ideas on building a list

Hi and congratulations!

I think writing an ebook is a great idea and I would be inclined to publish it on Kindle.

I would first focus on building a following using social media and blogging within the weight loss niche. Then once you have an audience you can then promote your ebook, fitness videos and more to them.

I think you need to find yourself a "micro niche" within the weight loss market. You could start a list with what you did to lose weight and see if there's anything you could create a blog and Facebook page about.

Some examples off the top of my head...

Did you do a specific workout routine, like walking? niche: walking for weight loss
Did you eat a certain way like 6 small meals a day or vegan? niche: vegan weight loss

You could go on and on with niche ideas but pick a theme that you can picture yourself writing about on a daily basis. While you grow your following and your list you can write your ebook and then you have a audience of potential buyers (and a list!) as soon as its published.

I think it is better for you to build a list in the first place. Write a free guide about your weight loss niche (maybe a short checklist or something). On Twitter, you should start build a list of targeted and real followers until you get some decent numbers. Same thing with Facebook, just find people who are interested in weight loss and make friends with them, and then you create a group about weight loss and add them until you have decent numbers.

Try to share something relevant first before promoting your eBook. Once they are interested to opt-in to your list, you need to do some follow-up messages for a period of 5 to 7 days which may be relevant to your own eBook. Once the follow-up messages are sent completely, you can start find products from Clickbank, MarketHealth and other health affiliate programs to promote various products, and earn money once few of them will click and buy the product you promote from the list.

Congrats on your achievements!

I'll echo some of Jeff's suggestions. To be successful in selling your own self-published ebook, you need to develop a community in your niche. Set up a blog, with teasers from your book, tips on healthy eating, and lifestyle changes you made.

Set up a Twitter handle and Facebook page for your book, and connect with your niche markets. On Twitter, find relevant hashtags and take part in the dialogues going on. Post interesting, interactive content, like tips on how you lost weight, and questions about how other people are doing it.

On your Facebook page, do the same. Facebook has just introduced hashtags, which makes it easier for your Page to connect with your niche market. Play around and search for active hashtags in your niche. Take part in the dialogue by posting about how you lost 75 lbs, and how others can too.

Then, once you've developed a following, give away your book for free to some of your loyal fans/ followers. Get bloggers to review your book. Place ads on Facebook and Google about it - targeting your niche. Set up a contest to give your books away for free too. (these are easy to set up with 3rd party apps - you can run them on Facebook, Twitter or your website/ blog)

It takes time and effort to market your own book. But it sounds like you have perseverance, and if your put your mind to something, you will succeed! All the best!

In my experience giving something away for free is the best way to build a list. Give a good quality product away for free and people will be very interested in the paid products you offer them. The key is that the free product has to be a quality product, if its junk people are going to assume your paid product is junk.

I know this isnt some innovative new way to build a list but there is something to be said for the time tested and proven methods.

Facebook fan page is essentially a mini blog. You can add value through your videos and quick posts as well as pictures. The advantage of Facebook is the social interaction and the viral response. You can do a paid boost and target other fan pages in the same niche and build your tribe for pennies. Once you get to about 20-30K likes then you can start to advertise you page more heavily.

Here's an idea! Why don't you pull out a few main points of your book and give that away for free to get people on your list. then you can up sell them to the entire book once they are on your list. This way you kill 2 birds with one stone. You grow your list and sell your book. Hope this helps...

I would suggest writing a 10-12 page report first of all. It must be compelling. Offer the report on the front end of a sales funnel. FREE! Then on the backend add a product from Clickbank as your OTO. Charge $$ and enjoy watching your bank account grow.

Tom Miles

First of all, you have to be able to get decent sales of your product by yourself. Don't even think about affiliates until then. Sure, someone may try to promote you, but it really isn't worth the risk or time.

That's why you need a marketing strategy before you even begin writing the book. If you have no idea how you're going to promote your product, and still write it, you may end up with a book that you don't know how to sell, and even you do get a promotional idea, the product may simply be unsuitable.

As some mentioned, make sure to publish on Kindle. Also, if you can really create a good, unique quality product, you'd have an "easy" time promoting it by offering review copies to blogs and forums in the weightloss/fitness industry.

Finally, congrats on losing 75 lbs!