BWP 2.0

Week Three Big Lesson: Creating Digital Products

June 2, 2015

Recently I released my very first eBook. I must admit, I did very little preparation. I followed a friend’s recommendation and designed it ‘drop and drag’ style in Adobe’s InDesign program (free for 30 days! Nothing like a trial-period deadline!)

I used a variety of elements to pull the eBook together – cute backgrounds purchased on Creative Market, web-safe fonts (I used Orator mostly) and images from my own library of ‘stock photos’ aka photos from my life.

I had written all the text up already – so I didn’t need to edit/proof as thoroughly as I might otherwise. (It’d already been published as an ecourse. I did, however, redesign a few elements like printables and I also wrote some extra bits and pieces to provide some extra value (and allow for some shifts and new learnings I was bringing to the topic!)

My advice on writing an eBook is the same as for writing any book. (That said, your eBook might be a more concise, specialized publication in terms of subject matter, so

+ Choose your subject or storyline.

+ Write ten or twelve MUST KNOW (or MUST DISCUSS) points or plot events to fit that subject or storyline.

+ Turn each of those points or events into a chapter title (they can just be working titles at this stage).

+ Write 1000 or so words on each of those chapters (or slot in writing you have already done where it ‘belongs’, under the relevant point or event).

+ Try to write for at least an hour, five days a week. Just get the words down, however they come out.

+ Re-read, rewrite, edit.

+ Repeat as needed!

There are heaps of tutorials online – try YouTube and Adobe’s own site. https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/tutorials.html

. Make sure you choose a web safe font so that all devices can display your work the way you intended it.

. Keep your layouts simple and easy to read (see the eMag section for more ideas on cohesive design creation).

. When creating your book – consider using the iPad layout – more info on inDesign layouts here.

Of course, you don’t have to use InDesign to create your eBook – other publishing or design programs will work too. Pages for Mac is apparently a good one (I haven’t used it). You could even use Microsoft Word’s Publishing Layout (keeping the iPad size – 1024 x 768 pixels – in mind) and then convert it to a PDF or EPUB document once it’s done. (I have done that!) Use any program that allows you to layer images and text neatly (and save as a PDF).

My eBook is just a regular old PDF – I just sell it via my own website, but ePUB format means you can also sell the publication via iTunes. This site converts PDFs to EPUB (another trial version) if that sounds like your cup of tea.

If you are really sensible, you’ll save your finished file as BOTH formats. Then you can pop it anywhere and maximize your distribution (and sales!)

If you want to sell your eBook online there are a few options (and most involve a Paypal account, so get one stat if you don’t already have one!)

Sell it as a digital product on Etsy – if it’s a creativity focused book – it’s really easy to create a store and upload a digital product.

Try an online store platform like Goodsie
Or a digital download platform like Fetch ($10 a month for base package)
DPD ($10 a month for their basic package)

Gumroad is a great eBook selling platform offering no monthly fees (rather a percentage of the cover price + 25c for each transaction). You can also set pricing at Pay What You Want, if you are so inclined (so the reader can pay as they feel!)

If you have a WordPress.org self-hosted blog – install a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads (this is my chosen method) and sell via a page on your blog – it’s really easy and links up with Paypal. Here’s some more info on that.

Remember
If you have your eBook ready for download on your own site, it’s going to suck up some bandwidth, so don’t be surprised if you are using your quota up faster than usual! Just a wee word of warning (and a reason why it can be worth considering selling OFF site via a link from your blog).

So let’s go over all that eBook process again

Hatch, research, write and edit your text
Plan and create/source your images
Gather design ideas and elements
Settle on a layout and cover design
Create your eBook file – layering your text, images and other elements so they look fancy
Proof read every page again (argh!)
Save as a sample PDF and proof read again – double check for layout errors too – fix errors carefully
Create your index (if you are going to have one)
Save again – proof again – fix again
Save a final time as a PDF
Price it! (See below)
Upload it to your chosen platform to sell
Start promoting your eBook.
Count your dollar bills!
See also eBook Marketing Process and integrate the two!

Download your ebook creation and marketing plan and get cracking!

Gosh. This is a tough one. Do some research online, see what other people are charging for their eBooks. Mine is $19.99 which I think is quite expensive, but it’s loaded with good stuff! I think under $20 is best for a digital product, that said some experts charge up to $30 for their eBooks (while others charge under $10!)

The Gumroad platform offers you the Pay As You Want option for pricing, so you can even let your customers decide on their own price. https://gumroad.com/for/publishing

When you are deciding on price, also consider the time you’ve spent, the value in the book, plans for future products (and your customers’ budgets!) and what you yourself would pay for such a product.

If you want to provide incentives to encourage people to promote your eBook there are a zillion different affiliate platforms out there. This one looks neat and easy to use :- but it’s quite pricey so you’d need to be sure that you are going to sell a bunch of books

Post Affiliate Pro is cheaper and also looks good.

There are also WordPress plugins that do the job:

Affiliates
Affiliate WP

Lots of people use these affiliate schemes and love them. I think they can be great if they are handled with 100% disclosure and transparency. Let your readers know if you are using an affiliate link when promoting a product (at the top of the post, from the get-go! Keep this stuff clearly marked and up-front!)

Successful marketing of your eBook will hinge on a few things including:

your existing reputation, body of work and following
the quality of the eBook
word of mouth around your eBook
whether your eBook is good value
point of difference – is your eBook bringing something fresh to the arena?

Seasoned professionals develop a marketing plan just for that book. It can include the following steps pre, during and post launch…

Here’s a basic rundown on marketing your eBook…

write about your impending eBook on social media/your blog a month out from launch
create a signup list for interested parties (via Mailchimp or similar) – pop it on its own pretty ‘signup box page’ on your blog
sharing a sample chapter 3 weeks ahead of launch date – with link to ‘sign up box page’ so readers can keep updated
offer limited, early bird discounts for keen readers/buyers 3 weeks ahead (with link to ‘sign up box page’ too)
email your existing database and/or signup list about your forthcoming book and any advance offers
create a ‘landing page’ for your eBook – with an outline of what’s inside, some sample images and texts to give the reader an idea of what they’re buying. Add a link to ‘sign up box page’ here too!
create an affiliate program for interested parties to help promote your eBook more widely (on other blogs)
offer review copies to popular bloggers/online creatives
share ‘social proof’ – testimonials from bloggers and others that have read and liked your eBook (add these to your eBook’s landing page)
WEEK BEFORE LAUNCH: create a ‘Launch Day Landing Page’ with all details on Launch Day price, what’s in the book, sneak peeks, social proof and any other relevant info. Add a ‘sign up box’ here, too to keep track of interested parties and keep them informed!
WEEK BEFORE LAUNCH: plan your pre-launch, launch day and post-launch social media mentions (create graphics to suit and schedule your social media posts so that’s done and dusted!)
WEEK BEFORE LAUNCH: let those you sent review copies to know when the book is launching – and give them info about affiliate programs or discount codes
DAY BEFORE LAUNCH: remind review-ers that tomorrow is launch day if they feel like sharing your eBook – provide link to LAUNCH DAY landing page (and thank them in advance!)
DAY BEFORE LAUNCH: Email your database and those who signed up for the eBook to tell them launch is tomorrow – add any special deals/discount code, if you like.
LAUNCH DAY: Launch your eBook on your blog at it’s launch price – this can be full price or special ‘Launch Day’ discount
ask other bloggers to share your eBook
adding nice, visible links to your eBook in your blog’s sidebar and menu
promote your eBook within your blog posts, post-launch
consider running one-day discounts and other offers in the weeks after release (plan those in your editorial schedule!)
Thank the bloggers that helped you promote your eBook.
Collect the email addresses of those who are buying your book so you can thank them and ask them if they’d like to opt in to find out about future books (or send them a free updated version, if you update it!)
Don’t forget to actually set up that extra opt-in to find out about future books email list (an integration app like Zapier can help to automate this!)

Download your ebook creation and marketing plan and get cracking!

I created my first eMag in Microsoft Word using the Publishing format. Lo-fi-city. I didn’t have access to any other programs at the time, but I was not going to let that stop me! I just found a way and got on with it. You can do that too. Get going!

Hatching a layout

Firstly, I scouted around for layout ideas. I looked at books, existing magazines and took my limited graphic design skills into consideration. It’s a good idea to start ‘pinning’ or gathering hard copies of layouts that you like. Also take note of things like cover design, advertising placement, how fonts work together, colour palettes etc.

Gather a mood board of ideas – for content and design. Compile a design board – add fonts, colours, patterns and textures you might use in your mag.

The problem with PDFs – Size matters

Once I had compiled my content and outlined a nice (simple) layout for my mag – I merrily dropped all the bits and pieces together and ended up with a HUGE pdf. It was, in fact, too big to upload to the eMag publication site.

I headed back to the drawing board, reducing the size of my images and flattening the PDF before resizing it again. It took a bit of trial and error, so my advice to you is to use images in the correct resolution (not TOO high res – it’s for web use, not print use) and to make your magazine under 100 pages long.

Sites like this can help you compress your ungainly PDF to something trimmer – for free. You can also use Adobe Acrobat Pro (for not free!)

Issuu (free or paid)

I used the free plan on Issuu and I also gave my eMag away for free (I raised revenue from advertising, rather than cover price). Issuu is really easy to use and has a nice flip-mag interface.

You can add clickable links to your mag’s pages and Issuu automatically creates a widget which can be embedded/shared on blogs or elsewhere (meaning anyone can share your magazine on their site, with links back to you, which is cool!)

The maximum size your eMag PDF can be on the free Issuu version is 100 mb.

NB: Issuu doesn’t allow you to sell a magazine on their platform.

You CAN upload and sell your magazine on…

Etsy – as a digital product

Goodsie
Fetch
DPD
On a WordPress.org blog via Easy Digital Downloads

This is the first thing you need to decide once you’ve come up with an eCourse idea. It’ll help you to write/design your eCourse so that it suits the delivery platform/method.

You can create a password protected blog to deliver your ecourse on WordPress or another blogging platform. Then you can just publish your content as required – all at once so students can work through at their own pace or drip feed it out by scheduling your posts to appear on certain days.

On launch day, you simply send them their password and username and off they go.

(I do it this way on Blog With Pip and send out just ONE password and username for all students. I then add a comment plugin like LIVEFYRE or DISQUS so that each student can comment under a unique profile name. If you don’t need to have comments enabled on your eCourse, then you can go with one username and password and NO comments turned on/no comment plugin)

If you are a WordPress.org user you can create a fancy members only site (like Blog Yay!) and there are a ton of plugins you can use to make this work beautifully. YouTube has heaps of info and tutorials on the benefits of various member plugins. Here’s the ones I use:

Paid Memberships Pro – to hide various content but keep the blog’s homepage accessible to the general public (in case they want to sign up!)
Theme My Login – to make the login pages on the member parts of the site match my blog theme nicely
New User Approve – to double check that there are no gatecrashers to the members’ site
Hide Admin Bar From Non Admins – to prevent logged in users accessing the WordPress dashboard

You could also use Mailchimp or another email service to deliver lessons via email, again scheduling them for the days you want students to receive them.

You can sell your eCourse via your online shop. If you don’t have one try Made Freshly or Big Cartel. Create an image to represent your eCourse, then upload it with your course details, outline and other relevant info.

As you sell places, add them to a Mailchimp (or other email service) list so that you can begin communicating with your students.

I don’t like to send a lot of emails out – I think people find them annoying but here’s a suggested communications flow if you want to be super attentive and professional…

Sign-up thank you – when your student signs up, thank them and send them a hello and advice on when they’ll receive their login details
Reminder – a day or two before the course starts – email your students and remind them
Launch day – send out login details and any other relevant info
EMAIL ECOURSE ONLY – begin sending lessons
Check in email – part way through the course, ask your students how they are going
Graduation email – on the final day – send a graduation congratulations
Thank you email – thank your students for signing up – provide an opt-in to sign up for updates about future products/eCourses

Writing an ecourse is a lot like writing an eBook, except eCourses tend to be more ‘calendar focused’. Where you might write an eBook with chapters in mind, writing an eCourse often means building around a weekly or monthly (or 21 day – or similar) schedule.

Here’s how:

Plan the important subject matter (topic by topic) that you simply MUST get across to teach your students what they need to learn.
Plan the best way to break that down into bite sized pieces, across the weeks or days of your eCourse. Some people like to call these modules. Map your modules
Write each module – researching and editing carefully. Be sure to keep your module content interesting and varied.
Draft up your modules ready for publication via your ecourse blog or email.

Suggestions for interesting modules