When you’re transitioning from “just” a blogger to an “entreproducer” (entrepreneur + producer) in order to really live the life of your dreams, you will have to produce your first information product at some point. This means you will have to:
- Get over the fear that nobody will buy your stuff
- Figure out something to offer that is desired by your audience at a fair price
Taking the content you’ve already created for your blog and repurposing it into an information product is probably the most obvious and easiest approach you can take. That’s what I discuss in the video.
If you can’t see the video in your reader or email, watch it at Remarkablogger or on Viddler.
PS – The easiest way to sell digital downloads is E-junkie. I’ve had great success with them.
Thanks for the video–that was very helpful. What I want to do in the future is in a way the opposite of what you’re suggesting–I want to take all my blog posts about Denver and mash them down into something smaller, perhaps 30 to 50 pages, that a traveler could use as a guide. Haven’t figured out exactly how to do that yet, but you’re advice gave me some ideas.
I am using Firefox 3 and there is no video embedded in this post. I took a quick look at your code and I see an object tag, but Firefox does not recognize the object tag, you need to use an embed tag for it to work with Firefox.
Great to see people ‘getting it’ about repurposing.
For a lot of people, it’s so much easier to talk than write, so we suggest recording yourself at somewhere like TheBasementVentures.com, get the mp3 for free, & get it transcribed.
Then you’ve got blog fodder, ebook fodder, special reports for your freebie to get opt-ins, do an e-course, repurpose the transcript & do a simple PowerPoint or SlideShare video & put it out there with TubeMogul, etc.
Repurposing means you never have to reinvent the wheel again. Anyone is welcome to come over & get a free 5-day ecourse about it too.
Glad to be working with you & Grant for BlawgingLawyers.com!
Becki
@John – You must have a different Firefox 3 than I do.
Embed is not standard HTML, but Object is. See here or here for info which may help. See if you can see the video at Viddler.
@Becki – You are absolutely correct. Audio and video content is also imminently re-purposable. Especially when excellent services such as yours are available.
@everyone – I recommend Becki’s transcription services to anyone needing professional quality transcriptions. Our transcribed documents on Blawging Lawyers are perfect and look great!
@Michael I am on Firefox 3 but it is on Linux (Ubuntu to be more precise) and the object tag might be standard but it does not work on Firefox on Linux.
@John – Ah, that explains it, then. I don’t know what Mozilla’s problem is. I thought they were all for standards. Hmmph. I suppose downgrading to FF2 wasn’t really what you wanted to do.
@Michael No, not going to downgrade. Can you add the links to Viddler though when you post a video, then I can click through to watch it there. I am sure there must be others that use Linux and visit your site as well.
@John – You bet. Happy to. Kind of odd that it works for you on Viddler’s page but not when I grab the codes.
This post was perfectly timed for me, because I’m in the process of editing a collection of blog posts into a short ebook.
I appreciate what you said about adding value to the material, in order to make it sellable. That’s something I will want to do in the near future, but this ebook is going to be free, so the real value for anyone downloading it is that they will get the posts in a convenient package (I’m doing this to build exposure — selling will come later, after I have the kind of audience numbers you mention).
So I guess the tricky step for me will be producing something sellable after mostly providing free content (on the blog and in ebooks).
I was going to blithely ask if you have any thoughts on this free-to-paid process (recognizing that I’ll still have all the free stuff available, and will continue creating blog posts), but you’ve undoubtedly written about this elsewhere on Remarkablogger, so I’ll go do some searching
@Wendi – Actually, it’s no different. There is no point to giving away something if it’s not worth paying for. Giving things away only has as much value as what those things would cost if you charged for them. Never give away something you couldn’t sell.
Actually I have two or three posts that get circa 200 visitors per month each on very niche topics! I never thought about writing an ebook surrounding them until now!
I’d much rather sell and deliver the product to them directly from WordPress with Paypal, is this possible (I don’t desperately want to pay $5 per month if nobody buys it!!).
@Keiron – You could do that if you want to, but then you will run into fulfillment problems. When people buy a digital information product online, they expect to download it instantly. So, unless you want to sit there in front of your inbox waiting for orders to come in, that’s not a very good way to do it.
You may have difficulties because your blog is not about one subject on which people need help or on which people can see you as an authority.
Thanks Michael, this was a helpful video. Since I’ve had my blog, carriewriter.com, for about 3 years now, I am thinking of compiling some of the topics as an e-book, so this give me food for thought. Wondering if this should be free, or if it ends up being longer, then I should charge a small fee. Is there any correlation between the length and charging or not?
Thanks
@Carrie – There is a correlation between size and price. There has to be some “there” there for people to feel that what they’re getting is worth the money. A general rule of thumb is that an ebook (as opposed to a white paper or a report) should be at least 25 pages.
There is no correlation between price and quality, but there is between price and value. Never give away something you couldn’t charge for and expect to sell. Establish a value for what you give away so people know they’re getting something valuable for free. Nobody wants something worthless for free! When you do charge, generally the more you charge, the more value people will see in the ebook. However, it needs to deliver on its promises and have happy buyers, otherwise it will be seen as a rip-off. The value can be higher than you might at first think, but of course it must be real (and I’m sure you wouldn’t do it any other way).
Hmm,
This is an interesting topic….I have crteated ebooks before but I have never thought of what you have suggested before!
I must confess that I am a blog newbie and should really use a blog more to boost my business etc.
One question though…isn’t the ebook thing getting a bit old hat now(in terms of selling them?) I have been around the internet and internet marketing for a while now and I think that ebooks may have gone a little out of flavour what with the onset of audio/video etc…However, they still make great freebies…
I could be speaking complete baloney here so If I am, please put me right:-)
Grant
@RC – Good question, but first I’d like to point you to my comment policy, which is above the comment write box. I appreciate your comments, but it would be great if you didn’t put keywords into the name field. You may have read somewhere that’s a good idea… it isn’t. Use your real name and people will think more favorably of you and be more likely to click through to your site (think traffic, not PageRank).
Ebooks are not dead. Not by far. But they are not the only medium for information products anymore. My recent product, WordPress SEO Secrets, consists of an ebook, mp3 files, video files, and a continuity add-on in the form of a PDF newsletter (essentially an ebook). Membership sites provide access to content on the web, but many also provide PDF downloads for people who don’t want to read web pages or watch video. Ebooks are also a great way to test the market for a bigger product, such as a physical product, live seminars, or membership sites.
Michael, I realise the need for immediate download and would probably write or purchase a script capable of doing that for me.
I see what you’re seeing about my blog, but I do rank number 1 for this particular search term with one of my posts, and it’s hugely popular – is the real answer to create a spin-off blog just on this topic (arrrghh, not another blog to maintain!?)
@Keiron – I don’t think the answer is to necessarily do a spin-off blog. There are two forces at work here: what your audience wants from you, and what you want for yourself. When those two things are in alignment, magic happens. If you thought of your blog as a business instead of “just” a blog, what would you do differently? Maybe drop some of the personal stuff (you can use other social media for that). Maybe focus on the topics that your audience hungers for, and about which you love to write.
It depends on what your ultimate goal is in blogging. Better yet, think about your life goals, and then see if you can draw a map of how blogging and internet marketing can help you reach those goals. If you don’t have goals, that would be the first place to begin.
Aha, the problem is the blog you’re looking at is my personal blog – just random titbits and the posts in question started off as more of a reminder to myself (I’ve referred back to them thousands of times myself!).
I run other blogs targeted to very specific niches, it’s just that these two posts on my personal blog get so much attention it would be nice to do something with them!
Michael: Thank you for the good advise! Just needing to drive more traffic to myblog site Elisa
That is the hardest part which you have to create your own product. Especially for someone like me that not really good in explaining things.
Anyway, more or less I need to learn and start to do it one day.