Quote:
Originally Posted by nairbv
Add a couple of bucks to someone's account when they refer a friend... then someone has a monetary incentive to say "hey, this site is cool, it's only $10 and you can get these cool books I'm reading, it's worth it," (and thus getting a couple bucks in their account).. as opposed to saying to their friend "hey, save a buck, here's a copy of that cool book I'm reading." If the second friend really wouldn't have signed up for the service (and the first friend knows it) then the first friend doesn't miss out on $2 in sharing the file, but then, ... you didn't really miss out on his $10 either since he never would have signed up.
Make a whole social networking system out of it, and pay anyone 10 cents for referring any book to anyone who buys it (even if they already have an account). People will want others to PAY for the book they recommend, because they'll get paid when the next guy purchases it. tap into librarything.com somehow. web 2.0 is the hot thing right?
This essentially makes every customer a profiting marketing publisher, ... and thus protecting his OWN interests in not pirating the books he bought. Morals can always be tweaked with convoluted analogies, but people will work to protect their own interests.
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I think you've got a couple of very good ideas here. I'm always surprised people are willing to write lengthy reviews at Amazon when they don't get any compensation if someone buys the book based on their review. If you set up an ebook store which:
a) Has lots and lots of content, and a wide variety of content
b) Has good competitive prices, i.e. cheaper than paperbacks are now
c) Is very easy to use, e.g. has good categories and search tools
d) Gives customers a chance to become "affiliates" or gain referral credit
AND
e) Doesn't use restrictive DRM that risks locking honest customers out of their content or limiting how they can access it
I think you could take over the market. Be easier to use than the darknet, and keep prices reasonable, and customers will preferentially go there. Give your customers an incentive to get more customers, and they will build your customer base for you.
Oh, and I suppose it should go without saying that the books will be nicely proofed and formatted to read on any device-- we know that can be done. Just look at Feedbooks.
