
$6,000+ of app design ebook sales today - rob41
http://nathanbarry.com/learned-selling-6000-ebook-today/
======
bdunn
Nathan - congrats buddy!

There are a few key takeaways _anyone_ who has a product, or wants to create a
product, should take note of.

* Email lists are very, very important. I was also able to market my freelancing book to 2,000+ freelancers on my Planscope list. Like Nathan with his weekly list, I had a huge head start.

* Additionally, the theory that you can't sell to the HN audience is bunk. When I wrote a post similar to Nathan's about how I netted $2k in presales, I made another $1k that day alone off HN traffic. And I'm absolutely certain that Nathan is making sales right now from HN. Something to keep in mind: HN doesn't like being sent to marketing sites. HN wants immediate and direct value. So instead of just showing off your latest product, put together a post about what technical or promotional hurdles you went through putting together your product - i.e., sell through education. __Look at my submissions to see this in action for both my products. __

* Increase customer LTV wherever possible. You could pay Nathan $29 for the book, which triggers as an OK price to pay for most of us. Now that you're interested, for $30 more you can get some videos and PSDs. These people came for one thing and left with another, the same underlying theory supermarkets use to upsell you at the checkout line.

* Nathan now has a mailing list of people who have _already taken out their credit cards for him_ in the past. This is pure gold.

~~~
petercooper
_Email lists are very, very important. I was also able to market my
freelancing book to 2,000+ freelancers on my Planscope list._

I'll second this (along with the scores of people I've discussed this topic
with) because I accidentally turned this into my full-time business!

I started my Ruby Weekly newsletter merely with the goal of promoting books
and screencasts I wanted to make but it has gone a bit _too_ well and now I
have 75k subscribers to speak with. Sadly still no books.. but the training
and screencasts have gone well.

~~~
bdunn
And because you're dishing out a weekly email, you're keeping the list healthy
and motivated.

I've made the mistake (and I know a lot of other's have too) of: build email
list, silence, silence, silence, SELL SELL SELL. ...And then Mailchimp
contacts you about your unsubscribe rate being too high :-)

------
nathanbarry
Update: I am now at $11,536.90 in less than 24 hours of sales. I guess I can
cross "Make $10,000 in one day" off my bucket list!

~~~
ryangilbert
Awesome! Congrats!

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OWaz
I just bought the book and the preview chapter is what convinced me that the
book was worth owning. The content was new to me and it was obvious you've put
in a lot of effort. I'm just at the beginning stages of iOS development and I
thought reading your book now will be a good start to get me thinking
differently about app development.

------
rob41
I contributed to that $6k with a book purchase today. Nicely done Nathan!

~~~
nathanbarry
Thanks Rob! I always appreciate the support.

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philipalexander
How much of this marketing for an ebook do you think applies for a
conventional book launch through a publisher? I guess that question also
applies to any other tangible product for that matter?

~~~
nathanbarry
Since I haven't done traditional publishing, I don't really know. But I do
know that in a traditional format it would take a lot more work for
considerably less revenue.

I really think for technical books/guides like this digital publishing is the
way to go.

------
keiferski
I have a question, for you Nathan, or even anyone who has published an ebook.
Do you think a large portion of your success is due to the commercial nature
of the book? (You help people make better apps, which makes them money) Or, is
it just one among many factors?

I ask because I am contemplating writing an ebook, but it's more of a self-
help-style book. Nothing cheesy, I promise. But the premise is more of "I'll
help you accomplish X" rather than "I'll help you build beautiful apps/achieve
Y technical feature."

Thanks a ton, and good luck.

~~~
nathanbarry
Really it comes down to proving value. The price and content doesn't matter
(very much) if the value is there. People like Chris Guillebeau
(<http://chrisguillebeau>) sell digital guides on all kinds of subjects and do
well.

Though generally something that helps people make money will be easier to
justify. Send me an email (nathan@thinklegend.com) with more info and I'd be
happy to give more detailed feedback.

~~~
keiferski
Great answer, I really appreciate it.

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melling
Nathan, I almost completely missed this. I woke up to it on HN. Yes, I did get
your email yesterday around 8:30am but when I read it on my iPhone, I skimmed
right to the center section, with the 4 icons, which is now my routine after
getting it for months. Your book has been coming for a while so didn't
actually notice that it shipped.

Anyway, I'd suggest a more prominent headline in your next newsletter, or even
include the different versions. Heck, why not just dedicate half an issue to
discussing it?

~~~
nathanbarry
I didn't want to seem like I was spamming my list by focusing on it too much.
Though I will continue to mention it in the coming weeks.

Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter!

------
npguy
During the gold rush the people who made money were the ones who sold the
tools. Same logic applies here. (nothing against that btw it is just how it
works)

~~~
nathanbarry
I've made money on both sides. $40k on selling apps, now $7k selling the book
(the tool in your analogy). I think it is good to do both.

~~~
npguy
That's great Nathan and Thanks for sharing as well.

Truly inspiring for all the folks sitting on Xcode day in an day out

------
connorski
Awesome article.

Question about Gumroad - it looks like you are able to make purchases directly
from your site <http://nathanbarry.com/app-design-handbook/> and not have to
be directed to <https://gumroad.com/l/AppDesign>. Is this the norm for Gumroad
or did you have to add anything custom to the process?

~~~
nathanbarry
That is standard with Gumroad using their modal feature. It was really easy to
setup!

------
jcampbell1
This is a fantastic article, I learned a ton.

Unfortunately when I went to buy the product, it dead locks chrome at 100%
process usage, and it breaks scrolling in a bad way.

I also don't like the pricing: \- give me an obvious choice like the
Economist. At the bottom there should be a launch day offer for $80 that gives
me the full package for being a pre-review adopter. I need your product, but
as it stands there was no clear package to choose.

~~~
bdunn
I like having the tiered pricing, but I would probably minimize the 50 user
license package.

You should absolutely test this assumption, but I might try:

$49 -> book

$249 -> book + Photoshop originals + X hours of premium tutorial videos +
Obj-C PDF + sample project

You'll get +$10 for the baseline purchase, and I think a lot of people who are
willing to drop $50 might be _very_ persuaded to almost 5x their price for the
value you're putting in the fully loaded package. You're solving a real pain,
and people who do this for a living drop money on pain killers.

------
propercoil
I'm always happy when a geek makes money, way to go!

~~~
nathanbarry
Me too. I love these success stories, so I make sure to share my own revenue
numbers.

~~~
ideamonk
Congrats! I love it when money making geeks share revenue numbers.

------
nobleach
I emailed you this morning, read your blog entries and bought the book about
20 minutes later.... very good stuff.

------
noirman
Awesome stuff.

Two things I thought would significantly boost your sales:

1) Try book reviews by bloggers 2) Run deals on AppSumo, etc?

~~~
nathanbarry
If I had my launch planned better I would have had book reviews go live today.
But unfortunately I got overwhelmed and didn't get that done. Maybe next time!

------
antidaily
No money to be made in the App store, much to be made teaching people how to
build apps. Kudos.

~~~
patio11
Teaching people commercially relevant skills which bill out at $150 an hour is
a great thing for everyone involved. (And in that light this is possibly
_severely underpriced_. I love the packaging options available, but I think
there is probably also a packaging option for selling the same benefit to
customers at 10X the prices on this page right now.)

~~~
nathanbarry
I knew at some point you would tell me it was underpriced! :)

Patrick, thanks for all your encouragement and reminders to charge based on
value. Without that I would have picked a much lower price and probably made
half the money.

------
ryangilbert
Love that you used Gumroad for the sales. :)

~~~
nathanbarry
Me too. They are fantastic! I plan to post a detailed review later on.

------
locusm
Great post Nathan. What tools did you use to author the ebook and are you
looking beyond pdf format?

~~~
chinmoy
Yes! I would like to know a bit more about the tools used to create the ebook
too.

------
aymeric
Congratulations Nathan. Great article, great landing page for your book too.

------
volcom
I just bought a copy. Looking forward to great designed apps.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
How long did it take to get the confirmation email? I've been waiting over 3
hours now.

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overdeliver
You've probably heard the following parable:

Little Bull: "Let's run down the hill and make sweet love to a couple of
cows."

Big Bull: "I got a better idea, let's walk down and make sweet love to them
all."

When you have content of a transient nature, you got to get the going while
the going is good. An ebook launch like this will get the job done.

However, if you write a book that will blow people's minds and change a
culture or an industry forever, you don't need the big launch. The name of
your book will be whispered into the ears of others for a long time. You will
get your sales.

The latter is a lot harder to do, but I'm hoping I can do just that.

Watch this space.

~~~
nathanbarry
I agree that you want the book to truly influence people, but I think you'd be
surprised how important a strong launch is. Don't underestimate the importance
of making a big splash right away.

