Metric Junkie Blog

Are You Obsessed With Your Amazon Sales Rank?

Mark — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:36:41 +0000

I came across this really interesting video created by married Authors John Yunker and Midge Raymond that shows how they deal with their Amazon Sales Rank obsession.

It’s actually a really cute promotional tool for the pair’s most recent books (The Tourist Trail and Forgetting English respectively) that will hopefully get your creative juices flowing as you look for new and interesting ways to promote your own books and music in 2011.

The youtube video has already received 4,642 views in the short 30 days since it was released (11/28/2010).

How will you be promoting your book in 2011? Share your ideas.

Email Migration Cancelled

Mark — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:15:55 +0000

We recently announced that we were migrating our email service to Aweber. Unfortunately, several issues have arisen that have forced us to abandon this strategy. As a result we have reverted back to our previous email distribution method. If and when a suitable solution is found we will provide an update here.

If you received an email asking you to “Confirm Your Subscription” you may ignore it.

I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Metric Junkie Mailing List – “Confirm Your Subscription”

Mark — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:30:12 +0000

As the holiday season approaches I wanted to provide a quick update with regard to an email members will be receiving from us that may cause some confusion. This email asks you to “confirm your subscription“. Let me explain.

As part of the Metric Junkie sign-up process you are required to provide a valid email address. This has been the case since its inception back in July of 2009. This email address is and has always been used as a way for us to communicate with you about news, updates, and special offers we provide our members.

We are using a new tool that will allow us to better communicate with you going forward. As part of the email migration process this tool requires that each user approve this change by clicking on a confirmation link included in the “confirm your subscription” email.

What has changed? Why the list?

In the past our process for contacting you relied on manual management of our active subscriber list.

In order to stream-line our process going forward we have enlisted the help of Aweber Communications to help us better manage our subscribers. Their world-class service will allow us to more effectively communicate with you, and will allow you to instantly, unsubscribe from future emails from us with a single mouse click on the “unsubscribe” link that will appear at the bottom of all future emails you receive from us.

What is Aweber Communications?

Aweber Communications is a service that helps companies manage large email lists. Companies retain control over their list and use the tools Aweber provides to communicate with their customers. So it is perfectly clear, your email address is still completely under our control and has not, nor will it ever be, sold.

The only difference is that instead of using Notepad to send out emails, we will be using Microsoft Word (for lack of a better analogy). So basically, Aweber provides us with a better overall user experience and the ability to provide you with a higher quality of service.

But I Didn’t Sign Up for a Mailing List?

Unfortunately there is no transparent way for us to migrate your existing email address (that you provided to us when you signed-up with Metric Junkie) to the new service without re-requesting that you opt-in. The term “mailing list” is unfortunate here as it traditionally has a negative connotation associated with it. In reality you are giving us permission to communicate with you the same way we always have been, just through this new channel.

We hope that this clarifies any confusion that may arise as a result of this migration and look forward to continuing to provide you with the top notch quality you have come to expect from us.

31 Days to Build A Better Blog (Special Limited Time Offer)

Mark — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 13:48:13 +0000

Blogging Legend Darren Rowse, the creator of ProBlogger.net has made a generous offer to Metric Junkie users. For a limited time (Until November 30th) he is offering an additional 25% discount off his ebook 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

To participate in this offer you must purchase your copy by November 30th using the coupon code: november25

As a proud owner of this ebook (who paid full price btw) I am happy to provide this special offer to you.

If you have been in a funk, struggling to find ways to improve your blog and engage your readers this guide will take you through 31 daily tasks that will help you rejuvenate your content by learning how to write and captivate a web audience (which is very different then readers of published work).

This discount also applies to Darren’s new ebook Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers which helps you hone your blog’s content even further.

To take advantage of this offer and get your 25% discount: Click Here

1) Make sure you add the coupon code: november25

2) Update Your Cart

Service Announcement: Please clear your browser’s cache

Mark — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:43:51 +0000

Just a quick update: Some enhancements have have been made to our graphs. As a result, you will have to clear your browsers cache to have access to the new functionality. I will report more about this shortly. In the mean time please clear your browser’s cache now as charts may not be rendered properly otherwise.

Please Note: You will need to do this for each computer you use to view Metric Junkie.

Problem Resolved

Mark — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:20:56 +0000

The other day we reported a problem that resulted in intermittent reporting of sales ranks for some users during a 48 hour period. Today I am happy to announce that the source of the problem has been identified and a solution has been implemented. Unfortunately any sales ranks that were missed during October 5th – October 7th, 2009 are not available and are forever lost to the Amazon Gods. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. It is our goal to collect each and every rank Amazon provides for the items you track. But as they say, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Since we rely on Amazon to respond to API requests we make, we are entirely dependent on their “delivering the goods” when we ask nicely. Unfortunately the consistent responsiveness we have enjoyed from Amazon’s AWS API has a bit of a hearing problem lately which resulted in our missing some sales ranks as a result. It also exposed an issue with our metric collection script which didn’t gracefully handle such a condition. Since it is beyond our scope to force Amazon to respond to each and every request we make, we took this opportunity to make our script a little more robust when it comes to dealing with an aging and sometimes deaf Amazon, by adding some redundancies and not bailing in protest when Amazon ignores it. We also added some notification functionality to alert us, both preventively and reactively as actionable situations occur. In the end, the applied solution is more of a work-a-round to address issues that Amazon is having responding to requests.

For the record, it appears as though Amazon moved control of these APIs to another group within the organization and they have not been effective communicators of changes they are making to the system. Case in point, Kindle books, they are no longer provided by the API as of August 14th, 2009. Amazon made no mention of this change and finally responded to the frenzied developer community September 29th, 2009 by flatly saying they would no longer be providing them (no explanation given).

Anywho, you don’t need to know how the sausage is made. You just want it to taste good.

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to delivering your sales ranks in new and delicious ways!

Houston… We Have A Problem

Mark — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:12:57 +0000

If you don’t have all your sales rank data today it’s because something wonky has occurred. I wish there were a more scientific way to put it but nothing captures the anomalous behavior we experienced today more precisely than wonky so we are going with it.

Rest assured, we are aware of, and investigating the problem. We will make an announcement here once things are back to normal. In the mean time, please bare with us.

Metric Junkie Widgets Are Now Available!

Mark — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:24:49 +0000

What are Widgets? A widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation. (Source: Wikipedia)

Why would you want one? Our widgets allow you to dynamically display your sales rank on your site. If you have a web page or blog, a widget is a great way to promote your book while simultaneously supporting this site.

What do the widgets look like? Our widgets come in two flavors. Both proudly display the current sales rank for the item whose widget code you copied (typically your book or CD).

Tower Widget: Designed for users who want to promote sales. Each widget displays an item picture, sales rank, and a “Buy Now” button to encourage sales conversions. When users click the “Buy Now” button they are taken to the corresponding Amazon product page through a “Metric Junkie” affiliate link, allowing us to earn a small percentage in the event a sale occurs. This is one of the ways that you can help support us and help keep our service free.

Box Widget: For those who are still interested in displaying their products Amazon sales rank on their blog or web page but have limited real-estate, this option is for you:

OK, I am sold. Where can I get a widget for my book? Click on the icon located on the “Product Details” page for the corresponding item. Once there, grab the code under “Copy This Code” and paste it at the desired location on your web page.

That’s it! Now when visitors come to your page your sales rank will be displayed in all its glory.

Welcome Authors, Publishers, & Musicians!

Mark — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:05:32 +0000

I would like to take a moment to thank all the wonderful new Authors, Publishers, Retailers, and Marketers who have joined Metric Junkie since our release last month. It’s nice to see all the new faces pouring in in such a short time. It brings us great pride in knowing that we are helping you better analyze your marketing and promotion efforts by providing you with real-time feedback with regard to your sales (cause waiting six months for your royalty check is no way to run a marketing campaign).

If you are enjoying our service and find it a valuable resource we ask that you help support us by spreading the word about our service to other authors and musicians through your blogs, tweets, email, radio & TV interviews, etc. We don’t charge for basic usage and therefore depend on your word-0f-mouth to grow our user-base in order to keep it that way. If you like Free, I know I do, then let the world know we exist and we rock! Really. Do it now! I will wait…

If you use any data obtained from our page on a blog, journal, book, or publication you are involved in, we ask that you properly credit us with a link or site mention:

For Graphs – (e.g. Graph Courtesy of www.metricjunkie.com)
For Data – (e.g. Data Courtesy of www.metricjunkie.com)

In fact, we encourage you to take pictures (ALT-Print Screen in Windows) of any graphs you want to display in any media you are involved in. Just be sure to help a brother out and mention where you got it from. We have to eat you know and a free business model doesn’t necessarily put bread on the table.

Of course if you are feeling especially heroic, you can make a donation to help support the maintenance and development of our service (as well as allow me to eat pasta once a week). Click here to make a donation.

Finally, I hope you are all enjoying the service. From the number of return visits its clear that you are. We look forward to helping you achieve your sales goals.

-Mark

Lock And Load Baby! We Are Live!

Mark — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:46:22 +0000

This is not a drill. Do not adjust your monitors. The Metric Junkie service is now fully operational and ready for mass consumption. Some things you should know before you get started:

Metric Junkie’s vibrant charts are so brilliant they will make you want to slap your Mama. Of course, just as you wouldn’t want to bring a knife to a gun fight, it would be equally poor form for you to log into our site with an old, out-dated, non-standard, dilapidated browser. Translation: For best results make sure you are using one of the following browsers and have upgraded it to the latest version:
Google Chrome 2
Internet Explorer 8
Firefox 3.5
Safari 4
Once logged in you will need to add an item (i.e. Book/CD/DVD) to your collection. The first time an item is added it will have zero data. This is not an error. Sales Ranks are collected from Amazon on an hourly basis starting the hour after they are first added to your collection. As a junkie, I know you are expecting a quick fix. Rest assured the pretty swirling pie charts and opulent bar graphs are coming. Grab a glass of juice and come back in an hour to see your first data point. In 24 hours you will have 24 points and the graphs will really start to materialize.
Need help? Click on the green question marks that can be found on each page. Also our FAQ has a wealth of knowledge that answers the most common questions.
Reporting issues – If you experience a problem, observe an anomaly, or start getting heart palpitations, click the “Help” link on the top right of the Metric Junkie screen and submit a ticket.

On behalf of all of us at the Lab I welcome you to your new addiction, and remember… Acceptance is the first sign of recovery.