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If you're interested in selling printables, courses or other simple digital products, here's a topic that will interest you. It's a clip from an interview with Alice where she shares 12 lessons learned after having over TWO DECADES of digital product creation experience and selling millions of dollars in content, courses and printables.
Watch the video above. You can also read the transcript below.
Alice's Story and a Mistake to Avoid When Building Your Business
Yusef: Hello everyone and welcome to Entrepreneur Kit Hub or Ekithub. Today, I have a very, very special guest with me. It is no other than Alice Seba, my business partner, and we have a few questions submitted by our community, you guys. Today we're going to dive into the questions and pick Alice's brain.
So we would like to start with the first question. This is probably a great place to start since you're sharing secrets of someone who has sold millions of dollars of content courses and printables over the past couple of decades. Beth asks about your story of how you first got started and how you progressed to where you are now and what would you have done differently?
Alice: Well, that's a great and big question, of course, so I will answer it. I will not, however, give you all the boring details. You know, it's 2002 and I was never really an entrepreneurial-minded person. It wasn't my goal to start a business, but I had a baby, and I was like, “I don't really like going to work every day. I don't mind working, but I don't want to do it every day”.
I just thought there was a different way to do it and also to be home with my kid. And I was also someone, who at one point, thought that they would be a writer, fiction writer, maybe a poet, but that never happened. I still always really enjoyed writing, so it was actually kind of perfect. I came online and saw what my options were.
I started out as a writer for pay, so like freelancing and stuff like that. And I think that's a great place for people to start because I traded my time for money, so it was like a job, but I didn't have to drive to work. And with the money I got paid, I was able to invest that into my business and grow it from there. But, it wasn't somewhere I ever wanted to stay.
But then I evolved into creating free content packages, selling courses and things like that. And I guess the rest is history, right? You know, the business has evolved a lot over the years, but content has always been the core of it.
With regard to printable documents, courses, all that stuff, selling content that other people can use for commercial use, I always have trouble with the question like “What would you have done differently?“
I always think it's a process. I had to learn everything that I did; but the one thing that I would always say to myself is that I would need to be more focused. It's easy to get distracted with all kinds of different ideas. I think that if I focused more on certain things, than some of those things might have been more successful.
But you're only going to learn by doing, thinking about or worrying about what you've done wrong is not the thing to do. It's like figuring out what you learn from what you may have done wrong and go from there.
Yusef: So what's the first thing someone should do when they first start to create an online business selling digital products or printables?
Alice: The very first thing should always be attempting to grow your mailing list. So, even if you start building your audience on social media or other ways, or start selling products on Etsy, always make sure you have this part in place. A place where you can get people to sign up for your subscriber list and mailing list.
And the reason we say that – even though some say email is dead or it's dying – is that it's not. And I guess it will depend on the age of your audience. Younger audiences maybe don't use email as much, but generally speaking, with selling products, email is the way to go because it's a commercial format. On social media, people don't expect sales pitches, unless you're actually doing an ad. Email is more of a commercial medium.
It's a way for you to keep in touch with them, and it's important to have. So no matter how you're building your audience, always be funneling into that mailing list. So make sure you have a process set up for people to subscribe and that you have a nice free gift or two they get by subscribing. Make it enticing enough, so that they want to become your subscribers.
And make sure you're nurturing that list and emailing them often as well. That definitely has to be a part of it if you're in it for the long term. Because if you're selling products on Etsy or somewhere else, Etsy has your customer list. You need a way to be able to keep talking to those people and perhaps selling them different types of products that they wouldn't even find on a place like Etsy.
So you might want to recommend products that you receive a commission from for something like that. You can't do that just through the one third-party platform.
Yusef: It is obviously, and I think you would agree, it is the most cost effective way of reaching your audience by creating an email list. If you would like to have access to the full interview, visit ekithub.com/interview.
What To Do Next: Grab a FREE Report and FULL Access to the Complete Interview
If you'd like to dig deeper here, we have a couple of free reports you can pick. Plus, if you want access to the FULL interview where Alice shares all 7 lessons, we've got that for you as well.
#1: FREE Get Paid Before You Create Your Printables Report
This report will give you the insider info for being able to sell your printables at a higher price and even get paid before you create them. You can use this step-by-step method, even if you don't have a website.
Click Here to Get the Paid BEFORE You Create Your Printables FREE Report
#2: FREE Boost Your Coaching Program or Course with the Power of Printables Report
If you already have a coaching program or course, it's easy to get your clients BETTER results and to charge a premium for your programs with the simple addition of printables. And when they get better results, they are more likely to come back for more and tell others about you.
This report has 17 ideas for incorporating printables into a program or course you don't want to miss.
Click here to get the FREE Power of Printables Report
#3: Get Full Free Access to the “12 Important Lessons Learned After Selling Millions of Dollars in Courses, Content and Printables
There are plenty more tidbits and advice for you on selling digital products, growing your list and more. You can access the complete 29 minute interview below.
Click here to Access the Complete Interview
This digital world we're living in is a HUGE gift that allows you to create your own income opportunities and spread a great message and help to the world. Be sure to take advantage of those free offers, so that you can better unleash the power of this gift for yourself.
To your publishing success,
Yusef Kulan and Alice Seba
Your Partners in Easy Product Creation at EKitHub.com