Have you met Problogger? One of the most popular bloggers who blogs about blogging? When I first launched my blog (three years ago this month) I used to read Problogger’s posts religiously, combing them for tips on how to “do it right”. I’d first encountered him – him being the erudite Darren Rowse – when I wrote a story for Good Weekend magazine on people making money from blogs. They were rare at the time. A dozen – at most – in Australia were making a living from it. Now look where things are at.
Ironically, last week he interviewed me via a webinar on… how I now make money from my blog. That was roughly the theme, but it touched on what I bring from my experience in traditional media, how I balance my time and how I’d write my next ebook differently.
Here’s the link if you missed it.
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While you’re listening you might like to follow my ranting via this great infographic that Michelle over at Jam Jar put together. It’s very clever.
She also jotted down notes from my talk, and I hope she doesn’t mind my running them here:
eBooks:
- Decide on format – there is a different skill set required getting a book ready for ePup/eMobi compared to publishing to PDF. Seek and pay for expertise – it’s worth it in the long run.
- Write in chunk-sized pieces with more graphic/images you would use in a blog post.
- Cut the guff! get to the point quickly.
- Use heading and sub-headings to organise your thoughts.
- Value yourself and your ebook: don’t be greedy when pricing, but don’t undervalue yourself either.
Marketing Tips:
- Read Shayne Tilley’s book on marketing – it’s dense but has all the information you need.
- Make marketing your primary job after release (of your ebook or product)
- Network with other bloggers – offer your book or product for them as ‘give-aways’
- Be generous – it works!
Also, I promised in the webinar to do a post on my tips for publishing ebooks. I’ll do this in the next few days…stay tuned.
You might also like to subscribe here for Darren’s webinars. For more tips from bloggers in Darren’s orbit.
Feel free to give your feedback on any of the points I make…
