Valore Books

When I first starting selling books on the Internet I picked Amazon.  The reason had nothing to do with the number of sales I wanted to make, how many people I thought bought on the site on a monthly basis or even how much money I thought I would make.  The sole reason I did was because it was the only website I knew of that sold books and allowed other people like me to sell books as well.  I had bought a few things on eBay here and there but had never really thought of it as a place to actually sell books.  In fact, I had a buyer’s mentality; I was going to go where I was most familiar and the site that I associated with books and that was Amazon.

Amazon allowed me to get my feet wet and learn a ton about selling things online in general.  I was introduced to the world of  ecommerce and I loved it!  I was working my full time job and after my personal library sold I would then venture out to yard sales, thrift stores, book sales and just about any other place that I thought may have some cheap books for me to sell online.  I was making a few hundred dollars a month which then I thought was amazing.  Amazon’s marketplace was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time.  However, little did I know that the hole went much, much deeper and by browsing the Amazon seller community forums and by Googling different strategies I could use to sell more books my eyes were thrust wide open by the potential that I saw out there.

You mean that there are other sites beside Amazon to sell books?  Other people actually go to these other sites instead of buying through Amazon?  At first, I couldn’t understand it.  Why would anyone go to any other site when Amazon has just about any book published and, at the same time, you could practically get your oil changed while browsing on Amazon it had so many items.  Then it hit me.  I was, and still am, a stereotypical American consumer.  I wasn’t a book collector.  I wasn’t a well to-do scholar nor was I someone that really thought about books other than as a commodity.  In my college days, I needed a textbook now and then, ordered some books about management for my job later on or occasionally bought a newly released best seller.  I thought if I needed a book, I’d go to Amazon, buy it and be done.  Amazon’s the Wal-Mart of the Internet.  Stop by and get everything you need in one shot.  Doesn’t everyone like Wal-Mart and shop there?  I was in for a major reality check.

By now, I’ve taken full advantage of my then marketplace ignorance.  I now sell on 10 different marketplaces and have increased my sales significantly from when I was just selling on Amazon.  Don’t get me wrong here though.  Amazon is still and will probably be for the unforeseeable future the place where I make the largest majority of my sales. However, by learning about other sites to list my books on and taking the leap by making a change and listing my books on other sites my sales shot up like a rocket.

Other people really do shop for books on other sites!  Book collectors, older, and more astute people just so happen to prefer Abebooks for it’s eclectic selection of rare and vintage books.  Want a signed copy of Grapes of Wrath?  Forget Amazon! Check out Abebooks.  How about those college textbooks I was mentioning earlier?  Sure, Amazon still sells a lot but did you know that Half.com is widely known for it’s super cheap textbooks as well? Check out eBay‘s book category sometime.  The last time I looked it had over 4.1 million books available!  Combine that with a spot at #8 for the most trafficed website in the US leaves a  lot of potential eyeballs on your books.

What about Alibris?  Once I found this gem of a book marketplace I was astounded with the additional sales that came my way.  Alibris has now become the “marketplace aggregator” if you will.  If you list your books once on Alibris, they can automatically get listed with Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Half, Books a Million, Blackwell’s, Alibris for Libraries, Alibris UK and most recently the hotly contested addition of Better World Books.  Now THAT’s what I call exposure!  Hell, even the brick and mortar behemoth Wal-Mart is now accepting some sellers to list their products on their marketplace.

See what you’re missing if you’re just selling on Amazon?

I always like to put my money where my mouth is so that you know I’m not just blowing smoke. Here are two screenshots of when I very first started selling on other sites and really didn’t get a grip on them yet.  The next one is a more recent month.  As you can see, the purple (Amazon) is still the biggest sales generator but I would be missing out on 46% more revenue if I just stopped there!

77% of all sales going to Amazon

Only 54% of sales going to Amazon

The goal of this post was not to gloat and tell you I’m so proud of myself but to show you to never be satisfied with your sales volume.  Never get to the point to where you’re simply comfortable. Success comes when you’ve surpassed your comfort zone and entered into uncharted territories.  Always be looking for a new edge or new opportunities to increase sales.  If you’re only selling on Amazon right now expanding to other marketplaces can be one of the most intimidating processes you can go through as an online bookseller but it’s more than worth it.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

The revised edition to my popular eBook titled Used Books: Big Business is back from the editor and officially marked DONE.  I’m still working out a few details on the roll out but expect it sometime within the next few weeks.  Members of my email list will get early notification of the release so if you haven’t signed up yet please do on the main page to the blog at sellyourbooksonline.com or just to the left of this post on the sidebar.  I promise I’ve jammed packed this new edition with all kinds of new content making it over 90 pages now!  All previous customers of the original will get an automatic 50% off if you choose to purchase the new edition.

Also on the horizon is my Amazon Sales Spreadsheet that I notified my email list subscribers to a few weeks ago and also wrote a short blog post on titled The Amazon Sales Spreadsheet and a Revised Used Books: Big Business eBook!

I’m really excited about each of these additions because I’ve worked very hard on both and can’t wait to see what you guys think.