New Venture: Selling a Digital Product

[SJVC]

Hey everyone,

I'm starting this progress thread to:

1. Keep myself accountable for my progress
2. Add to the combined wisdom of the forum and/or learn from you guys

To do list today:
1. Choose and purchase a domain
2. Write the first blog post
3. Draft outline for eBook
4. Research and study this business model thoroughly http://www.digitalmarketer.com/customer-value-optimization/ I understand a few of you guys on here have been successful with this model, a lot of IM is new to me so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.

Cheers.

 

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[SJVC]

Okay time for an update...

Completed 2-4 on the to do list.

Still a bit stuck for domains but had some good suggestions, I may be being too picky about this as I am planning on paying for most traffic for the website anyway.

First blog post is written and waiting to go live.

eBook was actually the easiest part, wrote around 16 pages in a day. Was a slow start but was kinda nice to write out all the knowledge in my head.

Beginning to understand the sales funnel process. Really interesting as I used to think ecom websites were just a case of getting to people to visit the page and buy something... I like the sales funnel... makes a lot of sense for gradual trust to build up with the customer. Also thinking about potential up-sells and cross-sells that could really have huge margins.

Anyway, here is my updated to do list:

1. Choose a bloody domain name TODAY
2. Get the website live and make it look decent with a possible paid theme
3. Write a tripwire eBook
4. Finish final draft of core offering
5. Brainstorm up-sells and cross-sells

Also I read 'The Boron Letters' the other day, such an interesting read.

Very short and concise but it seem's to me like Gary Halbert really knew his sh*t and was quite a character. Would recommend for anyone wanting to learn about copy-writing/outlook on life.

 

[Ramo25]

What's the ebook on and are you going to sell in on Amazon?

I wrote several books that are live there and its a good way to supplement revenues than just your website.
Actually I never created a website for the ebooks, just published to Amazon.

 

[z6Evolved]

Subscribed to the thread. SJVC is on to something I think, he's been a wealth of knowledge for me when it comes to my new ventures importing and selling on Amazon. Looking forward to seeing his progress here.

 

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[randomnumber314]

Sorry if I missed it, have you already written the ebook? Or are you buying a domain first?

 

[SJVC]

Hey guys,

What's the ebook on and are you going to sell in on Amazon?

I wrote several books that are live there and its a good way to supplement revenues than just your website.
Actually I never created a website for the ebooks, just published to Amazon.

The eBook will be about how to source products and and how to sell them on Amazon. I don't think I will actually sell it on Amazon just because I want this to be a relatively 'premium' product. No one would ever buy an eBook on Amazon that costs more than $20 really. Plus by doing it through my own website I can use the sales funnel strategy and I have more control.

Are your eBooks fiction or non-fiction? Seems like if you can get a book that sells well on there you can get a nice passive income stream.

@z6Evolved Cheers buddy, always happy to help.

@randomnumber314 The eBook is 90% finished content wise, I will have to of course proof read it and edit but for the most part the info is there. I started writing the book first because I knew I could start that compared to just frustrating myself over the domain name. I have found a good one last night so going to buy that today.

Also anyone had any experience with the black traffic book?

 

[Ramo25]

Hey guys,


The eBook will be about how to source products and and how to sell them on Amazon. I don't think I will actually sell it on Amazon just because I want this to be a relatively 'premium' product. No one would ever buy an eBook on Amazon that costs more than $20 really. Plus by doing it through my own website I can use the sales funnel strategy and I have more control.

Are your eBooks fiction or non-fiction? Seems like if you can get a book that sells well on there you can get a nice passive income stream.

@z6Evolved Cheers buddy, always happy to help.

@randomnumber314 The eBook is 90% finished content wise, I will have to of course proof read it and edit but for the most part the info is there. I started writing the book first because I knew I could start that compared to just frustrating myself over the domain name. I have found a good one last night so going to buy that today.

Also anyone had any experience with the black traffic book?

All my books are non-fiction. There are a few history books, cookbooks, and one other category which I forgot but they were making $400 in the first month combined. I stopped paying attention to them so now its down to like $30.

You would be surprised to how much people are willing to spend on niche books on Amazon, sell it the same price as your website. It's just additional $$$$ in your pocket

 

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[z6Evolved]

Hey @Ramo25, for your cookbooks, do you find the recipes online or are they recipes you come up with? I've always been curious about that.

 

[Ramo25]

Hey @Ramo25, for your cookbooks, do you find the recipes online or are they recipes you come up with? I've always been curious about that.

They are totally copy and pasted online....along with all my other books. Here is the catch: You need to submit a few cookbooks as a newbie that are not copy and pasted. You can copy and rewrite them, no problem. The thing is you need Amazon to approve you for your first several books because they check for copyright infringement. After you pass with several cookbooks that are rewritten you can just copy and paste.

This has worked for me in the past along with another person I know. It may be different now, but again you can copy the recipes and just pay someone on fiverr to rewrite them.

 

[z6Evolved]

I was planning on rewriting them, I just didn't know if I could "source" the recipes from online. Good to know.

 

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[Ramo25]

I was planning on rewriting them, I just didn't know if I could "source" the recipes from online. Good to know.

Good. Find someone on fiverr that is from the US. I've had writers from all over who had great reviews but their grammar is always off and needs to be double checked. Best writers to find are part-time moms wanting to make extra money but are college educated.

 

[csalvato]

Hey everyone,

I'm starting this progress thread to:

1. Keep myself accountable for my progress
2. Add to the combined wisdom of the forum and/or learn from you guys

To do list today:
1. Choose and purchase a domain
2. Write the first blog post
3. Draft outline for eBook
4. Research and study this business model thoroughly http://www.digitalmarketer.com/customer-value-optimization/ I understand a few of you guys on here have been successful with this model, a lot of IM is new to me so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.

Cheers.

After writing a digital product that generated $2000 within the first week of release (3 months after saying "let's do this!"), I think you're going about this the wrong way.

It took me 1 month to find the topic of my eBook, then 2 months to write it and really knock it out of the park.

If you write the eBook first, you're going to waste a lot of time IMHO. You don't really know what people are looking for.

IMHO, if I had to do it all over again, I would write as many blog posts as possible based on (1) your gut instinct/market understanding (2) keyword research and (3) asking questions of your potential audience.

Once you have blog content, you measure engagement. What do people find interesting? What are they reading? Why are they reading it? Is it solving a problem for them?

When you know if it solves a problem, you take down all the material, repackage it into a funnel and it's already completely validated. For example, maybe popular blog post is packaged up as a free eBook lead magnet, a text-only version is a $7 tripwire and a big $70 video package follows.

In other words, writing content first is like starting to code before getting out and understanding the problem. I wouldn't invest that time and effort until you KNOW what people really find interesting.

My 2¢

 

[csalvato]

=No one would ever buy an eBook on Amazon that costs more than $20 really. Plus by doing it through my own website I can use the sales funnel strategy and I have more control.

I'm a partner on another eBook/Print Book (on CreateSpace) that is non-fiction and sells for $50 on Amazon. It generates over 10k/month in gross revenue.

You can definitely sell a book for $20+ if people get the value.

@randomnumber314 The eBook is 90% finished content wise, I will have to of course proof read it and edit but for the most part the info is there. I started writing the book first because I knew I could start that compared to just frustrating myself over the domain name. I have found a good one last night so going to buy that today.

Just saw this after my first post.

I would encourage you to unbundle the book, and put up excerpts from it as blog posts that are delivered in an email campaign. That way you can really judge engagement and usefulness of each chapter. If you promote on forums/social media, you will also get questions that will let you see where your content is lacking or if it's just completely uninteresting.

As an alternative, if you have money and want to be even faster: don't write anything. Put up a few Facebook ads to your potential market and try out a few lead magnet eBook titles and "benefits" bullet points. See which ones get good conversions. If you find a good one, harness your new leads and really talk with them. See what challenges they are facing. This is faster but more expensive, and will require an up front budget. Depends on your goal.

Also anyone had any experience with the black traffic book?

Yes, it was a great course. Really educated me on the process. If you want to get into any sort of digital/online marketing, then you should check it out.

Sorry if I'm overwhelming you or just seem like a scatterbrained freak.

 

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[csalvato]

Accidental repost. Please delete.

 

[Andy Black]

After writing a digital product that generated $2000 within the first week of release (3 months after saying "let's do this!"), I think you're going about this the wrong way.

It took me 1 month to find the topic of my eBook, then 2 months to write it and really knock it out of the park.

If you write the eBook first, you're going to waste a lot of time IMHO. You don't really know what people are looking for.

IMHO, if I had to do it all over again, I would write as many blog posts as possible based on (1) your gut instinct/market understanding (2) keyword research and (3) asking questions of your potential audience.

Once you have blog content, you measure engagement. What do people find interesting? What are they reading? Why are they reading it? Is it solving a problem for them?

When you know if it solves a problem, you take down all the material, repackage it into a funnel and it's already completely validated. For example, maybe popular blog post is packaged up as a free eBook lead magnet, a text-only version is a $7 tripwire and a big $70 video package follows.

In other words, writing content first is like starting to code before getting out and understanding the problem. I wouldn't invest that time and effort until you KNOW what people really find interesting.

My 2¢

^^^ I really like this.

I'm doing something similar.

I got about 150 people onto an initial email list, then just started sending them content. I could tell which content went down well based on replies.

I also dropped that content into a couple of forums (one being this one), to gauge what resonates, and what needs more clarification.

I've then created a small paid forum where I can create content to help people who have shown they are willing to pay. I like it being a forum because it's more free-form than a "12 week course" or something like that. A forum also allows people to ask questions of me, of content I post, and interact with each other. I do this to learn what they are stuck on, and to hone the content.

I've then done quite a few free and then paid calls where I help people get up and running. Again, this isn't to make a load of money from the calls, but to find out common sticking points, and how I can overcome them.

All this leads me to create content that helps people achieve the results they are after.

And can allow me to go back and get a few testimonials afterwards, not just based on the content, but hopefully on the actual results people have achieved.

My motto is "launch and learn", and whilst progress is slow (due to time restraints more than anything), I really believe it will help me produce content that people will find valuable, rather than what I hope they will find valuable.


Hope that helps.

 

[csalvato]

 

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[SJVC]

Thanks for the input guys - I'm open to learning.

@csalvato I get what you are saying, test the market first, find out what people want and give it to them. I wrote the eBook first because I knew I could blast it out relatively quick. Plus I did look at the questions from the ama I did and included those pain points. I will definitely post some chapters from the book as blog posts to gauge interest,reaction and begin to build the email list. I haven't seen any ebooks on Amazon that sell for more than $20 but fairplay to you for selling one that does! I'm not ruling out selling digital content on Amazon in the long run, for now I want to diversify both my income and skill set.

And yes I was thinking about doing a series of fb ads to see what converts well, I don't mind throwing some money at it if it speeds up the process.

@Andy Black How did you get people on your list? Was it mainly through paid ads?

Cheers

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black How did you get people on your list? Was it mainly through paid ads?

It wasn't through paid ads. Funnily enough I've not really tried those yet!

It was an opportunity that just came my way last year... I am on a guys paid newsletter (a copywriter who's done a bit of work for Perry Marshalls AdWords courses). He sent an email out to his wider list saying he wasn't an AdWords expert, but here was his reply when someone asked about the "SEO vs AdWords" question. I replied saying I could knock something up about AdWords that he could mail out. He mailed it to his list (for free) and I got 150 subscribers in 24 hours.

He emailed this to his list.

And I had this in eBook format as the lead magnet on my landing page.

Then I had a fire under my arse to write a post every week... which are all the posts here.


When I get some breathing space I want to write something for Kissmetrics if I can, and send them to the same landing page. I also want to have some sort of product that people can buy once they subscribe too, so it's a case of getting my ducks in a row.


If you can find a forum somewhere where your content can help them, then you can always hang out there and drop content in and see what resonates and what you need to work on. That saves the steps of building a list, website, lead magnet, etc.

 

[SJVC]

@Andy Black Wow thanks for your detailed response! I'll dive into the links now.

 

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[csalvato]

Thanks for the input guys - I'm open to learning.

@csalvato I get what you are saying, test the market first, find out what people want and give it to them. I wrote the eBook first because I knew I could blast it out relatively quick. Plus I did look at the questions from the ama I did and included those pain points. I will definitely post some chapters from the book as blog posts to gauge interest,reaction and begin to build the email list. I haven't seen any ebooks on Amazon that sell for more than $20 but fairplay to you for selling one that does! I'm not ruling out selling digital content on Amazon in the long run, for now I want to diversify both my income and skill set.

And yes I was thinking about doing a series of fb ads to see what converts well, I don't mind throwing some money at it if it speeds up the process.

@Andy Black How did you get people on your list? Was it mainly through paid ads?

Cheers

Didn't realize you did an AMA. Makes sense. Apologies for jumping to a conclusion before asking.

 

[csalvato]

@Andy Black How did you get people on your list? Was it mainly through paid ads?

I know you didn't ask me, but I got my first 7k subscribers solely through Reddit posts. I got 100 in my first 2 days and 1000 in my first month. I got 2,500 in a single day once I ironed out exactly what a certain sub-reddit was looking for.

When I was experimenting with FB ads, I got 150 leads within 4 hours using the same lead magnet. Each lead cost about 72¢.

There's load of ways to get people on your list. Reddit was free but painful. Facebook ads cost money, higher risk, but can get subs much much faster.

 

[SJVC]

@csalvato Don't apologise, your helping me out! That's interesting about reddit, I don't use the site personally but looks like a good place to find communities that you could potentially create value for. Do you mind expanding on your process for this? Perhaps an ama format would work well on there if I found the correct community.

 

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[Andy Black]

@csalvato Don't apologise, your helping me out! That's interesting about reddit, I don't use the site personally but looks like a good place to find communities that you could potentially create value for. Do you mind expanding on your process for this? Perhaps an ama format would work well on there if I found the correct community.

Sounds like a ready made audience! Same as finding a "forum".

I know you didn't ask me, but I got my first 7k subscribers solely through Reddit posts. I got 100 in my first 2 days and 1000 in my first month. I got 2,500 in a single day once I ironed out exactly what a certain sub-reddit was looking for.

When I was experimenting with FB ads, I got 150 leads within 4 hours using the same lead magnet. Each lead cost about 72¢.

There's load of ways to get people on your list. Reddit was free but painful. Facebook ads cost money, higher risk, but can get subs much much faster.

... and it's possible to do it with AdWords. You just have to be careful of their "information harvesting" policy... which I ran foul of a couple of weeks ago. No great issue, I just have to make a few changes to my site and I'm back running again.

 

[SJVC]

@Andy Black I'm just reading through your progress thread you tagged me in. Very interesting read so far and sounds like you know your sh*t!

Also you have a huge rep bank already... you must be helping a lot of people, I'll add to it. I'll throw some at you to @csalvato!

 

[csalvato]

@csalvato Don't apologise, your helping me out! That's interesting about reddit, I don't use the site personally but looks like a good place to find communities that you could potentially create value for. Do you mind expanding on your process for this? Perhaps an ama format would work well on there if I found the correct community.

Here's a blog post I wrote about it after I got 1000 subs. I took my blog down, so the link is to a shared note in Evernote.

After I got 1000 subs, I put out the product for 1 month with no promotion and got 10 sales in 30 days. So I wrote the book and then ran this Reddit post as a campaign:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/1e8rbe/28day_handstand_challenge/

That reddit post got 2500 signups in a day.

Its just a lot of writing, watching, reading, and writing more until you see things hit a positive feedback loop. Takes a lot of effort.

 

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[Andy Black]

@Andy Black I'm just reading through your progress thread you tagged me in. Very interesting read so far and sounds like you know your sh*t!

I know AdWords paid search. Creating eProducts or even just being a good consultant is a different ballgame. I'm having fun learning though!

 

[SJVC]

@csalvato thanks for sharing those links, I'll dive in now!