If you want to monetize your blog, one of the easiest products to create may be an ebook or short book. I’ve discussed these numerous times on this blog. As book bloggers and bloggers, you are uniquely set up to produce this type of content. And, of course, short books were the first products I produced. So I know most about this. However, it’s easy to expand on this type of content as well.
Simple and Fast
If you can blog or write, you can produce a short book—fast. Here are five ideas for how to do so:
- Pick a problem your readers need solved or a question they need answered, and write about it.
- Write a series of 10-15 blog posts, and edit these into a short book.
- Find a theme in your novel, and interview 5 experts on the subject; edit this into an ebook.
- Come up with 20 tips for or ways to do something.
- Compile your advice on how to research information on vampires, 18th century England or horse psychology, so other writers in your niche can follow in your footsteps.
These books don’t have to be more than 15-20 pages long or 4,000-5,000 words. You can make them longer if you wish. They can be ebooks or booklets (saddle stitched) or a simple PDF. Yet, you can sell them for 99¢ to $15 or more.
Add Bonus Content
To quickly create a more valuable product out of your written work, record yourself talking about the same topic. You can do this by hosting a teleseminars using a free teleseminars line. Or you can just record yourself using a digital recorder. Then combine the audio with the book you produced. Viola! A product!
Now have your audio transcribed. This adds more value if you add this to the “package” you have created: book, audio and transcript.
Instead of just an audio, you might host a webinar, which is easy to do by creating a PowerPoint presentation that you then share with a screen-sharing service. You can record this and provide a book, webinar/video and even a transcript of the webinar.
If you want to make all of this into a course, you could add in a workbook of some sort. Or you could produce more than one audio or webinar/video.
The more value you add, the more money you can charge. I’ve created a variety of products over the years and not monetized them well. I’m now digging them out and looking at how to add value to them in all of these ways.
Minimum Viable Product
My teacher, Chris Garrett, talks about creating a minimum viable product, a “test launch of a contained product to a small group” or the easiest, quickest product you can produce that packs the largest value to your readers. If writing comes easiest to you, produce an ebook or booklet. If talking is easier, produce an audio with a transcript. Or do both.
The main point is this: Do something. To build a business around your blog and blogged book, you need products and services. Figure out how to create that first product, and create it.
If you need help some help brainstorming your products and services or coming up with a plan to monetize your blog, take a look at my home-study course, How to Build a Business Around a Blog. When you purchase it, you receive a 1-hour video explaining how to build a business around your blog and a workbook that helps you outline products and services and create a detailed plan to monetize your blog with those products and services. Plus, you also get a 1-hour bonus webinar replay of Kathleen Craig of www.thegoodgirlsguide.com discussing How to Use Membership Sites to Build a Business Around Your Blog and a worksheet with 14 ideas for how to build a business using membership sites. The assistance you need can be accessed by clicking here.
Image credit: catalby / 123RF Stock Photo
Nina, I found your book SO helpful! Thanks for sharing all the very practical information. I wrote a self-published book a couple of years ago and decided to update it as a blog. It’s a fun project. I’n not only adding new information, I’m also adding photos. Page views are growing every day. Regards, Peg
Peg,
I’d love for you to send me an email with more details about this! I might use it as an example when I update my book.
I love this post. I first found out about your concept of short books during a webinar from the Author Learning Center a few months back. I loved the concept then and love it even more now. You have mentioned several interesting things in this post that I think are worth a second look. You stated that you produced short books as your first set of products. Where are those short books now? Do you still sell them? Did writing the short books lead to your getting recognized by Writer’s Digest?
You also mentioned that you hadn’t monetized your initial products very well and are dusting them off now. I’m not sure I understand the whole concept of monetization.
I love your suggestions to produce free webinars and audio and create workbooks. You make things look so easy.
I’ll be talking more about what I’m doing as weeks go on, Amanda, and I’ll discuss monetization more as well. The short books are almost all still available at http://www.purespiritcreations.com in the store. My workbook, Evaluate Your Book for Success, available at http://www.copywrightcommunications.com in the store, has just 4 hard copies left and will be taken off the market come January, since it has been enveloped into my new book from Writer’s Digest Books, The Author’s Training Manual. So…yes…it does help get noticed if you also use them to test market ideas. I sell all these books off my websites. A few are on Amazon as well. I sell them very successfully at the back of the room when I speak.
That’s great, Peg! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.