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Question on Newsmax and Agora

by writeboywrite
14 replies
I have a question for direct marketers - how does Agora and Newsmax fulfill orders on Book Campaigns?

For example, you'll see an ad for a membership site, a continuity program, or something similar - and these companies are using a book by a famous author to capture the customer's attention.

Almost always, the book will be offered for "free."

My question is how they do this.

How do they fulfill the order?

Are they buying the book in bulk from a wholesale website and then shipping it out themselves when someone takes advantage of the offer?

It's the only thing I can think of since remainder sites typically put the invoice in the package along with the book.

So, for example, if Agora's customer takes advantage of the offer and Agora gets their payment info, someone at Agora has to then turn around and order the book from the remainder house.

The book gets shipped to the customer, no problem.

BUT! Then the customer sees the invoice and realizes Agora purchased the book from a remainder house and can see the price point.

So - is Agora doing that? Or is there an alternative that I'm not considering?

What's the process? Anybody know?
#agora #newsmax #question
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  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    I know nothing about Newsmax or Agora.

    But almost universally, these orders are done in one of 2 way.

    The book is a free download from Amazon. Authors set their price at $0 for the Kindle book, and the customer gets a link to the Amazon sales page, and they download the book. Or...The book is on a site for easy download.

    If it's a real print book, the book is usually bought in bulk from a printer (never a publisher), or bought from Amazon at printing cost (Usually about $3), and mailed from the marketer, and they get the "Shipping cost" from the customer. That shipping cost covers the cost of the book and mailing.

    Occasionally, the marketer will have the book printed in bulk themselves, and mail the book out themselves. But the print on demand cost from Amazon (no matter the number of copies) is vey competitive.

    You can buy a print on demand book from Amazon (as the author) for less that you can from a remainder house. And they are new...and the quantity is unlimited.
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    • Profile picture of the author writeboywrite
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      I know nothing about Newsmax or Agora.

      But almost universally, these orders are done in one of 2 way.

      The book is a free download from Amazon. Authors set their price at $0 for the Kindle book, and the customer gets a link to the Amazon sales page, and they download the book. Or...The book is on a site for easy download.

      If it's a real print book, the book is usually bought in bulk from a printer (never a publisher), or bought from Amazon at printing cost (Usually about $3), and mailed from the marketer, and they get the "Shipping cost" from the customer. That shipping cost covers the cost of the book and mailing.

      Occasionally, the marketer will have the book printed in bulk themselves, and mail the book out themselves. But the print on demand cost from Amazon (no matter the number of copies) is vey competitive.

      You can buy a print on demand book from Amazon (as the author) for less that you can from a remainder house. And they are new...and the quantity is unlimited.
      First, thanks so much for your reply. I appreciate it!

      Secondly, I have one other question - you said "or bought from Amazon at printing cost (Usually about $3)."

      How do you go about ordering a print book on Amazon for only the printing cost? (If you are not the author?) I never knew you could do that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by writeboywrite View Post

        I have a question for direct marketers - how does Agora and Newsmax fulfill orders on Book Campaigns?

        For example, you'll see an ad for a membership site, a continuity program, or something similar - and these companies are using a book by a famous author to capture the customer's attention.

        Almost always, the book will be offered for "free."
        It would help if you provided a link to one such offer.




        Originally Posted by writeboywrite View Post

        First, thanks so much for your reply. I appreciate it!

        Secondly, I have one other question - you said "or bought from Amazon at printing cost (Usually about $3)."

        How do you go about ordering a print book on Amazon for only the printing cost? (If you are not the author?) I never knew you could do that.
        You can't. You have to be the author of the book. And it has to be published as a Print on Demand book by Amazon.
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        • Profile picture of the author writeboywrite
          Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

          It would help if you provided a link to one such offer.




          You can't. You have to be the author of the book. And it has to be published as a Print on Demand book by Amazon.
          Sure! Here's an example:

          https://w3.blaylockwellness.com/Heal...r=05040463k2ih

          Here's my issue.

          I think it's clear the marketer in this instance is using a wholesale book company OR a remainder house - not Amazon.

          I'm not sure which, but the process goes something like this:

          1. The customer lands on the landing page.

          2. They make use of the free book offer by paying for the newsletter plus S&H.

          3. But then how does the marketer make it appear that the customer receives the book FROM the marketer's company and not the remainder house?

          4. If the marketer orders from the remainder house, even if it's shipped from US Post or a third party shipper, won't the shipping address be that of the remainder house and not the marketer's?

          5. And, won't the customer realize the marketer got the book for less than the "free" the customer's getting if the book arrives in a package with the remainder house's invoice inside?

          6. And - if points 4 and 5 are true, does the marketer simply not care? Or???

          That's what I am having a hard time figuring out.

          Do those questions make sense?
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          • Profile picture of the author SARubin
            This is an interesting question. Just out of curiosity, are you thinking of running a free book offer for one of your own campaigns?

            Because if you are I'd love to hear more about that.

            Originally Posted by writeboywrite View Post

            3. But then how does the marketer make it appear that the customer receives the book FROM the marketer's company and not the remainder house?

            4. If the marketer orders from the remainder house, even if it's shipped from US Post or a third party shipper, won't the shipping address be that of the remainder house and not the marketer's?
            I was never as big as Newsmax or Agora, but I imagine they could do it much the same as I did...

            When I ran my last ecomm business we had a similar offer - i.e. spend a certain amount and get a free best selling book - I purchased 100 books at a time, directly from the author (as I recall, his printer sent them to us) and we kept them in a box in the back room. When someone took advantage of the offer we included the book.

            It was really pretty simple. They didn't take up much room in the office and it was a small investment for what turned out to be a profitable offer for us.

            It was a risk, and we lost a few dollars on the book, but we gained a lot of new paying customers who we continued to sell to, over and over.

            Newsmax and Agora have way more money than I do. They can afford to buy thousands of books for such an offer. I imagine they have storage rooms full of books that never made it out the door, from previous offers.

            I think the question comes down to mindset...
            Are we playing to win? Or just playing not to lose?

            Playing to "win" means taking chances. Sometimes it doesn't work, but when it does work it more than makes up for the losses.

            Playing "not to lose" means we stay safe, but we miss out on a lot of money making opportunities.

            Originally Posted by writeboywrite View Post

            5. And, won't the customer realize the marketer got the book for less than the "free" the customer's getting if the book arrives in a package with the remainder house's invoice inside?
            This question doesn't make sense to me. How does the marketer get the book for less than free? Will the remainder house pay the marketer to take the books off their hands?

            Because if they do I want in on that deal.

            Originally Posted by writeboywrite View Post

            6. And - if points 4 and 5 are true, does the marketer simply not care? Or???
            Why would anyone care?

            The marketer made an offer, the customer accepted the offer and the marketer has a new customer for their newsletter subscription.

            If the customer gets the book they wanted, for the price they agreed to (free), then what difference does it make where it was printed or shipped from?

            Any customer who feels cheated (for whatever reason?) can simply cancel their subscription to the marketers newsletter and keep the free book. Which is what some of the subscribers probably had in mind to begin with.

            The customers who stick around will pay for the newsletter subscription (until they decide it's not worth it anymore) and the marketer still has a buyers name on their mailing list for the next offer.


            Again, I think the question comes down to mindset...
            Are we playing to win? Or just playing not to lose?
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            • Profile picture of the author writeboywrite
              Originally Posted by SARubin View Post



              Again, I think the question comes down to mindset...
              Are we playing to win? Or just playing not to lose?
              Thanks so much for your input. I appreciated your participation in this discussion. You're right - it shouldn't matter what the customer thinks as long as you are making good on the promises made in the offer.

              And you're correct too that if you're playing to win, you have to be willing to engage in a little risk.
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          • Profile picture of the author DABK
            The sales letter you linked to makes me think that the author and NewsMax have a joint venture going on.

            The author pays Newsmax less (or nothing), in exchange, the sales letter adds the I-want-to-subscribe-toNewsMax's-email-sequence.

            The author has a print-on-demand arrangement. Newsmax gets prospects, author makes sales (albeit for a lower price).


            Originally Posted by writeboywrite View Post

            Sure! Here's an example:

            https://w3.blaylockwellness.com/Heal...r=05040463k2ih

            Here's my issue.

            I think it's clear the marketer in this instance is using a wholesale book company OR a remainder house - not Amazon.

            I'm not sure which, but the process goes something like this:

            1. The customer lands on the landing page.

            2. They make use of the free book offer by paying for the newsletter plus S&H.

            3. But then how does the marketer make it appear that the customer receives the book FROM the marketer's company and not the remainder house?

            4. If the marketer orders from the remainder house, even if it's shipped from US Post or a third party shipper, won't the shipping address be that of the remainder house and not the marketer's?

            5. And, won't the customer realize the marketer got the book for less than the "free" the customer's getting if the book arrives in a package with the remainder house's invoice inside?

            6. And - if points 4 and 5 are true, does the marketer simply not care? Or???

            That's what I am having a hard time figuring out.

            Do those questions make sense?
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            • Profile picture of the author writeboywrite
              Originally Posted by DABK View Post

              The sales letter you linked to makes me think that the author and NewsMax have a joint venture going on.

              The author pays Newsmax less (or nothing), in exchange, the sales letter adds the I-want-to-subscribe-toNewsMax's-email-sequence.

              The author has a print-on-demand arrangement. Newsmax gets prospects, author makes sales (albeit for a lower price).
              Just wanted to say thanks for your input on this discussion as well! You were tracking right along with the others.
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  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    I get it now.
    And SARubin and DABK covered it pretty well.

    I saw the offer, looked up the author, the publisher, the author of the newsletter and the publisher of the newsletter.

    The book is published by the same company that published the newsletter. It's all done in house. It's all part of Newsmax. So the cost of the book is probably a couple of dollars, maybe less. Nobody is buying the book. The book is printed by Newsmax, in house.

    I think you are missing the bigger picture.

    The book is simply the bait to get the customer to give Newsmax their credit card number. That's the reason for the $4.95 "shipping charge".

    The whole idea is to start subscriptions to their newsletter...which is going to sell lots and lots of product every month.

    My strong guess is that the $4.95 AND the $54 a year cover the costs of printing and mailing the newsletter...and cover the cost of the book...and a little more. That makes the newsletter free marketing to a highly qualified and proven list of buyers. Think of the newsletter as a long sales letter and catalog. every month, to a paying audience.

    This is an alternative medicine newsletter and book. It's attracting older people that are proven profitable buyers of herbs, vitamins, and books on health. Newsmax's core audience is a large subset of that group.

    Even if the buyer cancels the subscription after 3 months, there isn't much of a dollar loss, if any. They still have a name of a buyer to use again, for similar offers, or to rent to another company.

    By the way, the author of the book has no other books on Amazon. So my strong guess is that he was employed by Newsmax to write the book. And Dr. Russell Blaylock is employed by Newsmax to write the newsletter.


    If Agora is a publisher, I assume they are doing the same thing..
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    • Profile picture of the author writeboywrite
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post


      I think you are missing the bigger picture.

      The book is simply the bait to get the customer to give Newsmax their credit card number. That's the reason for the $4.95 "shipping charge".

      The whole idea is to start subscriptions to their newsletter...which is going to sell lots and lots of product every month.

      My strong guess is that the $4.95 AND the $54 a year cover the costs of printing and mailing the newsletter...and cover the cost of the book...and a little more. That makes the newsletter free marketing to a highly qualified and proven list of buyers. Think of the newsletter as a long sales letter and catalog. every month, to a paying audience.

      This is an alternative medicine newsletter and book. It's attracting older people that are proven profitable buyers of herbs, vitamins, and books on health. Newsmax's core audience is a large subset of that group.

      Even if the buyer cancels the subscription after 3 months, there isn't much of a dollar loss, if any. They still have a name of a buyer to use again, for similar offers, or to rent to another company.

      By the way, the author of the book has no other books on Amazon. So my strong guess is that he was employed by Newsmax to write the book. And Dr. Russell Blaylock is employed by Newsmax to write the newsletter.


      If Agora is a publisher, I assume they are doing the same thing..
      You're right. I was missing the bigger picture.

      Thank you, though, for providing some insight on what I was missing. I definitely have a better understanding of the entire process now and I totally appreciate that.

      Thank you!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeanne71957
    For what it's worth, I recently got a book that was 'Free + Shipping' but this one was directly from the author. There was no invoice with it when it arrived, so no way to tell where it shipped from. The author did say that there were warehouses in various parts of the world where the book was shipped from. Makes sense, as I received the book within a week of ordering it, and the author lives on the other side of the planet from me. (And I discovered recently that Amazon doesn't even ship to my address when I tried to order something from them...)

    I also got an eBook from another marketer which described how to write and use books as marketing tools. I've been seeing a LOT of FB ads recently for other 'Free + Shipping' books, as well, so this seems to be the current trend in lead capturing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by Jeanne71957 View Post

      For what it's worth, I recently got a book that was 'Free + Shipping' but this one was directly from the author. There was no invoice with it when it arrived, so no way to tell where it shipped from. The author did say that there were warehouses in various parts of the world where the book was shipped from. Makes sense, as I received the book within a week of ordering it, and the author lives on the other side of the planet from me. (And I discovered recently that Amazon doesn't even ship to my address when I tried to order something from them...)

      I also got an eBook from another marketer which described how to write and use books as marketing tools. I've been seeing a LOT of FB ads recently for other 'Free + Shipping' books, as well, so this seems to be the current trend in lead capturing.
      There are several ways for authors to do this;
      1) The author can simply pay to get the book printed in bulk, and then sends the book out from their office/home.

      2) The author can have the book printed on demand and shipped from several companies that provide this service.

      3) The author can have the book on Amazon (or one of a few other printer/marketer/shipper services like Amazon), and every sale is simply drop shipped from Amazon to the buyer. You can either ship a supply to Amazon, and have them ship the books, or have the books printed and shipped by Amazon. I've done it both ways.


      If anyone is thinking of doing any of this, a strong recommendation.....

      Don't pay for 1,000...or 5,000 printed copies that you plan on selling yourself, and shipping to Amazon.

      My first book cost me about $5 a copy, and I had 5,000 copies printed. Nine years later, I still had about 4,000 copies left of an out of date book that was no longer selling. They ended up in a dumpster with another dumpster full of CDs, DVD, albums, workbooks, courses....that I had created...had printed in volume, and then sold from speaking to groups. Eventually, these information products became out of date, and the information no longer was as valid.

      I bought in huge volume...to save a few dollars in production cost.

      Stupid stupid decisions that cost me almost as much as I ever made on these things.

      I'm a slow study.
      Print On Demand will save you serious money. If you find a mistake in a book, or course...you can simply change it, and the next sale goes out corrected.
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      • Profile picture of the author SARubin
        Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

        My first book cost me about $5 a copy, and I had 5,000 copies printed. Nine years later, I still had about 4,000 copies left of an out of date book that was no longer selling. They ended up in a dumpster with another dumpster full of CDs, DVD, albums, workbooks, courses....that I had created...had printed in volume, and then sold from speaking to groups. Eventually, these information products became out of date, and the information no longer was as valid.

        I bought in huge volume...to save a few dollars in production cost.

        Stupid stupid decisions that cost me almost as much as I ever made on these things.

        I'm a slow study.
        Print On Demand will save you serious money. If you find a mistake in a book, or course...you can simply change it, and the next sale goes out corrected.
        We live we learn. Don't we Claude?

        When I did this I only bought 100 at a time figuring I should only buy as much as I could afford to absorb if the promotion bombed.

        For the most part keeping it small payed off. Although I still have some books left over and some of the DVDs we bought in bulk. Along with a few boxes of other left over inventory collecting dust in the back room.

        I think if I tried it again I would look for a reliable print-on-demand company
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by SARubin View Post

          We live we learn. Don't we Claude?

          When I did this I only bought 100 at a time figuring I should only buy as much as I could afford to absorb if the promotion bombed.

          For the most part keeping it small payed off. Although I still have some books left over and some of the DVDs we bought in bulk. Along with a few boxes of other left over inventory collecting dust in the back room.

          I think if I tried it again I would look for a reliable print-on-demand company
          There was a slight method to my madness. I knew I would make enough to pay for production on my first event.

          For example, a thousand DVDs may have cost a thousand dollars, but I knew I would make more than that on my first event. And I generally did. The problem was, I now had 900 DVDs left, and sometimes I didn't keep that sales train going, until I sold out.

          And the inventory kept accumulating. New courses, new interviews, new manuals....and the old stuff would then just sit there. After about 15 years, when I was really closing my store and going to retire...I knew that this inventory was old enough to have lost its value.

          I gave...my God....several hundred pounds of it to a marketer friend of mine that I knew would use it as premiums or trip wires.

          And back then, information courses came in boxes, not downloads. And I knew I would sell a lot more if I had them on hand, rather than ship them later.

          I was hoisted on my own petard. I finally found a reason to say that.
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