I mentioned several times how a friend of mine made $ 400,000 selling an incredibly simple e-book. A lot of people asked me how, so I wanted to share the exact steps he took, given I once was curious myself.
Although I didn’t decide to sell an ebook, my friend inspired me to write a free ebook that has been downloaded more than 40,000 times.
The book that inspired my friend’s ebook was called “Crush It” and led him to share how he created his own blog and the basic tools he used to market it.
Flow states in an exotic location
My friend did not have time to write an ebook. He was like me and he always wrote short blog posts. The idea of creating an ebook was always there, but he never did it.
While on vacation in an exotic location (I think it was Bali, but I don’t remember and it doesn’t matter), there was a power outage. My friend was powerless and had nowhere to be. This seemingly tragic event for a blogger gave him time and an excuse to sit back and write his e-book.
Over the course of a few days, he started writing his e-book thanks to the power outage and didn’t stop. The exotic location, combined with the flux states produced, pressed the resistance to begin.
After writing the book, he proofread it, got a cover for a few dollars online, and posted it on his WordPress blog.
He did not believe for a second that his e-book was good. I was one of the first readers of his eBook. Although it didn’t change my life or anything, there was one subtle thing: It was helpful and gave a novice all the steps.
Let’s Go Here is what he did to earn $ 400,000 from that book.
Set a decent price
The price of this e-book was $ 19.95, which was high compared to many other e-books that bloggers sold for a few dollars as a lead magnet.
Twenty dollars for an ebook is about the same amount you would pay for a decent book written by a famous author like Tim Ferriss.
By setting a decent price, he managed to hit $ 400,000 much faster than most bloggers in his niche.
Believed in himself
Part of the reason he made $ 400,000 with a simple ebook is that my friend believed in himself. After the success of his book, he then charged up to $ 1,500 an hour for training.
That was his belief again that set him apart from his typical blogger, like me.
He wrote his ebook without ego or without telling everyone that he was better than them. The book was humble, insightful, and helpful.
What he believed about his talent was being able to teach people, not that he was special or better than them.
People who can teach something useful online have a chance to earn $ 400,000 like him.
He acted like an expert
There were no “I think” or words of doubt in his eBook.
He proved to be the expert and used evidence from his own blog to support his point of view. At the time, he was not a known blogger, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like an expert.
We are all experts in something, even if we are not Bill Gates of computers. You don’t have to be the household name to be an expert and write an ebook that wins $ 400,000.
Spoke From Experience
It wasn’t just the steps he gave for amateur readers like me. He inspired you by talking about his experience. It was his thoughts and feelings that connected him to what would be the process of creating a blog.
Ebooks that speak well of the experience and share some stories to help prepare the reader for what it’s going to be like.
Kept It short
You may be thinking that his ebook was long and took years to write. That did not happen.
The book took a few days to write and a few hours to read. It was not a marathon reading, and its length made it attractive. The price of your e-book and the value it brings has nothing to do with size, only it’s usefulness.
Sent It to His Mailing List
The first step he took was to send the ebook to your email list. Some people bought it and then people who liked it shared it organically with their friends.
There was no sophisticated agency-driven social media marketing or promotion campaign for his book. His marketing strategy was as simple as his ebook and it was all that was needed. The usefulness of the ebook was your marketing angle, not the size of your email list or your marketing prowess.
Made it inspiring
The ebook was about the dry topic of blogging, and he made it inspiring. Regardless of the topic you’re writing about, adding a touch of inspiration propels people into action, and it’s this action that makes an e-book valuable.
As he told people to create a blog, it was pretty common, but the fact that it really made you act was remarkable. He is the reason why I became a blogger. Inspiration may seem stupid or superficial, but we all need a little bit to move to act.
Disclosed All the Steps
All the steps were included, including screenshots. He didn’t leave anything out of his ebook or hide the additional information in an additional sale.
You can’t fool people by telling only half the story. If you want to make six digits with an ebook, it is better to be well prepared to follow all the steps and support them in detail.
My friend’s ebook was literally a guide to setting up a blog and getting started. Without the guide, you would be trapped by Googling and following the opinions of people who never did this or who lived because they were commentators and not executors.
People will tell you what you cannot do; they rarely say what you can do.
Made It a Feature on the Homepage of His Blog
One of the most visible places in my friend’s ebook was on the home page of his blog.
When you went to his WordPress blog, in the right sidebar, at the top, there was a link to his eBook.
If you liked his blog, you can’t miss his eBook. People who found their ebook on the home page, like me, made up the bulk of the $400K in earnings.
Promoted It on Podcasts
As a blogger, he was often invited to do podcast interviews. The podcast interview rodeo is practically free, so my friend came up with a brilliant strategy: he would do the podcast interview and give up his time as long as he could link it to his ebook in the podcast show notes.
That little request led people who had never read his blog to find his e-book and buy it to learn what he needed to teach.
PayPal accepted
There are countless ways to receive money online that waste your time and make you think too much about the process.
My friend’s direct idea was to choose a payment method that would probably be accessed by the largest number of people in the world.
Instead of presenting the complexity of having a shopping cart in a commercial facility, he decided to accept PayPal.
That decision was another reason why he managed to earn $ 400,000. It made it easier for people to pay using a method they were used to and gave them the protection PayPal offers.
This way of accepting money is not the cheapest, but it allowed reaching more people, which was much more important.
Wrote Evergreen Content
The e-book my friend wrote was timeless.
You could have read it a few years ago or today, and it’s still relevant, with the exception of some outdated software plugins.
When you write an ebook, if it becomes evergreen (meaning it’s hard to know when it’s written and it’s always relevant), you can continue to make money from it for years to come.
It is very likely it’s still making money years later, due to the way it is written.
Created a Path to More
Despite the $ 400,000 the eBook made, what he did (which made him even more money) was giving it to my client friends for his coaching business.
People who read his e-book contacted him and started conversations. Some of these conversations led to training sessions of more than $ 1,000 an hour.
It is impossible to track how many hours of training came from the ebook, despite having to exceed $ 400,000.
Having an ebook provides a conversation starter that can boost your business and deliver to customers. Or you can just make money from the ebook and voila, that’s fine too!
Understood It Took Time
His e-book was not an overnight success. It took time. The $ 400,000 took a few years to accumulate and allowed it to increase further by investing some of the money in its own development.
He paid world leaders for training and participated in events like A-Fest. These investments led him to expand his network and find ways to form partnerships with like-minded people, thus making the $400K grow further.
Didn’t Monetize Every Channel
One of the reasons the ebook earned as much as it did was because its target audience had many other free channels through which they could access his work.
The temptation is to monetize everything, and that will only severely limit your reach.
What works well is having some channels through which you earn money so that you can give people time and allow them to have something for free. It is through its free resources that people find you and every ebook you have written.
If all you do is charge people, they may never come into contact with your work.
People read my friend’s free blog posts, and a percentage of them decide to go further with learning and spend $ 19.95 on the ebook.
Gave Some of the Proceeds Away
Making $ 400,000 is good. What my friend taught me through his ebook, which I still use today, is to donate part of the recipe.
Part of the money he raised was used for charity projects and to give back to the people who supported him. Keeping all that money for yourself can make you forget the gift you received.
When you get what you want, help others get what they want.
This is how you get empowering meaning by making so much money with a short and incredibly simple eBook.
Never Took It Down
A well-written, evergreen eBook does not need to be taken down. My friend resisted the urge to continue writing a new e-book and left the original for many years.
There were other projects, but his ebook was always alive and buzzing in the background.
Resisting the urge to drop your ebook was one reason he made $ 400,000. The eBook had time to boil like a good stew and gain momentum and flavor.
Here’s What I Hoped You Learned
- Be useful
- Patience is the key
- Inspiring people
- Help others in the process
- Everyone begins to be inspired by someone else
This is how someone can earn $ 400,000 with an incredibly simple ebook.
Image Credit: Freepik.com
