What can I do to make more sales from my web site?

In this new blog series from AEP, “What’s Keeping You Up At Night?, experts offer their advice on the most pressing issues facing the educational publishing industry. AEP members may sign up for a free half-hour consultation with the experts for 30 days after their entry is posted.

The following question was posed to our current featured expert, Ben Weintraub of Merit Software.

Q. I have a great education related product that I want to sell to schools.  What can I do to make more sales from my web site?

A. Your web site is your most important marketing tool.  Anyone who is considering buying anything from you will spend a lot of time on it. There are many steps publishers can take to make their web site more effective.

Hall of Fame Portrait: Michael Ross Part 1

On December 3, 2009, AEP will induct Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., MDR; Michael Ross, Encyclopaedia Britannica; and Pleasant Rowland, Rowland Reading Foundation and American Girl into the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame. Here in his first installment, Michael Ross, Senior VP, Education General Manager for Encyclopaedia Britannica, discusses the person who had the greatest influence on him and the advice he would give to those choosing educational publishing as a career.

Who has had the biggest influence on your career and why?

Probably the person who has had the biggest influence on my career was my first boss in publishing. Causa “Dick” Barry was a veteran newspaper guy who had covered the Korean and Vietnam wars with the Stars and Stripes in Asia, first as a reporter and later as a bureau chief. He was the bureau chief and my mentor when I was working at Time-Life Books in Tokyo. He understood and instilled in me several important lessons: the meaning of a deadline; accuracy and clarity as hallmarks of the editorial process; and accountability to your readers. In Dick’s prior roles, getting something right could have meant life or death, and he approached all of his work with that intensity.

Digital University: Getting from Product to Production

On April 16th, Getty Images – a platinum sponsor of AEP – convened the first in a series of Getty Digital University events designed to bring AEP members together to explore and discuss the emergence of cutting-edge technology and media.

Jim McVety, Vice President of Business Development for Bill Smith Group, who presented during, “Getting from Product to Production,” and will also be a featured Help Desk expert at the AEP Summit, shares highlights from his session.

During my session, we looked at emerging trends in technology and media and discussed some of the implications that these trends have on how we develop products going forward. We looked at technology trends in general and then went a bit deeper in three areas: Interactive White Boards, Mobile Learning (mobile phones, that is), and Web 2.0 + Social Networking.

Each platform deserves – and has been afforded – deep study and what it means for K-12 education. Furthermore, AEP is becoming THE clearinghouse for access experts, learning from peers, and shaping our perspective. With that in mind, let me post some observations and ask some questions. Download the PPT accompanying this blog post, read the research I’ve cited, and post your brilliant ideas here. That’s the spirit and the value of AEP…