More than a handful of you have asked how my new informational e-book is selling, and how much I’m making off the project.
Since my transparency could help some of you succeed at similar ventures, here’s the breakdown three weeks after launch:
Product: How to Build a Part-Time Social Media Business
Launch post: Social Media Biz Guide Launch
Affiliate option (just launched): Become an affiliate
Guides sold: 32
Price: $24 each
Total sales: $768
Money invested: $5/month for e-junkie commerce system
UPDATED on 9/6/11: Almost forgot PayPal fees! Of the $24 for each guide, PayPal takes $1 ($1.25 if the buyer is overseas).
Time spent: Estimated 35 hours, includes writing, editing, formatting and figuring out an e-commerce system (since this is my first e-guide)
Hourly rate at this point: $22/hour
Marketing effort: Not much. I’ve had several unexpected time-sucks lately, so I haven’t marketed the guide nearly as much as I’d like. One post that seemed to sell a bunch of guides was How to Make Money Off Your Social Media Smarts on Brazen Careerist’s blog. Beyond that, I simply reached out to my network via this blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I’m now looking to guest post on a few bigger blogs whose readers might be interested in the guide, and I’ve got a few other ideas for promotion, too. I did not count promotion in my time spent, though I’ll make sure to do that next time.
Feedback: Nothing but love so far! I’m starting to compile recommendations on the bottom of the e-guide page.
How I feel about all of this: Awesome! This was my first blog product, I LOVED creating it and I get such a high when readers tell me it’s helping them launch a side biz they’ve thought about for a while. I’m totally pleased with how it’s sold so far, and I’ve got high hopes that it will continue to fly off the digital bookshelf.
Coming tomorrow: A full-on guide to creating your first informational e-book.
What else can I tell you that would be helpful?
Congrats on the success so far. I love the idea of this as a side business, but am conflicted in that social media seems so personal (to me). At a recent writer’s conference, I cringed when I heard some published authors say they hired someone for Social Media. While my first thought was: “Hey I could do that.” I sort of wondered if it would be icky to do a person’s social media. When an author I admire tweeted with me, I believed it was really that author talking to me. Does your book address this?
Hey Stacy — Yes, it does! I also go into it here: http://alexisgrant.com/2010/10/13/when-its-okay-to-outsource-social-media/
I’m talking more about companies and organizations, though. For an individual author, I’d cringe too, depending on the circumstances (what type of social media, what they were sharing, etc).
Thanks. I’ll take a look at the link.
You are doing great! Congrats!!
Congrats! I’ve always wanted to write an eBook! This gives me some big time inspiration!
That’s awesome, Alexis. I love that you’re sharing so much of the experience.
Big up Alexis!!! This is great news!! Glad to hear it’s selling well and people are digging it. Looking forward to your post tomorrow!
Really helpful as always…and generous too. Thanks for sharing!
The size of your list and the percentage of sales, and from which sources – if you can tell.
And heartfelt congratulations.
Hey Evan! I don’t have a newsletter list, but I’ve got about 500 blog subscribers and get around 11K hits each month. My blog readers aren’t really my target audience for this product, but they’re helping me spread the word 🙂 As for sources, I’ve written back to a few buyers to ask where they found out about the e-guide. Some are my own tribe on Twitter, others from me via SEO, and a good number from a guest post I wrote on Brazen Careerist’s blog. My next goal is to do a few more of those guest posts!
Thanks for the congrats!