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  #7  
Old June 9, 2002, 05:02 PM
Willie Crawford
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Please help. I need your opinions and advice.

Mary,
As was already pointed out, I sell a cookbook from
my website at http://chitterlings.com (currently
undergoing a facelift). I sell copies EVERYDAY.
The niche I chose was country or southern cooking
or "soul food." This was what I grew up cooking
and the website stared out as a hobby. Now
the website gets 15,000+ unique visitors some
days.

A few insights:
I first offered my cookbook only in PDF format
but discovered that more people wanted hard copy.
My printer can do copies for around $2 each so
that made sense to me too.

I have a mailing list from my website which has
over 14,000 members currently. The members
share recipes with each other so the list writes
itself. Many people look forward to each daily
issue and tell me this is the first thing they
read every morning. The list is one of the big
keys to my success. I have sponsor ads at the
top and bottom of each issue. One of these ads
is usually for the cookbook. The other ad has
been for a diet book lately. I also sell copies
of the diet book virtually every day :-)

My site also has a moderated discussion board.
This brings many people back every day. They
swap recipes on the boards and a nice community
has grown around it.

The site, board, and list all feed on each other
and all sell copies of my cookbook.

Cookbooks are one of those products Tony Blake
refers to as "bread and butter products." These
are products that will always be in demand...
products that you can always repackage and resell.
Your cookbook can be packages as an ebook, a
hardcopy book, a website selling member only
access, and or a cd.... among other formats.
I see a lot of people selling cds containig
recipes collections on ebay for example. They
do sell (I've purchased them) and cds are
extremely easy to produce and mail.

Just a few thoughts. Now I need to get back to
my site. It started out very simple but now
I am thinking I need a lot more pictures of my
foods and more bells and whistles to supercharge
sales.

Willie Crawford


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