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Thursday, March 18, 2004
Toral: E-publishing
By Janette Toral
Digital Filipino
CLICK. Last week, I realized what business can really click online. This is the building of relevant communities and electronic publishing.
As my free workshops online are growing, I decided I couldn’t go on offering them for free and hoping individuals will buy the e-book later. I was thinking of having a one-time subscription where one can access all the current and forthcoming workshops. But as online learning sites in the Philippines have closed shop lately, I’m fearful such model won’t click.
Communities though are clicking now. You have Friendster.com and MySpace.com that allow you to get in touch with people you know. For entrepreneurs and consultants, I find Linkedin.com to be the best.
If joining forums and interacting with people thrills you, Ryze.com and Orkut.com are okay too.
Following this trend on communities, I decided to launch the DigitalFili-pino.com Club. Compared to the number of e-books I sold from June to December 2003, I was able to get the same number of subscribers in two months.
Filipinos truly want to belong to communities they are proud of. The next time you launch an online business, consider offering membership and backing it up with valuable benefits.
Last week too, I finally met Shery Ma Belle Arietta of http://ewritersplace.
com/. She is the one who inspired me to experiment on writing e-mail workshops onlineand selling e-books. This lady can generate $3,000 in revenues a month selling her own e-books and various writing services.
The majority of her e-book buyers are from abroad. This is the kind of business a lot of conservative publishers in the Philippines are missing.
Aspiring writers should use the Internet as a tool in selling e-books and test the market for their product.
If it clicks, convincing publishers to convert it to print will be easy. As one of my list members said, printed books are pursued for prestige, while e-books are for profitability.
This month, I’ll start selling the works of marketing expert, Dr. Ned Roberto of AIM through my site.
E-commerce has never been this promising. Now that we can accept credit card payments online and withdraw it as cash in 24 hours, it gives us power to do business fast and efficiently.
(e-mail: janette@digitalfilipino.com.)
(March 18, 2004 issue)
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