How Successful have you been through your Ebooks?

Hi Nate,

thanks for the tips!

-Michael

Hi Rich,

thank you for the reply,

i am actually not too familiar with Clickbank although i am aware that you can sell their products for commision.
I am not entirely sure how i would link up an Ebook with Clickbank, or how that would benefit me?

Thanks,
-Michael

Hi Martin,

thank you for your help!
I have sent you an email

-Michael

Hi Paul,

thank you for the information!

Just a quick question, what exactly is building a list?
Is it just a list of email accounts which you can message at any point with affiliate links etc. ?

Also what sort of programs can you use to create a list?

Thanks,
-Michael

Hi Paul,

yes thats a great idea! I think that would probably be the best route for this.

I am thinking about doing an Ebook regarding making money online, or outsourceing it to someone else. Do you think this is a too saturated niche?

Thanks,
-Michael

This works really well. I would also make sure to have affiliate links within the ebook (products/services related to your subject). For example, if you're going to write about make money online then you could include affiliate links of products or services that help you make money online. This way your ebook makes you money pretty much forever.

Just thought I'd add my experience here of selling ebooks to give a perspective of what to expect as a 'beginner' and setting up a blog to make sales...it's quite long, but I hope it helps someone out there...

I started online last November in a sports niche as I'm passionate about this particular sport and have a tonne of knowledge I'm just dying to help people with - just the satisfaction of seeing people improve is my inner motivation, plus of course to see if I could make money not just from the odd affiliate commission but from my 'own' products. I set myself the goal of writing one solid ebook to actually sell last year around running a blog.

So, I set up an opt-in form on my blog and already wrote 30 articles up front to kick off the site. I have to say I was slow at writing articles to begin with (one week for a blog post :-), but believe me here now a year on...you get faster the more you do and you find your style (note, I failed my english at school 3 times :-))...anyway, I posted x 3 a week CONSISTENTLY without a hitch for a full year).

Made my first commission one month from starting by writing some honest reviews on a couple of products - was 1 US dollar...I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - did both, but told myself that if I can make 1 US dollar...I could make a million...no joke there I just keep these things always as possibilities...so kept onward to see if I could make 2 dollars...yep..then at month 3 I got 50 dollars, then month 6 100 dollars, then got my first 200 dollars in commission (note in sports niches commissions aren't great)...BUT I realised that it's NOT the money I'm making - it's the CONVERSION rate - my site conversion to sales was 5% - not bad...!

Anyway, in the beginning I wrote the best ebook I thought possible to give away free as an opt in. Started with 20 U.Visitors my first ever week and got 10 of them to sign up first week to my list. Over the months I was getting about 5 optins a day to my list by doing very little else like forum marketing - just relied on blog posts and facebook + twitter. Initially had a monthly newsletter at open rates were 20-30%...was ok, but I wanted to try a weekly...which meant a shorter newsletter...which meant higher open rates. I'm hitting 70-90% open rates which I read is bril and got amazing feedback from my list. I just love talking to them and helping them so just keep doing what's working!!!

Anyway, managed to write the actual ebook to sell in a few months - didn't take me long as I really know my subject...you just have to sit your butt down and do it - again just write in small amounts each day and you'll be amazed to get a 100 A4 ebook out the door!!. Tip, write a table of contents, then stick to it and write, write, write - then edit it yourself over and over til it's pretty good -don't worry about perfection...as I was told by some IM guru that you'll fail the first three products...so expectation wasn't massive and the goals was to just get this damn ebook out the door and with a price stuck on it! I also did the cover design through Photoshop Action Pro (bril software but worth the cost). Again, very easy stuff to do, just do it and you find a way.

My most daunting part to selling my first ebook was getting all the payment stuff set up. I dunno, I just ummed and arrrhed over this for a full month before actually 'getting on with it'...my analysis paralysis was over Clickbank versus Ejunkie :-)...don't go Clickbank because of the fees - go Ejunkie as it's 5 us dollars to use to host your ebook and set up all your payment. You'll find that between Ejunkie and Paypal it's VERY VERY easy to set up...so don't worry, if I can do it, the world can too...you just follow the instructions and customer service is extremely efficient if you get stuck.

I then did a sales video for my optomise press mini site. I know nothing about selling whatsover, but I simply copied a guy called Ryan Diess sorry spelling - I just did what he did with his trilliad of sales videos I seem to get in my inbox most weeks - simple plain ppt presentation on blank background and spoke into my microphone on laptop...gave the rest to my husband to get into video format - seemed easy enough. And everything was ready to 'launch'!

The launch was at month 9 since starting and now had 300-400 U.Visitors to the site every day, some 25,000 page views a month (which is also when I started to 'think about' selling ad space...).

Well, my launch comprised of a few guest posts around my niche and built up some suspension on FB and Twitter as well - put a great graphic on my site, counting down the days...response was positive to buy from a tonne of people. I had read a lot about setting up a sense of urgency so put a deadline of 10 days to buy and then I'd up the price...Price I put at 19.99 dollars :-). I had no idea if this is right or wrong and again I was stumped on the pros and cons of selling for .99 dollars, versus 37 dollars price points .... just stuck it at 19.99 - which I now regret!

My expectation was high to get about 50% of my 500 list to buy and more from FB fans - simply because I have had such good open rates and such good relationships built up...I honestly believed I'd sell a load of copies.

You'll NEVER forget your first sale - yep, I was in tears, half with fear and half with elation that this internet stuff WORKS...wow, then I got another sale and another! And the upshot result of all this work?

I made 20 sales from my first ebook from a list of 500 (80% opened). Ok, you can say this is a total waste of time and I failed miserably. In fact, that's how I felt when sales dwindled to zero. Yep, Jonathan Budd was right - you WILL fail on your first few products...but you have to get up and continue on! None of my affiliates made any money which felt embarrassing, but you know you have to start somewhere.

No I didn't publish to Amazon Kindle for the first ebook. I didn't publish to Kindle because I simply wanted to start very small and see if I could make a sale from my blog.

What did I learn? I learnt that it's the conversion rate that's the most important thing here - I had a 4% conversion to sales from my list. Just think, if you ramp this list up (big ahha moment btw for me!), then you could make a fortune...but the relationship is the bottomline...Gettng people to BUY stuff from you is actually quite difficult - indeed ALL my 20 sales were from people I'd given a tonne of value to over the year on my list. None came from outside my blog...NOW you can see WHY the LIST is so imperative to make sales...big ahhamoment for me again.

I have now also learnt to ASK my list what they actaully wanted. I didn't do this and I feel that's where I could have got more sales if I'd given them exactly what they wanted...I went on a hunch from my experience to write my ebook - big, big mistake!!

So, I completed my goal of selling my first ebook (which btw felt great to have seen through my goal!) and have learnt so much...that's the positive - you learn so much for the next one...although now I realise that the next step is looking at this whole internet thing more professionally, focusing on growing my list with more varied marketing...through offering affiliate commissions at 100% instead of 50% and keep price much, much lower to get more qualified buyers on my list...yep it's a long term thing, but one I'm massively inspired about and just the sheer belief that if I made ONE sale...I know I can make a bomb one day.....:-))

Hope this has been a helpful insight to someone out there wanting to write an ebook for the first time...or create info products on a subject they are passionate about!

I'm a stay at home mum with a baby - so if I can find the time, then you can do it too...it's hard work but if you do something every day, you'll get there with your first ebook sales..

Cheers!