Trouble developing my strategy

Finnish the ebook and offer the first chapter or two for free.

I would A finish the book. I would B build the course around the book. I would C sell the book and offer the Course as a discounted upsell. I would D create a private facebook group for those that buy the book and the course. And E the whole time pump like content on the blog. Give to Get. And by Give.. I don't mean give away anything for free...

I would continue with the book and the blog. I wouldn't write such a long sales page but get a professional copywriter to do it. I would also do the courses as an upsell to the book. You have all the right ingredients for a smash hit.

I like Option A.

Just make sure the niche exists. If there's a community/website/blog/forum/etc, go look and see how they're used to buying information products (along with price) - and more importantly - make sure that the web developers WANT to be on Upwork. I understand you had success on it, but you don't want to "force" or "create" a niche. It's like talking to a door knob. You have to consider how you're going to build your list, and attract your audience.

Thanks all for the advice. I'm going to buckle down and finish the book. Like you mention Randall, by marketing and selling the book, I can make sure the niche actually exists. Then I can move onto other things from there.

What do you want your business to be "when it grows up?"

Books these days are marketing tools primarily - free or paid...they help get you publicity, gain credibility and can work wonderfully as lead-magnets or tripwire (low-cost, intro-level) products on your way to promoting a back-end which can be anything from an extended course, membership program, coaching program, to 1:1 consulting or coaching...

This is GOLD that you have experience doing it yourself and now you want to teach this...you should be all over sharing case studies, tips, examples of results - ideally versus video content that you eventually boost on FB and Insta ads targeting freelancers, etc...

Ideally before you do this...you have a funnel set up where you offer either free or low-cost book which feeds into a marketing funnel for back-end offering (course, coaching).

You could literally start with a Skype-based + email 30 or 90-day coaching system for say $399-$599 as your back-end offer - get some customers under your belt, fine-tune the coaching and then raise the price on the next round.

Jeff

Let me suggest you "hope" you can do well with this . . . you don't know anything until you actually put it to the test and see how the market accepts your product.


As Randall M mentioned . . . "Just make sure the niche exists."


What kind of online market research have you accomplished to prove that web developers are willing to pay for guidance on using the Upwork platform? Just because you've seen some developers at Upwork, that's no guarantee that any of them will fork over cash to get some assistance in finding their way around.


I am only asking because here's the stark reality: many marketing ventures die a painful death because the creator assumed he knew the marketplace and what was in demand. You are not your market.


So to me, the first order of business before you do anything else is to perform your market research. It will not only validate what type of demand that is for your product (ebook or course), but it will also tell you if your book or course contains the right type of education and solutions that web developers are seeking.


Remember - the Internet is littered with lots and lots of products, books, and courses that the creators thought were "sure things."


The best to you,


Steve

Hi

Firstly, congrats on your success.

I don't like to be a Debbie downer but I agree with Steve B, slow down and poke around a little to gauge demand,

I did a quick search on Amazon and Udemy for your topic and while there is some demand for your subject specifically, and more for freelancing and side hustles generally, I would definitely think about your angle and proposition.

What will your product accomplish that the competition has overlooked. The first one that caught my attention on udemy was "How to Dominate Freelancing on Upwork" which has had over 17,000 students in the last couple of years.so there is demand but the questions I have are:

Is there a problem specific to web developers and upwork that doesn't affect other types of freelancers?

Why would someone pay you for coaching when the same type of info can be had in $4 kindle book?

One of the biggest pain points that stuck out to me right away ( in my very limited research) was how to write better proposals and close the deal without having to lower the price of your services.

I'm not saying you don't have a winner, what do I Know.....I'm just suggesting you have a look around and give it a little thought.

Of course, these are just my opinions, I could be wrong!

Bob

Keep blogging, finish the book, network in your niche and keep expanding your success. Keep that blog growing; you can have all types of success through this platform, as you can sell the eBook then create and sell a course through a respected, trusted blog.

Ryan

Option B
1. Continue to publish articles on my blog
2. Tease the book with a long copy page on my blog, collect email addresses
3. Continue to build a strong email list
4. Publish the book and sell to everybody on the email list

Above is more along the lines of what I would do but remember that you need to deliver value in small chunks, which can be done by breaking down chapter snippets of your books into tweets or topics. Create teaser content for social and offsite promotion but MAKE SURE it links back to valuable content on your site that satisfies the readers intent. If you do that with the mindset that the offsite post is the teaser, or starter, the onsite content is the entree and the main meal (the most satisfying thing to come) is the book.

If you know what your audience engage with by tracking all of this, and what chapters people like, then you can formulate a course people will respond to.

All good long term marketing strategies require trust and relationship building, but there is no reason why you can't do this at the same time as bringing short term traffic to your site. I am always looking for ways to encourage other sites to link to my content pages too...(which I could go on and on about) because links to all of you nest content = organic ranking and long term free traffic.

Bringing the right people to your site who are likely to want to buy your book right? So serve them up some delicious starters that lead them to your book, and maybe your (main pardon the pun) course later on.

Finish your book then use paid ads. I've been selling my ebook on social
Media development for a long time now. If you want more information DM me !

You won't be any good at mentoring if you can't even decide what to finish!


Are you qualified for this project alone?

Problem in your niche is that your customers are experts in their field. So, I will personally not take the course route. I have a gut feeling that it won't work in your niche.. and I strongly feel that that option B is the way to go and I am sure you will do quite well there...

I would focus on finishing the book and growing your blog (and collecting emails), if the books sells, then start the online course.

I will say Option B is the best for you.

Though it does not make you money immediately, it will long-term.

But that is just my option.

Another alternatives you may want to look into are video marketing.

The problem is that a of people think that it's good to write a book and become millionaire with it.

The fact is that your book will become a best seller IF YOU ARE ALREADY A PUBLIC FIGURE.

And the money is not in the book itself, i mean real money.

What i suggest you is selling a coaching.

Put your book in kindle store and put a banner inside in the book, every 2 pages, advertising your opt in page.

Offer a book as a giveaway in a different opt in page,

In the opt in page advertised inside the book, you offer a 3 videos of tips wich ends in your high ticket consutation.

What you want to accomplish is selling an high ticket coaching, and a course in the front end.

So you can make money with:

- front end course
- high ticket coaching
- membership site after coaching and course.

That's where the real money is.

For best results I recommend creating a high-quality course, and marketing it using a webinar.

I can help creates the webinar and put together JV's to get audiences for it, if you like.

Let me know if you might be interested.

Chris