This is the third article in the series of “monetize your blog with a premium product” articles. First I looked at why it is a good idea to sell a product on your blog, and I also explained why I went for an e-book format instead of the very popular membership site.
Today I will try to explain how I came about creating a product about how to promote your blog / product / service on Twitter.
Take a look inside
The product that you publish should be related to what you stand for and what you blog about. The best way of seeing if there is a demand for a specific topic is to look at what works best on your own blog.
What type of articles did get the most buzz, the most page views and comments? About what do people contact you with questions the most? This will give you an idea of what people like from your content, and what people see you as someone with authority and knowledge about.
How I decided to create a Twitter product
I wrote a series of Twitter marketing articles in December 2008 / January 2009. The articles got a lot of attention and are to this day the most popular series of articles on my blog. 5 of the top 10 most popular articles on my blog are from the Twitter series. Articles were enjoyed by more than 20,000 people, more than 200 people commented on them, and more than 200 people retweeted them on Twitter.
I compiled all the articles and published them as a free PDF report in late January 2009. More than 3500 people downloaded the PDF in the first week. A lot of people were shocked that I gave the Twitter marketing report away for free, even without collecting any email addresses.
Demand didn’t stop
In March 2009, I was asked to write a Twitter marketing article for Leo Babauta’s WriteToDone blog. This resulted in another successful article with more than 30 comments and more than 80 retweets.
With all my articles out there, the demand didn’t stop. I still received lots of questions and comments. People wanted my opinion on Twitter topics. That is how I knew that this topic could be made into a more-detailed, premium product.
Compared to the articles, my e-book features more specific help with the practical details. It is in a more in-depth format and features detailed information on how to create a successful Twitter account and how to get customers and traffic from Twitter. All in one place.
My Twitter marketing e-book sample
I hope my story inspires you and gives you more ideas on what you can do on your own blog. It doesn’t even need to be a paid product at first. You can do as I did, and release a free report to help spread the word about your blog.
My Twitter marketing e-book is coming out shortly and it will show you how to create a great and trustable Twitter account, how to build a following, become an authority in your field and use your Twitter account to grow your blog / site / business. Check out a 4-page sample of my Twitter viral marketing e-book here and keep an eye out for the book next week.
Image by Kyle May
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the important part of this post is the last portion where you mention that your product does not have to be a “paid” product, at first. “Free” is very popular on the Internet, and can be a great way to promote your premium, non-free products!
@Jeremiah Hoyet – Definitely. My first e-book report I used to get the word about myself / my blog out to new people. It worked fine as more than downloaded it. It is a great option to give something of good value for free as people will spread the word.
@Josh – Thanks for sticking with me for this long! Good point, I could have collected emails just to pitch the premium product without all the ongoing sales pitches about different affiliate programs. I plan to do several more posts in this series, including how to create an e-book and also a kind of a summary of what I did and how it worked out.
@Kai Lo – I plan to release it on E-Junkie. I have never released anything on E-Junkie or Clickbank before so I will use this to get some experience and hopefully get some interesting articles about it in the future.
Great stuff Marko, I’ve really enjoyed this series.
I especially liked it when you moved all your posts into the free twitter report a while back. I was one of the 3500 and really enjoyed it as I was just getting into twitter seriously at the time.
I’m also one of the ones that stuck around here reading your blog; you’ve got good content. But, I think you probably should have asked for a voluntary supply of emails to get the report.
There are ways you can do this to make the whole transaction voluntary (as in, they don’t need to subscribe to get the report) and still get a reasonable amount of people on your list to pitch the paid-for ebook you are currently developing to.
I’ll be interested in how your ebook goes, I hope you’ll be writing an analytical type post on it in the future like you have in the past for other things you’re doing.
Best of luck!
Josh
This is correct. I tend to focus writing on what most people liked to see on my blog. Now, I just focus on writing about SEO because that’s what my readers like to see from me. I used to write about blogging tips and social networking too.
It’s good that you are giving away your e-book sample because people really want to see the quality of your writing before they buy it. I might have missed this before, but is this going to be on Clickbank?
Great article Marko, I think that the membership site concept works well for some people and some areas of Marketing but the e-book is something which is within reach of most Bloggers.
My preferred route will be the ebook when I produce my first product.
BTW: enjoyed the articles about twitter. Twitter has been something of a mystery to me but you articles have explained it very well.
Good luck with the book
@Trevor Carter – Thanks. I am glad my articles were helpful to you.
Marko,
Sweet deal man, I like your approach and am watching closely… and taking notes of course.
You’re building anticipation. Looking forward to reading the book. I’ll be here to help ya spread the word. Please let me know how I can help.
-Mig
Hi Marco,
Well done! Looking at the existing search phrases has a magical power on decision making about a future articles!
PS. That is a cool inclusion in the Comment box – the Twitter ID. I am guessing it’s a Plugin?
Ivan
@Ivan – Yes, I have written about this plugin couple of times before. Twitip ID it is called.