Malcolm asked me to start a thread about how I optimise RPGNow for my own sales. Um... I could probably use it better, but let me see what comes to mind, and then folks can start a discussion if they want. Note that I only drop by here occasionally - shame there's no email alert for new posts.

One thing to note is the merger with DriveThru to form OneBookShelf. There's an ongoing process that means it can be hard to keep up with what works how where. The two sites' catalogues are now merged, so you should be able to get a given product at either. Features are being added to DT, with the aim of making that the single underlying platform skinned as the two sites to preserve their brand identities. This will probably happen in 2 months or so.

They're asking for new products to be uploaded at DT, from where they'll automatically be copied to Now, but a lot of us whose customer base is firmly at Now are still doing it the other way round to control the time of release.

One thing to watch out for is getting your product in the right category. DT lets you put them in multiple categories, but Now doesn't, so the auto copy over can leave you in a less than optimal one (eg I pointed out that Cold City is in Generic Sci-fi).

In terms of attracting attention to a product... Appearing on the front page at release is probably the most effective, but short-lived. However, each new release unlocks sales of older products as customers who are interested check out your catalogue.

You can buy impressions of the badly-named "Message of the Day", a text blurb and cover image appearing at the top of the page. This is a perennial topic of discussion because so many publishers do it that a given product doesn't appear often enough to make a strong impression. However, MOTDs you set up are rotated at the top of the category pages (Modern, Fantasy Assorted, etc) for free, and you can have up to 3 defined - possibly more worhwhile than the front page.

Another way to get attention is putting a product on sale. Less good than it used to be, because all the DT products copied over have the print price as normal and the permanent PDF price as "reduced", clogging up the list of all discounted products that customers used to scan. Still gets you some extra sales though. You can also set up discount coupons for products, which appear as a URL that puts the product in the cart at a reduced price. You can put those on blogs, mail them to previous customers, etc.

Oh, bundles - you can create a product that acts as a container for other products, which are discounted. Those can be cross-publisher as well, eg Chad and I have one for Truth & Justice with the Legends Walk supplement.

There's also an option to set up a coupon and submit it to the newsletter that goes to all customers - but those have been horribly irregular for several months.

Phew!