You Need a Valuable Bonus

    

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Through the years, I’ve purchased a number of products online. Many of them include a bonus or several  bonuses as an incentive to buy the product. From my experience, often these bonus items are disappointing and not useful to me. In this article, I want to emphasize how I took a different path with a bonus and why you need to get this book--and the bonus.

In early 2020, right before the pandemic, I was one of a small group of authors who took a three-day book funnel bootcamp in Boulder, Colorado. At that time I lived in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, but during the bootcamp I stayed in a hotel in Boulder. Before arriving at the event, I filled out a detailed questionnaire or advanced homework to make sure I brought what I needed to the bootcamp.

 At this practical bootcamp, we learned how to create an attractive offer for our book along with adding bonuses to the offer. As a group, we worked long hours to get feedback and refine our offer. 

Throughout the bootcamp there was a great deal of learning to use new tools, short lectures from the leaders then practical application of the instruction to your own book funnel. The book funnel involved signing up and using some behind-the-scenes tools to process the book sale. While I’ve seen several of the participants drop the product they produced, I’m still working and promoting my product. Throughout the process, I gathered a large folder of questions that I answered and tools that I can use when I create my next funnel (which has not happened). 

As I brainstormed my bonuses for the book funnel, I recalled interviewing one of my author friends who has sold thousands of his self-published books to public libraries. There are over 9,000 libraries who have budgets to buy books for their patrons. Online this author located a public list of the contact information for libraries. Taking several hours each day, my friend spent several hours a day calling the library and connecting with the reference librarian on the phone. Then he pitched the benefits of his book with some persuasive bullet points. As he closed his oral presentation, he asked the librarian for the sale and got the information he needed for his invoice. Each day, he would fill out the invoices, package his books and take them to his post office. Throughout my interview, this writer gave me the specifics of what he did to sell thousands of his books to libraries. These details are included in the audio bonus from my book funnel. It is a valuable bonus because any author (no matter how they publish) can use this system to sell their book to libraries.

As you read these details of selling books to libraries, you may be thinking: making all those phone calls and selling my book is a lot of work. From my experience there is no simple way to sell books that does not involve a lot of hard work. To achieve these sales, you will have to step out of your comfort zone, develop an oral presentation about the benefits of your book and sell it to the reference librarian. Your persistent and consistent effort will pay off and sell thousands of books. 

It’s another reason for you to order my 10 Publishing Myths book directly from me for only $10 including the shipping along with over $200 in free bonuses (including this audio about how to sell to libraries). 

Through the years, I’ve written a number of articles about libraries and the importance for authors. Check out these articles: Get Your Book into Libraries or Learn How to Reach the Library Market. I encourage you to follow these links to the article but also to the additional information and lnks in each article. It is not easy or simple for any author but the opportunity and the possibility is there for you--if you do the work.

How do you determine the free bonuses that you offer with your products? Do you brainstorm them with other writers or do it on your own? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

When you create a product, you need a valuable bonus. This prolific author and editor gives an example and the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

My Writing In Other Places:

With these articles, I encourage you to publish your work beyond your blog in other places. Below are two articles which were published in other online locations than this blog. 

Once a month, I guest blog for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference blog. This month I wrote about A Critical Element of Publishing at: https://bit.ly/4lTPV5H

Also once a month I blog for Writers on the Move. This month I wrote about The Hidden Costs of Publishing. Read the details here: https://bit.ly/40ghu05 

In addition, once a month I blog about book proposal creation for Almost An Author. This month I asked, Trying to Get A Literary Agent? here: https://bit.ly/4f8e3Pb

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week another podcast recording launched: 

CJ Johnson (@cj_moneyway) and I spoke about Publishing Success Starts Here: Terry Whalin on the 10 Myths Every Aspiring Author Must Break on The CJ Moneyway Podcast. Listen at: https://bit.ly/4fc2nev 

A great deal of the publishing process is outside of our control as writers. When I speak with authors, I find many of these authors have unrealistic expectations. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. You can get decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses.

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

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Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Six Platform-Building Short Cuts

For years, platform has been a buzz word throughout the publishing community. Every agent and editor is looking for authors who have visibility or a platform in the marketplace. I've written a free ebook on the topic, Platform-Building Ideas for Every Author.

One of my key mentors in this process of building an online presence has been Internet Marketing Expert Jimmy D. Brown. Several years ago, it was through Jimmy I learned how to create a membership site like my Write A Book Proposal course. His insights and teaching has been incredible and helped me in many different areas. I continue to learn important lessons from him his information.

In the last week, Jimmy started giving away a series of six one-page documents that he calls Cheat Sheets. Each of these documents are packed with information for every author. In this article, I want to call to your attention each one of these resources and explain why author's need to study each Cheat Sheet. I've made these cheat sheets easy to download. Just click the link in each section and it will open to the resource.

List Building Insights

While there are many different ways to market your books, I believe every author should be building an email list where you are collecting names and emails of people who care about you and your work. Jimmy has created The 1-2-3 List-Building Cheat Sheet which helps you understand the steps and gives specific information about how to do it.

Product Creation

Besides selling books, as an author you can create other products to sell to your audience. I've got a series of ebooks and other products that sell all the time such as Blogging for Bucks or the Simple Membership System. I encourage every author to create such products and create their own income stream which is separate from their books and other aspects. You need to get The 24–Hour Product Creation Cheat Sheet and study this information, then take action in your writing life.

Turn Content Into Income

You may be a blogger or write magazine articles but how do you turn your content into money? The details are in The Content Into Cash Cheat Sheet. Yes the information is in brief but this resource will certainly get the idea wheels turning.

Get Others to Create for You

Most of us as writers operate alone. How do you find competent people to assist you and get more accomplished and make more income? Study The Hands-Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet and you will begin learning these details.

Is Earning Six-Figures Possible?

Many writers are struggling financially yet The Simple Six-Figure Cheat Sheet provides the step-by-step insights for every author to achieve success. This resource gives five different models to reach the six-figure mark. Study this cheat sheet and take action then six-figures becomes do-able.

Drive Traffic to Your Content

Your website can look fantastic but if you don't learn traffic techniques to get people to see it, that beautiful website is worthless. You need The Traffic Master Cheat Sheet. Study the words on this page then apply them to your writing life.

While each of these cheat sheets contain seasoned guidance, there is no easy fix. You need to take daily action to achieve success. These pages contain rich knowledge and make it well worth saving to your hard drive, printing and study. Jimmy D. Brown's newest course is at Earn Income.com. He's a master of  marketing and every author can learn valuable insights from his teaching. I know I have learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from him.  

Let me know what you think of these cheat sheets in the comments. 

Tweetable:
Discover Six Platform-Building Short Cuts. (Click to Tweet)