Thanks to JAG for the DVD case

Will post the TOC tomorrow... :)

The cover looks nice, but is this a book or a DVD you're putting out here?

Hi Ardiva, thank you. It is a book (PDF format) - 90 pages, plus several supplemental PDF's, and it does include a few software utilities. :) Among the topics covered in Vol I: marketing, advertising (and the differences between the two), pricing strategies, branding. Also covered in Vol. I are customer service, marketing goals, overview of the markets, and interviews with merchants and brokers in our community. some really great interviews inside with several top merchants! The entire course, in three volumes, spans 22 chapters plus workshops, software, access to other free utilities on my site, and the first 20 buyers will receive a free marketing plan kit (contains step by step tutorial and forms for creating your marketing plan). i'll be posting more announcements on later Volumes after I've released Volume I. I'm really excited to bring this wealth of information to the community!

I have to ask....who's opinions are these? Just yours...a compliation of several? I mean I could write a book on how to market your proiducts but that doesn't mean it's worth anything....LOL

Hi Dizzie, Heh heh. :) If your methods are working - then it IS worth something, I'd think! :D All of the materials besides the merchant interviews were written by me. I've been involved in marketing in one way or another since the late 80's, first in the music business, later having owned several of my own businesses over the years, both online and offline. (I make a living with my web sites and online sales, btw, working here from my home studio.) The book is most helpful to the new merchant, but is also in-depth enough to be used by someone with experience. Marketing is so much more than just slapping up a banner and putting products into the MP. It is also more than just advertising. The top merchants will tell you that even the best product cannot survive without some form of promotion. Basically the course explains what, exactly, the various components of marketing are and why they're important in the overall marketing mix. It also covers many things that factor into pricing, and there is a complete breakdown and analysis of the components of a "brand", and shows you how to create your brand. I also share many techniques that have worked for me in advertising, getting site traffic, email marketing, etc., and the finer points of customer service, customer privacy, etc. The second volume covers email marketing, e-commerce, and what all is involved with setting up your own store online. For the folks who have never done that before, I'm hoping to help them avoid some of the time, hassle, and expense - running a site that sells products is not - if done right - for the faint of heart. There's a lot to know, and a lot to do; hopefully I can save someone, somewhere, from some of the hard lessons I learned with my first web business. I'm pretty much covering what all I've learned, and what has been working for me - I hope the information will help anyone interested in new ways to market. Hang tight for the TOC - it will be up shortly... :D --Donnie

Attached Link: http://www.posertrax.com/mfm2004/mfmvol1toc.htm

--Donnie

How much ,where can I get it and when?

Hi Philywebrider, It will be here at Renderosity hopefully next week. The price for Volume I will be $24.95. Thanks for your interest, let me know if you have any other questions or anything, --Donnie

The price is a bit steep unless you have the credentials to back it up...nice idea. I'm not being a wise guy but I can say that I don't know of one single product you sell or that I've ever heard of in my 3+ years here so I'm wondering how effective your marketing plan is. ;) I'm sure it will be informative for some though. ;)

I just had an idea for you...Yesterday I was looking through my files and found a "sample" chapter for someone's article on CSS...I bought the entire article within 10 minutes of reading the sample...I had a better idea of what I was spending my money on. :)

Hi chromafolio, understand totally. This is definitely the type of product that many folks would understandably be wary of. I'm not touting this as a way to make Poser merchants "instant millionaires". It's not "one of those" marketing hype books. It is designed to offer real and practical applications and information. Of course I don't know everything about marketing - but I do know a lot about it. My credentials? I've been doing marketing since the late 80's, first with my own bands and music cd's, then a small record label, a publishing company, and then a graphics business doing cd layouts for bands. Finally my own studio and several online businesses around 1995. All I can say is that my strategies do work for me, and I make a good living with them - if they didn't, my mortgage and bills would not get paid. I don't have a day job; don't need one. I am blessed to be able to get up in the morning (or afternoon, if I want), walk into my studio, and do what I love. It's a great feeling! You probably wouldn't know my products unless you have a need for soundtracks or sound effects - I actually practice my own advice and go after the niche markets. :) I sell the Posertrax line of music and sounds for animators and filmmakers. My Renderosity sales are actually a small market for me - less than 10% of my total online income, but they do sell very well here. Considering it's a graphics community, it surprises me that they do! :) I've been selling online since the 90's, way before this was even called Renderosity. Anyway, I hope that didn't come out the wrong way. :) Just wanted to say that I do know what I'm talking about. I do hope that folks can learn from my experiences, and like any product, there will be merchants who find it useful and merchants who won't.

That's a great point, you're absolutely right. Gotta have a way to insepct the goods before buying! :) Since the books 22 chapters - would you prefer a sample that contains excerpts from various chapters? Or a single entire chapter?

"The entire course, in three volumes, spans 22 chapters plus workshops, software, access to other free utilities on my site..." So the twenty two chapters cost $74.85.

Well, the article I was referring to was a rather short one but I think i got a better overall feel for it by reading straif=ght through a particular section more so than i think I would if it was just exerpts here and there. It's too "chopped up" to get a feel that way. That's just my opinion of course but I have purchased tuts here without seeing ANY thing in them and turned out to be rather disappointed. You really don't stand to lose anything that i can see by giving out a section or a chapter - only to gain. I'd be more inclined to at least consider it that way...especially for that kind of money. I'm not saying that it's not worth it...it's just a steep price compared to most MP products of late and you may have a hard sell at that price. Just my 2 cents. :)

Oops...I meant reading "straight thru". Lol.

Phily has a point too. That's a lot of cash to put out especially when your target market is new or potential merchants. Anyone who has that kind of cash to spend on something like this probably doesn't need it.

Toxic Angel has two Tutorials out, "Basics of Postwork", and "Advanced Postwork". They are about 60 to 70 pages and run $25.00 each. Seems instructional products can be pricey.

Hi Philywebrider, you're close. the total prices includes not only the 22 chapters, but also the workshops and software, and other bonus items. Volume III will actually be slightly less than the other 2, since the chapters are in Vols. I & II. The workshops make up Vol. III. Here's a breakdown on the volumes. You already know about Vol. I, but it does also contain some software and bonuses related to the content in it. I've purchased the rights to a quick banner creation utility and "headline generator" software to give both away with this part of the book. Volume II focuses on the product development process, and on selling online - in all forms, from brokering to launching your own site, and email marketing and ways to get targeted site traffic. There is also software included with that part that complements the topics in it, and a few other bonus e-books and articles. Volume III is mostly the workshops themselves, and it also contains some software and other bonuses. I'm still putting the final touches on that part, so I'll be able to give you a complete list of what's in it soon. :) I'm probably going to price it at $19.95. so $24.95 x 2, plus $19.95 - $69.85 for the entire course. Breaking it up into three parts allows merchants to only buy what they need/want. Some folks may not need part 1, but instead want to get into the material in volume II, or even bypass both and go for the workshops alone. I've tried to design each part to be entirely usable independent from the others, yet function together as well. On the site, I'm working on a "buyer's only" area. While I don't expect all of it to be done for a while yet - the scope is huge - it will be useful to merchants, and the utilities, e-books, and other downloads will be immediately available to buyers once the books goes to market. These items are either products I've created, or bought rights to just for this area. I also bought several other pieces of software that won't make it into the collection, since the quality isn't what I thought it would be, or it wasn't useful for our community.

Yeah, I do see your point about the pricing. Initially I was going to ask a higher price - but I knew better. :) I have tried to make each part able to be used independently. So I hope that does help ease the price for new merchants. Phily is right info products tend to be expensive. Most courses I've bought of this scope are upwards of $100-200. The average I see for complete marketing courses are around $197.

On the sample... Which chapter of these two would you prefer...? Chapter 5: Pricing Pricing Considerations Pricing Objectives Factors that Determine Pricing I Market Conditions Cost of Production Delivery Method Factors that Determine Pricing II Existing Price Points Competitors' Pricing Advertising Campaigns Pricing Models Penetration Pricing Premium Pricing Loss Leaders Pricing Strategies Odd Pricing & Psychological Effects Bundle Pricing Splitting a Product Discounts & Sale Pricing Upgrade Pricing Chapter 6: Advertising The Basics of Advertising Why People Buy Common Characteristics in All Types of Advertising Types of Advertising Classified Ads Banner Ads Display & Print Advertising Pay-per-Click Advertising Writing Ads How to Write Ads that Pull Use Action Words The Power of "Free" The Structure of an Ad Including Your Contact Information How to Advertise Advertise In the Right Places Free Advertising Do's & Don'ts Testing, 1-2-3 Success Tips

I just want to say I really appreciate your feedback and opinions on this. Thanks for taking the time to post. :)

np. :) Personally I'd rather see something on pricing. I feel that way too many merchants are under pricing their products which kind of leaves the rest of us in the lerch...either follow suit or, well, I think you know where I'm going with this. I'd be interested in your thoughts about how to handle this...do we stick to our guns and charge what we "know" its value is or drop prices to keep pace with the going prices no matter how ridiculously low they are. When I first started selling here I was selling character/texture packs for $30-$35. You'd be really hard pressed to sell ANY type of tex pak for that today. Take a look in the MP and you'll see ppl giving them away...which is basically what they are doing when they sell a complete character & texture for $5 or $10. It's really rather discouraging.

I agree with you on the pricing. In fact that was the main reason I ended up working a pricing chapter into it. When I first started this project it was originally going to be an update of the 2002 version, but nowhere near this scope. Funny how they grown into their own little monsters ain't it? In my interview with Steve of Daz, we discussed the whole "low-pricing" dilemma that is in the various marketplaces these days. Several of the other merchants mentioned this topic in their interviews as well. I remember those days of the $35 packs! :D

By the way Pam - I know you create Merchant resource packs. Did you know I'm working on a downloadable PDF database of those on my site? It will be free for everyone, not just buyers, and it's basically to give merchants a reference of what's available. I'd love to include your stuff in there, that could help give you some additional promo. We can talk more about it in IM or email if you want.

Sure! Sounds great. Thanks. :)

Hey no problem. I'll get with you tomorrow on it if that's ok?

sure thing...I'll be around. :)

Price points are interesting things, especially since there is a complete group of "casual" buyers (I'd say 95% of the market here consists of people like myself who render as a hobby, never need more than around 72 dpi, and who do a fair amount of impulse buying of misc. cheap stuff) out there that people want to tap into while still trying to reach the serious professional market. The mech that is available for H.E.R. from Sixus1.com is a good example. In Poser format it is around $15-$20. In the original format it is quite a bit pricer. Serious buyers buy both, but impulse purchases only occur with the cheaper version. I say that as I watch my own buying habits (yep, I'm one of those casual impulse buyers -- I never expect to sell anything I do and am rendering only to get the art my daughter wants for the stories we work on that we are doing just for the heck of it). I've bought a fair number of impulse buys ... and have more to come. Heck, I buy stuff I won't use to to support artists I like (I bought Fatale's robogoth gargoyle, for example, because I used a freebie of hers) and sometimes buy stuff for other artists just because. Anyway, that is an important price consideration when working in a market that combines serious professionals and enough hobbiests to cover up a lot of naked temple sword maidens. ... I also should confess that I'm the one that often suggests that people ought to be selling things they are giving away for free. If nothing else, to cover bandwidth. Well, off to buy Shub Niggerath, change up the verticle axis and twist her some.

Ethesis: first off..cool name! I think you are absolutely right...the majority of buyers are hobbyiests but, and that's a big but...people should still not under price their products (for whatever reason) nor should they price gouge. Some hobbies are more expensive than others. Take book collecting for example..I collect First Editions of well known authours. There's no way i can afford to pay 30 grand or even $1000. for a collectible so I shop within my price range. That doesn't mean that book sellers should all go out and put there collectibles on sale for $5 just because it's a hobby. I don't know if you're following what I'm saying. I just woke up so sorry if I'm not clear and please understand that I'm not trying to discount your opinions. I just feel that people should get more for most of what's selling for $1.99 to $2.50 than a mere 99 cents to a buck and a quarter. Don't get me wrong, as a buyer i love these prices but as a merchant it is pretty tough to put food on the table when you rely on this income to do that and you are NOT doing it as a hobby nor do you wish to ever be lucky enough to reach the professionals who do see the value in the work and are willing to pay for its worth. :) --Pam

Transactionally, I'm not sure there is any real difference between charging five dollars for something and making it free. BVH seems to really have a handle on that sort of mass sales. But at some point, I don't believe there is enough volume. Simple micro econ stuff. All numbers for illustration only, since price points vary wildly. 10 units at $30 ($300.00, most of it take home) vs. 100 units at $5.00 ($500.00, but $100.00 overhead) vs. 150 units at $1.99 ($300.00 gross again, but $150.00 overhead).

Yep, pricing is tricky stuff. In my opinion, (and simple business sense) it should cover costs, allow to you make a profit (you decide how much), and provide good value to the buyers. Pam, sorry I didn't get with you yesterday - had a lot of family stuff going on! Sending you an IM right now. --Donnie

np Donnie.