Hello! 👋
As the title says, I'm preparing my first ever eBook launch for Monday, and I want to make sure that I'm doing the right things (as much as I can).
Here's the sales page (I'm using Gumroad): https://gumroad.com/l/makemoneydev
Here are the things that I've done so far:
did a pre-sale in August which went quite well (just a bit over $4500 in pre-sales at $10 / sale). I promoted it in the beginning to my audience (Twitter, YouTube, email subscribers, and some groups). I didn't push it too hard since then, just slightly reminded people that I'm working on it.
since last week I started to promote the launch date using a daily countdown post (7 days, 6 days, etc.), and I've shared the ebook cover again. I wanted to build up some hype for the launch.
I also prepared a Live Stream for Monday on YouTube and I used the new pin function to post the link to the sales page in the chat. In this Live Stream, I want to do the actual launch and eventually answer questions from the chat.
I reached out to several people and gave them parts of the ebook to review. So far the feedback was a positive one, which makes me happy.
I contacted several influencers and friends of mine and asked for a testimonial. I want to try both written and video testimonials. I don't remember seeing video testimonials for ebooks before but I think it can be powerful. What do you think?
I created a promo code which I'm going to add in a file next to the PDF as a Thank you gift. The idea behind this promo code is to get people to share it with their friends. I didn't see this done before and I don't know if it will work or not. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if people will use it the way I intended.
I don't know if I'm missing something or not. Did my own research of other launches and I think I'm good to go, but that little voice in my head says that I'm missing something or that there are things that can be improved. 😅
One of the things that I know it would have helped but I don't have are tiers. For a while I was thinking to create a video format too but... I didn't. I might add in a future update.
What do you think? Is there something else that I can prepare?
I appreciate your replies! 🙏
Ask @arvidkahl! He knows a lot about this :)
Indeed!!
I think you’re right on track. Get people to share their thoughts about your book during launch day / week, amplify every single mention of the book, reply and thank every person who talks about the purchase, celebrate them for being kind.
The coupon is a nice touch. Still, a referral because the book is good is better than one that looks at a reduced price.
On launch day, I talked about the ongoing experience of launching a book and shared sales milestones. In the IH community, this was both insightful and creating credibility for the work.
Make launch day about your readers, not (just) yourself and the book.
This is very nice! Very profound. How did you do that? 😊
When people posted anything related to my book, I would thank them and then ask them about their stuff. You can expect your first customers to be very engaged in your industry, and they all have something that they work on. Highlighting that allows you to build meaningful relationships with your early adopters, and it celebrates both your product and their journey.
This is amazing. Congratulations on your launch :). One thing I'm curious to hear is your thoughts on affiliates. On the one hand they are a force multiplier for growth. However, on the other, you do lose a bit of control of your brand. WDYT?
Thank you!
I will have affiliates. Will see how that goes 😄
Sounds like you've done your homework - looks like a VERY solid plan for your first launch. Enjoy it! First of many 😄
Only additional advice is to decide what you're gonna do next after launch, before the launch is over. Even a successful launch often creates a sort of "post launch hangover" that leads to wandering and uncertainty about what to do next.
The easiest way to skip this step is to plan for it and decide ahead of time what you're doing after lunch is over. Keep it small and simple, but concrete. You can always change your mind later, but better that than starting at a blank canvas unsure where to go next.
Hmm... interesting. 🤔
I was thinking of adding affiliates after the launch and I want to reach out to other influencers and have them promote it as well.
Other than that... I don’t know what I should think of doing 😅
Someone else has likely had a positive experience but so far all of my attempts at working with affiliates has been a total flop. Even the really motivated ones are generating very few (if any) sales.
What HAS worked really well for me is good old fashioned audience borrowing, the more targeted the better. Podcasts and newsletters have been far and above my best ROI months after launch
Getting influencers to effectively promote your product seems to be hit and miss IME, but I've seen very effective results from looking for opportunities to connect with and provide value for their audience. Just remember that you've gotta earn trust to make a sale.
Thanks for sharing your experience!! Appreciate it!
Lessons learned launching my first paid Gumroad course
I launched my first paid gumroad course https://gum.co/preorder-git-zine this week. It's an illustrated guide to the core concepts of git and is targeted at both kids and adults interested in getting better at how git works.
What I learned
All traffic sources aren't created equal:
A sample of my conversion rates was:
0% for Reddit (Despite constituting over 60% of my total traffic, Reddit isn't too receptive to things that look like self-promotion and I got banned from 2 subreddits despite trying not to be blatantly self-promoting).
9.1% conversion rate for Product Hunt (It was 50% on the day of my PH launch)
16.7% conversion rate for Gumroad Discover
9.3% conversion rate for Direct, email, IM (consistent almost daily purchases)
0% for Twitter (I get visitors but no purchases, I guess this is due to the country the bulk of my followers are from)
0% for IndieHackers (This was shocking but on second thought, IndieHackers is filled with more entrepreneurial types, not programmers trying to upskill).
Where you post your products determines a lot and it's clear to see that not all traffic sources are created equal.
Wow didn't know about Gumroad Discover, is Gumroad actively pushing this? For example, if you purchase a certain book, do they send you 'recommended based on X' type of emails?
You don't actually get sent an email showing this but you can view it in your dashboard. it shows the traffic sources and corresponding sales from each source.
You mentioned 16.7% conversion rate for Gumroad Discover, how many sales were this? I'm about to release a mini-ebook and thinking whether to push it on Gumroad or on my own. self-hosted site.
Do both.
Your social proof needs much improvement.
Try to get a lot more ratings, at least 50. 100+ is much more persuasive.
Also, add glowing customer quotes/testimonials.
I’m collecting testimonials as we speak.
When it comes to ratings: I didn’t launch the ebook yet which means that people had no reason to leave a rating yet.
Can you ask the 450 people who bought the book in the pre-sale to leave a review? That would be a nice boost.
I can but just after they get it and read it.
The 10 reviews I have so far I got from those who probably really like my work but no one among them got to read my ebook so far.
You have lots of social proof from your audience. Don't worry about the ratings. I launched both my products with zero testimonials and zero ratings, and both did $40K in the first 2 weeks. (And my follower count was 12K and 24K back then.) I only added testimonials later to try to convince people who don't know me.
More pics, less text!
More stories, less morals!
Scarcity. Set a date when the price goes up.
I’ve seen a couple of examples when this wasn’t the best thing to do. If people buy, let them do it and do not turn down the hose. 😊
I’ll just have an implicit scarcity.
Congratulations on your launch.
I launched a product yesterday on gumroad too https://gumroad.com/l/flashcard and I think we kind of have a similar audience to sell.
I'm wondering if would you be interested in cross-promoting or doing something like combining both products and selling it at a discounted price.
Congratulations on your launch!
Thank you for your proposal, I might consider it in the future.