I looked at some other data at Amazon. It turns out that there were 173 click throughs from WebWord to Amazon (1-April-2002 through 9-June-2002) for Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery. I already stated that 22 books were sold. So, the conversion rate is 12.72% over the 74 day time period. Not too shabby.

Now, let's take a look at how well Designing from Both Sides of the Screen did at Amazon. From 5-Jan-2002 through 20-March-2002 (74 days) there were 28 click throughs and 1 book was sold. The conversion rate is 3.57%, which isn't too bad considering that I didn't give the book a very good review. I didn't slam it, but I certainly didn't give it a ton of praise.

Yes, I know that this comparison is not perfect and I am sure that my method wasn't quite right, but I thought you would be interested in some of this quick and dirty information. If nothing else, it makes me realize how easy it would be to fall into the trap of being a slave to advertisers. Certain web sites simply can't afford to bash Microsoft, for example, because Microsoft buys so much advertising. I'm not 100% sure about this, but I've heard from some sources that it is true. It isn't too hard to find articles about this topic, this one: The Online Threat to Independent Journalism. This is one of the main reasons why I am interested in how usability and marketing, and therefore advertising, interact. I want to know the boundaries.

In any event, it is obvious that good reviews generate sales and bad reviews do not. It must be very hard for some people and organziations to ignore this and just say what they want to say. Very tough indeed.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on June 13, 2002 09:32 PM