The Top 4 Reasons Every Author Should Create a Small Digital Product as an Upsell to a Book

This is episode 28 of Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me as I share about the power of creating digital products. My name is Shelly Hitz and I'm the owner of Author Audience Academy where my members are successfully publishing new books almost every day. Today I want to share some feedback from one of my members, Mel Edwards. She says if you want a coach who won't take your money, you and disappear behind a wall of automation for the rest of your training, Shelley is for you. She uses all the technology she can to serve her students, but not to avoid them. If you've been waiting for years to get published, Shelly can help you get there as quickly as you're willing to move. Thank you so much, Mal. And it's so true. I am available in the forums daily, on the coaching calls monthly and I'm just there to help you get results in. Authoraudienceacademy.com I believe you have a God given message to share with the world. The question is, are you ready to shine? It's time for this week's Center Stage Spotlight training. This is where I share training and strategies to help you grow your business or ministry through writing and publishing books, marketing online and creating products and services to sell on the back end. This particular episode is more about products and you know, I want you just to really open your mind and think outside the box as you listen to today's episode. So let's dive right in. So today I want to talk about four reasons every author should have an upsell to their book. An upsell is a digital product that you sell from your site. It's not on Amazon or something like that. You can is actually a digital product you are selling from your site that's separate from your books. Most authors I meet and talk to and coach, they get stuck in the author mindset of books. Books, books, books, books. I understand. I was there too. 2012. My husband and I published 23 books in our publishing company.

Wow, 23 books. We were publishing machines and I was just books, books, books, books, books, books. However, book royalties go up and they go down. Can anyone give me an amen? Some months you may have really good royalties. Some months you may not. And so what I want to do is I want to protect you against those ebbs and flows. I want you to be able to make a full time income from this. And in order to do that, you really need to diversify your income. You need to be able to have other sources of income besides just books. Reason number one that you should create an upsell as an author is to give additional value. If you're creating books, you're creating content, you're probably similar to me, I would imagine, and that you want to create value for those that you're serving. So a digital product helps you to give additional value to those you're already serving. You can give additional information not in your book, you. So you can kind of take them the next step. And sometimes that can be in different ways. So a book is one way to take in information, but you can provide video content, audio content with the same information. I actually had somebody contact me and I have some books that like how to Get Honest Reviews is one of them. It has a toolkit as an upsell and it has templates and checklists and all these different things that are really, really valuable. A lot of people have really enjoyed it. But I did get an email from someone and they said there's no videos that particular training. I haven't added the video part. So if you're creating an upsell, video is a great way to create that content because it's different than what that person is experiencing in the book. So some of the things that you could create are templates, checklist, swipe files. So swipe files are more like fill in the blank, like a swipe file for an email that someone was sent or a swipe file for social media post. Those are the types of things that I provide in Author Audience Academy. You could also provide a Rolodex. The Rolodex would be a list of people that you could give and contacts you could give. So for instance, in Author Audience Academy, I have a Rolodex of outsourcers, editors, graphic designers and formatters. And what I love is that the members share their resources too. Just yesterday one of my members shared a new resource for a formatter that she's had really good success with. I love that. I love that we're a community and we share resources. So Rolodex is a great thing to offer and you can also do forms and other things. And so you can offer so many different things as an extra bonus that they can buy once they buy your book. So this would be something that you would sell for $7, $10, $17 and so forth. Probably, you know, you could sell things for $97, 4.97. But because somebody's going to be buying your book at like either $0.99, $2.99 or a print book, like $12.95, $19.95, to make a jump from buying a book to go all the way up to like 4.97, that's a huge leap. So this small product, I recommend you start small. I have several upsells that I'm offering for my author audience brand that they're around $10. That's a great price. An introductory price, someone to get to know me to buy a product and then they can decide if they want to join author Aud.

And you know, the videos can also, if you do a video as an upsell, it can explain technical tasks. So sometimes when I'm teaching authors, when, when I'm just telling you something, it's not as, as easy to understand until like maybe you have screenshots in your book, but you can actually walk them step by step through the process in a video. And so that's a really great opportunity as well. The second reason that you should create these products as an upsell to your book is to diversify your income. I already mentioned royalties go up and up and up and down. And you can't really, I believe you can't really depend solely on book royalties. At least you shouldn't. Because if you're putting all your eggs in one basket and you're doing this full time, guess what? Something happens and Amazon pushes you out of the algorithms or something weird happens. You don't have the money that you need to pay your bills. You need to be diversifying your income. And that's what I've done. I have income coming in from all different sources. And it really helps to solidify my business. It allows me to continue to do this full time. Otherwise you feel the pressure and it's hard to do it on an ongoing basis. You can charge more for these types of products. Like I mentioned, you can already sell them for like $7 up to $97 or even more. And so you can make a lot more for every sale than you can on Amazon. Amazon. When you sell on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or any of the places online for books, the most you're really going to get for book royalties is 70%, and that's on Kindle. And usually Kindle books are a lower price when you sell a digital product on your site, you're going to maybe be paying a small fee to PayPal or a small fee to your payment processor and a small fee to, if you use something like gumroad.com or another processor, or if you have to buy a plugin or something to make it work on your site, but you're going to be paying just a small amount, but you're going to be keeping the majority of the, the income. And so you're going to be able to make a lot more. The third reason every author should create products is to create a customer email list. There are tons and tons of research that shows your current customers are going to be more likely to buy again from you than trying to get brand new sales. So if you're an author, have you ever felt frustrated about trying to get new book sales, trying to keep promoting, keep promoting, marketing, marketing, marketing. And you're trying to keep getting that new sale, that new sale, that new sale. I have definitely felt that. The third reason that I recommend that you create these products is to create that customer list. Many authors are in that crazy hamster wheel of new sales, new sales, new sales, new sales, new customers, new customers. But guess what, guys, when you create a customer list, when you have something within your book, and I always recommend that you have a call to action in your book that leads them to your email subscriber list, they can sign up to your email list, you're able then to promote to those same people again and again and again. And the thing about it is, people who have already bought from you are more likely to buy from you again. It's not going to be as hard as trying to sell to someone new to making that new relationship on Amazon. And so by creating a product, you're also able to create a customer list. Now, it depends on what system you use. The system I use automatically captures that person's information, their emails and all of that. And so I have access to email my customers again later. And I also recommend thinking outside the box with your book to where you create some videos and audios that are bonuses inside your book. That's another training. Don't you wish Amazon would give you access to the emails of everyone who bought your books on Amazon?

That would be awesome. That would be a game changer if they gave us access to customers to be able to email them, to be able to follow up with them. But guess what? That's probably never going to happen. Now, I'm not going to say never, never, never. But 99.9% I don't think Amazon would give us that kind of power and information. They want us to be dependent on them. It would probably open up the whole system to spamming because there are a lot of people that use Amazon in the wrong ways as well. When you create products, you're able to start creating that customer list and be able to. That's your most valuable list in your business is your customer list. Those customers, those people that already voted and said, I want what you have, I like what you have, I want more. And so that is the third reason. The fourth reason I recommend creating a digital product is you always then have that product to leverage a bonus. So you can use this as a bonus in so many ways. Now I'm just going to share a few ways I've used digital products as bonuses. One option is during a special promotion, you can offer that product as a bonus. So something I've done before is during my birthday month or birthday week or birthday day, I'll run a special promotion for my books. And if you buy during that time, you'll get an extra bonus. Now that extra bonus could simply be one of the products I've already created, I'm already selling, but it helps me boost my book sales during that time as well. So you can use a product that you create as a bonus. And maybe, maybe, just maybe, you create this bonus and you put a price tag on it that's reasonable.

And it's all because you want to have a special bonus to entice customers to buy during your promotions. That may even be a reason to create a certain product. You can also use these bonuses when you're doing affiliate promotions. Now, your niche or your business may not be appropriate for affiliate promotions. I'm going to be backing away a little bit as my business grows from my own products. Not going to be probably promoting as much on the affiliate level just because I won't have a need for that income. I really want people to be coming in and purchasing my membership and staying at my membership. But there are still certain products that I 125% believe in. I love them and I can get a commission for recommending them. So if someone's in my academy, they can promote my academy and get a commission for anyone who joins. If you love Author Audience Academy, you should be doing that. So there are certain things you can promote as an affiliate and then you can give your product as a bonus for anyone who signs up through your link. Now, some systems automate it, like JVZoo. When I promote a product on JVZoo, they have an option for me to upload a PDF or a document or I can just upload like the PDF with the links to download it. But it's all automated, so. So I can just give that bonus that way. But other times I've just had people forward me their receipts and then I send them the bonus. It's a great idea to get additional income. Now, affiliate sales, that's a whole other training. That's another way to diversify your income and give more stability to your business as an author. Then finally, you can use the bonus product as an incentive for people to sign up for your. To buy your book or sign up for your program or whatever you're doing at a live speaking engagement. So maybe you have a book table and you have a bunch of books and you want to give someone an incentive. You can say, if you buy this book bundle, you buy all three of my books. You're also gonna get this extra bonus that's valued at $27, but it's only available today. Guess what? If somebody was on the fence and they were just gonna maybe buy one book or. Or maybe all three and you said you're giving them that extra bonus, they will probably buy all three. And it doesn't cost you extra if it's a digital product and you can just, you know, figure out a way to give them a coupon code or email them later access to that product. It's not any extra cost to you, but it will potentially get you more sales. So are your wheels spinning? Are you seeing all of the options and all of the ways that you can benefit from having an upsell from having a digital product?

I want you to think bigger. I want you to think in a way that diversifies your income to where you're having multiple ways to serve your audience, multiple ways to offer value, but also multiple ways to earn income. I am teaching this month in the Take Action workshop for Author Audience Academy how to create a small product. We're going to be walking through the steps of how to choose what to create and then the tools and resources to use, what to do. And I'm really excited about it. This is potentially a game changer for authors because so many authors do not think because beyond the book. And so I'm so excited to share this with you. You can join us@authoraudienceacademy.com to get in on this training. There will be a replay and it will be there for ongoing for you to take part in. It's really Going to push authors, I think, beyond. It pushes us beyond our comfort zone. Many times we're comfortable with books, we're comfortable in doing what we do writing. But to do videos, to do audio, to do templates or checklists or things like that, it just can be sometimes out of our comfort zone. But I'm excited to be able to share with the authors and I hope that you take action and that if you don't already have a small product, that you create one. And you know what, you don't have to create just one. You can create multiple products.

Now, I want you to listen carefully. This does not have to be complicated.

It doesn't. You could take out your smartphone right now and record a video on your iPhone or your smartphone. You could record an audio and that's your product. Yes. Start simple. What I find is so many people try to complicate it and, and then they get stuck in the details and they never do it. Start simple. Get something up, upload it to gumroad.com and sell it. If you have a list of 10 or a list of 100 or a list of 10,000, you have somebody out there that is following you that you can add additional value to. So it does not have to be complicated. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. But add value. Add value to the topics that you're already sharing about, you're already writing about. And I want you to think, I want you to think, what could I offer? You may even want to survey people on Facebook or on your email list and say what would be helpful to you? What would be helpful to you with this next step? I'm excited to see what people do this month in our Take Action workshop for Author Audience Academy and the products that come out. There's nothing that makes me more excited than seeing my members take action and get results. And this could potentially change so much for you. Having something additional of value to sell and to be able to expand your influence, expand your reach, but also increase your income. You can add a link to this resource within your book. You might say, this is the process I recommend, but you can get my step by step checklist and video tutorial at this link and then it sends them to the $10 product or at the end of your book. A lot of times I like to have resources. So you have a resource list at the end of your book and say these are the resources and include your product as one of the links for a resource. And I appreciate you and I look forward to seeing what you create in your product, tweet me. EllieHutts. And if you have any questions, make sure to get the show notes and all the resources from Today's episode@authoraudience.com 28. That's the number 28. Authoraudience.com 28.

Before we end, I want to give you a backstage pass in this week's Godly Gains segment, which is all about keeping Christ at the center of all we do. In the end, it's not about us, it's all about him. The scripture I've chosen today comes from Luke 10:7, and this is something that Jesus is saying to his followers as he sends them out to share about his message. And it's the message he sends, he gives to the 70, it says, and remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. The part that I wanted to really emphasize in this episode is the laborer is worthy of his wages. I think sometimes when we create digital products because it's not a physical product, because it's not something that someone can touch and feel and consume, we might hesitate in really selling it and charging for it. We may think, well, I can sell it for a small fee or I can give it away. It doesn't cost me anything to send it to them. But I want you to really think about the gifts of that God's given you and that a laborer is worthy his wages. When I was a physical therapist, I didn't expect to go into work for free. You know, there are times that you do things pro bono, and I did volunteer work as a physical therapist in Haiti after the earthquake. But for the most part, if you're a doctor, if you're a lawyer, if you're any sort of laborer, if you go to work to a 9 to 5 job, you don't expect to go and work for free. And we should not expect that either. We should value what we have to offer. We should value the gifts, the abilities, the knowledge that we have. And so when you create this product, think about the value that you are giving. And many times the things that come easy to us are the things that are most valuable to share to someone else. But we don't always see the value because it comes so easy to us. So as you take this path and as you create products, I really, really want you to value your work and to charge what it's worth. I really struggled with this for years, and I'm really working through some mindset issues on this and just wanted to mention it this week in the Godly Gains segment. The laborer is worthy his wages.

It's my hope and my goal that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to being able to shine and reach more people with your message. You can do this. Never, never, never give up. There may be times that you adjust things, but it's not about giving up. It may be letting go of something so you can take on something else. But I encourage you to move forward with perseverance. And if you're interested in creating a small product, I encourage you to join us@authoraudienceacademy.com where my take Action workshop is all about creating that product, giving you the tools and resources and the step by step plan to get it done. Let's do this. Thank you so much for joining me in this episode. I truly do appreciate you and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.