Last week saw the pre-launch of my first ebook and my first major move into monetizing my site and moving offline income to online.
Don’t worry, this is not a promo for my ebook as the prelaunch has now ended and you can’t buy it again until June!
An ebook for most people is the most common way to monetize their website or blog from an information product.
Sadly, all too many people fail to write an ebook which is a big shame as there is growing demand for quality information, especially as people become more familiar with purchasing and reading ebooks, but that’s a subject of a future post and a future ebook 
!
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll talk about some of the other lessons I learnt from my pre-launch, but today I’m going to focus on just one.
Your commentators aren’t your customers
All too often we measure success in terms of visitor traffic and comments. However, only one of the buyers in my pre-launch was someone I recognised the name of.
And they had only signed up on the pre-launch mailing list the day before.
So what does this tell us?
Well, a few weeks ago James posted a video with a similar finding, which quite intrigued me as James has a massive following and huge numbers of comments each month. Our sites are quite different, our businesses are different and yet we both found the same thing.
So I looked a bit more closely at the people who comment and found that the people who comment by and large have their own blog or website. Obviously, I don’t know whether the others do because they haven’t commented!
So, the people who comment have an agenda. Maybe they have a comment strategy or are wanting to promote their work or blog post in some way.
Is this a bad thing? Not at all. The people who comment are all adding to the sense of community on the site. They are all adding to the conversation.
Which, I believe, is what turns visitors into buyers. Strong communities show your potential customers that there’s life in your site. When someone comes to your site and they see trending topics based on comments and they dig deeper into the site and read more stuff. This is what Fans are made of.
Now, the really interesting thing here is if your fans aren’t talking to you via comments how can you communicate with them?
What do you think?
photo credit: dougbelshaw
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.
Matthew,
You do the same thing as offline businesses do. Research the competition. Drill down on your stats and see where your visits are coming from. You got customers who bought. What demographics did you get from them.
You do tests and check out your assumptions. I’m currently in beta and that’s what I’m doing. I’m posting various levels of information and different styles of writing to see what seems to be the most popular. I have a focus group that I run the same articles by and see if they have different reactions. My focus groups are the targeted readers that the site is for. 95% of my desired audience don’t read blogs so I go to them in the real world.
I use this time while my site is constantly changing with coding to test before I launch. Since my targeted audience has not been notified about my site, I don’t have to deal with losing readers that I really want.
For example, I thought I needed to do advanced strategies right away. After 2 months of research, I find that most business owners are so uneducated about finance and business that I need to start from the basic foundation before they can truly use the more advanced tactics.
.-= Kim @ Money and Risk´s last blog ..Government Resources for Small Business Owners =-.
Some really great points here Kim.
Although generally I encourage research, there’s no substitute for real world experience and testing and trying things.
I’d also add use Google Website Optimiser to do split tests.
Thanks for the comments!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Wednesday Wisdom =-.
You simply talk to them through your email list, which you bribed them to sign up for!
I found the same thing with my eBooks, which is why I try to pay more attention to my email list now than anything. I get replies from people I didn’t know read my blog!
.-= Keith´s last blog ..3rd Party Apps Blindsided by Twitter =-.
You’re absolutley right Keith, you’ve got to keep asking questions. Interestingly enough one of the series of posts I’ve been running recently has requested the posts are turned into a future ebook.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..E-book Pre Launch 2 – Get in Line =-.
Hey Mathew,
Great post buddy. I think you can talk to them through your email list and you can send a mail to your list before 7 -10 days from launching.
Thanks for sharing this great post buddy. Great job. !!
.-= Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..Is Blogging For You? =-.
Hey Dev, thanks for the comment. You’re absolutely right, that’s why you have an email list!!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..E-book Pre Launch 2 – Get in Line =-.
Matthew,
Interesting findings. Where do you think the buyers came from? Do you think they are just regular readers that don’t comment. They also say something like 95% of the people that listen to talk radio never call to participate. Sounds like the same thing here.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Making The First Dollar =-.
Absolutely Mike, I think that’s exactly what’s happening. Whilst the comments around the mailing list are relevant and you absolutely must do these things, my finding is exactly that – 95% of purchasers were not on the email list. Thanks for the comment Mike!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..E-book Pre Launch 2 – Get in Line =-.
Great post.You can contact them using your e-mail list and provide some attractive offer.
Yes, that’s exactly right, but if the people who are buying your products aren’t on your email list what should you do?
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..How to write your ebook (part 4) =-.
I think the best way to communicate with readers/buyers is by publishing information they want on a regular basis. That’s why they came in the first place, why they keep coming back, and why they buy products. Or so says me anyway
.-= Jean Sarauer´s last blog ..Exclusive Blog Content: Spark of Genius or Flash of Insanity? =-.
Thanks Jean for your comment, I think you are right – it’s exactly what Mike said earlier, most of the people visiting the site never comment, which is fine they are as you say, coming for great content!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Wednesday Wisdom =-.
Keith is right. Ultimately our relationship with our email list is typically what is going to put dollars into our pockets.
I think for most people to buy something, two of the biggest obstacles are finding out there problems, and then providing a solution that meet their needs, by exposing them to the BENEFITS of what they will experience after their purchase.
This is where testimonials can come in very handy.
Thanks for sharing this information. It’s interesting.
Brandon
=-.
.-= BrandonBurgh´s last blog ..Crazy Weekend, but Traffic is Up.
Brandon, you’re right the email list is very important, but my point is that buyers aren’t just the folks on your list. Which is a) very interesting and b) very worrying. How do you communicate with the people that you have no knowledge of.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..E-book Pre Launch 2 – Get in Line =-.
I like get DM on Twitter from fans of my website. It is personal and thus tells me that they are not looking for click-backs to their website. Don’t get me wrong I love when people add comments to my site, but Twitter DMs seem very personal…
Thanks,
Ryan H., http://www.RyanHanley.com
Ryan, that’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing this. DM is a little like email really so, I see your point about it being personal.
Funnily enough, I get so many autoresponder messages that I rarely check DM’s. Maybe I should review them more diligently!
Really appreciate your addition to this conversation.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..How to write your ebook (part 4) =-.
Hey Matt,
I tend to view the comments as part of the article, and not really as representative of the number of people reading a certain article. Actually, that has been proven to me very clearly. I think you want both types of traffic because both increase the value that you are providing to the public.
Having said that, I have not tried to market anything to anyone through a blog. The Internet can be a source of great inspiration and/or great confusion. Before I try to market something, I would like to make sure that it would be something worthwhile.
In the case of your ebook, it appears that I missed the pre-launch (go figure). It looks great though. I would be very interested in seeing a bit of the content prior to its release. Do you plan to show any details of the chapters, etc?
.-= mark´s last blog ..Is The internets Makin’ Yins Stupiter? =-.
Thanks Mark,
Clearly I was a bit too subtle in the pre-launch! I had about 4 days of posts on why you don’t achieve your goals. As a workbook its really difficult to show content other than show the problem.
So, my guess, and it is a guess is, that the buyers bought into the concept from the posts which is probably easier to portray in a post than an email – maybe.
Nevertheless. I sold far more than I expected on a pre-launch and the lessons I’ve learnt will be introduced in the next pre launch.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Wednesday Wisdom =-.
I have to agree with Keith here, that the best way to reach them is via email. But you shouldn’t just start out by marketing to them. Instead you’ve got to give provide them with something of value – free first, then eventually you can begin highlighting the benefits of a product to them. That’s best done with brief personal experience stories or authentic testimonials that appeal to their emotions and demonstrates that the product does in fact work.
.-= Kiesha @ We Blog Better´s last blog ..The Simplest Guest Post Contest II =-.
Hey Keisha, thanks for the comments. You’re right email is a great place to start. My point is that aprox 95% of all the sales came from visitors to the site who weren’t on my email list.
Which was a big surprise to me, especially given conventional wisdom that the mailing list is the source of your fortunes.
I’m saying that this may not always be the case.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..How to write your ebook (part 4) =-.
I think you have a good point. Often times people who comment regularly are those who have already learnt a lot from your blog. There is a chance that they feel that the likely hood of them getting something they already or can get from your posts is great.
But ones traffic is not only made up of comment. Generally, one only gets about 5% of your overall traffic in comments.
Which means that your target should really be those who frequent your blog as well as the new readers.
.-= Robert Bravery´s last blog ..When was the last time you had your site reviewed? =-.
Absolutely right Robert. Thanks for the comment here.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Wednesday Wisdom =-.
Nice post Matthrew. Congratulations with your pre-launch! Thanks for sharing your experience with us as I have learned something valuable today. I’ve been hesitating to write an e-book for some time and this post has encouraged me to write one.
For growign a business, I think it’s just about building a strong community and developing good relationships with people who come to your site. By earning their trust, they will be more inclined to buy a product from you. If your fans aren’t talking to you, then like the others said, you would have to develop a relationship with them via your email list.
Thanks for the comment Hubert.
I’m glad you’ve learnt something useful here.
I think the commentators help build the community which in turn helps people appreciate that there’s great content on the site and gives them the confidence to buy.
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Wednesday Wisdom =-.
Very interesting mate. I’m a long way – or at least quite a long way! – from an ebook, but this is all good information and gives me food for thought. I’ve often wondered about this though, because I’ve sort of gathered from the blogs I visit and am involved in that the community aspect is often the primary reason for commenting and participating – so what you and James have found seems entirely sensible.
.-= Mo “Mad Dog” Stoneskin´s last blog ..Curing hiccups and preventing alien invasions can easily go hand in hand =-.
Damn Mo! Just as I thought I could go to bed…lol!
I think you’d be very surprised. Check my blog series on how to write youre ebook, link below. Inspiration to get you started!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..How to write your ebook (part 4) =-.
Really insightful post Matthew. I like the irony that the commentators are not the buyers, but without them it would be hard to sell.
Very true and you hit it right on the head when you said that most commentators have their own site so its about building their own communities. That being said, if you continue to create success as you are currently doing then sooner or later all those commentators (read me) will want to buy the book because ‘if its working for Matthew, shit, I must have missed something – OK here’s my credit card’
Congrats on getting out there and creating the book man, more than I can say for me atm.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..Administration does not drive traffic! (I need your help) =-.
At yes Alex, ATM – when you’ve read the ebook I’m putting together on writing an ebook, then you’ll be full of pazzaz to get it written!!!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Wednesday Wisdom =-.
Hi Matt
I have one ebook on sale and am working on others. The big outlet for ebooks will soon be the iPad, so make sure you are ready for this.
The iBooks store hasn’t launched yet but when it does my books will be in it, with a potential market of 90million and growing. One percent penetration would be very nice!
My research found that the easiest way to get in the iBooks store at the moment (and this may change) is to do it via Smashwords – an excellent ebook resource. Very simple (and free) to set up an account and upload your book. First of all, though, read the free ebook from Smashwords that explains what to do – there are various rules you must observe.
I did write James a short guest blog about tapping into the iPhone/iPad market but he’s no longer accepting guest blogs. Happy to send you the text if it’s of interest.
Cheers
Phil
Phil, at the moment I like things with themes, so Friday’s are my guest spot days as it links very nicely with Tiwtter’s Follow Friday #FF.
Ben Lumley @6aliens has bagged the last post of the month (check tomorrow), next couple of weeks are gone and then I have a space for your article if you would like to submit it.
As a fellow Porsche enthusiast, how can I refuse?
I’ve sent you a DM on the little birdie…
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..E-book Pre Launch 2 – Get in Line =-.
Hi Matthew, interesting post with good information that I will consider when writing my eBook.
It makes sense though that most of your sales come from people that are not on your email list as that shows you have done your marketing well. It is correct that most of your commentators are ones with their own sites that are just looking for additional information to assist them with their own efforts.
As for the finding ways to communicate with your buyers you have done your part in providing information via your eBook and you could also post about it in order to reach out even more. You will either get people to respond that way or some will not respond which is ok too just keep doing what you are doing and you will be fine.
Anna
.-= Anna Haller´s last blog ..Contest for Alex Jeffreys Coaching Students =-.
Great comment Anna, this is a very useful contribution.
Yes, you’re right that proportionately a lot more new traffic came to the site and bought copies, so as you say, reflected that the marketing worked.
Thanks again! Matthew
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Guest Post: How to make better decisions using PIE =-.
Awesome post Matthew! Very good and useful information. Congratz and good luck with your first eBook.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Thanks Justin, and thanks for taking the time to comment!
.-= Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Guest Post: How to make better decisions using PIE =-.