What is a good way to get more traffic to your bookshelf? 

The first things that come to mind: post in the forums, put information/links  in your signature line, do deals in the book bazaar, get friends, join gold key. 

I read your profile and I have a couple of suggestions........

Change your statement that you try your "best" to make sure a book is in great condition but sometimes a problem will pop up......

Makes me run away from your shelf. The books should be postable per guidelines not subject to your idea of great condition with an occasional problem. I might have to use RWAP for the book you send and then ask for my credit back, wait to see if you agree, send a picture whatever. Too much trouble.

I also would never ask a member to PM me before turning down a book............makes me have to wait until you read the PM, reply to the PM, I have to decide to order a book that may be unpostable........ again, too much trouble.

All my requests are auto wishlisted and I have a credit to cover the order.....no trouble, no hassle, no wait.

Only list the books that are postable and you will be successful. Offer deals in the bazaar, read the forums and get to know some members so you can request and be a friend.

Good luck!

Linda R., what does Gold Key offer in regards to increased traffic?

Thanks Toni B., your info helped alot. 

You've started by coming to the forums, that is one way to get more visibility on your Bookshelf. Here is a Help Center doc with some suggestions:

How to get your books requested!

Hi Red, I don't see a friends list on your profile. This is one feature of gold key that increases traffice both to your bookshelf and to your wishlist. The gold key makes it much easaier for friends to post to your WL and for you to post to theirs. Of course this works best if you have a lot of friends. I first took the gold key to expand my WL to 300 but also sought out gold key friends plus other friends. These days I get about 5 WL offers each week and usually mail out 5 to 7 books each week. Last week I mailed 10.

Also as Linda suggested, start posting in the forums, CMT is the most active. Others will get to know you and take a look at your bookshelf and offer you WL books when they post them. You might start by asking for friends in CMT. Just title your subject line containing the word 'friends'  and see what happens.

Welcome to PBS.

Posting WL books regulary can increase your bookshelf orders.  Most of my bookshelf orders come from people using the Order More From Member button when I post a WL book. I think a lot of people wait to order the more heavily posted books until they see it on the shelf of someone sending them a WL book. 

Another thing you might do is make sure that all or most of the books you post have a 'book description."  Nothing worse than going through someone's list and finding an interesting title and then finding there's no description.  Some people will hunt down the description if they're interested enough, but many won't and you've lost a possible request.  Good luck.  Pat

I have seen people ask for friend requests, usually associated with Gold Key, in this forum (Questions about PBS). I personally don't want to see CMT cluttered with everybody asking for friend requests, especially just for the purpose of increasing shelf traffic. 

Someone once posted about making sure all your books have their genres listed, in addition to the book description. This will help people using the search function pull up that particular title, although usually the order will go through FIFO (first in, first out), thus helping your copy inch up one spot. 

This was the thread with some discussion and direction on how to do it (third post): http://www.paperbackswap.com/Non-Fiction-Books-Moving-Check/topic/277634/

Also, consider offering a deal in the Book Bazaar. Deals involving more than 1 credit (e.g. 3 books for 2 credits, or better) usually don't cost much more in postage and your cost per credit earned might even be lower than mailing out books in singles. 

Good luck!

I have to say in all my time on PBS, my shelf has never been particularly active. The sweeping majority of my trades are in wish list books.

It took me about a year to figure out what was in demand.  And what I should just take to the Friends of Library donation bin.  I watched the Daily Wish List for a while.  (Under Settings.)

I will clean my shelf a couple of times a year.  Will offer a deal in the Book Bazaar, then donate books. 

I personally don't like to browse shelves that are over three pages.  So I keep mine small.

The most sucessful thing I found is to post a Wish List book.  Then members will often add another book.

Offering deals in the book Bazaar is a great way to increase traffic, as is posting more books.  Often when I want to get more traffic I will search my local thrift stores and look for books I know are popular and in high demand on the site to post, at just .25 - .50 a book it's well worth getting them to post, and especially worth if I want to read the book first!  Children's books go especially fast for me, as do any type of homeschooler or education books.

All I had to do to get a big increase in traffic was post more books.......once I got my shelf above 150 books, I regularly got requests. I do deals only on kids books in a series and got rid of almost 100 books that way.  Now I mostly post WL books and books in mystery series.

I joined the Gold Key the first year as soon as they offered it and DID NOT get more requests. So I discontinued that paid membership when my year was up.

I post a lot of Wish List books, and I regularly offer 2-for-1 deals...I don't necessarily advertise it, but if people click on my bookshelf they will see my 2-for-1 offer, and many folks have taken me up on it.

I also have my Friends set to auto-accept...more friends equals the chance that one of them will browse your bookshelf.

And like the others said, post a lot in the forums, and people will see your profile and will click on your bookshelf to see what you've got.

Be patient when looking for books on your wish list; have books set to auto-accept so you don't miss any offers.