All the bloggers are doing it. And with good reason; it’s a well established profit model. Only, they’re not publishing their own book but writing a 50 to 100 page report or ebook, which can be downloaded as a PDF, and provides useful, even valuable content. Want a few examples? John Chow has written ‘make money online’, Yaro Starak has written ‘blog profits blueprint’, David Risley has written ’6 figure blogger blueprint’ and Gideon Shalwick has just released ‘rapid video blogging’.
So, how is this a profit model? They write the ebook or report and give it away in return for your name and email address. Now you’re on their mailing list, you get emails with useful content. But they also promote either affiliate products or their own product, such as a membership website, coaching or training course. For greater impact they will launch the free ebook and product at the same time. It’s very effective and very profitable too. Each email list subscriber can be worth $1 per month. Imagine what a 10,000 subscriber list will do for your bank balance.
What if you developed your report or ebook into a proper book and got it published? In our society, being a published author has terrific kudos. You’re talking to a potential customer and say, have you read my book? Oh, you have a book? Instant credibility. But isn’t it really hard to get published? Yes it is, but not if you self-publish. As they say on their website, publishing success is now a reality with lulu. Lulu provides the tools and services to make publishing your own book easy. With over 1 million authors and a 1000 new titles a day, it’s popularity is growing. You can then sell your new book on amazon. You are an instant author.
Surely there is more to it than that! There is, and Bob Bly wrote an excellent book called ‘become a recognised authority in your field in 60 days or less’. What a great title for a book. But then it’s what I would expect from one of the world’s best copywriters. I don’t think the book is still ‘in-print’ as it’s a little out-of-date, however, the strategy is timeless. It’s a plan to write articles, a book, publish a newsletter, speak at relevant meetings, run a seminar, get publicity and build a website. All of these are even easier today and you don’t have to do it all yourself as much of it can be outsourced.
And of course, there is more to self-publishing than meets the eye, but plenty of great advice is on offer. Self publishing for dummies has been written by Jason Rich. Jason is a journalist and writer. He’s written more than 32 books, some self published. The dummies series are always a good read. Or you could try the complete guide to self publishing by Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier. It’s everything you need to know to write, publish, promote and sell your own book.
But what if you’re not a competent writer? Can you learn to write well? I think you can. Perhaps not to Michael Crichton’s standard, but well enough to write your own non-fiction book as a topic expert. After all, it’s your knowledge and experience people want. Tiffany Dow, ghostwriter and marketer, has written how to write a great product when you’re not a professional writer. And Rob Parnell, has written the easy way to write, which is free and excellent.
When are you going stop yearning and become a published author?
