January of last year I launched 100daysofgrowth.com a growth hacking ebook that has since sold 23,000+ copies and made over 342,000 dollars. In this presentation I'll tell you how.
Outline:
• Ideation and research for a top selling book
• Authoring an ebook with promotion in mind
• Leveraging your book to build your brand
• Pricing and monetization strategies
• Where to publish (Gumroad, Amazon, Big Publishers)
• Launch process
• Promotion/distribution
4. Backstory
• The idea for book came from an opportunity I saw
around the buzzword “Growth Hacking”
• I didn’t think about lofty goals, just simple actions I
could take to validate the interest for the book
• I found a co-author to split the workload
• Before writing a single word, I pre-sold 500 copies
• Sounds sexy…but I literally begged for sales &
hustled copies on the web, like an upcoming artist
slinging his mixtape on the streets
5. Revenue & Cost Breakdown
I sold 23,047 books in total with ~17,000 copies sold in the first
6 months, I currently sell 14 copies a day
Revenue:
• $119,000 from book sales
• $25,000 from speaking engagements and one off training
• $198,000 from consulting engagements
(3x’d my normal rate)
Costs:
• $349 Hosting (Instapage & Bluehost)
• $751 Design (after validation and a/b testing)
• $500 Facebook Advertising (didn’t work)
• $500 Upwork for admin tasks
11. My Process: Topic + Promotion Planning
• Found a buzz worthy topic + my experience
• Brainstormed key promotion tactics:
Product Hunt
Mentioned tools/people in book and reached
out for promotion help
Spread the word on marketing communities
Interviewed on Podcasts (Traction Book did
really well with this approach)
Answered Questions on Quora
Guest Blogging
12. My Process: Set Goals
I set simple, yet powerful goals to…
• Build my personal brand
• Be featured in 25 Podcasts
• Sell 10,000 copies
• Create a repeatable process
13. My Process: Launch MVP
• Created a landing page
• Got 500 pre-orders
• Released a basic PDF copy
With a $1 stock image as the cover
• Made $5000 and invested into better design
• Redesigned landing page after a/b testing copy
and optimizing conversion
14. My Process: Promotion Tactics
• Emailed 30-50 people included in ebook weekly
500+ people included in the ebook
• Pitched podcasts to do interviews
Led to 38 interviews
• Earned testimonials and shares
Created buzz and validation/social proof
• Gave a few hundred free copies to key influencers
Distributed weekly to maintain buzz
• Asked (begged) for people to write reviews on the
week of the book launch
15. My Process: Sales Results
• 2000+ sales from guest posts
Posted 1/week for 20 weeks (started 5 weeks before launch)
• 2000+ sales from Product Hunt launch
• 1500+ sales from Quora
Answered 1-2 Quora questions/day for 10 weeks
• 2500+ seals from Mighty Deals
• 5000+ sales from Appsumo
• 10,000+ sales from word of mouth/organic
18. Your Process: Conduct Research
• Do your research!
• Talk to successful authors
• Use common sense
• Find something you’re qualified to write about
that…
Isn’t crowded
Has high search volume
Has high demand based on
MerchantWords.com
19. Your Process: Writing + Pre-
Promotion
Writing:
• Use Google Docs or MS Word & Hire Upwork or a
professional to convert to an ebook friendly version
Pre-Promotion:
• Plan 2-3 ways to promote the book before launch
20. Your Process: Research Where
to Publish
Self Publish:
• Gumroad
• Selz
• Smashwords.com
• Amazon
Kindle Direct Publishing+ Createspace.com (print friendly version)
Professionally Publish:
• No freaking clue! You need to talk to 3-5 authors +
find an agent + create a pitch + have a win
21. Your Process: Pricing &
Monetization
• $9 - $99 - if you’re writing on a topic that can help
people make money
$30 price point works best for scale
• $3.99 - magic number on Amazon
• Plan for a back end monetization strategy (online
courses, coaching & services/consulting)
Remember, I made most of my money from consulting (and I
mentioned that I tripped what I normally charge)
22. Go Talk to Experts!
• Talk to 3-5 authors who’ve launched successful
books
• Read this