ShareThispromote Where the !@#% did my day go?
1 |
I'll test a number of methods to promote my guide. I will track each activity, how long I perform it, number of sales, then analyze effectiveness of each. |
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Just doing the promotion is good, as is being quantitative - something I've avoided in the past. Of course *sales* is the goal! |
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When I've run out of "start up" promotional ideas. Then I'll move on to investigating longer-term methods such as paid ads. |
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By being curious about what works. Open to surprises. Celebrating each sale. |
Comments & Observations
Matthew Cornell ended #1: promote via newsletter. 8 sales, $232 gross. 2.5% of 280 subscribers. pleased! is the newsletter worth it? aweber itself is ~$17/mo, and I've put out 6 issues, so I'd give a qualified "yes," though there are other kinds of potential value from it. I'll continue, but *try* to cut back time spent on it ;-)
Sep 16, 2009
Matthew Cornell best I can tell, following did not lead to sales:
o Brock's kind post
o update "A daily planning experiment" post
o add guide to right sidebars
o tweet it
However, the first three are valuable in other ways.
Sep 17, 2009
Brock Tice Yeah I only have about 60-100 subscribers, it varies. In general I treat my blog as more of a long-term thing. It sits out there collecting Google juice. Perhaps later on when people go to search for daily planning it'll help.
Sep 17, 2009
Matthew Cornell Your review is (and will continue to be) helpful, Brock. As was your proofing and excellent comments. I'm in your debt.
Sep 17, 2009
Brock Tice There was a comment on my blog post about price today -- I don't know whether you want to address it there, but just FYI.
Sep 17, 2009
Matthew Cornell Thanks, Brock. I told him a student discount is available. Re price, setting one is an art - actually, an experiment, if done right. However, A/B testing is beyond me right now. I felt the $15-30 range would be reasonable, given the possible positive impact of the work, and that if anyone was going to buy, the difference would not tip the scales.
Sep 18, 2009
Matthew Cornell Blog results so far are surprising.
Sep 18, 2009
Matthew Cornell Re Brock's reader's comment on price, a personal observation: "The subject experienced strong emotions of sadness and self-doubt when observing the feedback."
Sep 18, 2009
Matthew Cornell liza says: 1000, 100, 10, 1 - ratio for conversion. Exposed, read, think, buy. i.e., 1000:1. My blog results bear that out: 5/2000. Actually I did a fraction better than average. My newsletter was a major home run, then.
Sep 21, 2009
Matthew Cornell email to former client in a small business: a sale!
Sep 23, 2009
Matthew Cornell i'm tracking this in a simple spreadsheet with a date field for the activity - either promotion work I did or a sale, so that I can try to correlate. I'm sure this could be done better via Analytics, but it's about the best I can do..
Sep 23, 2009
Brock Tice Do you not have your own analytics running on your ebook page? It's so easy to set up, and so informative!
Sep 23, 2009
Matthew Cornell Analytics is set up on my site, but I still need to connect it to the products and to e-junkie better. Right now it feels like putting more effort into this is less important than getting the word out. Thanks for the reminder.
Sep 30, 2009
Brock Tice The basic analytics will take you a long way. I'm having issues linking analytics to adwords in google's cart, but the analytics alone are very very helpful. New thing for me, which I suppose I should post here, is trying google's web site optimizer to do split testing.
Oct 02, 2009
Matthew Cornell Continuing working through the list of bloggers I know personally. Just now: Asked Chris Brogan :-) We'll see!
Oct 13, 2009
Matthew Cornell Emailed David Seah - great guy. http://davidseah.com
Oct 15, 2009
Matthew Cornell Asked Dwayne Melancon, who writes the awesome http://genuinecuriosity.com/ (Best blog name on the planet. I wish I'd thought of it :-)
Oct 16, 2009
Matthew Cornell Update on results of asking for help from fellow bloggers:
o bob walsh 2009-09-20, responded, but not out yet
o David Seah 2009-10-15 responded, not out yet
o chris brogan 2009-10-13, no response (Disappointing, esp. given that he knows me, and that I promoted his book last month)
o Mark Shead 2009-09-23, responded, then had a baby early!
Time to write some more folks...
Oct 23, 2009
Matthew Cornell asked Pamela Slim at http://escapefromcubiclenation.com to mention and/or review :-)
Oct 25, 2009
Matthew Cornell Mark Shead put his up :-) got my first batch of sales (a handful)
Oct 26, 2009
Matthew Cornell As an experiment I pinged Chris via Facebook to see if I could get a response. Doesn't *quite* feel like begging - just being persistent.
Oct 26, 2009
Matthew Cornell Hey, Chris wrote back and is going to help! :-)
Oct 27, 2009
Matthew Cornell I think CIO magazine ran a little mention. I haven't caught a google alert, but I saw a CEO of a LARGE org bought a copy. Tracking with certainty is making this harder to do.
Nov 08, 2009
Liza Cunningham Congrats Matt, that is super exciting!
Nov 09, 2009
Brock Tice Nice!
Nov 09, 2009
Matthew Cornell Next step: Send an unsolicited email to my LinkedIn contacts (307 of them). This is a tad scary for me as I dislike doing something people don't like. But hey - in this case they all know me, and it's a short message. So: Healthy Detachment says: I will be collecting /data/ - will anyone push back? Will I get any sales? NB: The latter is *still* hard to measure, though in this case sales have dropped off, so I can pretty much assume any new sales are from my mailing. I was going to use aweber, but it uses an opt-in, which I don't want to do. As Liza and I discussed, I could offer a coupon, but I'm deciding not to do so - it feels a bit salesy, and I want to keep the message very short.
I think most Edison users will see it soon ;-)
Nov 16, 2009
Brock Tice I kind of thought, "WTF?" Matt knows that I know about his guide. Now this makes more sense. Perhaps in the future you should customize the list to avoid sending to people that you know are already aware of the guide? I don't really mind it, and I understand your reasons, but others might have a similar or worse reaction.
Nov 16, 2009
Matthew Cornell Good point, Brock. I took the lazy route - which was an intentional stretch for me. Responses have been very positive, I think because everyone I emailed knows me personally, and probably gave me a break - like you kindly did.
Nov 17, 2009
Matthew Cornell Linkedin results very gratifying - much higher than the <1 sale predicted by 1000:1! In addition, David Seah, a very well read blogger, was kind enough to post a positive review. Sales from that were the biggest response i've gotten from one marketing event so far. I am so grateful to David, and to each customer. It's a privilege. Interestingly, I had a sale to a published time management author - 2nd tier under David Allen, but still well-respected, national publisher, etc. My first reaction was one of fear! It kicked off my "I'm gonna get in trouble" authority response! I noticed my reaction right away, then connected it to an idea Liza shared around accepting, in this case, accepting success, and that I'd attracted interest from someone I look up to.
The ride just got a little wilder...
Nov 18, 2009
Matthew Cornell Sales keep trickling in - one every day or so. I can't find their source; steady state building? I've dropped the promotion while taking care of my mom's estate (http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/experiments/show/90) but I'll start up soon.
Dec 05, 2009
Matthew Cornell An interesting thing I noticed: People who ask for sample pages or for discounts uniformly don't buy. Hey - This means I can say no!
Dec 12, 2009
Brock Tice So, Matt, if I go to Google and search for "Daily Planning", your guide is nowhere to be found. Maybe it's time to work on that? I've stopped running Google ads for my night lights, because my site is now the top ranked site for my target keywords. :) It's not too hard to do -- if you want to discuss let me know, I've done it with a number of things, including my personal contact info. (My business cards just have my name on the front with "Just Google me and click 'I'm feeling lucky'").
Dec 31, 2009
Matthew Cornell Following up one more time with Chris brogan - upping the intensity a bit by writing a card and mentioning that I helped /his/ promotion effort when he asked a month ago. We'll see!
Jan 09, 2010
Matthew Cornell Good thinking, Brock. I should work on it. I wonder what potential readers would search for. Daily planning is a solution, but maybe the problem should be the focus... I hired someone a while ago for some SEO help, and when we looked at organic keywords we found surprisingly few hits for the time management terms you'd expect - "overload", "procrastinating", etc. I'd love to get some help on ads. The results were dismal. Thanks!
Jan 10, 2010
Brock Tice You've got analytics running now, right? Are you tracking conversions with it? Do you know what keywords people *are* using to find your book that result in purchases?
Ads aside, there should be some good ways to get your book ranked for keywords that you really want it ranked for (eesh).
Jan 11, 2010
Matthew Cornell That's the problem - I don't know much of anything about where folks are coming from. This lack of data is a problem, and indicates a weakness in the experiment. I need to hire someone. Any suggestions?
Jan 17, 2010
Brock Tice Can't say I have any, aside from using Google Analytics. You should be able to hook it up to your e-junkie cart and then use that to find what words people are using when they buy. If you get stuck I suppose I could do it, but it's not my bread and butter.
Jan 18, 2010
Matthew Cornell My process dead-ends at e-junkie - no analytics support. Most people use special discount codes to track. and thank you for the offer to help. I should hire someone someday.
Jan 18, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm starting promoting to my LinkedIn, with Bradley University being the first (http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?start=&gid=54561&trk=myg_ugrp_ask). I've decided to use this topic: "How to use daily planning to make every day a great workday", i.e., to give them some value. I'm a bit scared as I worry I'll get flak for plugging my work. Thus I'll aim for a "What the hell!" attitude. :-) Here it is: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=54561&discussionID=12537646&sik=1263918545756&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.ana_54561_1263918545756_3_1
Jan 19, 2010
Matthew Cornell With my mom's death and my being made executor (a steady ~20 hour/week job) I've had no time for promoting, and sales have stopped. I'm thinking of outsourcing somehow, probably with ads of some sort. Suggestions? I want a TTL-style of small experiment...
Jan 22, 2010
Matthew Cornell I had two sales since the Bradley promotion. Again, it's hard to connect the two, but I'll definitely continue the LI ones - they're easy.
Jan 25, 2010
T. Graham Westerlund This is cool. I just approved the proofs for a new collection of short stories based around "Things Japanese" I would love to know what works best for you in promoting your book. I'm going to implement an overlay on bionicbong.com that will pop up when any page loads and offer the book. I'm thinking maybe to help generate sales of the books that we will donate $1000 to charity for every 100 books we sell.
https://www.createspace.com/3416838
Jan 25, 2010
Matthew Cornell I like it Graham - go for it! In the TTL spirit, is there some small step that you could do that would get you a lot of information about what would work?
Next step: Post to the Five Colleges Alumni Group at LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=73954&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr).
Re: Bradley results, if I assume 2 sales resulted out of ~2,000 members, then Liza's 1000:1 ratio holds. So for the 5 college group of ~1,000 members, one sale would be good.
Jan 25, 2010
Matthew Cornell Had one sale yesterday, possibly due to the Five College post. Today: Linked Western Mass. So for I've received no pushback, and results have been about in line with 1000:1. Which means I need to get in front of a LOT more people. I'll finish up the LinkedIn discussion group effort first, though.
Jan 27, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm going to start using bit.ly instead of the direct URL. I learned about it on http://happn.in/, and it's simpler than a coupon code, analytics, etc. First test: In this month's newsletter I'll use my Amazon affiliate link to Why men don't listen :-) http://bit.ly/cwFK5C
Jan 27, 2010
Matthew Cornell Continuing working through LinkedIn groups, but it's clear that my main success was through my large productivity blogging network. So: What's the next step? I'm thinking some ads, or a site that promotes ebooks for a fee. Ideas?
Feb 01, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm trying writing a LinkedIn question about how to promote an ebook. Naturally I've included a link to the book, so I might get two kinds of help :-)
Best venues to promote an ebook on productivity/time management to a large audience?
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/advertising-promotion/internet-marketing/MAR_ADP_INM/625247-3653507?browseIdx=0&sik=1265059867235&goback=%2Eamq
Feb 01, 2010
Matthew Cornell Sales are zero. Will review LI responses at the seven day mark. A colleague recommended http://www.bitsdujour.com/partnerInfo/ , btw.
Feb 06, 2010
Matthew Cornell I think my next experiment will be a small one using FaceBook's advertising system. In Think, Try, Learn we argue that small, fast experiments are best when considering something new. I think FB's ad system is a little less intimidating that Google's, so I'll start there. To keep it from being too heavy, I'll try varying only the title/market, and leave the image and body the same. Candidates include GTD ("GTD not working?" or "Boost your GTD chops"), overwhelm, job searching, etc.
Feb 14, 2010
Brock Tice It's actually pretty easy to set up Google ads (looks complicated but you can just ignore most of it) -- let me know if/when you want a quick rundown and I'll be happy to discuss it. One thing of note: do remember that DavidCo are a little touchy about the use of the term GTD. I know we've discussed this in the past.
Feb 14, 2010
Matthew Cornell Thanks to Brock for the AdWords tutorial, and for the Nudge ;-) Next week things will slow down and I'll be able to start my first ad. It's crucial I keep it /very/ simple, e.g., no variables (title, text), short timeline, etc.
Feb 24, 2010
Brock Tice Oh, hey, you need to put commas between your tags.
Feb 25, 2010
Matthew Cornell Got it - thanks! Still getting used to the system :-)
Feb 26, 2010
Matthew Cornell I'm still flirting with the idea of hiring someone to do this for me. It seems overwhelming at this point, though Brock's tutorial on AdWords was straightforward.
May 12, 2010
Matthew Cornell Just an update: Totally stuck due to exhaustion, even though the actual work is not huge.
24 days ago