Why have I had zero sales ?

How are you marketing your ebook? Do you have it listed on clickbank so you can get affiliates?

I'm assuming that is your own product?

The biggest thing that I can see is that your actual sales copy is not very good....

Copy is not my strong point either, but maybe you could post what you have there in the copywriters forum a couple sections down from here and let them tear it apart and give you some ideas...

Thanks for your responses

Amy - I joined clickbank but have not submitted the eBook as I would like to make some sales first to check that there is actually a market for it

Jeremy - I agree that my sales copy is not very good - thanks for pointing me to the copywriters forum

Imho, I know nothing about copywriting, but my woman and I are looking at upgrading our kitchen, so I speak as a consumer. Definitely in the copywriting. I saw a 'buy now' button pretty much before I knew what was being offered specifically. You can do this I think, it's a hot market with a lot of competition, but with over 8000 kitchen designs to your credit, you should kick some butt.

Go to a major home improvement store and look at the books they sell on kitchen design: beautiful glossy covers, great photos, nice diagrams. A buyer of your book should see some of that on your sales page, making your book a real contender.

You need to write content so that the readers can see what you have to offer. When I wrote my blog (I sell 2 eBooks from it) I had pages and pages of content. I heard from some buyers that they spent 1 or 2 hours reading all the posts. I gave away a lot of free information.

I got their appetites wet and then they bought one or both eBooks.

The other thing you might want to consider is something like a "free planning report" or "The Three Questions You Need to Answser Before You Start Your Kitchen Design." Give them something for free to get them to click and register, then sell them on your eBook.

The readers need to perceive value before they buy.

Finally, there are four questions I have found very valuable when writing copy. Answer the questions before you start to write your content:

1. What do they want to know?

2. What do you want them to know?

3. What do you want them to feel?

4. What do you want them to do?

Take the time to write the answers to those questions and then make sure your site provides the elements.

I hope this helps.

You got a lot of really excellent advice from seasoned Warriors up there Jules.

After you carefully impliment their suggestions you're going to need to build traffic.

1Article writing
2 Blogs and blog comments
3. Social networks, Mysopace, squidoo, hub

I wouldn't put the buy button right away. Make it very easy to find, you don't want people to have to search for it, but don't ask for money before selling them.

I would create a blog and start conversation with people about their needs.
Think about a contest having visitors fill a survey and get a free
copy of the ebook.

Keep asking yourself what else could be done and keep going!

Jack.

A VERY big thank you for all of your responses - what a great forum with people willing to freely offer their expertise.

I am making notes about what needs changing with the site and look forward to spending time implementing the changes. It will take me some time to cover all your advice but everything that has been said has been of great help to me and will be used.

Thank you

If I were you I'd stop working on this right away and do some research to find if their is indeed a market for your product. If not then don't be afraid to scrap it. Also, in your research you may in fact find another sub-market and determine it's more profitable, etc...

Mike Hill

Hi Jules - well done on writing the book! I am in the kitchen design niche myself and I've found that my website visitors love to click on ads but they don't buy much in the way of books, whether eBooks or physical books from Amazon. Although I did have one visitor who followed one of my book links to Amazon and bought a washer and dryer set!

I looked at your page and I can see you've already made some changes according to the advice above. Some things struck me:

When I clicked on your "Buy Now" button the page I arrived at expected me to click on another button to "add to cart" and asked me to choose a file format. This was really confusing as:

• I expected to go straight to a payment page (paypal, clickbank, whatever).
• The "add to cart" button was on the lower right, where the eye lands last
• It prompted me to choose a file format when there's only one available anyway
• there was way too much other stuff on the page - categories, tell-a-friend, write a review, etc

Unless you really do have more than one product to sell (or plan to add more), a shopping cart is overkill - your Buy Now button should go straight to the payment page. Every intervening step is an opportunity for your customers to drop out. Do you have analytics which tell you what your customers are doing? Are they clicking on the Buy Now button at all? If so, where are they dropping out later in the process?

Random comments on the sales page itself (and bear in mind I'm no copywriting expert, this is my reactions to the page):

Pictures are good but they could be bigger and clearer. Using the same pics as the book cover, they are way too small. With 8000 kitchens designed you must have more available! Spread a few more down the page, and use keyword-rich captions and alt text.

The text is very UK-based, not just the pound sign but the wording (eg kitchen units are referred to in N America as kitchen cabinets or cabinetry). If you want to sell to the US market you need a US sales page. Where are your visitors coming from currently?

The first sentence is all about you: "I wrote this book after designing over 8,000 kitchens because I wanted to offer my insight and knowledge about kitchen design." That's good stuff but it should be later once you have your visitors attention and they want to know why they should listen to you. At the beginning your visitor still wants to know WIIFM (What's in it for me?).

Your sidebar with the single category serves no purpose at the moment. Unless you plan to put more stuff in it, better remove it.

Consider adding the standard website pages that the search engines like and which will improve your quality score and reduce your costs if you decide to do PPC advertising: "About Us", "Contact", "Privacy Policy" etc.

There should be a price near the Buy Now button so people know what they are letting themselves in for.

I clicked through the add to cart page and the checkout page and got to the payment page. The login stuff at the top is confusing. The form itself asks for way too much information as compulsory - even if I'm paying by CC and you need the billing address, why do I have to give you my phone number? - and doesn't yet let me specify my payment method so I don't even know if you take Paypal or the particular kind of CC I want to pay with. I stopped at that point.

Don't be discouraged, you have already got further than most other people who try to make some money online. If/when you have an affiliate program set up, let me know, as I'd be interested. There are few kitchen eBooks out there.

Kevin

Great tips about improving your sales page.

But 15 visitors a day is way too low, no matter how good your sales page is.
You need to start actively promoting your book, don't rely only on searches from engines.

Hi,

You have been given some great advice above. But . . .

before I implemented any of the sugesstions given I would test the price.

I found alot of the product that I may try and sell at $47 and see very little to no sales, when I lower the price to say $27 I get really great sales.

So I would say lower your price down low to see if you are getting any sales.

Terry

Just my 2 cents here....

I also think the idea of before and after pics would be great. I've spend the last few weeks browsing pics of apartments for sale, though, and I went to the site expecting to see some truly beautiful kitchens.

The pics that are there now though seem rather plain and uninspiring. They're dark, blurry, and taken from bad angles. You could probably get some good stock images cheap from some place like istockphoto.com to replace them with. I'm just thinking you need to some images to really inspire the would-be DIY remodeler.

I really agree with Mike Hill, though. If you're not sure there's a market for exactly this product, you're fighting an uphill battle.

I used to be a affiliate for a product that targeted essentially the same market (not kitchens, but another home area). As far as my research showed, these people were really looking for ideas for what to do with that area, more than a guide to do it themselves. They had money and wanted to pay the pros to put those ideas in place. So, you might want to emphasize how many photos and floorplans are included in the book.

Congrats on getting the site up and good luck in the future.

It's probably been said but we need to research our potential market (keyword research), then build our solution around that research.

What you "think" (or indeed, what I "think" ) is of no consequece to the buying public in any niche.

I should add that I'm definitely not speaking as "expert", just someone in a similar boat to you, trying to get the best advice from this forum. This seems to be the key advice to everybody looking to launch a product...or, indeed, market somebody else's product.

A bit long winded but hope it helps, Mate :-)



To your future,



Michael M

I have had the copy totally re-written as suggested by many on here (helped out here by a Warrior who contacted me - cheers for that)

There are many other aspects of the page/site which you all advised me on, and which I will be implementing, but I just wanted to let you know that all your advice has been taken on board and I am acting on it.

Thanks again for the suggestions you all put forward

Lots to learn here for me - and I'm enjoying it

Well, what can I say. Some products just don't sell. Case in point I started selling an ebook about headaches and so far have not sold a copy, and yet I have sold millions of dollars of vitamins, diet pills, etc.

Typically, the problem with ebooks is that people feel they can get free information on the internet and do not want to pay for an ebook.

In contrast, people feel that they must pay for a physical product.