. Lots of people prefer books. There's a
        market, but just because your book was a big hit as a
        freebie on the internet doesn't mean it will be a big hit
        in print. You'll never make a big splash selling a print book
        on internet sales letters only. You either need to get it
        in the book community, get it reviewed in print journals,
        do author readings, and so forth - OR... you need to know
        how to sell your book with direct mail to the massive lists
        of proven mail-order book buyers.
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  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    Hi prouser02,

    I do not know your marketing strategy.

    Obviously, you're giving something away for free initially. You've set the bar really low and people WILL be less inclined to buy the physical product for any substantial amount of money. Meaning above $40.

    You're going to get freebie seekers.

    My guess is you could probably fulfill a physical product for about the cost of a real book including profit. So if you said "I'll send you the physical version of the book for $27" you'd probably get more serious buyers if the book was worthwhile.

    Again, I am not evaluating one way or the other. You've only shared limited information regarding marketing strategy.

    - Rick Duris

    PS: Hi n.r.puryear, if you don't want to fulfill yourself, you can work with fulfillment houses like Kunaki -- CD/DVD manufacturing and publishing service. They do a good job. And they have an API which sends them the info they need to fulfill the order.
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  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    Looking back on his original question, I sense he's looking for "magic words" that will get people to buy the physical product once they have the free version.

    The challenge is not the words, but the strategy at work. Until that's sorted out, we are grasping at straws.

    Getting people to pay for something they can have for free is NEVER easy. It can be done, but the marketing strategy is what's most important.

    - Rick Duris
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeHumphreys
      Physical products also have a dramatically better refund rate.

      One of my info-products started out as a digital product.

      I got hammered with 15-20% refund requests, where 99% of the requests happened within 3 minutes of ordering with comments like "I looked at all 250 pages and there wasn't anything in there that I didn't already know".

      In other words, it was 99% refund vultures who wanted get my paid products for free.

      So I converted the product into a physical one and used a print-on-demand fulfillment house to fill orders as they came in.

      It took over 4 years to get my next refund request for that product.

      Refund vultures don't buy because they don't want to be bothered with shipping the product back. Legit customers continue to buy and send me happy feedback too.

      Mike
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