Although you may be familiar with the idea of writing a book a little at a time, as a series of blog posts, you may not have thought about leveraging books into blog posts – -and creating new brand building and profit opportunities.
Bud Bilanich, the Common Sense Guy, however, provides a template for a Book>Blog>Profit brand-building book publishing action plan. Here are the steps involved:
- Step 1: Write a “simple” book. “Simple books” are small format books with less than 200 pages. They’re usually characterized by a one top per page format. They can be inexpensively produced, but share a lot of key ideas in an easy-to-read format. If you visit SuccessTweets.com, you’ll see what I mean when you download the free e-book version of his Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Tweets – All in 140 Characters or Less.
- Step 2: Create a blog post about each of the ideas in your book. As you’ll see at Bud’s Blog, each weekday, Bud expands one of the ideas in his book into a 500-700 word post.
- Step 3: Assemble the new series of blog posts into a new book or information product. When Bud completes the last blog post, he will have completed the core of a new information product–or book–ready to be formatted, produced, and delivered!
In the short time since Success Tweets appeared, he’s already written over 49 of the posts, out of the total of 140 posts in the series. Bud, and his blog readers, are well-past the one/quarter point, and are approaching the half-way point of his goal.
Benefits of Bud Bilanich’s 3 step strategy
The above strategy simultaneously promotes, sells, and produces!
Promotes. Each new blog post is a prospect and search engine magnet, attracting new prospective book buyers to Bud’s Common Sense blog and his Success Tweets site. In addition, his presence as a published author at Amazon.com has been enhanced by the appearance of another book with his name on the cover.- Sells. Each additional blog post drives traffic to his Success Tweets site, where some people will download the free e-book, but others will order the printed copy from either Bud of Amazon.com. Often, of course, individuals who like an e-book will purchase a printed copy for themselves or their co-workers. Each blog post also pre-sells Bud’s obvious expert status, which can pay off in terms of more coaching and speaking opportunities.
- Produces. Finally, post-by-post, bit-by-bit, Bud is creating a content-rich follow-up book or information product without the stress typically associated with writing a book. Having a starting point for each blog post simplifies and organizes his writing, saving time as he expands each topic, looking at it from a fresh perspective, explaining it in greater detail. This measured approach pays off in terms of daily progress, instead of last-minute deadline madness.
What’s stopping you?
What’s keeping you from embarking upon a similar, 3-step, writing journey?
- Is content the problem? Are you having trouble identifying the building blocks of the “simple book” that provides the foundation for the 3 steps?
- Are you a bit uncomfortable with the idea of “simple books?” Do you feel that book buyers won’t take your book seriously?
- Is time management the problem? Are you having trouble finding the time to devote to a similar publishing project? Do you have trouble committing to a daily writing program?
- Do you have the needed online resources? Do you have a blog to attract prospects and promote your ideas, an auto-responder to deliver e-books, a shopping cart to sell books, and a writing and content plan for your book?
Obstacles of opportunities
All of the above can be perceived as obstacles preventing you from getting started on a book-based branding and publishing profit program.
But, from a different perspective, all of the above–once identified as issues–can be overcome by planning and working with coaches, editors, or mentors who understand the changing world of publishing and are willing to set up a system to write a book.
The calendar never stops
Days, weeks, and months are going to go by, regardless of whether you’re moving towards your goal of a brand building book, or whether you take steps to transition from reader to author, from audience to podium. We’ve seen, above, the rapid progress Bud Bilanich has already made expanding his Success Tweets into a follow-up information product by expanding each idea into a blog post–while continuing with his regular revenue-producing activities.
By the end of the summer, he’ll have made even more progress. But, will you have made similar progress creating a system to convert your expertise into a brand building book by leveraging blogs into books, books into blogs, and blogs into products? What’s holding you back? Share your comments, concerns, and questions, below.
Author:
Roger C. Parker shares ideas for planning, writing, promoting, & profiting from brand building books in his daily writing tips blog. His latest book is #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, & Event Titles.
