Multitasking is key to e-commerce success

Lots of people dream about starting some kind of e-business so they can sit at home and count money for a living. They picture a blissful semiretirement out back by the new swimming pool, perhaps interrupted every hour or so by an e-mail or two-a work-free shortcut to wealth.

Well, if there really is such a path to success, the people who know about it are keeping it a secret. Everyone I've ever met with a Net-based business-right down to people who've merely sold a few things on eBay-knows how many different tasks you have to take on just to keep things running, never mind actually make money.

Sheila Martin is a B.C.–based writer who sells electronic copies of her books through a Web site. The main difference between her and everybody else trying to pull off such a feat is that she actually makes money at it. "I'm comfortable saying it's a six-figure business," she allows. In the past, Martin worked in the publishing industry, including as a typesetter in the days of computer terminals using paper tape. She even bought her own computer in the late 1970s and is probably the least geeky person I've ever met to do that. She comes across as a nice lady you might have a pleasant chat with in the supermarket lineup, not a pioneer in desktop publishing.

Other than a self-published cookbook sold at craft shows, the first volume Martin wrote was Saying Goodbye With Love: A Step-by-Step Guide Through the Details of Death , concerning how to cope with a death in the family. One publisher went bankrupt; another only kept the book in print for a while. Martin sold copies by mail order until 2001. "I put an ad on eBay and this guy in Mexico bought the first copy of the e-book version." But she didn't think eBay was exactly the right venue to continue with. "It's much better for physical products, because I don't think it's where people are searching for information products."

But at least she knew electronic sales were viable, so she set up her own Web site, Sea Breeze Digital Publishing ( www.seabreezedigital.com/ ), which also features her book on writing eulogies, guides for women preparing for surgery, and The Tired Woman's Guide to Freedom From Fibromyalgia . (There are no plans to add the works of other authors.) And, considering her experience with merchant accounts and promotions, she should probably write an e-business primer or teach a few classes in e-commerce. She has a keen businessperson's skill at evaluating procedures and has forged connections with other Internet marketers through conferences. I believe her when she says an e-company involves hundreds of overlapping skills.

"Most people, when they're thinking about creating an e-book, all they're thinking about is the product creation. What people don't do is see themselves as a company, having to pay attention to all aspects of a good business. Most people try to do all these things, and then they wonder why they don't succeed or are exhausted. My biggest focus at the moment is to try and find good people to do all the things I can do but don't enjoy."

Accordingly, she outsources various tasks, using the Net to form a virtual corporate structure. The accountant is in Vancouver, but the bookkeeper's in Ontario, as is the head of customer service. The main customer rep, however, is in New Mexico. And "we've used graphic artists from Italy, Argentina, India, England, and Texas."

From what I gleaned from our conversation, it seems Martin's special focus (after actually writing the content) is marketing. Her Web site is marvellously subtle (not high-pressure) and tastefully written. She makes it easy for people to send feedback. And she constantly learns all she can about effective techniques for using Google's AdWords advertising syndication service. (She estimates her January bill to be about US$5,000.) "You need to monitor it constantly and be quite knowledgeable," she says, explaining that effective keywords and cost-monitoring are vital to profitability.

When I ask if she's considered selling electronic copies via the American Amazon Books site (which has more categories of products listed than the Canadian branch), she comments, "For the key categories that I would list in I've already got my ads running there because Amazon runs AdWords. I'm already showing up there, and that's where I get a lot of my customers.

"I often say I think desktop publishing, the Internet, and digital delivery was invented just for me," she adds. "If you have the ability, you can start up a campaign on Google AdWords for $5 and you'll know within an hour whether you're going to get clicks and you'll know within a day if you're going to get sales." Once you've got that working, well, all you have to do is everything else.