

Don't be ashamed to ask for business - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/dont-be-ashamed-to-ask-for-business.html

======
hitonagashi
Hmm. Shouldn't it also be relevant be whether your bounce rate increased at
all?

I would expect that on a high traffic site, if you put a link to buy
something, someone, somewhere is going to buy it.

The analysis I would want to do is whether the visitors lost through an
obtrusive link is worth the sales you get from said link? In your case, I
can't see it affecting bounce rates etc much at all, but that model of
thinking ends up with a page 90% full of google adsense boxes and a tiny blog
post in the middle...

~~~
jgrahamc
So, that's a good question. For a quick analysis here's the month by month
bounce rate of my site:

    
    
      Jan 85.59%
      Feb 87.05%
      Mar 89.24%
      Apr 82.35%
      May 86.19%
      Jun 89.00%
    

These links were introduced in June.

The problem is this is for a blog. Inevitably people come and read a single
blog post and leave. Not sure I'm going to learn much from this analysis.

~~~
paraschopra
Use a different method of measuring bounce: time spent on site. Getclicky.com
uses it as a method and I wholeheartedly agree with that metric.

------
dpapathanasiou
In that same spirit, why not put the e-book version of "Geek Atlas" for sale
on Fifobooks.com? ;)

(disclaimer: I am a co-founder of that site)

~~~
jgrahamc
I don't control that, the publisher does. How about writing to O'Reilly?

However, I wouldn't hold it much hope of making a lot of money from it... The
Geek Atlas physical book outsells the eBook by miles.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
_How about writing to O'Reilly?_

Certainly; send me a note via our our contact page
(<http://fifobooks.com/Contact>) with the details.

 _The Geek Atlas physical book outsells the eBook by miles._

You would think a travel related book would be better suited for a mobile
device such as an e-reader.

Anyway, if not "Geek Atlas", how about a collection of some of your more
popular blog posts as an e-book?

~~~
jgrahamc
I don't really agree about the travel book better on e-reader thing.

If you are traveling you are unlikely to want to take an expensive electronic
device with you, whereas a book is quite acceptable. If you lose a copy of my
book, or dunk it in water, etc. it's easy and cheap to replace, not so with an
e-reader.

Also, an e-reader is a very attractive device to thieves so you wouldn't want
to flash it around. As much as I might like to think my book is that
attractive, it's not!

An an e-reader needs to be recharged, which means you have to take recharging
devices with you. Again the paper book is better.

Basically, paper rules (and I'm no luddite, I own and use it a Kindle).

~~~
dpapathanasiou
That makes sense.

I suppose it matters where you're going, and to what extent you're traveling
"rough".

I used to hesitate taking out my Nook or Sony on the subway (I'm in NYC), but
this morning there were six other people reading from e-readers as well, so
it's become less of an oddity or security risk.

If I have the Geek Atlas, the LP guide for general info, a Zagat's for the
restaurants, etc. I'd prefer to have them all in digital form rather than
lugging around three or more paper books.

------
mattew
Prior to reading this post, I did not know about your book, but found it
interesting and bought it because of this post.

