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Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book
- brackin 14y agoImpressive stuff, although the book promotion page looks slightly off. Reminds me of those 'free make money' ebook pop-up's I got in 2005.
- bdunn 14y agoI'll followup with a post on why I used the sales letter format to sell the book, but I can tell you this: it converts 3x better than the alternatives I tried.
- sdoering 14y agoWe had a similar situation with an inhouse-ad on our site. The polished version performed ok, but just for the fun of testing, we switched to a rough screenshot image. It performed more than five times as good. Just because one doesn't like it, doesn't mean it won't work. My learning was: Always, test everything.
- mootothemax 14y agoJust because one doesn't like it, doesn't mean it won't work. My learning was: Always, test everything. This is a point that every single commenter on HN needs to be aware of. There are far too many people who seem to think that just because they don't like something, it can't work, won't work, should be priced lower...
- ky3 14y agoa.k.a. You're not their customer. Ergo, to be successful, you're not your customer.
- thibaut_barrere 14y agoEven further: asking people if they like the page would result in different results compared to testing if they end up paying for the advertised product.
- grueful 14y agoI've heard this same result regarding business ebook sales at least half a dozen times. There's a sentiment in tech culture to the effect that we are free thinkers who should be dismissive of obvious sales tactics. But maybe the sales guys use them because they're statistically effective. "Test everything" includes "test the options you're dismissive of, just in case not everyone thinks like you."
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoWell I am sold - but I cannot pay outside the US it seems (unless I make up a zip code) Edit: You have my hard-earned now, after I saw the "which country are you in" - that was embarrassing, but in my defence its a terrible interface.
- bdunn 14y agoThanks! Yeah, I'm stuck with PayPal at the moment, which I know has issues internationally - I'm sorry, and thanks for supporting the book.
- alanmackenzie 14y agoI would quite happily preorder a copy of your book but there's not enough information to feel comfortable about parting with $39. Is this an ebook or in dead tree format? Do you ship internationally?
- bdunn 14y agoIt's an ebook with worksheets and additional case studies / interviews from freelancers who charge a lot (most notably: Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs). Take a screenshot of this comment as witness, but I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates. Paying for stuff that doesn't deliver value is dumb.
- alanmackenzie 14y agoChallenge accepted, thanks for the answers.
- lutusp 14y ago> Take a screenshot of this comment as witness, but I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates. Some advice -- you really, really don't want to do this. You don't need to guarantee results to sell a worthwhile book, and IMHO you shouldn't. Here's why: 1. Let's say you have a profit margin of 20% on your book overall -- printing costs, promotion, etc. versus income. 2. Let's also say that 80% of your book's readers do increase their client base as you claim. 3. The problem is that the remaining 20% can take you at your word, demand a refund, explain that the book was lost in a fire, and succeed in wiping out your profit. 4. Worse, someone might say your claim moved your book from the category of an ordinary caveat-emptor purchase, to a guarantee of success, and demand consequential damages. Very bad, and you made it possible. It works like this: Because of the First Amendment, an author can say virtually anything in a book -- anything. But when you make a claim about a book's contents to motivate sales, you short-circuit First Amendment protections -- you turn your book from a freely expressed opinion, to a method with a guaranteed outcome. Very bad idea. > Paying for stuff that doesn't deliver value is dumb. Not as dumb as making an unnecessary claim that has a potentially disastrous outcome. Just my opinion, expressed in words, with no guarantees.
- kayoone 14y agoThis post is great marketing for mentioned unfinished book. The HN frontpage is probably the perfect target audience, well put!
- bdunn 14y agoBut by far the lowest converting traffic source :-) Thanks!
- thibaut_barrere 14y agoIt's definitely a low converting traffic source, but then it brings an interesting coverage/publicity, tends to generate retweets etc (based on my experience on http://hackerbooks.com/ http://hackerbooks.com/).
- thibaut_barrere 14y ago"Money – cold, hard cash – on the other hand. That’s the ultimate form of validation." This is priceless especially considering how much effort goes into writing a book or creating a SaaS product.
- manmal 14y agoHow do you actually contact people to ask for this? Emailing people? Or making a signup page and see who clicks on the (faux) "buy" button?
- thibaut_barrere 14y agoFor my coming SaaS product (https://www.wisecashhq.com https://www.wisecashhq.com), I created a signup page back in september 2011, then tweeted regularly when I worked on it and mentioned it around (shipping end of september 2012). It gradually got around 200 "pre-signups", and I used the list to contact people as well and verify my assumptions. I will write a blog post about that soon!
- manmal 14y agoThat's what we have done either (but with an Adwords campaign, to see how much traffic there is to be had from Google), but I think that's no commitment to cash, just "I'm interested". I once read here on HN that bootstrappers should actually ask people whether they would pay X$ for that - but now being in this situation, I wonder how to actually do that, knowing none of the future audience in person.
- thibaut_barrere 14y agoAhh I see. The thing is I picked an audience where I know some people in person and asked right away if some would pay. In all cases, I would contact people (by email/phone/whatever) to engage a discussion and ask the "True Question" :) I do agree that "I'm interested" is absolutely not the same as "I'm paying for this, here's my CC number".
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- manmal 14y agoI am one of those 57 buyers.. I stumbled across the book after having seen the link in another article that was on HN. HN is the right audience for this book indeed :)
- bdunn 14y agoThanks! Looking forward to your review.
- danso 14y agoGreat post...it also introduced me to this book, Exceptional Ruby: http://exceptionalruby.com/ http://exceptionalruby.com/ Buying it right now.
- xyzzyb 14y agoExceptional Ruby is indeed fantastic. If you like it, you may be interested in Avdi's current book project "Confident Ruby": http://devblog.avdi.org/2012/06/05/confident-ruby-beta/ http://devblog.avdi.org/2012/06/05/confident-ruby-beta/
- Sodaware 14y agoThe lesson here: The best way to sell stuff is by selling stuff. Look at what's involved: * Guest posts / articles to become known as an expert * Emailing a list of interested parties * AdWords, preferably in a campaign that can scale * Twitter and other social media Learning to write good copy, or finding someone to do it for you, will have an impact on your business. I still get a trickle of traffic (that converts well) from an article I wrote over 6 years ago. I'd much rather spend time adding "one more feature", but a few hours spent writing quality content will have a much larger impact on the bottom line.
- K2h 14y agoThat looks interesting enough that I sent a link to a friend. Sometimes making to HN front page does pay. update: She bought it last week.
- lutusp 14y agoI hate to sound old-fashioned, but this puts the cart before the horse. Authors should have a book available for sale before accepting delivery payments. Ask any publisher how this sort of thing usually works out.
- ky3 14y agoIt's not a bug, it's a feature! The reader gets involved in the making of the book, the writer gets a way to talk with their best customers, everyone wins. A savvy author trumps a crappy publisher any time.
- lutusp 14y ago> The reader gets involved in the making of the book, the writer gets a way to talk with their best customers, everyone wins. Not disparaging this specific author or publisher, but this was once accomplished by having advance reviewers offer their criticisms without any money changing hands. > A savvy author trumps a crappy publisher any time. Yes, but not the reverse. :)
- mikey_p 14y agoHaving an advanced review by a reviewer is not the same as feedback from actual customers.
- bdunn 14y agoFrom my perspective, there's nothing more motivating than having people chomping at the bit to get their hands on your book. The end product is arguably better because it's not being written in a vacuum and is bolstered by a ton of support.
- lutusp 14y agoYes, but that end can be accomplished through pre-publication excerpts and interviews, not by accepting payments for a book not yet written. The former increases public enthusiasm for a book, the latter doesn't. Reasonable people may differ.
- rglover 14y agoI've really enjoyed the build up to the book. I haven't pre-ordered yet (mainly because I wanted to see how serious the author was), but Brendan has been on top of his game. I've received maybe 2-3 emails, each containing great little bits of information sharing info that (I imagine) will be further articulated in the book. The best part: it's hyper-relevant. I'm coming up with strategies for my design business and Brendan's insight has already influenced some early direction. Give this dude your money (I'm about to), he's doing it right.
- bdunn 14y agoThank you, sir! Looking forward to hearing your review - and most importantly, how effective it was helping raise your rates for all the right reasons.
- beaker 14y agoThe copy on this article and the book page itself feels so spammy that I would never buy the product. I respect the desire/need to make money, but I do think a certain percentage of your potential audience will be turned off immediately by the excessive use of this type of obvious marketing-speak (excessive use of bold fonts, short, pointed sentences, all the vague truisms, "money back guarantee"..). I hope this doesn't become the standard type of post on Hacker News, I'm sorry but after clicking on that link it really feels like I've just been spammed.
- dchuk 14y agotake off the tinfoil hat, there's a reason you see that kind of copywriting and styling a lot...it works, and it works very well. So long as the product being sold is legitimate, usage of that styling and copy is more than acceptable as it's a proven way to increase sales and conversions. Marketing != Evil
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- bdunn 14y agoThanks for the comment, and I used to agree with just about everything you said. However, there's nothing at all wrong with "marketing-speak". It's based on psychology: people skim, bolding is used to emphasize importance, and money back guarantees - well, they're exactly what they mean. For most things, I personally prefer easily digestible content over blocks and blocks of text.
- shredfvz 14y agoSo instead of arguing ... what % of HNers are actually clicking through to your "no bullshit" offer? Very few articles on the front page of HN are littered with testimonials and sales copy.
- bdunn 14y agoI've made just under $1,000 in sales today from HN. 1 in 7 people who have clicked through to the article go to the sales page. EDIT: I'm sure a few people people are skeptical. Here's a screenshot from ejunkie (and I just crossed over the $1k mark): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2205912/Screen%20Shot%202012-08-23%20at%204.20.01%20PM.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2205912/Screen%20Shot%202012-08-23%...