29 min
How to generate semi-passive income by selling your own planner or journal Build Your Online Audience
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- Marketing
I generated more than £185k in sales of my 2021 Social Media Diary and Planner and related products.
In this podcast episode (which you can also read as a blog), I share my tips on how to generate a semi-passive income from selling a planner or journal.
You’ll find out:
How to choose a topic for your planner/journal How a planner/journal can help you sell higher-tickets products/services How to ensure your planner/journal is profitable How to develop complementary products you can sell alongside your journal/planner {Click on the player above to listen to the podcast episode and/or read on for a detailed overview. Scroll down to the bottom to read the show notes including all the links mentioned in this episode.} 1. Make sure your planner solves a problem There are so many types of planners available - the competition can be huge. Which is why your planner needs to solve a specific problem for a specific person.
For example, my Social Media Diary & Planner helps business owners who are struggling to come up with content ideas. It’s packed full of key dates and awareness days, which helps them generate content ideas. And it includes templates and checklists to help them create annual, monthly, weekly and daily content plans - which helps them stay on track.
Another example might be a music practice planner. I’m an amateur pianist, and one of the problems I have is organising what I’m going to practise, when. The membership programme I belong to sells a piano practice planner. This is a great resource for keeping track of your practice. It also creates a record of what you’ve covered so you can look back at your progress.
A wedding planner/journal is another good example because it helps prospective brides stay organised and creates a keepsake of the event.
2. Pick a niche for your planner
Don’t be put off if there are already planners on sale in your industry/space.
It is possible to niche down within your industry
For example, there are hundreds of planners on dog training. Niching down to a particular breed of dog - or aspect of training e.g. potty training, behaviour - will not only help you stand out, it will also increase your sales.
For example, Bridezilla founder, Alicia McCormack created a wedding planner for people who hate bridal magazines and wedding fairs. There are also planners for vintage weddings, 1950s themed weddings and other specific niches.
There are lots of possibilities to niche down within your industry. Even if it seems like there are lots of planners already on the market.
You may feel that getting super specific will reduce your sales. Actually, you’re far more likely to make sales because your product will be a better fit for your ideal customer.
3. Build an audience to sell your planner to The average conversion rate for online sales is 1-2%. Which means for every hundred people in your audience (i.e. your email list) only a handful are likely to buy. So if you’re hoping to sell hundreds/thousands of your planner - and you don’t currently have a large audience to sell to - you may need to readjust your expectations.
If this is the case, you have a number of options:
Launch your planner anyway - but just do a small print run for your first launch. While the printing cost will be higher, this will give you a chance to test out your product. Work on building your audience until it’s big enough to achieve your target sales. 4. Build authority on your planner topic There may be someone else out there who sells a similar planner/journal to the one you want to create. Someone who has an established audience e.g. a YouTube channel, book and/or large social media following.
So why would someone choose to buy from you?
I say this not to put you off launching your planner, but to remind you that you need to build authority in your industry/space. And also to manage your expectations. It may take you time to build the authority (and audience) you need to
I generated more than £185k in sales of my 2021 Social Media Diary and Planner and related products.
In this podcast episode (which you can also read as a blog), I share my tips on how to generate a semi-passive income from selling a planner or journal.
You’ll find out:
How to choose a topic for your planner/journal How a planner/journal can help you sell higher-tickets products/services How to ensure your planner/journal is profitable How to develop complementary products you can sell alongside your journal/planner {Click on the player above to listen to the podcast episode and/or read on for a detailed overview. Scroll down to the bottom to read the show notes including all the links mentioned in this episode.} 1. Make sure your planner solves a problem There are so many types of planners available - the competition can be huge. Which is why your planner needs to solve a specific problem for a specific person.
For example, my Social Media Diary & Planner helps business owners who are struggling to come up with content ideas. It’s packed full of key dates and awareness days, which helps them generate content ideas. And it includes templates and checklists to help them create annual, monthly, weekly and daily content plans - which helps them stay on track.
Another example might be a music practice planner. I’m an amateur pianist, and one of the problems I have is organising what I’m going to practise, when. The membership programme I belong to sells a piano practice planner. This is a great resource for keeping track of your practice. It also creates a record of what you’ve covered so you can look back at your progress.
A wedding planner/journal is another good example because it helps prospective brides stay organised and creates a keepsake of the event.
2. Pick a niche for your planner
Don’t be put off if there are already planners on sale in your industry/space.
It is possible to niche down within your industry
For example, there are hundreds of planners on dog training. Niching down to a particular breed of dog - or aspect of training e.g. potty training, behaviour - will not only help you stand out, it will also increase your sales.
For example, Bridezilla founder, Alicia McCormack created a wedding planner for people who hate bridal magazines and wedding fairs. There are also planners for vintage weddings, 1950s themed weddings and other specific niches.
There are lots of possibilities to niche down within your industry. Even if it seems like there are lots of planners already on the market.
You may feel that getting super specific will reduce your sales. Actually, you’re far more likely to make sales because your product will be a better fit for your ideal customer.
3. Build an audience to sell your planner to The average conversion rate for online sales is 1-2%. Which means for every hundred people in your audience (i.e. your email list) only a handful are likely to buy. So if you’re hoping to sell hundreds/thousands of your planner - and you don’t currently have a large audience to sell to - you may need to readjust your expectations.
If this is the case, you have a number of options:
Launch your planner anyway - but just do a small print run for your first launch. While the printing cost will be higher, this will give you a chance to test out your product. Work on building your audience until it’s big enough to achieve your target sales. 4. Build authority on your planner topic There may be someone else out there who sells a similar planner/journal to the one you want to create. Someone who has an established audience e.g. a YouTube channel, book and/or large social media following.
So why would someone choose to buy from you?
I say this not to put you off launching your planner, but to remind you that you need to build authority in your industry/space. And also to manage your expectations. It may take you time to build the authority (and audience) you need to
29 min