I hope you’re enjoying this ‘mini series’ of posts on the lessons I’ve learnt from building my first ebook.
Thank you to all who have commented so far and I hope those who have been thinking about writing their first ebook have something of use!
This is my fourth lesson in my series – how many more can I have??
In the first post I talked about commentators v’s customers, in the second post I talked about the power of leverage and in the 3rd post about time management. In this post I’m going to tell you about some of the positives I got from ebook launch which had nothing to do with selling ebooks. It’s a short post, because I’m interested in your comments:
Good things happen when you create a buzz
One of the things that I discovered during ebook launch week was that my traffic was massive. 44% up on previous month and the highest single week’s traffic this year.
Which probably explains why my email list generated a relatively small proportion of total sales.
But that’s not all. RSS subscribers grew 30% and my email list grew 10%!
All of which sets great foundations in my quest to take my offline business online.
Now I started subtly promoting my ebook out a few weeks before both on Facebook and on the blog.
I even had a mini survey around the name of the book. (Alex Whalley suggested I got the word ketchup in the title – but I settled for tomato!!!).
I wrote a couple of guest posts and several articles on why people don’t achieve their goals and Twittered them a lot.
All of which sent traffic to my site and helped build the momentum for a very succesful first day launch. People liked what they saw and signed up.
Joshua Black (aka the underdog millionaire) mentioned that you need a minimum 500 people on your email list to be worthwhile for the purposes of a product launch.
So this got me thinking. What strategies do you employ on your blog to create a buzz and to grow your email list other than quality content?
Matthew Needham is the principal consultant and director of The Big Red Tomato Company as well as the author of his blog. Matthew is a graduate in Accounting and Finance and a qualified accountant. Having worked for prestigious companies like Rolls Royce, Matthew is more than qualified to talk about quality and business. You can follow him on Twitter.
Hey Matthew, really appreciating the insight you are providing here and learning a lot for when I finally decide to get my eBook released. But first I need an offer, then an opt in, then …..aaaaah, it never ends.
(now that i am home nearly fulltime I have more time to find things to add to my ‘to do’ list. AARGH!)
How do you find the RSS feed figures go?
I have low numbers (don’t mind admitting) of around 60 subscribers but this fluctuates greatly, like after my 12 blogs post I got up to 100, then a few days later 47, and as I write this 60. What the?
But, momentum is building and that’s what it’s all about right?
Alex´s last [type] ..Questioning Duplicate Content: Is it worth giving your content away?
You’re absolutely right, that’s exactly what it’s all about Alex. RSS I think you have to look at as a trend. If I treated it as a biorythmn I’d be high as a kite one minute and at the doors of depression the next. The numbers are so variable.
In the last month my RSS has doubled even accounting for the -20 here +30 there. So, focus on the trend, not the number of subscribers.
So, as long as momentum is building in the right way, you can’t ask any more!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Wednesday Wisdom
Hi Matt,
Whenever I need to create a buzz, I found that contests really are effective. If you offer decent prizes or sometimes even a link or ad space, people will go out of their way to retweet, stumble, and do almost anything else you ask them.
Also, interacting on forums and Google Groups, and partnering up with another blogger who will help you promote – works awesomely.
Kiesha @ We Blog Better´s last [type] ..Blogging Tip: Turn Your Readers Rabid
Hi Keisha, you’re right contests do work really well, although I’ve not really thought about that at the time of a launch (other than a giveaway of the product)
I know you had a great contest recently and I thought that was a really brilliant idea.
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Wednesday Wisdom
I had one in April and it went so well that I’m running one now. In fact, today I posted the first entrant’s guest post.
“Calling all guest posters…. yoohooo….!”
Kiesha @ We Blog Better´s last [type] ..Blogging Tip: Turn Your Readers Rabid
Will check it out now!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Wednesday Wisdom
While I’ve not yet deliberately created a buzz – it happened once or twice by accident when I posted short series that led to people responding particularly well and “clammering for more” – the idea of a giveaway combined with an ebook launch appeals to me greatly.
Mo “Mad Dog” Stoneskin´s last [type] ..Response cached until Thu 10 @ 14:09 GMT (Refreshes in 58 Minutes)
Hi Mo. I know what you mean about creating a buzz. The times I’ve done it are when I gave away a copy of the 4 hour work and free copies of ebooks. Got a stack load of visitors. Curiously only a small number of visitors actually enter. Nevertheless, both RSS subscribers and newsletters go up enormously.
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Wednesday Wisdom
Hey Matthew,
This is an interesting series of posts. Thanks for sharing all of the stuff you learned about your Ebook launch.
I’m also interested in the fact that you used facebook to promote the launch so well. I’ve been on Twitter a little but but this social media stuff is still pretty complicated for me.
Peace,
Darren L Carter
Darren L Carter´s last [type] ..Motivate Yourself: The Biggest Lie About Motivation
Hey Darren, thanks for your comment. Social Media is new to all of us! Don’t worry. I was one of the last people to have a Facebook account!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Wednesday Wisdom