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Can I Buy That Harley Now? Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! Is
this a great Internet or what? Basically, what I decided to do is use this medium to my advantage. The approach I chose is probably useless for someone whose Web sites get so little traffic, but what I did was set up a miniature shopping mall in the sidebar of my FARRFEED Weblog at Salon. I figured that got the most hits, see, and I already had something to sell: the newly photo-illustrated version of my eBook about starting over in New Mexico. Accordingly, BUFFALO LIGHTS (Giving Up & Getting Back) went in at the top. And then I got serious: Affiliate City! Yes, I signed up with a few of my favorite vendors, the ones that give you a cut of sales from click-throughs, and also with a classy nude photography site. "WHAT?!" Now don't have a hissy fit, it's totally respectable and very well done. I also happen to know that the whole thing is put together and administered with a pair of shiny new Macs, which just goes to show you can do more with these things than send emails to Granny. Okay, I haven't made a cent yet. But the FarrFeed Mall is up and running, and at some point I'll incorporate the concept into as many of my other Web pages as I can. At this point, five bucks from a few ink cartridge or Mac T-shirt sales is five bucks I don't have, so what the hey: bring it on. You never know, on any given day a few thousand accidentally misdirected Web surfers who just can't live without a Mac logo coffee mug or a subscription to peek at pretty girls might descend en masse to my little corner of the Internet in a fevered clicking frenzy and give me enough money to buy another Zip disk. But that's chickenfeed, as somebody used to say. What I really want to talk about is this:  Birth
of an empire! I also had a wonderful domain name about to expire, ZOOPILOT.COM. I'd previously used that for a Web design business that never really got off the ground, probably because I discovered that everyone wants the Internet on a (free) platter. You may have a successful Web design business and I congratulate you if you do. It just wasn't for me, and it turned out that the only sites I really wanted to spend a lot of time and energy on were my own (imagine that). But back to the domain. There was a time once when I had a band, at least in my head. The Zoo Pilots actually came together for one formal gig (and several spontaneous parties & jam sessions), but that was enough to provide a wealth of recorded material that I used for songwriter demos. That, plus I had a great time designing black & white gig posters, cassette case labels, and other promotional material with MacPaint (!) on our old original Macintosh. So if having a few songs and playing a loud electric 12-string made me a songwriter, then having more than one eBook to sell and a Web site to pitch them from made me a potential publisher, I realized. Zoo
Pilot Publishing Obviously, "Zoo Pilot Publishing" doesn't scream "amateur" quite so loudly, it only sort of barks it, tentatively. I hope there's a difference. And this way, using all the wondrous Internet tools at my command like email forwarding, etc., I can call myself the editor -in-chief of ZPP and have it actually be true. There are Web sites that promote electronic books, there are promotional techniques, and so forth, that require a contact from a publisher, not the author, so this gives me a fighting chance to get noticed. And while I was setting up my Zoo Pilot Publishing site, the big "DUH!" hit me like a loaf of soggy bread across the face: I could really become a publisher by selling eBooks that other people write. Well I never. I sure can and I sure will. The first thing I'll do is use ZPP to promote and sell all the bits and pieces of my own creative output that are lying scattered and useless on this page of HTML or that. The second thing I'll do is try some new digital product ideas I've been kicking around and discussing with a few email buddies. And the THIRD THING I'll do (by God) is actually start taking submissions from talented weirdos who want to publish their work! Not yet, but soon. I don't care about getting rich, but I do care about steering clear of the gorge. Senior
Applelinks editor and columnist John
H. Farr
wishes all you monkeys a Big Fat Merry One.
The
illustrated BUFFALO LIGHTS eBook is
now
ready!
It's all about starting over in New Mexico. Don't
try this at home, kids!
(Current year's columns just below)
"GRACK!" is © copyright 2002, John H. Farr, all rights reserved
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