How To Write an Ebook PLR Package – My Results

On 5/30 I released a new PLR package on How To write an ebook and if you're curious about it and how much I've made in the first 20 days, this post is for you.

First off, I am a PLR writer but I usually write PLR articles because they're faster and easier for me to do. BUT, I like to change it up occasionally and do some ebook packages because, while they're a LOT more work, the potential income is greater.

Here is the website where I sell only these bigger items: www.plr-packages.com
And here is the sales page for From Idea to Ebook.

 

I like to make these as helpful as possible for people to have success with so I include:

• the ebook
• sales page to go with it
• download page
• report they can use for optins
• squeeze page for the report
• 5 autoresponder emails to help pre-sell the main product
• all the graphics including blanks and PSDs
• instruction guide
• guide on how to make this as successful as possible for the customer.

A lot of time goes into this for me. I love starting in on the writing process and get a lot accomplished in the beginning. I get bogged down in the middle with whiny thoughts of "Will this EVER be done?" [as mentioned on Paul Wolfe's excellent site]. Plus I get pulled away to work on other aspects of my businesses. Then I gain momentum towards the end and finish up the book with a happy and relieved flourish.

But I'm not done.

I puzzle through topics for the accompanying report. I don't like reports that are merely giving parts of the ebook. I think reports should compliment, not give the same info but less of it. So I bounce ideas off my favorite smart marketer friend, Alan Petersen, and come up with a great one.

I outsource the graphics to Buddy at Coverscorp and the sales page (the one that goes with the product) to Elisabeth Kuhn. Both do a wonderful job. Packaging everything up and making sure the images are in the right folder for the customers makes me very cranky! I'm working with 2 packages of images (one for the ebook and one for the report) so I have to rename all of them because I can't have two header.jpg, footer.jpg, etc.

Last, but very important, I write some emails and load up some graphics for my affiliates to use.

 

Once it's all done and bundled up all pretty-like, the real work begins.

Decisions, decisions, decisions… again bouncing thoughts off Alan.

WSO or not?  (Offering it at a discount on the Warrior Forum) 
WSO pricing? What are others currently doing?  Regular pricing?
Limit sales of WSO? To what? Limit all sales to what?

So I decide to offer the product as a PLR WSO for half price and limit the sales there to 100. I have it on my site for regular price and will (potentially) sell a total of 100 more there.

I post my WSO with a lot of cursing and hair-pulling angst on my part because the formatting always adds mysterious spaces and extra lines. Grrrrr.

Well here we are 20 days into it!

There have been almost 90 sales so far, with about 1/3 coming through my affiliates.

I've also made several sales of my other packages as I have them featured on the download page (not on sale or anything, just mentioned with links). Even my holiday and families ebook is making sales which makes me very happy as this was a labor of love.

MY PLR list has grown because I give customers the opportunity to sign up for notifications. This is exciting because it means they're happy with the quality of my product and are interested in buying future products! Note – I don't make people optin to get their product, I just let them know they can hop on the list if they want to be notified in the future.

WSOs gain steam when they have lots of views and it turns the little icon on fire. This makes them catch the eyes of browsing parties. Positive comments also give the post some buzz.

My first comments were download issues. Apparently I shouldn't have bundled everything together because the zip file was too huge for some people to download. So I corrected that as quick as possible (while sweating profusely). I'd always separated it out before so I don't know why I did it differently this time.

Note – Always stick around when you start a WSO to handle any unforseen issues! Sometimes it's your fault and sometimes it's not, but you need to have prompt customer service and make it right, or better than right, for them.

Here's a couple unsolicited comments that made me smile big:

hi Peggy
1st time buyer of your PLR products and so far I've read through 10 pages and I'm pretty impressed. You've got a rock solid product.

sunnygc

 

Hi Peggy,

I skimmed the ebook quickly, it's definitely a solid PLR product, better than most of what you get elsewhere.

The marketing material looks good to, I just checked the emails and I wouldn't hesitate to send them to my subscribers.

Ralf

Also worth mentioning is that sales of my regular PLR articles also increased. These were from new people whether they bought my WSO or not. Gotta love that!

I also love that people like these complete deals. I really want to do more of them but they are very time-consuming to do. I'm working out possible scenarios in my head as to how to further streamline this process to make it faster. I outsource the sales page for the ebook and the graphics and I have templates for my own sales page. I won't outsource the ebook writing because that's the part I like to do, plus my reputation is built on my quality. Plus, I admit it… I'm a control freak.

My favorite part of posting is getting to read what YOU have to say!  

• What ideas do you have to speed it all up? Without me spending more than I would make?
• What questions do you have about writing and selling PLR?
• Or do you have questions about any of the selling/marketing process I've talked about in this whole post?

I croaked when I got this email…

Have you ever gotten an email that gave you that punched in the gut feeling?  I felt like that yesterday. All I could think of was my hard work going down the drain and losing customers (before I even had them, mind you!)

Maybe you got the same email I did?

It was from Jimmy D. Brown, Mr. Nearly Perfect Guru With Integrity?

His email was about a new ecourse on how to profit from PLR and also how to sell PLR.  Ding ding ding!  The alarm was going off inside my head.  I just released my new ebook, Become a PLR Writer. I didn't do a big launch, just let my friends know.  Plus I did an interview with Tristan Higbee that was lots of fun.  I've been working up the backend and starting to talk to affiliates. 

photo credit: liewcf

So I'm thinking my ebook is now sunk in the water and I go off to wallow in self-misery.  If this isn't a good excuse to break out the chocolate, I don't know what is.

So while I'm having my private pity party and wondering how the little guys, like me, can compete with big marketers like Mr. Nearly Perfect Guru With Integrity, I come up with a couple thoughts.

1.  His product is targeted more towards people who want to learn how to use PLR successfully.  Yes, it's a two part deal, but more emphasis seems to be on learning to profit from PLR.  And the promo emails I've received from his affiliates are pushing that angle.

2.  His product comes with a steeper price tag, $197.  I'm absolutely sure it's worth it.  I own several of his products myself and I know Jimmy D. Brown puts out nothing but the best.  But my point here is he is targeting a different customer base than I am. 

I am offering a product for just under $18 and I think that appeals to many people who are looking for an online business model they can follow without having to spend a lot of money.  I could have added more to the product, but then I would have raised the price and that would defeat my purpose.

Okay, I feel a bit better. And you know what?  I made 2 more sales while I was feeling miserable. 

Don't get me wrong, I feel great about Become a PLR Writer and I believe it can really help people. I'm also very excited about the backend product I'm putting the finishing touches on.  It's not about the money (ok, a little) but it's more about knowing something really well and passing it on to help others.

Slow and steady wins the race (that cliche is for you, Mark at icebluebanana.com)  and I won't stop putting out products!

Thanks for listening, er… reading.

I'd like to hear what you think!

• Has this ever happened to you?
• What price point would you rather buy at (with the value of the product in line with the price point)?
• How do you market your products to make them stand out in the crowd?

Testing The New Warrior Forum Articles Forum

The last post I put up here, Several Reasons To Use PLR Articles was a test.  You see the Warrior Forum just added a new sub-forum for Articles.  Now there are some reasons why you might want to post there:

1. To strut your stuff – be seen as an expert in your niche. [BTW, all articles have to do with online or offline marketing.]
2. Get the people on the Warrior forum to click on your links and join your list or buy your stuff.
3. Get your article indexed quickly and ranked high in the Google search engine so everyone else can find you too.  Traffic is the game-changer.

 

So I’m testing #3 above.  I quickly wrote an article and posted it on the WF Articles Forum and this is what I see:

It was indexed by Google in less than 11 minutes.

The article ranked #4 for my primary keyword phrase (no quotes) out of 542,000.

It ranked #22 for another keyword phrase I only stuck in the article once – not in the title or opening or closing paragraphs – just to see how it would do.  That was out of 842,000.  Wow!  Just think if I’d used it more in the article.

 

Now to compare that, I also posted the article, Several Reasons To Use PLR Articles, here.  It’s my post previous to this one.  These are the results:

It, too, was indexed quickly.  I forgot to check right away, but it was there when I checked at 17 minutes.

The article/post from this blog was ranked #190 for my primary keywords (as opposed to #4 via the Warrior Forum Articles Forum). 

As for the secondary keyword mentioned once in the article, I searched through 30 pages of Google search and did not find it.  Pffft.

 I think these results speak volumes!  I know it’s better to show up in the search engines with the link pointing to your own site, but if it’s a competitive keyword you’ve tried to get on page 1 to no avail, then having them find you via the WF link is the next best thing, IMHO.

The article has my author’s bio with links to my site, plus readers will see my WF signature which includes a nice clickable banner now. 

As far as traffic stats on this experiment, I’ll let you know.

* Oh, and another added bonus to this whole thing… I can write articles about PLR, which is HUGE for me since EzineArticles won’t accept any articles that even have the word PLR in them.

Several Reasons To Use PLR Articles

So what is the big deal about PLR articles anyway? Can they really help you or are they just a lot of nonsense? Actually, PLR can be a huge time-saver, especially when you are wearing all the hats in your online business. Read on for several ways PLR articles might come to your rescue.

• You don’t have any idea what to blog about next. Just look in your handy PLR folder and take out a bundle on your topic at hand. Bingo! Now you can use one of them directly, rewrite it, or let it trigger an idea for you to write about.
• You’re spending your time working on another project, but you want to keep adding content to your blog(s) so the search engines will remain happy.
• You want to post to all your blogs as often as possible and using PLR is like having more than one of you. It’s kind of like outsourcing without the back and forth interaction.

   

• The PLR articles you just bought will make a perfect autoresponder series working up to your product launch. For example, feed your list the wedding PLR you have about wedding problems to lead up to your new ebook about carefree destination weddings.
• Woo hoo! Now you have articles you can monetize and email to your list. That parenting PLR article pack will work nicely to promote those Clickbank parenting products you’d like to earn affiliate commission on.
• You want to create a report you can give away for free in exchange for email addresses. Put a whole PLR bundle together, add some tips, screenshots and stock photos and you’ve got an opt-in worthy report.

Going a little deeper on the reports idea and what you can do with the report you created from PLR:

Sell it.
Offer in a Giveaway to build your list.
Send it, no strings attached, to your list to foster list love.
Offer for free in order to go viral (your affiliate links are inside and along for the ride.)
Brand it and let everyone give it away with their affiliate links inside.
You’re itching to do a YouTube video – not about your embarrassing fall down the stairs – but about something that will show you as an expert in your field and drive traffic to your site. Take some of those private label rights and do screencasting videos or powerpoint presentations.

• Podcast, baby. It’s easy to read an article and create an audio. Now you can put it on your blog, add it as a bonus to your big product, offer it in a Giveaway, and more.
• You’re setting up a membership site in your niche and you’ve GOT to have new material for it every single week or month. Take each PLR article and add to it – explain in further detail, give concrete examples/stories/case studies, add tips, include links to resources, make video instructions or examples, etc. Wow, you’ve created quite the membership site using little ole PLR!

This is not a complete list of all the ways you can use PLR articles, but now that you know how to use them, you can definitely see why you would want to.

What are you waiting for? Grab some high quality PLR articles and put them to work for you. Peggy Baron at www.mynicheplr.com has got you covered.

Tiffany Dow’s PLR ATM

What is Tiffany Dow’s PLR ATM?  Let me set the stage first…

There are many people online who suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS) – meaning they go from one business idea that looks verrrry promising to the next one that pops up that looks even better.  They’re like the ADD squirrel zigzagging across my backyard looking for the perfect treasure… 

He’s thinking,
“Should I grab that nut?” 
“Ooooh, never mind, look at that pretty berry!”
“Wow, forget the berry, that is quite the apple over there!”

And so it goes until he ends up with nothing to bring home and my old dog on his tail.

Are you like that?  Never giving any true business idea your full efforts and building the business to make you real, ongoing income instead of short-term, flash-in-the-pan money?

I’m not perfect either.  I still feel the lure of Shiny Object Syndrome, but the more success I have with my online PLR business, the less attractive SOS is.  What a relief.

I’d love for you to find your path too, which brings me to introduce Tiffany Dow’s PLR ATM.  Plus I’ll explain what I’m doing to help people following PLR ATM, but more on that later.

Tiffany Dow is one of the top sellers of PLR articles and now she’s showing you how to open up your own PLR articles store.

• Do you like to write?
• Do you like passive income?  You know… do the work once and sell the product over and over?
• Do you like research?
• Do you like to sell the shovel?  Meaning do you like to create and sell products that will help make online marketers’ lives easier and help them to have success?

Then you might want to consider opening your own PLR store.  Tiff’s PLR ATM shows you how to do that by using a WordPress blog format.  She walks you through all the steps to getting up and running and selling your first PLR article pack.  She even explains how to outsource if you don’t want to do the writing yourself.

I think this is a valuable product for two reasons:

1.  It’s a REAL business model and it’s handed to you on a platter.

2.  My business is PLR so I can say firsthand that running a PLR store is a viable business that makes money.  I’m not claiming to be making millions but it’s income that helps feed my family.

So check it out if it interests you:  PLR ATM

And if you do decide to open a PLR store, I’ve whipped up a little something to help you…

I rememer how hard it was to start a store - I was madly writing and writing to create the PLR bundles that were to be my products.  I wanted to have some varied bundles on hand so when I drove traffic to my site, there was more of a selection (and more opportunities to make sales).

So to help YOU get started, I’ve written 6 packs that you can purchase and resell.  That way you can start with a bang!  This reseller PLR is my usual high quality articles, in popular niches, and they are packs of 5 so you could add a few of your own articles to the packs to make them bigger if you wanted.

Whew!  Thanks for reading to the end. I wanted to show you a business model I believe in, even though that means more competition for me.  Am I daft?

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