Tracy Repchuk Teaches You to Build a Business Around a Blog and Book

Many aspiring authors set out to blog a book, or to simply to write a book, with the idea that the finished product will make them rich. In fact, the majority of authors don’t get rich from their books. The majority of bloggers don’t get rich from their blogs, either. The largest percentage of authors’ income results from the products and services they offer that relate to their book. In other words, they have built a business around their book or around their blog—or both.

Although I’ve written about how to begin doing just that here on this blog (see the series that began in July with this post), and I’ve even offered you a way to create a plan for developing products and services that support your book and blog, I am not an expert on internet marketing. And when it comes down to it, to truly build a business around your blog and your book, you need an internet marketing expert to explain how to take the steps that lead to success.

Indeed, to build a business around your blog and book, you have to take many steps. It’s not just about product creation. Plus, there are so, so many different internet marketing gurus out there who will tell you how they built their businesses. (I know; I’ve listened to many of their webinars and teleseminars and read a ton of their blog posts. I’ve even been tempted to take some of their high-priced courses.)

Then I discovered Tracy Repchuk’s book, 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles: Attract More Leads, Get More Clients, and Make More Sales. In very simple language, she lays out a 31-day plan to help you get up and running with an internet marketing business. Apply her steps to your blogged book (your to your blog or book), and you will be off and running.

I don’t review many products or books, but I’m recommending this one for a variety of reasons:

1. I’ve been looking for some good, solid, easily-understandable information in this area for myself. I think this is one of the best sources I’ve found. That is not to say that Tracy doesn’t occasionally write about something that is a bit over my head, but for the most part she lives up to her reputation of being about to talk about techie topics in a manner that non-techie types can understand.
2. The book includes methodologies I don’t hear every internet marketer discuss. I was pleased to find Tracy discussing article marketing and press releases along with pay-per-click ads. The book really is quite comprehensive.
3. The book is filled with resources. You won’t find yourself searching for how to do what Tracy suggests. In almost every case, she has offered resources for how to get the job done. That said, my one negative comment would be that there a few subjects about which I would have like more information, such as how to really make autoresponders work—they are so key and I really wanted more here—and how to do a good job with a membership site. (In the latter case, she does say she could write a whole book on the topic.)
4. With so much information available on the internet, this book compiles it into one resource. It’s easily accessible and applicable.
5. 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles originally appeared on Tracy’s blog. She later made it into a book she sold on her website and then into a book available on Amazon. So, she’s a booked-blog success story.
6. I feel Tracy’s story is applicable to authors, especially nonfiction authors. She’s a great role model. She is an online marketing, technology and social media strategist as well as an internationally acclaimed speaker and motivator. Tracy started her first software business at the age of 19 which still supports Fortune 100 companies. She has been nominated for numerous awards such as Entrepreneur of the Year, Coach of the Year and Stevie Awards for Business Mentor of the Year, and she has appeared as a technology specialist in national TV segments with ABC7, CNBC, HGTV, FOX, ABC, NBC, USA Today, Forbes, MSN Money, and over 50 publications, newspapers and magazines. She has been deemed the Top Woman speaker in the world. Not only that, she is now represented by a top New York literary agent and landed a two-book deal with Wiley Publishing.

I highly recommend you purchase a copy of the newly released 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles. Until you get your copy, though, enjoy the following exclusive interview I conducted with Tracy. She offers insight into building author platform, getting published, gaining blog traffic, and selling products and services from your blog.

Do you have any particular advice for authors? My readers are writers blogging actual books. They want to build their blog platform to gain more readers so they have an author platform that will attract a publisher or make their published book sell successfully.

For authors who want a publisher, there are two things you need. If you are depending on your blog, you need a LOT of followers and RSS feeds. If you go back to the Julie & Julia concept, that is how she got picked up.

If you are an author and want your book to be considered by a publisher there are a few things you need here. I went from blog, to making it into a book, to launching it as a self-published edition. I sold tons, got lots of followers on social media, started to speak around the world, went to #1 on Amazon.com and made a lot of money fast.

That is what Wiley Publishing saw when they approached me. You need a literary agent or for a publisher to notice you. They saw my book on Amazon was always coming up; they saw that it sold a lot and for four years was at the top 3% of Amazon during that whole time.

Then they went to my twitter, my Facebook, and my LinkedIn account to see how many followers I had. Then they asked me to submit a proposal about the book that I already had on the market because they wanted to buy it. From there I got a 2-book contract, and THEN I took it to a  top New York literary agent that I have wanted for years but could never reach and told them I have a 2-book deal already done. I just wanted them to represent me. He signed me.

So you need your platform in place. You need proven followers. Or you need a book that you have already done well with that they think will continue to serve the marketplace and that you can launch for them and pay off their investment in you.

These same aspiring authors are also hoping to build a business eventually around their books via their blogs. They want to spin off products and services. What 1-3 tips would you offer them?

That’s what I did. I took my book and broke it down into a coaching program, then seminars, webinars, speaking program, DVDs, videos, ebook, and membership site. You can build a million dollar empire from the content of a book.

So here are the tips I would recommend:

1. Build an online brand and unique selling proposition that defines your message clearly in the marketplace.

2. Make it easy for them to navigate your site and buy what you are selling.

3. Make money from 1 product line, then move to the next.

Is there any difference between attracting traffic to a blog and garnering sales when you are an author selling books or a blogger building a business? In other words, does it make any difference what you are trying to sell?

Yes. It makes a big difference on what you are trying to sell.

If you are blogging and selling a book, that is aligned. You have a blog, and you’re asking for $25. To sell a $10,000 coaching program, you need a site that represents you as the expert you are. A full-blown professionally branded site. There are exceptions to the rule, but I have met very few people able to just blog, and ask for $10k.

As far as traffic is concerned, I drive all of my traffic to landing pages so I can capture

them first and create a relationship where they know me, like me, trust me and buy from me  because I am automatically moving them through a funnel. I use my blogging for the SEO power of my website. But your blog should be a traffic generation machine in itself.

What is the one thing you need to do to become successful at gaining traffic and selling products and services from a blog?

If you are strictly using a blog, traffic should be the easy part. You are using your keywords to master Google and SEO attention. As far as selling, if you are selling products and services under $1,000, you can successfully do this from a blog. If you want to move to the higher selling bracket, then I would move to a professional full expert site and have your blog be in the under belly.

Example – http://www.TracyRepchuk.com

Blog – http://www.TracyRepchuk.com/blog

Book site – http://www.Just31Days.com

Want to learn more about How to Build a Business Around Your Blog? Click here for information on Nina’s home-study course.