Printed workbooks - integrated into shopping cart process

by TheNightOwl

Posted: 10 years ago 10 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Anyone have experience with doing print-on-demand workbooks that are shipped direct to the customer?

I'd like to offer a workbook as an upsell to a membership/online training course -- where it's super-easy for the customer >>>> Just click "Add to Cart" as part of the normal membership sign-up process, get enrolled into the membership, have the workbook arrive in the post a few days later.

There are plenty of POD companies out there, of course, but...

a. I don't want a garage full of workbooks -- which I then have to physically package and post.

Another reason not to go with this option is that updates to the workbook would be expensive (i.e. throw out all the old ones and buy new ones!)

b. I don't want the customer to go through the checkout process on my site (i.e. to enroll in the course) and THEN have to register at the POD site and go through another checkout process. Way to kill upsell conversions right there, eh?

So... do you have any experience with such services? Are there any you would recommend/not recommend?

Thanks very much,
TheNightOwl

P.S. btw... I don't use a third-party sales-processing platform & CRM (e.g. InfusionSoft, 1ShoppingCart, etc.); I use DAP (Digital Access Pass) and its built-in shopping cart with payments via PayPal or Stripe.

#cart #integrated #printed #process #shopping #workbooks

savidge4 10 years ago

Why not PDF the workbook? Or, if you had to, get a color Laser printer and produce them as you need them. Wouldn't be that hard!
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ColdWritingLLC

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TheNightOwl

a. I don't want a garage full of workbooks -- which I then have to physically package and post.

Another reason not to go with this option is that updates to the workbook would be expensive (i.e. throw out all the old ones and buy new ones!)

b. I don't want the customer to go through the checkout process on my site (i.e. to enroll in the course) and THEN have to register at the POD site and go through another checkout process. Way to kill upsell conversions right there, eh?

So... do you have any experience with such services? Are there any you would recommend/not recommend?

You're asking for a lot but I think you could probably get it done by using CreateSpace, Amazon's self-publishing unit. You should be able to publish your workbook and, while not automated, purchase individual units with the shipping address set as your buyer's shipping address. You can do this without having to list the workbook on any websites and have it entirely done by you behind the scenes.This eliminates inventory and gives you a non-intrusive option to deliver to your customers.

Honestly I don't know how else you would possible be able to do it given all the parameters you mentioned.

Thanks
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marciayudkin

10 years ago

It sounds to me like you are wondering how to manage delivering two items through a digital delivery service that is set up to deliver only one item with a purchase.

Right?

The solution I've implemented at times is to deliver one document with the link to the other embedded within it. For example, when I am selling something that requires delivering both a PDF and audio files, then I deliver the PDF automatically and embed the links to the audio files within the PDF. I've never had a single complaint or even a comment about it. Works beautifully.

If I've understood your question correctly, this solution should work for you, too.

Marcia Yudkin

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davidkings

10 years ago

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

They want a physical printed paper document posted to the addresses of their customer, automatically i think, so for it to be automated.

that is what I think they are asking from their question.

Thanks

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ravijayagopal 10 years ago

Hi @TheNightOwl,

For my book that I published years ago (web site is outdated) I did POD with LightningSource.com (LSI) - they're one of the best, and I did tons of research before picking them. Their listing fees are also very inexpensive.

They integrate with Amazon so that if anyone buys your book on Amazon, then Amazon orders from LSI directly - so you never have to do anything about Amazon physical book orders. Just collect the checks from LSI (Amazon pays LSI, LSI pays you) or have them direct-deposited in to your bank a/c.

And for manual orders made through your web site, once you have the buyer's name and address, you would just log in to LSI, and manually create an order. LSI will then print, package and ship the book directly to customer.

Back when all this happened, I only ordered about 50 books for myself to give to friends, family and business associates - other than that, I had zero inventory. So you don't need a garage full of books if you use LSI.

Hope this helps.

- Ravi Jayagopal
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TheNightOwl 10 years ago

Thanks very much for the responses. @Ravi... I appreciate the recommendation. I'll definitely check out LSI; not exactly what I'm looking for in this case, but a viable solution and worth adding to the bookmarks. Cheers.
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ThrillerAuthor 10 years ago

It seems like you might have to go with some degree of manual intervention here, after discounting the activities you do not want to do.

One way that I know of is to list your book on CreateSpace and set up your sign-up process on your membership site, so that whenever a new member signs up, the site will automatically email you the name and physical address of the new member. Thereafter, you go to CreateSpace, order 1 copy of your workbook, copy and paste the new member's shipping details where required and CreateSpace will automatically send off the book to the member.

It will only cost you the printing costs for 1 book (which is minimal) and the shipping fee (Note - this is minimal within the US, but can be very high if you have to ship outside of the US). You can build these costs into the member's sign-up fee too.

Doing it this way will ensure that the member does not have to register twice, you do not have to keep any inventory, there is no time-consuming physical handling of the books by you, you can update the book anytime you want without any expensive consequences, and the time and money needed to send off the book is minimal.
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- colorado1850 10 years ago
  
  Createspace would seemingly work for you. From the buyer standpoint, it sounds like you want to make the physical book an optional addon at (or near) checkout. Great idea. Just be sure to get the shipping address as part of the information in your checkout. I know PayPal and other big ecommerce places let you do that.
  
  It would be easy to handle this all from your own sale page. You have one price for the course and one price for the course plus physical book.
  
  Then you just have to jump on createspace and order the book and have it shipped right to the buyer (as mentioned in an earlier thread).
  
  I've done it this way when I put books for sale on consignment in bookstores. When they need books, I just order them shipped right to the store.
  
  OR
  
  You could separate this out into two stages. Stage 1, the buyer signs up for the course and then over the next couple of days you email them with a couple of offers to go get their physical copy of the membership book for a special price.
  
  Once your book is published on CreateSpace, you will have a personal storefront for the book on Amazon (not the Amazon.com site) where you can direct the buyers. You can set your own price for this store too - independent of what the book sells for on Amazon.
  
  This is an example createspace storefront https://www.createspace.com/3523217
  
  They aren't the most beautiful pages ever. But at least it is a fully integrated shopping cart and the book will ship directly to the buyers.
  
  Just a thought! Good luck and let us know what ends up working.
  
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yakim1 10 years ago

If your fulfilment company supports email orders, PayGoBank.com does Physical and digital products using PayPal's adaptive API for instant payments.

They have a fulfillment option for each product that will send an email to the fulfillment house with your product order number and the shipping address will be for the customer.

I hope this has been helpful,
Steve Yakim
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Jesus Perez 10 years ago

You can easily do this with Nanacast and Vervante. Nanacast will send the order to Vervante. Vervante prints it On-Demand and ships it to your customer. They even handle the customer service and returns. It works very well.
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Printed workbooks - integrated into shopping cart process

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