How I created a planner book from scratch (and sold 90 in the first week)
In 2017 I wrote an article that went viral.
When (name drop alert) Ariana Huffington shared it to her six million LinkedIn followers, I was struck at how far my own seemingly humble ideas could spread.
My article detailed the daily questions (see them at the end) I would ask myself each morning to help me focus on the things that matter. To give me direction.
After years of being frustrated with my progress and stunted productivity, I had to make a change. Answering these questions every day was the solution I was looking for. The focus they gave me was dramatic.
They resonated with readers too. As a self-employed content-maker, I’m always on the lookout for ways to increase my income, and making a product out of those daily questions seemed like a good idea.
The plan was to design a simple book and have it printed within a few weeks. The project, from conception in September 2017, to completion, ended up taking about seven months, and even that was months before I sold the first one.
I invested a lot of time, money and energy into the project, using additional help for designing the book, which became a planner that I called ‘Book of Lift.’
At the time, bolstered by recent positive gains in some crypto-currencies that I’d bought, I decided to splash out on having the logo professionally-designed, and — later — the sales web page crafted by a professional coder, though I came up with the original design. I even had one of my favourite illustrators and friends, Dan Matutina create bespoke artwork to accompany the marketing for the planner and landing page.
I decided to work with a China-based printer to print out a batch of books for a first run, via Alibaba.
This turned out to be a drawn-out process because of language inconsistencies, my need to make the product continually ‘better,’ and the constant need to go back and forth on tiny details so that the planner would be ‘just right’ when it came to printing.
I finally got a sample printed for $100, which was shipped to my place in Bangkok. When it arrived, there were a few issues with the design and accuracy, like paper thickness, stretched print, and quality of the bound book that needed improving. I also noticed a very ‘plasticky’ smell on it.
So I sent off for another sample. This one was better and — once I had the funds in place — I ordered the minimum batch order of 500 copies, consisting of planner, two paper bonus booklets, box, and postcard. This cost just under $3000 in total, including shipping from China to Thailand.
I decided against the Kickstarter route mainly out of impatience and not knowing the crowdsourcing model intimately.
Because I couldn’t find a fulfilment house to hold those copies due to a lack of proof that I could sell them, I had to deliver them — all 13 boxes — to my cramped apartment in Bangkok. To say this was a fire hazard was an understatement.
Thankfully the quality was decent and, miraculously, they were without the ‘cheap’ smell that I had feared.
Between the time that I received the boxes and the first online sale, I had a lot of doubt.
There were many times that I considered quitting the project altogether, despite spending all that money on it. I lost faith in the use of the book, even though I was using it. I didn’t think it was perfect, and for me, it needed to be.
I sent some out for giveaways, and realised, a little late, that I needed more reviews and some feedback on the books from a range of people that could inform me on improving it. I was always in a rush to get them printed, and I never had more than one sample copy to share with anyone.
Gradually I picked up some positive feedback from a handful of people that I could use as social proof on the landing page.
With all the feedback I’d received, it became clear how the next version of the book would be. This made me reluctant to sell the book in its current version. But I’d been using it over the year, and benefitted a lot from it, so I decided to put it up for sale anyway and deny a win for my perfectionist side.
I chose to do a limited sales promotion to start — a week-long run with a cut-off time to create more of a sense of urgency. The book would not be available to buy for a while after this point. At a manufacturing cost of $5.60 per planner, I put a price tag for one book at $26, and for a bundle of three: $70.
As well as the two free paper booklet bonuses, I recorded an extra networking course worth over $60, and gave all buyers access to an online Slack community as part of the deal.
I plan to experiment with different sales formats over time, including working with influential people* with large audiences but wanted to see what results were like for this one.
*If you have a decent-sized, relevant audience and want to help me promote the planner — send me a note.
I put the products on my Red Lemon Club Shopify shop and linked that to the sales page so that I could keep my sales statistics in one place on Shopify.
I ran the sale, told buyers it would only be available for a limited time (or until copies ran out), and used my newsletter and social channels to promote the sales page. I have over 22,000 newsletter subscribers, but many are inactive after years, so in reality, it’s a smaller active list.
By the end of the week, on Black Friday, I’d sold 90 books, to 66 individuals, with a sales page conversion rate of 7%.
Having been worried that I could sell even a handful, I was thrilled with this.
This has given me the confidence to continue selling these and tweaking the product to be better and better. I’m excited to sell the remaining planners, get creative with the promotion, and can’t wait to develop the next version of the Book of Lift and use it myself.
Buy your own copy here, and keep up to date of related news via my newsletter.
What are you struggling with that a product would solve?
Here are those *questions from the article I wrote and eventually used for the planner:
What will I make happen within 5 years?
What will I make happen within 1 year?
What will I make happen within 30 days?
What will I make happen within 7 days?
What will I do to start this day positively?
What must get done today that develops my main craft?
What 3 extra tasks must get done today if any?
Who will I contact today to generate opportunities and good will?
What will I do today that scares me?
What will I do today to benefit my health?
What will I do today to expand my extra-curricular world?
What was yesterday’s key inch?
Buy yourself or a friend a copy of Book of Lift here.
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If you have 10.56 seconds, I’d love to hear what you think, in the comments below.
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Originally published at alexmathers.net on December 17, 2018.
How I created a planner book from scratch (and sold 90 in the first week)
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