My eBook - How I increased annual rental profit 150k in 2 years

[ptiz]

Hey Fastlaners!

This is my first post in quite some time, but I finally have something I feel may be worthy to contribute. In my previous posts, I had stated my interest in starting an exotic car rental company. I have been working on this for years, but have hit a dead end trying to finance the start up. This has been incredibly frustrating, but I have decided to focus on a business that would require much less investment.

For the past three years, I have been working as a property manager to pay my way through college for my business degree. I manage two apartment complexes and have been able to increase annual profit by over 150k through higher rental rates and occupancy, as well as leaner operating procedures. Thinking about this, I had the light bulb go off in my head.

I have decided to write an eBook documenting the specific steps that I have taken to achieve this. I give specifics on marketing, upgrades, rent raises, and so on. I am currently at close to 50 pages and feel that when I finish, it will essentially give landlords and property owners my "playbook" to increase profit at their properties.

When it is finished, I plan on setting up a website with a sales copy and a PayPal link to purchase a PDF copy of it. I was considering getting the book published on iBooks, Amazon, and any other eBook platform.

To market the book, I will start by emailing apartment complexes and posting on some property management forums I belong to. I currently have a list of over 250 properties and have someone who is getting more day by day. I have looked into purchasing a list of email addresses and can buy 100,000 of them for 2.5 cents per address. I probably will not go to that length until I see sales from the list I have compiled. I am also considering advertising down the road with apartment associations that I am a member of.

A follow up to this book will be offering my consulting services to interested customers. I will evaluate their property and provide them with an analysis with strategies to increase revenue and operate more efficiently.

I was hoping I could get some insight and suggestions from some fellow fastlaners to help me launch this eBook successfully. Here are some factors I have been thinking about:

1. Price - Any experts that care to share their input here? I was thinking between $10.00 and $25.00. I know that is a big difference, but this is something I don't know much about.
2. Title - I haven't come up with one yet. Open to suggestions.
3. Publishing - What platforms do you recommend?
4. Marketing - Other than what I have discussed above, do you recommend anything else?

Thank you all for your input, I appreciate it!

 

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[ptiz]

Bump

 

[ptiz]

UPDATE

So I just finished writing the book, now I'm working on setting up a website where I can sell it. I've set up a PayPal account with the portal so that people can purchase it and get a direct download. Im pretty excited! I am going to be friending as many apartment complexes As i can on Facebook, another means of marketing. I'll send them links to my website so they can purchase the book. looking forward to seeing what people think and hopefully I can sell a couple copies!

 

[theBiz]

Why not approach Industry leading websites for real estate and get an article written about your experience, success and reason for writing this great book.... Give some sample content and have the end of the article say excerpts from "whatever the name of ebook is with a link to website"? Is there 1-3 major trusted sources of info for these types of properties? If you get a story covered front page that could really get you started with some sales and great feedback. Gives you alot more credibility too... Add on your website... As seen on realestate dot com or whatever it will be


---
A follow up to this book will be offering my consulting services to interested customers. I will evaluate their property and provide them with an analysis with strategies to increase revenue and operate more efficiently. ---

When they sign up on your site put a check box.. Do you need coaching to increase revenue? When they click that phone number field drops down... Then just call them 3 days later let then read the quality ebook first to build trust

 

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[ptiz]

Why not approach Industry leading websites for real estate and get an article written about your experience, success and reason for writing this great book.... Give some sample content and have the end of the article say excerpts from "whatever the name of ebook is with a link to website"? Is there 1-3 major trusted sources of info for these types of properties? If you get a story covered front page that could really get you started with some sales and great feedback. Gives you alot more credibility too... Add on your website... As seen on realestate dot com or whatever it will be


---
A follow up to this book will be offering my consulting services to interested customers. I will evaluate their property and provide them with an analysis with strategies to increase revenue and operate more efficiently. ---

When they sign up on your site put a check box.. Do you need coaching to increase revenue? When they click that phone number field drops down... Then just call them 3 days later let then read the quality ebook first to build trust

I love the idea of getting an article written, talk about publicity! What steps would you recommend to do this? I have a couple in mind that may work, but I am not sure how to approach them to get this done.

Thank you for the suggestion of the drop down bar for when they order. I will definitely put that in there to hopefully get a few extra consultation gigs.

 

[ptiz]

UPDATE

The book is being revised by three separate sources of mine and once they have submitted their notes, I will make any necessary changes and the book will be ready to go!

I am planning to have the website live this weekend and start my marketing campaign on Monday.

To everyone who has already contacted me via PM with information, suggestions, and book requests - THANK YOU! This has given me a little boost of encouragement and a sense that the market may be very interested in what I have to say.

 

[Goostave]

Congrats on your work. Let me know when the book is ready as we have one rental home and another Im renovating to be rented out soon. I am new to this and in search of a playbook on what and how to take the next steps.

 

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[ptiz]

Congrats on your work. Let me know when the book is ready as we have one rental home and another Im renovating to be rented out soon. I am new to this and in search of a playbook on what and how to take the next steps.

Will do!

 

[ptiz]

UPDATE

The website is now up. I looked at about 100 different sales copies for books ranging from "how to meet women" to "how to make money online" to help in writing mine. I am pretty happy with what I have come up with.

I have decided to try selling the book at $29.99 and seeing how it goes at that price.

I'll spend this weekend revising the book and the site and then I'll be going live Monday morning. Email blasts will be going out and based on the reaction I receive, I will make any necessary adjustments and continue marketing away.

Will post the site on Monday morning if anyone is interested in looking at it, offering opinions. Etc. thanks guys!

 

[ptiz]

UPDATE

I just finished revising the website and the book, and I just got my book covers back from the graphic designer. I am very excited. I will be starting my email campaign in the morning to my properties, and I will also be posting on four property management forums I am a member of.

I am going to post the website on this forum not for sales (although you are more than welcome to buy :coolgleamA but for input and a critique. Please be honest and brutal. While praise is nice, it doesn't give motivation or suggestions to improve the way that constructive criticism does. So please, criticize.

Here we go! The Property Management Guidebook

 

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[TexasVentures]

What if you offered a free preview or sample of a chapter of the book? Just some thing that may show them a sample of the real value. Your site is new to the industry, there's no reviews on your book, and most people don't know you or your level of expertise. This route can quickly establish you as an expert, but in my opinion an incentive such as enter your email and receive a chapter free may be a good incentive. You get their email address and they get a sample before buying. Then, if they don't buy maybe a few weeks later you can send the ones who wanted a preview, but didn't buy an email for the ebook at a limited time rate of, for this example, say $19.99. Again this is just my two cents from someone with marketing experience

 

[jtmoniii]

PTIZ

This is great! Congrats on launching.

The real estate space is an excellent place to sell products like this.

Let me know if you need any help on selling through Amazon. I have some hardbooks and kindle's on there.

 

[DennisD]

Once you've got some decent traffic, think about getting some video up there. Perhaps a video which gives some free tips/tricks/hacks to give them a taste. This will fill the function of demonstrating your knowledge, you'll get your audience to trust you, and you'll entertain them.

I saw a huge increase in conversions when I added video to my landing page for my book. You just need to make sure you have decent traffic first.

 

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[ptiz]

What if you offered a free preview or sample of a chapter of the book? Just some thing that may show them a sample of the real value. Your site is new to the industry, there's no reviews on your book, and most people don't know you or your level of expertise. This route can quickly establish you as an expert, but in my opinion an incentive such as enter your email and receive a chapter free may be a good incentive. You get their email address and they get a sample before buying. Then, if they don't buy maybe a few weeks later you can send the ones who wanted a preview, but didn't buy an email for the ebook at a limited time rate of, for this example, say $19.99. Again this is just my two cents from someone with marketing experience

I would have to think about this. Most of the eBooks I looked at did not offer a sample of the book, although I do understand your point. even MJ gives the sample.

I have made a couple deals with people, including some forum members, to read the book and write a review of it for me. Hopefully this will help with sales, as well as pointing out any changes I should make.

I do like the idea of reducing the price down the road. I may implement that at some point. I was thinking of doing that with my email database for the apartments I plan to market to.

I appreciate your input and I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[ptiz]

PTIZ

This is great! Congrats on launching.

The real estate space is an excellent place to sell products like this.

Let me know if you need any help on selling through Amazon. I have some hardbooks and kindle's on there.

Thank you JT! I may reach out to you at some point as I am considering getting onto Amazon as well. For right now, I think my focus will be the website and eventually I will cross the threshold into the online book store market.

 

[ptiz]

Once you've got some decent traffic, think about getting some video up there. Perhaps a video which gives some free tips/tricks/hacks to give them a taste. This will fill the function of demonstrating your knowledge, you'll get your audience to trust you, and you'll entertain them.

I saw a huge increase in conversions when I added video to my landing page for my book. You just need to make sure you have decent traffic first.

Good idea. Thank you, I will try to think about what I can put in the video that will help them, without giving too much away. I appreciate your help Dennis!

 

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[ptiz]

UPDATE

So far so good. I have had 43 people visit the site so far, what is interesting is how many different countries I have reached. Besides the US, I have visits from UK, Australia, Bulgaria, Sweden, and India.

I have already sold 8 books. Not bad for a day's work

So this is my "money tree" for the moment. I've done all the hard work, now I just need to make sure it gets water and sunlight (marketing) and hopefully it will grow.

Thanks MJ for your book, it inspired me to do something different and while I realize this is a small scale project, it is still fastlane as my time is not tied to it and it can be scaled.

-Money does grow on trees if you have a money tree- Love that quote

 

[H. Palmer]

UPDATE

So far so good. I have had 43 people visit the site so far, what is interesting is how many different countries I have reached. Besides the US, I have visits from UK, Australia, Bulgaria, Sweden, and India.

I have already sold 8 books. Not bad for a day's work

So this is my "money tree" for the moment. I've done all the hard work, now I just need to make sure it gets water and sunlight (marketing) and hopefully it will grow.

Thanks MJ for your book, it inspired me to do something different and while I realize this is a small scale project, it is still fastlane as my time is not tied to it and it can be scaled.

-Money does grow on trees if you have a money tree- Love that quote

43 visitors and you sold 8?

That is almost 20 percent buyer conversion. That is incredibly high, even for such a small statistical sample.

Are you sure of those numbers?

 

[ptiz]

To be honest, three of those were pre-determined sales from colleagues in the industry. So 5 out of 40 is a more accurate sample.

What is an average conversion rate?

43 visitors and you sold 8?

That is almost 20 percent buyer conversion. That is incredibly high, even for such a small statistical sample.

Are you sure of those numbers?

 

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[H. Palmer]

To be honest, three of those were pre-determined sales from colleagues in the industry. So 5 out of 40 is a more accurate sample.

What is an average conversion rate?

Well, there is no average conversion rate, but I would expect it to be more in the range of 1 or 2 percent, even with a targeted email list.
I'm curious what others think about this though.

 

[adiakritos]

wow, this is awesome!

I read by a great copywriter that one of the BEST ways to make money quickly is to sell information.

As for the pricing on your book:

If you're going to be teaching people how to make thousands of dollars, why give this information away for the price of a fad novel?

As far as what I've seen from the two copywriters I've worked for, they like to prive their products at LEAST around $100, leveraging the phenomenon where people generally regard expensive things as higher quality.

A good marketing book that I've read is called "Ca$hvertizing". It's been talked about here and it was recommended by a very well established copywriter I used to work for.

 

[ptiz]

UPDATE

So I now have 9 sales and a little over 100 views on the page. I decided to go ahead and take advantage of the free advertising credits I have with Facebook and Bing. Just created the accounts and had to give them my CC info, but I don't intend on continuing to pay unless I see some major results.

I like that Facebook allows you to narrow your target market. I have it down to a little over 270k people who are property managers, apartment managers, etc. My advertising budget with them is $50.00.

Bing was a bit more complicated, and I had to pay $10.00 out of pocket to get my $50.00 credit. Unfortunately I don't have an option of narrowing my choices (maybe I do, but it was not nearly as easy as Facebook), but I do think I will have a decent campaign going here.

Hopefully I see some results. Will keep everyone posted!

 

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[ptiz]

UPDATE

It's been a little over a week now and I haven't made any more sales, but my LinkedIn base is growing and I'm doing targeted advertising directly to property managers and offering them incentives to purchase the book.

I also am pretty excited about my video testimonial that I have on the website now. Please feel free to check it out and tell me what you think.

[video=youtube;fmfIt2d7GYM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fmfIt2d7GYM[/video]

 

[brycer9]

very solid testimonial

 

[1step]

I think you should highlight the revenue in your title and focus on that, Property management Gudiebook is a bit boring to me.

This is just my opinion but I would maybe try

"How I increased profit 150k with no extra time and work"
"the ultimate guide for project managers"

I dont know, maybe a bit salesy but might help you.

With that being said your results look great so far so maybe you shouldnt change anything

 

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[ptiz]

"How I increased profit 150k with no extra time and work"

LOL, I'd be lying if that was the case. I get your point though.

Traffic is really coming through, close to 200 unique visitors and over 400 page views. My LinkedIn base is close to 100 property managers now. For some reason, I'm having a hard to getting the conversions though.

I am considering something that I will be posting in a new thread shortly to help with this though.