Research publishers are often frustrated by the sales online research stores make for them. David Strassel, Managing Editor for Intermarket Group, manages deals with the usual players -- MarketResearch.com, MindBranch, AllNetResearch, and as of next week SherpaStore.com. He says, "You get what you put into them. They aggregate thousands of reports, and if you just send them the publication info in your files, they'll load it up into their database and leave it at that." His advice:

- MarketResearch.com -- "You have to suggest where they should index and cross-index your report. For example, they indexed our wireless mobile report under 'Wireless" but not under 'Wireless Internet.' Unless you stay on top, you're probably not going to be all that successful.

Also, be aware that MarketResearch.com's publisher contracts include a section allowing them to sell "slices" of any report they fulfill digitally on your behalf. Since many full-report buyers traditionally bought simply to get their hands on one particular chart or figure, you could lose substantial revenues by allowing by-the-slice sales. That's why Intermarket fulfills all PDFs themselves after the 3rd party store emails them orders.

- MindBranch -- They won't push you for lots of marketing copy and info about your report, but if you send them more stuff they'll usually upload it, and the more details in their system about your report, the more sales you'll make. Report buyers like to see a fully-fleshed description.

- AllNetResearch -- Internet-topic report sales have gone down radically in the last 6-9 months. "We'd give stuff to them, they'd put it in their twice-weekly newsletter and bammo, we'd generate a thousand dollars in sales. That's changed."