Online Sales Commission for One Product?

[Turtle Shed]

Hello all, some thoughts/assistance with a simple(?) commission system for my one product would be very much appreciated. Hope this is the right forum rather than the computing one.

I have written a book, it's about a fictional golf club and the fictional members who play there. It's light-hearted, a bit laddish, but the few people who have seen first drafts have enjoyed it. (I wrote on the book forum that if I never sell a single copy I won't mind, and that's true, but I would at least like to try and sell a few).

What I am thinking about is generating 'word of mouth' recommendations via email, so "Golfer A" buys my book, and when he does so he receives his personal sharing link. He shares the link with his golfing buddies, and he receives a commission (£1) if any of them buy it. (Those who do buy it also receive their own link of course). Hardly high finance but there are a lot of golfers out there (five million in the UK apparently) and they all have golfing buddies.

Anyway, whenever I look up about commission for online sales or affiliate marketing I seem to end up at a complex loop from hell. Not sure I even know what I'm actually searching for in Google terms. All I want (and I know that "simple to describe" doesn't mean "simple to do" is: "Thanks for buying my book, share this link with your friends, receive a quid for each one who buys a copy").

I don't even need any automation, I'd happily just generate links manually and do payments manually. (I'd be delighted to be making payments at all!). Just a way of tracking inbound clicks and whether they resulted in a purchase from a personalised URL.

Thoughts (even "it won't work and here's why") would be very welcome.

Sorry for the long post, and thank you.

[Simpo Two]

I wouldn't bother. I'd just get the link to eBay (or wherever you're selling the book) out to as many people as possible, and ask them to circulate it to their friends. Also social media and all that jazz. I don't think anyone is going to be particularly motivated by £1, and it's £1 you won't get. You'll save yourself the trouble of generating links, making payments and tracking clicks. It's a fun hobby not a business

ETA You don't actually mention getting it published. Is it just an e-book?

[Turtle Shed]

Thanks.

It's a physical book, £10.95 plus P&P, cost to me is £3.00 so that's a reasonable margin and I don't mind giving away a percentage of my margin if it increases sales at all.

Golf clubs and the pros at all have mailing lists, so Mr Golf Club Manager might think "Hmmm, whack my link into the club newsletter, could make myself a bit of beer money with zero effort".

I'm thinking out loud here, and of course I will use the socials, but there are five million golfers in the UK and if one in five thousand bought my book that's a nice little bit of pocket money.

Right now I have no intention of making it an eBook as I don't want it out there in electronic form just yet. That's an option of course, and not one to be overlooked, but just physical copies for now.

Cheers.

[Simpo Two]

Pleased to hear it will be a real book Is it a 'print on demand' book or have you spent £xxx on a print run? If there was a publisher, will they help promote it?

Turtle Shed said:

Golf clubs and the pros at all have mailing lists, so Mr Golf Club Manager might think "Hmmm, whack my link into the club newsletter, could make myself a bit of beer money with zero effort".

1) Newsletter, great. You could write an advertorial (or have a paid advert) and add an easy way for readers to order, eg an order slip inside, and/or your e-mail address/phone number. Or your link if you prefer.

2) Or sell the books direct to the club. Offer them a trade discount if they'll take, say, 20 and put them in their shop (I presume they have shops). You'll make less per book, but sell more of them and get the money in one handy lump.

3) Get it on eBay, and also Amazon if it's not too difficult.

4) May as well do local press while you're at it, they're always looking for stuff to fill pages.

[alabbasi]

Use a promo code that gives the buyer a small discount on the book or free shipping etc. The promo code can be unique to the referrer so that you can identify who they are.

[Turtle Shed]

Simpo Two said:

Pleased to hear it will be a real book Is it a 'print on demand' book or have you spent £xxx on a print run? If there was a publisher, will they help promote it?

Turtle Shed said:

Golf clubs and the pros at all have mailing lists, so Mr Golf Club Manager might think "Hmmm, whack my link into the club newsletter, could make myself a bit of beer money with zero effort".

1) Newsletter, great. You could write an advertorial (or have a paid advert) and add an easy way for readers to order, eg an order slip inside, and/or your e-mail address/phone number. Or your link if you prefer.

2) Or sell the books direct to the club. Offer them a trade discount if they'll take, say, 20 and put them in their shop (I presume they have shops). You'll make less per book, but sell more of them and get the money in one handy lump.

3) Get it on eBay, and also Amazon if it's not too difficult.

4) May as well do local press while you're at it, they're always looking for stuff to fill pages.

All good info, thanks. I reckon for my very first print run I'll just order 50 copies, and I am certain that enough of my local golfing mates have assured me they'll be buying a copy. A number that low brings them in at £4 each but if I do shift them all then that covers the cost of printing 150, the sale of which would be pure profit of course. I'll see how that goes and certainly conisder Amazon/eBay.

Golf clubs have Pro shops, but some would sell from behind the bar too. I don't really want to be shipping out a box of books though, not unless they were bought in advance, would much rather sell online with people getting a bit of commission via their own link.

I still have a nagging doubt that it's a bit sweary, but there's no C-word and nothing offensive, just a few fat people and a few who like a drink. I worry about everything, and I can imagine it going into a local paper and then someone writing a letter of complaint about a book that had rude words in it....

[Turtle Shed]

alabbasi said:

Use a promo code that gives the buyer a small discount on the book or free shipping etc. The promo code can be unique to the referrer so that you can identify who they are.

Thanks, but this is the bit I'm struggling with technically.

At present there's a simple Paypal "buy now" which would work just fine, but once I started to look at Shopify or Woocommerce (each with some kind of affiliate/commission add-on) you're paying a fair few quid out for what I really hoped could be nothing more than:

"Thanks for buying, here's your personal link, get free money when someone uses it an buys".

[22s]

Nice idea, but I think you'd be better of focusing on generating interest in other ways (e.g. sell to your local golf club).

Motivating someone to tell all their mates to buy a book is going to be more expensive than a £1 bonus.

These viral growth loops work much more effectively when they create significant value for both the referring party and the referred party. For example, take Uber. The deal was: You refer someone and you both get £10 credit towards a taxi ride. That's valuable and useful, and feasible because they have deep pockets.

There's not significant value for the referrer in your example. Even if someone does bother doing it, they have to send a special link to their mate, who then realises after they purchase that their mate has sent them a special link for the sake of £1... Stingy mate alert!

If I were you, the big things I would focus on are:

- b2b relationships (golf clubs, driving ranges, etc)
- Amazon - get good at ppc driving traffic to your listing that way
- some community building piece that gives the book a bit more longevity and options for future expansion (the newsletter idea above is a good one, if you can find a golf sub-niche people are interested in)

Good luck!

[Turtle Shed]

22s said:

Nice idea, but I think you'd be better of focusing on generating interest in other ways (e.g. sell to your local golf club).

Motivating someone to tell all their mates to buy a book is going to be more expensive than a £1 bonus.

These viral growth loops work much more effectively when they create significant value for both the referring party and the referred party. For example, take Uber. The deal was: You refer someone and you both get £10 credit towards a taxi ride. That's valuable and useful, and feasible because they have deep pockets.

There's not significant value for the referrer in your example. Even if someone does bother doing it, they have to send a special link to their mate, who then realises after they purchase that their mate has sent them a special link for the sake of £1... Stingy mate alert!

If I were you, the big things I would focus on are:

- b2b relationships (golf clubs, driving ranges, etc)
- Amazon - get good at ppc driving traffic to your listing that way
- some community building piece that gives the book a bit more longevity and options for future expansion (the newsletter idea above is a good one, if you can find a golf sub-niche people are interested in)

Good luck!

Thank you, much appreciated. The "stingy mate" point is well made, I hadn't considered it in that respect.

I shall do my best with the other stuff, and what I have on my side are (I think) two things:

1 - Five million golfers in the UK (If one in 5,000 buys it I'll make a little bit of money)
2 - No book similar to mine out there (nearest is "The Amateurs" by John Niven, which I have to say is brilliant).

Anyway, back to the editing of my first draft...

Cheers all.

[Simpo Two]

22s said:

These viral growth loops work much more effectively when they create significant value for both the referring party and the referred party. For example, take Uber. The deal was: You refer someone and you both get £10 credit towards a taxi ride. That's valuable and useful, and feasible because they have deep pockets.

Which is all very well, but that £20 comes from somewhere. If the supplier doesn't lose it from his margin, somebody is paying £20 extra. No wonder then that everything is so expensive.

The internet is a wonderful thing but in many places all it's done is create middlemen who do little other than put prices up and/or cut other's profits. I heard recently that the best way to get a deal on a hotel room was - wait for it - ring the hotel. Well fk me that's exactly how it used to be before the internet was invented!

The good news is that you can get 50 books printed for only £4 each