Content area
To add to the exclusive feel of booklounge.ca, Charters opted to make the site registration-based - an idea she took from another category, music. "She had a really clear vision of the experience she wanted readers to have online - she looked to other media groups to see what they were doing," says [Adam Froman]. Charters noticed that many artists, like U2 and Sting, offer site membership benefits, and she found the concept appealing. "I realized that there was value behind that wall," she says. Such value-adds include geo-targeted invites to "exclusive" book-related events, and access to videos of author interviews. "So far, the opt-in rate has been high," says Charters. "[The U.S. office] is watching closely. Ours is the first website that is membership registration driven."
Much like Amazon changed the way people shop for books, Google has changed the way they look for them. "Google has given us advantages that I hadn't anticipated - we have 40,000 unique books in our database. Google searchers find those," explains Charters, adding that the rapid adoption of search engines has dramatically affected how her sites need to be designed. "With Google, users are coming through the side door - a lot of marketers focus on the front door." To address this, Charters has clear Random House branding on each Author Spotlight page - now the most common user entry point - as well as links to contests and rich media content to lure users further into the site.