Where I first started with my website at Geocities

This was screenshot of the website at geocities. It used to be found at http://www.geocities.com/book_wagon/teach_reading

It's what I call my "bread and butter website" because it's one of my online selling websites where I sell so well and I take joy in it for it has helped my family since 2001.

I came a long, long way in selling. As I may have mentioned before in my previous posts, it had it's ups and downs because of my trial-and-error strategies.

Hardly believe that it's still doing well despite all the odds and to think that I just gradually developed it by just visiting other leading websites where I got more ideas. Who would believe that back then I didn't have my own computer and merely worked on this thru my frequent visits to the internet cafe in town? Yes, I spent hours and hours online, thinking how I can improve the website - and my online selling skills (which,honestly, I'm not really good at.) But thank God, the time I spent paid off.

I thought of putting up this website on Geocities (because it's also free!) so I can accept orders easily and at the same time give instant information to the interested parents/ teachers. That way they won't need to text or email just to inquire more about it, unless truly necessary, because it's all there.

Also, since I'm offline most times, I added an automatic order form which they can fill out in a jiffy. I got it from Createforms. This, too, is free. Purchasing customers can fill in their Name, Address, Email Address, Preferred payment method and book format. Two order forms are necessary to fill out and complete the purchase:

ORDERFORM1 and ORDERFORM2

This way, no request or inquiry is missed and every customer is attended to.

How I began selling online, the "a-ha!" moment

I was still so new in the business of publishing and in dealing with book traders. Admittedly, I felt I was stuck in a rut as my dealings with store owners were dismal. Either someone would ask for a 40% from my sales or someone would take longer to collect receivables from. The private schools were good to me though and they helped me a whole lot better in promoting the product. But, sad to say, I was near my giving up point. Before all else would fail, my knowledge of the internet revived me. Simply browsing websites, checking emails and posting my personal thoughts on forums gave me the idea that I can possibly earn here. Here's how the a-ha! moment came up...



I've been an active member of alumni.net and a regular visitor at that. On one of the alumni webpages I spotted the bulletin board where former schoolmates get updated with alumni news.

I also posted a "find a classmate" bulletin when I realized I can try posting an advert since it was also allowed. I posted about 5 bulletins on each school I came from. Days later I was surprised when a few parents replied to my ad and emailed me to order. It brought good results, and it was fairly easy doing so. Most especially, I no longer needed to pay for expensive ads at the local daily!

Yes, I agree, it just brings a few customers to purchase but the results are far better than with advertising on the newspapers. The most advantage I get is that it's free and I can post on as many sites or forums as much as I'd like!

It was a lot of help from posting ads at alumni.net, then later on other satisfied parents posted ads for me too on other forums and email groups. Since then this book gained sales thru free advertising.

know more on my next post...

Looking back... the letter adverts I used to mail and hand out