How to create a passive income stream with an ebook

‘Passive Income Stream’ is a phrase often thrown around in the entrepreneur world. So on this weeks podcast I break down an actionable way for you to ACTUALLY create your first passive income stream – creating an ebook! I break it down to 5 steps and also cover 3 mistakes to avoid so that you can create your perfect, passive, high-value, low ticket offer!

✧ Create Passive Income with an Ebook

✧ Sign up for ThriveCart to sell digital products

Prefer to read? Here’s the blog version…

Welcome To Chacahua, Mexico!

Hello, hello from Chacahua, Mexico. For those of you who have never heard of Chacahua, it is a little island just two, three hours away from Puerto Escondido. I’ve been wanting to visit this for a while now, and so spontaneously we just packed up and decided to stay a few nights, make the journey over, had no accommodation booked, and it was just very spur of the moment. And in the midst of all of that planning and madness, I forgot to bring my podcast microphone. And so the audio quality of this week’s episode might be a little subpar, but as I always say, done is better than perfect and progress over perfection. I think it’s actually really cool because you can hear the waves crashing in the back. We got here after a boat ride through like mangroves. It was beautiful. It was such an adventure. But we got here, walked up to the beach and had no accommodation and just found one on the beach in front of the surf break and we’re like, yeah, let’s post up here for a few nights.

It’s a super, super small island. There’s like one mini convenience store, one surf camp, really not much to do, and a lot of people sleep in hammocks, so there’ll be like accommodations that just offer hammocks per night. I honestly haven’t seen that since my last trip to Pob Blanca, near Carta Hena where I actually slept in a hammock for a night, and that was my last time sleeping in a hammock. And I was like, I’m never doing that again. So yeah, it’s super chill. The surf has been incredible. It’s pumping every single day. I was able to rent a longboard. I brought my own fin and my own leash. That’s usually what I travel with because it’s really difficult to travel with a really big board, and I’m just so grateful that I’m able to take all of you guys with me and also record this episode just spontaneously from wherever in the world.

Every time I meet people and they’re either getting away from a job they hate or they’re working for an employer and they’re like, oh, I just wish I could do what you do full-time. I’m so grateful for it, and I’m just really happy to be in a position where I’m literally like, you can. I plant the seed everywhere I go. When I see people who aren’t really a hundred percent happy with their situation, I give them an alternative. I give them the permission slip to think bigger and be like, we’re the same. We are humans. And if you wanted this, you could create it for yourself. That’s what it took for someone to inspire me to start my journey of entrepreneurship.

Creating Additional income Streams As An Online Business Owner

And I’m just planting seeds everywhere. If you are listening to this episode and you’re in the same position, like, how do I do this? How do I travel and bring my work with me and experience all of this freedom, stick around, you’re going to learn a lot and be inspired, I promise. Today’s episode is going to be about creating a passive income stream with an ebook. And what I mean by passive income is income that isn’t tied to your time. So you spend the time writing it and creating it in the beginning, but then afterwards you can be making money in your sleep when you have the system set up to sell for you, and you can wake up with notifications of people buying your book.

And as an online business owner, you have the power to create additional streams of income. And as you’re doing that, you can decide, do I want this to be tied to my time, like one-on-one coaching group programs, masterminds, or do I wanna create something more passive that’s going to give me my time back? If you are a coach, a creator, an online service provider, and you want to add in an additional stream of income, I think an ebook is a perfect next step for you. I wouldn’t recommend if you’re starting from scratch for the ebook to be your first offer only because it is usually at a lower price point, right?

And when we are calculating how much additional revenue we are going to be bringing in from this stream of income, we have to do the math behind it. It’s simple price times quantity, and if the price is lower, you’re gonna need to sell a lot of it. It’s not impossible with a small audience, but it’s going to help if you already have the business, have the expertise and the authority in the industry and have an email list or a social media following, that’s going to make it easy. On the quantity side, although it’s not impossible, because if you have credentials, if you are well known in real life, we can also drive add traffic to the sales page, and people already see you as an expert.

So it’s not impossible. One thing that’s amazing that I love about eBooks is when people enter your audience, enter your email list at a lower price point, you give them a chance to know, like, and trust you, and they really get to see what it’s like being a part of your community. So then you can continue leading them into your higher ticket offers to help them along their journey. So instead of only offering high ticket and a free lead magnet and ebook is a perfect medium, and if you really want that freedom-based lifestyle, you need to start thinking about freedom-based products. And from experience, I have two eBooks and I’ve made a consistent additional 1000 to $5,000 a month on average.

Every single month since I’ve launched the eBooks, there’s been times where I’ve hit five figures, so upwards of 10, $15,000 a month just from the ebook income stream. So as you can see, it’s a very lucrative income stream if you set it up correctly and once it’s working, you just continue optimizing it and it’s there. So just think about this passive income product and what it could mean for your life. There’s been times where I’m out surfing and I’ll come back to my laptop and I have sales and I just made hundreds of dollars while I was out surfing, right? So if this is not possible in your business, know that by listening to this episode, you’re able to make it happen.

Steps To Create An Ebook

I have five steps to help you create an ebook and launch and sell an ebook, and then I have mistakes to avoid as you’re considering or writing your first one. 

1 – Validate Your Topic

Step one is to validate your topic. I cannot stress how important this is. I do not wanna see you starting to write an ebook before you validate that there is demand for it. This is easy if you have an audience and you can just ask your audience. But if you don’t, make sure you find where your ideal readers are. Identify your target audience and talk to them. So talk either one-on-one, ask them if they would get on the phone with you, pull them, but gain insights into understanding their pain points, their desires, their interests, and to be able to speak their language.

As you are writing the book, the last thing we want is for you to go out of your way, write hundred, 200, 300 page book and then have no one buy it, right? So by validating your ebook topic and by putting in the work beforehand, we are going to guarantee that there is demand. I highly recommend you get on the phone with them or you speak to them one-on-one because that’s when it’s usually gonna be a lot more honest and you can see where they’re coming from. If you already have a topic in mind, and it’s because people have been repeatedly asking you about it. Let’s say you have a health coaching business and people consistently ask you about what they should go by at the grocery store or how they should change their diets from A to B.

If you already have multiple people asking you for that, that is a really good way to gauge demand. We always want to follow the demand instead of begging for it or trying to create the demand. So if you already have the demand, that is great. If you don’t, we do need to conduct a little bit more of market research just to have the best foundation moving forward. 

2 – Create And Price your Ebook

The second step is to create your ebook. And this is usually where most people get a little stuck because they think they need editors, they think they need graphic designers and a whole team to help them create it and launch it and sell it.

And I’m here to tell you that it is totally possible for you to do it by yourself with a little help if you know certain things aren’t your forte, but you do not need an entire team, and I’m going to share with you how. So after you have validated your ebook topic, we’re going to outline your content, organize your ideas into chapters, and we want to produce high quality content that engages your readers. So the topic of the ebook is always the most important. How are you going to take your readers from point A to point B? But then putting it together is actually really simple. You can use chat, GPT or AI to outline and give you like a rough skeleton to start with.

If you have writer’s block and it’s really hard for you to start from scratch or you can hire a ghost writer to really beef up the substance. So of course the outline, the strategies, all of the information is from you, but the writing out your ebook can be done by outsourcing if that isn’t your forte. Obviously, if you love to write like I love writing and I wrote every single word in both of my eBooks, but if you do need help, know that there are alternatives. Same thing with design. So if you are not a design expert, you can use Canva. It is completely free. If you type in ebook templates, they give you hundreds and thousands of different e-book templates that you can use.

Add in your brand colors and paste in the text. If that’s still a little more difficult than you would like it to be, know that you can also outsource that. You can go on fiverr.com and find someone to convert the text into a beautiful e-book that you can then save as a PDF and start distributing. And after you have it all put together, we’re going to price your ebook. I would recommend using a price between $7 and $97 as a guide, depending on how much value is in your ebook, what you talk about, and how much transformation it has in people’s lives. So how much are they willing to purchase this knowledge, right?

So by using that as a guide, you can see that in ebook in your online product suite is low ticket and high value. We want to make it so valuable to your audience that they’re gonna come back to you whenever they need help with whatever your business is about. Whether you’re launching a one-on-one program or a group program, or you have a new product and service, we want them to be avid, avid buyers. 

3 – Grow Your Audience

Step three is to grow your audience. We don’t want you to be launching to crickets when your book is ready. And so in the meantime, we wanna have a strategy in place so you can increase the number of people who know, like and trust you.

We teach you how to do it organically and with paid advertising in the Wanderlover Business Academy. And by the way, doors to WBA are closing this week. So if you want to get your online business started, so this is all possible for you and your brand, this is the last chance. So sign up by the end of the week. If you have any questions, just feel free to email or DM me. We teach you how to grow your audience. So as an online business owner, you’re constantly looking to expand your reach, right? And that is no different. When you are launching an ebook, you want people to know where you come from, why you are qualified to be teaching the subject, and you want them to be really interested in learning what it is that you know.

Some ways of doing this. You can grow your audience on social media. So growing your social media channels, your email list, which is so important, and that is one of the key things we teach you how to do in the academy. You can reach out for collaborations and press opportunities. One thing we also love to do is to cross pollinate audiences. So being featured on someone else’s podcast or inviting someone else to your podcast. And then as you share your content, you can then introduce your audience to their audience and you can introduce their audience to your audience, right? So think of creative ways to get your name out there. You’ll really want to optimize your website and online presence so you can increase your authority and attract readers.

A tip for this step is to reach out to different audience members and ask them if they would like an advanced copy in exchange for a testimonial, or just give out advanced copies to as many people as you would like, because in exchange, you’re really going to get valuable feedback before you launch it to the general public. And you can also add those testimonials to your landing pages. 

4 – Launch Your Ebook

This brings us to step four of this process, which is to launch your ebook. And this is the really exciting part. We’re going to want to create all of your online systems so that you can process an order and get your ebook to the hands of your readers and buyers.

So create your sales page, create your checkout card. I really recommend investing in an online platform specialized for digital products. I use and recommend Thrive Cart. I will link it in the episode description, but basically you want an online platform that will accept the payment for you and automatically deliver your customers and invoice as well as a link to access their downloads. So when you have that setup, it will integrate really seamlessly with your email list manager, and as soon as someone purchases everything just goes to them, you can set up welcome sequences, welcome emails, and so they purchase, they get their ebook, they get their invoice, and they get a welcome email.

This is so important if you wanna automate this process and not manually, you know, have to send every customer a copy. And this is also where you wanna think about what other offers you would like to introduce your new readers to. So maybe after they read your ebook, they really want to get one-on-one coaching with you. Let’s say they want accountability in implementing everything that they’ve learned. You can set up an automated email sequence to lead them to your higher ticket or your other offers. So once that is set up, you need to let the world know about what you’ve written.

So on social media, email blasts, create videos, create podcast episodes, blog posts, reach out for media features, collaborations, and having other people promote your ebook. Everyone you’ve given a free copy to, you can ask them to also tag you. You want to start letting the world know. We also teach you my exact launch process and all the templates you need. So story templates, Instagram, post templates, email templates, we have all of that in the academy. So if launching isn’t your thing, know that you can also receive the guidance you need. 

5 – Post Launch Strategy

The last step in this process is to set up the sales systems post launch. We never view the release of an ebook as just, you know, this one week or one month promotional period. And after you take your foot off the gas, the sales stop rolling in. No, the promotional period is just the beginning and after you launch, we want to have testimonials to add to your sales page. You maybe even have a few people interested to become affiliates for your ebook. You can set this up in Thrive Cart and basically it just gives your readers a unique link to then start selling on your behalf. And every person that buys your ebook through their unique link, they also get a commission for it.

So usually it’s like 20, 30 to 50%. You can use organic and paid marketing strategies like Pinterest, blog traffic, seo, and Facebook ads to continuously drive traffic to your landing page. The great part about all of this is once you find a system that works for you and one that makes you money in your sleep, let’s say you set up the Facebook ads to the landing page, it’s going to continue working for you with the help of the internet. It’s just so easy these days to reach your target audience. So if you had an ebook about health and wellness, it is so easy to find the people online who are into health and wellness, right?

And that’s what it’s all about, delivering your product to those who need it. And if you can do it digitally and automate it, then you get sales coming in every single day. The bonus tip that I have for you is that you can continue launching multiple additions of the same book, either you know, every six months or year after year. So take that pressure off of yourself to make the first one perfect. It doesn’t have to be perfect. There will probably, and most likely be things you miss, things that you didn’t think about, and that is okay. You wanna work with your readers to give them a better and better addition.

After the first you can collect feedback, then create a wait list for volume two. You can hone in on your marketing strategies and make it an even bigger and better launch. So don’t have the expectation that the first one has to be perfect. And remember, done is better than perfect. We are on like volume five of the Travel Influencer Handbook and volume two of Instagram for business, the ultimate branding and client attraction guide. It’s just so crazy that over the years, these two eBooks have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars, which directly translates to the number of people impacted by the book and their lives changed.

You can impact people at scale because it’s not tied to your time. And the amazing thing is that so many of my readers end up being private clients. They end up being members of Momentum or the Academy, and they all found me through my low ticket, high value front end offer. Okay? 

3 Mistakes To Avoid When Creating An Ebook

1 – Writing Before Validating Your Offer

Mistake number one is writing before validating your offer. I said this before, but we do not want your ebook written before you have validated the idea what you think your audience needs and what your audience wants to read very often is different than what they actually want to read. And this is just something we need to accept, like we don’t know our audience because we are not them. The last thing we want to do is spend all of this time writing and you know no one interested in buying at the end. 

2 – Focusing On Things That Don’t Matter

The second mistake that I see is people spending too much time on things that don’t matter. And this is where having accountability and having a coach really helps you because you might think that it’s so important to get the colors all right, work on the fonts and making the branding cohesive and having a photo shoot. But the main reason people want to buy an ebook is for the content.

Very rarely is it for the physical appearance because it is a digital guide, right? So don’t stress about the little things, and if you need a coach to tell you, Hey, like this actually doesn’t matter, let’s get this done by the end of the day and move on to the next step, then investing in a mentor to help you through all of this might benefit you if you are that type of person. 

3 – Not Having A Sales Strategy

The third mistake that I see that I help my clients with is that usually there is no strategy for sales, and that is a big chunk of where the money and marketing and monetization comes in. And that is why we spend a lot of time developing a sales strategy.

It’s funny because there’s a reason why New York Times, they call them best selling books and not like best written books, right? Writing is one thing, you could be a great author, but you need to know how to sell a book. If you don’t know how to sell, then you probably won’t get as many sales as you are hoping for. I want everyone to read your book. I want everyone who needs your book to know about your book, to buy your book, and to end up working with you. So if you don’t have a sales strategy, you are doing all of them a disservice, and we want to put time and energy into that piece as well. 

Now, Execute That Ebook!

Writing and launching an ebook may sound daunting, especially your first time, but it is so incredibly rewarding. And if you are a freedom based business owner who wants a low ticket, high value offer in your product and service suite, this could be a really good next step for you. And if you’re not sure if this is the right next step for you, DM me and we can talk through your situation and I can give you my 2 cents on whether you should be pursuing an ebook income stream or not. But if you are certain, if this is a full body hell yes, this is what I need in my business and you’re just not sure how to go about it, I would love to help you introduce a passive income stream to your business in just one day.

So I want to invite you to book a virtual VIP day intensive where I work directly with you to get your ebook decided written out, your launch planned, and all of your sales systems created. This isn’t just gonna be an ebook you write out for fun with no marketing strategy behind it. I’m going to give you all of the templates, automations, and targeting campaigns that you need to have a steady stream of income from your ebook. You don’t have to worry about who’s gonna buy my book, how am I going to sell it, how do I find the time in this one day intensive? We’re going to figure all of that out and catapult you to success with your new passive income stream.

You can expect from this VIP day at least 50% or more of the ebook written out, we’re going to figure out your audience growth and sales strategy. We’re going to create your landing page. I’m gonna give you the email templates for launching and sales that are all plug and play and ready to go and your own calendar roadmap to increasing your monthly income. Buy at least $5,000 with your own passive ebook. You also get one week of support after we have our v I P day together for any questions as you start executing the rest of the steps. And if you wanna learn more about this opportunity, if it feels just so aligned and you’re like, this is what I need to get my business to the next level, DM me VIP day on Instagram to learn more.

And I would be honored to talk it through with you and see if this is the right fit. I hope this episode was eye-opening. I hope it gave you lots of ideas and planted a lot of seeds. Thank you for listening. I will see you in the next episode.

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