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Thinking About a Website? This Might Be the Time. - By Renee Roberts Book search engines like BookFinder help customers find titles on lesser-known sites. Froogle can find titles on your website. By Renée Magriel Roberts Our internet-based company, Rose's Books, has been going without its own website. I know what you're thinking: the shoemaker's kids have no shoes; the plumber's pipes are bursting; and I've been giving everyone advice about using the Internet without having a website of our own. OK, fair enough. But there are plenty of reasons for NOT having a website, as well as reasons for creating one. Here's how I've been thinking about the problem: When we started our book business I quickly saw that not only did we not need our own website, but that it was simply uneconomical to have one. This is for two reasons -- the big sites like Amazon and ABE dominate hyperspace as customer destinations. Having a site of one's own is kind of like selling books on Pluto (especially given that it is no longer part of our solar system ;-( ). The other reason has to do with time-and-money: a start-up business is better off using someone else's webmaster, someone else's server and even someone else's back office credit card processing system, not to mention someone else's book database software. If you are only one or two people and don't want to encumber yourself with unnecessary employees or very expensive contractors, the path of least resistance is to use, and to pay for, resources commonly shared by a great many other vendors with similar needs, not to mention taking advantage of software that is free. Free is a good word when you are a start-up. Of course, the flip-side to this equation is what you pay the sites for the privilege of listing there. Anyone who has read any of my articles on Americana Exchange knows that I am not a big fan of the huge fees currently being charged by the mega-sites like ABE. Because they were and are the destinations of choice for most of the world's book customers, for a long time the choice was their way or the highway. With the increased use of the book search engines, however, like Google, Froogle, BookFinder, AddAll, and many others, customers now have a way to find you on the secondary sites like Biblio, ChooseBooks/ZVAB, and TomFolio, a very attractive and relatively inexpensive co-op site, as well as on eBay. With the Google family, they can also find you on your own website and paid advertising is available to list your site when certain key words are selected. I've always maintained a site with little or no commission attached, but now that we have an active customer base and new customers can find their way to our books through the book search engines, I have come to the conclusion that having our own presence is finally cost-effective. Also once we are engaged with customers, it is far better to direct them to our own site where we can offer the same books as we do on the mega-sites somewhat discounted. Many of the dealers who sell on ABE and who are also members of ILAB or IOBA, for example, sell their books for less money on the organization sites, and still others bend over backwards to direct their customers to buy from their own website.
Thinking About a Website? This Might Be the Time. - By Renee Roberts You may not be Amazon, but their site has useful aspects, such as a satisfaction guarantee. I'm planning to maintain the site, but not to build it, and certainly not to reinvent the wheel if possible. We've started by engaging a qualified web designer, somebody who thinks about these problems full-time -- a luxury we cannot afford with the book and publishing businesses (Rose's Books and Clock & Rose Press). Like any other software design, you want to spend most of your thinking time at the front end -- thinking and rethinking the overall design -- rather than trying to fix something after it's already been coded. We already had our domain names (www.roses-books.com and www.clockandrose.com) which we've been using for email. If you don't already have a domain name getting one is the first order of business. We also already have digitally designed logos for both our bookselling business and our publishing company. We want to be able to not only showcase the books we have for sale and those we publish, but we want customers to be able to purchase from our site. Therefore, we need a shopping cart that is able to receive customer credit card information, or, alternatively, we want customers to be able to contact us by telephone or pay by paypal, or by other means. We are trying not to buy any software or related product for our website which is other than generic and we want to use existing back office processing systems. Tentatively, we are thinking about using Yahoo! stores which is reasonably priced and offers a shopping cart that can be linked to our book database. Although Yahoo! does take a very small commission on sales, we feel that is more than made up by the time related to processing orders and the little-known fact that Yahoo! stores are favored on Yahoo!'s search engine for the obvious reason that Yahoo! is making money on its stores' sales. We don't want to use any "site-builder" software available from Yahoo! because, well, those sites look like they have been built with that software. We want a site that reflects our uniqueness and our interesting mix of services and rare materials. Our site is going to consist of five sections: a bookstore home which will enable customers to search for books, browse categories, read detailed descriptions, make inquiries, set up personal accounts, and purchase materials. There will be a home page for our publishing company that will detail the books we publish, as well as our publishing services. A personalized services home page will discuss the in-depth searches we do, including bibliography- and library-building, as well as the special programs we offer libraries, which include both selling and publishing their rarest books.
Thinking About a Website? This Might Be the Time. - By Renee Roberts none There will be a secondary page for all the articles I've written on bookselling. And finally, a contact page, which will include information translated into a number of languages. The content for a website can be roughed out in simple outline form, like an upside-down tree with the root (Home Page) at the top and the branches (pages and subsidiary pages) at the bottom. You can do this with no software design experience. We are planning to have the site designed in standard HTML with CSS (cascading style sheets) which will give us maximum flexibility in the design of the site, as well as ease of updating (not to mention that the site can then be maintained by ANY qualified web designer). We have thought about colors (something easy on the eyes; no primary colors). We've considered where to use mouseovers (where text changes or appears when a mouse rolls over it). We are considering whether to have excerpts from our published books and in what format (not a big fan of .pdf files on a website unless absolutely necessary). We are still wondering if we should have any Macromedia Flash objects (revolving pictures, for example, or images that appear to move). We've been looking at different fonts, although, in the end, fonts are fairly easy to change. In terms of the contract with our web designer, we prefer one that is not open-ended, which is why it is important to specify as much detail as possible in the contract. I'd rather limit my intravenous donations to those given at blood drives and I don't like big financial surprises. We have also done due diligence -- checking out the clientele and the previous work done by our designer. As a matter of fact, it was his work on a completely unrelated site that first brought him to our attention. We've also checked out many, many book sites, noting the features of those that seemed attractive, or ones that were irritating or unnecessary. For us, the process is taking about six months, but it is a process in which we have confidence. I think the most important thing to remember about website design is that this is not a problem which can be solved simply by throwing money at it. Even if you are not comfortable with computers or Internet technology, you do know your business. If you are thinking about buying some kind of bookselling software system, please think again. You do not want to be at the mercy of a third party company, on which you have become dependent, and which can charge you whatever they wish for subsequent changes or upgrades. Rather than making this choice, you will always be better off keeping it simple, and using the services offered by the mega-sites.

Thinking About a Website? This Might Be the Time.

- By Renee Roberts

Book search engines like BookFinder help customers find titles on lesser-known sites. Froogle can find titles on your website.

By Renée Magriel Roberts

Our internet-based company, Rose's Books, has been going without its own website. I know what you're thinking: the shoemaker's kids have no shoes; the plumber's pipes are bursting; and I've been giving everyone advice about using the Internet without having a website of our own. OK, fair enough. But there are plenty of reasons for NOT having a website, as well as reasons for creating one.

Here's how I've been thinking about the problem: When we started our book business I quickly saw that not only did we not need our own website, but that it was simply uneconomical to have one. This is for two reasons -- the big sites like Amazon and ABE dominate hyperspace as customer destinations. Having a site of one's own is kind of like selling books on Pluto (especially given that it is no longer part of our solar system ;-( ). The other reason has to do with time-and-money: a start-up business is better off using someone else's webmaster, someone else's server and even someone else's back office credit card processing system, not to mention someone else's book database software.

If you are only one or two people and don't want to encumber yourself with unnecessary employees or very expensive contractors, the path of least resistance is to use, and to pay for, resources commonly shared by a great many other vendors with similar needs, not to mention taking advantage of software that is free. Free is a good word when you are a start-up.

Of course, the flip-side to this equation is what you pay the sites for the privilege of listing there. Anyone who has read any of my articles on Americana Exchange knows that I am not a big fan of the huge fees currently being charged by the mega-sites like ABE. Because they were and are the destinations of choice for most of the world's book customers, for a long time the choice was their way or the highway.

With the increased use of the book search engines, however, like Google, Froogle, BookFinder, AddAll, and many others, customers now have a way to find you on the secondary sites like Biblio, ChooseBooks/ZVAB, and TomFolio, a very attractive and relatively inexpensive co-op site, as well as on eBay. With the Google family, they can also find you on your own website and paid advertising is available to list your site when certain key words are selected.

I've always maintained a site with little or no commission attached, but now that we have an active customer base and new customers can find their way to our books through the book search engines, I have come to the conclusion that having our own presence is finally cost-effective. Also once we are engaged with customers, it is far better to direct them to our own site where we can offer the same books as we do on the mega-sites somewhat discounted. Many of the dealers who sell on ABE and who are also members of ILAB or IOBA, for example, sell their books for less money on the organization sites, and still others bend over backwards to direct their customers to buy from their own website.

Thinking About a Website? This Might Be the Time.

- By Renee Roberts

You may not be Amazon, but their site has useful aspects, such as a satisfaction guarantee.

I'm planning to maintain the site, but not to build it, and certainly not to reinvent the wheel if possible. We've started by engaging a qualified web designer, somebody who thinks about these problems full-time -- a luxury we cannot afford with the book and publishing businesses (Rose's Books and Clock & Rose Press).

Like any other software design, you want to spend most of your thinking time at the front end -- thinking and rethinking the overall design -- rather than trying to fix something after it's already been coded. We already had our domain names (www.roses-books.com and www.clockandrose.com) which we've been using for email. If you don't already have a domain name getting one is the first order of business. We also already have digitally designed logos for both our bookselling business and our publishing company.

We want to be able to not only showcase the books we have for sale and those we publish, but we want customers to be able to purchase from our site. Therefore, we need a shopping cart that is able to receive customer credit card information, or, alternatively, we want customers to be able to contact us by telephone or pay by paypal, or by other means.

We are trying not to buy any software or related product for our website which is other than generic and we want to use existing back office processing systems. Tentatively, we are thinking about using Yahoo! stores which is reasonably priced and offers a shopping cart that can be linked to our book database. Although Yahoo! does take a very small commission on sales, we feel that is more than made up by the time related to processing orders and the little-known fact that Yahoo! stores are favored on Yahoo!'s search engine for the obvious reason that Yahoo! is making money on its stores' sales.

We don't want to use any "site-builder" software available from Yahoo! because, well, those sites look like they have been built with that software. We want a site that reflects our uniqueness and our interesting mix of services and rare materials.

Our site is going to consist of five sections: a bookstore home which will enable customers to search for books, browse categories, read detailed descriptions, make inquiries, set up personal accounts, and purchase materials.

There will be a home page for our publishing company that will detail the books we publish, as well as our publishing services.

A personalized services home page will discuss the in-depth searches we do, including bibliography- and library-building, as well as the special programs we offer libraries, which include both selling and publishing their rarest books.

Thinking About a Website? This Might Be the Time.

- By Renee Roberts

none

There will be a secondary page for all the articles I've written on bookselling. And finally, a contact page, which will include information translated into a number of languages. The content for a website can be roughed out in simple outline form, like an upside-down tree with the root (Home Page) at the top and the branches (pages and subsidiary pages) at the bottom. You can do this with no software design experience.

We are planning to have the site designed in standard HTML with CSS (cascading style sheets) which will give us maximum flexibility in the design of the site, as well as ease of updating (not to mention that the site can then be maintained by ANY qualified web designer).

We have thought about colors (something easy on the eyes; no primary colors). We've considered where to use mouseovers (where text changes or appears when a mouse rolls over it). We are considering whether to have excerpts from our published books and in what format (not a big fan of .pdf files on a website unless absolutely necessary). We are still wondering if we should have any Macromedia Flash objects (revolving pictures, for example, or images that appear to move). We've been looking at different fonts, although, in the end, fonts are fairly easy to change.

In terms of the contract with our web designer, we prefer one that is not open-ended, which is why it is important to specify as much detail as possible in the contract. I'd rather limit my intravenous donations to those given at blood drives and I don't like big financial surprises.

We have also done due diligence -- checking out the clientele and the previous work done by our designer. As a matter of fact, it was his work on a completely unrelated site that first brought him to our attention.

We've also checked out many, many book sites, noting the features of those that seemed attractive, or ones that were irritating or unnecessary. For us, the process is taking about six months, but it is a process in which we have confidence.

I think the most important thing to remember about website design is that this is not a problem which can be solved simply by throwing money at it. Even if you are not comfortable with computers or Internet technology, you do know your business. If you are thinking about buying some kind of bookselling software system, please think again. You do not want to be at the mercy of a third party company, on which you have become dependent, and which can charge you whatever they wish for subsequent changes or upgrades. Rather than making this choice, you will always be better off keeping it simple, and using the services offered by the mega-sites.