Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Danae,

There are, in some forums, people who are blunt and insulting or just a jerk.That may not be their intention, but it is the result.

I appaud your return post.

I do think there is a market for what you`re trying to do... if you have any questions, do not hesitiate to contact me.

Sinecerly, Roland

 

 

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When we put out the A+ book, we figured we`d sell a few copies and make a couple of books. Instead, it began to sell like crazy.

Then I made a mistake: I went to Amazon and started reading the reviews. I`d read 30 that said the book was fantastic. Then I`d read ONE that said the book sucked! LOL!!

There`s a reason people say, don`t read the reviews! It didn`t matter that there were all those great reviews. The only one that stuck in my mind was the bad review. So I learned....don`t read the reviews.

Henney Youngman once had a great line: "I was reading the other day that eating bacon is bad for you. So I gave up reading." :-)

If you`re going to publish anything, you`re going to have to expect a whole spectrum of responses, from really negative to really positive, and everything in between. It`s why ANYone who wants to write a book has to figure out how to write it for themselves, not for an audience.

Writing anything based on your expectation of what others will think is a sure way to end up doing nothing.

I`m confused - I thought the idea was for a website, not a book.

If you guys think that my opinion that something is not a good idea and then explaining why makes me a jerk, I can assure you that the marketplace will make my criticism look like your best friend. It was, and still is, not a viable idea. The whole definition of it is counterintuitive to the audience - i.e. if you`re not web-savvy, then how are you going to learn about this idea on the web? And, it is being done, much better, by others. There is no differentiator here, no clear objective, and just guesswork about there being a market for it.

Reviews are not always a bad thing, Craig. That person bought your book, too, and had feedback about it that should have been valuable to you. If you ignore every negative vote from your market, how are you going to improve? Negative reviews, or even negative customer feedback, is not as easily offered as positive.  That`s why customer-facing retailers take negative reviews so seriously - for every one who took the time to contact them, many, many more simply never went back. It`s not statistically accurate to say that, if there was 1 negative review for every 30 positive, that only 3% or so of your audience was not pleased. You have no idea how many people weren`t happy - you just saw the one. That`s a huge assumption to make.

I would think that anyone would be into continuous feedback and learning when they are selling a product like a book. Your call as to when to listen, but it`s easy to read the good ones - they`re good for your ego. It`s the negative ones which are probably just as important, if not more so.

Danae, you make a lot of gross generalizations about your target market, yet you have no data to lean on to back up these assertions. I could really care less either way, but you might want to start questioning your own assumptions. You gave us that opportunity here, but when the reviews were negative, you went away and stuck your head in the sand for a few weeks.

Geez, how are you going to react with a garage-full of books that don`t sell - jump off a bridge?


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Jeff A. Gregory President, Chief Brand Strategist Brand Counsel, LLC     Branding Brilliance    www.brandcounselllc.com

On the book feedback, there really wasn`t much I could do. The book had gone to print, and that was that. Aside from that, the review was based on the book failing to provide (for that person) information it never was designed to provide. (They wanted a comprehensive training guide, this was a "last-minute cram" book.)

Feedback is fine, if you can benefit from that feedback. It also depends on the type of commentary. For example, if I get a lot of feedback here on SuN that my spelling and grammar routinely are bad, that would matter. But if the feedback is along the lines that I`m being controversial, that`s more to style and content of writing.

In this thread, the question was whether or not a book would have a market. The feedback was about Danae`s Web site (in context with credibility). My argument has been to stay focused on whether or not there`s a target market, not on the author`s credibility.

Ultimately, the object is to sell a book. If someone buys the book, they`re welcome to review it, comment, leave feedback, and so forth. Letters to the editor about errors were always welcome. An Amazon review is "interesting," but not worth my hauling out all those insecurities. :-) I`ve already torn out most of my hair....I need to preserve what`s left.

Hay Craig. I"m is sorry two have too saye this but, I have know idea what
you am talking abuot. You`re spelling and grammer are to cunfuzing too
me.

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Craig: Fair points. I was referring to subsequent additions, since technology changes so fast. If the feedback was irrelevant as to your content, I agree it isn`t worth much. But to ignore any bad critique is probably not a good idea in general. If this was an isolated case, so be it.

I still believe that we should get away from personal critiques on SuN, such as `your critique was mean, you were a jerk, etc.`. This is email, basically, and providing a lot of tonality and voice inflection is impossible. Let`s concentrate on the discussion of ideas, not on how they are taken.

The less insecure the person, the more the comments seem to reflect on `quit being a meanie` rather than `thanks for the feedback`. If you ask, we`ll tell you, and not just as your target audience or not, but more importantly as business owners on the viability of the idea.

If I remember how this whole thread got started, her website did not reflect much web-savvy credibility. That`s not an issue of web expertise, since the idea wasn`t about that anyway, but about how it would be received through the medium of the web. You can always source out the marcom deliverables, but if you insist on doing it yourself (and thinking that making a few frames with varying widths qualifies you as web savvy), don`t be surprised if it falls flat if and when it sees the harsh light of a much-less-forgiving marketplace.

If we could quantify the advice form this thread, it would seem to me that Danae got upwards of $10,000 of advice for free. Not bad.


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Jeff A. Gregory President, Chief Brand Strategist Brand Counsel, LLC     Branding Brilliance    www.brandcounselllc.com

When you throw out an idea and ask people what they  think, you are going to get just that.  Don`t spend too much time being offended, just take the message that goes with it.  In a Technical Writing class I had to describe the mechanics (draw a diagram) and write complete instructions how to use a hand-operated can opener (assuming the person had no idea what it was).  Sounds simple, but it wasn`t.  Good writing is a skill (or should I say writing well is a skill).  I don`t know, I just know I`m no writer.  Have you ever taken an Excel or Word class and had that one person who can`t seem to figure out how the mouse works?  Knowing where to start with such a book would be difficult, especially if you are talking about someone who has no knowlege of computers.  That would make your target audience a person who knows nothing about computers but wants a Web site.  Is that a large enough market? 

To clarify my absense from SuN, I stayed away because I was preparing for and meeting with four potential clients, and I needed to keep focused on that and not on being mad at the woman who decided to make false accusations about me and my website design.  I was shocked that someone who doesn`t know me and isn`t even a competitor would come along and say such things.  She did not provide anything valuable in her post, except to alert me that I should remove a couple of comment tags that the HTML color-coder puts in automatically.  (She somehow thought that this was evidence that I had stolen my design from someone else, though, so it was insulting more than helpful.)  Jeff, perhaps you have never had trouble with other people`s negative words affecting you emotionally, or perhaps you`ve learned to ignore the unhelpful and see only the helpful, in which case you are admirable.  I have not toughened my skin that much yet.

Craig, I think if the only negative review you got on your book was because the reader was expecting something else, you should be pretty happy.  It`s when your target audience thinks you stink that you should really be concerned.

Jeff--the idea I am asking for feedback on IS a book idea, and at some point in this thread there was discussion that the best vehicle might be a print version.  Also, as I mentioned in my last post, more market research would be useful.  I was hoping to do some of that here, but I realize that I won`t find many of the people who need that book here.  I threw out an idea, some people embraced it, others kicked it around, and now I should take it elsewhere to see what happens.  Wow, $10,000 of advice.  I feel so important.

Onthebeach--you make a good point that it`s difficult to know what level of skill to assume.  In my head I have been assuming that the reader uses a computer regularly for basic tasks, uses email, and occasionally uses the Internet.  So, no "how to work a mouse" chapters. 

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www.effective-websites.com

I think you have a good idea for your book. I would focus on more than just he basics though, because a lot of the basics can be found easily online if one just looks in the right places. A book that focuses more on the marketing aspects of websites would be pretty helpful I think. So many people have nice sites but they just aren't being found in Google searches. Tying in a little bit about how social media can help them to promote their sites would be a good idea too. Good luck with it!

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Nothing makes you feel of look better than body wraps.

I think people might consider the context of your site when deciding on the value of your book and whether or not they should purchase it. :)

 

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