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I wrote an E-Book that's now paying for my car

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

ivan i

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Hey everyone. I post on here very rarely, as I'm usually bombarded with school and bad habits. (like video games)

For the last year and a half, I've been running my design business on a single forum. It's unfortunate to say, but progress has been slow. I haven't hired anyone, nor have I expanded my marketing to other forums and businesses. This made me realize a few weeks ago that what I created was a job, not a business (for the meantime.)
So around a week ago, I sat down, brainstormed on what I could possibly do that could genuinely provide quality and be useful to my customers; and then I figured it out.

I'd write an e-book.

So, I'm not sure if you're read my dumb "14 year old YouTuber making $1500 a month" post that I created almost two years ago, but I'd say YouTube is one of my golden suits. Which is exactly why I decided I'd write an e-book on a step by step guide to YouTube success. This process took me maybe ten hours to completely zip up, which was quite a bit less than I honestly thought. Once I finished writing, I packed it up into two nice little packages: the "Gold" package for $39.99 USD, and the "Platinum" package for $59.99 USD (which offers my clients support and help starting their channels.) After that portion was complete, all I needed was the advertisements.

So, as I'm a designer, I decided it'd be appropriate to advertise my e-book with a sort of theme. So after a few hours of work I finished up with something like this:
5f38c6e0c444f74bb8d6538829732a5365c781dd

347e9e57f4f0cc26f1140285a280e4ce9ae79a35
And after I finished designing, I was ready to go.

As I already have heavy reputation on the forum, I assumed I'd get a reasonable amount of sales in the first day (boy was I wrong.)
I seemed to have completely misjudged the market as I got my first $40 sale after THREE DAYS. I had a point where I'd just keep refreshing nonstop to try and see any movement. Alas, I believe it has been two weeks, and I'll be happy to share my profits right here.

After two weeks of selling my e-book I have received:
tPh1qdm.png
A total of 7 sales, and $354. Now, to you this may sound stupid and completely not worth the effort. But I'm here to tell you that I consider this a LARGE accomplishment, as after over 3 years of gruesome designing work, I can finally earn PASSIVE income. I have an expensive a$$ car and this e-book alone has been paying for all of my gas. Now that the book is out there, I can reap the rewards as long as I advertise my e-book on the forums. My question to you more experienced people is this, however.

Should I keep updating the e-book without charging my customers, or should I just let it go? What would be your next step from here?
Thanks a million for anyone who read this, and I hope you know that I appreciate you. My goal is to retire by 25, so I better cut shit out like video games ASAP. Please give me as much advice as possible, as part of my future depends on you ;)

Ivan
 
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Xavier X

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Your Gold package lists "no broken English" as one of its features. Why should they believe that, if the very sentence introducing that package is in broken English? Or at best, grammatically incorrect.

Here's Our Packages means "Here is Our Packages." That should read "Here are Our Packages." Or better yet, just "Our Packages."

Other than that, the presentation looks decent. I would recommend running and experimenting with Facebook ads to see how much traction you get. Or running direct ads on forums where people gather to learn about YouTube.
 

ivan i

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Your Gold package lists "no broken English" as one of its features. Why should they believe that, if the very sentence introducing that package is in broken English? Or at best, grammatically incorrect.

Here's Our Packages means "Here is Our Packages." That should read "Here are Our Packages." Or better yet, just "Our Packages."

Other than that, the presentation looks decent. I would recommend running and experimenting with Facebook ads to see how much traction you get. Or running direct ads on forums where people gather to learn about YouTube.
Thanks for the advice man! Appreciate it, really do. Do you think this is something I could really level to facebook? This e-book is 11 pages of just info of starting up on YouTube. Do you think that's enough? I've covered ground for most aspects but I guess I haven't even considered expanding past my forum. I'll change the "here's our packages part" too, thanks for noticing such a subtle detail. The competitors on my forum don't have very well written e-books (grammatically) which I guess is why no one has noticed yet.
 

Rabby

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Even one page is enough if you're up front about it and people want that one page badly enough to pay $50 for it.

If you're worried about length, add another 10-20 pages.

Make a private video that they get access to where you go through the material and explain and add details... you're good at video right?

Add a "new!" blurb to your copy, telling them new orders get the extra pages (sample video script, case studies, or whatever) and video. Let someone feel lucky to order your stuff now, when there's new and exciting stuff added to the other stuff.

Contact your previous 7 buyers and send the extra material/videos to them too. They might just be pleasantly surprised and tell their friends. If they seem grateful, send them a request to write a review.
 
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ivan i

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Even one page is enough if you're up front about it and people want that one page badly enough to pay $50 for it.

If you're worried about length, add another 10-20 pages.

Make a private video that they get access to where you go through the material and explain and add details... you're good at video right?

Add a "new!" blurb to your copy, telling them new orders get the extra pages (sample video script, case studies, or whatever) and video. Let someone feel lucky to order your stuff now, when there's new and exciting stuff added to the other stuff.

Contact your previous 7 buyers and send the extra material/videos to them too. They might just be pleasantly surprised and tell their friends. If they seem grateful, send them a request to write a review.
Thanks man, just woke up to this really nice advice. Video is a fantastic idea and makes me realize how much stuff hasn’t crossed my mind about the e-book yet. I’m on to refining it!
 

Jon L

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Since you've gotten some traction, I think its worth investing more time into this. See what you can do to incrementally improve the book and the marketing. Solicit feedback from customers. Incorporate their feedback into what you're doing. Rinse, repeat.

Those ads/landing pages look decent, but they're not superb. The difference between decent and superb can mean an order of magnitude more sales. Same thing with the book itself.
 
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Madame Peccato

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This is a big lesson, and it resonates with me as I've been neglecting some projects because I thought they wouldn't get enough traction for them to be worth it.

But really, what if I spend 10-15 hours on something and it earns me 400-500$ as it did for you?

Repeating the process would earn me much more money than inaction, and eventually, it'd help me figure out more about myself, and make me polish my skills as well.

Thanks for the thread.
 

MaxKhalus

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This is a big lesson, and it resonates with me as I've been neglecting some projects because I thought they wouldn't get enough traction for them to be worth it.

But really, what if I spend 10-15 hours on something and it earns me 400-500$ as it did for you?

Repeating the process would earn me much more money than inaction, and eventually, it'd help me figure out more about myself, and make me polish my skills as well.

Thanks for the thread.
It may depend on goals after all. If they believe $350 a day is a lot of money, let them believe it.
 
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ivan i

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It may depend on goals after all. If they believe $350 a day is a lot of money, let them believe it.
You're right, I get comfortable really easily. But as a high school student, sometimes it's nice to just sit back a little bit and get some passive income while I'm studying for my next exam on the French Revolution.
 

Ismail941

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Congrats man. This is a great case study with traction.
Thanks man for the breakdown. I appreciate you.
 

sparechange

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Pretty awesome! I wish i had a car :X
 
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ivan i

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Seems like e-book sales have slowly died down. Any advice to revive, or is it too late?
 

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How many sales has it made? Did you release anything new yet? If there are more than a handful of existing customers, I would try to make them happy with an unexpected free video, and ask them to refer their friends. They'll either do that, or they'll write you to complain about something (which is good feedback), or they'll be completely silent (which is mysterious but it can happen).
 

ivan i

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How many sales has it made? Did you release anything new yet? If there are more than a handful of existing customers, I would try to make them happy with an unexpected free video, and ask them to refer their friends. They'll either do that, or they'll write you to complain about something (which is good feedback), or they'll be completely silent (which is mysterious but it can happen).
Thanks, no I haven't released anything new. I'll add a few additional pages today that I'll e-mail to them for no charge.
 
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Rabby

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Good, that's a good test to gauge their openness to doing more business, sending referrals, etc.
 

Real Deal Denver

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I'd say YouTube is one of my golden suits. Which is exactly why I decided I'd write an e-book on a step by step guide to YouTube success.

And your ebook pertains to what? YouTube? What does YouTube do?

Thanks man, just woke up to this really nice advice. Video is a fantastic idea and makes me realize how much stuff hasn’t crossed my mind about the e-book yet. I’m on to refining it!

Oh yeah - video.

You wrote a book on using YouTube. And you now realize that maybe using video would be a fantastic idea?

Am I the only one that doesn't connect the dots here?

[mic drop]
 

ivan i

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And your ebook pertains to what? YouTube? What does YouTube do?



Oh yeah - video.

You wrote a book on using YouTube. And you now realize that maybe using video would be a fantastic idea?

Am I the only one that doesn't connect the dots here?

[mic drop]
Haha it'd be hard to execute honestly. My voice exactly isn't the smoothest and it'd be a dead giveaway that I'm 16. Not that there's a problem with that, but it would give the impression of inexperience.
 
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harlansjobs

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First off, congrats for at least taking action.
Second I only clicked on the thread because it says I wrote an e book that's now paying for my car. I took it to mean you bought a whole car with the profits, Not just gas. Not what I was expecting.

Finally, you can create videos that with the right keywords in youtube can get people to your book and get you a subject for the next one, how to get youtube traffic.

Also have you thought about skillshare and Udemy videos? Talk about passive income.
 

Chicken_Dude

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Great job taking action!
I'm thinking about writing an e-book myself. What was your process in doing so? Like what website did you use?
Thank you!
 
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Quart-Jar

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I would first compile a ranked list of who you think is the most dedicated of your buyers, then offer the top people mentorship either for free, or with a free trial that goes to a price that's hard to refuse.

If just one of them has serious success over the next two years - BAM - you coached a YT influencer to stardom, and you are now a professional YT growth hacker charging a pretty penny for consulting straight out of high school.

Sure as shit would be a lot better than my first job out of HS, getting splinters and hernias in a lumberyard in the winter hell-hole known as Chicago.

I'm really impressed you are accomplishing anything as a teenager, I didn't start caring about anything but cannabis and Mortal Kombat until I was 20.

Keep it up, and people you know now will never stop talking about that kid they knew in high school who grew up super lucky and privileged enough to retire at 25.
 

Entre Eyes

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Definitely Congrats!

I like your price points and I like the design..

Just think like an Internet Marketer...

Like your own Affiliate Program so you have an army selling for you in your sleep.

Whatever the page numbers are...add to it. Over deliver. But only high quality and helpful, not fluff.

Make a single offer....then upsell after they already pulled the trigger. So they have 2 products that compliment each other and the 2nd one makes the first one easier to implement.

You should be focused on Lead Generation...give them a free taste of what you can offer and how their lives could transform.

Then you can continue to promote to them indefinitely.

Do you have links in the book on where to buy video equipment etc? Maybe a blog? Your own FB group? All great options.

If you had a list before you even launched the launch would have had huge momentum and affiliates would happily jump aboard as well then.

Facebook yes....but try the groups. Groups full of potential affiliates. JvZoo, Warrior Plus along those lines.

Do a relaunch after you focused on some of these why not.

You could Add video to your book on videos..it has a higher perceived value.

Local business needs the Tube. eCommerce. Every age group just about. Men , women, You can go out and promote to so many people.

But again start out with marketers who have lists and send emails all day every day and recruit them as affiliates.

I think you are on the hottest niche right now sink into it like a pitbull. :)
 

Entre Eyes

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I'm really impressed you are accomplishing anything as a teenager, I didn't start caring about anything but cannabis and Mortal Kombat until I was 20.

Keep it up, and people you know now will never stop talking about that kid they knew in high school who grew up super lucky and privileged enough to retire at 25.

I have had several years Video game free then recently I put in upcoming games the other day to see the special efx how it has evolved and I see the likeness of Keanu Reeves in Cyber Punk and watched all the trailers. I was like oh no. :)

To me, to you, to the op...stay strong! So addicting.
 
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daivey

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OP scammed a few people into buying his book using his 'street cred' on a forum he used for 3 years...

Moral of the story:
Real content makes money.
Fake content doesn't.

Seriously, don't know what else to say here... You wrote a book about YouTube glam, but you're a no one that doesn't even have a YouTube channel?

There is fake it until you make it... but there is also scamming people....

Congrats on your $350.. That was what your forum cred was worth. Also your title is miss-leading... "paying for your car" means it's recurring revenue..... One time good luck chuck payment does not equate to paying for your car..
 

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