How to create and sell your first ebook: a 10 step plan for success!
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An ebook is one of the best digital products to sell on a blog. But how do you get started? Here’s my 10 step plan to help you create and sell your first ebook…
The digital product industry is booming! And bloggers are perfectly placed to take advantage of this growing trend…
You already have an audience who knows and trusts you, you have a huge amount of niche-specific knowledge and tons of writing experience.
I recently shared why I believe an ebook is one of the best digital products to sell on a blog – and in particular why it makes the perfect second rung of your product ladder.
But you might be thinking ‘There’s so much free information out there… why would anyone pay for an ebook?’
The answer is precisely BECAUSE there’s so much free information out there!
The sheer quantity of free information out there is overwhelming. More than ever, people are craving targeted digital products – like ebooks – which provide them with a fast track solution to their problems without having to wade through all the information for themselves.
And they are willing to pay for it!
But how do you get started?
But how do you actually create and sell your first ebook?
Creating an ebook might sound complicated and overwhelming, but really it’s much easier than you think!
Here’s my 10 step plan to help you create – and sell – your first ebook…
1. Understand what your audience wants
The most crucial step in creating a successful ebook is to understand what your audience truly needs. This means identifying a specific problem or pain point that your audience faces and creating an ebook that provides a solution.
There are many ways you can do this. For example you can:
- Look at your blog analytics. What are your most popular blog posts? Is there a common thread?
- Look at the questions your readers ask you most frequently in your blog comments, social media comments and via email.
- Ask your audience directly about via social media and/or your email newsletters.
- Use surveys to gather more detailed information about their challenges and needs.
When asking your audience directly, don’t ask, “What would you like me to write an ebook about?”. People rarely give a good answer to that type of question.
Instead ask about their niche-related struggles and challenges. For example, if you have a gardening blog, you could ask, “What aspect of gardening do you find most challenging?” or “What is your biggest gardening-related problem right now?”
This kind of problem-focused question will help you get right to their biggest pain points and help you identify the ebook topic that would help them most and give them the biggest ‘win’.
2. Build your email list
One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make when trying to sell digital products, like ebooks, is they seriously underestimate the importance of email marketing. A strong and engaged email list is vital for the success of any digital product business. Most of your ebook sales will come from your subscribers. Therefore it is vital that you spend time growing an email list of potential customers and nurturing those leads.
To do this, you need to:
- Create a valuable lead magnet related to your ebook topic, such as a checklist, a cheat sheet, or a mini-guide.
- Promote your opt-in offer on social media, on your blog, and anywhere else you can think of.
- Nurture your list via strategic nurture sequences and email newsletters designed to warm up your leads and get them to a place where they are ready to buy your ebook.
A strong, engaged email list will ensure you’ll have a ready-made audience eager to buy your ebook when it launches.
3. Validate your ebook topic
Before you start writing your ebook, you want to be sure that your ebook topic is one that your audience will actually want to buy.
Validation is key if you want to avoid creating an ebook that no one wants to buy.
And one of the best ways of validating your ebook topic is to create an opt-in offer directly related to your planned ebook topic.
The idea being that, if your opt-in offer performs well, then there is likely to be a market out there for your ebook. Conversely, if your opt-in offer performs badly and no one subscribes, you can be pretty confident that your ebook will bomb too!
If that happens, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board and think of a different ebook topic!
4. Nurture your email list
Attracting the right people is only half the equation, you also need to nurture your emails list.
To do this you should:
- Build a new subscriber nurture sequence designed to welcome new subscribers, get them to know, like and trust you, and help them see the need for your ebook
- Send weekly email newsletters with valuable tips, insights and advice to further warm them up and build that all-important KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factor
- Share progress updates about your ebook creation process to build anticipation
- Directly ask for their input on what to include in your ebook
Nurturing your email subscribers by delivering lots of value and helpful content, as well as asking for their direct input, will keep your audience warm and get them excited about your upcoming ebook.
5. Outline Your Ebook
Only NOW are you ready to start writing your ebook outline.
A good ebook will have a very clear and easy to follow structure. This will make reading your ebook much more enjoyable for your cutomers, but it will also be a great sales tool: your prospective customers will want to see at a glance what your ebook covers.
A good outline will also make writing your ebook so much easier – and quicker!
How to create your ebook outline
1. Brainstorm: Write down all the topics, subtopics, and ideas you want to include in your ebook.
2. Ask: Email your list and ask them what they would like to see covered in your ebook.
3. Organize: Group related ideas into chapters, then arrange those chapters into a logical order that flows well.
4. Detail: Break down each chapter into smaller sections with subheadings, to ensure thorough coverage of each topic.
This detailed outline will make the writing process more manageable and ensure you don’t miss any important points.
6. Write Your Ebook
Now that you have a validated topic and a detailed outline, it’s time to start writing your ebook. Focus on delivering valuable content that solves your readers’ problems and delivers the result or ‘win’ that they need.
Tips for Writing Your Ebook
- Stick to your outline to ensure your ebook is well-organized and flows logically.
- Write in a conversational and engaging tone, making the content easy to read and understand.
- Include actionable tips, real-life examples, and practical advice.
- Avoid trying to edit as you go – this will slow down the writing process and lead to writer’s block!
- Once you’ve written your first draft, go back and edit your ebook to make it as good as it can possibly be.
- Be sure to a few bonuses in your ebook, like worksheets, checklists or cheatsheets, to add extra value and make your ebook seem even more irresistible!
Remember, the goal is to help your audience solve a problem or achieve a goal, so keep your writing focused on that outcome – avoid pad and waffle or going off on random unnecessary tangents!
7. Design your ebook
An attractive and professional design will make your ebook easier and more enjoyable to read – and more appealing to potential buyers!
Elements of good ebook design
- A strong cover design: Create a visually attractive front cover that grabs attention and reflects the content of your ebook. You can use free tools like Canva, templates like those from Restored316*, or hire a professional designer if you have the budget.
- Good formatting: Ensure your ebook is well-formatted for readability, with clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points. Use a consistent font and layout throughout.
- Helpful visuals: Ideally include relevant images, charts, and infographics to break up the text and illustrate key points.
Good design not only makes your ebook look professional but also improves the reading experience for your audience.
8. Choose your sales platform
In order to actually ‘sell’ your ebook, you’ll need a sales platform. You have a number of different options here, but some of the most popular are:
Feel free to do your own research and make your own decision, but if you want me to just take away the decision fatigue and give you my advice (from 5+ years successfully selling digital products online) I recommend Teachable* for 3 big reasons…
1) You can sell more than just ebooks: An ebook makes a great first product, but if you want to make a decent full-time income, you’ll need to create a product ladder that includes higher priced products. Therefore you really want to choose a platform where you can also sell courses and maybe even coaching and/or memberships.
2) Teachable handles all the tech so you don’t have to: I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to have to try and make a bunch of plugins play nicely with each other so I can host and sell ebooks/courses on my website… and I DEFINITELY do not want to be the one who has to fix it when it breaks!
3) Teachable handles worldwide tax for you: Do you know how much tax to collect from every state/country in the world? Because I sure don’t! Many platforms will help you collect the right tax, but Teachable is the only platform I’ve come across that will also remit the tax to the correct authorities – that’s a job I definitely want someone else to do!
Why not Amazon?
You might be wondering why I haven’t included Amazon on the list. The main reason is that Amazon needs a very different strategy.
There are also some major downsides to selling ebooks on Amazon: one is that you make a lot less money per book on Amazon and the other is that you are not in control of the customer relationship when someone buys on Amazon.
That’s not to say that selling on Amazon is a terrible idea – actually it can be a very effective strategy, but it’s generally best used as a lead generation tool.
In other words, it’s a great way of reaching people who are not yet in your audience. Typically Amazon authors don’t make their money directly from sales of their ebooks on Amazon, but rather on ‘backend’ sales.
The idea is you reach lots of people on Amazon by selling your ebook cheaply and then you use that book to get them on your email list (by offering bonus resources in exchange for their email address) and then you sell your higher priced products to those new warm leads. It can be a very effective strategy when done properly, but that’s not what we’re doing here!
The people you are selling to are already on your list, so you don’t need Amazon to help you get them on there. And by using a platform like Teachable*, you’ll be able to keep much more of the revenue from your ebook than if you used Amazon.
9. Launch your ebook (properly!)
One of the biggest mistakes I see in the digital product world is not launching properly.
It is not enough to create your ebook, pop it on your blog somewhere, write one email to your subscribers about it and do a couple of social media posts.
A successful launch involves a lot more razmataz.
You need:
- To build up your KNOW-LIKE-TRUST factor with your audience via value packed emails and blog posts, before you even think about launching
- To ‘tease’ your ebook BEFORE the launch, so your audience is eagerly anticipating it
- To create a high-converting sales page and attractive sales graphics
- To send an email to your audience EVERY DAY during your launch
- For your launch emails to be well written – persuasive but not overly ‘pushy’ or ‘salesy’
- To support your emails with an effective social media strategy
- A discount and a deadline – give people a strong reason to buy during your launch
10. Build an evergreen sales funnel
After your initial launch, you’ll need to build an evergreen sales funnel so you make regular sales of your ebook on autopilot.
To do that, you’ll need to:
- Create Lead Magnets which attract your ideal ebook customer.
- Send people who sign up to those lead magnets a nurture sequence to warm them up so they are ready to buy your ebook.
- Once you have warmed them up, put them into an evergreen sales sequence with a discount and a personalized countdown timer – like their own personalized ‘flash sale’.
- Use countdown software, like Deadline Funnel* to give each new subscriber their own personalized deadline. Deadline Funnel ensures that, during the sale window, the links in your emails will go to the discounted version of the sales page, but after the countdown timer hits zero the links in your emails will go to the full price version of the sales page.
READ MORE >>> How to build an evergreen sales funnel (sell more, work less!)
READ MORE >>> 10 easy ways to boost your digital product sales
Ready to create and sell your first ebook?
If you’re excited about creating your own ebook, you’re going to love Challenge 2 in the Digital Product Success Academy.
It will support you throughout this whole process, and much, much more.
In this challenge, you will:
- Research and select the most profitable ebook topic
- Write, edit, and design your ebook
- Choose the best platform for selling your ebook
- Warm your audience up so they are ready and raring to buy
- Learn how to price your ebook for success
- Launch your ebook PROPERLY and make those all-important first sales
- Get tons of support every step of the way inside the DPSA Community!
Not yet a member?
The 40 Day Ebook Challenge is available as part of the Digital Product Success Academy.
If you are not yet a member of the DPSA, I have some very good news…
Right now you can join as an Early Adopter for just $39 per month.
This is incredibly good value for everything you get. (Every challenge is worth at least $97 and the ebook challenge alone is worth $297!)
This price is grandfathered in, so it will never be more than $39 per month for you.
(I will increase the ‘new member’ price over time to reflect the increasing value of the membership, but once you’re in, your price remains the same… even if one day the DPSA is $99 per month for new members!)
A ROADMAP TO DIGITAL PRODUCT SUCCESS…
Building a successful digital product business requires a lot of moving parts: market research, email marketing, product creation, pricing strategy, building a product ladder, writing a high converting sales page, nurture sequences, sales sequences, evergreen sales funnels, tripwires, beta launches, flash sales, gathering testimonials, digital product specific SEO and more!
When you join the DPSA, you let me worry about all of the moving parts, and you just focus on following the next step on the roadmap, knowing I’ve got everything planned and happening at exactly the right time…
DPSA is for you, if you want to…
👉 Earn more from the traffic you already have: Digital product RPMs are considerably better than RPMs from ads, affiliates and sponsored posts.
👉 Stop worrying about whether you’ll be wiped out in the next Google algorithm update: Because you don’t need those crazy-high pageviews, selling digital products makes you A LOT less dependent on Google.
👉 Be ahead of the curve: If future Google updates are bad for bloggers, guess what every blogger will be doing to try and get back the income they have lost? Get ahead of the curve by starting NOW!
👉 Have a less precarious business: If you get the majority of your traffic from Google and the majority of your income from ads, you don’t need me to tell you that is a very precarious place to be… Diversifying into digital products reduces risk and increases income – so it’s a win-win!
👉 Have a lot of fun along the way: Join a community of like-minded bloggers and online business owners who are all working towards the same goal!
Want to know what it’s like on the inside?
If you’re wondering what it’s actually like inside the Digital Product Success Academy, you can check out what other DPSAers are saying about the DPSA experience here.
Here’s a sneak peek:
“What I love about DPSA is that it is a hands-on, guided, and methodical approach to creating information products. Each step builds upon the previous one, and each task is small enough so there is no overwhelm.
Information is provided in multiple formats, which reduces confusion and fosters focus. The community is refreshingly helpful and supportive”
Michelle Dear-Moncrief, Makers Corner Crafts
“As a food blogger who’s put off digital product marketing for a long time, I find Eb’s DPSA incredibly useful.
It feels like she’s done all the tedious planning for me—from starting out, to what’s needed, and how to reach my goals.
I also really enjoy the DPSA Facebook community. It’s a fantastic place to ask questions. Eb answers each one personally and provides valuable feedback and ideas. You can really tell she has a background in teaching.”
Zerrin Gunaydin, Give Recipe
“With the information provided so far I feel much more confident that I can build a successful digital product side to my business. The way Eb delivers the information is easy to understand and follow. There is so much support from Eb and the other members of the DPSA. I am loving it so far!”
Lauren Woodger, The Scatty Mum
“If you’re looking to launch your next digital product, Digital Product Success Academy is for you. It’s not just about the easy-to-follow challenges on marketing strategy, and how to launch your product the right way. It’s also about a community of like-minded people to bounce ideas off and get feedback and help from. And I love that you get direct feedback from Eb as well.”
Mariska Ramondino, My Chef’s Apron
If that sounds like something you’d love to be a part of, head here to find out more >>> Digital Product Success Academy
- 10 reasons why you should start selling digital products
- What is the best digital product to sell on a blog?
- How to build a successful digital product business: The 7 essential ingredients that will take you to $100K and beyond!
- The 4 key pillars of a successful digital product business
- How to ensure your ebook is not a flop
- How selling digital products will boost your SEO
Don’t miss a thing!
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