Need some sharp minds..how to monetize my "celebrity"?

Monetizing celebrity is done through OUTRAGEOUS promotions of all kinds.

You have to have BRASS BALLS to do it.

Break all the rules and be known for it.

Stand for something!

Always be able to defend your position. Use any attack as marketing advantage. Pick fights. Allow others to pick them for you.

Have integrity and originality.

It all comes down to having brass balls and outrageous promotions.

Think of what you've been in newspapers, on TV, etc for...

If it's for some product you sell, you're off to a good start...

If it's for going to jail...

You might be in trouble.

More details about what you do? What national TV network and for what?

Are you already making money off of what made you a so called celebrity?

One thing though...

If you have to tell people you're a celebrity...

It probably won't work. Keep that in mind during your marketing.

Videos and product endorsements.

Hi Stuart,

If you want to have control over your business, then you need your own platform on the internet. That means creating your own website, blog or static, where you can market your self as an educator and market your books.

Be sure to read Amazon's terms of service, first, so you avoid problems with how you market your books external to Amazon. You can have all the marketing on your site and have links going to the books at Amazon. I think that's acceptable but verify it.

I also recommend you avoid branding your self in any way as a celebrity, if only in the mildest sense of the word. You do want to brand your self as an experienced educator and an authority, expert, etc.

If you build a site, you can and should take complete advantage of your media exposure. However, on your site, make sure the focus is on how parents and their children will benefit from your books. You can appropriately, strategically and truthfully place copy and graphics of your media exposure, though. Reserve the details for your About page and be sure you have a proper About page.

Get as many testimonials as possible since they are social proof and will help with marketing efforts.

Your subjects are tough because they are about learning what most students probably consider difficult and boring subject - for the most part. Getting kids to do extracurricular study can be a tall order.

Thinking about the best target audience, how about targeting home-school children? If you do that, then you can take more targeted efforts such as contacting sites dedicated to the home-school audience. You can maybe buy advertising on them or contribute content if they will include a short by-line with your site domain name.

I read that your time is limited and we all get that. But as an author, you really need an online platform. Achieving control over your products and business is probably only done with your own site, domain and hosting.

You can start a Youtube channel with good tutorials; perhaps a few based on each book in your series. You can also put them on your site. You can join Kurt Melvin's Video Thunder sub-forum to learn about video creation and marketing at YT. Small cost but worth it so you can best leverage your time.

Create an email list with an opt-in on your site. You'll need a solid free report or maybe videos for the opt-in. Do something different. Instead of offering information from your books, you can create a 10-20 page report on a topic that will help parents with their children. I don't know - perhaps talk about methods or research that could help parents understand why their kids are having a difficult time learning. Make it have a light bulb effect, something that makes them say, "I never knew that!" You get the idea.

All of this requires a lot of upfront work. But if you do it and it's in place, then you can focus on marketing the site.

Keep getting media exposure. When you have something scheduled, do a press release and also have a media page on your site with the press releases on it.

Expand your reach by possibly getting media exposure in the US and other English speaking countries. You can do interviews with a radio station in the US, UK, Australia and other countries over the phone or even Skype.

There's more, but I've merely given you a brief overview of what you can do.

Also, I noticed an absence of targeting in your headlines and titles. What I mean is, who or what age group or grades each book is for. It's extremely important to help readers know specific information like that right away. Avoid making them work and dig just to find out if the book is appropriate for their child in terms of age and grade level.

Ken

Hi Teach,

Kids already have plenty of access to teaching about these subjects for free (you know this). So why do they need you? What makes you different? Not that you have been on tv... but what about your methods? What about your beliefs? What about your ideas make you different? You need to stand out in this crowded marketplace - and to do that means you need to be memorable.

I will give you an example... If I were you, I would take a stand AGAINST the education system as it stands today. I would become a crusader for a NEW kind of learning. Kids are taught in a system that is 50 years behind the times by teachers who are often behind the kids themselves when it comes to new technology. If you think about it, our kids will be solving problems that don't even exist yet! How can learning how to conjugate a verb help them practically? Or deriving an equation. Teachers say that these things teach them how to think - that is BS. Most teachers are just running a playbook. When a kid tries to think outside the box, they aren't praised they are punished for not being the best rule follower. ETC>>>

Those are just a few of my personal thoughts on the subject - which I know are very controversial. But there are a lot of people who think like me and would buy materials to get their kids out of the matrix.

The general parent doesn't care too much. They are just wanting to get home from work watch a little tv and get the kid's homework done - they arent going to pay extra for a math tutorial - especially when they can get it free from khan academy.

My longwinded point is that if you try to appeal to the masses then you will have a very hard time. You need to niche it out and find the crazies like me. Then you will have something.

And you can make money while you sleep

Udemy is currently the video torturing platform of choice. I think you'll have better luck there rather than on your own. They'll look at your materials and give you an honest assessment of whether it's "good enough." At least you can rule that out.

If you have a good social media presence (which you should), getting sales from that platform shouldn't be that hard for you.

Also, if you mentioned whether you had a blog or not, I didn't catch it. If you can build up a following you should be able to sell advertising space easily.

@David... maybe they does need to conjugate a verb and maybe they doesn't

Stuart,

You've gotten some very good input above (especially the posts from Ken and Steve), and I would only add a couple of additional thoughts.

Steve said it outright, and Ken alluded to it.

Re-purpose those things you've already done (videos, interviews, etc.) by publishing them on your own site (i.e. a paid membership site). There you can organize your material by topic / grade level / etc. You might even choose to separate basic material from advanced (premium) material, and charge different rates for access to those.

A small number of your videos can be placed on Youtube (and any other video sharing site) for promotional purposes. It's a great advertising channel, and should direct viewers to

• your paid site for more in-depth content, or
• to an optin page for an brief (free) email learning series (with each email containing a link to your membership site).

You don't want to post everything on Youtube, but you can use this short tutorial to easily create video trailers for posting there.

How to create a book trailer for free | The Nitty Gritty for Non Geeks

Create a blog, where each post provides one lesson (in text form), and includes a very tightly related video lesson right in the post, or a link(s) to related video lesson(s).

Create a social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) where you will post links to

• specific posts on your blog,
• individual video lessons (which should have links back to your blog), or
• to your sales page for the membership site.

By re-purposing what you already have, initial product creation is virtually done already. By making it available in a paid membership, you can monetize that content almost immediately, and you will have a platform ready to add more content/value for your members. Timing new additions to the membership platform will help insure that you retain members, further increasing your revenues over time.

Offer exclusive one on one tutoring for children of the affluent, for whatever age level that you can benefit most. Price accordingly since you're a celebrity

I was reading this thread and thinking what I could contribute. Then it hit me.

If you can add something to your Amazon books I would add a page (if this is within Amazon's/Kindle's terms and conditions) for people to register for a live event.

Hire a hall in a hotel or somewhere, get on stage and deliver your content to say 50-100 people to start out with. Do the same thing for webinars and at the end offer them a high ticket / 1-1 coaching.

I hope that was useful.

Sid,
Thanks for the input. I started a video membership site back in 2008-2009. I was featured on MSN's home page three times. It was quite lucrative until about 2011 when there was an explosion of video lessons. At that time, my efforts greatly increased but my revenue sharply dropped.

I will consider applying your suggestions. Thanks.


Robert,
The one to one tutoring is a great idea but it's trading time for money which I prefer not to do at this time. Thanks for the suggestion though.


Alex,
Great idea. I have already pursued renting space and conducting tutoring classes for large groups of students simultaneously. I have had quite a bit of response already but I'm not sure that's what I want to do.

Again, this is trading time for money which is easy for me to do. My goal, as is the goal of most people here, is not to trade time for money but rather scale a business so it becomes somewhat passive.

Thanks for your suggestion though. It does confirm my own ideas.

In marketing, you absolutely need a USP.

Do an expose on the cost/benefit values of education via different avenues.

The actual financial results of subjects (dollar in vs. dollar out) receiving an online education vs.physical structure traditional education. (I know how this story would end- )

Take the time and handle your prominence/reputation similar to Seth Godin. Tribes love standard bearers who hold a line....

Bambi

Don't discount this out of hand, Steve...

You're thinking of that as the end product, and that's fine...
but it can also be part of the creation of new product.

Record your live classes and then re-purpose those, too. You can offer recorded videos of your live sessions as individual products, or as additional content for your membership (or both).

Good point Sid!

Wow, I asked for some sharp minds in this thread and I got more than I expected.

I'm not sure about the twerking though.

Thanks everyone.

Hire someone to take care of online reputation! Forum posting, social media etc.

PS: may I take a picture with you

Start your own TV shows, and endorse related products and advertisements that appeals to your audience demographic