Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

We`ve had our magazine website up for a while now.  We have traffic, but I`m disappointed in the conversions to sales.  Our main target is the fashion industry, from students to apparel buyers to CEOs.  We`ve added over a thousand other magazines covering every topic over the last year or so.

We are doing direct mail pieces and I have both Google and MSN ads.  I just updated our meta tags for keywords.

What are your thoughts and suggestions? I think that I am in to this so deep that I can`t see the forest for the trees -- time for some other eyes to take a look!

www.somanymags.com is our website. 

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The Isabell Company provides the best in magazines at competitive prices with exceptional customer service.

I have not gone through all of your offerings but it appears to me that the problem is that you are not competitive. For instance you offer Science News for $54.50 but if you go to their website they offer it for $43.00 There may be other issues

your offer

52 issues per year

Science News Our Price:  $54.50 Cover Price: $156.00 You Save:  $101.50 Science News is a weekly newsmagazine covering the most important research findings in all fields of science and medicine. Its pages are packed with short, accurate stories that appeal to nonscientists and scientists alike.

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Their site
Science News

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Cover Price:	$156.00
Our Price:	$43.00 ($.83/issue)
Issues:	52
Frequency:	Weekly

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Yes, sometimes the publishers may offer a lower price if you go directly to their website.  You would have to go to each publisher`s website to check the price for every magazine you were interested in ordering, which could be a long process.   We`re offering them all at one site, saving the buyer the time and hassle of going to a multitude of different websites.  Plus, the buyer can see a variety of similar publications, maybe one that is more appealing to them. 

If you check some of the magazine comparison sites, we are usually competitive with other independent magazine sites.   

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The Isabell Company provides the best in magazines at competitive prices with exceptional customer service.

FYI - Most of the magazines I subscribe to have sent letters warning that any subscriptions or renewals made through a third-party subscription service will not be honored.


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

That is interesting and I will discuss this with our suppliers.  We, along with the other magazine agents, are authorized by the publishers to sell new, and in most cases, renewal subscriptions.  Never have we had a publisher decline a subscription, or a renewal subscription where we were authorized to sell renewals. 

I can see that there are some challenges to overcome.

Is there anything with the website that you would change, correct, modify, etc? 

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The Isabell Company provides the best in magazines at competitive prices with exceptional customer service.

How is this different from Publisher`s Clearing House?

It`s a similar concept.  I`ve gone through their site and we have more magazines.  They have some prices that are better than ours; we have some prices that are better than theirs. 
Our website is more segregated than theirs; for example, they have 19 different magazine categories while we list over 40.  This makes it easier to find the magazine that you want, as well as some others that are similar.
When you order from them, they invoice you for the subscription but it also enters you into their system for all the promotional e-mail and such.  We do  not e-mail our customers unless their is a direct need to do so, such as a problem with their payment. 
We can invoice for the subscription, or you can charge the subscription to your credit card (for miles or reward points) and we have payment by PayPal. 

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The Isabell Company provides the best in magazines at competitive prices with exceptional customer service.

Yes - get rid of that damned text crawl.

If your flash banner is supposed to be quick links - none of them work.

The sans-serif font you picked for the text of your message is difficult to read, and much of it is in the passive voice.

If you didn`t `get` Craig`s question, I`ll ask again:  How are you different from dozens of similar sites?

Steve


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

I read a lot, wander all over the Web, shop online, go to stores, and so forth. Frankly, I don`t have time for magazines. Yes, there must be a big market for them somewhere, otherwise there wouldn`t be so many of them. But if I were looking for a magazine, I`d either get one of those PCH things, or buy one at a store and get the subscription, or visit the publisher`s Web site.

So what do you offer that would attract someone like myself? I don`t believe I`m odd or unusually strict. Why should I go to your Web site, find the magazine I might be interested in, then buy it through your site when I have all these other options available---I might argue, more readily available?

Coming at it from a different direction: What made you decide you wanted to put up a magazine distribution Web site? There must have been that moment of inspiration, where you had an "Ah Hah!" moment, and proeceeded with this concept.

What I`m thinking is if we can get somewhere with the "why," whether from your perspective or the marketing perspective (your unique selling proposition), we might also uncover a way to improve the conversions rate. Maybe? :-)

Oops...I misread the list at the left....so this post isn`t right. However, perhaps move the categories up to an even higher, global level?

<<---del.....Here`s another thought. Right now, your left-side menu offers magazines in alphabetic order. Who would know those names, without already probably being subscription holders?

What if you were to have global catagories of types of magazines there, then an alphabet pick-link-list, where people could see what`s available?--->>>

So for example, I`m interested in computers. I may or may not know that PC Magazine is available. If I don`t...I have no place to go with your main page. But if I find a menu, "Computers & Technology", I might then find something I like. Right?

If you can limit the global categories to something perhaps like a standard library system, I think you would have a manageable set of options over there on the left.

The other thing that I find missing from places selling magazines, is a summary of that magazine, it`s purpose, mission statement, and general coverage concept. You could certainly differentiate from PCH by having a paragraph that explains the purpose and value of each type of magazine.

I went to "Children`s Interest," and saw "Ask" magazine. I clicked on it, assuming it was a thumbnail, and it isn`t. So there`s nothing at all telling me what "Ask" magazine is about, why I would want it, or what`s inside.

Think of Amazon, where you can view some of the inside of the book. At least a representative table of contents. Is that a lot of work? Yup...most assuredly! But this was your chosen field of business, right? So you`ll have to do something to differentiate from all the other magazine sales places.