For point 2) yes that's something I could have tried, I see a lot of people doing this so I guess it works.
About point 3) I know that for SF folks making 150-200k / year, $400/month is like pocket change. Just keep in mind that in other countries, like France (I'm French) and many other European countries, a Junior dev is making 30-40k€ on average, and Senior around 45-55k€ (1)
Good call and good approach. I'd recommend taking it a further step.
My co-author and I figured out that a positive feedback loop is key. In addition to our API Design Book at http://theapidesignbook.com/ my co-author and I have a weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/apiWeekly then he followed the consulting route using those for lead generation while I did some classes for Lynda/LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/keith-casey and in both cases, we refer back to the book and the newsletter. Then in my day job at Okta, I talk about the same topics and occasionally refer to our stuff among other things as "for more information."
Most of it is free, a few things are paid, but everything builds and complements each other.
No matter where anyone finds us, the threads lead to the other things. This allows people to understand the basics of APIs, learn some advanced topics, and generally stay up to date on the space as a whole.
I have a few friends who have left cushy tech jobs to take roles in the non-profit sector, which they augment with side jobs they enjoy (teaching, writing, etc.) One just plays poker for rent money to augment what she makes booking gigs as a lower-tier musician.
You're welcome! Since you seemed to like the suggestions, here are two more:
1. Try raising prices by 50% for a month, see if your actual unit sales decrease.
2. Record a video for each chapter and then offer that at a (much) higher price point. $250+ - combine all this together and I bet you could crack $1k/mo.
Record a video for each chapter and then offer that at a (much) higher price point.
Thanks for sharing. For technical topics, I think reading is much faster and reliable because readers can skim and also copy code. I'm curious why it might be effective to produce a video and price it higher?
Some people are almost completely price insensitive for amounts in the low hundreds. They have a work budget that can be spent on training if they want, picking the better value $60 option wont gain them anything at all, and picking the $250 video option might end up being useful maybe. Like if they don't understand a concept the way its written, maybe it's explained differently in the video. It doesn't really matter. They aren't stopping to think about it. The cost is irrelevant to them and that package lists the most things they get.
People (in general) view video courses as being worth more than an ebook alone. I'm with you on this and personally prefer to consume technical information in text form, but there are many who don't.
Comments
Hey thanks a lot for your comment!
For point 2) yes that's something I could have tried, I see a lot of people doing this so I guess it works.
About point 3) I know that for SF folks making 150-200k / year, $400/month is like pocket change. Just keep in mind that in other countries, like France (I'm French) and many other European countries, a Junior dev is making 30-40k€ on average, and Senior around 45-55k€ (1)
[1] https://www.payscale.com/research/FR/Job=Software_Developer/...
Good call and good approach. I'd recommend taking it a further step.
My co-author and I figured out that a positive feedback loop is key. In addition to our API Design Book at http://theapidesignbook.com/ my co-author and I have a weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/apiWeekly then he followed the consulting route using those for lead generation while I did some classes for Lynda/LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/keith-casey and in both cases, we refer back to the book and the newsletter. Then in my day job at Okta, I talk about the same topics and occasionally refer to our stuff among other things as "for more information."
Most of it is free, a few things are paid, but everything builds and complements each other.
No matter where anyone finds us, the threads lead to the other things. This allows people to understand the basics of APIs, learn some advanced topics, and generally stay up to date on the space as a whole.
I have a few friends who have left cushy tech jobs to take roles in the non-profit sector, which they augment with side jobs they enjoy (teaching, writing, etc.) One just plays poker for rent money to augment what she makes booking gigs as a lower-tier musician.
They all seem much happier.
You're welcome! Since you seemed to like the suggestions, here are two more:
1. Try raising prices by 50% for a month, see if your actual unit sales decrease.
2. Record a video for each chapter and then offer that at a (much) higher price point. $250+ - combine all this together and I bet you could crack $1k/mo.
Thanks for sharing. For technical topics, I think reading is much faster and reliable because readers can skim and also copy code. I'm curious why it might be effective to produce a video and price it higher?
Some people are almost completely price insensitive for amounts in the low hundreds. They have a work budget that can be spent on training if they want, picking the better value $60 option wont gain them anything at all, and picking the $250 video option might end up being useful maybe. Like if they don't understand a concept the way its written, maybe it's explained differently in the video. It doesn't really matter. They aren't stopping to think about it. The cost is irrelevant to them and that package lists the most things they get.
People (in general) view video courses as being worth more than an ebook alone. I'm with you on this and personally prefer to consume technical information in text form, but there are many who don't.