Hi - I can't believe I missed this section of the site - Unabashed self promotion? With no fear of being lynched for spamming? Sounds too good be true. We can promote our sites and products. Services too? Great! I've got them all - let me get them in before you change your mind.
http://www.fretsource.com Acoustic guitar lessons in Lanarkshire Scotland and online music theory lessons, worldwide. (better not mention the old Ford for sale - I guess there are limits.)
But no, what I'm really here about is a product, that I'd like some advice about from my new forum friends.
Drawing on my 25 years or so of guitar teaching experience, I have written an ebook called FretSource Companion that I've been selling on Ebay - from time to time, but with limited success.
The ebook is a guitar reference source, rather than a tutorial. I try to promote it as the 'ideal companion' for anyone interested in guitar, or studying guitar already, or even for experienced guitarists who want a handy source of reference material. It's in PDF format and contains quite a lot of information (over 100 pages) on many aspects of guitar playing, chord charts, scales, various techniques, history, notation, etc. It covers a lot of ground but, of course, not as deeply as a specialist book would do over less ground.
One persistant problem I have selling it is that I've no idea how much to sell it for. As it's an ebook download, there are no physical costs involved (apart from Ebay & Paypal fees) - so I've tried selling it for as low as £0.69p (about $1) to £4.99p (about $6 or 7) always with the same limited success.
I think one reason it sells so slowly on ebay is that it is competing with products that will teach you how to memorise every chord and become irresistible to the opposite sex in less than 60 minutes. I'm always dismayed to see those guys sell those products every day, while my honest attempt to produce some useful information gets barely a look. Those kind souls who have bought it though, have all found it useful and interesting - or so they said.
I'm looking for advice on how to price it and market it. Maybe I should sell it on CD, as people seem to prefer receiving something in a solid form, rather than as a download, despite the extra cost it entails. Or maybe I should give it away free on my site and hope for ad clicks or donations (a slim hope).
Finally, if anyone would care to review it, such as Greybeard, NoteBoat, Chords, Niliov, King, Clazon, Voodoo, to name just a few of the members whose knowledge and insights have earned my admiration and respect in the short time that I've been here, I would be pleased to hear your opinions and suggestions for improvement.
I already know some of its shortcomings, such as acoustic bias over electric, because that's what I mainly teach. Also, it could do with some interactivity like Chordsandscales' impressive chord and scale tools, and it contains only midi rather than audio or video samples to keep the file size small (around 7MB) so that it can be sent as a download. Fancier graphics and a splash more colour wouldn't go amiss either.
Anyway, please let me know if you'd like a look and I'll be happy to send you a copy. If I get no replies, I won't mention it again - although I might come back to try and sell the old Ford.
Sure, I'll give it a look. tomserb@noteboat.com
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Thanks Noteboat. It's on its way
I'm no guru when it comes to theory, but...
I have taken college classes on web page design and such, and I can tell you how to make it more presentable. Also, I would recommend CD form. People will pay the extra for CD's IMO. Plus if you put everything on CD, your problem with real audio and video is eliminated. If you for some reason run out of space on one CD, you can always make it a 2 CD set. If you go with the CD route, buy in Bulk and you won't have to charge much per cd. So send me a copy, and I'll sit down with it and help out. [email protected]
Who needs a signature?
I mean really...
It's almost always lyrics...
or a cliche...
or garbage about me...
Lets just save YOU from the pain, ok?
Thanks Duffmaster - I've sent it to your address. Ok Guys - almost 3AM here - time for bed. Of course you realise I won't sleep now.
' nite all
Can't promise I'll have the time ... just got a promotion and I'm trying to learn my new job while still doing my old one ... but I'll true.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
I'll be happy to give it the once-over (I can even offer translation services Scottish-English :lol: :lol: ).
greybeard@guitarnoise.com
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
*blush* :)
I'd love to have a look through, send it to any address at chordsandscales.co.uk and it'll get through to me.
As for the marketing, I know what you mean. I've developed the habit of hitting the back button the instant I see any text with a yellow background, it's not even a concious descision anymore, it's pure reaction :)
I think the best way to sell this sort of info would be through a blog-style website, ie, you give out snippets of info and advice regularly, and there's a "buy the book for £x" button prominently on each page. Building up traffic with quality content is the key, then you have a target audience coming to view your offer without you having to go and find them specifically.
There's no need to have a site written specifically either - there's a lot of blogging sites out there that are free to run, I'm sure one or two would be capable of handling ebooks sales. No/negligable setup costs that way. Give me a shout if you decide to go that route and need any help with finding, setting up, etc. I love the web almost as much as I love the guitar :)
Finally, you're more than welcome to distribute the two flash tools I've done recently (thread here) for free, that's what I had in mind when I put the link back to the site into them. It's the same principle as I'm suggesting above. :) Bare in mind though that I'm still tinkering with them, so you might want to check for updates every now and then...
Thanks guys
I've sent it to your addresses.
'Chords', I've just started to get into making Flash files and fancy animations myself. There's a lot to learn so I might take you up on that offer and put them on my site in the meantime. Anyway for now, I'd like to link to them on your site if that's ok.
I've already got some free pages from the ebook on my own website fretsource.com - but very few. I'll follow your advice and add a lot more and try to attract a stream of traffic. At some point I might make a CD version - I think Duffmaster's right too about the advantages of CDs.
Your help is appreciated, although it pales into insignificance compared to Greybeard's offer of translating from Scottish to English. :)
I'm sorry, I seem to have missed this post. I would be happy to take a look:
Best Wishes,
Niliov
Thanks Niliov - I'll email it shortly.
I have made some modifications to it since my post in June, following some useful comments from others and especially from NoteBoat whose review was favourable, and whose advice on some specific areas was invaluable.
