This is a look back at my personal history creating and selling online:
✔️ Ebooks
✔️ Courses
✔️ Newsletters
Including successes and failures, starting in 2011.
I share how much I earned from each, plus what I learned.
And what's the same vs. different in today's Creator Economy 👇
2011 (I was 30)
⭐ Launched my first ebook, How to Build a Part-Time Social Media Business
It sold for $24.
Lifetime earnings: $33,316
What I learned: This way of making a living is fun and lucrative.
2011
⭐ Ebook 2: How to Take a Career Break to Travel, sold for $29.
I left my job to travel Africa & wanted to help others take a similar adventure.
But... the ebook flopped.
Lifetime earnings: $1,124
What I learned: Topic was too niche to sell big.
2012
⭐ My first paid newsletter, Solopreneur Secrets. $5/mo.
Didn't earn much.
What I learned: I was stretched too thin to give this enough attention. But I fell in love with the paid newsletter concept.
2012
⭐ Ebook 3: How to Create a Social Media Strategy
I experimented with a higher price point, $59. It worked.
Lifetime earnings: $59,320
What I learned: People will pay for resources that help them make money.
And creating an upsell funnel WORKS.
My two social media ebooks complemented each other. People bought the $24 one, then returned for the other. Or they'd buy both as a package, at a discounted rate.
Lifetime earnings for the package was in the 10s of thousands (don't have numbers).
2012
⭐ My first course, How to Become a Twitter Power User.
It was a simple email autoresponder series, one tip each day.
Sold for $99.
I didn't earn much (don't have exact numbers). Still, people on Twitter still remind me they took the course back in the day!
2014
⭐ Ebook 4: Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Full-Time Business
Sold for $47.
Lifetime earnings: $6,339
What I learned: I think this could've done better if I'd reframed it with a better title. Title is everything.
2014
⭐ First bundle of other creators' products, sold on The Write Life, a website for writers
Price: $79.
3-day earnings: $34,000
What we learned: People loved this concept and would pay more. We increased price to $99 the next year and doubled our revenue.
2020
⭐ Ebook 5: The Money Guide for Freelance Writers
Co-authored with my accountant dad.
Earnings so far: $6,125
While I haven't marketed it much, this is the only ebook I still offer for sale: https://themoneyguideforfreelancewriters.com/
What's different about selling "info products" now vs. then?
💡 Communities are essential. Back then you could get away without them
💡 The space is more crowded. It's harder to sell
💡 More, better creator tools to choose from; you don't have to MacGyver solutions
But overall, so much is the same.
💡 It's possible to package your knowledge into a product others want
💡 Margins are huge, because the only real costs are your time + tools
💡 Experimenting is key to success
Got questions?
Hello Alexis,
That's an interesting read, thanks for sharing.
Was wondering
1- how do you select the topic for your info product?
2- what's your typical process to market it once ready?
Thanks 😊
Hi!
Thanks a lot Alexis for the detailed reply
This comment was deleted a year ago.
Hey, sure. I've actually written a few posts about that project:
https://alexisgrant.com/2014/04/01/how-we-earned-34000-in-3-days/
https://alexisgrant.com/2020/09/14/tech-stack-the-writers-bundle-2020/
This comment was deleted a year ago.