If you’re a regular reader of my posts here on BloggingTips, then you know that I’m a freelance writer. In addition to working for clients, I write and publish my own ebooks. While I’m a big proponent of article marketing, I’ve recently started to spend money to promote my line of ebooks.
Just to give you a little background, I’ve been writing and publishing ebooks since 2004. I’ve never spent money to promote my line until recently. So, how did I decide it was time to take the plunge?
Following are some guidelines – and my reasons – for deciding to take this route.
FYI, I will be writing here at BloggingTips every Monday through Wednesday (roughly 10am EST) now. So, this post will be broken into three parts.
The #1 Guideline to Consider Before Spending Money to Make Money Online
Level Sales: My ebook sales have reached a predictable, comfortable level. This has happened only in the last year or so. It’s happened because I’ve put in a predictable, comfortable level of marketing effort.
For example, I know that if I write and distribute 3-5 articles to article directories every week, then I will sell a certain number of ebooks. Why is this important?
Why You Should Have a Level Sales Volume Before You Spend Money to Make Money Online
Having a level sales volume is important to me for three reasons:
(i) It allows the business to pay for itself, so to speak. Many internet marketers have little or no marketing money. So initially, you are forced to use free and/or low-cost methods to generate sales.
Article marketing is my favorite free method. Some others you may try are press release distribution, blogging, guest blogging and forum posting.
(ii) The second reason a level sales volume is important is because it gives you an effective fall-back marketing option. I believe that every business should rely on two or three different marketing methods to promote their enterprise. And, one or two of them should be free and/or low-cost.
The reason is, if you ever run out of money and/or need to cut back for whatever reason, you will still have an effective way to get the word out about your product/service.
(iii) The third reason a level sales volume is important is because if you’ve built your sales volume using free methods, it means you’re passionate about your product/service.
When I first started promoting my ebooks, I’d go weeks without a sale, then I’d sell one or two, then go weeks – and sometimes a couple of months – without a sale. But, I kept plugging away. I kept writing new ebooks and promoting them when I could. Sales slowly, but continually, increased.
To be fair, when I first started writing ebooks, my intention was never to make a full-time living doing it. Hence, I didn’t spend a lot of time on marketing. I just wrote the ebooks, added them to my website and that was basically it.
But the more I wrote and saw the potential, the more excited I became about making it a full-time income (I’m still not there yet). And, the more feedback I received from readers about how helpful they were, the more it made me want to put out other titles. All of these things spurred me on.
A level sales volume proves that you have a desired product – one that if you put more marketing might behind it – could succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you the second guideline I follow before spending money to make money online.
And, a big thanks Kevin for the expanded opportunity to write for your blog. It rocks!
Kevin Muldoon | October 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pm #
Looking forward to reading more about this. I have been thinking of releasing a BloggingTips e-book for a while but I haven’t had the time.
What topics do you write e-books on? Do you cover a wide range of topics or do you concentrate on one niche?
kevin
Yuwanda Black, Inkwell Editorial | October 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pm #
Kevin, regarding your queries, ie:
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I’m a niche writer. That is to say, most of my ebooks are on/about freelance writing. I’ve strayed a couple of times (ie, I wrote an e-pamphlet outlining my experience with making money with surveys; and I also wrote an ebook on small business marketing, but all of the other titles (9, I think) are on freelance writing).
As you can deduce though, even these two titles tie in with freelance writing in that one teaches how to market (which is applicable to any businesss) and the other details a side gig many freelance writers dabble in (taking surveys).
Hope that helps.
Cherrineb | October 20th, 2008 at 10:12 pm #
Good evening,
Great article. I firmly believe in establishing a strategic plan where you pay no/small fees to make money then larger amounts to stay competitive. If you refuse to pay for growth then you can easily become stuck in the start-up stage for years.
Angel Cuala | October 20th, 2008 at 10:34 pm #
Some of my virtual friends are suggesting that I should make an ebook, but I am still thinking about it. Reading this post will surely guide me if I decided to make one.
And yes, spending money is one thing one should be conscious about. I will be looking forward to see the next part.
Thanks for sharing this.
Yuwanda Black (Post Author) | October 21st, 2008 at 10:16 am #
@Cherrineb: You’re so right about this. That’s exactly where I have been for years with my ebooks — literally STUCK in the start-up stage. Once I finally realized this, I was like, “It’s time to get moving!”
@Angel: You’re welcome. I love sharing my online business experiences. I love to read first-hand information and appreciate being able to give back in this manner, so to speak.
Steve Mallon | October 27th, 2008 at 8:20 am #
Yuwanda, nicely done article on marketing. Thanks! I have written and published four books about marketing of private detective agencies. Talk about a narrow niche! Early on, I discovered that the publisher would neither market nor promote my books in any aggressive way, other than their own website and catalog. So, the job was up to me. The suggestions you wrote in your article are those that I have “meant” to try, but never have. You hit my hot button this morning and I am going to get serious starting today. Good job Yuwanda.
Steve
uzoma | October 28th, 2008 at 2:50 am #
Nicely done Y its really inspiring just to add also other ways of making money online would be the use of backlinks but traditional internet marketers would say that it is old fashioned, well I would agree to a point but times are changing but it is better to focus on the best strategies where possible
Caleb | November 21st, 2008 at 12:44 pm #
The free way is always the best way to start out…it lets you know if you even have something worth marketing