"The Hive" is a collaborative brainstorming project, open to everyone, with the ultimate goal of creating a new market for comics instead of simply poaching fans from the existing one. Each column will present a specific idea, which we will then work on to make better as a group. I advise all those new here to read the FAQ before posting -- there are rules, and posts that break them will be deleted.

We’re now standing on the threshold between marketing and distribution and there’s no better way to cross it then to have a couple of discussions focusing on the Web site.

I can think of three reasons why someone will come to your site specifically to purchase books:

• The person who stumbles across your Web site after reading a review or an advertisement.

• The person who’s more active in the comic community and may have heard some buzz or received a recommendation to check out your book.

• Some retailers trying to figure out how to get your books (order codes, etc).

There may be other types of buyers (feel free to bring them up in the discussion) but I think these three will be the most common and you need a way to service them.

Our discussion from last week helps quite a bit, obviously: a couple of free stories and the option to buy cheaper digital versions of the remainder. It services the impulse buyers; some comic loyalists would at least check out the free copies; and retailers will have quick access to the actual pages and not just your barrage of marketing and taglines.

Going back to the discussion on pre-ordering, you can set up a system where someone buys the physical book and gets access to the digital version while the product ships. I want to modify that idea a bit. Let’s say you have a series of graphic novels available; three volumes released so far and each retails for fifteen bucks through your site. Someone is intrigued by the free preview and instead of buying the digital copy decides to go straight for the paperback. They complete their order and get access to the full digital copy of the book.

If they check out the digital, and they dig it, you can put an incentive out there in an attempt to convince them to buy the other two books. If they buy any more books from your site within the next 24 hours, they get five bucks off their order, for instance. The deal doesn’t even cost you that much because you can combine the order into one shipment (considering you’re offering free shipping which, if you’re doing graphic novels only, you probably should).

So, the impulse buyers and comic loyalists are taken care of. What about retailers? Do you go through the trouble of setting up retailer accounts for those who want to quickly purchase copies directly from you instead of going through the distributor process? Do you think a retailer would go through the trouble of signing up for an account because a couple of guys from their shop asked about your books? I don’t know, maybe some will, but why take that risk?

You should offer “retailer packs” that anyone can buy, without a special account. A tiered system, your software automatically scales the unit price depending on how many copies of a single book are purchased.

One copy: full cover price; 2 to 5 copies: 25% off the cover price. 5 to 10 copies: 35% off cover price; 10 to 50 copies: 45% off; 50 or more: 50% off. Even with you eating the shipping, which you should do (again, I’m thinking graphic novels), you’d still be making a decent profit per unit in most cases.

If they’re ordering multiple copies, what difference does it make if they’re retailers or not? As long as you’re not losing money on the sale (and you’re keeping your cut above your distributor’s rate). If some individual wants to buy 50 copies and resell them on EBay, let him. You’re still selling 50 copies for a profit. If someone wants one copy for himself and one as a birthday present, give him the discount. That’s now two people who will come back for the second book.

So, online stores. Let’s talk about it.

• Huge profit margin

• Impulse buyers

Our online store needs to be easy and full of ways to entice people to buy more, especially those people paying with credit cards who can make that impulse purchase. We’re not talking about marketing, yet -- we’ll start marketing next weekend -- just the store itself.

From the moment someone decides to buy something through the moment they click “Confirm” and whatever follow-up that comes after it -- how do we maximize our Web sales?