Posts Tagged Core Member

SIBA Core Members: Don’t fail to sign up!

Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on June 23, 2011

Club Read: Sign up to sell tickets & earn cash!

CLUB READ is a book club getaway for customers to be held in Virginia in October organized by SIBA, & NAIBA, BookClubGirl.com, and Reading Group Choices. Tickets are available through the independent bookstore core members of SIBA & NAIBA.  Core member stores who register to participate as ticket outlets will receive $100 for each ticket sold.  Core member stores must sign up and get their registration code to share with their customers as the code is the only way you can get credit for your ticket sales. The SIBA store that sells the most tickets will be one of two booksellers on-site at CLUB READ. 

Club Read Bookseller Commitment Agreement is here: http://www.sibaweb.com/club-read

The title list from Club Read Authors is here.

The official website for Club Read is club-read.com.

We also have a totally FUN widget you can put on your website. And here’s the code if you’d like to add it to your home page.

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Core Member Survey Results in Questions – What Booksellers Want!

Posted by Wanda in Business on March 12, 2011

Core Member Survey Results in Questions – What Booksellers Want!

When booksellers join SIBA, many of them, gratefully, answer the survey questions on the back of the paper dues invoice.  The first question asks: What skills or knowledge is most needed among you and your staff?

And below is a list of resources that will hopefully assist you in many of the areas mentioned in this open-ended question.  Enjoy and let me hear from you if you use a resource I have not mentioned here, and I will add it to the list.  If enough people find this useful, I will make it a regularly updated page here on the website like Gifts Galore for Bookstores.  Happy selling!

For ABA members, I found a ton of great resources on a variety of topics.

Online Websites -

http://www.wanda.sibaweb.com/2011/03/03/what-can-aba-do-for-me/

Website as Online Business Partner

Pre-Release Titles Information –
Edelweiss
Indie Next Lists
Shelf Awareness Drop-In Titles
NPR
SIBA Listserve
Publisher Reps & Commission Reps
Publisher Catalogs
Wholesaler Catalogs
Publishers Weekly Book Reviews
BookPage Book Reviews
USA Today Books
LibraryThing
The Guardian
The New York Times
Bookwire New Releases
Southern Indie Bestseller List

New Local Interest Books – Try searching your local library for books of local interest.

Online Book Search Skills – Google it.  Type in what you know at Google.  Get results!

Marketing Ideas; Merchandising Tips; Display Ideas; Cheap, Effective Marketing
Good & Great Ideas
Paz Book Biz
Streetpoll
Wireless White Paper
Envirosell – signage/fixtures
Envirosell – Case Studies
Envirosell – Retail
Envirosell – Behind the Counter
Seth Godin’s Free Stuff

Computer Skills; Technology Education -
http://www.teachparentstech.org/
http://commoncraft.com/
Mashable

Author Information -
http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/author.php
http://www.bookwire.com/authors/all_authors.html

Co-op Development -ABA’s ABACUS study shows that profitable booksellers spend much less on advertising than unprofitable booksellers. This does not necessarily mean profitable bookstores advertise less, but it does mean that they claim more co-op.
2011 Co-op At A Glance
http://www.pazbookbiz.com/Bookstore-Training-Consulting-Services/Customer-Newsletter.aspx
http://www.co-optimize.com/index.php

Online Advertising Tips; Social Networking Translating into Sales; How to Turn Facebook Fans into Cash
Facebook Fan?
Tips & Tool for Website Promotion
Examples of Online to Offline Campaigns
Selling Thru Facebook
Facebook Case Studies
Killer Facebook Fan Pages
Growing Fans
Guide to Facebook Ads
Twitter for Business
Twitter Case Studies
Not a big brand Twitter Case Study
25 Twitter Case Studies

Handselling Tips; Selling E-books
http://www.bookweb.org/education/member/handselling.html
Handselling Tips
E-Handselling
The Art of Handselling
Getting to YES

Advance Book Trend Information
Alltop – Top Book News
Trendwatching
Small Business Trends
Mashable

Accounting Strategies:
Strategy & Management Accounting
Small Business Administration

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Show Your Love & Enter to Win

Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on February 7, 2011

SIBA’s Welcome Kit & Twitter Contest!

The SIBA Welcome Kit, newly updated for 2011, is an extensive piece that outlines the many benefits of SIBA Membership. Download a copy and make sure you are getting the most out of SIBA.

Along with encouraging you to spend an afternoon exploring the ins and out of the SIBA Welcome Kit, we also want to promote the most valuable and popular benefits in a new monthly column Bennie & the Gets!

Bottom Line: Any core member who follows @SIndies and tweets the following: I read Bennie and the Gets! will be entered into a drawing for a free ALL PASS meal ticket at #SIBA11.  The deadline for tweets is Valentine’s Day.

We will be hosting a Twitter Contest in every SIBA eInk between now and August, 2011.

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Bennie and the Gets! FBSP

Posted by Wanda in Bennie and the Gets! on January 19, 2011

This month’s highlighted benefit of SIBA Membership is the Free Book Stimulus Plan (FBSP) Any core member store can participate and it is a high-value perk for which the bookstore has to do very little.

Check out this link for materials for both in-store and on-line. You will see where we have added a new facet to FBSP via the Caught U Reading Program that came out of the Good Ideas Breakfast at #SIBA10.

We have core member stores who have placed the FBSP website on their receipts and stores that have printed out the mail-back form as a bag stuffer. SIBA has collected a contact list of hundreds and hundreds of southern readers via this program and does outreach on members’ behalf regularly. We have had many participants from Alpharetta, Suwanee, and Duluth, GA; Elizabeth City and Franklin, NC; and Tampa, FL. We’ve given away over 2000 books. It is a great way to thank your customers and who doesn’t love getting a free book in the mail?

Bottom Line: Anyone who shops in your store can mail their receipt attached to the form found at www.freebookstimulusplan.com and they are mailed a free book handpicked by me from my library of books from 20 years with SIBA.

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Happy New Year! Here’s $150 from SIBA!

Posted by Wanda in Business on January 10, 2011

Happy New Year! Here’s $150 from SIBA! The Circle of Sites Banners-for-Dues program returns with more options (only available to indie bookstores that meet SIBA’s criteria as a Core Member)

It’s time to renew your membership dues for next year. Once again, SIBA is offering bookstores free membership if they will participate in the Southern Circle of Sites program and run a banner on their store website for SIBA.

In otherwords, SIBA wants to give you $150.00.

Download our Welcome Kit to see other member benefits
Join online (choose “bill me” and put “Circle of Sites” in the comments)
Download a SIBA Dues Form (check the Circle of Sites option on the left)

If you allow SIBA to run a banner on your website, we will waive your membership dues for 2011. Banners change weekly, with no other work or requirement from you.

The deadline to participate is April 1st

Click here to see last year’s list of books promoted on Circle of Sites

What’s new for Circle of Sites in 2011?

  1. We now offer the option of a horizontal or vertical banner. We heard from many stores that the horizontal banners didn’t always fit into their website design gracefully. For those of you with narrow two- or three-column sites, we now have a vertical option we can provide.
  2. In order to be eligible for free membership dues, the banner must appear “above the fold” –that is, visible to viewers without scrolling when they first visit store site.

Stores interested in participating in the 2011 Circle of Sites program should contact Nicki at nicki@sibaweb.com with any questions.

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Book Bloggers as Indie Affiliates, Oh my!

Posted by Wanda in Books on April 14, 2010

SIBA has been working hard to collect book blogger contact info over the last year in hopes of having book bloggers galore at the SIBA Trade Show along with the hundreds of authors we already host.  Via SIBA’s STARS program and our outreach efforts to book bloggers, SIBA has been building a case with folks who sell a limited number of books via their blogs or website to affiliate directly with an indie bookstore.

When I use the word “affiliate“, I am speaking of a program whereby sales that come to a bookstore via a blog or website allows for a percentage of that sale to go back to the blogger or author.  Most online stores offer affiliate programs.  This is basically a free sales force that is reaching out to customers on your behalf.

Imagine my surprise, after checking every single core member website, to find that only 3 indie stores offer an affiliate program on their website.

I know that every ABA ecommerce site has affiliate capabilities, and I imagine most ecommerce platforms include an affiliate option.

Certainly, one can become an affiliate of indiebound.org but this causes consumers to have to go thru several additional clicks and is certainly a better option than none.  But when a store has the capacity to offer a direct click to book sales from its own website, that seems like a superior choice for everyone.

Please look into any affiliate options you may have to offer and let SIBA know when yours is up and running as I am trying to hook you up with book bloggers, authors, libraries, etc.  that will chose you over another outlet.

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