The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 64. The Blueprint for Creating E-books with Jordan Smith

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

We are so excited to welcome back Jordan Smith to the podcast! Jordan is a former student of the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, a course that we have designed to help those who are wanting to start a blog or who have started but need extra help, and is now a successful full-time blogger. She is here to share more about creating e-books with us.  Join us to hear more from Jordan! Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsConvertKit is the email marketing hub for creators like you. Check out our affiliate link for more information. Check out The Blog Depot. This is a community and course that we have set up for you if you need questions answered before you start your blog. Join the waitlist for The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode64

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Today, we get to hang out with Jordan Smith. And we've known Jordan since 2020. And that's crazy. It's been 3 years now that we've been connected. And she is just a ray of sunshine. And she is inspirational. And I know that you guys are going to love this episode. One of the reasons I know that you're going to love this episode is because she was on episode three, right when we launched the podcast, and it is still one of our top performing episodes. So go back and check out episode number three, when Jordan talks about how she got started blogging. But Jordan, welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. We are so glad that you're here with us today.

Thank you so much for having me again. I'm excited to be here. today. Thank you so much for having me again. I'm excited to be here. Yes. So for anybody who hasn't listened back to that episode, do you want to just give a kind of a brief history of how we got connected and how you got started blogging? Definitely. Back in 2020, right in the beginning of COVID, I started a blog on the side. I was basically started this as a passion project, just sharing things on Instagram, sharing things on the internet, and really wanted to take it to the next level. I really just did this as a hobby. And so online, I found the blogging bootcamp. I don't even know. I don't even remember how I found it. But I found it online. It was brand new. It hadn't even launched yet. It was coming. And so I signed up for one of the webinars, listened to it. And just as I was in that webinar,

I was just like, this is something that I really feel like I need to do. And I was super intimidated because I had never invested anything in my blog before. I had never, I don't know, I never had really tried to turn it into something like that is, you know, it's super scary. It's a risk, you're vulnerable. And so basically, I signed up for the boot camp, totally revamped my blog. It was awesome. I like learned so much. And ever since then, I don't want to say the rest is history because it's definitely not. It's still like I'm very much in it. But I basically that first year learned so much on building a blog, how to share content on the internet. Because of course, it's like your blog, but it's also

social media and there's so much to it. But I did that on the side for about a year. And then it's been about another year now since I've been able to blog full time, which has been so awesome. I learned so much in the bootcamp and I am so grateful because that really is the whole start of this journey and how I'm able to do what I do now full time. I love it. I love that you are able to blog full time. And share a little bit about what you did before because you had a really interesting job and you've been able to kind of do that still, right with your blog? Yeah. So basically, I started my blog while I worked full time at an outdoor adventure camp, which is a very unique job. I take, well, at the time I took

kids, mostly teenagers on different outdoor adventure trips. So we'd go camping and backpacking and hiking. It was quite the experience for myself and also for them, I'm sure. And so basically I did that. And then on this side, I started sharing pretty much everything on my blog. So I would share about my outdoor adventures. And then also I was kind of on my own little health journey, which I mean, of course, I still am everyone is. And so I started sharing recipes as well. So really, I would say my kind of, you know, my kind of niche is like, indoor recipes, outdoor adventures, you know, that's kind of how I like summarized it in a way that, you know, you can kind of put those two

together, even though they aren't exactly related, but it works. And so while I was working full time at the outdoor adventure camp, and like blogging on the side, you know, there were quite a bit of people that would message me on Instagram, I would share about all these trips I was taking my students on. And there were a lot of people that wanted to see if they could join, you know, and at the time, I worked at a camp that was specifically for kids, it was for kids, teenagers. And so there wasn't really a way that I could bring those people along. But that kind of, like, put this little idea in the back of my head, where I'm like, I wonder if there's a way that I could, you know, take this opportunity and like, try to create something where people can join. And so basically, that was kind of

how one aspect of my business got started, where I host these outdoor trips for women, because there were, again, there were women who reached out that, you know, they've never done something like this, they wanted to try something new, but they didn't know how or they didn't have the means to do so like they didn't have the equipment. And so I like planned these outdoor adventure trip for women. And I still do that now. But that was, you know, all because it started where I would just share things online, and people wanted to do that as well, you know, and so I think that kind of just to segue into what we're going to talk about, I think that's like the super important thing where it's like, as you're sharing content online,

no matter what kind of content it is, it's like, what are the questions people are asking you? And what are the things people want to know more about and like want to join in? And how can you kind of take that and come up with an idea that's a business opportunity? And I think that something that's important to note here is, A, you're listening to these people and they're telling you what they need. So you're open to this. You're also thinking of serving your audience in that way, meeting them where they're at, what they're needing. But I think what a lot of people might feel like is, how am I qualified? Am I qualified to be talking about this? Am I the right person to be sharing this? I'm not an expert. How important do you think it is to be an expert or have something perfected before you start sharing different things or creating

parts of your business that serve your audience in that way? For sure. I think you don't need to be an expert at all. If I waited until I was an expert to post something or share something on the internet, there would be nothing on there. I would not have a blog. And I think that you don't need to be an expert at all. You just need to be passionate about something and have some sort of experience, right? It's like everyone's ideas are their own and everyone will have a different way to think about something. And so that is valuable in and of itself.

You don't need to wait to have something perfect before you try it. I think if you do that, you're gonna miss so many opportunities. I think it's super important to just, if you do have an idea, if you do have something you want to share or you're passionate about, you just need to go for it. Obviously, spend time on it and make sure it's something that you're proud of and that you feel good about sharing. But I think that is different than making sure that it's absolutely perfect.

You know, like people aren't going to, like, nobody is going to know that only that's something like you within yourself need to figure out. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely don't wait till it's perfect, or you're an expert, because you'll be waiting a long time. I think that's the mindset shift with blogging is that you have to have it perfect. But when you can kind of like lean into that, that imposter syndrome is essentially what it is. Like, I don't, there's not space for me here to do it in this way. Then I find that we can do things that maybe do feel a little scary. I do feel like sometimes blogging is, it can feel risky because you are putting yourself out there. You put yourself out there in a number of different ways. And I love that we were talking

before we hit record and you said, I'm not a perfectionist. And that actually ends up serving me well. Can you speak a little bit more to that? About how just doing the thing and getting over that. Do you have any tips for somebody who kind of maybe lets that hold them back for starting something new? And I know I totally recognize that could be like a personality trait or whatever. But I think we can always learn from others who are different than us or don't have that same mentality from us. So let's go through a process. Let's use this idea of an ebook that we're going to talk about today. You just released your first ebook, right? Yeah, two weeks ago.

about today. You just released your first ebook, right? Yeah, two weeks ago. Okay. So this is like fresh, which is amazing. And we told Jorna, this is like perfect time to talk about it. Because you just did the thing. Like you just you have this idea and you did the thing. So let's kind of walk through that process of deciding that you wanted to do an ebook and serve your audience in that way. What are some of the things that you thought about? And what are some of the limiting beliefs that you had to let go of in order to start and finish this project and then share it with your community? Sure. So to start from where this idea even came from, basically, I am mostly a food blogger. That's like, I feel like the bread and butter of this.

Those are the, that's the kind of content that is really popular for my account and for my blog. And I have always been interested in making a product probably for a couple months now. I've had that in the back of my mind that it's like everything on my account is free. I, everything's free on social media. There's no subscriptions. All my recipes are free. People don't have to pay for anything. But I wanted to just come up with something that is a product that people could purchase just, of course, as a business owner to

try to make a little extra revenue. But also because I've never created anything like that, just something new to try. So it was like this, okay, well, what should I make? And you know, you think, oh, you're a food blogger, you should probably make a cookbook. But I wasn't like totally sold on the idea of making a cookbook. Like I really like having my recipes free on the internet. And so I didn't really want to make those exclusive to a book. And, you know, the past couple months, I've started to share more meal prep content. So I share different meal plans and how I meal prep for the week. And that's something that has really resonated with my audience. It's fits really well with easy, healthy recipes. It's like, here are these recipes I have. And here's how I put them together to

making them for meal prep. And so I basically started to share those on all of my accounts. And that kind of content has been really popular. It's like, okay, well, people seem to like that I should post about it more. And so I start to post about it more, sharing more meal plans on my website, more videos on Instagram. And as I do that, I start to get a lot more questions from people where people want to know tips to make it faster or how to do it for a family, different recipes to meal prep that are easy, how you store those, you know, so basically just lots of questions about meal prepping about making recipes, that sort of thing, kind of like more in depth than what I would put into a blog post. And so essentially, I realized that was something that one is really popular, and two people want to know more about. And so that was kind of the idea of how I decided to make

that my first product topic. Yeah, basically just the meal prep guide. That's what I want to do, because that's what people want to know more about. And I think that's what people would be interested in purchasing. Yeah. And you found a way to infuse meal prepping into your life to make your own self feel more successful. And I'm sure it helps with time and helps with your healthy living and all of that. So it's using something that you've had an experience with in your life, and then helping others who might not be the best at that, who might need help with meal prep, And helping others who might not be the best at that, who might need help with meal prep, or who might not really understand how do you prepare for a week of healthy eating?

And so it's taking what you've learned. Like you've said, you've been on this health journey for a while. You're not a registered dietitian. That's okay. Like you still have value to offer people even without things behind your name, is what I'm saying. Right. And I think we often say that we don't have anything to offer because we don't have a certification or a degree and whatever. But really, I think oftentimes, people just want to hear how we're making things work in our life. Everybody wants to simplify their life a little bit.

Meal prep is a great thing to teach people. Definitely. And I think that you know, that's one of those things where it's like, again, back to being an expert, it's like, I wouldn't really consider myself an expert meal prepper. I mean, maybe if you think about experience where it's like, okay, I've been doing this for myself personally, for five or six years now. But it's something that I do every week anyway. And I keep doing this, whether I'd be sharing it with people or not. And one day, I just decided to share this because it's what I'm doing. It's a part of my life. And when you have a blog, you are your brand. And so you just decided to share it. And it's like,

okay, that seems to be something that works. And I think that can be helpful with whatever kind of blog you have. It's just like, if you are doing something or interested in something, might as well share it because you never know what people are going to find helpful and what people are going to enjoy. Even when I started my blog back in 2020, I would not have guests. I would have an entire section of my blog now

dedicated to meal prep. That's something that has come over the years as I've learned that's something people are interested in. And I think this is something that somebody starting out as a blogger right now really needs to listen to. It's not just about having this set group of things that you're going to post about. You're being open and you're posting about things almost as a test just to see how it goes. And that's okay. It's okay to just try it because it's a pretty low risk situation. If you're going to make a blog post about meal prep, and you've never done that

before, why not? Why not try it? See how your audience responds. See what kinds of questions you get. Because the worst thing that's going to happen is it's going to fall flat. You move on to something else. But you tried something. And I think the important thing is you really listened. You got that feedback. You tried again. And you refined this over time. And you were really smart because you essentially used your audience as your market research to really figure out what they wanted. And you married the combination of what you're passionate about, what you do, and what they need. And I think that is just such a true and authentic connection when you can find that thing that you can do that you're happy to do. And you know that you're helping somebody else too.

For sure. Absolutely. And it's like, that's how I decided what kind of blog posts to make, you know, to put on the internet, and also what kind of videos to share on social media, but also then segwaying to, that's how I decided what to make for an ebook is basically taking all of that and deciding, okay, that is what I'm going to do for a product to just try it and see how it goes, you in terms of just trying something and seeing how it goes, that's exactly what this was. Again, like I said, I've never launched a product. I've never made a book, like an ebook or a print book. I didn't really have any experience in that. It was just something where it's like, I feel like my business is in a spot where I can try something new just to see how it goes. So I wanted to pick something

that had a pretty low investment upfront cost and just see how it went to see if it's something people would like or if not. That's pretty much everything with blogging. But so that's kind of why I decided to do this is just give it a go, see if it lands or if it doesn't. And if it lands, awesome. And if it doesn't, also awesome

because then you know for the future, like if you like maybe try something else, but there's not really much to, I don't know, you don't really have much to lose, especially with, I guess, how I did this. I think depending on your approach, you could have more like investment upfront and then maybe there would be more to

lose. But at least like you don't have to do it that way. Yeah. Let's kind of go through that then. How were you able to do this for a low cost? Can you kind of walk us through the process of, you know, so we know how you got the idea is basically based on what users wanted. And then the process of like creating the ebook and all that. Can you walk them through that process and what that would look like? Because this really is a great way, especially if you're not on an ad network yet, which Giorno, you are, but a lot of our listeners might not be. I know a lot of our students aren't quite yet because they're still in those beginning stages. And so this is really a great way that you can earn that additional stream of revenue.

And so will you help them walk through that process of what that might look like to creating the ebook and then putting it on your blog and all of that? Definitely. I will say, yeah, this was a lot of, again, just learning as I go. I decided I wanted to make an ebook before I knew how to make the ebook, right? Like before I knew how to even get it on my blog, I was like, this is the thing I knew how to make the ebook, right? Like before I knew how to even get it on my blog, I was like, this is the thing I'm going to make. And so I would say the very early stages, which is probably where I spent a lot of my time, it was just thinking about it. You know,

like as I would go on a walk outside, I was just like, okay, here's this product I want to make, like, what do I want it to look like? What kind of information do I want it to be in there? And I had this big Google doc where I kind of wrote an outline for the kind of content that I wanted in there, different questions that I wanted answered, that sort of thing. Probably the most time was spent in those early stages of just thinking like what it's going to be and kind of planning that out. Then once I had my outline of here are the different topics, here's what that's going to look like. I basically built the whole thing in Canva. I know Canva is a free resource online. I did finally upgrade to Canva Pro. I think it's like

$10 a month, which honestly, Canva Pro is amazing. I should have upgraded sooner. a month, which honestly, Canva Pro is amazing. I should have upgraded sooner. It's like just in general for like making Pinterest pins and making social media content is amazing. If people aren't using Canva, I highly recommend looking into it. I even know graphic designers who went to school for graphic design basically talk about how awesome Canva is, which is really cool. But I basically built the whole thing in Canva. I found a template for a book, kind of reworked a lot of it, but found a template and started to just put information in there. It wasn't about making it perfect as I went. It was essentially like, you know, labeling pages where it's like, this page is going to talk about meal prep tips, this one's going to talk about reheating meals, this one will talk about

containers, you know, kind of just like a really big skeleton outline of the book. That's how I did it first, and just like a pretty much very big picture. And then after that, I went back in each page, and actually started writing the copy, writing all the ideas, adding pictures, that sort of thing. Now I will say one of my good friends, she is really awesome at graphic design and she helped me make it look good. I focused on a lot of the copy and a lot of the text and she went back through and like made all the aesthetics look awesome, like with the colors and the sizing of things and just made it really easy to read. And so, you know, I think

that kind of goes with like knowing what you're good at and what your skills are. And for me, like I can put it all into a book. And of course I could have spent time making it, I think, look pretty good, but I would rather spend my time elsewhere. And so for me to like ask a friend and pay them to make it look good, like they can do that way quicker than I can. And so that was, I say, like one of the investments like financially in this and that. But again, you're paying someone hourly to do that.

If you do a lot of the work and making it look good, that doesn't have to be that much money to do that. So basically once the book was like ready in Canva, at least a pretty good draft of it, then I sent it to a couple of like friends and family, people that one knew my niche well, and also people that two didn't know my niche well, because I wanted to make sure that this was something where, you know, it can be pretty easy if you're really in a space to like know the lingo of what things mean. But I think it's important if I'm making a product for a lot of different people to have

multiple people's opinions, whether you're in the space or not to see like, does this make sense? Can you follow what this is saying? Is there information missing? Is there anything that you would still want in here? So I sent it to a couple of different people, just different ages, different jobs, different, you know, backgrounds, and got their input, and then made a couple of adjustments based on that. Then after that, after I made those final adjustments, then it was like the part of figuring out how to get this product on my website so that people could purchase it. And again, there are so many different ways that you can do that. I decided to use Shopify. Again, I've never sold anything before, but I know people that have sold things and have had

positive experiences with Shopify. There are different subscription tiers that go along with Shopify that give you different features. And so it's of course, finding like which one works for you and what you're trying to sell and so are in what you are going to sell. And so basically, I set up a Shopify and put it on my website and then launched it. And then the rest is history. Right. It sounds so easy. That's a lot of steps. I mean, I think that as bloggers, we sometimes struggle with like, we have the ideas, but actually implementing them, following through each step and actually getting it to that point where you're launching it, you're selling it, you're doing it. That can be the overwhelming part. Did you set any goals?

Did you set a deadline for yourself? Or how did you break down this project? And I mean, really, how did you just actually take action and get it done? Yeah, definitely. I am very much a list and a planner. Like I have to write down the goals, even if it's like, I'm one of those people where it's like, even if I've already done this thing today, I'm gonna write it down so I can check it off. I know that's like, so annoying some people. But I just like need to see it written down. And I need to see it on a calendar. For me, like visual helps keep it on my mind and helps keep me working towards it. And so when I started blogging full time, I started using this. I don't know this like online software. It's called Asana. I don't know if you guys have heard of Asana. Yeah. But yeah, so I use the free version. But it's been amazing in terms of keeping

track of different projects and deadlines. Like I have a project for every blog post. And if I didn't have that, everything would just it would be chaos in my brain, like trying to remember things. And so basically, I used Asana, like I set up a project for specifically this ebook. And I wrote down every step I could think of along the way, you know, from here's the day that I'm going to spend time brainstorming to here's the day that I want to launch it. And so that was so helpful in one thinking of here's every single task that will go along with this, but also breaking it down into smaller tasks that I could actually do. Because even when I had the idea, like you said, it's super overwhelming to at the beginning, like, I think that's why it kind of took me a while to even want to do this myself.

Like I thought about it for months before actually doing it because it's so daunting. And so until I could break it down into actual smaller steps, yeah, that just helps so much in actually implementing it, you know, and it's like, each step like is not going to go perfectly. You know, there are going to be probably hiccups along the way where it's like when you're trying to figure out, like, I don't know how to make it look good in Canva or whatever, like that could take a couple of days. But just like having the visual of it and having those smaller tasks, I think, will make it so much more approachable even as you're doing it. Yeah, we just launched our podcast episode last week was with Casey Ackerman all about ClickUp. launched our podcast episode last week was with Casey Ackerman, all about ClickUp.

And it's similar to Asana. Yeah. So about using systems in order to make sure that your business can run a little bit more fluidly. Because I think it's true that if you don't write some of that stuff down, then it can very easily just get lost in the day to day. And then that's when the project keeps getting pushed out and you don't end up doing it because you're not holding yourself accountable. And as a blogger, we're all three full-time bloggers. I think that you have to set some of those really important, hard and fast deadlines. Otherwise, there's literally no boss at the door saying, did you get that project done yet? Absolutely. Sometimes I pretend like Jennifer is my boss.

to get that project done yet. Absolutely. Sometimes I pretend like Jennifer is my boss. Like, hey, can you kind of breathe down my neck a little bit about this? Yeah. Because we do have to hold ourselves accountable. I think that is just a trait that as a blogger, you have to have. Hold yourself accountable. And I think using Asana, there's ClickUp, there's Trello. There's lots of different tools that you can use. And I think that was just really great advice. It's interesting that you said that. And the podcast last week was all about that. So that's really good.

And I think if you don't write down those things that are important to you or the projects that you do want to work on, you're just going to fill your time with the things that are easier and top of mind. And of course, those things also need to get done. But if you spend all your time doing that, then you're not going to be able to work on those bigger projects. You know, it's like, of course. And so it's like, you're just going to do the things that you enjoy doing, right? Which like, you know, I don't, you don't enjoy probably every single aspect of blogging, you know? And so it's like, if you have on your

calendar though, like, okay, this is something that I for sure need to do today. Even if it's just brainstorming, like to me again, like I, I really love being able to check something off. So it's like, I can write down, okay, on Friday, I'm going to brainstorm. And so when I brainstorm for an hour, it's like, okay, I can check that off my list. That's something that I did, even if it doesn't always feel like it, it's still something you're doing to that gets you closer to this goal that you have or this project that you're working on. Yeah. Email marketing is an essential piece of blogging. Growing your email list is just as important as SEO and keyword research in our opinion. And in order to grow your list, you need a reliable platform that will allow you to connect with your community and turn them into email subscribers.

That's where ConvertKit comes in. ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators like you that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease. ConvertKit allows you to grow your audience and reach, put your funnels on autopilot and earn an income with your email list, all with an easy to use platform that is approachable, even for beginners. Click the link in our show notes to learn more about the different plans that ConvertKit has and how it can help you propel your business to the next level. I like how you built in time for brainstorming. I imagine you probably had to build in some time or allow yourself to do some research too, because you didn't know all

the steps that were going to have to take place. You were kind of taking it step by step because this is something you hadn't done before. So did you kind of build that piece of it too? Like, it's okay. I'm going to research the different platforms. I'm going to decide how I'm going to do my graphics and things like that. Yeah, definitely. I think every single step in this project had like a smaller step. So it was like, you know, put like, like basically find a way to add ebook to blog, you know, but it's like underneath that it's like, okay, research the different platforms where you can sell things and figure out which one works and doesn't work. So, you know, I thought about using WooCommerce because like that goes along with WordPress,

but ultimately decided not to do that because it's like a little bit more hands on. And I just wanted to like get this out there. And I knew it would like cost a little bit more, but I thought it would be a little bit more seamless. And so, you know, it's all about figuring out like what will work for you. And definitely the research like is a part of that, even though that's not I don't always love that because it takes longer to finish the goal, right? But ultimately will like help you with the goal. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit since it's been out since your ebook has been out, you've gotten feedback from your audience, which I think is really important that you are willing to kind of tune in to what they say. What did they want

after you launched your ebook? What did they ask you for? For sure. Yeah. So I launched this ebook two weeks ago. And I will say, I didn't market it at all before then. I sent a super vague email two days before it was going to launch and was like, something is coming, dot, dot, dot, and put that little two eyes looking to the side emoji, which is so vague. So people didn't even know that I

was going to launch this. And so I launched it. And it was better than I thought, I guess. I don't know. It's hard to know what to expect when you've never done anything like this before. Like I didn't really have a baseline, which again, one of the reasons I even wanted to do it to start. But I launched it and people bought it, which is really cool. So I've been able to make back all of the costs that went into it, which for me specifically was one, paying someone to help me design it and two, purchasing a Shopify subscription service for the year. And so to me, those were the two costs that I was like, okay, well, I for sure want to make these back. But I've made those back and more, which is great. But that first week I launched the ebook, which the reason I decided also to make an ebook is because it was super low investment and easy on my end as an I didn't really want to have to ship something to people. I wanted something where people can purchase it online and it is in their inbox instantly,

which is why I decided to make an ebook. And I knew I could make that from my house, like on my computer. But right after I launched it, that same day, people were like, are you going to have a print version of this? Will I be able to print this? There were multiple questions basically

leading to the fact that people wanted a print version of this. So you know, again, that's like listening to your audience, right? Like, is there a way I could even like make this a print version. And so pretty quickly, I started to research online, like, is there even a way I could offer this? Because again, if it's something where your audience is telling you that they want it, I feel like that's something to look into. And so there are a couple of other bloggers that I know that specifically food bloggers who have done cookbooks. And so I messaged a couple of them and like, how do you do your cookbook? Because I did not want to mess with me shipping things from my house. I don't want a bunch of copies of a book in my home. And I don't want to have to go to the post office every day whenever someone does that.

Or just the overhead of printing them. Right. Or the overhead. Like I did not want that. And so basically, after again, some more research, I learned about a place called Lulu Express, L-U-L-U Express. And basically on their website, you can have books printed on demand and they take care of printing the book and shipping the book for you. And so there was basically to me, that seemed like best case scenario. I didn't have to print the book. I didn't have to ship the book. And so to me, I was looking at this, I'm like, there's got to be a catch. What's the catch? Because to me, it seems too good to be true. But as far as I've learned so far, there's been no catch where there's a fulfillment fee that they charge to print the book, which of course makes sense. But they take care of everything.

And from what I'm able to charge for the book, I make, you know, basically the same amount of revenue as I do for an ebook. That's how I like set the cost. And so to me, it doesn't matter if people buy a print book or an ebook, I'm basically going to make the same price from both of them. And I still would have done it even if the prices would have been different because you know, it's something people want. And there's still, like, I think revenue to be made there. But that's just how it worked out in the end, just like how I basically set up the book. But yeah, it was basically pretty easy. Again, I use Canva to adjust the ebook to make it a print book. Because you know, with the ebook, I had a lot of links and different things like that that were definitely more like digital but I was able to pretty easily just like make a

new copy of something that I had already created and made a few adjustments with making it more print like better for print and was able to like get a test copy pretty quickly and then offer that. So I didn't offer that until just last week. So there was, you know, a little bit of a lag between here's when the ebook was ready. Here's when the print version was ready, but it was pretty quickly able to get that up and running too. And I would say, I'm again, like now I'm glad that I have done that because already I would say that the eBooks are probably like 60% of sales and the print books are 40% of sales. And so that's pretty substantial to have that many people like now offer basically purchasing the same product just in a format that is better for them. And so again, like I think in an ideal world, which,

again, maybe this is something that I should have done from the beginning, because I should have thought, maybe I should have surveyed my audience of, oh, would people be more interested in an ebook or a print version, you know, and then I could have known from the get go, okay, maybe people want a print version. But, you know, if I would have waited for that, it maybe still wouldn't have even have been launched yet. And so to me to have a lag time, it's like, maybe not ideal, but I know for the future, like now I know if I do this again, I will just from the very beginning, when I launch it have both options available, because I now know that having both options isn't as hard as I thought.

You know, I didn't... Originally, I didn't even consider a print book because I thought it was going to be too much of an investment for me financially, which I didn't want. And too much time, honestly. And it was not either of those things. So again, it's like all about just trying it and seeing what your audience wants and just being able to be flexible and adapt based on what you're hearing. Yeah. And now you get to take everything that you learned in the last couple months here as

you're creating this and launching it. And then I think you'll have even more confidence when you go and do it again. Not only that, but now you know that your audience will buy it. And so I think that's something that's valuable too, is you've put a lot of time and effort and energy into this. And so you want to make sure that your audience is going to be receptive. And so you know that you can create your own product and your audience is going to be receptive, which makes it even more easy to say, okay, how else can I serve them? You know, if I... Definitely. So I think that's awesome.

And you can, I don't think we ever fail. We can just learn going forward. And I don't consider it, I don't consider it a failing ever. You know, I think that we take every opportunity and just say, what have I learned from this? I use that analogy of my son this weekend who lost a basketball game

and he was very, very mad about it. And he was, he basically said something like, well, I should always win. And I said, if you always won, you would never learn anything. Like you, you learn in the times that like things didn't go the way that you think they should go. Or, you know, like we learned during those times, I think we learned through being imperfect and, you know, making, I don't want to call it mistakes, but you know, you learned a lot through this. I wouldn't, I don't want you to think I'm calling it mistakes at all, but you know what I'm saying? Like you can take all of that and how can I make that even better

the next time for sure. And continue serving. Yeah. And I will say like two things that I can, I guess like three things that I can think of right off the bat of like, you know, maybe could be things that would be better for the future, like kind of mistakes that I made that I now know for next time. One of them being having a print version available when I launch it. I did not do that this time. But now I know next time I launch, if I launch another product, that's a book, I'll have both available right at the beginning. So that would be one thing. Two would be the marketing side of things. I mentioned to you guys, I didn't do any educational promotion before this product

launched at all. I didn't say a word because I think part of me was just super nervous about it. you know, I think part of me was just super nervous about it. And I think like, if I, I think I was thinking like, if I don't tell anyone about this, then like, and people don't buy it, my feelings don't get hurt. Right? Like, it's just like anything. I don't know. I don't know. I think I was just nervous. I was just scared. So I just didn't tell anyone. And so now I know, I can just definitely tell people, I should just tell people that this is coming. And then I'm working on this. Because I think also people like to see behind the scenes, and they'd like to see what you're doing and what you're working on, especially if it's something

that they want anyway, which in this case, it was. And so next time, I will definitely do more promotion ahead of time, like I will do that, send more than a super vague email two days before I will, you know, say, hey, this product is coming. And maybe I can do a sale the first weekend or something, you know, just try something different. And so that is definitely one thing of for sure, I really wanted to have this product ready by the beginning of January. Because again, just with my niche, like healthy recipes and meal prepping, that is really popular in January. And you know, maybe even in December, because then people could do it as like a Christmas gift for someone or

something. And so really, it would have been awesome to have this done sooner. But I didn't start really working on it until the end of November, which again, is a really busy time of year to start working on something. But it was just something that I had put off for so long. And I was like, No, if I want to do this, I just need to start it. And so again, next time, I'll probably give myself more time and think, maybe plan a little bit more long term, like even you know, it's, it's the end of January today, when we're recording this, like, if people are making their plans for 2023, and you want to have an ebook done by the end of the year, it's like, give yourself like plenty of time,

like go in Asana or your calendar or however you keep track of things and write down your goal publish date of like, when do you want this to go live? And if it's like September, then, you know, maybe try to have some stuff finished by July just to give yourself some buffer if things slow

down a little bit, you know, things come up, that sort of thing. And so, yeah, I think those are like three things that I can think of. Yeah, you could consider those mistakes, but not really mistakes, just things that I have learned already that I want to try for next time because I could think I think I could make it go even better. Yeah. I think there's always lessons to be learned. We'll call them lessons. I mean, Jennifer and I have launched the bootcamp and other courses for three years now. Literally with every launch, we learn something different. Definitely. Yeah. And so I think it always is like being open and listening to what people want. How can we

serve people better? How can we be there for them and give them like the best experience when they are purchasing something that we've created? And yeah, definitely feeling really proud about that. So yeah, and I think like, again, for people like no matter what their niche is, or how big or small their audience is, like this is something that anyone can do. You can do this if you have 10 followers, if your niche is like arts and crafts or food or exercise or literally anything. I don't know anyone that has a meal prep guide like this. And so that's why I decided to do it because I'm like, I think this is a missing piece out there. But even if it wasn't a missing piece, even if there are like, you know, say I decided to make a cookbook, which I maybe I will one day, if I decided to make a

cookbook, it could be really easy to think, well, it's like, well, I shouldn't make this because someone else has already done this. Well, that shouldn't be a reason either because yours is going to be different. And so I think like, whether people have someone's already created something similar to what you what you want to make, or someone hasn't, you should you can still make something, you know, you can still make a product, it's going to be different than somebody else's, like, because you will have your own, your own creative, like ideas will be in it, it's going to like, you will have your own experiences that will shine in it, too. So it doesn't matter how, I don't know, I just want to, like inspire people that it doesn't matter if someone else has done

it or not, you can still do this. You don't need a certain number of people, there's no requirement that you have to meet to be able to make something. Again, you can make something in Canva for free. You could probably find a way to even sell this with some sort of platform that's super low cost too. So your investments can be really low. And I think especially for someone like this is a great idea to try to make some extra revenue on the side, at least try something. You know, I think with blogging, it's, of course, like having ad revenue is really awesome. But I don't rely just on my ad revenue, even myself, even though I do have that. I can't rely on that alone.

My blog is still, I would say, pretty small, you know? And so it's like, it's all about diversifying your income. I feel like I hear finance people talk about that, you know, and so it's like finding different ways to have income. And so for me, I wanted to try something new. I wanted to see if this would work. And so far, that has been helpful, you know. And so I think this is like something to try if you do want to make some extra income just without having it be from ad revenue.

Yeah. You are so inspirational. And I think what bloggers should take from this is like you're in control. Like this is your blog. Yes, we might aspire to get on an ad network or work with a brand or maybe we are, but there's so much that is in our own control too.

And that is creating, whether it is an ebook or a mini course or a physical product, whatever it is, there's no reason you can't do it whenever you feel inspired to do it. Even if you don't know how, even if you don't know how you're going to get from step A to step B, you can figure this out and you can put it on your list and it's okay to go for something and try something, even if you don't have can figure this out. And you can put it on your list. And it's okay to go for something and try something, even if you don't have it all figured out. Because if you have... Wait until everything is figured out and perfect, you might never launch. And even if you did, you'd still be missing out on such important feedback that you get from just getting it out

there and improving it along the way. For sure. And you know, I think also it's important to remember, like, if you do end up launching something, if it doesn't do whatever, like if you have a goal and say it doesn't meet that, like it doesn't do as well as you would have hoped, that's not to give up on it either, or to totally let it go. I think, you know, there is definitely marketing that goes along with it too, and trying it a little bit differently. So you know, say I launched this ebook, and not a single person bought it. That doesn't mean I wouldn't even try to make another ebook in a couple of months. Like, you know, it's like, how many times do I put something in my cart online before I buy it? Probably like five times, you know, I'm super frugal. And so to me, I just I really have to

think about something before I buy it. And so to me, I just, I really have to think about something before I buy it. And so I'm remembering that with this too, where just because somebody doesn't buy this, the day that it comes out, doesn't mean that somebody is not interested in it or doesn't mean that they won't want it later on. And that doesn't mean that it's a failure either. Like you can continue to educate people, continue to find different ways to, you know, modify it, to make, modify it to make it so it is what people want. And so I think that's something important to remember, too, of just like, however sales go, you know, it's like, I don't have any idea if this was successful

or not, because I didn't like, I didn't have any big goals with it. It was really just I'm going to try something new this year. Because that's, I don't know, I want to make a product. And so I just want to see how it goes. And so I think that's something important to remember, too. Yep. We are all beginners. We're all learning new things all the time. And even as the years pass on, we're still beginners and new things that we get to do with blogging. I think that's what makes this so fun. Yeah, definitely. And I would say, you know, whatever you think is like your product, you know, like, maybe it's not an ebook or a print book, but like, you know, maybe it's like launching your blog or having like a brand deal or pitching an idea to someone or whatever it is, you know, insert product with whatever goal that you have or thing, new thing that you are creating or producing this year, like you just have to go for it. Because like, if you wait for it to be perfect, it's just going to be an idea in your head for so long, and you'll never know what people think about it or how it's going to turn out. And so I think like, I think it's important to break things down

into smaller steps. And you know, get feedback from your audience, ask people to help you if you need help along the way. Like, again, I had multiple people help me. I knew where my weaknesses were in this. Like, I knew that I had ideas, but I knew I would need my husband to help me set up all the finances on my website, because that is not a strength of mine. And I know I had a friend that was good at graphic design who could help me make this like look prettier, you know? And so I think it's like, ask for help, like break things down.

look prettier, you know? And so I think it's like, ask for help, like break things down. But I think people will surprise themselves and how, like, I don't know, just like what you can accomplish this year. And it's still very early in the year. Like, if you want to make something this year, you definitely still can. There's so much time. Yeah. This has been so good, Jordan. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I blabbed longer than you guys had allowed, so I'm so sorry. You're totally good. This has been so awesome. Will you please tell everybody how they can connect with you and how they can buy your ebook?

Yes, for sure. Ebook and also now print book because I learned from that. What did you call it? Not error, not failure. Lessons. Yeah, for my lesson in just the ebook alone. Yes. So my blog is jordosworld.com. I'm on socials at jordosworld, like J-O-R-D-O-S underscore world.

So I share easy, healthy recipes and meal prep content, outdoor adventures, a little bit of everything. And yeah, if people have any follow-up questions, they can, like, if they ask them to you, I'm happy to help answer those or people can DM me. And again, happy to help, but everyone, you can definitely do it. It's intimidating for sure, but there's so much to learn, so much to try. Yeah. We will put a link to connect with Jordan in the show notes and also a link to her ebook and print book as well. So you can check those out and thank you so much for coming on. We just

love to stay connected to you after all these years and we're very, very proud of you. So thank you guys so much. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp.

The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.