The Secret of Chess

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Hello everyone.

I wrote a new book, titled 'The Secret of Chess'.

It is available for a modest charge here: http://www.secretofchess.com

I would have offered the book free to everyone on this forum, but, unfortunately, I had to leave my job couple of years ago, to be able to fully concentrate on chess.

So, my only alternative to trying to sell a few copies would be to go taxi-driving. (In Bulgaria, most educated people drive taxis)

More about the book and some excerpts on the above site.

PS. If anyone buys, please advise if things work, I am doing this for the first time.

Sounds intriguing.

As a professional copywriter for chess products (have written advertising used by iChess, Chess 24, ICC etc), I'll give a few tips about your site.

1. Nowhere on the site, especially the critically important landing page, does it outline the benefit to the reader (i.e What will happen when I read your book - Whats in it for me?)

2. I couldn't find the price anywhere - even on the buy now page!

3. No proof. Perhaps give a bunch of copies away in exchange for reviews and then use those reviews as testimonials on your landing page.

4. Liberal use of mis-sized stock images makes it look amateurish. Replace them with excerpts, diagrams and the best quotes from the book.

5. Get a nice cover made ($5 on fiverr.com) and also get it made into a 3d style cover for display on the landing page.


These tweaks alone will 100x your conversion rates.

You're welcome.

maybe I should hire you as a professional adviser, and pay you a substantial amount of proceeds.

joking aside, what do you mean 100x, who reads chess books these days?

to tell you the truth, all of your points are very very true in terms of internet reality, I am just starting here, but I also want to retain my personal hue.

I will think more seriously about some of your suggestions, but for the time being I will leave it like that, one must start from somewhere...

PS. I am accustomed to read all the avaible info when taking a decision, and almost don't pay attention to covers and ads.

but you are right, that is what makes money.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

I also propose that the price at least should be in the buyers page.

do you think 20 euro is high or otherwise for that book?

[BrendanJNorman]

Hello everyone.

I wrote a new book, titled 'The Secret of Chess'.

It is available for a modest charge here: http://www.secretofchess.com

I would have offered the book free to everyone on this forum, but, unfortunately, I had to leave my job couple of years ago, to be able to fully concentrate on chess.

So, my only alternative to trying to sell a few copies would be to go taxi-driving. (In Bulgaria, most educated people drive taxis)

More about the book and some excerpts on the above site.

PS. If anyone buys, please advise if things work, I am doing this for the first time.

Sounds intriguing.

As a professional copywriter for chess products (have written advertising used by iChess, Chess 24, ICC etc), I'll give a few tips about your site.

1. Nowhere on the site, especially the critically important landing page, does it outline the benefit to the reader (i.e What will happen when I read your book - Whats in it for me?)

2. I couldn't find the price anywhere - even on the buy now page!

3. No proof. Perhaps give a bunch of copies away in exchange for reviews and then use those reviews as testimonials on your landing page.

4. Liberal use of mis-sized stock images makes it look amateurish. Replace them with excerpts, diagrams and the best quotes from the book.

5. Get a nice cover made ($5 on fiverr.com) and also get it made into a 3d style cover for display on the landing page.


These tweaks alone will 100x your conversion rates.

You're welcome.

maybe I should hire you as a professional adviser, and pay you a substantial amount of proceeds.

joking aside, what do you mean 100x, who reads chess books these days?

to tell you the truth, all of your points are very very true in terms of internet reality, I am just starting here, but I also want to retain my personal hue.

I will think more seriously about some of your suggestions, but for the time being I will leave it like that, one must start from somewhere...

PS. I am accustomed to read all the avaible info when taking a decision, and almost don't pay attention to covers and ads.

but you are right, that is what makes money.

Sure. As a fellow chess content creator, I'm just sharing what works.

Not from guesses, but from thousands of split tests across multiple variables and psychographic studies, on all types of chess products.

You said you wanted to make money from it (I admire anybody seeking to make money from their passion), and these marketing elements should really be on any sales web page.

Assuming your product (book in this case) is of high quality, there's plenty of money to be made with savvy marketing to support it.

As sad as it is, people really DO judge a book by its cover.

I am planning a book with elements of computer chess, fictional chess stories, puzzles etc soon.

I really do think there are plenty of readers out there - many of whom are reading on Kindles and iPads.

[peter]

and I thought you bought because you don't want to see me driving taxi.

Now that you're talking about it, the imagination of you driving a taxi like you drive your chess lines here...

But the also still secret second best reason for me was another one yet:
Now that I'm a customer, you'll have to be kind with me in the forum

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

and I thought you bought because you don't want to see me driving taxi.

Now that you're talking about it, the imagination of you driving a taxi like you drive your chess lines here...

But the also still secret second best reason for me was another one yet:
Now that I'm a customer, you'll have to be kind with me in the forum

you are right, I will be flying.

you are my most serious chess opponent on this forum, Peter, there is no doubt about it.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Hello everyone.

I wrote a new book, titled 'The Secret of Chess'.

It is available for a modest charge here: http://www.secretofchess.com

I would have offered the book free to everyone on this forum, but, unfortunately, I had to leave my job couple of years ago, to be able to fully concentrate on chess.

So, my only alternative to trying to sell a few copies would be to go taxi-driving. (In Bulgaria, most educated people drive taxis)

More about the book and some excerpts on the above site.

PS. If anyone buys, please advise if things work, I am doing this for the first time.

Sounds intriguing.

As a professional copywriter for chess products (have written advertising used by iChess, Chess 24, ICC etc), I'll give a few tips about your site.

1. Nowhere on the site, especially the critically important landing page, does it outline the benefit to the reader (i.e What will happen when I read your book - Whats in it for me?)

2. I couldn't find the price anywhere - even on the buy now page!

3. No proof. Perhaps give a bunch of copies away in exchange for reviews and then use those reviews as testimonials on your landing page.

4. Liberal use of mis-sized stock images makes it look amateurish. Replace them with excerpts, diagrams and the best quotes from the book.

5. Get a nice cover made ($5 on fiverr.com) and also get it made into a 3d style cover for display on the landing page.


These tweaks alone will 100x your conversion rates.

You're welcome.

maybe I should hire you as a professional adviser, and pay you a substantial amount of proceeds.

joking aside, what do you mean 100x, who reads chess books these days?

to tell you the truth, all of your points are very very true in terms of internet reality, I am just starting here, but I also want to retain my personal hue.

I will think more seriously about some of your suggestions, but for the time being I will leave it like that, one must start from somewhere...

PS. I am accustomed to read all the avaible info when taking a decision, and almost don't pay attention to covers and ads.

but you are right, that is what makes money.

Sure. As a fellow chess content creator, I'm just sharing what works.

Not from guesses, but from thousands of split tests across multiple variables and psychographic studies, on all types of chess products.

You said you wanted to make money from it (I admire anybody seeking to make money from their passion), and these marketing elements should really be on any sales web page.

Assuming your product (book in this case) is of high quality, there's plenty of money to be made with savvy marketing to support it.

As sad as it is, people really DO judge a book by its cover.

I am planning a book with elements of computer chess, fictional chess stories, puzzles etc soon.

I really do think there are plenty of readers out there - many of whom are reading on Kindles and iPads.

I'll be taking it one step at a time.

so many new concepts for me, it is easy to go astray at each and every step.

[cdani]

do you think 20 euro is high or otherwise for that book?

I think is a good price.

[Rodolfo Leoni]

do you think 20 euro is high or otherwise for that book?

I think is a good price.

I wait for Andscacs version after you read the book. And for Peter's analysis as well.

Joking.

My life is recently getting a bit troubled. Crisis is heavy and there are lots of worries about future. So, as a contribution, I could give hints and ideas. And maybe, if I can complete my work with the e-book writer, a software for writing books faster and with some interactions.

A hint could be to write in the site what kind of public the book is addressed to, and the purpose of the book. Not just reading introduction, as many people could skip it.

Another could be to release some chapters for free, to give a demo of its potential.

I'm happy to see first results.

[zullil]

as said, Louis Zulli, Carl Langan and Joerg Oster are due free copies.

please drop me a mail at the address specified at the site.

maybe I forget someone else right now, but no time to think more.

giving 3 free copies every single buy would not be that bad after all, would it?

PS. now, would not you also claim your free copies?
please, don't tell me you are just not interested in the book at all...

Congratulations, Lyudmil! I just studied the table of contents, and your book seems filled with the positional ideas that you've long espoused here. Seems like it would be an excellent resource for any serious chess player or programmer. I'm afraid I'm neither of those , but I'll gladly accept a complimentary copy. Thanks. I'll be in touch. And good luck with this project!

[op12no2]

Hello everyone.

I wrote a new book, titled 'The Secret of Chess'.

It is available for a modest charge here: http://www.secretofchess.com

I would have offered the book free to everyone on this forum, but, unfortunately, I had to leave my job couple of years ago, to be able to fully concentrate on chess.

So, my only alternative to trying to sell a few copies would be to go taxi-driving. (In Bulgaria, most educated people drive taxis)

More about the book and some excerpts on the above site.

PS. If anyone buys, please advise if things work, I am doing this for the first time.

A hint for the pictures on the website:
All I have seen so far are not proportionally resized, this should be fixed, because it looks bad and unprofessional.

I know, Guenther, I know.

this is the first site I ever build, so I am actually very happy with it.

If you remove the img height and width attributes, the images themselves are OK - it's the attributes that are stretching them.

You can play around with stuff like that using the developer options of browsers. For example in chrome right-click an image and choose "inspect" then right-click on the source - the height and width tags for example - and select edit to mess around with them in real-time - the page will chnage as you edit. Apologies if you already know this.

http://op12no2.me/stuff/chess.jpg

PS: I also have public domain Javascript browser UI and engine you may or may not be able to make use of. http://op12no2.me/toys/lozza